Blazing yellow eyes, I thought, looked up at me!

I will confess that I leapt up the remaining flight of stairs to my
door, and, safely within, found myself trembling as if with a palsy.

When I sat down to write (for sleep was an impossible proposition)
I placed my revolver upon the table beside me. I cannot say why.
It afforded me some sense of protection, I suppose. My conclusions,
thus far, amounted to the following--

The apparition of the phantom scimitar was due to the presence of
someone who, by means of the moonlight, or of artificial light,
cast a reflection of such a weapon as that found in the oblong chest
upon the wall of a darkened apartment--as, Deeping's stateroom on
the Mandalay, his study, etc.

A group of highly efficient assassins, evidently Moslem fanatics,
who might or might not be of the ancient order of the Hashishin,
had pursued the stolen slipper to England. They had severed any
hand, other than that of a Believer, which had touched the case
containing it. (The Coptic porter was a Christian.)

Uncertain, possibly, of Deeping's faith, or fearful of endangering
the success of their efforts by an outrage upon him en route, they
had refrained from this until his arrival at his house. He had
been warned of his impending end by Ahmad Ahmadeen.

Who was Ahmadeen? And who was his beautiful associate? I found
myself unable, at present, to answer either of those questions. In
order to gain access to Professor Deeping, who so carefully secluded