"At the time of the Crusades," wrote Deeping, "there was a story
current of this awful Order which I propose to recount. It is one
of the most persistent dealing with the Hashishin, and is related
to-day of the apparently mythical Hassan of Aleppo. I am disposed
to believe that at one time it had a solid foundation, for a
similar practice was common in Ancient Egypt and is mentioned by
Georg Ebers."

My door began very slowly to open!

Merciful God! What was coming into the room!

So very slowly, so gently, nay, all but imperceptibly, did it move,
that had my nerves been less keenly attuned I doubt not I should
have remained unaware of the happening. Frozen with horror, I sat
and watched. Yet my mental condition was a singular one.

My direct gaze never quitted the door, but in some strange fashion
I saw the words of the next paragraph upon the page before me!

"As making peculiarly efficient assassins, when under the influence
of the drug, and as being capable of concealing themselves where
a normal man could not fail to be detected--"

(At this moment I remembered that my bathroom window was open, and
that the waste-pipe passed down the exterior wall.)

"--the Sheikh-al-jebal took young boys of a certain desert tribe,
and for eight hours of every day, until their puberty, confined them
in a wooden frame--"