"Kreener!" repeated the husky voice, and I saw that the speaker
was rising unsteadily to his feet.

"You have brought him again. Why have you brought him again? He
will play. He will play me a step nearer to Hell."

"Brace yourself, Colquhoun," said the voice of my companion.
"Brace yourself."

"Take him awa'!" came in a sudden frenzied shriek. "Take him
awa'! He's there at your elbow, Kreener, mockin' me, and
pointing to that damned violin."

"Here!" said the stranger, a high note of command in his voice.
"Drop that! Sit down at once."

Even as the other obeyed him, the cloaked stranger, stepping to
the mantelpiece, opened a small box which lay there beside the
glass case. He turned to me; and I tried to shrink away from
him. For I knew--I knew--yet I loathed to look upon--what was in
the box. Muffled as though reaching me through fog, I heard the
words:

"A perfect human body . . .in miniature. . . every organ intact by
means of. . . process. . . rendered indestructible. Tcheriapin
as he was in life may be seen by the curious ten thousand years
hence. Incomplete. . . one respect. . . here in this box. . ."

The spell was broken by a horrifying shriek from the man whom my