and it is a fitting time. If you will follow me to my own room, I
will show you a mystery."

For a moment Paul hesitated. The thought of following this strange
man at such an hour into the realm of the unknown, to investigate the
supernatural, was uncanny, and he half wished he had not made the
request. He knew the man to be no trifler. That which he promised, he
would surely perform. Then, procuring a candle, Ah Ben led the way.

They walked along the narrow passage at the rear, Ah Ben stopping to
close the door quietly behind them. They then mounted a still
narrower stairway at the back, Paul following closely. Presently they
entered a passage which led in the opposite direction from Henley's
bedchamber, and then, turning sharply to the right, found a narrow
hallway which terminated in a door. Here the men stopped.

"I am going to take you into my sanctum, and you must not be
surprised if you find things different from the ordinary. The
circumstances of my life have set me apart from most men; and if my
surroundings are at variance with theirs, you must set it down to
these facts."

Here he opened the door.

The room was lighted with the same lamp that Paul had seen through
the chimney. There were odd-looking things, such as a skeleton with
artificial eyes; a glass manikin with a reddish fluid that meandered
through his body in thread-like streams; a horoscope and a globe,
suspended from the ceiling, with the signs of the Zodiac. Various old
parchments, covered with quaint cabalistic figures, were tacked