to the delicate tracings of the Adams mantelpiece, then to the varied
ornaments on the shelf.

"Tish!" he said impatiently as they roved from the central figure of
benign undisturbed Buddha, to a snake of brass holding a candle, and on
to a blatant and grotesque dragon from China.

For a second he stared uncomprehendingly, then raised his head.

Inch by inch his eyes moved until they reached the top shelf of the
overmantel and stopped. A shiver shook him as he lay back in his
chair, his widespread fingers clutched at the chair arms, a tiny bead
of perspiration showed upon the broad forehead.

Staring down at him, shining evilly in the moonlight, was a glistening,
unwavering eye.

Just a slanting mother-o'-pearl eye in the battered head of a god or
goddess of India, with features almost obliterated by the passage of
centuries.

For a full minute Sir Jonathan sat staring up at the eye which stared
back; then moving with a convulsive jerk, ran both hands through the
mane of silvery hair as though to lift some crushing load from about
his head; and turning sideways in his chair stretched out one hand
between the eye above and his own as he clumsily seized the pen in the
shaking fingers.

"Ah! my God!" he muttered, "the answer is still there, on the tip of my
tongue, before my eyes, within reach of my fingers, and I cannot grasp