Dr. Garshaski came every day towards night asking as to Alice's success. She put him off as best she could. "The princess will not reveal her secret," she said at last, "and who can blame her? The best thing you can do, doctor, is to go and blackmail Ah Lung out of a few thousand and set her free." This was on the night the Bradys had the call from Ah Lung. The doctor's face grew dark as Alice said it. "Do you say so?" he exclaimed. "Well, we shall see!" He turned on the princess and said: "Now look here, little woman, to-night you have to tell your secret or take the consequences. Understand?" Then Skeep Hup flew into one of her rages, and the doctor was getting it good and plenty when he abruptly left the room, saying in English to Alice as he went out: "This is played out. She shall be made to tell, and you, who I believe have put her up to this, shall see the job done. You will find out that it is no joke to have passed through the door of death." And this Alice translated for the benefit of Skeep Hup, asking her what she supposed it meant. "It means torture, that's what it means," replied the princess, promptly. "No matter. They will never get the secret out of me. I will never reveal it to any one but Ah Lung." And here is what followed: No supper came that night. Alice and the princess waited until they were tired, and were just preparing to go to bed when the door was suddenly thrown open and two men wearing hideous paste-board masks after the Chinese style entered the room. Dr. Garshaski and another followed them, an old Chinaman with a long, drooping mustache. A person Alice had never seen. "Young women," said the doctor, "you are to follow us to the torture room, unless you, Princess Skeep Hup, instantly reveal what I wish to know, or, rather, give me your promise to do so, for it must be revealed to me alone." The princess set her lips together, and, throwing intense scorn into her speech, defied him. They were then led along the passage, through a door at its end, up steps and through another passage, winding up in a room all draped in black, which was dimly lighted by a solitary candle placed within a human skull resting on an old-fashioned coffin, which looked as if it may have been made to fit the princess, judging from its size. Beyond this was a low table provided with an arrangement of ropes attached at one end to a post at the other to a large wooden jackscrew. It was a wicked-looking engine. Alice shuddered. "We have fallen into the hands of a bunch of yellow fiends," she thought. "I wonder if there is anything too wicked for Dr. Garshaski to do?" The two masks now seized the princess and laid her down upon the table on her back. They then proceeded to tie her hands to the ropes attached to the post, while her feet were made fast to those attached to the screw. The brave little woman never let out a whimper--never said one word.