For a brief space he gazed upon the man extended upon the floor, and then, urged by some devilish impulse, if one might judge from the expression of his countenance, he knelt by the prostrate body and placed his ear to the pulseless breast. The next instant, stimulated, apparently, by some unexpected endorsement of a vague possibility, he was upon his feet and had darted to a small cabinet near-by. His hasty foray among its drawers was rewarded with a small bottle, the stopper of which he removed. With a quick motion of the head to escape the full force of the pungent odor of ammonia which issued, the Sepoy returned to the unfortunate Gratz, and wetting the tip of his handkerchief with a few drops from the vial, he passed it gently to and fro under the nostrils of the detective. Repeating these maneuvers several times, the Sepoy believed that he remarked a faint twitching of the eyelids. At this manifestation he seized a sheet of paper and directed a mimic breeze upon the drawn face. Again he attempted an enforced inhalation of the strong odor, this time from the bottle itself. The result was startling. There was a scarcely perceptible attempt to turn the head; a spasmodic throb in the throat. Renewing his efforts with the paper, the Sepoy, encouraged by what he saw, placed his arms beneath the body and lifted it to a semi-reclining attitude, so that it rested, with a tilt forward, against a chair-arm. From the table the evilly-smiling man took the handcuffs, and grasping the unresisting arms of the unfortunate Gratz, bent them with cruel force until the hands met behind the gradually stiffening back. There was a sharp click, and the next instant the manacles embraced the wrists of the detective. Again the Sepoy placed the bottle so that a concentration of the stinging odor, which by now permeated the atmosphere of the entire room, could attack the sensitive nasal membranes more directly, and unmistakable evidences of imminent reanimation quickened the twitching features. Again he lifted the uneasy figure and placed it upon the reclining chair, into which it collapsed helplessly with a nerveless huddle. A few minutes more of alternate fan and bottle resulted in the opening of the eyes and the utterance of a choking gasp. Assured now, the Sepoy rushed to the bedroom, threw aside the coverlets and possessed himself of one of the sheets. With the aid of his pocket-knife he ripped this into several lengths, with which he returned to the rapidly reviving Gratz. In his grim struggle for reanimation the firm lines about the mouth of the unfortunate man had finally relaxed, and into this ugly opening the Sepoy inserted a strip of the sheet and secured it in a rigid knot behind the neck of his victim. With a few dexterous turns and knots he bound the body to the chair with the remaining lengths of linen, and hastening to the washstand grasped a water pitcher and deluged the face of the now thoroughly awakened Gratz.