"Van Rembold is preparing radium in quantities hitherto unknown from the vast pitchblend deposits of Ho-Nan--which industry we control. He visited China arrayed in his shroud, and he travelled in a handsome Egyptian sarcophagus purchased at Sotherby's on behalf of a Chinese collector." Fo-Hi stood up and crossed to the hissing furnace. He busied himself with some obscure experiment which proceeded there, and: "Your own state-room will be less romantic, Dr. Stuart," he said, speaking without turning his head; "possibly a packing-case. In brief, that intellectual giant who achieved to much for the Sublime Order--my immediate predecessor in office--devised a means of inducing artificial catalepsy----" "My God!" muttered Stuart, as the incredible, the appalling truth burst upon his mind. "My own rather hazardous delay," continued Fo-Hi, "is occasioned in some measure by my anxiety to complete the present experiment. Its product will be your passport to China." Carrying a tiny crucible, he returned to the table. Stuart felt that his self-possession was deserting him. Madness threatened ... If he was not already mad. He forced himself to speak. "You taunt me because I am helpless. I do not believe that those men have been spirited into China. Even if it were so, they would die, as I would die, rather than prostitute their talents to such mad infamy." Fo-Hi carefully poured the contents of the crucible into a flat platinum pan. "In China, Dr. Stuart," he said, "we know how to _make_ men work! I myself am the deviser of a variant of the unduly notorious _kite_ device and the scarcely less celebrated 'Six Gates of Wisdom.' I term it The Feast of a Thousand Ants. It is performed with the aid of African driver ant, a pair of surgical scissors and a pot of honey. I have observed you studying with interest the human skeleton yonder. It is that of one of my followers--a Nubian mute--who met with an untimely end quite recently. You are wondering, no doubt, how I obtained the frame in so short a time? My African driver ants, Dr. Stuart, of which I have three large cases in a cellar below this room, performed the task for me in exactly sixty-nine minutes." Stuart strained frenziedly at his gyves. "My God!" he groaned. "All I have heard of you was the merest flattery. You are either a fiend or a madman!" "When you are enlisted as a member of the Sublime Order," said Fo-Hi softly, "and you awaken in China, Dr. Stuart--you will work. We have no unwilling recruits." "Stop your accursed talk. I have heard enough." But the metallic voice continued smoothly: