I drew away from the far wall of my cell and crept through the doorway like a dog with his tail between his legs. Nevertheless, the Russian retreated before me, keeping his distance warily. When the door of my cell had closed behind me I drooped against the wall of the outer room and stood waiting. “What—what are you going to do to me?” I begged. I hated myself in doing it, but it was for the sake of the others, and I had shown my hand too often in the past. To quiet his fear of me was my only hope of getting near him. The other Russian was still covering me with the heavy revolver, and Ivanovitch left me and went to the boxed-in machine. He pulled over a switch or something on the side of it—and instantly the room was filled with a blinding glare of light. But such light! It glowed now green, now purple, now crimson, until I half closed my eyes to shut out the brightness of it. It came from the cylinder in the center of the room, and the latter glowed iridescent with all the colors of the spectrum, like a living thing from some celestial sphere. I could only look at it for a moment, and the others too were shading their eyes. At the same time I was conscious of an intense heat from the cylinder. I was dimly aware that Ivanovitch was speaking. The other man handed him the cap he wore, and Ivanovitch stepped forward and flung it into the top of the cylinder. Then he stepped over and turned off the switch again and the glare faded slowly and went out. “You see?” he said to me, pointing to the thing. I looked at the floor within the cylinder where the cap must have fallen. There was nothing there. “It is a quick and painless death,” laughed Ivanovitch. “And it has its advantages from our standpoint also, for it leaves no trace!” I sank down on the floor against the wall. “My God, you can’t kill me like that. You can’t kill me so soon. Only give me a chance, man! I’ll do anything you say!” Ivanovitch was losing patience. He strode over to me. “If you do not choose the manner of your death and choose now, into that cylinder you will go by force. The Emperor has promised you the choice of your death, and it is his whim to keep his promises. If you do not choose, why——” He shrugged his shoulders. “But if you choose now, you can die in any way you please: drugs, shooting, this machine, drowning, suffocation, what you will. Now choose!” “I will not choose,” I cried. “Give me a little time, only a little time——” Ivanovitch ripped out an oath and stooped over me. He caught me under the arms and lifted me to my feet, and at the same moment I brought up my hand and pressed the face of the ring into his wrist sharply.