"No, thank you," replied the other cautiously, "for the present I don't care about it," and Penn shrugged his shoulders, evidently understanding that Dan did not trust him or his gifts. After a time he took out a cigarette and lighted a match. "These cigarettes are of a particular kind," he remarked, and blew a cloud of smoke directly under Halliday's nose, after which he readjusted the muffler, not only over his mouth, but over his nose. Dan started, for the whiff of smoke filled the close confinement of the taxi with the well-known flavor of the Sumatra scent. He was about to make a remark when the scent grew stronger as the cigarette burned steadily with a red, smoldering tip, and he felt suddenly faint. "Pull down the window," he gasped, and leaned forward to do so himself. For answer, Penn suddenly pulled the young man back into his seat, and enveloped him in a cloud of drowsy smoke, keeping his own mouth and nose well covered meanwhile with the silk muffler. Halliday made a faint struggle to retain his senses and the control of his muscles, but the known world receded rapidly from him and he seemed to be withdrawn into gulfs of utter gloom. The last coherent thought which came into his mind was that the pretended cigarette produced by Penn was a drugged pastil. Then an effort to grasp the undoubted fact that he had been lured into a skilful trap which had shut down on him, used up his remaining will-power, and he remembered no more. Whither he went into darkness, or what he did, Dan never knew, as there seemed to be no break in the time that elapsed from his becoming unconscious in the taxi and waking with the acrid smell of some reviving salts in his nostrils. He might have been on earth or in sky or sea; he did not know, for he opened his eyes languidly in a dense gloom. "Where am I?" he asked, but there was no reply. His senses came back to him with a rush, owing perhaps to the power of the stimulant applied to bring him round. He sat up alertly in his chair, and felt immediately that his arms were bound tightly to his sides, so that he could not use his revolver, or even strike a match. He certainly would have done this latter, had he been able to, for he greatly desired to be informed as to the quality of his surroundings. He presumed that he was in a large room of some kind, and he became convinced by his sixth sense that the room was crowded with people. When fully himself Dan could hear the soft breathing of many unseen beings, but whether they were men or women, or a mixture of the sexes, he could not say. Even when his eyes became accustomed to the gloom he could discern nothing, for the darkness was that of Egypt. And the silence, save for the steady breathing, was most uncanny. Dan felt it incumbent on him to make some attempt towards acquiring knowledge. "What is the meaning of this outrage?" he demanded loudly and in a resolute tone. "I insist upon knowing!"