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Ah! it is only Chunda Lal, who saved me! But Chunda Lal he can command with his Will. From it, once he has made anyone a slave to it, there is no escape. I have seen one in the city of Quebec, in Canada, forget all else and begin to act in obedience to the will of Fo-Hi who is thousands of miles away!" "My God!" murmured Stuart, "what a horrible monster!"
The ants shall pick your bones!" He grasped the upstanding door of the trap and closed it. It descended with a reverberating boom. Fo-Hi raised his clenched fists and stepped to the door. Finding it locked, he stood looking toward the open screen before the window. "Miska!" he whispered despairingly.
Whatever it may be, I am all anxiety to hear it. I promise that I will only act upon anything you may tell me in the event of my life, or that of another, being palpably endangered by my silence." "Very well. I want to tell you," replied Miska, "why I stay with Fo-Hi." "Who is Fo-Hi?" "I do not know!" "What!" said Stuart. "I am afraid I don't understand you."
How I passed those four years has no bearing upon the matters which I have to tell you, but I lived the useless, luxurious life of some Arabian princess, my lightest wish anticipated and gratified; nothing was denied me, except freedom. "Then, one day it was actually my nineteenth birthday Chunda Lal presented himself and told me that I was to have an interview with Fo-Hi.
"Mohammed, whose teeth had begun to chatter, asked him twice as much as he had agreed to accept from the other, Fo-Hi clapped his hands, and a fierce-eyed Hindu entered the room.
"One of the two followers I have retained here with me, watches at the gate," replied Fo-Hi. "An intruder seeking to enter by any other route, through the hedge, over the wall, or from the river, would cause electric bells to ring loudly in this room, the note of the bell signifying the point of entry.
"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.
"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."
Grasping her shoulders, he twisted her about so that he could look into her eyes. A low, shuddering cry, died away, and her gaze became set, hypnotically, upon Fo-Hi. He raised one hand, fingers outstretched before her. She swayed slightly. "Forget!" he said in a deep, guttural voice of command "forget. I will it. We stand in an empty world, you and I; you, Miska, and I, Fo-Hi, your master."
If the will of the awful Chinaman threatened to swamp her individuality, then there was Chunda Lal! But because of his helpless, unselfish love, she hesitated even at the price of remaining alone again with Fo-Hi, to demand any further sacrifice of the Hindu. Furthermore he might fail! The lacquer door slid noiselessly open and Fo-Hi entered. He paused, watching her.
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