poison you at the Sea of Marmora. That failed by means he did not understand or like it. Moreover, he was frightened by the affair of the book. He considered that another conspiracy existed, competing with his. The mystery of it, and the unexplained failure of attempts to assassinate you, drove him almost to madness. When even the bomb failed to blow up my police-car--" "Suppose," said Mannard grimly, "just suppose you explain that book hocus-pocus you and Duval are trying to put over!" "I cannot explain it," said Ghalil gently. "I do not understand it. But I think Mr. Coghlan proceeds admirably--" The door to the suite buzzed. Ghalil admitted a waiter carrying a huge tray. The waiter said something in Turkish and placed the tray on a table. He went out. "A man was caught in the basement with a sweep-second wrist-watch," said Ghalil. "He had turned off the lights and turned them on again. He is badly frightened. He will talk." Laurie looked at Coghlan. Then, trembling a little, she began to uncover dishes on the tray. Mannard roared: "But what the hell's that book business, and Tommy's fingerprints, and the stuff on the wall? They're all part of the same thing!" "No," said the Turk. "You make the mistake I did, Mr. Mannard. You assumed that things which are associated with the same thing are connected with each other. But it is not true. Sometimes they are merely apparently associated--by chance." Laurie said, "Tommy, I--think we'd better eat something." "But do you mean," demanded Mannard, "that it's not hocus-pocus? Do you expect me to believe that there's a gadget that's got a ghost? D'you mean that Tommy Coghlan is going to put his fingerprints under a memorandum that says I'm going to be killed? That he's going to write it?" "No," admitted Ghalil. "Still, that unbelievable message is the reason I set men to guard you three days ago. It is the reason you are now alive." He looked hungrily at the uncovered dishes. "I starve," he confessed. "May I?" Mannard said, "It's too crazy! It'd be like a miracle! Confusion in time so there'd be all this mix-up to save my life? Nonsense! The laws of nature don't get suspended--" Coghlan said thoughtfully, "When you think of it, sir, that field of force isn't a plane surface. It's like a tube--the way a bubble can be stretched out. That's what threw me off. When you think what a magnetic field does to polarized light--" "Consider me thinking of it," growled Mannard. "What of it?" "I can duplicate that field," said Coghlan thoughtfully. "It'll take a little puttering around, and I can't make a tube of it, but I can make a field that will absorb energy--or heat--and yield it as power. I can make a refrigeration gadget that will absorb heat and yield power. It'll take some research...." "Sure of that?" snapped 

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