McGi-aw aaked. It's too ghastly a thing to believe. "I'm afraid it is," replied Dr. Dorp. The chief knelt and examined tlie star on the bag- ging blue coat. "It's hellish, positively hellish," he said, rising. "Do you know what killed him?" "We are working on a theory — " began the doctor, but was interrupted by the chief. "Theories be damned!" he snapped. "Work on your theories if you want to. This thing has gone too far. I'm going to get some facts'." He swung on the four men behind him, "Search the house," he said. "Look sharp foi ■ nything of a suspicious nature. An iufernal machine, perhaps, or a blood sucking animal. There is a man-killer of some, kind, human or otherwise, hidden in this house, and it's our business to iind it." When the men- had departed he stepped over Rooney's skeleton. "I'll search this room myself," he said. He did, with professional thoroughness, looking for hidden panels and sounding the walls, both in the open areas and behind the shelves, for hollow spaces. Then he began opening the drawers in a tall cabinet that stood in one corner, disclosing sur- gical and dissecting instruments of various kinds, an inde-ted set of microscope slides with some extra lenses, platinum dishes; porcelain drying pans, crucibles, glass rods and tubing, pipettes, rubber tubing and stoppers, rubbea' gloves and aprons, and other miscellaneous laboratory paraphernalia. The bottom drawer of the cabinet was quite large and deep. The chief cried out excitedly when he saw its contents. "Good Lord! Look at that!" he exclaimed. It was filled to the top with dry, white bones. "Nothing but the bones of small animals," said Dr, Dorp, picking up a skull. "This, for instance, is the skull of a dog." Then, taking up another: "Here is the skull of a rabbit. Notice the charac- teristic chisel-shaped teeth. This one beside it once supported the be-whiskered countenance of a com- mon house cat." "What do you suppose he was doing with them?" aaked the chief, "It is my belief that they were brought here to be killed and devoured by the same thing that killed the professor and Kooney," "And that thing is — " "At present, merely a shadowy theory, although it most cei'tainly has an existence. There is a power in this house that is a menace to everyone under this roof— a malignant entity that destroys human beings in some mysterious manner unparal- leled in the annals of science or human experience. This much we know, reasoning from effects. Rea- soning from possible causes we are aware that the hobby of Professor Townsend was the endeavor to create a living thing from inorganic matter, and putting the two together it seems to me that the logical hypothesis would be that he either succeed- ed in creating a monster of a sort unknown to iS'iologistB, or discovered and developed unheard of powers and habits in a creature already known." "If there's such a thing in this house, believe me I'm going to find it," said the chief, stamping oit of the room. "Now that we have a few momeats to ouraelvta," said Dr. Dorp when McGraw had departed, "let us conduct a search, or rather an inquiry on our own account. I perceive that we have a very excellent compound microscope at our disposal and am curious to examine the liquid which-has so myster- iously risen and changed color in the tank." He took a blank slide from the cabinet drawer and a small glass rod from the table. As he was about to dip the rod in the liquid he uttered a low exclamation of surprise. "What's up now?" I asked. "This amazing liquid has again become trans- parent," he replied. "The red tint is gone." He plunged the tip of the rod into the viscous liquid, twisted it slightly and withdrew it. Al- though the liquid seemed quite heavy it slipped from the end of the rod much after the mannei' of the white of an egg. After considerable juggling he succeeded in obtaining a small amount which he smeared on the slide. He then pladed the slide in position and adjusted the microscope with a prac- ticed hand. "Well," I asked, after he had peered into the eye- piece for a full ten minutes, "what is the st.iiff, any- way?" y "Here, look for yourself," he replied. What I saw in the field of the microscope ap- peared to be a mesh work or foam work of exceed- ingly fine bubbles or perhaps globules. Granules of different sizes' and shapes seemed imbedded In these globules and the whole was dotted at inter- vals with small white objects. While I watched several of these white objects seemed to dissolve and disappear. All of them apparently were en- dowed with life, for I noticed that they expanded or contracted spasmodically and seemed endeavoi'- ing to push their way through the surrounding bubbles. "Seems to be a sort of foam," I said, "with Bome- thing alive floating in it." "The foam, as you call it, bears a singular re- semblance to the basic life principle, protoplasm, when seen under the microscope," replied the doc- tor. "But those white things — " I began. "The white things," he went on, "are the living remnants of a complex organism that has been de- stroyed. They are waging an unequal and hopeless battle against assimilation by the globules that sur- round them. These faithful guardians of the or- ganism when alive stil! fight, and will continue to fight the enemy until, figuratively speaking, the last man falls." "But what ai-e they?" I demanded. "Unless I am very much mistaken," he replied, "they are—" His answer was cut short by the appearance of Chief McGraw. "Coroner and jury are downstairs," he said terse- ly. "I suppose they'll want your testimony. I'U leave a couple of men on guard here if you want to come down," "Let us go down to the study and complete our perusal of the professor's manuscripts while the jury is in session," said the doctor, "We can thua save considerable time and will be on hand when they are ready to question us." ,We Diet Coroner Haynes and hia jurors at the