Chapter 26

Upon ourselves, particularly, that ferocious gaze seemed to linger. The atmosphere was positively electrical. It contained, I believe, enough evil force to have destroyed a battalion. I simply dared not contemplate what our fate would be in the event of discovery. Our lives were in the hands of Weymouth and Petrie! One place remained—that in the centre of the crescent. A gong sounded—_once_. The Mandarin Ki Ming came in and seated himself upon the vacant mattress. . . . I realized that having admitted the mandarin,…