X + 

Turn About + 

The thought of LanyardтАЩs pocket flash-lamp offering itself, immediately its wide circle of light enveloped his late antagonist. + 

That one was resting on a shoulder, legs uncouthly a-sprawl, quite without movement of any perceptible sort; his face more than half-turned to the floor, and masked into the bargain. + 

Incredulously Lanyard stirred the body with a foot, holding his weapon poised as though half-expecting it to quicken with instant and violent action; but it responded in no way. + 

With a nod of satisfaction, he shifted the light until it marked down the nearest electric bulb, which proved, in line with his inference, to have been extinguished by the socket key, while the heat of its bulb indicated that the current had been shut off only an instant before his entrance. + 

The light full up, he went back to the thug, knelt and, lifting the body, turned it upon its back. + 

Recognition immediately rewarded this manoeuvre: the masked face upturned to the glare was that of the American who had made a fourth in the concert of the PackтБатАФтАЬMr.┬аSmith.тАЭ + 

Quickly unlatching the mask, Lanyard removed it; but the countenance thus exposed told little more than he knew; he could have sworn he had never seen it before. None the less, something in its evil cast persistently troubled his memory, with the same provoking and baffling effect that had attended their first encounter. + 

Already the American was struggling toward consciousness. His lips and eyelids twitched spasmodically, he shuddered, and his flexed muscles began to relax. In this process something fell from between the fingers of his right handтБатАФsomething small and silver-bright that caught LanyardтАЩs eye. + 

Picking it up, he examined with interest a small hypodermic syringe loaded to the full capacity of its glass cylinder, plunger drawn backтБатАФall ready for instant service. + 

It was the needle of this instrument that had pricked the skin of LanyardтАЩs neck; beyond reasonable doubt it contained a soporific, if not exactly a killing dose of some narcotic drugтБатАФcocaine, at a venture. + 

So it appeared that this agent of the Pack had been commissioned to put the Lone Wolf to sleep for an hour or two or moreтБатАФperhaps not permanently!тБатАФthat he might be out of the way long enough for their occult purposes. + 

He smiled grimly, fingering the hypodermic and eyeing the prostrate man. + 

тАЬTurn about,тАЭ he reflected, тАЬis said to be fair play.тБатАКтБатАж Well, why not?тАЭ + 

He bent forward, dug the needle into the wrist of the American and shot the plunger home, all in a single movement so swift and deft that the drug was delivered before the pain could startle the victim from his coma. + 

As for that, the man came to quickly enough; but only to have his clearing senses met and dashed by the muzzle of a pistol stamping a cold ring upon his temple. + 

тАЬLie perfectly quiet, my dear Mr.┬аSmith,тАЭ Lanyard advised; тАЬdonтАЩt speak above a whisper! Give the good dope a chance: itтАЩll only need a moment, or IтАЩm no judge and youтАЩre a careless highbinder! IтАЩd like to know, howeverтБатАФif itтАЩs all the same to youтБатАФтАЭ + 

But already the injection was taking effect; the look of panic, which had drawn the features of the American and flickered from his eyes with dawning appreciation of his plight, was clouding, fading, blending into one of daze and stupour. The eyelids flickered and lay still; the lips moved as if with urgent desire to speak, but were dumb; a long convulsive sigh shook the AmericanтАЩs body; and he rested with the immobility of the dead, save for the slow but steady rise and fall of his bosom. + 

Lanyard thoughtfully reviewed these phenomena. + 

тАЬMust kick like a mule, that dope!тАЭ he reflected. тАЬLucky it didnтАЩt get me before I guessed what was up! If IтАЩd even suspected its strength, however, IтАЩd have been less hasty: I could do with a little information from Mr.┬аMysterious Stranger here!тАЭ + 

Suddenly conscious of a dry and burning throat, he rose and going to the washstand drank deep and thirstily from a water-bottle; then set himself resolutely to repair the disarray of his wits and consider what was best to be done. + 

In his abstraction he wandered to a chair over whose back hung a light dressing-gown of wine-coloured silk, which, because it would pack in small compass, was in the habit of carrying with him on his travels. Lanyard had left this thrown across his bed; and he was wondering subconsciously what use the man had thought to make of it, that he should have taken the trouble to shift it to the chair. + 

But even as he laid hold of it, Lanyard dropped the garment in sheer surprise to find it damp and heavy in his grasp, sodden with viscid moisture. And when, in a swift flash of intuition, he examined his fingers, he discovered them discoloured with a faint reddish stain. + 

Had the dye run? And how had the American come to dabble the garment in waterтБатАФto what end? + 

Then the shape of an object on the floor near his feet arrested LanyardтАЩs questing vision. He stared, incredulous, moved forward, bent over and picked it up, clipping it gingerly between fingertips. + 

It was one of his razorsтБатАФa heavy hollow-ground bladeтБатАФand it was foul with blood. + 

With a low cry, smitten with awful understanding, Lanyard wheeled and stared fearfully at the door communicating with RoddyтАЩs room. + 

It stood ajar an inch or two, its splintered lock accounted for by a small but extremely efficient jointed steel jimmy which lay near the threshold. + 

Beyond the doorтБатАКтБатАж darknessтБатАКтБатАж silenceтБатАКтБатАж + 

Mustering up all his courage, the adventurer strode determinedly into the adjoining room. + 

The first flash of his hand-lamp discovered to him sickening verification of his most dreadful apprehensions. + 

Now he saw why his dressing-gown had been requisitionedтБатАФto protect a butcherтАЩs clothing. + 

After a moment he returned, shut the door, and set his back against it, as if to bar out that reeking shambles. + 

He was very pale, his face drawn with horror; and he was powerfully shaken with nausea. + 

The plot was damnably patent: Roddy proving a menace to the Pack and requiring elimination, his murder had been decreed as well as that the blame for it should be laid at LanyardтАЩs door. Hence the attempt to drug him, that he might not escape before police could be sent to find him there. + 

He could no longer doubt that De┬аMorbihan had been left behind at the Circle of Friends of Harmony solely to detain him, if need be, and afford Smith time to finish his hideous job and set the trap for the second victim. + 

And the plot had succeeded despite its partial failure, despite the swift reverse chance and LanyardтАЩs cunning had meted out to the PackтАЩs agent. It was his dressing-gown that was saturate with RoddyтАЩs blood, just as they were his gloves, pilfered from his luggage, which had measurably protected the killerтАЩs hands, and which Lanyard had found in the next room, stripped hastily off and thrown to the floorтБатАФtwin crumpled wads of bloodstained chamois-skin. + 

He had now little choice; he must either flee Paris and trust to his wits to save him, or else seek De┬аMorbihan and solicit his protection, his boasted influence in high quarters. + 

But to give himself into the hands, to become an associate, of one who could be party to so cowardly a crime as thisтБатАКтБатАж Lanyard told himself he would sooner pay the guillotine the penalty.тБатАКтБатАж + 

Consulting his watch, he found the hour to be no later than half-past four: so swiftly (truly treading upon one anotherтАЩs heels) events had moved since the incident of the somnambulist. + 

This left at his disposal a fair two hours more of darkness: November nights are long and black in Paris; it would hardly be even moderately light before seven oтАЩclock. But that were a respite none too long for LanyardтАЩs necessity; he must think swiftly in contemplation of instant action were he to extricate himself without the PackтАЩs knowledge and consent. + 

Granted, then, he must fly this stricken field of Paris. But how? De┬аMorbihan had promised that PopinotтАЩs creatures would guard every outlet; and Lanyard didnтАЩt doubt him. An attempt to escape the city by any ordinary channel would be to invite either denunciation to the police on the charge of murder, or one of those fatally expeditious forms of assassination of which the Apaches are past-masters. + 

He must and would find another way; but his decision was frightfully hampered by lack of ready money; the few odd francs in his pocket were no store for the war-chest demanded by this emergency. + 

True, he had the Omber jewels; but they were not negotiableтБатАФnot at least in Paris. + 

And the Huysman plans? + 

He pondered briefly the possibilities of the Huysman plans. + 

In his fretting, pacing softly to and fro, at each turn he passed his dressing-table, and chancing once to observe himself in its mirror, he stopped short, thunderstruck by something he thought to detect in the counterfeit presentment of his countenance, heavy with fatigue as it was, and haggard with contemplation of this appalling contretemps. + 

And instantly he was back beside the American, studying narrowly the contours of that livid mask. Here, then, was that resemblance which had baffled him; and now that he saw it, he could not deny that it was unflatteringly close: feature for feature the face of the murderer reproduced his face, coarsened perhaps but recognizably a replica of that Michael Lanyard who confronted him every morning in his shaving-glass, almost the only difference residing in the scrubby black moustache that shadowed the AmericanтАЩs upper lip. + 

After all, there was nothing wonderful in this; LanyardтАЩs type was not uncommon; he would never have thought himself a distinguished figure. + 

Before rising he turned out the pockets of his counterfeit. But this profited him little: the assassin had dressed for action with forethought to evade recognition in event of accident. Lanyard collected only a cheap American watch in a rolled-gold case of a sort manufactured by wholesale, a briquet, a common key that might fit any hotel door, a broken paper of R├йgie cigarettes, an automatic pistol, a few francs in silverтБатАФnothing whatever that would serve as a mark of identification; for though the grey clothing was tailor-made, the makerтАЩs labels had been ripped out of its pockets, while the manтАЩs linen and underwear alike lacked even a laundryтАЩs hieroglyphic. + 

With this harvest of nothing for his pains, Lanyard turned again to the washstand and his shaving kit, mixed a stiff lather, stropped another razor to the finest edge he could manage, fetched a pair of keen scissors from his dressing-case, and went back to the murderer. + 

He worked rapidly, at a high pitch of excitementтБатАФas much through sheer desperation as through any appeal inherent in the scheme either to his commonsense or to his romantic bent. + 

In two minutes he had stripped the moustache clean away from that stupid, flaccid mask. + 

Unquestionably the resemblance was now most striking; the American would readily pass for Michael Lanyard. + 

This much accomplished, he pursued his preparations in feverish haste. In spite of this, he overlooked no detail. In less than twenty minutes he had exchanged clothing with the American in detail, even down to shirts, collars and neckties; had packed in his own pockets the several articles taken from the other, together with the jointed jimmy and a few of his personal effects, and was ready to bid adieu to himself, to that Michael Lanyard whom Paris knew. + 

The insentient masquerader on the floor had called himself тАЬgood-enough SmithтАЭ; he must serve now as good-enough Lanyard, at least for the Lone WolfтАЩs purposes; the police at all events would accept him as such. And if the memory of Michael Lanyard must needs wear the stigma of brutal murder, he need not repine in his oblivion, since through this perfunctory decease the Lone Wolf would gain a freedom even greater than before. + 

The Pack had contrived only to eliminate Michael Lanyard, the amateur of fine paintings; remained the Lone Wolf with not one faculty impaired, but rather with a deadlier purpose to shape his occult courses.тБатАКтБатАж + 

Under the influence of his methodical preparations, his emotions had cooled appreciably, taking on a cast of cold malignant vengefulness. + 

He who never in all his criminal record had so much as pulled trigger in self-defence, was ready now to shoot to kill with the most cold-blooded intentтБатАФgiven one of three targets; while PopinotтАЩs creatures, if they worried him, he meant to exterminate with as little compunction as though they were rats in fact as well as in spirit.тБатАКтБатАж + 

Extinguishing the lights, he stepped quickly to a window and from one edge of its shade looked down into the street. + 

He was in time to see a stunted human silhouette detach itself from the shadow of a doorway on the opposite walk, move to the curb, and wave an armтБатАФevidently signaling another sentinel on a corner out of LanyardтАЩs range of vision. + 

Herein was additional proof, if any lacked, that De┬аMorbihan had not exaggerated the disposition of Popinot. This animal in the street, momentarily revealed by the corner light as he darted across to take position by the door, this animal with sickly face and pointed chin, with dirty muffler round its chicken-neck, shoddy coat clothing its sloping shoulders, baggy corduroy trousers flapping round its bony shanksтБатАФthis was PopinotтАЩs, and but one of a thousand differing in no essential save degree of viciousness. + 

It wasnтАЩt possible to guess how thoroughly Popinot had picketed the house, in cooperation with RoddyтАЩs murderer, by way of provision against mischance; but the adventurer was satisfied that, in his proper guise as himself, he needed only to open that postern door at the street end of the passage, to feel a knife slip in between his ribsтБатАФmost probably in his back, beneath the shoulder-blade.тБатАКтБатАж + 

He nodded grimly, moved back from the window, and used the flash-lamp to light him to the door. + 