As he dropped the last grisly fragment of the dismembered and mutilated bodyinto the small vat of nitric acid that was to devour every trace of the horridevidence which might easily send him to the gallows, the man sank weakly into achair and throwing his body forward upon his great, teak desk buried his facein his arms, breaking into dry, moaning sobs.
Beads of perspiration followed the seams of his high, wrinkled forehead,replacing the tears which might have lessened the pressure upon his overwroughtnerves. His slender frame shook, as with ague, and at times was racked by aconvulsive shudder. A sudden step upon the stairway leading to his workshopbrought him trembling and wide eyed to his feet, staring fearfully at thelocked and bolted door.
Although he knew perfectly well whose the advancing footfalls were, he was allbut overcome by the madness of apprehension as they came softly nearer andnearer to the barred door. At last they halted before it, to be followed by agentle knock.
“Daddy!” came the sweet tones of a girl’s voice.
The man made an effort to take a firm grasp upon himself that no tell-taleevidence of his emotion might be betrayed in his speech.
“Daddy!” called the girl again, a trace of anxiety in her voicethis time. “What is the matter with you, and what are youdoing? You’ve been shut up in that hateful old room for three days nowwithout a morsel to eat, and in all likelihood without a wink of sleep.You’ll kill yourself with your stuffy old experiments.”
The man’s face softened.
“Don’t worry about me, sweetheart,” he replied in a wellcontrolled voice. “I’ll soon be through now—soon bethrough—and then we’ll go away for a long vacation—for a longvacation.”
“I’ll give you until noon, Daddy,” said the girl in a voicewhich carried a more strongly defined tone of authority than her father’ssoft drawl, “and then I shall come into that room, if I have to use anaxe, and bring you out—do you understand?”
Professor Maxon smiled wanly. He knew that his daughter was equal to herthreat.
“All right, sweetheart, I’ll be through by noon for sure—bynoon for sure. Run along and play now, like a good little girl.”
V