"It seems to me, Watson, that you--"

Those who were present are not likely to forget it. Some men are born, some rise, to the occasion; but Watson was both. He was clear-cut, dominant, inexorable. He levelled his pencil at the general.

"It SEEMS to you! General, let me ask you: If your country's safety were at stake, would you hesitate to throw reinforcements into the breach?"

"Hardly."

"All right. It's settled. Take care of your red tape AFTERWARDS."

He wheeled to the detective. "Jerome, this is a sketch of the compartments of Dr. Holcomb's safe. Not the large one in his house, but the small one in his laboratory. Go straight to Dwight Way. Give this note," indicating another paper, "to Bertha Holcomb. Tell her that her father is safe, and that I am out of the Blind Spot. Tell her you have come to open the laboratory safe. I've written down the combination. If it doesn't work use explosives; there's nothing inside which force can harm. In the compartment marked 'X' you will find a small particle about the size of a pea, wrapped in tin-foil, and locked in a small metal box.

You will have to break the box. As for the contents, once you see the stone you can't mistake it; it will weigh about six pounds. Get it, and guard it with your life!"

"All right."

Jerome put Watson's instructions in his wallet, at the same time glancing about the room.

"Where is Fenton?" he asked.

It was Watson who answered. He gave us the first news that had ever come from the Blind Spot. He spoke with firm deliberation, as though in full realisation of the sensation:

"Hobart Fenton has gone through the Blind Spot. Just now he is right here in this room."

Sir Henry jumped.

"In this room! Is that what you said, Watson?"

The other ignored him.

"Jerome, you haven't a minute to lose! You and the general; bring that stone back to this house at ANY cost! Hurry!"

In another moment Jerome and Hume were gone. And few people, that day, suspected the purport of that body of silent men who crossed over the Bay of San Francisco. They were grim, and trusted, and under secret orders. They had a mission, did they but know it, as important as any in history. But they knew only that they were to guard Jerome and the general at all hazards. One peculiarly heavy stone, "the size of a pea"!

How are we ever to calculate its value?

As for the group remaining with Watson, not one of them ever dreamed that any danger might come out of the Blind Spot. Its manifestations had been local and mostly negative. No; the main incentive of their interest had been simply curiosity.

But apparently Watson was above them all. He paid no further attention to them for a while; he bent at Fenton's desk and worked swiftly. At length he thrust his papers aside.

"I want to see that cellar," he announced. "That is, the point where you found that red pebble!"

Down in the basement, Sir Henry gave the details. When he came to mention the various liquids which Fenton had poured into the woodwork upstairs Watson examined the pool intently.

"Quite so. They would come out here--naturally."

"Naturally!"

Sir Henry could not understand. His perplexity was reflected in the faces of Herold, the two physicians, Dr. Malloy, Miss Clarke, and Mme.

Le Fabre--and Charlotte spoke for them all:

"Can't you explain, Mr. Watson? The woodwork had nothing whatever to do with the cellar. There was the floor between, just as you see it now."

"Naturally," Watson repeated. "It could be no other place! It was on its way to the other side, but it could go only half-way. Simply a matter of focus, you know. I beg pardon; you must hold your curiosity a little longer."

He began measuring. First he located the line across the floorjoists overhead, where rested the partition separating the dining-room from the parlour. Finding the middle of this line, he dropped an improvised plumb-line to the ground; and from this spot as centre, using a string about ten feet long, he described a circle on the earth. Then, referring to his calculations, he proceeded to locate several points with small stakes pressed into the soil. Then he checked them off and nodded.

"It's even better than the professor thought. His theory is all but proven. If Jerome and Hume can deliver the other stone without accident, we can save those now inside the Spot." Then, very solemnly: "But we face a heavy task. It will be another Thermopylae. We must hold the gate against an occult Xerxes, together with all his horde."

"The hosts of the dead!" exclaimed Mme. Le Fabre.

"No; the living! Just give me time, Madame, and you will see something hitherto undreamed of. As for your theory--tomorrow you may doubt whether you are living or dead! In other words, Dr. Holcomb has certainly proved the occult by material means. He has done it with a vengeance. In so doing he has left us in doubt as to ourselves; and unless he discovers the missing factor within the next few hours we are going to be in the anomalous position of knowing plenty about the next world, but nothing about ourselves."

He paused. He must have known that their curiosity could not hold out much longer. He said:

"Now, just one thing more, friends, and I can tell you everything, while we are waiting for Jerome and the general to return. But first I must see the one who preceded me out of the spot."

"Ariadne!" from Charlotte, in wonder.

"Ariadne!" exclaimed Watson. He was both puzzled and amazed. "Did you call her--Ariadne?"

"She is upstairs," cut in Dr. Higgins.

"I must see her!"

A minute or two later they stood in the room where the girl lay. The coverlet was thrown back somewhat revealing the bare left arm and shoulder, and the delicately beautiful face upon the pillow. Her golden hair was spread out in riotous profusion. The other hand was just protruding from the coverlet, and displayed a faint red mark, showing where Hobart's bracelet had been fastened at the moment he disappeared.

Charlotte stepped over and laid her hand against the girl's cheek.

"Isn't she wonderful!" she murmured.

But Dr. Higgins looked to Watson.

"Do you know her?"

The other nodded. He stooped over and listened to her breathing. His manner was that of reverence and admiration. He touched her hand.

"I see how it must have happened. Precisely what I experienced, only--"

Then: "You call her Ariadne?"

"We had to call her something," replied Charlotte. "And the name--it just came, I suppose."

"Perhaps. Anyhow, it was a remarkably good guess. Her true name is the Aradna."

"THE Aradna? Who--what is she?"

"Just that: the Aradna. She is one of the factors that may save us.

And on earth we would call her queen." Then, without waiting for the inevitable question, Watson said:

"Your professional judgment will soon come to the supreme test, Dr.

Higgins. She is simply numbed and dazed from coming through the Spot."

Charlotte had already described to him the girl's arrival. "The mystery is that she was permitted an hour of rationality before this came upon her. I wonder if Hobart's vitality had anything to do with it?"--half to himself. "As for the Rhamda"--he smiled--"he is merely interested in the Spot; that is all. He would never harm the Aradna; he had nothing whatever to do with her condition. We were mistaken about the man.

Anyway, it is the Spot of Life that interests us now."