"Hold her," ordered Long Sin in guttural Chinese to the two attendants, as he approached her.
Long Sin held in his hand a small, profusely decorated pot from which smoke was escaping. As he approached he passed this receptacle under her nose once, twice, three times.
Gradually Elaine fell into unconsciousness.
. . . . . . . .
While Elaine was facing death in the power of the devil worshippers, I had reached the house of Savetsky next door with the police, and the place had been quietly surrounded.
With the plainclothesman, a daring and intelligent fellow, I went to the door and rang the bell.
"What can I do for you?" asked the medium, admitting us.
"My friend, here," I parleyed, "is in great business trouble. Can your controlling spirit give him advice?"
We had managed to gain the interior of the seance room, and I suppose there was nothing else for her to say, under the circumstances, but, "Why—yes,—if the conditions are good, the control can probably tell us just what he wants to know."
Savetsky set to work preparing the room for a seance. As she moved over to the window to pull down the shades, she must have caught sight of one or two of the policemen who had incautiously exposed themselves from the hiding places in which I had disposed them before we entered. At any rate, Savetsky did not lose a jot of her remarkable composure.