Instant death threatened Cliff Marsland if he dared to move. He was staring straight ahead, seeing neither Orlinov nor Petri. He did not see the bearded Russian's hand approach his arm, carrying a tiny, shining object in its grasp.
The sharp point of a hypodermic needle stung Cliff's arm. He sat motionless, still staring.
He felt a strange, unexplainable weakness. The room was growing black about him. His body swayed. He forgot the pressure of the gun upon his neck. His veins seemed chilled — freezing within his body. Orlinov laughed as Cliff Marsland's body slumped in the chair and became rigid. Cliff heard that laugh from the midst of whirling blackness. Then his brain ceased to function. Orlinov stood looking at the form in the chair. To all appearances Cliff Marsland was dead. The same fate had befallen him as that which had been the lot of Clark Murdock, when the chemist had struggled with Doctor Gerald Savette.
A laugh came from the Russian's bearded lips. In his native tongue, he spoke to Petri, the stalwart servant who still stood with gun in hand. Petri answered. He and Orlinov picked up Cliff Marsland's body from the chair.
Together they took their burden up the stairs to the second floor, Heavy though Cliff was, the Russians carried him with ease.
Orlinov ordered his man to set the body on the floor. Then the bearded Russian unlocked a door that led to one of the smaller rooms. The two men carried the rigid form into the apartment and placed it upon a couch beside the wall.
There was no indication that Cliff Marsland still lived. A corpselike pallor had settled on his face. But Ivan Orlinov, leering hideously, showed more interest in that form than he would have wasted upon a mere corpse. He knew that his victim would awaken later.
Cliff Marsland had become one of the dead who lived!
Chapter XII — Tremont's Visitor
It was nearly ten o'clock when a trim coupe swung up the driveway by Glade Tremont's home. The lights of the car went out. Glade Tremont stepped to the ground, and entered the side door of the house. The lawyer had arrived before the hour of his appointment with Matt Hartley.