There was no use struggling. Cleve realized that as his wrists were pinioned behind his back. He felt the cutting pressure of leather thongs as his assailants bound him hand and foot. The gag that was pressed between his teeth proved tight and merciless. The helpless man could barely gasp for breath.
Cleve felt himself raised; then he was laid in the center of the room amid the circle, like a human sacrifice.
Staring upward, he could see only those sparkling green eyes; and to Cleve’s cars came the cold words of Green Eyes, himself.
“You swore to support the Wu-Fan,” came the insidious voice. “Instead, you were a traitor! There were matters which you wished to learn. You had no right to learn them.”
“The work of the Wu-Fan will go on. You can never stop them. Once death was planned for you at hands other than those of the Wu-Fan. You escaped it.
“Again, death was meant for you, by the hand of Foy. You eluded it. Tonight, no effort can avail you.
“Fool! You were not content to believe what you were told about the Wu-Fan. Your life was spared only because the Wu-Fan was wise. But now, the decree of wisdom has been changed. There is one fate for you.
“Death!”
THE room seemed to echo with the sinister word. Caught up by the lips of the others, it was hissed in a low, startling note that brought a shudder to the prisoner.
A momentary silence. Then came the tone of Ling Soo’s voice: