Germans do; some as the Spanish, the French, the English; others were in costumes I did not recognize.

A ballerina, and a blacksmith with his hammer raised…a French chevalier, and a German student,

broadsword in hand, livid scars upon his face…an Apache with knife in hand, drug-madness on his

yellow face and next to him a vicious-mouthed woman of the streets and next to her a jockey…

The loot of the doll-maker from a dozen lands!

The dolls seemed to be poised to leap. To flow down upon us. Overwhelm us.

I steadied my thoughts. I forced myself to meet that battery of living dolls' eyes as though they were but

lifeless dolls. There was an empty cabinet…another and another…five cabinets without dolls. The four

dolls I had watched march upon me in the paralysis of the green glow were not there nor was Walters.

I wrenched my gaze away from the tiers of the watching dolls. I looked again at the doll-maker, still