At the garden-door a group of men awaited them. Sergeant Sowerby and two assistants remaining to watch the entrance and the lane, Miska led Stuart and the burly Inspector Kelly along that path beside the wall which Stuart so well remembered.
"Hurry!" she whispered urgently. "We must try to reach him before …"
"You fear for Chunda Lal?" said Stuart.
"Oh, yes! He has a terrible power—Fo-Hi—which he never employs with me, until to-night. Ah! it is only Chunda Lal, who saved me! But Chunda Lal he can command with his Will. From it, once he has made anyone a slave to it, there is no escape. I have seen one in the city of Quebec, in Canada, forget all else and begin to act in obedience to the will of Fo-Hi who is thousands of miles away!"
"My God!" murmured Stuart, "what a horrible monster!"
They had reached the open door beyond which showed the dimly lighted passage. Miska hesitated.
"Oh! I am afraid!" she whispered.
She thrust the keys into the hand of Inspector Kelly, pointing to one of them, and:
"That is the key!" she said. "Have your pistol ready. Do not touch anything in the room and do not go in if I tell you not to. Come!"
They pressed along the passage, came to the stair and were about to ascend, when there ensued a dull reverberating boom, and Miska shrank back into Stuart's arms with a stifled shriek.