Two braziers, or smoke pots, had been placed on the dais, one of which Long Sin touched with a stick causing it to burst out into dense fumes.
Standing before them, he chanted in nasal tones, "The white consort of the great Ksing Chau has been found. It is his will that she now be made his."
As he finished intoning the message, Long Sin signaled to two young Chinamen to go into the anteroom. A moment later they returned with Elaine.
Frightened though she was, Elaine made no attempt to struggle, even when they had cut her bonds. She was busily engaged in seeking some method of escape. Her eyes travelled ever the place quickly.
Apparently, there was no means of exit that was not guarded. Long Sin saw her look, and smiled quietly.
They had carried her up to the dais, and now Long Sin faced her and sternly ordered her to kowtow to the gruesome metallic figure.
She refused, but instantly the Chinamen seized her arm and twisted it, until they had compelled her to fall to her knees.
Having forced her to kowtow, Long Sin turned to the a.s.sembled devil dancers.
"With magic and rare drugs," he chanted, "she shall be made to pa.s.s beyond and her body encased in precious gold shall be the consort of Ksing Chau--forever and ever."
He made another sign and several pots and braziers were brought out and placed on the dais beside Elaine. She was, by this time, completely overcome by the horror of the situation. There was apparently no escape.
With callous deviltry, the oriental satanists had made every arrangement for embalming and preserving the body of Elaine. Pots filled with sticky black material were slowly heated, amid weird incantations, while other Chinamen laid out innumerable sheets of gold leaf.
At last all seemed to be in readiness to proceed.
"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 pa.s.sed 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 circ.u.mstances, 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.
"I"m sorry," she remarked merely, "but I"m afraid my control is weak and cannot work today."
She took a step toward the door, motioning us to leave. Neither of us paid any attention to that hint, but remained seated as we had been before.
"Go!" she exclaimed at length, for the first time showing a trace of nervousness.
Evidently her suspicions had been fully confirmed by our actions. We tried to argue with her to gain time. But it was of no use.
Almost before I knew what she was doing, she made a dash for something in the corner of the room. It was time for open action, and I seized her quickly.
My detective was on his feet in an instant.
"I"ll take care of her," he ground out, seizing her wrists in his vice-like grasp. "You give the signal."
I rushed to the window, threw up the shade and opened the sash, waving our preconcerted sign, turning again toward the room.
With a sudden accession of desperate strength, Savetsky broke away from the plainclothesman and again attempted to get at something concealed on the wall. I had turned just in time to fling myself between her and whatever object she had in mind.
As the detective took her again and twisted her arm until she cried out in pain, I hastily investigated the wall. She had evidently been attempting to press a b.u.t.ton that rang a concealed bell.
What did it all mean?
Elaine, now completely unconscious, was being held by the Chinamen, while her arm was smeared with sticky black material from the cauldron by Long Sin. As the high priest of Satan worked, the devil worshippers kowtowed obediently.
Suddenly the aged Chinaman with the prayer wheel stopped his incessant, impious turning, and rising, held up his hand as if to command attention.
Amid a general exclamation of wonder, he walked to the dais and mounted it, turning and facing the worshippers.
"This is nonsense," he cried in a loud tone. "Why should our great Ksing Chau desire a white devil? I, a great grandfather, demand to know."
The effect on the worshippers was electric. They paused in their obeisance and stared at the speaker, then at their high priest.
Shaking with rage, Long Sin ordered the intruder off the dais. But the aged devotee refused to go.
"Throw him out," he ordered his attendants.
For answer, as the two young Chinamen approached, the old Chinaman threw them down to the floor with a quick jiu-jitsu movement. His strength seemed miraculous for so aged a man.
Furious now beyond expression, Long Sin stepped forward himself. He seized the beard and queue of the intruder. To his utter amazement, they came off!
It was Kennedy!
With his automatic drawn, before the astounded devil dancers could recover themselves, Craig stood at bay.
Long Sin leaped behind the big gong. As the Chinamen rushed forward to seize him, Kennedy shot the leader of Long Sin"s attendants and struck down the other with a blow. The rush was checked for the moment. But the odds were fearful.
Kennedy seized Elaine"s yielding body and, pushing back the curtains to the anteroom, succeeded in gaining it, and locking the door into the main temple.
Bennett was still lying on the floor tightly bound. With a few deft cuts by a Chinese knife which he had picked up, Kennedy released him.
At the same time, Chinamen were trying to batter down the door, Kennedy"s last bulwark. It was swaying under their repeated blows.
Kennedy rushed to the door and fired through it at random to check the attack for a few moments.