room, though there was nothing to see. Max turned out the light as he took his place. Everything was absolutely black.
Every one stood silent. Hereford could hear only the breathing of those about him, and he felt the soft touch of Lorine's arm against his and a strand of her hair against his cheek as she shifted her position slightly. In the darkness his hearing became more acute, so that he would have known the position of every one even if he had not already known; also he became conscious suddenly of the heavy odor of sandalwood, which filled his nostrils and seemed to ingulf and make negligible all other sensations for the instant. With it awoke strange, dim images from the superstitiously imaginative East. He let himself seem to be upon that middle ground of the Oriental tales where the super-
