That room was empty... empty as he had left it!

“Mille tonnerres! he has escaped me!” he cried aloud, and the words did not seem of his own choosing.

Who had escaped?  Someone—­man or woman; rather some thing, which, yellow handed, had sought to murder him!

Max ran across to the second trap and looked down at the woman whom he knew, beyond doubt, to be Mrs. Leroux.  She lay in her death-like trance, unmoved.

Strung up to uttermost tension, he looked down at her and listened—­listened, intently.

Above the fumes of the apartment in which the woman lay, a stifling odor of roses was clearly perceptible.  The whole place was tropically hot.  Not a sound, save the creaking of the shelf beneath him, broke the heavy stillness.

XXXIX

THE LABYRINTH

Feverishly, Max clutched at the last three books upon the shelf adjoining the gap.  Of these, the center volume, a work bound in yellow calf and bearing no title, proved to be irremovable; right and left it could be inclined, but not moved outward.  It masked the lever handle of the door!

But that door was locked.

Max, with upraised arms, swept the perspiration from his brows and eyes; he leant dizzily up against the door which defied him; his mind was working with febrile rapidity.  He placed the pistol in his pocket, and, recrossing the room, mounted up again upon the shelves, and crept through into the apartment beyond, from which the yellow hand had protruded.  He dropped, panting, upon the bed, then, eagerly leaping to the door, grasped the handle.

“Pardieu!” he muttered, “it is unlocked!”

Though the light was still burning in this room, the corridor outside was in darkness.  He pressed the button of the ingenious lamp which was also a watch, and made for the door communicating with the cave of the dragon.  It was readily to be detected by reason of its visible handle; the other doors being externally indistinguishable from the rest of the matting-covered wall.

The cave of the dragon proved to be empty, and in darkness.  He ran across its polished floor and opened at random the door immediately facing him.  A corridor similar to the one which he had just quitted was revealed.  Another door was visible at one end, and to this he ran, pulled it open, stepped through the opening, and found himself back in the cave of the dragon!

“Morbleu!” he muttered, “it is bewildering—­this!”

Yet another door, this time one of ebony, he opened; and yet another matting-lined corridor presented itself to his gaze.  He swept it with the ray of the little lamp, detected a door, opened it, and entered a similar suite to those with which he already was familiar.  It was empty, but, unlike the one which he himself had tenanted, this suite possessed two doors, the second opening out of the bathroom.  To this he ran; it was unlocked; he opened it, stepped ahead... and was back again in the cave of the dragon.