Raising a metal hammer which he held in his hand, Fo-Hi struck the
bronze bell hung beside the chair. It emitted a deep, loud note....
There came a flash of blinding light, and intense crackling sound,
the crash of broken glass, and a dense cloud of pungent fumes rose
in the heated air.
Dunbar had just climbed in behind Gaston Max. Bother were all but
hurled from their feet by the force of the explosion. Then:
"Oh, my God!" cried Dunbar, staggering, half blinded, _"look--look!"_
A deathly silence claimed them all. Just within the doorway Stuart
appeared, having his arm about the shoulders of Miska.
The Throne of the Gods was empty! A thin coating of grey dust was
settling upon it and upon the dais which supported it.
They had witnessed a scientific miracle ... the complete and
instantaneous disintegration of a human body. Gaston Max was the
first to recover speech.
"We are defeated," he said. "'The Scorpion,' surrounded, destroys
himself. It is the way of a scorpion."
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN SCORPION***
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