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From the depths of his gorgeous robe, Lien Weng took a small gun-metal case. A spring released the top. Within was a tiny glass phial, in the form of a syringe, containing about an ounce of a colorless fluid. So delicate was the whole contrivance that it could be concealed in the palm of one hand.

After Lien Weng had placed it on the table in front of him, he went on to explain its nature and its use.

The fluid was the most subtle and the most deadly poison science had yet evolved. Distilled in minute quantities by a recent chemical process from a rare herb indigenous to the Manchurian wilds, the secret was known to the Society alone, and its use was strictly regulated by its laws. In operation, as Lien Weng explained, it was very simple. By discharging the contents of the phial on the back of a person's coat, of no matter what thickness, at a point midway between the shoulder blades, it would percolate in the course of less than three hours to the spinal marrow. And, without warning of any kind, it would bring about a sudden and