Society was looking to Forbes for a promised panacea against war and its evils; Forbes himself was wondering whether bolts and locks and armed servants and policemen would protect him and his from the claws of the Young Manchus! Theydon heard Bates locking and bolting the outer door of the flat with a certain thankfulness.

He was thinking of the sheer impossibility of any marauder gaining access to No.

18, when he opened the small parcel which the valet had spoken of.

He speculated idly as to the nature of its contents, because he could not remember having ordered any article which would be contained in so tiny a package.
He took out a piece of stout paper, folded twice, and a little white object fell to the table and rolled over several times, finally coming to rest with a curious suddenness.

It was a small, carved, ivory skull!.