You ought never to have used it." Sypher had the sensation of the hotel walls crashing down upon his head, falling across his throat and weighing upon his chest.

For a few instants he suffered a nightmare paralysis.

Then he gasped for breath.

At last he said very quietly: "Do you know who I am ?" "I have not the pleasure," said the doctor.

"They only gave me your room number." "I am Clem Sypher, the proprietor of Sypher's Cure." The two men stared at one another, Sypher in a blue-striped pyjama jacket, supporting himself by one elbow on the bed, the doctor at the foot.