awiul master. Almost as terrifying as their physical menace was the fearful mystery with which they surrounded themselves. Something more than human ruthlessness and cunning seemed to be behind their successful penetration of the most carefully guarded places, and more than human courage and bravado must account for the fearless facing of death and torture by these instruments of organized murder. Nor could any outsider understand the methods which permitted them to change their appearance and assume any disguise at will. Marco Polo, describing the organization nearly a century later, gives what sounds like a plausible explanation of the desperate performances of its agents. In a beautiful valley high up in the mountains had been built a charming garden, containing the choicest fruit trees and the most fragrant shrubs. Here were constructed splendid palaces, adorned and furnished in the most elegant and elaborate fashion. Cunningly devised conduits conducted streams of purest water, of wine and milk and honey from these palaces into the garden, thus improving upon the biblical description of a prosperous land. But all this was only a small part of the attractiveness of this retreat. A true sybarite the inventor of this elysium, and possessed of a mighty imagination. Its sole inhabitants were beautiful damsels, not only lovely to the eye, but trained in all the arts and accomplishments which may intensify the incitement of beauty. They could sing, they could play on all sorts