Sax Rohmer

“ Rare sounds penetrated to the place, but in muffled form. So that save for the whirring of the great globe there was silence in this laboratory above Park Lane.
At the table a man sat absorbed in an experiment. He wore a loose black robe which enveloped him from neck to feet, thin rubber gloves upon his hands, and a glass mask upon his face. He was bent as if with age or great weariness, and his movements, though silent, and directed by an obvious intensity of purpose, suggested high nervous tension.
In a test-tube a deep red liquid was bubbling above the flame of a burner. ”

“ He pressed an electric button, and above the dull humming sound of the ever-revolving globe rose the purr of an electric fan. The masked man moved a lever controlling the windows, and when he judged the air to be clear of whatever fumes he feared he stopped the fan, reclosed the windows, and standing up, removed his mask. ”

“ Feverishly the man in the glass mask uncorked a small flask containing an opaque fluid resembling liquid gold. His hand shook, but by an effort of will he steadied it. Then—one, two, three drops he added to the contents of the test-tube, which, now, had become perfectly black. He replaced the stopper in the little flask. ”