Ralf Clifford was a westerner, who traveled to the East to learn the ways of mysticism. He was given the mummified head of a cobra by an Indian fakir. The fakir informs Clifford that if he presses the cobra head against his breast, he is injected with a poisonous fluid which scars him but also leaves him invisible for seven minutes. It is explained that if Clifford is dosed 217 times, he will die. Clifford used this weapon to battle injustice as a consulting detective.