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diff --git a/173-h/173-h.htm b/173-h/173-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1384f11 --- /dev/null +++ b/173-h/173-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14559 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer +</TITLE> + +<STYLE> +body { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 5%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: medium; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.salutation {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.closing {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.quote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +.center {text-align: center;} +.left {text-align: left;} +.topleft {text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 20%;} +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 173 ***</div> + +<H1 class="center"> +The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 class="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 class="center"> +Sax Rohmer +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 class="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE class="center" style="width: 100%;"> +<TR> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap01">CHAPTER I</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap02">CHAPTER II</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap03">CHAPTER III</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap04">CHAPTER IV</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap05">CHAPTER V</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap06">CHAPTER VI</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap07">CHAPTER VII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap09">CHAPTER IX</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap10">CHAPTER X</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap15">CHAPTER XV</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap20">CHAPTER XX</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap24">CHAPTER XXIV</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap25">CHAPTER XXV</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap26">CHAPTER XXVI</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap27">CHAPTER XXVII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap28">CHAPTER XXVIII</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap29">CHAPTER XXIX</A> +</TD> +<TD class="topleft"> +<A HREF="#chap30">CHAPTER XXX</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap01"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<P> +"A GENTLEMAN to see you, Doctor." +</P> + +<P> +From across the common a clock sounded the half-hour. +</P> + +<P> +"Ten-thirty!" I said. "A late visitor. Show him up, if you please." +</P> + +<P> +I pushed my writing aside and tilted the lamp-shade, as footsteps +sounded on the landing. The next moment I had jumped to my feet, for a +tall, lean man, with his square-cut, clean-shaven face sun-baked to the +hue of coffee, entered and extended both hands, with a cry: +</P> + +<P> +"Good old Petrie! Didn't expect me, I'll swear!" +</P> + +<P> +It was Nayland Smith—whom I had thought to be in Burma! +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said, and gripped his hands hard, "this is a delightful +surprise! Whatever—however—" +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, Petrie!" he broke in. "Don't put it down to the sun!" And +he put out the lamp, plunging the room into darkness. +</P> + +<P> +I was too surprised to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"No doubt you will think me mad," he continued, and, dimly, I could see +him at the window, peering out into the road, "but before you are many +hours older you will know that I have good reason to be cautious. Ah, +nothing suspicious! Perhaps I am first this time." And, stepping back +to the writing-table he relighted the lamp. +</P> + +<P> +"Mysterious enough for you?" he laughed, and glanced at my unfinished +MS. "A story, eh? From which I gather that the district is beastly +healthy—what, Petrie? Well, I can put some material in your way that, +if sheer uncanny mystery is a marketable commodity, ought to make you +independent of influenza and broken legs and shattered nerves and all +the rest." +</P> + +<P> +I surveyed him doubtfully, but there was nothing in his appearance to +justify me in supposing him to suffer from delusions. His eyes were +too bright, certainly, and a hardness now had crept over his face. I +got out the whisky and siphon, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"You have taken your leave early?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am not on leave," he replied, and slowly filled his pipe. "I am on +duty." +</P> + +<P> +"On duty!" I exclaimed. "What, are you moved to London or something?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have got a roving commission, Petrie, and it doesn't rest with me +where I am to-day nor where I shall be to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +There was something ominous in the words, and, putting down my glass, +its contents untasted, I faced round and looked him squarely in the +eyes. "Out with it!" I said. "What is it all about?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith suddenly stood up and stripped off his coat. Rolling back his +left shirt-sleeve he revealed a wicked-looking wound in the fleshy part +of the forearm. It was quite healed, but curiously striated for an +inch or so around. +</P> + +<P> +"Ever seen one like it?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Not exactly," I confessed. "It appears to have been deeply +cauterized." +</P> + +<P> +"Right! Very deeply!" he rapped. "A barb steeped in the venom of a +hamadryad went in there!" +</P> + +<P> +A shudder I could not repress ran coldly through me at mention of that +most deadly of all the reptiles of the East. +</P> + +<P> +"There's only one treatment," he continued, rolling his sleeve down +again, "and that's with a sharp knife, a match, and a broken cartridge. +I lay on my back, raving, for three days afterwards, in a forest that +stank with malaria, but I should have been lying there now if I had +hesitated. Here's the point. It was not an accident!" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that it was a deliberate attempt on my life, and I am hard upon +the tracks of the man who extracted that venom—patiently, drop by +drop—from the poison-glands of the snake, who prepared that arrow, and +who caused it to be shot at me." +</P> + +<P> +"What fiend is this?" +</P> + +<P> +"A fiend who, unless my calculations are at fault is now in London, and +who regularly wars with pleasant weapons of that kind. Petrie, I have +traveled from Burma not in the interests of the British Government +merely, but in the interests of the entire white race, and I honestly +believe—though I pray I may be wrong—that its survival depends +largely upon the success of my mission." +</P> + +<P> +To say that I was perplexed conveys no idea of the mental chaos created +by these extraordinary statements, for into my humdrum suburban life +Nayland Smith had brought fantasy of the wildest. I did not know what +to think, what to believe. +</P> + +<P> +"I am wasting precious time!" he rapped decisively, and, draining his +glass, he stood up. "I came straight to you, because you are the only +man I dare to trust. Except the big chief at headquarters, you are the +only person in England, I hope, who knows that Nayland Smith has +quitted Burma. I must have someone with me, Petrie, all the time—it's +imperative! Can you put me up here, and spare a few days to the +strangest business, I promise you, that ever was recorded in fact or +fiction?" +</P> + +<P> +I agreed readily enough, for, unfortunately, my professional duties +were not onerous. +</P> + +<P> +"Good man!" he cried, wringing my hand in his impetuous way. "We start +now." +</P> + +<P> +"What, to-night?" +</P> + +<P> +"To-night! I had thought of turning in, I must admit. I have not +dared to sleep for forty-eight hours, except in fifteen-minute +stretches. But there is one move that must be made to-night and +immediately. I must warn Sir Crichton Davey." +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Crichton Davey—of the India—" +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie, he is a doomed man! Unless he follows my instructions without +question, without hesitation—before Heaven, nothing can save him! I +do not know when the blow will fall, how it will fall, nor from whence, +but I know that my first duty is to warn him. Let us walk down to the +corner of the common and get a taxi." +</P> + +<P> +How strangely does the adventurous intrude upon the humdrum; for, when +it intrudes at all, more often than not its intrusion is sudden and +unlooked for. To-day, we may seek for romance and fail to find it: +unsought, it lies in wait for us at most prosaic corners of life's +highway. +</P> + +<P> +The drive that night, though it divided the drably commonplace from the +wildly bizarre—though it was the bridge between the ordinary and the +outre—has left no impression upon my mind. Into the heart of a weird +mystery the cab bore me; and in reviewing my memories of those days I +wonder that the busy thoroughfares through which we passed did not +display before my eyes signs and portents—warnings. +</P> + +<P> +It was not so. I recall nothing of the route and little of import that +passed between us (we both were strangely silent, I think) until we +were come to our journey's end. Then: +</P> + +<P> +"What's this?" muttered my friend hoarsely. +</P> + +<P> +Constables were moving on a little crowd of curious idlers who pressed +about the steps of Sir Crichton Davey's house and sought to peer in at +the open door. Without waiting for the cab to draw up to the curb, +Nayland Smith recklessly leaped out and I followed close at his heels. +</P> + +<P> +"What has happened?" he demanded breathlessly of a constable. +</P> + +<P> +The latter glanced at him doubtfully, but something in his voice and +bearing commanded respect. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Crichton Davey has been killed, sir." +</P> + +<P> +Smith lurched back as though he had received a physical blow, and +clutched my shoulder convulsively. Beneath the heavy tan his face had +blanched, and his eyes were set in a stare of horror. +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" he whispered. "I am too late!" +</P> + +<P> +With clenched fists he turned and, pressing through the group of +loungers, bounded up the steps. In the hall a man who unmistakably was +a Scotland Yard official stood talking to a footman. Other members of +the household were moving about, more or less aimlessly, and the chilly +hand of King Fear had touched one and all, for, as they came and went, +they glanced ever over their shoulders, as if each shadow cloaked a +menace, and listened, as it seemed, for some sound which they dreaded +to hear. Smith strode up to the detective and showed him a card, upon +glancing at which the Scotland Yard man said something in a low voice, +and, nodding, touched his hat to Smith in a respectful manner. +</P> + +<P> +A few brief questions and answers, and, in gloomy silence, we followed +the detective up the heavily carpeted stair, along a corridor lined +with pictures and busts, and into a large library. A group of people +were in this room, and one, in whom I recognized Chalmers Cleeve, of +Harley Street, was bending over a motionless form stretched upon a +couch. Another door communicated with a small study, and through the +opening I could see a man on all fours examining the carpet. The +uncomfortable sense of hush, the group about the physician, the bizarre +figure crawling, beetle-like, across the inner room, and the grim hub, +around which all this ominous activity turned, made up a scene that +etched itself indelibly on my mind. +</P> + +<P> +As we entered Dr. Cleeve straightened himself, frowning thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Frankly, I do not care to venture any opinion at present regarding the +immediate cause of death," he said. "Sir Crichton was addicted to +cocaine, but there are indications which are not in accordance with +cocaine-poisoning. I fear that only a post-mortem can establish the +facts—if," he added, "we ever arrive at them. A most mysterious case!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith stepping forward and engaging the famous pathologist in +conversation, I seized the opportunity to examine Sir Crichton's body. +</P> + +<P> +The dead man was in evening dress, but wore an old smoking-jacket. He +had been of spare but hardy build, with thin, aquiline features, which +now were oddly puffy, as were his clenched hands. I pushed back his +sleeve, and saw the marks of the hypodermic syringe upon his left arm. +Quite mechanically I turned my attention to the right arm. It was +unscarred, but on the back of the hand was a faint red mark, not unlike +the imprint of painted lips. I examined it closely, and even tried to +rub it off, but it evidently was caused by some morbid process of local +inflammation, if it were not a birthmark. +</P> + +<P> +Turning to a pale young man whom I had understood to be Sir Crichton's +private secretary, I drew his attention to this mark, and inquired if +it were constitutional. "It is not, sir," answered Dr. Cleeve, +overhearing my question. "I have already made that inquiry. Does it +suggest anything to your mind? I must confess that it affords me no +assistance." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," I replied. "It is most curious." +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, Mr. Burboyne," said Smith, now turning to the secretary, +"but Inspector Weymouth will tell you that I act with authority. I +understand that Sir Crichton was—seized with illness in his study?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—at half-past ten. I was working here in the library, and he +inside, as was our custom." +</P> + +<P> +"The communicating door was kept closed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, always. It was open for a minute or less about ten-twenty-five, +when a message came for Sir Crichton. I took it in to him, and he then +seemed in his usual health." +</P> + +<P> +"What was the message?" +</P> + +<P> +"I could not say. It was brought by a district messenger, and he +placed it beside him on the table. It is there now, no doubt." +</P> + +<P> +"And at half-past ten?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Crichton suddenly burst open the door and threw himself, with a +scream, into the library. I ran to him but he waved me back. His eyes +were glaring horribly. I had just reached his side when he fell, +writhing, upon the floor. He seemed past speech, but as I raised him +and laid him upon the couch, he gasped something that sounded like 'The +red hand!' Before I could get to bell or telephone he was dead!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Burboyne's voice shook as he spoke the words, and Smith seemed to +find this evidence confusing. +</P> + +<P> +"You do not think he referred to the mark on his own hand?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think not. From the direction of his last glance, I feel sure he +referred to something in the study." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Having summoned the servants, I ran into the study. But there was +absolutely nothing unusual to be seen. The windows were closed and +fastened. He worked with closed windows in the hottest weather. There +is no other door, for the study occupies the end of a narrow wing, so +that no one could possibly have gained access to it, whilst I was in +the library, unseen by me. Had someone concealed himself in the study +earlier in the evening—and I am convinced that it offers no +hiding-place—he could only have come out again by passing through +here." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith tugged at the lobe of his left ear, as was his habit when +meditating. +</P> + +<P> +"You had been at work here in this way for some time?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Sir Crichton was preparing an important book." +</P> + +<P> +"Had anything unusual occurred prior to this evening?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Mr. Burboyne, with evident perplexity; "though I attached +no importance to it at the time. Three nights ago Sir Crichton came +out to me, and appeared very nervous; but at times his nerves—you +know? Well, on this occasion he asked me to search the study. He had +an idea that something was concealed there." +</P> + +<P> +"Some THING or someone?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Something' was the word he used. I searched, but fruitlessly, and he +seemed quite satisfied, and returned to his work." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Mr. Burboyne. My friend and I would like a few minutes' +private investigation in the study." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap02"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<P> +SIR CRICHTON DAVEY'S study was a small one, and a glance sufficed to +show that, as the secretary had said, it offered no hiding-place. It +was heavily carpeted, and over-full of Burmese and Chinese ornaments +and curios, and upon the mantelpiece stood several framed photographs +which showed this to be the sanctum of a wealthy bachelor who was no +misogynist. A map of the Indian Empire occupied the larger part of one +wall. The grate was empty, for the weather was extremely warm, and a +green-shaded lamp on the littered writing-table afforded the only +light. The air was stale, for both windows were closed and fastened. +</P> + +<P> +Smith immediately pounced upon a large, square envelope that lay beside +the blotting-pad. Sir Crichton had not even troubled to open it, but my +friend did so. It contained a blank sheet of paper! +</P> + +<P> +"Smell!" he directed, handing the letter to me. I raised it to my +nostrils. It was scented with some pungent perfume. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a rather rare essential oil," was the reply, "which I have met +with before, though never in Europe. I begin to understand, Petrie." +</P> + +<P> +He tilted the lamp-shade and made a close examination of the scraps of +paper, matches, and other debris that lay in the grate and on the +hearth. I took up a copper vase from the mantelpiece, and was +examining it curiously, when he turned, a strange expression upon his +face. +</P> + +<P> +"Put that back, old man," he said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Much surprised, I did as he directed. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't touch anything in the room. It may be dangerous." +</P> + +<P> +Something in the tone of his voice chilled me, and I hastily replaced +the vase, and stood by the door of the study, watching him search, +methodically, every inch of the room—behind the books, in all the +ornaments, in table drawers, in cupboards, on shelves. +</P> + +<P> +"That will do," he said at last. "There is nothing here and I have no +time to search farther." +</P> + +<P> +We returned to the library. +</P> + +<P> +"Inspector Weymouth," said my friend, "I have a particular reason for +asking that Sir Crichton's body be removed from this room at once and +the library locked. Let no one be admitted on any pretense whatever +until you hear from me." It spoke volumes for the mysterious +credentials borne by my friend that the man from Scotland Yard accepted +his orders without demur, and, after a brief chat with Mr. Burboyne, +Smith passed briskly downstairs. In the hall a man who looked like a +groom out of livery was waiting. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you Wills?" asked Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"It was you who heard a cry of some kind at the rear of the house about +the time of Sir Crichton's death?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. I was locking the garage door, and, happening to look up at +the window of Sir Crichton's study, I saw him jump out of his chair. +Where he used to sit at his writing, sir, you could see his shadow on +the blind. Next minute I heard a call out in the lane." +</P> + +<P> +"What kind of call?" +</P> + +<P> +The man, whom the uncanny happening clearly had frightened, seemed +puzzled for a suitable description. +</P> + +<P> +"A sort of wail, sir," he said at last. "I never heard anything like +it before, and don't want to again." +</P> + +<P> +"Like this?" inquired Smith, and he uttered a low, wailing cry, +impossible to describe. Wills perceptibly shuddered; and, indeed, it +was an eerie sound. +</P> + +<P> +"The same, sir, I think," he said, "but much louder." +</P> + +<P> +"That will do," said Smith, and I thought I detected a note of triumph +in his voice. "But stay! Take us through to the back of the house." +</P> + +<P> +The man bowed and led the way, so that shortly we found ourselves in a +small, paved courtyard. It was a perfect summer's night, and the deep +blue vault above was jeweled with myriads of starry points. How +impossible it seemed to reconcile that vast, eternal calm with the +hideous passions and fiendish agencies which that night had loosed a +soul upon the infinite. +</P> + +<P> +"Up yonder are the study windows, sir. Over that wall on your left is +the back lane from which the cry came, and beyond is Regent's Park." +</P> + +<P> +"Are the study windows visible from there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Who occupies the adjoining house?" +</P> + +<P> +"Major-General Platt-Houston, sir; but the family is out of town." +</P> + +<P> +"Those iron stairs are a means of communication between the domestic +offices and the servants' quarters, I take it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Then send someone to make my business known to the Major-General's +housekeeper; I want to examine those stairs." +</P> + +<P> +Singular though my friend's proceedings appeared to me, I had ceased to +wonder at anything. Since Nayland Smith's arrival at my rooms I seemed +to have been moving through the fitful phases of a nightmare. My +friend's account of how he came by the wound in his arm; the scene on +our arrival at the house of Sir Crichton Davey; the secretary's story +of the dying man's cry, "The red hand!"; the hidden perils of the +study; the wail in the lane—all were fitter incidents of delirium than +of sane reality. So, when a white-faced butler made us known to a +nervous old lady who proved to be the housekeeper of the next-door +residence, I was not surprised at Smith's saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Lounge up and down outside, Petrie. Everyone has cleared off now. It +is getting late. Keep your eyes open and be on your guard. I thought +I had the start, but he is here before me, and, what is worse, he +probably knows by now that I am here, too." +</P> + +<P> +With which he entered the house and left me out in the square, with +leisure to think, to try to understand. +</P> + +<P> +The crowd which usually haunts the scene of a sensational crime had +been cleared away, and it had been circulated that Sir Crichton had +died from natural causes. The intense heat having driven most of the +residents out of town, practically I had the square to myself, and I +gave myself up to a brief consideration of the mystery in which I so +suddenly had found myself involved. +</P> + +<P> +By what agency had Sir Crichton met his death? Did Nayland Smith know? +I rather suspected that he did. What was the hidden significance of +the perfumed envelope? Who was that mysterious personage whom Smith so +evidently dreaded, who had attempted his life, who, presumably, had +murdered Sir Crichton? Sir Crichton Davey, during the time that he had +held office in India, and during his long term of service at home, had +earned the good will of all, British and native alike. Who was his +secret enemy? +</P> + +<P> +Something touched me lightly on the shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +I turned, with my heart fluttering like a child's. This night's work +had imposed a severe strain even upon my callous nerves. +</P> + +<P> +A girl wrapped in a hooded opera-cloak stood at my elbow, and, as she +glanced up at me, I thought that I never had seen a face so seductively +lovely nor of so unusual a type. With the skin of a perfect blonde, +she had eyes and lashes as black as a Creole's, which, together with +her full red lips, told me that this beautiful stranger, whose touch +had so startled me, was not a child of our northern shores. +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me," she said, speaking with an odd, pretty accent, and laying +a slim hand, with jeweled fingers, confidingly upon my arm, "if I +startled you. But—is it true that Sir Crichton Davey has +been—murdered?" +</P> + +<P> +I looked into her big, questioning eyes, a harsh suspicion laboring in +my mind, but could read nothing in their mysterious depths—only I +wondered anew at my questioner's beauty. The grotesque idea +momentarily possessed me that, were the bloom of her red lips due to +art and not to nature, their kiss would leave—though not +indelibly—just such a mark as I had seen upon the dead man's hand. +But I dismissed the fantastic notion as bred of the night's horrors, +and worthy only of a mediaeval legend. No doubt she was some friend or +acquaintance of Sir Crichton who lived close by. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot say that he has been murdered," I replied, acting upon the +latter supposition, and seeking to tell her what she asked as gently as +possible. +</P> + +<P> +"But he is—Dead?" +</P> + +<P> +I nodded. +</P> + +<P> +She closed her eyes and uttered a low, moaning sound, swaying dizzily. +Thinking she was about to swoon, I threw my arm round her shoulder to +support her, but she smiled sadly, and pushed me gently away. +</P> + +<P> +"I am quite well, thank you," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"You are certain? Let me walk with you until you feel quite sure of +yourself." +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head, flashed a rapid glance at me with her beautiful +eyes, and looked away in a sort of sorrowful embarrassment, for which I +was entirely at a loss to account. Suddenly she resumed: +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot let my name be mentioned in this dreadful matter, but—I +think I have some information—for the police. Will you give this +to—whomever you think proper?" +</P> + +<P> +She handed me a sealed envelope, again met my eyes with one of her +dazzling glances, and hurried away. She had gone no more than ten or +twelve yards, and I still was standing bewildered, watching her +graceful, retreating figure, when she turned abruptly and came back. +</P> + +<P> +Without looking directly at me, but alternately glancing towards a +distant corner of the square and towards the house of Major-General +Platt-Houston, she made the following extraordinary request: +</P> + +<P> +"If you would do me a very great service, for which I always would be +grateful,"—she glanced at me with passionate intentness—"when you +have given my message to the proper person, leave him and do not go +near him any more to-night!" +</P> + +<P> +Before I could find words to reply she gathered up her cloak and ran. +Before I could determine whether or not to follow her (for her words +had aroused anew all my worst suspicions) she had disappeared! I heard +the whir of a restarted motor at no great distance, and, in the instant +that Nayland Smith came running down the steps, I knew that I had +nodded at my post. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith!" I cried as he joined me, "tell me what we must do!" And +rapidly I acquainted him with the incident. +</P> + +<P> +My friend looked very grave; then a grim smile crept round his lips. +</P> + +<P> +"She was a big card to play," he said; "but he did not know that I held +one to beat it." +</P> + +<P> +"What! You know this girl! Who is she?" +</P> + +<P> +"She is one of the finest weapons in the enemy's armory, Petrie. But a +woman is a two-edged sword, and treacherous. To our great good +fortune, she has formed a sudden predilection, characteristically +Oriental, for yourself. Oh, you may scoff, but it is evident. She was +employed to get this letter placed in my hands. Give it to me." +</P> + +<P> +I did so. +</P> + +<P> +"She has succeeded. Smell." +</P> + +<P> +He held the envelope under my nose, and, with a sudden sense of nausea, +I recognized the strange perfume. +</P> + +<P> +"You know what this presaged in Sir Crichton's case? Can you doubt any +longer? She did not want you to share my fate, Petrie." +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said unsteadily, "I have followed your lead blindly in this +horrible business and have not pressed for an explanation, but I must +insist before I go one step farther upon knowing what it all means." +</P> + +<P> +"Just a few steps farther," he rejoined; "as far as a cab. We are +hardly safe here. Oh, you need not fear shots or knives. The man +whose servants are watching us now scorns to employ such clumsy, +tell-tale weapons." +</P> + +<P> +Only three cabs were on the rank, and, as we entered the first, +something hissed past my ear, missed both Smith and me by a miracle, +and, passing over the roof of the taxi, presumably fell in the enclosed +garden occupying the center of the square. +</P> + +<P> +"What was that?" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +"Get in—quickly!" Smith rapped back. "It was attempt number one! +More than that I cannot say. Don't let the man hear. He has noticed +nothing. Pull up the window on your side, Petrie, and look out behind. +Good! We've started." +</P> + +<P> +The cab moved off with a metallic jerk, and I turned and looked back +through the little window in the rear. +</P> + +<P> +"Someone has got into another cab. It is following ours, I think." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith lay back and laughed unmirthfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie," he said, "if I escape alive from this business I shall know +that I bear a charmed life." +</P> + +<P> +I made no reply, as he pulled out the dilapidated pouch and filled his +pipe. +</P> + +<P> +"You have asked me to explain matters," he continued, "and I will do so +to the best of my ability. You no doubt wonder why a servant of the +British Government, lately stationed in Burma, suddenly appears in +London, in the character of a detective. I am here, Petrie—and I bear +credentials from the very highest sources—because, quite by accident, +I came upon a clew. Following it up, in the ordinary course of +routine, I obtained evidence of the existence and malignant activity of +a certain man. At the present stage of the case I should not be +justified in terming him the emissary of an Eastern Power, but I may +say that representations are shortly to be made to that Power's +ambassador in London." +</P> + +<P> +He paused and glanced back towards the pursuing cab. +</P> + +<P> +"There is little to fear until we arrive home," he said calmly. +"Afterwards there is much. To continue: This man, whether a fanatic +or a duly appointed agent, is, unquestionably, the most malign and +formidable personality existing in the known world today. He is a +linguist who speaks with almost equal facility in any of the civilized +languages, and in most of the barbaric. He is an adept in all the arts +and sciences which a great university could teach him. He also is an +adept in certain obscure arts and sciences which no university of +to-day can teach. He has the brains of any three men of genius. +Petrie, he is a mental giant." +</P> + +<P> +"You amaze me!" I said. +</P> + +<P> +"As to his mission among men. Why did M. Jules Furneaux fall dead in a +Paris opera house? Because of heart failure? No! Because his last +speech had shown that he held the key to the secret of Tongking. What +became of the Grand Duke Stanislaus? Elopement? Suicide? Nothing of +the kind. He alone was fully alive to Russia's growing peril. He +alone knew the truth about Mongolia. Why was Sir Crichton Davey +murdered? Because, had the work he was engaged upon ever seen the +light it would have shown him to be the only living Englishman who +understood the importance of the Tibetan frontiers. I say to you +solemnly, Petrie, that these are but a few. Is there a man who would +arouse the West to a sense of the awakening of the East, who would +teach the deaf to hear, the blind to see, that the millions only await +their leader? He will die. And this is only one phase of the devilish +campaign. The others I can merely surmise." +</P> + +<P> +"But, Smith, this is almost incredible! What perverted genius controls +this awful secret movement?" +</P> + +<P> +"Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow +like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, +magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel +cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, +with all the resources of science past and present, with all the +resources, if you will, of a wealthy government—which, however, +already has denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful +being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril +incarnate in one man." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap03"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<P> +I SANK into an arm-chair in my rooms and gulped down a strong peg of +brandy. +</P> + +<P> +"We have been followed here," I said. "Why did you make no attempt to +throw the pursuers off the track, to have them intercepted?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Useless, in the first place. Wherever we went, HE would find us. And +of what use to arrest his creatures? We could prove nothing against +them. Further, it is evident that an attempt is to be made upon my +life to-night—and by the same means that proved so successful in the +case of poor Sir Crichton." +</P> + +<P> +His square jaw grew truculently prominent, and he leapt stormily to his +feet, shaking his clenched fists towards the window. +</P> + +<P> +"The villain!" he cried. "The fiendishly clever villain! I suspected +that Sir Crichton was next, and I was right. But I came too late, +Petrie! That hits me hard, old man. To think that I knew and yet +failed to save him!" +</P> + +<P> +He resumed his seat, smoking hard. +</P> + +<P> +"Fu-Manchu has made the blunder common to all men of unusual genius," +he said. "He has underrated his adversary. He has not given me credit +for perceiving the meaning of the scented messages. He has thrown away +one powerful weapon—to get such a message into my hands—and he thinks +that once safe within doors, I shall sleep, unsuspecting, and die as +Sir Crichton died. But without the indiscretion of your charming +friend, I should have known what to expect when I receive her +'information'—which by the way, consists of a blank sheet of paper." +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I broke in, "who is she?" +</P> + +<P> +"She is either Fu-Manchu's daughter, his wife, or his slave. I am +inclined to believe the last, for she has no will but his will, +except"—with a quizzical glance—"in a certain instance." +</P> + +<P> +"How can you jest with some awful thing—Heaven knows what—hanging +over your head? What is the meaning of these perfumed envelopes? How +did Sir Crichton die?" +</P> + +<P> +"He died of the Zayat Kiss. Ask me what that is and I reply 'I do not +know.' The zayats are the Burmese caravanserais, or rest-houses. Along +a certain route—upon which I set eyes, for the first and only time, +upon Dr. Fu-Manchu—travelers who use them sometimes die as Sir +Crichton died, with nothing to show the cause of death but a little +mark upon the neck, face, or limb, which has earned, in those parts, +the title of the 'Zayat Kiss.' The rest-houses along that route are +shunned now. I have my theory and I hope to prove it to-night, if I +live. It will be one more broken weapon in his fiendish armory, and it +is thus, and thus only, that I can hope to crush him. This was my +principal reason for not enlightening Dr. Cleeve. Even walls have ears +where Fu-Manchu is concerned, so I feigned ignorance of the meaning of +the mark, knowing that he would be almost certain to employ the same +methods upon some other victim. I wanted an opportunity to study the +Zayat Kiss in operation, and I shall have one." +</P> + +<P> +"But the scented envelopes?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the swampy forests of the district I have referred to a rare +species of orchid, almost green, and with a peculiar scent, is +sometimes met with. I recognized the heavy perfume at once. I take it +that the thing which kills the traveler is attracted by this orchid. +You will notice that the perfume clings to whatever it touches. I +doubt if it can be washed off in the ordinary way. After at least one +unsuccessful attempt to kill Sir Crichton—you recall that he thought +there was something concealed in his study on a previous +occasion?—Fu-Manchu hit upon the perfumed envelopes. He may have a +supply of these green orchids in his possession—possibly to feed the +creature." +</P> + +<P> +"What creature? How could any kind of creature have got into Sir +Crichton's room tonight?" +</P> + +<P> +"You no doubt observed that I examined the grate of the study. I found +a fair quantity of fallen soot. I at once assumed, since it appeared +to be the only means of entrance, that something has been dropped down; +and I took it for granted that the thing, whatever it was, must still +be concealed either in the study or in the library. But when I had +obtained the evidence of the groom, Wills, I perceived that the cry +from the lane or from the park was a signal. I noted that the +movements of anyone seated at the study table were visible, in shadow, +on the blind, and that the study occupied the corner of a two-storied +wing and, therefore, had a short chimney. What did the signal mean? +That Sir Crichton had leaped up from his chair, and either had received +the Zayat Kiss or had seen the thing which someone on the roof had +lowered down the straight chimney. It was the signal to withdraw that +deadly thing. By means of the iron stairway at the rear of +Major-General Platt-Houston's, I quite easily, gained access to the +roof above Sir Crichton's study—and I found this." +</P> + +<P> +Out from his pocket Nayland Smith drew a tangled piece of silk, mixed +up with which were a brass ring and a number of unusually large-sized +split-shot, nipped on in the manner usual on a fishing-line. +</P> + +<P> +"My theory proven," he resumed. "Not anticipating a search on the +roof, they had been careless. This was to weight the line and to +prevent the creature clinging to the walls of the chimney. Directly it +had dropped in the grate, however, by means of this ring I assume that +the weighted line was withdrawn, and the thing was only held by one +slender thread, which sufficed, though, to draw it back again when it +had done its work. It might have got tangled, of course, but they +reckoned on its making straight up the carved leg of the writing-table +for the prepared envelope. From there to the hand of Sir +Crichton—which, from having touched the envelope, would also be +scented with the perfume—was a certain move." +</P> + +<P> +"My God! How horrible!" I exclaimed, and glanced apprehensively into +the dusky shadows of the room. "What is your theory respecting this +creature—what shape, what color—?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is something that moves rapidly and silently. I will venture no +more at present, but I think it works in the dark. The study was dark, +remember, save for the bright patch beneath the reading-lamp. I have +observed that the rear of this house is ivy-covered right up to and +above your bedroom. Let us make ostentatious preparations to retire, +and I think we may rely upon Fu-Manchu's servants to attempt my +removal, at any rate—if not yours." +</P> + +<P> +"But, my dear fellow, it is a climb of thirty-five feet at the very +least." +</P> + +<P> +"You remember the cry in the back lane? It suggested something to me, +and I tested my idea—successfully. It was the cry of a dacoit. Oh, +dacoity, though quiescent, is by no means extinct. Fu-Manchu has +dacoits in his train, and probably it is one who operates the Zayat +Kiss, since it was a dacoit who watched the window of the study this +evening. To such a man an ivy-covered wall is a grand staircase." +</P> + +<P> +The horrible events that followed are punctuated, in my mind, by the +striking of a distant clock. It is singular how trivialities thus +assert themselves in moments of high tension. I will proceed, then, by +these punctuations, to the coming of the horror that it was written we +should encounter. +</P> + +<P> +The clock across the common struck two. +</P> + +<P> +Having removed all traces of the scent of the orchid from our hands +with a solution of ammonia, Smith and I had followed the programme laid +down. It was an easy matter to reach the rear of the house, by simply +climbing a fence, and we did not doubt that seeing the light go out in +the front, our unseen watcher would proceed to the back. +</P> + +<P> +The room was a large one, and we had made up my camp-bed at one end, +stuffing odds and ends under the clothes to lend the appearance of a +sleeper, which device we also had adopted in the case of the larger +bed. The perfumed envelope lay upon a little coffee table in the +center of the floor, and Smith, with an electric pocket lamp, a +revolver, and a brassey beside him, sat on cushions in the shadow of +the wardrobe. I occupied a post between the windows. +</P> + +<P> +No unusual sound, so far, had disturbed the stillness of the night. +Save for the muffled throb of the rare all-night cars passing the front +of the house, our vigil had been a silent one. The full moon had +painted about the floor weird shadows of the clustering ivy, spreading +the design gradually from the door, across the room, past the little +table where the envelope lay, and finally to the foot of the bed. +</P> + +<P> +The distant clock struck a quarter-past two. +</P> + +<P> +A slight breeze stirred the ivy, and a new shadow added itself to the +extreme edge of the moon's design. +</P> + +<P> +Something rose, inch by inch, above the sill of the westerly window. I +could see only its shadow, but a sharp, sibilant breath from Smith told +me that he, from his post, could see the cause of the shadow. +</P> + +<P> +Every nerve in my body seemed to be strung tensely. I was icy cold, +expectant, and prepared for whatever horror was upon us. +</P> + +<P> +The shadow became stationary. The dacoit was studying the interior of +the room. +</P> + +<P> +Then it suddenly lengthened, and, craning my head to the left, I saw a +lithe, black-clad form, surmounted by a Yellow face, sketchy in the +moonlight, pressed against the window-panes! +</P> + +<P> +One thin, brown hand appeared over the edge of the lowered sash, which +it grasped—and then another. The man made absolutely no sound +whatever. The second hand disappeared—and reappeared. It held a +small, square box. There was a very faint CLICK. +</P> + +<P> +The dacoit swung himself below the window with the agility of an ape, +as, with a dull, muffled thud, SOMETHING dropped upon the carpet! +</P> + +<P> +"Stand still, for your life!" came Smith's voice, high-pitched. +</P> + +<P> +A beam of white leaped out across the room and played full upon the +coffee-table in the center. +</P> + +<P> +Prepared as I was for something horrible, I know that I paled at sight +of the thing that was running round the edge of the envelope. +</P> + +<P> +It was an insect, full six inches long, and of a vivid, venomous, red +color! It had something of the appearance of a great ant, with its +long, quivering antennae and its febrile, horrible vitality; but it was +proportionately longer of body and smaller of head, and had numberless +rapidly moving legs. In short, it was a giant centipede, apparently of +the scolopendra group, but of a form quite new to me. +</P> + +<P> +These things I realized in one breathless instant; in the next—Smith +had dashed the thing's poisonous life out with one straight, true blow +of the golf club! +</P> + +<P> +I leaped to the window and threw it widely open, feeling a silk thread +brush my hand as I did so. A black shape was dropping, with incredible +agility from branch to branch of the ivy, and, without once offering a +mark for a revolver-shot, it merged into the shadows beneath the trees +of the garden. As I turned and switched on the light Nayland Smith +dropped limply into a chair, leaning his head upon his hands. Even +that grim courage had been tried sorely. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind the dacoit, Petrie," he said. "Nemesis will know where to +find him. We know now what causes the mark of the Zayat Kiss. +Therefore science is richer for our first brush with the enemy, and the +enemy is poorer—unless he has any more unclassified centipedes. I +understand now something that has been puzzling me since I heard of +it—Sir Crichton's stifled cry. When we remember that he was almost +past speech, it is reasonable to suppose that his cry was not 'The red +hand!' but 'The red ANT!' Petrie, to think that I failed, by less than +an hour, to save him from such an end!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap04"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<P> +"THE body of a lascar, dressed in the manner usual on the P. & O. +boats, was recovered from the Thames off Tilbury by the river police at +six A.M. this morning. It is supposed that the man met with an +accident in leaving his ship." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith passed me the evening paper and pointed to the above +paragraph. +</P> + +<P> +"For 'lascar' read 'dacoit,'" he said. "Our visitor, who came by way +of the ivy, fortunately for us, failed to follow his instructions. +Also, he lost the centipede and left a clew behind him. Dr. Fu-Manchu +does not overlook such lapses." +</P> + +<P> +It was a sidelight upon the character of the awful being with whom we +had to deal. My very soul recoiled from bare consideration of the fate +that would be ours if ever we fell into his hands. +</P> + +<P> +The telephone bell rang. I went out and found that Inspector Weymouth +of New Scotland Yard had called us up. +</P> + +<P> +"Will Mr. Nayland Smith please come to the Wapping River Police Station +at once," was the message. +</P> + +<P> +Peaceful interludes were few enough throughout that wild pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +"It is certainly something important," said my friend; "and, if +Fu-Manchu is at the bottom of it—as we must presume him to +be—probably something ghastly." +</P> + +<P> +A brief survey of the time-tables showed us that there were no trains +to serve our haste. We accordingly chartered a cab and proceeded east. +</P> + +<P> +Smith, throughout the journey, talked entertainingly about his work in +Burma. Of intent, I think, he avoided any reference to the +circumstances which first had brought him in contact with the sinister +genius of the Yellow Movement. His talk was rather of the sunshine of +the East than of its shadows. +</P> + +<P> +But the drive concluded—and all too soon. In a silence which neither +of us seemed disposed to break, we entered the police depot, and +followed an officer who received us into the room where Weymouth waited. +</P> + +<P> +The inspector greeted us briefly, nodding toward the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Cadby, the most promising lad at the Yard," he said; and his +usually gruff voice had softened strangely. +</P> + +<P> +Smith struck his right fist into the palm of his left hand and swore +under his breath, striding up and down the neat little room. No one +spoke for a moment, and in the silence I could hear the whispering of +the Thames outside—of the Thames which had so many strange secrets to +tell, and now was burdened with another. +</P> + +<P> +The body lay prone upon the deal table—this latest of the river's +dead—dressed in rough sailor garb, and, to all outward seeming, a +seaman of nondescript nationality—such as is no stranger in Wapping +and Shadwell. His dark, curly hair clung clammily about the brown +forehead; his skin was stained, they told me. He wore a gold ring in +one ear, and three fingers of the left hand were missing. +</P> + +<P> +"It was almost the same with Mason." The river police inspector was +speaking. "A week ago, on a Wednesday, he went off in his own time on +some funny business down St. George's way—and Thursday night the +ten-o'clock boat got the grapnel on him off Hanover Hole. His first +two fingers on the right hand were clean gone, and his left hand was +mutilated frightfully." +</P> + +<P> +He paused and glanced at Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"That lascar, too," he continued, "that you came down to see, sir; you +remember his hands?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"He was not a lascar," he said shortly. "He was a dacoit." +</P> + +<P> +Silence fell again. +</P> + +<P> +I turned to the array of objects lying on the table—those which had +been found in Cadby's clothing. None of them were noteworthy, except +that which had been found thrust into the loose neck of his shirt. +This last it was which had led the police to send for Nayland Smith, +for it constituted the first clew which had come to light pointing to +the authors of these mysterious tragedies. +</P> + +<P> +It was a Chinese pigtail. That alone was sufficiently remarkable; but +it was rendered more so by the fact that the plaited queue was a false +one being attached to a most ingenious bald wig. +</P> + +<P> +"You're sure it wasn't part of a Chinese make-up?" questioned Weymouth, +his eye on the strange relic. "Cadby was clever at disguise." +</P> + +<P> +Smith snatched the wig from my hands with a certain irritation, and +tried to fit it on the dead detective. +</P> + +<P> +"Too small by inches!" he jerked. "And look how it's padded in the +crown. This thing was made for a most abnormal head." +</P> + +<P> +He threw it down, and fell to pacing the room again. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you find him—exactly?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Limehouse Reach—under Commercial Dock Pier—exactly an hour ago." +</P> + +<P> +"And you last saw him at eight o'clock last night?"—to Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Eight to a quarter past." +</P> + +<P> +"You think he has been dead nearly twenty-four hours, Petrie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Roughly, twenty-four hours," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, we know that he was on the track of the Fu-Manchu group, that he +followed up some clew which led him to the neighborhood of old Ratcliff +Highway, and that he died the same night. You are sure that is where +he was going?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Weymouth; "He was jealous of giving anything away, poor +chap; it meant a big lift for him if he pulled the case off. But he +gave me to understand that he expected to spend last night in that +district. He left the Yard about eight, as I've said, to go to his +rooms, and dress for the job." +</P> + +<P> +"Did he keep any record of his cases?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course! He was most particular. Cadby was a man with ambitions, +sir! You'll want to see his book. Wait while I get his address; it's +somewhere in Brixton." +</P> + +<P> +He went to the telephone, and Inspector Ryman covered up the dead man's +face. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith was palpably excited. +</P> + +<P> +"He almost succeeded where we have failed, Petrie," he said. "There is +no doubt in my mind that he was hot on the track of Fu-Manchu! Poor +Mason had probably blundered on the scent, too, and he met with a +similar fate. Without other evidence, the fact that they both died in +the same way as the dacoit would be conclusive, for we know that +Fu-Manchu killed the dacoit!" +</P> + +<P> +"What is the meaning of the mutilated hands, Smith?" +</P> + +<P> +"God knows! Cadby's death was from drowning, you say?" +</P> + +<P> +"There are no other marks of violence." +</P> + +<P> +"But he was a very strong swimmer, Doctor," interrupted Inspector +Ryman. "Why, he pulled off the quarter-mile championship at the +Crystal Palace last year! Cadby wasn't a man easy to drown. And as +for Mason, he was an R.N.R., and like a fish in the water!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith shrugged his shoulders helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us hope that one day we shall know how they died," he said simply. +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth returned from the telephone. +</P> + +<P> +"The address is No.—Cold Harbor Lane," he reported. "I shall not be +able to come along, but you can't miss it; it's close by the Brixton +Police Station. There's no family, fortunately; he was quite alone in +the world. His case-book isn't in the American desk, which you'll find +in his sitting-room; it's in the cupboard in the corner—top shelf. +Here are his keys, all intact. I think this is the cupboard key." +</P> + +<P> +Smith nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Petrie," he said. "We haven't a second to waste." +</P> + +<P> +Our cab was waiting, and in a few seconds we were speeding along +Wapping High Street. We had gone no more than a few hundred yards, I +think, when Smith suddenly slapped his open hand down on his knee. +</P> + +<P> +"That pigtail!" he cried. "I have left it behind! We must have it, +Petrie! Stop! Stop!" +</P> + +<P> +The cab was pulled up, and Smith alighted. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't wait for me," he directed hurriedly. "Here, take Weymouth's +card. Remember where he said the book was? It's all we want. Come +straight on to Scotland Yard and meet me there." +</P> + +<P> +"But Smith," I protested, "a few minutes can make no difference!" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't it!" he snapped. "Do you suppose Fu-Manchu is going to leave +evidence like that lying about? It's a thousand to one he has it +already, but there is just a bare chance." +</P> + +<P> +It was a new aspect of the situation and one that afforded no room for +comment; and so lost in thought did I become that the cab was outside +the house for which I was bound ere I realized that we had quitted the +purlieus of Wapping. Yet I had had leisure to review the whole troop +of events which had crowded my life since the return of Nayland Smith +from Burma. Mentally, I had looked again upon the dead Sir Crichton +Davey, and with Smith had waited in the dark for the dreadful thing +that had killed him. Now, with those remorseless memories jostling in +my mind, I was entering the house of Fu-Manchu's last victim, and the +shadow of that giant evil seemed to be upon it like a palpable cloud. +</P> + +<P> +Cadby's old landlady greeted me with a queer mixture of fear and +embarrassment in her manner. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Dr. Petrie," I said, "and I regret that I bring bad news +respecting Mr. Cadby." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, sir!" she cried. "Don't tell me that anything has happened to +him!" And divining something of the mission on which I was come, for +such sad duty often falls to the lot of the medical man: "Oh, the poor, +brave lad!" +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, I respected the dead man's memory more than ever from that +hour, since the sorrow of the worthy old soul was quite pathetic, and +spoke eloquently for the unhappy cause of it. +</P> + +<P> +"There was a terrible wailing at the back of the house last night, +Doctor, and I heard it again to-night, a second before you knocked. +Poor lad! It was the same when his mother died." +</P> + +<P> +At the moment I paid little attention to her words, for such beliefs +are common, unfortunately; but when she was sufficiently composed I +went on to explain what I thought necessary. And now the old lady's +embarrassment took precedence of her sorrow, and presently the truth +came out: +</P> + +<P> +"There's a—young lady—in his rooms, sir." +</P> + +<P> +I started. This might mean little or might mean much. +</P> + +<P> +"She came and waited for him last night, Doctor—from ten until +half-past—and this morning again. She came the third time about an +hour ago, and has been upstairs since." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know her, Mrs. Dolan?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dolan grew embarrassed again. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Doctor," she said, wiping her eyes the while, "I DO. And God +knows he was a good lad, and I like a mother to him; but she is not the +girl I should have liked a son of mine to take up with." +</P> + +<P> +At any other time, this would have been amusing; now, it might be +serious. Mrs. Dolan's account of the wailing became suddenly +significant, for perhaps it meant that one of Fu-Manchu's dacoit +followers was watching the house, to give warning of any stranger's +approach! Warning to whom? It was unlikely that I should forget the +dark eyes of another of Fu-Manchu's servants. Was that lure of men +even now in the house, completing her evil work? +</P> + +<P> +"I should never have allowed her in his rooms—" began Mrs. Dolan +again. Then there was an interruption. +</P> + +<P> +A soft rustling reached my ears—intimately feminine. The girl was +stealing down! +</P> + +<P> +I leaped out into the hall, and she turned and fled blindly before +me—back up the stairs! Taking three steps at a time, I followed her, +bounded into the room above almost at her heels, and stood with my back +to the door. +</P> + +<P> +She cowered against the desk by the window, a slim figure in a clinging +silk gown, which alone explained Mrs. Dolan's distrust. The gaslight +was turned very low, and her hat shadowed her face, but could not hide +its startling beauty, could not mar the brilliancy of the skin, nor dim +the wonderful eyes of this modern Delilah. For it was she! +</P> + +<P> +"So I came in time," I said grimly, and turned the key in the lock. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she panted at that, and stood facing me, leaning back with her +jewel-laden hands clutching the desk edge. +</P> + +<P> +"Give me whatever you have removed from here," I said sternly, "and +then prepare to accompany me." +</P> + +<P> +She took a step forward, her eyes wide with fear, her lips parted. +</P> + +<P> +"I have taken nothing," she said. Her breast was heaving tumultuously. +"Oh, let me go! Please, let me go!" And impulsively she threw herself +forward, pressing clasped hands against my shoulder and looking up into +my face with passionate, pleading eyes. +</P> + +<P> +It is with some shame that I confess how her charm enveloped me like a +magic cloud. Unfamiliar with the complex Oriental temperament, I had +laughed at Nayland Smith when he had spoken of this girl's infatuation. +"Love in the East," he had said, "is like the conjurer's mango-tree; it +is born, grows and flowers at the touch of a hand." Now, in those +pleading eyes I read confirmation of his words. Her clothes or her +hair exhaled a faint perfume. Like all Fu-Manchu's servants, she was +perfectly chosen for her peculiar duties. Her beauty was wholly +intoxicating. +</P> + +<P> +But I thrust her away. +</P> + +<P> +"You have no claim to mercy," I said. "Do not count upon any. What +have you taken from here?" +</P> + +<P> +She grasped the lapels of my coat. +</P> + +<P> +"I will tell you all I can—all I dare," she panted eagerly, fearfully. +"I should know how to deal with your friend, but with you I am lost! +If you could only understand you would not be so cruel." Her slight +accent added charm to the musical voice. "I am not free, as your +English women are. What I do I must do, for it is the will of my +master, and I am only a slave. Ah, you are not a man if you can give +me to the police. You have no heart if you can forget that I tried to +save you once." +</P> + +<P> +I had feared that plea, for, in her own Oriental fashion, she certainly +had tried to save me from a deadly peril once—at the expense of my +friend. But I had feared the plea, for I did not know how to meet it. +How could I give her up, perhaps to stand her trial for murder? And +now I fell silent, and she saw why I was silent. +</P> + +<P> +"I may deserve no mercy; I may be even as bad as you think; but what +have YOU to do with the police? It is not your work to hound a woman +to death. Could you ever look another woman in the eyes—one that you +loved, and know that she trusted you—if you had done such a thing? +Ah, I have no friend in all the world, or I should not be here. Do not +be my enemy, my judge, and make me worse than I am; be my friend, and +save me—from HIM." The tremulous lips were close to mine, her breath +fanned my cheek. "Have mercy on me." +</P> + +<P> +At that moment I honestly would have given half of my worldly +possessions to have been spared the decision which I knew I must come +to. After all, what proof had I that she was a willing accomplice of +Dr. Fu-Manchu? Furthermore, she was an Oriental, and her code must +necessarily be different from mine. Irreconcilable as the thing may be +with Western ideas, Nayland Smith had really told me that he believed +the girl to be a slave. Then there remained that other reason why I +loathed the idea of becoming her captor. It was almost tantamount to +betrayal! Must I soil my hands with such work? +</P> + +<P> +Thus—I suppose—her seductive beauty argued against my sense of right. +The jeweled fingers grasped my shoulders nervously, and her slim body +quivered against mine as she watched me, with all her soul in her eyes, +in an abandonment of pleading despair. Then I remembered the fate of +the man in whose room we stood. +</P> + +<P> +"You lured Cadby to his death," I said, and shook her off. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" she cried wildly, clutching at me. "No, I swear by the holy +name I did not! I did not! I watched him, spied upon him—yes! But, +listen: it was because he would not be warned that he met his death. I +could not save him! Ah, I am not so bad as that. I will tell you. I +have taken his notebook and torn out the last pages and burnt them. +Look! in the grate. The book was too big to steal away. I came twice +and could not find it. There, will you let me go?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you will tell me where and how to seize Dr. Fu-Manchu—yes." +</P> + +<P> +Her hands dropped and she took a backward step. A new terror was to be +read in her face. +</P> + +<P> +"I dare not! I dare not!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then you would—if you dared?" +</P> + +<P> +She was watching me intently. +</P> + +<P> +"Not if YOU would go to find him," she said. +</P> + +<P> +And, with all that I thought her to be, the stern servant of justice +that I would have had myself, I felt the hot blood leap to my cheek at +all which the words implied. She grasped my arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Could you hide me from him if I came to you, and told you all I know?" +</P> + +<P> +"The authorities—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" Her expression changed. "They can put me on the rack if they +choose, but never one word would I speak—never one little word." +</P> + +<P> +She threw up her head scornfully. Then the proud glance softened again. +</P> + +<P> +"But I will speak for you." +</P> + +<P> +Closer she came, and closer, until she could whisper in my ear. +</P> + +<P> +"Hide me from your police, from HIM, from everybody, and I will no +longer be his slave." +</P> + +<P> +My heart was beating with painful rapidity. I had not counted on this +warring with a woman; moreover, it was harder than I could have dreamt +of. For some time I had been aware that by the charm of her +personality and the art of her pleading she had brought me down from my +judgment seat—had made it all but impossible for me to give her up to +justice. Now, I was disarmed—but in a quandary. What should I do? +What COULD I do? I turned away from her and walked to the hearth, in +which some paper ash lay and yet emitted a faint smell. +</P> + +<P> +Not more than ten seconds elapsed, I am confident, from the time that I +stepped across the room until I glanced back. But she had gone! +</P> + +<P> +As I leapt to the door the key turned gently from the outside. +</P> + +<P> +"Ma 'alesh!" came her soft whisper; "but I am afraid to trust you—yet. +Be comforted, for there is one near who would have killed you had I +wished it. Remember, I will come to you whenever you will take me and +hide me." +</P> + +<P> +Light footsteps pattered down the stairs. I heard a stifled cry from +Mrs. Dolan as the mysterious visitor ran past her. The front door +opened and closed. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap05"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<P> +"Shen-Yan's is a dope-shop in one of the burrows off the old Ratcliff +Highway," said Inspector Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"'Singapore Charlie's,' they call it. It's a center for some of the +Chinese societies, I believe, but all sorts of opium-smokers use it. +There have never been any complaints that I know of. I don't +understand this." +</P> + +<P> +We stood in his room at New Scotland Yard, bending over a sheet of +foolscap upon which were arranged some burned fragments from poor +Cadby's grate, for so hurriedly had the girl done her work that +combustion had not been complete. +</P> + +<P> +"What do we make of this?" said Smith. "'… Hunchback … lascar +went up … unlike others … not return … till Shen-Yan' +(there is no doubt about the name, I think) 'turned me out … booming +sound … lascar in … mortuary I could ident … not for days, +or suspici … Tuesday night in a different make … +snatch … pigtail…'" +</P> + +<P> +"The pigtail again!" rapped Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"She evidently burned the torn-out pages all together," continued +Smith. "They lay flat, and this was in the middle. I see the hand of +retributive justice in that, Inspector. Now we have a reference to a +hunchback, and what follows amounts to this: A lascar (amongst several +other persons) went up somewhere—presumably upstairs—at Shen-Yan's, +and did not come down again. Cadby, who was there disguised, noted a +booming sound. Later, he identified the lascar in some mortuary. We +have no means of fixing the date of this visit to Shen-Yan's, but I +feel inclined to put down the 'lascar' as the dacoit who was murdered +by Fu-Manchu! It is sheer supposition, however. But that Cadby meant +to pay another visit to the place in a different 'make-up' or disguise, +is evident, and that the Tuesday night proposed was last night is a +reasonable deduction. The reference to a pigtail is principally +interesting because of what was found on Cadby's body." +</P> + +<P> +Inspector Weymouth nodded affirmatively, and Smith glanced at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly ten-twenty-three," he said. "I will trouble you, Inspector, +for the freedom of your fancy wardrobe. There is time to spend an hour +in the company of Shen-Yan's opium friends." +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth raised his eyebrows. +</P> + +<P> +"It might be risky. What about an official visit?" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Worse than useless! By your own showing, the place is open to +inspection. No; guile against guile! We are dealing with a Chinaman, +with the incarnate essence of Eastern subtlety, with the most +stupendous genius that the modern Orient has produced." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe in disguises," said Weymouth, with a certain +truculence. "It's mostly played out, that game, and generally leads to +failure. Still, if you're determined, sir, there's an end of it. +Foster will make your face up. What disguise do you propose to adopt?" +</P> + +<P> +"A sort of Dago seaman, I think; something like poor Cadby. I can rely +on my knowledge of the brutes, if I am sure of my disguise." +</P> + +<P> +"You are forgetting me, Smith," I said. +</P> + +<P> +He turned to me quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie," he replied, "it is MY business, unfortunately, but it is no +sort of hobby." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean that you can no longer rely upon me?" I said angrily. +</P> + +<P> +Smith grasped my hand, and met my rather frigid stare with a look of +real concern on his gaunt, bronzed face. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear old chap," he answered, "that was really unkind. You know +that I meant something totally different." +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right, Smith;" I said, immediately ashamed of my choler, and +wrung his hand heartily. "I can pretend to smoke opium as well as +another. I shall be going, too, Inspector." +</P> + +<P> +As a result of this little passage of words, some twenty minutes later +two dangerous-looking seafaring ruffians entered a waiting cab, +accompanied by Inspector Weymouth, and were driven off into the +wilderness of London's night. In this theatrical business there was, +to my mind, something ridiculous—almost childish—and I could have +laughed heartily had it not been that grim tragedy lurked so near to +farce. +</P> + +<P> +The mere recollection that somewhere at our journey's end Fu-Manchu +awaited us was sufficient to sober my reflections—Fu-Manchu, who, with +all the powers represented by Nayland Smith pitted against him, pursued +his dark schemes triumphantly, and lurked in hiding within this very +area which was so sedulously patrolled—Fu-Manchu, whom I had never +seen, but whose name stood for horrors indefinable! Perhaps I was +destined to meet the terrible Chinese doctor to-night. +</P> + +<P> +I ceased to pursue a train of thought which promised to lead to morbid +depths, and directed my attention to what Smith was saying. +</P> + +<P> +"We will drop down from Wapping and reconnoiter, as you say the place +is close to the riverside. Then you can put us ashore somewhere below. +Ryman can keep the launch close to the back of the premises, and your +fellows will be hanging about near the front, near enough to hear the +whistle." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," assented Weymouth; "I've arranged for that. If you are +suspected, you shall give the alarm?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," said Smith thoughtfully. "Even in that event I might +wait awhile." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't wait too long," advised the Inspector. "We shouldn't be much +wiser if your next appearance was on the end of a grapnel, somewhere +down Greenwich Reach, with half your fingers missing." +</P> + +<P> +The cab pulled up outside the river police depot, and Smith and I +entered without delay, four shabby-looking fellows who had been seated +in the office springing up to salute the Inspector, who followed us in. +</P> + +<P> +"Guthrie and Lisle," he said briskly, "get along and find a dark corner +which commands the door of Singapore Charlie's off the old Highway. +You look the dirtiest of the troupe, Guthrie; you might drop asleep on +the pavement, and Lisle can argue with you about getting home. Don't +move till you hear the whistle inside or have my orders, and note +everybody that goes in and comes out. You other two belong to this +division?" +</P> + +<P> +The C.I.D. men having departed, the remaining pair saluted again. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you're on special duty to-night. You've been prompt, but don't +stick your chests out so much. Do you know of a back way to +Shen-Yan's?" +</P> + +<P> +The men looked at one another, and both shook their heads. +</P> + +<P> +"There's an empty shop nearly opposite, sir," replied one of them. "I +know a broken window at the back where we could climb in. Then we +could get through to the front and watch from there." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" cried the Inspector. "See you are not spotted, though; and if +you hear the whistle, don't mind doing a bit of damage, but be inside +Shen-Yan's like lightning. Otherwise, wait for orders." +</P> + +<P> +Inspector Ryman came in, glancing at the clock. +</P> + +<P> +"Launch is waiting," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Right," replied Smith thoughtfully. "I am half afraid, though, that +the recent alarms may have scared our quarry—your man, Mason, and then +Cadby. Against which we have that, so far as he is likely to know, +there has been no clew pointing to this opium den. Remember, he thinks +Cadby's notes are destroyed." +</P> + +<P> +"The whole business is an utter mystery to me," confessed Ryman. "I'm +told that there's some dangerous Chinese devil hiding somewhere in +London, and that you expect to find him at Shen-Yan's. Supposing he +uses that place, which is possible, how do you know he's there +to-night?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," said Smith; "but it is the first clew we have had pointing +to one of his haunts, and time means precious lives where Dr. Fu-Manchu +is concerned." +</P> + +<P> +"Who is he, sir, exactly, this Dr. Fu-Manchu?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have only the vaguest idea, Inspector; but he is no ordinary +criminal. He is the greatest genius which the powers of evil have put +on earth for centuries. He has the backing of a political group whose +wealth is enormous, and his mission in Europe is to PAVE THE WAY! Do +you follow me? He is the advance-agent of a movement so epoch-making +that not one Britisher, and not one American, in fifty thousand has +ever dreamed of it." +</P> + +<P> +Ryman stared, but made no reply, and we went out, passing down to the +breakwater and boarding the waiting launch. With her crew of three, +the party numbered seven that swung out into the Pool, and, clearing +the pier, drew in again and hugged the murky shore. +</P> + +<P> +The night had been clear enough hitherto, but now came scudding +rainbanks to curtain the crescent moon, and anon to unveil her again +and show the muddy swirls about us. The view was not extensive from +the launch. Sometimes a deepening of the near shadows would tell of a +moored barge, or lights high above our heads mark the deck of a large +vessel. In the floods of moonlight gaunt shapes towered above; in the +ensuing darkness only the oily glitter of the tide occupied the +foreground of the night-piece. +</P> + +<P> +The Surrey shore was a broken wall of blackness, patched with lights +about which moved hazy suggestions of human activity. The bank we were +following offered a prospect even more gloomy—a dense, dark mass, amid +which, sometimes, mysterious half-tones told of a dock gate, or sudden +high lights leapt flaring to the eye. +</P> + +<P> +Then, out of the mystery ahead, a green light grew and crept down upon +us. A giant shape loomed up, and frowned crushingly upon the little +craft. A blaze of light, the jangle of a bell, and it was past. We +were dancing in the wash of one of the Scotch steamers, and the murk +had fallen again. +</P> + +<P> +Discords of remote activity rose above the more intimate throbbing of +our screw, and we seemed a pigmy company floating past the workshops of +Brobdingnagian toilers. The chill of the near water communicated +itself to me, and I felt the protection of my shabby garments +inadequate against it. +</P> + +<P> +Far over on the Surrey shore a blue light—vaporous, +mysterious—flicked translucent tongues against the night's curtain. +It was a weird, elusive flame, leaping, wavering, magically changing +from blue to a yellowed violet, rising, falling. +</P> + +<P> +"Only a gasworks," came Smith's voice, and I knew that he, too, had +been watching those elfin fires. "But it always reminds me of a +Mexican teocalli, and the altar of sacrifice." +</P> + +<P> +The simile was apt, but gruesome. I thought of Dr. Fu-Manchu and the +severed fingers, and could not repress a shudder. +</P> + +<P> +"On your left, past the wooden pier! Not where the lamp is—beyond +that; next to the dark, square building—Shen-Yan's." +</P> + +<P> +It was Inspector Ryman speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"Drop us somewhere handy, then," replied Smith, "and lie close in, with +your ears wide open. We may have to run for it, so don't go far away." +</P> + +<P> +From the tone of his voice I knew that the night mystery of the Thames +had claimed at least one other victim. +</P> + +<P> +"Dead slow," came Ryman's order. "We'll put in to the Stone Stairs." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap06"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<P> +A SEEMINGLY drunken voice was droning from a neighboring alleyway as +Smith lurched in hulking fashion to the door of a little shop above +which, crudely painted, were the words: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"SHEN-YAN, Barber." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I shuffled along behind him, and had time to note the box of studs, +German shaving tackle and rolls of twist which lay untidily in the +window ere Smith kicked the door open, clattered down three wooden +steps, and pulled himself up with a jerk, seizing my arm for support. +</P> + +<P> +We stood in a bare and very dirty room, which could only claim kinship +with a civilized shaving-saloon by virtue of the grimy towel thrown +across the back of the solitary chair. A Yiddish theatrical bill of +some kind, illustrated, adorned one of the walls, and another bill, in +what may have been Chinese, completed the decorations. From behind a +curtain heavily brocaded with filth a little Chinaman appeared, dressed +in a loose smock, black trousers and thick-soled slippers, and, +advancing, shook his head vigorously. +</P> + +<P> +"No shavee—no shavee," he chattered, simian fashion, squinting from +one to the other of us with his twinkling eyes. "Too late! Shuttee +shop!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you come none of it wi' me!" roared Smith, in a voice of amazing +gruffness, and shook an artificially dirtied fist under the Chinaman's +nose. "Get inside and gimme an' my mate a couple o' pipes. Smokee +pipe, you yellow scum—savvy?" +</P> + +<P> +My friend bent forward and glared into the other's eyes with a +vindictiveness that amazed me, unfamiliar as I was with this form of +gentle persuasion. +</P> + +<P> +"Kop 'old o' that," he said, and thrust a coin into the Chinaman's +yellow paw. "Keep me waitin' an' I'll pull the dam' shop down, +Charlie. You can lay to it." +</P> + +<P> +"No hab got pipee—" began the other. +</P> + +<P> +Smith raised his fist, and Yan capitulated. +</P> + +<P> +"Allee lightee," he said. "Full up—no loom. You come see." +</P> + +<P> +He dived behind the dirty curtain, Smith and I following, and ran up a +dark stair. The next moment I found myself in an atmosphere which was +literally poisonous. It was all but unbreathable, being loaded with +opium fumes. Never before had I experienced anything like it. Every +breath was an effort. A tin oil-lamp on a box in the middle of the +floor dimly illuminated the horrible place, about the walls of which +ten or twelve bunks were ranged and all of them occupied. Most of the +occupants were lying motionless, but one or two were squatting in their +bunks noisily sucking at the little metal pipes. These had not yet +attained to the opium-smoker's Nirvana. +</P> + +<P> +"No loom—samee tella you," said Shen-Yan, complacently testing Smith's +shilling with his yellow, decayed teeth. +</P> + +<P> +Smith walked to a corner and dropped cross-legged, on the floor, +pulling me down with him. +</P> + +<P> +"Two pipe quick," he said. "Plenty room. Two piecee pipe—or plenty +heap trouble." +</P> + +<P> +A dreary voice from one of the bunks came: +</P> + +<P> +"Give 'im a pipe, Charlie, curse yer! an' stop 'is palaver." +</P> + +<P> +Yan performed a curious little shrug, rather of the back than of the +shoulders, and shuffled to the box which bore the smoky lamp. Holding +a needle in the flame, he dipped it, when red-hot, into an old cocoa +tin, and withdrew it with a bead of opium adhering to the end. Slowly +roasting this over the lamp, he dropped it into the bowl of the metal +pipe which he held ready, where it burned with a spirituous blue flame. +</P> + +<P> +"Pass it over," said Smith huskily, and rose on his knees with the +assumed eagerness of a slave to the drug. +</P> + +<P> +Yan handed him the pipe, which he promptly put to his lips, and +prepared another for me. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever you do, don't inhale any," came Smith's whispered injunction. +</P> + +<P> +It was with a sense of nausea greater even than that occasioned by the +disgusting atmosphere of the den that I took the pipe and pretended to +smoke. Taking my cue from my friend, I allowed my head gradually to +sink lower and lower, until, within a few minutes, I sprawled sideways +on the floor, Smith lying close beside me. +</P> + +<P> +"The ship's sinkin'," droned a voice from one of the bunks. "Look at +the rats." +</P> + +<P> +Yan had noiselessly withdrawn, and I experienced a curious sense of +isolation from my fellows—from the whole of the Western world. My +throat was parched with the fumes, my head ached. The vicious +atmosphere seemed contaminating. I was as one dropped— +</P> + +<P> +Somewhere East of Suez, where the best is like the worst, And there +ain't no Ten Commandments and a man can raise a thirst. +</P> + +<P> +Smith began to whisper softly. +</P> + +<P> +"We have carried it through successfully so far," he said. "I don't +know if you have observed it, but there is a stair just behind you, +half concealed by a ragged curtain. We are near that, and well in the +dark. I have seen nothing suspicious so far—or nothing much. But if +there was anything going forward it would no doubt be delayed until we +new arrivals were well doped. S-SH!" +</P> + +<P> +He pressed my arm to emphasize the warning. Through my half-closed +eyes I perceived a shadowy form near the curtain to which he had +referred. I lay like a log, but my muscles were tensed nervously. +</P> + +<P> +The shadow materialized as the figure moved forward into the room with +a curiously lithe movement. +</P> + +<P> +The smoky lamp in the middle of the place afforded scant illumination, +serving only to indicate sprawling shapes—here an extended hand, brown +or yellow, there a sketchy, corpse-like face; whilst from all about +rose obscene sighings and murmurings in far-away voices—an uncanny, +animal chorus. It was like a glimpse of the Inferno seen by some +Chinese Dante. But so close to us stood the newcomer that I was able +to make out a ghastly parchment face, with small, oblique eyes, and a +misshapen head crowned with a coiled pigtail, surmounting a slight, +hunched body. There was something unnatural, inhuman, about that +masklike face, and something repulsive in the bent shape and the long, +yellow hands clasped one upon the other. +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu, from Smith's account, in no way resembled this crouching +apparition with the death's-head countenance and lithe movements; but +an instinct of some kind told me that we were on the right scent—that +this was one of the doctor's servants. How I came to that conclusion, +I cannot explain; but with no doubt in my mind that this was a member +of the formidable murder group, I saw the yellow man creep nearer, +nearer, silently, bent and peering. +</P> + +<P> +He was watching us. +</P> + +<P> +Of another circumstance I became aware, and a disquieting circumstance. +There were fewer murmurings and sighings from the surrounding bunks. +The presence of the crouching figure had created a sudden semi-silence +in the den, which could only mean that some of the supposed +opium-smokers had merely feigned coma and the approach of coma. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith lay like a dead man, and trusting to the darkness, I, +too, lay prone and still, but watched the evil face bending lower and +lower, until it came within a few inches of my own. I completely +closed my eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Delicate fingers touched my right eyelid. Divining what was coming, I +rolled my eyes up, as the lid was adroitly lifted and lowered again. +The man moved away. +</P> + +<P> +I had saved the situation! And noting anew the hush about me—a hush +in which I fancied many pairs of ears listened—I was glad. For just a +moment I realized fully how, with the place watched back and front, we +yet were cut off, were in the hands of Far Easterns, to some extent in +the power of members of that most inscrutably mysterious race, the +Chinese. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," whispered Smith at my side. "I don't think I could have done +it. He took me on trust after that. My God! what an awful face. +Petrie, it's the hunchback of Cadby's notes. Ah, I thought so. Do you +see that?" +</P> + +<P> +I turned my eyes round as far as was possible. A man had scrambled +down from one of the bunks and was following the bent figure across the +room. +</P> + +<P> +They passed around us quietly, the little yellow man leading, with his +curious, lithe gait, and the other, an impassive Chinaman, following. +The curtain was raised, and I heard footsteps receding on the stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't stir," whispered Smith. +</P> + +<P> +An intense excitement was clearly upon him, and he communicated it to +me. Who was the occupant of the room above? +</P> + +<P> +Footsteps on the stair, and the Chinaman reappeared, recrossed the +floor, and went out. The little, bent man went over to another bunk, +this time leading up the stair one who looked like a lascar. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see his right hand?" whispered Smith. "A dacoit! They come +here to report and to take orders. Petrie, Dr. Fu-Manchu is up there." +</P> + +<P> +"What shall we do?"—softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait. Then we must try to rush the stairs. It would be futile to +bring in the police first. He is sure to have some other exit. I will +give the word while the little yellow devil is down here. You are +nearer and will have to go first, but if the hunchback follows, I can +then deal with him." +</P> + +<P> +Our whispered colloquy was interrupted by the return of the dacoit, who +recrossed the room as the Chinaman had done, and immediately took his +departure. A third man, whom Smith identified as a Malay, ascended the +mysterious stairs, descended, and went out; and a fourth, whose +nationality it was impossible to determine, followed. Then, as the +softly moving usher crossed to a bunk on the right of the outer door— +</P> + +<P> +"Up you go, Petrie," cried Smith, for further delay was dangerous and +further dissimulation useless. +</P> + +<P> +I leaped to my feet. Snatching my revolver from the pocket of the +rough jacket I wore, I bounded to the stair and went blundering up in +complete darkness. A chorus of brutish cries clamored from behind, +with a muffled scream rising above them all. But Nayland Smith was +close behind as I raced along a covered gangway, in a purer air, and at +my heels when I crashed open a door at the end and almost fell into the +room beyond. +</P> + +<P> +What I saw were merely a dirty table, with some odds and ends upon it +of which I was too excited to take note, an oil-lamp swung by a brass +chain above, and a man sitting behind the table. But from the moment +that my gaze rested upon the one who sat there, I think if the place +had been an Aladdin's palace I should have had no eyes for any of its +wonders. +</P> + +<P> +He wore a plain yellow robe, of a hue almost identical with that of his +smooth, hairless countenance. His hands were large, long and bony, and +he held them knuckles upward, and rested his pointed chin upon their +thinness. He had a great, high brow, crowned with sparse, +neutral-colored hair. +</P> + +<P> +Of his face, as it looked out at me over the dirty table, I despair of +writing convincingly. It was that of an archangel of evil, and it was +wholly dominated by the most uncanny eyes that ever reflected a human +soul, for they were narrow and long, very slightly oblique, and of a +brilliant green. But their unique horror lay in a certain filminess +(it made me think of the membrana nictitans in a bird) which, obscuring +them as I threw wide the door, seemed to lift as I actually passed the +threshold, revealing the eyes in all their brilliant iridescence. +</P> + +<P> +I know that I stopped dead, one foot within the room, for the malignant +force of the man was something surpassing my experience. He was +surprised by this sudden intrusion—yes, but no trace of fear showed +upon that wonderful face, only a sort of pitying contempt. And, as I +paused, he rose slowly to his feet, never removing his gaze from mine. +</P> + +<P> +"IT'S FU-MANCHU!" cried Smith over my shoulder, in a voice that was +almost a scream. "IT'S FU-MANCHU! Cover him! Shoot him dead if—" +</P> + +<P> +The conclusion of that sentence I never heard. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fu-Manchu reached down beside the table, and the floor slipped from +under me. +</P> + +<P> +One last glimpse I had of the fixed green eyes, and with a scream I was +unable to repress I dropped, dropped, dropped, and plunged into icy +water, which closed over my head. +</P> + +<P> +Vaguely I had seen a spurt of flame, had heard another cry following my +own, a booming sound (the trap), the flat note of a police whistle. +But when I rose to the surface impenetrable darkness enveloped me; I +was spitting filthy, oily liquid from my mouth, and fighting down the +black terror that had me by the throat—terror of the darkness about +me, of the unknown depths beneath me, of the pit into which I was cast +amid stifling stenches and the lapping of tidal water. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith!" I cried.… "Help! Help!" +</P> + +<P> +My voice seemed to beat back upon me, yet I was about to cry out again, +when, mustering all my presence of mind and all my failing courage, I +recognized that I had better employment of my energies, and began to +swim straight ahead, desperately determined to face all the horrors of +this place—to die hard if die I must. +</P> + +<P> +A drop of liquid fire fell through the darkness and hissed into the +water beside me! +</P> + +<P> +I felt that, despite my resolution, I was going mad. +</P> + +<P> +Another fiery drop—and another! +</P> + +<P> +I touched a rotting wooden post and slimy timbers. I had reached one +bound of my watery prison. More fire fell from above, and the scream +of hysteria quivered, unuttered, in my throat. +</P> + +<P> +Keeping myself afloat with increasing difficulty in my heavy garments, +I threw my head back and raised my eyes. +</P> + +<P> +No more drops fell, and no more drops would fall; but it was merely a +question of time for the floor to collapse. For it was beginning to +emit a dull, red glow. +</P> + +<P> +The room above me was in flames! +</P> + +<P> +It was drops of burning oil from the lamp, finding passage through the +cracks in the crazy flooring, which had fallen about me—for the death +trap had reclosed, I suppose, mechanically. +</P> + +<P> +My saturated garments were dragging me down, and now I could hear the +flames hungrily eating into the ancient rottenness overhead. Shortly +that cauldron would be loosed upon my head. The glow of the flames +grew brighter … and showed me the half-rotten piles upholding the +building, showed me the tidal mark upon the slime-coated walls—showed +me that there was no escape! +</P> + +<P> +By some subterranean duct the foul place was fed from the Thames. By +that duct, with the outgoing tide, my body would pass, in the wake of +Mason, Cadby, and many another victim! +</P> + +<P> +Rusty iron rungs were affixed to one of the walls communicating with a +trap—but the bottom three were missing! +</P> + +<P> +Brighter and brighter grew the awesome light—the light of what should +be my funeral pyre—reddening the oily water and adding a new dread to +the whispering, clammy horror of the pit. But something it showed +me … a projecting beam a few feet above the water … and directly +below the iron ladder! +</P> + +<P> +"Merciful Heaven!" I breathed. "Have I the strength?" +</P> + +<P> +A desire for laughter claimed me with sudden, all but irresistible +force. I knew what it portended and fought it down—grimly, sternly. +</P> + +<P> +My garments weighed upon me like a suit of mail; with my chest aching +dully, my veins throbbing to bursting, I forced tired muscles to work, +and, every stroke an agony, approached the beam. Nearer I +swam … nearer. Its shadow fell black upon the water, which now had all +the seeming of a pool of blood. Confused sounds—a remote uproar—came +to my ears. I was nearly spent … I was in the shadow of the beam! If +I could throw up one arm… +</P> + +<P> +A shrill scream sounded far above me! +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie! Petrie!" (That voice must be Smith's!) "Don't touch the +beam! For God's sake DON'T TOUCH THE BEAM! Keep afloat another few +seconds and I can get to you!" +</P> + +<P> +Another few seconds! Was that possible? +</P> + +<P> +I managed to turn, to raise my throbbing head; and I saw the strangest +sight which that night yet had offered. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith stood upon the lowest iron rung … supported by the +hideous, crook-backed Chinaman, who stood upon the rung above! +</P> + +<P> +"I can't reach him!" +</P> + +<P> +It was as Smith hissed the words despairingly that I looked up—and saw +the Chinaman snatch at his coiled pigtail and pull it off! With it +came the wig to which it was attached; and the ghastly yellow mask, +deprived of its fastenings, fell from position! "Here! Here! Be +quick! Oh! be quick! You can lower this to him! Be quick! Be +quick!" +</P> + +<P> +A cloud of hair came falling about the slim shoulders as the speaker +bent to pass this strange lifeline to Smith; and I think it was my +wonder at knowing her for the girl whom that day I had surprised in +Cadby's rooms which saved my life. +</P> + +<P> +For I not only kept afloat, but kept my gaze upturned to that +beautiful, flushed face, and my eyes fixed upon hers—which were wild +with fear … for me! +</P> + +<P> +Smith, by some contortion, got the false queue into my grasp, and I, +with the strength of desperation, by that means seized hold upon the +lowest rung. With my friend's arm round me I realized that exhaustion +was even nearer than I had supposed. My last distinct memory is of the +bursting of the floor above and the big burning joist hissing into the +pool beneath us. Its fiery passage, striated with light, disclosed two +sword blades, riveted, edges up along the top of the beam which I had +striven to reach. +</P> + +<P> +"The severed fingers—" I said; and swooned. +</P> + +<P> +How Smith got me through the trap I do not know—nor how we made our +way through the smoke and flames of the narrow passage it opened upon. +My next recollection is of sitting up, with my friend's arm supporting +me and Inspector Ryman holding a glass to my lips. +</P> + +<P> +A bright glare dazzled my eyes. A crowd surged about us, and a clangor +and shouting drew momentarily nearer. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the engines coming," explained Smith, seeing my bewilderment. +"Shen-Yan's is in flames. It was your shot, as you fell through the +trap, broke the oil-lamp." +</P> + +<P> +"Is everybody out?" +</P> + +<P> +"So far as we know." +</P> + +<P> +"Fu-Manchu?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith shrugged his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"No one has seen him. There was some door at the back—" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think he may—" +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said tensely. "Not until I see him lying dead before me shall +I believe it." +</P> + +<P> +Then memory resumed its sway. I struggled to my feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith, where is she?" I cried. "Where is she?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"She's given us the slip, Doctor," said Inspector Weymouth, as a +fire-engine came swinging round the corner of the narrow lane. "So has +Mr. Singapore Charlie—and, I'm afraid, somebody else. We've got six +or eight all-sorts, some awake and some asleep, but I suppose we shall +have to let 'em go again. Mr. Smith tells me that the girl was +disguised as a Chinaman. I expect that's why she managed to slip away." +</P> + +<P> +I recalled how I had been dragged from the pit by the false queue, how +the strange discovery which had brought death to poor Cadby had brought +life to me, and I seemed to remember, too, that Smith had dropped it as +he threw his arm about me on the ladder. Her mask the girl might have +retained, but her wig, I felt certain, had been dropped into the water. +</P> + +<P> +It was later that night, when the brigade still were playing upon the +blackened shell of what had been Shen-Yan's opium-shop, and Smith and I +were speeding away in a cab from the scene of God knows how many +crimes, that I had an idea. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said, "did you bring the pigtail with you that was found on +Cadby?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I had hoped to meet the owner." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you got it now?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I met the owner." +</P> + +<P> +I thrust my hands deep into the pockets of the big pea-jacket lent to +me by Inspector Ryman, leaning back in my corner. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall never really excel at this business," continued Nayland +Smith. "We are far too sentimental. I knew what it meant to us, +Petrie, what it meant to the world, but I hadn't the heart. I owed her +your life—I had to square the account." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap07"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<P> +NIGHT fell on Redmoat. I glanced from the window at the nocturne in +silver and green which lay beneath me. To the west of the shrubbery, +with its broken canopy of elms and beyond the copper beech which marked +the center of its mazes, a gap offered a glimpse of the Waverney where +it swept into a broad. Faint bird-calls floated over the water. +These, with the whisper of leaves, alone claimed the ear. +</P> + +<P> +Ideal rural peace, and the music of an English summer evening; but to +my eyes, every shadow holding fantastic terrors; to my ears, every +sound a signal of dread. For the deathful hand of Fu-Manchu was +stretched over Redmoat, at any hour to loose strange, Oriental horrors +upon its inmates. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Nayland Smith, joining me at the window, "we had dared to +hope him dead, but we know now that he lives!" +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. J. D. Eltham coughed nervously, and I turned, leaning my elbow +upon the table, and studied the play of expression upon the refined, +sensitive face of the clergyman. +</P> + +<P> +"You think I acted rightly in sending for you, Mr. Smith?" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith smoked furiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Eltham," he replied, "you see in me a man groping in the dark. I +am to-day no nearer to the conclusion of my mission than upon the day +when I left Mandalay. You offer me a clew; I am here. Your affair, I +believe, stands thus: A series of attempted burglaries, or something of +the kind, has alarmed your household. Yesterday, returning from London +with your daughter, you were both drugged in some way and, occupying a +compartment to yourselves, you both slept. Your daughter awoke, and +saw someone else in the carriage—a yellow-faced man who held a case of +instruments in his hands." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I was, of course, unable to enter into particulars over the +telephone. The man was standing by one of the windows. Directly he +observed that my daughter was awake, he stepped towards her." +</P> + +<P> +"What did he do with the case in his hands?" +</P> + +<P> +"She did not notice—or did not mention having noticed. In fact, as +was natural, she was so frightened that she recalls nothing more, +beyond the fact that she strove to arouse me, without succeeding, felt +hands grasp her shoulders—and swooned." +</P> + +<P> +"But someone used the emergency cord, and stopped the train." +</P> + +<P> +"Greba has no recollection of having done so." +</P> + +<P> +"Hm! Of course, no yellow-faced man was on the train. When did you +awake?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was aroused by the guard, but only when he had repeatedly shaken me." +</P> + +<P> +"Upon reaching Great Yarmouth you immediately called up Scotland Yard? +You acted very wisely, sir. How long were you in China?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Eltham's start of surprise was almost comical. +</P> + +<P> +"It is perhaps not strange that you should be aware of my residence in +China, Mr. Smith," he said; "but my not having mentioned it may seem +so. The fact is"—his sensitive face flushed in palpable +embarrassment—"I left China under what I may term an episcopal cloud. +I have lived in retirement ever since. Unwittingly—I solemnly declare +to you, Mr. Smith, unwittingly—I stirred up certain deep-seated +prejudices in my endeavors to do my duty—my duty. I think you asked +me how long I was in China? I was there from 1896 until 1900—four +years." +</P> + +<P> +"I recall the circumstances, Mr. Eltham," said Smith, with an odd note +in his voice. "I have been endeavoring to think where I had come +across the name, and a moment ago I remembered. I am happy to have met +you, sir." +</P> + +<P> +The clergyman blushed again like a girl, and slightly inclined his +head, with its scanty fair hair. +</P> + +<P> +"Has Redmoat, as its name implies, a moat round it? I was unable to +see in the dusk." +</P> + +<P> +"It remains. Redmoat—a corruption of Round Moat—was formerly a +priory, disestablished by the eighth Henry in 1536." His pedantic +manner was quaint at times. "But the moat is no longer flooded. In +fact, we grow cabbages in part of it. If you refer to the strategic +strength of the place"—he smiled, but his manner was embarrassed +again—"it is considerable. I have barbed wire fencing, and—other +arrangements. You see, it is a lonely spot," he added apologetically. +"And now, if you will excuse me, we will resume these gruesome +inquiries after the more pleasant affairs of dinner." +</P> + +<P> +He left us. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is our host?" I asked, as the door closed. +</P> + +<P> +Smith smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"You are wondering what caused the 'episcopal cloud?'" he suggested. +"Well, the deep-seated prejudices which our reverend friend stirred up +culminated in the Boxer Risings." +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens, Smith!" I said; for I could not reconcile the diffident +personality of the clergyman with the memories which those words +awakened. +</P> + +<P> +"He evidently should be on our danger list," my friend continued +quickly; "but he has so completely effaced himself of recent years that +I think it probable that someone else has only just recalled his +existence to mind. The Rev. J. D. Eltham, my dear Petrie, though he +may be a poor hand at saving souls, at any rate, has saved a score of +Christian women from death—and worse." +</P> + +<P> +"J. D. Eltham—" I began. +</P> + +<P> +"Is 'Parson Dan'!" rapped Smith, "the 'Fighting Missionary,' the man +who with a garrison of a dozen cripples and a German doctor held the +hospital at Nan-Yang against two hundred Boxers. That's who the Rev. +J. D. Eltham is! But what is he up to, now, I have yet to find out. +He is keeping something back—something which has made him an object of +interest to Young China!" +</P> + +<P> +During dinner the matters responsible for our presence there did not +hold priority in the conversation. In fact, this, for the most part, +consisted in light talk of books and theaters. +</P> + +<P> +Greba Eltham, the clergyman's daughter, was a charming young hostess, +and she, with Vernon Denby, Mr. Eltham's nephew, completed the party. +No doubt the girl's presence, in part, at any rate, led us to refrain +from the subject uppermost in our minds. +</P> + +<P> +These little pools of calm dotted along the torrential course of the +circumstances which were bearing my friend and me onward to unknown +issues form pleasant, sunny spots in my dark recollections. +</P> + +<P> +So I shall always remember, with pleasure, that dinner-party at +Redmoat, in the old-world dining-room; it was so very peaceful, so +almost grotesquely calm. For I, within my very bones, felt it to be +the calm before the storm. When, later, we men passed to the library, +we seemed to leave that atmosphere behind us. +</P> + +<P> +"Redmoat," said the Rev. J. D. Eltham, "has latterly become the theater +of strange doings." +</P> + +<P> +He stood on the hearth-rug. A shaded lamp upon the big table and +candles in ancient sconces upon the mantelpiece afforded dim +illumination. Mr. Eltham's nephew, Vernon Denby, lolled smoking on the +window-seat, and I sat near to him. Nayland Smith paced restlessly up +and down the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Some months ago, almost a year," continued the clergyman, "a +burglarious attempt was made upon the house. There was an arrest, and +the man confessed that he had been tempted by my collection." He waved +his hand vaguely towards the several cabinets about the shadowed room. +</P> + +<P> +"It was shortly afterwards that I allowed my hobby for—playing at +forts to run away with me." He smiled an apology. "I virtually +fortified Redmoat—against trespassers of any kind, I mean. You have +seen that the house stands upon a kind of large mound. This is +artificial, being the buried ruins of a Roman outwork; a portion of the +ancient castrum." Again he waved indicatively, this time toward the +window. +</P> + +<P> +"When it was a priory it was completely isolated and defended by its +environing moat. Today it is completely surrounded by barbed-wire +fencing. Below this fence, on the east, is a narrow stream, a +tributary of the Waverney; on the north and west, the high road, but +nearly twenty feet below, the banks being perpendicular. On the south +is the remaining part of the moat—now my kitchen garden; but from +there up to the level of the house is nearly twenty feet again, and the +barbed wire must also be counted with. +</P> + +<P> +"The entrance, as you know, is by the way of a kind of cutting. There +is a gate at the foot of the steps (they are some of the original steps +of the priory, Dr. Petrie), and another gate at the head." +</P> + +<P> +He paused, and smiled around upon us boyishly. +</P> + +<P> +"My secret defenses remain to be mentioned," he resumed; and, opening a +cupboard, he pointed to a row of batteries, with a number of electric +bells upon the wall behind. "The more vulnerable spots are connected +at night with these bells," he said triumphantly. "Any attempt to +scale the barbed wire or to force either gate would set two or more of +these ringing. A stray cow raised one false alarm," he added, "and a +careless rook threw us into a perfect panic on another occasion." +</P> + +<P> +He was so boyish—so nervously brisk and acutely sensitive—that it was +difficult to see in him the hero of the Nan-Yang hospital. I could +only suppose that he had treated the Boxers' raid in the same spirit +wherein he met would-be trespassers within the precincts of Redmoat. +It had been an escapade, of which he was afterwards ashamed, as, +faintly, he was ashamed of his "fortifications." "But," rapped Smith, +"it was not the visit of the burglar which prompted these elaborate +precautions." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Eltham coughed nervously. +</P> + +<P> +"I am aware," he said, "that having invoked official aid, I must be +perfectly frank with you, Mr. Smith. It was the burglar who was +responsible for my continuing the wire fence all round the grounds, but +the electrical contrivance followed, later, as a result of several +disturbed nights. My servants grew uneasy about someone who came, they +said, after dusk. No one could describe this nocturnal visitor, but +certainly we found traces. I must admit that. +</P> + +<P> +"Then—I received what I may term a warning. My position is a peculiar +one—a peculiar one. My daughter, too, saw this prowling person, over +by the Roman castrum, and described him as a yellow man. It was the +incident in the train following closely upon this other, which led me +to speak to the police, little as I desired to—er—court publicity." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith walked to a window, and looked out across the sloping +lawn to where the shadows of the shrubbery lay. A dog was howling +dismally somewhere. +</P> + +<P> +"Your defenses are not impregnable, after all, then?" he jerked. "On +our way up this evening Mr. Denby was telling us about the death of his +collie a few nights ago." +</P> + +<P> +The clergyman's face clouded. +</P> + +<P> +"That, certainly, was alarming," he confessed. +</P> + +<P> +"I had been in London for a few days, and during my absence Vernon came +down, bringing the dog with him. On the night of his arrival it ran, +barking, into the shrubbery yonder, and did not come out. He went to +look for it with a lantern, and found it lying among the bushes, quite +dead. The poor creature had been dreadfully beaten about the head." +</P> + +<P> +"The gates were locked," Denby interrupted, "and no one could have got +out of the grounds without a ladder and someone to assist him. But +there was no sign of a living thing about. Edwards and I searched +every corner." +</P> + +<P> +"How long has that other dog taken to howling?" inquired Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Only since Rex's death," said Denby quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"It is my mastiff," explained the clergyman, "and he is confined in the +yard. He is never allowed on this side of the house." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith wandered aimlessly about the library. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry to have to press you, Mr. Eltham," he said, "but what was +the nature of the warning to which you referred, and from whom did it +come?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Eltham hesitated for a long time. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been so unfortunate," he said at last, "in my previous efforts, +that I feel assured of your hostile criticism when I tell you that I am +contemplating an immediate return to Ho-Nan!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith jumped round upon him as though moved by a spring. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you are going back to Nan-Yang?" he cried. "Now I understand! +Why have you not told me before? That is the key for which I have +vainly been seeking. Your troubles date from the time of your decision +to return?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I must admit it," confessed the clergyman diffidently. +</P> + +<P> +"And your warning came from China?" +</P> + +<P> +"It did." +</P> + +<P> +"From a Chinaman?" +</P> + +<P> +"From the Mandarin, Yen-Sun-Yat." +</P> + +<P> +"Yen-Sun-Yat! My good sir! He warned you to abandon your visit? And +you reject his advice? Listen to me." Smith was intensely excited +now, his eyes bright, his lean figure curiously strung up, alert. "The +Mandarin Yen-Sun-Yat is one of the seven!" +</P> + +<P> +"I do not follow you, Mr. Smith." +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir. China to-day is not the China of '98. It is a huge secret +machine, and Ho-Nan one of its most important wheels! But if, as I +understand, this official is a friend of yours, believe me, he has +saved your life! You would be a dead man now if it were not for your +friend in China! My dear sir, you must accept his counsel." +</P> + +<P> +Then, for the first time since I had made his acquaintance, "Parson +Dan" showed through the surface of the Rev. J. D. Eltham. +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir!" replied the clergyman—and the change in his voice was +startling. "I am called to Nan-Yang. Only One may deter my going." +</P> + +<P> +The admixture of deep spiritual reverence with intense truculence in +his voice was dissimilar from anything I ever had heard. +</P> + +<P> +"Then only One can protect you," cried Smith, "for, by Heaven, no MAN +will be able to do so! Your presence in Ho-Nan can do no possible good +at present. It must do harm. Your experience in 1900 should be fresh +in your memory." +</P> + +<P> +"Hard words, Mr. Smith." +</P> + +<P> +"The class of missionary work which you favor, sir, is injurious to +international peace. At the present moment, Ho-Nan is a barrel of +gunpowder; you would be the lighted match. I do not willingly stand +between any man and what he chooses to consider his duty, but I insist +that you abandon your visit to the interior of China!" +</P> + +<P> +"You insist, Mr. Smith?" +</P> + +<P> +"As your guest, I regret the necessity for reminding you that I hold +authority to enforce it." +</P> + +<P> +Denby fidgeted uneasily. The tone of the conversation was growing +harsh and the atmosphere of the library portentous with brewing storms. +</P> + +<P> +There was a short, silent interval. +</P> + +<P> +"This is what I had feared and expected," said the clergyman. "This +was my reason for not seeking official protection." +</P> + +<P> +"The phantom Yellow Peril," said Nayland Smith, "to-day materializes +under the very eyes of the Western world." +</P> + +<P> +"The 'Yellow Peril'!" +</P> + +<P> +"You scoff, sir, and so do others. We take the proffered right hand of +friendship nor inquire if the hidden left holds a knife! The peace of +the world is at stake, Mr. Eltham. Unknowingly, you tamper with +tremendous issues." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Eltham drew a deep breath, thrusting both hands in his pockets. +</P> + +<P> +"You are painfully frank, Mr. Smith," he said; "but I like you for it. +I will reconsider my position and talk this matter over again with you +to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +Thus, then, the storm blew over. Yet I had never experienced such an +overwhelming sense of imminent peril—of a sinister presence—as +oppressed me at that moment. The very atmosphere of Redmoat was +impregnated with Eastern devilry; it loaded the air like some evil +perfume. And then, through the silence, cut a throbbing scream—the +scream of a woman in direst fear. +</P> + +<P> +"My God, it's Greba!" whispered Mr. Eltham. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap08"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<P> +IN what order we dashed down to the drawing-room I cannot recall. But +none was before me when I leaped over the threshold and saw Miss Eltham +prone by the French windows. +</P> + +<P> +These were closed and bolted, and she lay with hands outstretched in +the alcove which they formed. I bent over her. Nayland Smith was at +my elbow. +</P> + +<P> +"Get my bag" I said. "She has swooned. It is nothing serious." +</P> + +<P> +Her father, pale and wide-eyed, hovered about me, muttering +incoherently; but I managed to reassure him; and his gratitude when, I +having administered a simple restorative, the girl sighed shudderingly +and opened her eyes, was quite pathetic. +</P> + +<P> +I would permit no questioning at that time, and on her father's arm she +retired to her own rooms. +</P> + +<P> +It was some fifteen minutes later that her message was brought to me. +I followed the maid to a quaint little octagonal apartment, and Greba +Eltham stood before me, the candlelight caressing the soft curves of +her face and gleaming in the meshes of her rich brown hair. +</P> + +<P> +When she had answered my first question she hesitated in pretty +confusion. +</P> + +<P> +"We are anxious to know what alarmed you, Miss Eltham." +</P> + +<P> +She bit her lip and glanced with apprehension towards the window. +</P> + +<P> +"I am almost afraid to tell father," she began rapidly. "He will think +me imaginative, but you have been so kind. It was two green eyes! Oh! +Dr. Petrie, they looked up at me from the steps leading to the lawn. +And they shone like the eyes of a cat." +</P> + +<P> +The words thrilled me strangely. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure it was not a cat, Miss Eltham?" +</P> + +<P> +"The eyes were too large, Dr. Petrie. There was something dreadful, +most dreadful, in their appearance. I feel foolish and silly for +having fainted, twice in two days! But the suspense is telling upon +me, I suppose. Father thinks"—she was becoming charmingly +confidential, as a woman often will with a tactful physician—"that +shut up here we are safe from—whatever threatens us." I noted, with +concern, a repetition of the nervous shudder. "But since our return +someone else has been in Redmoat!" +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever do you mean, Miss Eltham?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I don't quite know what I do mean, Dr. Petrie. What does it ALL +mean? Vernon has been explaining to me that some awful Chinaman is +seeking the life of Mr. Nayland Smith. But if the same man wants to +kill my father, why has he not done so?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid you puzzle me." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, I must do so. But—the man in the train. He could have +killed us both quite easily! And—last night someone was in father's +room." +</P> + +<P> +"In his room!" +</P> + +<P> +"I could not sleep, and I heard something moving. My room is the next +one. I knocked on the wall and woke father. There was nothing; so I +said it was the howling of the dog that had frightened me." +</P> + +<P> +"How could anyone get into his room?" +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot imagine. But I am not sure it was a man." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Eltham, you alarm me. What do you suspect?" +</P> + +<P> +"You must think me hysterical and silly, but whilst father and I have +been away from Redmoat perhaps the usual precautions have been +neglected. Is there any creature, any large creature, which could +climb up the wall to the window? Do you know of anything with a long, +thin body?" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment I offered no reply, studying the girl's pretty face, her +eager, blue-gray eyes widely opened and fixed upon mine. She was not +of the neurotic type, with her clear complexion and sun-kissed neck; +her arms, healthily toned by exposure to the country airs, were rounded +and firm, and she had the agile shape of a young Diana with none of the +anaemic languor which breeds morbid dreams. She was frightened; yes, +who would not have been? But the mere idea of this thing which she +believed to be in Redmoat, without the apparition of the green eyes, +must have prostrated a victim of "nerves." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you seen such a creature, Miss Eltham?" +</P> + +<P> +She hesitated again, glancing down and pressing her finger-tips +together. +</P> + +<P> +"As father awoke and called out to know why I knocked, I glanced from +my window. The moonlight threw half the lawn into shadow, and just +disappearing in this shadow was something—something of a brown color, +marked with sections!" +</P> + +<P> +"What size and shape?" +</P> + +<P> +"It moved so quickly I could form no idea of its shape; but I saw quite +six feet of it flash across the grass!" +</P> + +<P> +"Did you hear anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"A swishing sound in the shrubbery, then nothing more." +</P> + +<P> +She met my eyes expectantly. Her confidence in my powers of +understanding and sympathy was gratifying, though I knew that I but +occupied the position of a father-confessor. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you any idea," I said, "how it came about that you awoke in the +train yesterday whilst your father did not?" +</P> + +<P> +"We had coffee at a refreshment-room; it must have been drugged in some +way. I scarcely tasted mine, the flavor was so awful; but father is an +old traveler and drank the whole of his cupful!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Eltham's voice called from below. +</P> + +<P> +"Dr. Petrie," said the girl quickly, "what do you think they want to do +to him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" I replied, "I wish I knew that." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you think over what I have told you? For I do assure you there +is something here in Redmoat—something that comes and goes in spite of +father's 'fortifications'? Caesar knows there is. Listen to him. He +drags at his chain so that I wonder he does not break it." +</P> + +<P> +As we passed downstairs the howling of the mastiff sounded eerily +through the house, as did the clank-clank of the tightening chain as he +threw the weight of his big body upon it. +</P> + +<P> +I sat in Smith's room that night for some time, he pacing the floor +smoking and talking. +</P> + +<P> +"Eltham has influential Chinese friends," he said; "but they dare not +have him in Nan-Yang at present. He knows the country as he knows +Norfolk; he would see things! +</P> + +<P> +"His precautions here have baffled the enemy, I think. The attempt in +the train points to an anxiety to waste no opportunity. But whilst +Eltham was absent (he was getting his outfit in London, by the way) +they have been fixing some second string to their fiddle here. In case +no opportunity offered before he returned, they provided for getting at +him here!" +</P> + +<P> +"But how, Smith?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's the mystery. But the dead dog in the shrubbery is significant." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think some emissary of Fu-Manchu is actually inside the moat?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's impossible, Petrie. You are thinking of secret passages, and so +forth. There are none. Eltham has measured up every foot of the +place. There isn't a rathole left unaccounted for; and as for a tunnel +under the moat, the house stands on a solid mass of Roman masonry, a +former camp of Hadrian's time. I have seen a very old plan of the +Round Moat Priory as it was called. There is no entrance and no exit +save by the steps. So how was the dog killed?" +</P> + +<P> +I knocked out my pipe on a bar of the grate. +</P> + +<P> +"We are in the thick of it here," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"We are always in the thick of it," replied Smith. "Our danger is no +greater in Norfolk than in London. But what do they want to do? That +man in the train with the case of instruments—WHAT instruments? Then +the apparition of the green eyes to-night. Can they have been the eyes +of Fu-Manchu? Is some peculiarly unique outrage contemplated—something +calling for the presence of the master?" +</P> + +<P> +"He may have to prevent Eltham's leaving England without killing him." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so. He probably has instructions to be merciful. But God help +the victim of Chinese mercy!" +</P> + +<P> +I went to my own room then. But I did not even undress, refilling my +pipe and seating myself at the open window. Having looked upon the +awful Chinese doctor, the memory of his face, with its filmed green +eyes, could never leave me. The idea that he might be near at that +moment was a poor narcotic. +</P> + +<P> +The howling and baying of the mastiff was almost continuous. +</P> + +<P> +When all else in Redmoat was still the dog's mournful note yet rose on +the night with something menacing in it. I sat looking out across the +sloping turf to where the shrubbery showed as a black island in a green +sea. The moon swam in a cloudless sky, and the air was warm and +fragrant with country scents. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the shrubbery that Denby's collie had met his mysterious +death—that the thing seen by Miss Eltham had disappeared. What +uncanny secret did it hold? +</P> + +<P> +Caesar became silent. +</P> + +<P> +As the stopping of a clock will sometimes awaken a sleeper, the abrupt +cessation of that distant howling, to which I had grown accustomed, now +recalled me from a world of gloomy imaginings. +</P> + +<P> +I glanced at my watch in the moonlight. It was twelve minutes past +midnight. +</P> + +<P> +As I replaced it the dog suddenly burst out afresh, but now in a tone +of sheer anger. He was alternately howling and snarling in a way that +sounded new to me. The crashes, as he leapt to the end of his chain, +shook the building in which he was confined. It was as I stood up to +lean from the window and commanded a view of the corner of the house +that he broke loose. +</P> + +<P> +With a hoarse bay he took that decisive leap, and I heard his heavy +body fall against the wooden wall. There followed a strange, guttural +cry … and the growling of the dog died away at the rear of the house. +He was out! But that guttural note had not come from the throat of a +dog. Of what was he in pursuit? +</P> + +<P> +At which point his mysterious quarry entered the shrubbery I do not +know. I only know that I saw absolutely nothing, until Caesar's lithe +shape was streaked across the lawn, and the great creature went +crashing into the undergrowth. +</P> + +<P> +Then a faint sound above and to my right told me that I was not the +only spectator of the scene. I leaned farther from the window. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that you, Miss Eltham?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Dr. Petrie!" she said. "I am so glad you are awake. Can we do +nothing to help? Caesar will be killed." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see what he went after?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," she called back, and drew her breath sharply. +</P> + +<P> +For a strange figure went racing across the grass. It was that of a +man in a blue dressing-gown, who held a lantern high before him, and a +revolver in his right hand. Coincident with my recognition of Mr. +Eltham he leaped, plunging into the shrubbery in the wake of the dog. +</P> + +<P> +But the night held yet another surprise; for Nayland Smith's voice came: +</P> + +<P> +"Come back! Come back, Eltham!" +</P> + +<P> +I ran out into the passage and downstairs. The front door was open. A +terrible conflict waged in the shrubbery, between the mastiff and +something else. Passing round to the lawn, I met Smith fully dressed. +He just had dropped from a first-floor window. +</P> + +<P> +"The man is mad!" he snapped. "Heaven knows what lurks there! He +should not have gone alone!" +</P> + +<P> +Together we ran towards the dancing light of Eltham's lantern. The +sounds of conflict ceased suddenly. Stumbling over stumps and lashed +by low-sweeping branches, we struggled forward to where the clergyman +knelt amongst the bushes. He glanced up with tears in his eyes, as was +revealed by the dim light. +</P> + +<P> +"Look!" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +The body of the dog lay at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +It was pitiable to think that the fearless brute should have met his +death in such a fashion, and when I bent and examined him I was glad to +find traces of life. +</P> + +<P> +"Drag him out. He is not dead," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"And hurry," rapped Smith, peering about him right and left. +</P> + +<P> +So we three hurried from that haunted place, dragging the dog with us. +We were not molested. No sound disturbed the now perfect stillness. +</P> + +<P> +By the lawn edge we came upon Denby, half dressed; and almost +immediately Edwards the gardener also appeared. The white faces of the +house servants showed at one window, and Miss Eltham called to me from +her room: +</P> + +<P> +"Is he dead?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," I replied; "only stunned." +</P> + +<P> +We carried the dog round to the yard, and I examined his head. It had +been struck by some heavy blunt instrument, but the skull was not +broken. It is hard to kill a mastiff. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you attend to him, Doctor?" asked Eltham. "We must see that the +villain does not escape." +</P> + +<P> +His face was grim and set. This was a different man from the diffident +clergyman we knew: this was "Parson Dan" again. +</P> + +<P> +I accepted the care of the canine patient, and Eltham with the others +went off for more lights to search the shrubbery. As I was washing a +bad wound between the mastiff's ears, Miss Eltham joined me. It was +the sound of her voice, I think, rather than my more scientific +ministration, which recalled Caesar to life. For, as she entered, his +tail wagged feebly, and a moment later he struggled to his feet—one of +which was injured. +</P> + +<P> +Having provided for his immediate needs, I left him in charge of his +young mistress and joined the search party. They had entered the +shrubbery from four points and drawn blank. +</P> + +<P> +"There is absolutely nothing there, and no one can possibly have left +the grounds," said Eltham amazedly. +</P> + +<P> +We stood on the lawn looking at one another, Nayland Smith, angry but +thoughtful, tugging at the lobe of his left ear, as was his habit in +moments of perplexity. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap09"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<P> +WITH the first coming of light, Eltham, Smith and I tested the +electrical contrivances from every point. They were in perfect order. +It became more and more incomprehensible how anyone could have entered +and quitted Redmoat during the night. The barbed-wire fencing was +intact, and bore no signs of having been tampered with. +</P> + +<P> +Smith and I undertook an exhaustive examination of the shrubbery. +</P> + +<P> +At the spot where we had found the dog, some five paces to the west of +the copper beech, the grass and weeds were trampled and the surrounding +laurels and rhododendrons bore evidence of a struggle, but no human +footprint could be found. +</P> + +<P> +"The ground is dry," said Smith. "We cannot expect much." +</P> + +<P> +"In my opinion," I said, "someone tried to get at Caesar; his presence +is dangerous. And in his rage he broke loose." +</P> + +<P> +"I think so, too," agreed Smith. "But why did this person make for +here? And how, having mastered the dog, get out of Redmoat? I am open +to admit the possibility of someone's getting in during the day whilst +the gates are open, and hiding until dusk. But how in the name of all +that's wonderful does he GET OUT? He must possess the attributes of a +bird." +</P> + +<P> +I thought of Greba Eltham's statements, reminding my friend of her +description of the thing which she had seen passing into this strangely +haunted shrubbery. +</P> + +<P> +"That line of speculation soon takes us out of our depth, Petrie," he +said. "Let us stick to what we can understand, and that may help us to +a clearer idea of what, at present, is incomprehensible. My view of +the case to date stands thus: +</P> + +<P> +"(1) Eltham, having rashly decided to return to the interior of China, +is warned by an official whose friendship he has won in some way to +stay in England. +</P> + +<P> +"(2) I know this official for one of the Yellow group represented in +England by Dr. Fu-Manchu. +</P> + +<P> +"(3) Several attempts, of which we know but little, to get at Eltham +are frustrated, presumably by his curious 'defenses.' An attempt in a +train fails owing to Miss Eltham's distaste for refreshment-room +coffee. An attempt here fails owing to her insomnia. +</P> + +<P> +"(4) During Eltham's absence from Redmoat certain preparations are made +for his return. These lead to: +</P> + +<P> +"(a) The death of Denby's collie; +</P> + +<P> +"(b) The things heard and seen by Miss Eltham; +</P> + +<P> +"(c) The things heard and seen by us all last night. +</P> + +<P> +"So that the clearing up of my fourth point—id est, the discovery of +the nature of these preparations—becomes our immediate concern. The +prime object of these preparations, Petrie, was to enable someone to +gain access to Eltham's room. The other events are incidental. The +dogs HAD to be got rid of, for instance; and there is no doubt that +Miss Eltham's wakefulness saved her father a second time." +</P> + +<P> +"But from what? For Heaven's sake, from what?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith glanced about into the light-patched shadows. +</P> + +<P> +"From a visit by someone—perhaps by Fu-Manchu himself," he said in a +hushed voice. "The object of that visit I hope we may never learn; for +that would mean that it had been achieved." +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said, "I do not altogether understand you; but do you think +he has some incredible creature hidden here somewhere? It would be +like him." +</P> + +<P> +"I begin to suspect the most formidable creature in the known world to +be hidden here. I believe Fu-Manchu is somewhere inside Redmoat!" +</P> + +<P> +Our conversation was interrupted at this point by Denby, who came to +report that he had examined the moat, the roadside, and the bank of the +stream, but found no footprints or clew of any kind. +</P> + +<P> +"No one left the grounds of Redmoat last night, I think," he said. And +his voice had awe in it. +</P> + +<P> +That day dragged slowly on. A party of us scoured the neighborhood for +traces of strangers, examining every foot of the Roman ruin hard by; +but vainly. +</P> + +<P> +"May not your presence here induce Fu-Manchu to abandon his plans?" I +asked Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"I think not," he replied. "You see, unless we can prevail upon him, +Eltham sails in a fortnight. So the Doctor has no time to waste. +Furthermore, I have an idea that his arrangements are of such a +character that they MUST go forward. He might turn aside, of course, +to assassinate me, if opportunity arose! But we know, from experience, +that he permits nothing to interfere with his schemes." +</P> + +<P> +There are few states, I suppose, which exact so severe a toll from +one's nervous system as the ANTICIPATION of calamity. +</P> + +<P> +All anticipation is keener, be it of joy or pain, than the reality +whereof it is a mental forecast; but that inactive waiting at Redmoat, +for the blow which we knew full well to be pending exceeded in its +nerve taxation, anything I hitherto had experienced. +</P> + +<P> +I felt as one bound upon an Aztec altar, with the priest's obsidian +knife raised above my breast! +</P> + +<P> +Secret and malign forces throbbed about us; forces against which we had +no armor. Dreadful as it was, I count it a mercy that the climax was +reached so quickly. And it came suddenly enough; for there in that +quiet Norfolk home we found ourselves at hand grips with one of the +mysterious horrors which characterized the operations of Dr. Fu-Manchu. +It was upon us before we realized it. There is no incidental music to +the dramas of real life. +</P> + +<P> +As we sat on the little terrace in the creeping twilight, I remember +thinking how the peace of the scene gave the lie to my fears that we +bordered upon tragic things. Then Caesar, who had been a docile +patient all day, began howling again; and I saw Greba Eltham shudder. +</P> + +<P> +I caught Smith's eye, and was about to propose our retirement indoors, +when the party was broken up in more turbulent fashion. I suppose it +was the presence of the girl which prompted Denby to the rash act, a +desire personally to distinguish himself. But, as I recalled +afterwards, his gaze had rarely left the shrubbery since dusk, save to +seek her face, and now he leaped wildly to his feet, overturning his +chair, and dashed across the grass to the trees. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see it?" he yelled. "Did you see it?" +</P> + +<P> +He evidently carried a revolver. For from the edge of the shrubbery a +shot sounded, and in the flash we saw Denby with the weapon raised. +</P> + +<P> +"Greba, go in and fasten the windows," cried Eltham. "Mr. Smith, will +you enter the bushes from the west. Dr. Petrie, east. Edwards, +Edwards—" And he was off across the lawn with the nervous activity of +a cat. +</P> + +<P> +As I made off in an opposite direction I heard the gardener's voice +from the lower gate, and I saw Eltham's plan. It was to surround the +shrubbery. +</P> + +<P> +Two more shots and two flashes from the dense heart of greenwood. Then +a loud cry—I thought, from Denby—and a second, muffled one. +</P> + +<P> +Following—silence, only broken by the howling of the mastiff. +</P> + +<P> +I sprinted through the rose garden, leaped heedlessly over a bed of +geranium and heliotrope, and plunged in among the bushes and under the +elms. Away on the left I heard Edwards shouting, and Eltham's +answering voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Denby!" I cried, and yet louder: "Denby!" +</P> + +<P> +But the silence fell again. +</P> + +<P> +Dusk was upon Redmoat now, but from sitting in the twilight my eyes had +grown accustomed to gloom, and I could see fairly well what lay before +me. Not daring to think what might lurk above, below, around me, I +pressed on into the midst of the thicket. +</P> + +<P> +"Vernon!" came Eltham's voice from one side. +</P> + +<P> +"Bear more to the right, Edwards," I heard Nayland Smith cry directly +ahead of me. +</P> + +<P> +With an eerie and indescribable sensation of impending disaster upon +me, I thrust my way through to a gray patch which marked a break in the +elmen roof. At the foot of the copper beech I almost fell over Eltham. +Then Smith plunged into view. Lastly, Edwards the gardener rounded a +big rhododendron and completed the party. +</P> + +<P> +We stood quite still for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +A faint breeze whispered through the beech leaves. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he?" +</P> + +<P> +I cannot remember who put it into words; I was too dazed with amazement +to notice. Then Eltham began shouting: +</P> + +<P> +"Vernon! Vernon! VERNON!" +</P> + +<P> +His voice pitched higher upon each repetition. There was something +horrible about that vain calling, under the whispering beech, with +shrubs banked about us cloaking God alone could know what. +</P> + +<P> +From the back of the house came Caesar's faint reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick! Lights!" rapped Smith. "Every lamp you have!" +</P> + +<P> +Off we went, dodging laurels and privets, and poured out on to the +lawn, a disordered company. Eltham's face was deathly pale, and his +jaw set hard. He met my eye. +</P> + +<P> +"God forgive me!" he said. "I could do murder to-night!" +</P> + +<P> +He was a man composed of strange perplexities. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed an age before the lights were found. But at last we returned +to the bushes, really after a very brief delay; and ten minutes +sufficed us to explore the entire shrubbery, for it was not extensive. +We found his revolver, but there was no one there—nothing. +</P> + +<P> +When we all stood again on the lawn, I thought that I had never seen +Smith so haggard. +</P> + +<P> +"What in Heaven's name can we do?" he muttered. "What does it mean?" +</P> + +<P> +He expected no answer; for there was none to offer one. +</P> + +<P> +"Search! Everywhere," said Eltham hoarsely. +</P> + +<P> +He ran off into the rose garden, and began beating about among the +flowers like a madman, muttering: "Vernon! Vernon!" For close upon +an hour we all searched. We searched every square yard, I think, +within the wire fencing, and found no trace. Miss Eltham slipped out +in the confusion, and joined with the rest of us in that frantic hunt. +Some of the servants assisted too. +</P> + +<P> +It was a group terrified and awestricken which came together again on +the terrace. One and then another would give up, until only Eltham and +Smith were missing. Then they came back together from examining the +steps to the lower gate. +</P> + +<P> +Eltham dropped on to a rustic seat, and sank his head in his hands. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith paced up and down like a newly caged animal, snapping his +teeth together and tugging at his ear. +</P> + +<P> +Possessed by some sudden idea, or pressed to action by his tumultuous +thoughts, he snatched up a lantern and strode silently off across the +grass and to the shrubbery once more. I followed him. I think his +idea was that he might surprise anyone who lurked there. He surprised +himself, and all of us. +</P> + +<P> +For right at the margin he tripped and fell flat. I ran to him. +</P> + +<P> +He had fallen over the body of Denby, which lay there! +</P> + +<P> +Denby had not been there a few moments before, and how he came to be +there now we dared not conjecture. Mr. Eltham joined us, uttered one +short, dry sob, and dropped upon his knees. Then we were carrying +Denby back to the house, with the mastiff howling a marche funebre. +</P> + +<P> +We laid him on the grass where it sloped down from the terrace. +Nayland Smith's haggard face was terrible. But the stark horror of the +thing inspired him to that, which conceived earlier, had saved Denby. +Twisting suddenly to Eltham, he roared in a voice audible beyond the +river: +</P> + +<P> +"Heavens! we are fools! LOOSE THE DOG!" +</P> + +<P> +"But the dog—" I began. +</P> + +<P> +Smith clapped his hand over my mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"I know he's crippled," he whispered. "But if anything human lurks +there, the dog will lead us to it. If a MAN is there, he will fly! +Why did we not think of it before. Fools, fools!" He raised his voice +again. "Keep him on leash, Edwards. He will lead us." +</P> + +<P> +The scheme succeeded. +</P> + +<P> +Edwards barely had started on his errand when bells began ringing +inside the house. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" snapped Eltham, and rushed indoors. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later he was out again, his eyes gleaming madly. "Above the +moat," he panted. And we were off en masse round the edge of the trees. +</P> + +<P> +It was dark above the moat; but not so dark as to prevent our seeing a +narrow ladder of thin bamboo joints and silken cord hanging by two +hooks from the top of the twelve-foot wire fence. There was no sound. +</P> + +<P> +"He's out!" screamed Eltham. "Down the steps!" +</P> + +<P> +We all ran our best and swiftest. But Eltham outran us. Like a fury +he tore at bolts and bars, and like a fury sprang out into the road. +Straight and white it showed to the acclivity by the Roman ruin. But +no living thing moved upon it. The distant baying of the dog was borne +to our ears. +</P> + +<P> +"Curse it! he's crippled," hissed Smith. "Without him, as well pursue +a shadow!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A few hours later the shrubbery yielded up its secret, a simple one +enough: A big cask sunk in a pit, with a laurel shrub cunningly affixed +to its movable lid, which was further disguised with tufts of grass. A +slender bamboo-jointed rod lay near the fence. It had a hook on the +top, and was evidently used for attaching the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +"It was the end of this ladder which Miss Eltham saw," said Smith, "as +he trailed it behind him into the shrubbery when she interrupted him in +her father's room. He and whomever he had with him doubtless slipped in +during the daytime—whilst Eltham was absent in London—bringing the +prepared cask and all necessary implements with them. They concealed +themselves somewhere—probably in the shrubbery—and during the night +made the cache. The excavated earth would be disposed of on the +flower-beds; the dummy bush they probably had ready. You see, the +problem of getting IN was never a big one. But owing to the 'defenses' +it was impossible (whilst Eltham was in residence at any rate) to get +OUT after dark. For Fu-Manchu's purposes, then, a working-base INSIDE +Redmoat was essential. His servant—for he needed assistance—must +have been in hiding somewhere outside; Heaven knows where! During the +day they could come or go by the gates, as we have already noted." +</P> + +<P> +"You think it was the Doctor himself?" +</P> + +<P> +"It seems possible. Who else has eyes like the eyes Miss Eltham saw +from the window last night?" +</P> + +<P> +Then remains to tell the nature of the outrage whereby Fu-Manchu had +planned to prevent Eltham's leaving England for China. This we learned +from Denby. For Denby was not dead. +</P> + +<P> +It was easy to divine that he had stumbled upon the fiendish visitor at +the very entrance to his burrow; had been stunned (judging from the +evidence, with a sand-bag), and dragged down into the cache—to which +he must have lain in such dangerous proximity as to render detection of +the dummy bush possible in removing him. The quickest expedient, then, +had been to draw him beneath. When the search of the shrubbery was +concluded, his body had been borne to the edge of the bushes and laid +where we found it. +</P> + +<P> +Why his life had been spared, I cannot conjecture, but provision had +been made against his recovering consciousness and revealing the secret +of the shrubbery. The ruse of releasing the mastiff alone had +terminated the visit of the unbidden guest within Redmoat. +</P> + +<P> +Denby made a very slow recovery; and, even when convalescent, +consciously added not one fact to those we already had collated; his +memory had completely deserted him! +</P> + +<P> +This, in my opinion, as in those of the several specialists consulted, +was due, not to the blow on the head, but to the presence, slightly +below and to the right of the first cervical curve of the spine, of a +minute puncture—undoubtedly caused by a hypodermic syringe. Then, +unconsciously, poor Denby furnished the last link in the chain; for +undoubtedly, by means of this operation, Fu-Manchu had designed to +efface from Eltham's mind his plans of return to Ho-Nan. +</P> + +<P> +The nature of the fluid which could produce such mental symptoms was a +mystery—a mystery which defied Western science: one of the many +strange secrets of Dr. Fu-Manchu. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap10"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<P> +SINCE Nayland Smith's return from Burma I had rarely taken up a paper +without coming upon evidences of that seething which had cast up Dr. +Fu-Manchu. Whether, hitherto, such items had escaped my attention or +had seemed to demand no particular notice, or whether they now became +increasingly numerous, I was unable to determine. +</P> + +<P> +One evening, some little time after our sojourn in Norfolk, in glancing +through a number of papers which I had brought in with me, I chanced +upon no fewer than four items of news bearing more or less directly +upon the grim business which engaged my friend and I. +</P> + +<P> +No white man, I honestly believe, appreciates the unemotional cruelty +of the Chinese. Throughout the time that Dr. Fu-Manchu remained in +England, the press preserved a uniform silence upon the subject of his +existence. This was due to Nayland Smith. But, as a result, I feel +assured that my account of the Chinaman's deeds will, in many quarters, +meet with an incredulous reception. +</P> + +<P> +I had been at work, earlier in the evening, upon the opening chapters +of this chronicle, and I had realized how difficult it would be for my +reader, amid secure and cozy surroundings, to credit any human being +with a callous villainy great enough to conceive and to put into +execution such a death pest as that directed against Sir Crichton Davey. +</P> + +<P> +One would expect God's worst man to shrink from employing—against +however vile an enemy—such an instrument as the Zayat Kiss. So +thinking, my eye was caught by the following:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +EXPRESS CORRESPONDENT +<BR> +NEW YORK. +</P> + +<P> +"Secret service men of the United States Government are searching the +South Sea Islands for a certain Hawaiian from the island of Maui, who, +it is believed, has been selling poisonous scorpions to Chinese in +Honolulu anxious to get rid of their children. +</P> + +<P> +"Infanticide, by scorpion and otherwise, among the Chinese, has +increased so terribly that the authorities have started a searching +inquiry, which has led to the hunt for the scorpion dealer of Maui. +</P> + +<P> +"Practically all the babies that die mysteriously are unwanted girls, +and in nearly every case the parents promptly ascribe the death to the +bite of a scorpion, and are ready to produce some more or less +poisonous insect in support of the statement. +</P> + +<P> +"The authorities have no doubt that infanticide by scorpion bite is a +growing practice, and orders have been given to hunt down the scorpion +dealer at any cost." +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +Is it any matter for wonder that such a people had produced a +Fu-Manchu? I pasted the cutting into a scrap-book, determined that, if +I lived to publish my account of those days, I would quote it therein +as casting a sidelight upon Chinese character. +</P> + +<P> +A Reuter message to The Globe and a paragraph in The Star also +furnished work for my scissors. Here were evidences of the deep-seated +unrest, the secret turmoil, which manifested itself so far from its +center as peaceful England in the person of the sinister Doctor. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"HONG KONG, Friday. +</P> + +<P> +"Li Hon Hung, the Chinaman who fired at the Governor yesterday, was +charged before the magistrate with shooting at him with intent to kill, +which is equivalent to attempted murder. The prisoner, who was not +defended, pleaded guilty. The Assistant Crown Solicitor, who +prosecuted, asked for a remand until Monday, which was granted. +</P> + +<P> +"Snapshots taken by the spectators of the outrage yesterday disclosed +the presence of an accomplice, also armed with a revolver. It is +reported that this man, who was arrested last night, was in possession +of incriminating documentary evidence." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Later. +</P> + +<P> +"Examination of the documents found on Li Hon Hung's accomplice has +disclosed the fact that both men were well financed by the Canton Triad +Society, the directors of which had enjoined the assassination of Sir +F. M. or Mr. C. S., the Colonial Secretary. In a report prepared by +the accomplice for dispatch to Canton, also found on his person, he +expressed regret that the attempt had failed."—Reuter. +</P> + +<P> +"It is officially reported in St. Petersburg that a force of Chinese +soldiers and villagers surrounded the house of a Russian subject named +Said Effendi, near Khotan, in Chinese Turkestan. +</P> + +<P> +"They fired at the house and set it in flames. There were in the house +about 100 Russians, many of whom were killed. +</P> + +<P> +"The Russian Government has instructed its Minister at Peking to make +the most vigorous representations on the subject."—Reuter. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Finally, in a Personal Column, I found the following:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"HO-NAN. Have abandoned visit.—ELTHAM." +</P> +<BR> + +<P> +I had just pasted it into my book when Nayland Smith came in and threw +himself into an arm-chair, facing me across the table. I showed him +the cutting. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad, for Eltham's sake—and for the girl's," was his comment. +"But it marks another victory for Fu-Manchu! Just Heaven! Why is +retribution delayed!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith's darkly tanned face had grown leaner than ever since he had +begun his fight with the most uncanny opponent, I suppose, against whom +a man ever had pitted himself. He stood up and began restlessly to pace +the room, furiously stuffing tobacco into his briar. +</P> + +<P> +"I have seen Sir Lionel Barton," he said abruptly; "and, to put the +whole thing in a nutshell, he has laughed at me! During the months +that I have been wondering where he had gone to he has been somewhere +in Egypt. He certainly bears a charmed life, for on the evidence of +his letter to The Times he has seen things in Tibet which Fu-Manchu +would have the West blind to; in fact, I think he has found a new +keyhole to the gate of the Indian Empire!" +</P> + +<P> +Long ago we had placed the name of Sir Lionel Barton upon the list of +those whose lives stood between Fu-Manchu and the attainment of his +end. Orientalist and explorer, the fearless traveler who first had +penetrated to Lhassa, who thrice, as a pilgrim, had entered forbidden +Mecca, he now had turned his attention again to Tibet—thereby signing +his own death-warrant. +</P> + +<P> +"That he has reached England alive is a hopeful sign?" I suggested. +</P> + +<P> +Smith shook his head, and lighted the blackened briar. +</P> + +<P> +"England at present is the web," he replied. "The spider will be +waiting. Petrie, I sometimes despair. Sir Lionel is an impossible man +to shepherd. You ought to see his house at Finchley. A low, squat +place completely hemmed in by trees. Damp as a swamp; smells like a +jungle. Everything topsy-turvy. He only arrived to-day, and he is +working and eating (and sleeping I expect), in a study that looks like +an earthquake at Sotheby's auction-rooms. The rest of the house is half +a menagerie and half a circus. He has a Bedouin groom, a Chinese +body-servant, and Heaven only knows what other strange people!" +</P> + +<P> +"Chinese!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I saw him; a squinting Cantonese he calls Kwee. I don't like +him. Also, there is a secretary known as Strozza, who has an +unpleasant face. He is a fine linguist, I understand, and is engaged +upon the Spanish notes for Barton's forthcoming book on the Mayapan +temples. By the way, all Sir Lionel's baggage disappeared from the +landing-stage—including his Tibetan notes." +</P> + +<P> +"Significant!" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course. But he argues that he has crossed Tibet from the Kuen-Lun +to the Himalayas without being assassinated, and therefore that it is +unlikely he will meet with that fate in London. I left him dictating +the book from memory, at the rate of about two hundred words a minute." +</P> + +<P> +"He is wasting no time." +</P> + +<P> +"Wasting time! In addition to the Yucatan book and the work on Tibet, +he has to read a paper at the Institute next week about some tomb he +has unearthed in Egypt. As I came away, a van drove up from the docks +and a couple of fellows delivered a sarcophagus as big as a boat. It +is unique, according to Sir Lionel, and will go to the British Museum +after he has examined it. The man crams six months' work into six +weeks; then he is off again." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you propose to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"What CAN I do? I know that Fu-Manchu will make an attempt upon him. +I cannot doubt it. Ugh! that house gave me the shudders. No +sunlight, I'll swear, Petrie, can ever penetrate to the rooms, and when +I arrived this afternoon clouds of gnats floated like motes wherever a +stray beam filtered through the trees of the avenue. There's a steamy +smell about the place that is almost malarious, and the whole of the +west front is covered with a sort of monkey-creeper, which he has +imported at some time or other. It has a close, exotic perfume that is +quite in the picture. I tell you, the place was made for murder." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you taken any precautions?" +</P> + +<P> +"I called at Scotland Yard and sent a man down to watch the house, +but—" +</P> + +<P> +He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"What is Sir Lionel like?" +</P> + +<P> +"A madman, Petrie. A tall, massive man, wearing a dirty dressing-gown +of neutral color; a man with untidy gray hair and a bristling mustache, +keen blue eyes, and a brown skin; who wears a short beard or rarely +shaves—I don't know which. I left him striding about among the +thousand and one curiosities of that incredible room, picking his way +through his antique furniture, works of reference, manuscripts, +mummies, spears, pottery and what not—sometimes kicking a book from +his course, or stumbling over a stuffed crocodile or a Mexican +mask—alternately dictating and conversing. Phew!" +</P> + +<P> +For some time we were silent. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith" I said, "we are making no headway in this business. With all +the forces arrayed against him, Fu-Manchu still eludes us, still +pursues his devilish, inscrutable way." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"And we don't know all," he said. "We mark such and such a man as one +alive to the Yellow Peril, and we warn him—if we have time. Perhaps +he escapes; perhaps he does not. But what do we know, Petrie, of those +others who may die every week by his murderous agency? We cannot know +EVERYONE who has read the riddle of China. I never see a report of +someone found drowned, of an apparent suicide, of a sudden, though +seemingly natural death, without wondering. I tell you, Fu-Manchu is +omnipresent; his tentacles embrace everything. I said that Sir Lionel +must bear a charmed life. The fact that WE are alive is a miracle." +</P> + +<P> +He glanced at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Nearly eleven," he said. "But sleep seems a waste of time—apart from +its dangers." +</P> + +<P> +We heard a bell ring. A few moments later followed a knock at the room +door. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in!" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +A girl entered with a telegram addressed to Smith. His jaw looked very +square in the lamplight, and his eyes shone like steel as he took it +from her and opened the envelope. He glanced at the form, stood up and +passed it to me, reaching for his hat, which lay upon my writing-table. +</P> + +<P> +"God help us, Petrie!" he said. +</P> + +<P> +This was the message: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Sir Lionel Barton murdered. Meet me at his house at once.—WEYMOUTH, +INSPECTOR." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap11"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<P> +ALTHOUGH we avoided all unnecessary delay, it was close upon midnight +when our cab swung round into a darkly shadowed avenue, at the farther +end of which, as seen through a tunnel, the moonlight glittered upon +the windows of Rowan House, Sir Lionel Barton's home. +</P> + +<P> +Stepping out before the porch of the long, squat building, I saw that +it was banked in, as Smith had said, by trees and shrubs. The facade +showed mantled in the strange exotic creeper which he had mentioned, +and the air was pungent with an odor of decaying vegetation, with which +mingled the heavy perfume of the little nocturnal red flowers which +bloomed luxuriantly upon the creeper. +</P> + +<P> +The place looked a veritable wilderness, and when we were admitted to +the hall by Inspector Weymouth I saw that the interior was in keeping +with the exterior, for the hall was constructed from the model of some +apartment in an Assyrian temple, and the squat columns, the low seats, +the hangings, all were eloquent of neglect, being thickly dust-coated. +The musty smell, too, was almost as pronounced here as outside, beneath +the trees. +</P> + +<P> +To a library, whose contents overflowed in many literary torrents upon +the floor, the detective conducted us. +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens!" I cried, "what's that?" +</P> + +<P> +Something leaped from the top of the bookcase, ambled silently across +the littered carpet, and passed from the library like a golden streak. +I stood looking after it with startled eyes. Inspector Weymouth +laughed dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a young puma, or a civet-cat, or something, Doctor," he said. +"This house is full of surprises—and mysteries." +</P> + +<P> +His voice was not quite steady, I thought, and he carefully closed the +door ere proceeding further. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he?" asked Nayland Smith harshly. "How was it done?" +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth sat down and lighted a cigar which I offered him. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you would like to hear what led up to it—so far as we +know—before seeing him?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," continued the Inspector, "the man you arranged to send down +from the Yard got here all right and took up a post in the road +outside, where he could command a good view of the gates. He saw and +heard nothing, until going on for half-past ten, when a young lady +turned up and went in." +</P> + +<P> +"A young lady?" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Edmonds, Sir Lionel's shorthand typist. She had found, after +getting home, that her bag, with her purse in, was missing, and she +came back to see if she had left it here. She gave the alarm. My man +heard the row from the road and came in. Then he ran out and rang us +up. I immediately wired for you." +</P> + +<P> +"He heard the row, you say. What row?" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Edmonds went into violent hysterics!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith was pacing the room now in tense excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Describe what he saw when he came in." +</P> + +<P> +"He saw a negro footman—there isn't an Englishman in the house—trying +to pacify the girl out in the hall yonder, and a Malay and another +colored man beating their foreheads and howling. There was no sense to +be got out of any of them, so he started to investigate for himself. +He had taken the bearings of the place earlier in the evening, and from +the light in a window on the ground floor had located the study; so he +set out to look for the door. When he found it, it was locked from the +inside." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"He went out and round to the window. There's no blind, and from the +shrubbery you can see into the lumber-room known as the study. He +looked in, as apparently Miss Edmonds had done before him. What he saw +accounted for her hysterics." +</P> + +<P> +Both Smith and I were hanging upon his words. +</P> + +<P> +"All amongst the rubbish on the floor a big Egyptian mummy case was +lying on its side, and face downwards, with his arms thrown across it, +lay Sir Lionel Barton." +</P> + +<P> +"My God! Yes. Go on." +</P> + +<P> +"There was only a shaded reading-lamp alight, and it stood on a chair, +shining right down on him; it made a patch of light on the floor, you +understand." The Inspector indicated its extent with his hands. +"Well, as the man smashed the glass and got the window open, and was +just climbing in, he saw something else, so he says." +</P> + +<P> +He paused. +</P> + +<P> +"What did he see?" demanded Smith shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"A sort of GREEN MIST, sir. He says it seemed to be alive. It moved +over the floor, about a foot from the ground, going away from him and +towards a curtain at the other end of the study." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith fixed his eyes upon the speaker. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did he first see this green mist?" +</P> + +<P> +"He says, Mr. Smith, that he thinks it came from the mummy case." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; go on." +</P> + +<P> +"It is to his credit that he climbed into the room after seeing a thing +like that. He did. He turned the body over, and Sir Lionel looked +horrible. He was quite dead. Then Croxted—that's the man's +name—went over to this curtain. There was a glass door—shut. He +opened it, and it gave on a conservatory—a place stacked from the +tiled floor to the glass roof with more rubbish. It was dark inside, +but enough light came from the study—it's really a drawing-room, by +the way—as he'd turned all the lamps on, to give him another glimpse +of this green, crawling mist. There are three steps to go down. On +the steps lay a dead Chinaman." +</P> + +<P> +"A dead Chinaman!" +</P> + +<P> +"A dead CHINAMAN." +</P> + +<P> +"Doctor seen them?" rapped Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; a local man. He was out of his depth, I could see. Contradicted +himself three times. But there's no need for another opinion—until we +get the coroner's." +</P> + +<P> +"And Croxted?" +</P> + +<P> +"Croxted was taken ill, Mr. Smith, and had to be sent home in a cab." +</P> + +<P> +"What ails him?" +</P> + +<P> +Detective-Inspector Weymouth raised his eyebrows and carefully knocked +the ash from his cigar. +</P> + +<P> +"He held out until I came, gave me the story, and then fainted right +away. He said that something in the conservatory seemed to get him by +the throat." +</P> + +<P> +"Did he mean that literally?" +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't say. We had to send the girl home, too, of course." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith was pulling thoughtfully at the lobe of his left ear. +</P> + +<P> +"Got any theory?" he jerked. +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth shrugged his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Not one that includes the green mist," he said. "Shall we go in now?" +</P> + +<P> +We crossed the Assyrian hall, where the members of that strange +household were gathered in a panic-stricken group. They numbered four. +Two of them were negroes, and two Easterns of some kind. I missed the +Chinaman, Kwee, of whom Smith had spoken, and the Italian secretary; +and from the way in which my friend peered about the shadows of the +hall I divined that he, too, wondered at their absence. We entered Sir +Lionel's study—an apartment which I despair of describing. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith's words, "an earthquake at Sotheby's auction-rooms," +leaped to my mind at once; for the place was simply stacked with +curious litter—loot of Africa, Mexico and Persia. In a clearing by +the hearth a gas stove stood upon a packing-case, and about it lay a +number of utensils for camp cookery. The odor of rotting vegetation, +mingled with the insistent perfume of the strange night-blooming +flowers, was borne in through the open window. +</P> + +<P> +In the center of the floor, beside an overturned sarcophagus, lay a +figure in a neutral-colored dressing-gown, face downwards, and arms +thrust forward and over the side of the ancient Egyptian mummy case. +</P> + +<P> +My friend advanced and knelt beside the dead man. +</P> + +<P> +"Good God!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith sprang upright and turned with an extraordinary expression to +Inspector Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"You do not know Sir Lionel Barton by sight?" he rapped. +</P> + +<P> +"No," began Weymouth, "but—" +</P> + +<P> +"This is not Sir Lionel. This is Strozza, the secretary." +</P> + +<P> +"What!" shouted Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is the other—the Chinaman—quick!" cried Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"I have had him left where he was found—on the conservatory steps," +said the Inspector. +</P> + +<P> +Smith ran across the room to where, beyond the open door, a glimpse +might be obtained of stacked-up curiosities. Holding back the curtain +to allow more light to penetrate, he bent forward over a crumpled-up +figure which lay upon the steps below. +</P> + +<P> +"It is!" he cried aloud. "It is Sir Lionel's servant, Kwee." +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth and I looked at one another across the body of the Italian; +then our eyes turned together to where my friend, grim-faced, stood +over the dead Chinaman. A breeze whispered through the leaves; a great +wave of exotic perfume swept from the open window towards the curtained +doorway. +</P> + +<P> +It was a breath of the East—that stretched out a yellow hand to the +West. It was symbolic of the subtle, intangible power manifested in +Dr. Fu-Manchu, as Nayland Smith—lean, agile, bronzed with the suns of +Burma, was symbolic of the clean British efficiency which sought to +combat the insidious enemy. +</P> + +<P> +"One thing is evident," said Smith: "no one in the house, Strozza +excepted, knew that Sir Lionel was absent." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you arrive at that?" asked Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"The servants, in the hall, are bewailing him as dead. If they had +seen him go out they would know that it must be someone else who lies +here." +</P> + +<P> +"What about the Chinaman?" +</P> + +<P> +"Since there is no other means of entrance to the conservatory save +through the study, Kwee must have hidden himself there at some time +when his master was absent from the room." +</P> + +<P> +"Croxted found the communicating door closed. What killed the +Chinaman?" +</P> + +<P> +"Both Miss Edmonds and Croxted found the study door locked from the +inside. What killed Strozza?" retorted Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"You will have noted," continued the Inspector, "that the secretary is +wearing Sir Lionel's dressing-gown. It was seeing him in that, as she +looked in at the window, which led Miss Edmonds to mistake him for her +employer—and consequently to put us on the wrong scent." +</P> + +<P> +"He wore it in order that anybody looking in at the window would be +sure to make that mistake," rapped Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Because he came here for a felonious purpose. See." Smith stooped +and took up several tools from the litter on the floor. "There lies +the lid. He came to open the sarcophagus. It contained the mummy of +some notable person who flourished under Meneptah II; and Sir Lionel +told me that a number of valuable ornaments and jewels probably were +secreted amongst the wrappings. He proposed to open the thing and to +submit the entire contents to examination to-night. He evidently +changed his mind—fortunately for himself." +</P> + +<P> +I ran my fingers through my hair in perplexity. +</P> + +<P> +"Then what has become of the mummy?" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith laughed dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"It has vanished in the form of a green vapor apparently," he said. +"Look at Strozza's face." +</P> + +<P> +He turned the body over, and, used as I was to such spectacles, the +contorted features of the Italian filled me with horror, so—suggestive +were they of a death more than ordinarily violent. I pulled aside the +dressing-gown and searched the body for marks, but failed to find any. +Nayland Smith crossed the room, and, assisted by the detective, carried +Kwee, the Chinaman, into the study and laid him fully in the light. +His puckered yellow face presented a sight even more awful than the +other, and his blue lips were drawn back, exposing both upper and lower +teeth. There were no marks of violence, but his limbs, like Strozza's, +had been tortured during his mortal struggles into unnatural postures. +</P> + +<P> +The breeze was growing higher, and pungent odor-waves from the damp +shrubbery, bearing, too, the oppressive sweetness of the creeping +plant, swept constantly through the open window. Inspector Weymouth +carefully relighted his cigar. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm with you this far, Mr. Smith," he said. "Strozza, knowing Sir +Lionel to be absent, locked himself in here to rifle the mummy case, +for Croxted, entering by way of the window, found the key on the +inside. Strozza didn't know that the Chinaman was hidden in the +conservatory—" +</P> + +<P> +"And Kwee did not dare to show himself, because he too was there for +some mysterious reason of his own," interrupted Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Having got the lid off, something,—somebody—" +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose we say the mummy?" +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth laughed uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir, something that vanished from a locked room without opening +the door or the window killed Strozza." +</P> + +<P> +"And something which, having killed Strozza, next killed the Chinaman, +apparently without troubling to open the door behind which he lay +concealed," Smith continued. "For once in a way, Inspector, Dr. +Fu-Manchu has employed an ally which even his giant will was incapable +entirely to subjugate. What blind force—what terrific agent of +death—had he confined in that sarcophagus!" +</P> + +<P> +"You think this is the work of Fu-Manchu?" I said. "If you are +correct, his power indeed is more than human." +</P> + +<P> +Something in my voice, I suppose, brought Smith right about. He +surveyed me curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you doubt it? The presence of a concealed Chinaman surely is +sufficient. Kwee, I feel assured, was one of the murder group, though +probably he had only recently entered that mysterious service. He is +unarmed, or I should feel disposed to think that his part was to +assassinate Sir Lionel whilst, unsuspecting the presence of a hidden +enemy, he was at work here. Strozza's opening the sarcophagus clearly +spoiled the scheme." +</P> + +<P> +"And led to the death—" +</P> + +<P> +"Of a servant of Fu-Manchu. Yes. I am at a loss to account for that." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think that the sarcophagus entered into the scheme, Smith?" +</P> + +<P> +My friend looked at me in evident perplexity. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean that its arrival at the time when a creature of the +Doctor—Kwee—was concealed here, may have been a coincidence?" +</P> + +<P> +I nodded; and Smith bent over the sarcophagus, curiously examining the +garish paintings with which it was decorated inside and out. It lay +sideways upon the floor, and seizing it by its edge, he turned it over. +</P> + +<P> +"Heavy," he muttered; "but Strozza must have capsized it as he fell. +He would not have laid it on its side to remove the lid. Hallo!" +</P> + +<P> +He bent farther forward, catching at a piece of twine, and out of the +mummy case pulled a rubber stopper or "cork." +</P> + +<P> +"This was stuck in a hole level with the floor of the thing," he said. +"Ugh! it has a disgusting smell." +</P> + +<P> +I took it from his hands, and was about to examine it, when a loud +voice sounded outside in the hall. The door was thrown open, and a big +man, who, despite the warmth of the weather, wore a fur-lined overcoat, +rushed impetuously into the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Lionel!" cried Smith eagerly. "I warned you! And see, you have +had a very narrow escape." +</P> + +<P> +Sir Lionel Barton glanced at what lay upon the floor, then from Smith +to myself, and from me to Inspector Weymouth. He dropped into one of +the few chairs unstacked with books. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Smith," he said, with emotion, "what does this mean? Tell +me—quickly." +</P> + +<P> +In brief terms Smith detailed the happenings of the night—or so much +as he knew of them. Sir Lionel Barton listened, sitting quite still +the while—an unusual repose in a man of such evidently tremendous +nervous activity. +</P> + +<P> +"He came for the jewels," he said slowly, when Smith was finished; and +his eyes turned to the body of the dead Italian. "I was wrong to +submit him to the temptation. God knows what Kwee was doing in hiding. +Perhaps he had come to murder me, as you surmise, Mr. Smith, though I +find it hard to believe. But—I don't think this is the handiwork of +your Chinese doctor." He fixed his gaze upon the sarcophagus. +</P> + +<P> +Smith stared at him in surprise. "What do you mean, Sir Lionel?" +</P> + +<P> +The famous traveler continued to look towards the sarcophagus with +something in his blue eyes that might have been dread. +</P> + +<P> +"I received a wire from Professor Rembold to-night," he continued. +"You were correct in supposing that no one but Strozza knew of my +absence. I dressed hurriedly and met the professor at the Traveler's. +He knew that I was to read a paper next week upon"—again he looked +toward the mummy case—"the tomb of Mekara; and he knew that the +sarcophagus had been brought, untouched, to England. He begged me not +to open it." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith was studying the speaker's face. +</P> + +<P> +"What reason did he give for so extraordinary a request?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +Sir Lionel Barton hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"One," he replied at last, "which amused me—at the time. I must +inform you that Mekara—whose tomb my agent had discovered during my +absence in Tibet, and to enter which I broke my return journey to +Alexandria—was a high priest and first prophet of Amen—under the +Pharaoh of the Exodus; in short, one of the magicians who contested in +magic arts with Moses. I thought the discovery unique, until Professor +Rembold furnished me with some curious particulars respecting the death +of M. Page le Roi, the French Egyptologist—particulars new to me." +</P> + +<P> +We listened in growing surprise, scarcely knowing to what this tended. +</P> + +<P> +"M. le Roi," continued Barton, "discovered, but kept secret, the tomb +of Amenti—another of this particular brotherhood. It appears that he +opened the mummy case on the spot—these priests were of royal line, +and are buried in the valley of Biban-le-Moluk. His Fellah and Arab +servants deserted him for some reason—on seeing the mummy case—and he +was found dead, apparently strangled, beside it. The matter was hushed +up by the Egyptian Government. Rembold could not explain why. But he +begged of me not to open the sarcophagus of Mekara." +</P> + +<P> +A silence fell. +</P> + +<P> +The strange facts regarding the sudden death of Page le Roi, which I +now heard for the first time, had impressed me unpleasantly, coming +from a man of Sir Lionel Barton's experience and reputation. +</P> + +<P> +"How long had it lain in the docks?" jerked Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"For two days, I believe. I am not a superstitious man, Mr. Smith, but +neither is Professor Rembold, and now that I know the facts respecting +Page le Roi, I can find it in my heart to thank God that I did not +see … whatever came out of that sarcophagus." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith stared him hard in the face. "I am glad you did not, Sir +Lionel," he said; "for whatever the priest Mekara has to do with the +matter, by means of his sarcophagus, Dr. Fu-Manchu has made his first +attempt upon your life. He has failed, but I hope you will accompany +me from here to a hotel. He will not fail twice." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap12"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<P> +IT was the night following that of the double tragedy at Rowan House. +Nayland Smith, with Inspector Weymouth, was engaged in some mysterious +inquiry at the docks, and I had remained at home to resume my strange +chronicle. And—why should I not confess it?—my memories had +frightened me. +</P> + +<P> +I was arranging my notes respecting the case of Sir Lionel Barton. +They were hopelessly incomplete. For instance, I had jotted down the +following queries:—(1) Did any true parallel exist between the death +of M. Page le Roi and the death of Kwee, the Chinaman, and of Strozza? +(2) What had become of the mummy of Mekara? (3) How had the murderer +escaped from a locked room? (4) What was the purpose of the rubber +stopper? (5) Why was Kwee hiding in the conservatory? (6) Was the +green mist a mere subjective hallucination—a figment of Croxted's +imagination—or had he actually seen it? +</P> + +<P> +Until these questions were satisfactorily answered, further progress +was impossible. Nayland Smith frankly admitted that he was out of his +depth. "It looks, on the face of it, more like a case for the +Psychical Research people than for a plain Civil Servant, lately of +Mandalay," he had said only that morning. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Lionel Barton really believes that supernatural agencies were +brought into operation by the opening of the high priest's coffin. For +my part, even if I believed the same, I should still maintain that Dr. +Fu-Manchu controlled those manifestations. But reason it out for +yourself and see if we arrive at any common center. Don't work so much +upon the datum of the green mist, but keep to the FACTS which are +established." +</P> + +<P> +I commenced to knock out my pipe in the ash-tray; then paused, pipe in +hand. The house was quite still, for my landlady and all the small +household were out. +</P> + +<P> +Above the noise of the passing tramcar I thought I had heard the hall +door open. In the ensuing silence I sat and listened. +</P> + +<P> +Not a sound. Stay! I slipped my hand into the table drawer, took out +my revolver, and stood up. +</P> + +<P> +There WAS a sound. Someone or something was creeping upstairs in the +dark! +</P> + +<P> +Familiar with the ghastly media employed by the Chinaman, I was seized +with an impulse to leap to the door, shut and lock it. But the +rustling sound proceeded, now, from immediately outside my partially +opened door. I had not the time to close it; knowing somewhat of the +horrors at the command of Fu-Manchu, I had not the courage to open it. +My heart leaping wildly, and my eyes upon that bar of darkness with its +gruesome potentialities, I waited—waited for whatever was to come. +Perhaps twelve seconds passed in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's there?" I cried. "Answer, or I fire!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! no," came a soft voice, thrillingly musical. "Put it down—that +pistol. Quick! I must speak to you." +</P> + +<P> +The door was pushed open, and there entered a slim figure wrapped in a +hooded cloak. My hand fell, and I stood, stricken to silence, looking +into the beautiful dark eyes of Dr. Fu-Manchu's messenger—if her own +statement could be credited, slave. On two occasions this girl, whose +association with the Doctor was one of the most profound mysteries of +the case, had risked—I cannot say what; unnameable punishment, +perhaps—to save me from death; in both cases from a terrible death. +For what was she come now? +</P> + +<P> +Her lips slightly parted, she stood, holding her cloak about her, and +watching me with great passionate eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"How—" I began. +</P> + +<P> +But she shook her head impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"HE has a duplicate key of the house door," was her amazing statement. +"I have never betrayed a secret of my master before, but you must +arrange to replace the lock." +</P> + +<P> +She came forward and rested her slim hands confidingly upon my +shoulders. "I have come again to ask you to take me away from him," +she said simply. +</P> + +<P> +And she lifted her face to me. +</P> + +<P> +Her words struck a chord in my heart which sang with strange music, +with music so barbaric that, frankly, I blushed to find it harmony. +Have I said that she was beautiful? It can convey no faint conception +of her. With her pure, fair skin, eyes like the velvet darkness of the +East, and red lips so tremulously near to mine, she was the most +seductively lovely creature I ever had looked upon. In that electric +moment my heart went out in sympathy to every man who had bartered +honor, country, all for a woman's kiss. +</P> + +<P> +"I will see that you are placed under proper protection," I said +firmly, but my voice was not quite my own. "It is quite absurd to talk +of slavery here in England. You are a free agent, or you could not be +here now. Dr. Fu-Manchu cannot control your actions." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" she cried, casting back her head scornfully, and releasing a +cloud of hair, through whose softness gleamed a jeweled head-dress. +"No? He cannot? Do you know what it means to have been a slave? +Here, in your free England, do you know what it means—the razzia, the +desert journey, the whips of the drivers, the house of the dealer, the +shame. Bah!" +</P> + +<P> +How beautiful she was in her indignation! +</P> + +<P> +"Slavery is put down, you imagine, perhaps? You do not believe that +to-day—TO-DAY—twenty-five English sovereigns will buy a Galla girl, +who is brown, and"—whisper—"two hundred and fifty a Circassian, who +is white. No, there is no slavery! So! Then what am I?" +</P> + +<P> +She threw open her cloak, and it is a literal fact that I rubbed my +eyes, half believing that I dreamed. For beneath, she was arrayed in +gossamer silk which more than indicated the perfect lines of her slim +shape; wore a jeweled girdle and barbaric ornaments; was a figure fit +for the walled gardens of Stamboul—a figure amazing, incomprehensible, +in the prosaic setting of my rooms. +</P> + +<P> +"To-night I had no time to make myself an English miss," she said, +wrapping her cloak quickly about her. "You see me as I am." Her +garments exhaled a faint perfume, and it reminded me of another meeting +I had had with her. I looked into the challenging eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Your request is but a pretense," I said. "Why do you keep the secrets +of that man, when they mean death to so many?" +</P> + +<P> +"Death! I have seen my own sister die of fever in the desert—seen her +thrown like carrion into a hole in the sand. I have seen men flogged +until they prayed for death as a boon. I have known the lash myself. +Death! What does it matter?" +</P> + +<P> +She shocked me inexpressibly. Enveloped in her cloak again, and with +only her slight accent to betray her, it was dreadful to hear such +words from a girl who, save for her singular type of beauty, might have +been a cultured European. +</P> + +<P> +"Prove, then, that you really wish to leave this man's service. Tell +me what killed Strozza and the Chinaman," I said. +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not know that. But if you will carry me off"—she clutched me +nervously—"so that I am helpless, lock me up so that I cannot escape, +beat me, if you like, I will tell you all I do know. While he is my +master I will never betray him. Tear me from him—by force, do you +understand, BY FORCE, and my lips will be sealed no longer. Ah! but +you do not understand, with your 'proper authorities'—your police. +Police! Ah, I have said enough." +</P> + +<P> +A clock across the common began to strike. The girl started and laid +her hands upon my shoulders again. There were tears glittering among +the curved black lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"You do not understand," she whispered. "Oh, will you never understand +and release me from him! I must go. Already I have remained too long. +Listen. Go out without delay. Remain out—at a hotel, where you will, +but do not stay here." +</P> + +<P> +"And Nayland Smith?" +</P> + +<P> +"What is he to me, this Nayland Smith? Ah, why will you not unseal my +lips? You are in danger—you hear me, in danger! Go away from here +to-night." +</P> + +<P> +She dropped her hands and ran from the room. In the open doorway she +turned, stamping her foot passionately. +</P> + +<P> +"You have hands and arms," she cried, "and yet you let me go. Be +warned, then; fly from here—" She broke off with something that +sounded like a sob. +</P> + +<P> +I made no move to stay her—this beautiful accomplice of the +arch-murderer, Fu-Manchu. I heard her light footsteps pattering down +the stairs, I heard her open and close the door—the door of which Dr. +Fu-Manchu held the key. Still I stood where she had parted from me, +and was so standing when a key grated in the lock and Nayland Smith +came running up. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see her?" I began. +</P> + +<P> +But his face showed that he had not done so, and rapidly I told him of +my strange visitor, of her words, of her warning. +</P> + +<P> +"How can she have passed through London in that costume?" I cried in +bewilderment. "Where can she have come from?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith shrugged his shoulders and began to stuff broad-cut mixture into +the familiar cracked briar. +</P> + +<P> +"She might have traveled in a car or in a cab," he said; "and +undoubtedly she came direct from the house of Dr. Fu-Manchu. You +should have detained her, Petrie. It is the third time we have had +that woman in our power, the third time we have let her go free." +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I replied, "I couldn't. She came of her own free will to give +me a warning. She disarms me." +</P> + +<P> +"Because you can see she is in love with you?" he suggested, and burst +into one of his rare laughs when the angry flush rose to my cheek. +"She is, Petrie why pretend to be blind to it? You don't know the +Oriental mind as I do; but I quite understand the girl's position. She +fears the English authorities, but would submit to capture by you! If +you would only seize her by the hair, drag her to some cellar, hurl her +down and stand over her with a whip, she would tell you everything she +knows, and salve her strange Eastern conscience with the reflection +that speech was forced from her. I am not joking; it is so, I assure +you. And she would adore you for your savagery, deeming you forceful +and strong!" +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said, "be serious. You know what her warning meant before." +</P> + +<P> +"I can guess what it means now," he rapped. "Hallo!" +</P> + +<P> +Someone was furiously ringing the bell. +</P> + +<P> +"No one at home?" said my friend. "I will go. I think I know what it +is." +</P> + +<P> +A few minutes later he returned, carrying a large square package. +</P> + +<P> +"From Weymouth," he explained, "by district messenger. I left him +behind at the docks, and he arranged to forward any evidence which +subsequently he found. This will be fragments of the mummy." +</P> + +<P> +"What! You think the mummy was abstracted?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, at the docks. I am sure of it; and somebody else was in the +sarcophagus when it reached Rowan House. A sarcophagus, I find, is +practically airtight, so that the use of the rubber stopper becomes +evident—ventilation. How this person killed Strozza I have yet to +learn." +</P> + +<P> +"Also, how he escaped from a locked room. And what about the green +mist?" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith spread his hands in a characteristic gesture. +</P> + +<P> +"The green mist, Petrie, can be explained in several ways. Remember, +we have only one man's word that it existed. It is at best a confusing +datum to which we must not attach a factitious importance." +</P> + +<P> +He threw the wrappings on the floor and tugged at a twine loop in the +lid of the square box, which now stood upon the table. Suddenly the +lid came away, bringing with it a lead lining, such as is usual in +tea-chests. This lining was partially attached to one side of the box, +so that the action of removing the lid at once raised and tilted it. +</P> + +<P> +Then happened a singular thing. +</P> + +<P> +Out over the table billowed a sort of yellowish-green cloud—an oily +vapor—and an inspiration, it was nothing less, born of a memory and of +some words of my beautiful visitor, came to me. +</P> + +<P> +"RUN, SMITH!" I screamed. "The door! the door, for your life! +Fu-Manchu sent that box!" I threw my arms round him. As he bent +forward the moving vapor rose almost to his nostrils. I dragged him +back and all but pitched him out on to the landing. We entered my +bedroom, and there, as I turned on the light, I saw that Smith's tanned +face was unusually drawn, and touched with pallor. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a poisonous gas!" I said hoarsely; "in many respects identical +with chlorine, but having unique properties which prove it to be +something else—God and Fu-Manchu, alone know what! It is the fumes of +chlorine that kill the men in the bleaching powder works. We have been +blind—I particularly. Don't you see? There was no one in the +sarcophagus, Smith, but there was enough of that fearful stuff to have +suffocated a regiment!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith clenched his fists convulsively. +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" he said, "how can I hope to deal with the author of such a +scheme? I see the whole plan. He did not reckon on the mummy case +being overturned, and Kwee's part was to remove the plug with the aid +of the string—after Sir Lionel had been suffocated. The gas, I take +it, is heavier than air." +</P> + +<P> +"Chlorine gas has a specific gravity of 2.470," I said; "two and a half +times heavier than air. You can pour it from jar to jar like a +liquid—if you are wearing a chemist's mask. In these respects this +stuff appears to be similar; the points of difference would not +interest you. The sarcophagus would have emptied through the vent, and +the gas have dispersed, with no clew remaining—except the smell." +</P> + +<P> +"I did smell it, Petrie, on the stopper, but, of course, was unfamiliar +with it. You may remember that you were prevented from doing so by the +arrival of Sir Lionel? The scent of those infernal flowers must +partially have drowned it, too. Poor, misguided Strozza inhaled the +stuff, capsized the case in his fall, and all the gas—" +</P> + +<P> +"Went pouring under the conservatory door, and down the steps, where +Kwee was crouching. Croxted's breaking the window created sufficient +draught to disperse what little remained. It will have settled on the +floor now. I will go and open both windows." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland raised his haggard face. +</P> + +<P> +"He evidently made more than was necessary to dispatch Sir Lionel +Barton," he said; "and contemptuously—you note the attitude, +Petrie?—contemptuously devoted the surplus to me. His contempt is +justified. I am a child striving to cope with a mental giant. It is +by no wit of mine that Dr. Fu-Manchu scores a double failure." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap13"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<P> +I WILL tell you, now of a strange dream which I dreamed, and of the +stranger things to which I awakened. Since, out of a blank—a +void—this vision burst in upon my mind, I cannot do better than relate +it, without preamble. It was thus: +</P> + +<P> +I dreamed that I lay writhing on the floor in agony indescribable. My +veins were filled with liquid fire, and but that stygian darkness was +about me, I told myself that I must have seen the smoke arising from my +burning body. +</P> + +<P> +This, I thought, was death. +</P> + +<P> +Then, a cooling shower descended upon me, soaked through skin and +tissue to the tortured arteries and quenched the fire within. Panting, +but free from pain, I lay—exhausted. +</P> + +<P> +Strength gradually returning to me, I tried to rise; but the carpet +felt so singularly soft that it offered me no foothold. I waded and +plunged like a swimmer treading water; and all about me rose +impenetrable walls of darkness, darkness all but palpable. I wondered +why I could not see the windows. The horrible idea flashed to my mind +that I was become blind! +</P> + +<P> +Somehow I got upon my feet, and stood swaying dizzily. I became aware +of a heavy perfume, and knew it for some kind of incense. +</P> + +<P> +Then—a dim light was born, at an immeasurable distance away. It grew +steadily in brilliance. It spread like a bluish-red stain—like a +liquid. It lapped up the darkness and spread throughout the room. +</P> + +<P> +But this was not my room! Nor was it any room known to me. +</P> + +<P> +It was an apartment of such size that its dimensions filled me with a +kind of awe such as I never had known: the awe of walled vastness. +Its immense extent produced a sensation of sound. Its hugeness had a +distinct NOTE. +</P> + +<P> +Tapestries covered the four walls. There was no door visible. These +tapestries were magnificently figured with golden dragons; and as the +serpentine bodies gleamed and shimmered in the increasing radiance, +each dragon, I thought, intertwined its glittering coils more closely +with those of another. The carpet was of such richness that I stood +knee-deep in its pile. And this, too, was fashioned all over with +golden dragons; and they seemed to glide about amid the shadows of the +design—stealthily. +</P> + +<P> +At the farther end of the hall—for hall it was—a huge table with +dragons' legs stood solitary amid the luxuriance of the carpet. It +bore scintillating globes, and tubes that held living organisms, and +books of a size and in such bindings as I never had imagined, with +instruments of a type unknown to Western science—a heterogeneous +litter quite indescribable, which overflowed on to the floor, forming +an amazing oasis in a dragon-haunted desert of carpet. A lamp hung +above this table, suspended by golden chains from the ceiling—which +was so lofty that, following the chains upward, my gaze lost itself in +the purple shadows above. +</P> + +<P> +In a chair piled high with dragon-covered cushions a man sat behind +this table. The light from the swinging lamp fell fully upon one side +of his face, as he leaned forward amid the jumble of weird objects, and +left the other side in purplish shadow. From a plain brass bowl upon +the corner of the huge table smoke writhed aloft and at times partially +obscured that dreadful face. +</P> + +<P> +From the instant that my eyes were drawn to the table and to the man +who sat there, neither the incredible extent of the room, nor the +nightmare fashion of its mural decorations, could reclaim my attention. +I had eyes only for him. +</P> + +<P> +For it was Dr. Fu-Manchu! +</P> + +<P> +Something of the delirium which had seemed to fill my veins with fire, +to people the walls with dragons, and to plunge me knee-deep in the +carpet, left me. Those dreadful, filmed green eyes acted somewhat like +a cold douche. I knew, without removing my gaze from the still face, +that the walls no longer lived, but were merely draped in exquisite +Chinese dragon tapestry. The rich carpet beneath my feet ceased to be +as a jungle and became a normal carpet—extraordinarily rich, but +merely a carpet. But the sense of vastness nevertheless remained, with +the uncomfortable knowledge that the things upon the table and +overflowing about it were all, or nearly all, of a fashion strange to +me. +</P> + +<P> +Then, and almost instantaneously, the comparative sanity which I had +temporarily experienced began to slip from me again; for the smoke +faintly penciled through the air—from the burning perfume on the +table—grew in volume, thickened, and wafted towards me in a cloud of +gray horror. It enveloped me, clammily. Dimly, through its oily +wreaths, I saw the immobile yellow face of Fu-Manchu. And my stupefied +brain acclaimed him a sorcerer, against whom unwittingly we had pitted +our poor human wits. The green eyes showed filmy through the fog. An +intense pain shot through my lower limbs, and, catching my breath, I +looked down. As I did so, the points of the red slippers which I +dreamed that I wore increased in length, curled sinuously upward, +twined about my throat and choked the breath from my body! +</P> + +<P> +Came an interval, and then a dawning like consciousness; but it was a +false consciousness, since it brought with it the idea that my head lay +softly pillowed and that a woman's hand caressed my throbbing forehead. +Confusedly, as though in the remote past, I recalled a kiss—and the +recollection thrilled me strangely. Dreamily content I lay, and a +voice stole to my ears: +</P> + +<P> +"They are killing him! they are killing him! Oh! do you not +understand?" In my dazed condition, I thought that it was I who had +died, and that this musical girl-voice was communicating to me the fact +of my own dissolution. +</P> + +<P> +But I was conscious of no interest in the matter. +</P> + +<P> +For hours and hours, I thought, that soothing hand caressed me. I +never once raised my heavy lids, until there came a resounding crash +that seemed to set my very bones vibrating—a metallic, jangling crash, +as the fall of heavy chains. I thought that, then, I half opened my +eyes, and that in the dimness I had a fleeting glimpse of a figure clad +in gossamer silk, with arms covered with barbaric bangles and slim +ankles surrounded by gold bands. The girl was gone, even as I told +myself that she was an houri, and that I, though a Christian, had been +consigned by some error to the paradise of Mohammed. +</P> + +<P> +Then—a complete blank. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +My head throbbed madly; my brain seemed to be clogged—inert; and +though my first, feeble movement was followed by the rattle of a chain, +some moments more elapsed ere I realized that the chain was fastened to +a steel collar—that the steel collar was clasped about my neck. +</P> + +<P> +I moaned weakly. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith!" I muttered, "Where are you? Smith!" +</P> + +<P> +On to my knees I struggled, and the pain on the top of my skull grew +all but insupportable. It was coming back to me now; how Nayland Smith +and I had started for the hotel to warn Graham Guthrie; how, as we +passed up the steps from the Embankment and into Essex Street, we saw +the big motor standing before the door of one of the offices. I could +recall coming up level with the car—a modern limousine; but my mind +retained no impression of our having passed it—only a vague memory of +a rush of footsteps—a blow. Then, my vision of the hall of dragons, +and now this real awakening to a worse reality. +</P> + +<P> +Groping in the darkness, my hands touched a body that lay close beside +me. My fingers sought and found the throat, sought and found the steel +collar about it. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I groaned; and I shook the still form. "Smith, old man—speak +to me! Smith!" +</P> + +<P> +Could he be dead? Was this the end of his gallant fight with Dr. +Fu-Manchu and the murder group? If so, what did the future hold for +me—what had I to face? +</P> + +<P> +He stirred beneath my trembling hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God!" I muttered, and I cannot deny that my joy was tainted +with selfishness. For, waking in that impenetrable darkness, and yet +obsessed with the dream I had dreamed, I had known what fear meant, at +the realization that alone, chained, I must face the dreadful Chinese +doctor in the flesh. Smith began incoherent mutterings. +</P> + +<P> +"Sand-bagged!… Look out, Petrie!… He has us at last!… +Oh, Heavens!"… He struggled on to his knees, clutching at my hand. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, old man," I said. "We are both alive! So let's be +thankful." +</P> + +<P> +A moment's silence, a groan, then: +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie, I have dragged you into this. God forgive me—" +</P> + +<P> +"Dry up, Smith," I said slowly. "I'm not a child. There is no +question of being dragged into the matter. I'm here; and if I can be +of any use, I'm glad I am here!" +</P> + +<P> +He grasped my hand. +</P> + +<P> +"There were two Chinese, in European clothes—lord, how my head +throbs!—in that office door. They sand-bagged us, Petrie—think of +it!—in broad daylight, within hail of the Strand! We were rushed into +the car—and it was all over, before—" His voice grew faint. "God! +they gave me an awful knock!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why have we been spared, Smith? Do you think he is saving us for—" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't, Petrie! If you had been in China, if you had seen what I have +seen—" +</P> + +<P> +Footsteps sounded on the flagged passage. A blade of light crept +across the floor towards us. My brain was growing clearer. The place +had a damp, earthen smell. It was slimy—some noisome cellar. A door +was thrown open and a man entered, carrying a lantern. Its light +showed my surmise to be accurate, showed the slime-coated walls of a +dungeon some fifteen feet square—shone upon the long yellow robe of +the man who stood watching us, upon the malignant, intellectual +countenance. +</P> + +<P> +It was Dr. Fu-Manchu. +</P> + +<P> +At last they were face to face—the head of the great Yellow Movement, +and the man who fought on behalf of the entire white race. How can I +paint the individual who now stood before us—perhaps the greatest +genius of modern times? +</P> + +<P> +Of him it had been fitly said that he had a brow like Shakespeare and a +face like Satan. Something serpentine, hypnotic, was in his very +presence. Smith drew one sharp breath, and was silent. Together, +chained to the wall, two mediaeval captives, living mockeries of our +boasted modern security, we crouched before Dr. Fu-Manchu. +</P> + +<P> +He came forward with an indescribable gait, cat-like yet awkward, +carrying his high shoulders almost hunched. He placed the lantern in a +niche in the wall, never turning away the reptilian gaze of those eyes +which must haunt my dreams forever. They possessed a viridescence +which hitherto I had supposed possible only in the eye of the cat—and +the film intermittently clouded their brightness—but I can speak of +them no more. +</P> + +<P> +I had never supposed, prior to meeting Dr. Fu-Manchu, that so intense a +force of malignancy could radiate—from any human being. He spoke. +His English was perfect, though at times his words were oddly chosen; +his delivery alternately was guttural and sibilant. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Smith and Dr. Petrie, your interference with my plans has gone too +far. I have seriously turned my attention to you." +</P> + +<P> +He displayed his teeth, small and evenly separated, but discolored in a +way that was familiar to me. I studied his eyes with a new +professional interest, which even the extremity of our danger could not +wholly banish. Their greenness seemed to be of the iris; the pupil was +oddly contracted—a pin-point. +</P> + +<P> +Smith leaned his back against the wall with assumed indifference. +</P> + +<P> +"You have presumed," continued Fu-Manchu, "to meddle with a +world-change. Poor spiders—caught in the wheels of the inevitable! +You have linked my name with the futility of the Young China +Movement—the name of Fu-Manchu! Mr. Smith, you are an incompetent +meddler—I despise you! Dr. Petrie, you are a fool—I am sorry for +you!" +</P> + +<P> +He rested one bony hand on his hip, narrowing the long eyes as he +looked down on us. The purposeful cruelty of the man was inherent; it +was entirely untheatrical. Still Smith remained silent. +</P> + +<P> +"So I am determined to remove you from the scene of your blunders!" +added Fu-Manchu. +</P> + +<P> +"Opium will very shortly do the same for you!" I rapped at him savagely. +</P> + +<P> +Without emotion he turned the narrowed eyes upon me. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a matter of opinion, Doctor," he said. "You may have lacked +the opportunities which have been mine for studying that subject—and +in any event I shall not be privileged to enjoy your advice in the +future." +</P> + +<P> +"You will not long outlive me," I replied. "And our deaths will not +profit you, incidentally; because—" Smith's foot touched mine. +</P> + +<P> +"Because?" inquired Fu-Manchu softly. +"Ah! Mr. Smith is so prudent! He is thinking that I have FILES!" He +pronounced the word in a way that made me shudder. "Mr. Smith has seen +a WIRE JACKET! Have you ever seen a wire jacket? As a surgeon its +functions would interest you!" +</P> + +<P> +I stifled a cry that rose to my lips; for, with a shrill whistling +sound, a small shape came bounding into the dimly lit vault, then shot +upward. A marmoset landed on the shoulder of Dr. Fu-Manchu and peered +grotesquely into the dreadful yellow face. The Doctor raised his bony +hand and fondled the little creature, crooning to it. +</P> + +<P> +"One of my pets, Mr. Smith," he said, suddenly opening his eyes fully +so that they blazed like green lamps. "I have others, equally useful. +My scorpions—have you met my scorpions? No? My pythons and +hamadryads? Then there are my fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli. +I have a collection in my laboratory quite unique. Have you ever +visited Molokai, the leper island, Doctor? No? But Mr. Nayland Smith +will be familiar with the asylum at Rangoon! And we must not forget my +black spiders, with their diamond eyes—my spiders, that sit in the +dark and watch—then leap!" +</P> + +<P> +He raised his lean hands, so that the sleeve of the robe fell back to +the elbow, and the ape dropped, chattering, to the floor and ran from +the cellar. +</P> + +<P> +"O God of Cathay!" he cried, "by what death shall these die—these +miserable ones who would bind thine Empire, which is boundless!" +</P> + +<P> +Like some priest of Tezcat he stood, his eyes upraised to the roof, his +lean body quivering—a sight to shock the most unimpressionable mind. +</P> + +<P> +"He is mad!" I whispered to Smith. "God help us, the man is a +dangerous homicidal maniac!" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith's tanned face was very drawn, but he shook his head +grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"Dangerous, yes, I agree," he muttered; "his existence is a danger to +the entire white race which, now, we are powerless to avert." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fu-Manchu recovered himself, took up the lantern and, turning +abruptly, walked to the door, with his awkward, yet feline gait. At +the threshold be looked back. +</P> + +<P> +"You would have warned Mr. Graham Guthrie?" he said, in a soft voice. +"To-night, at half-past twelve, Mr. Graham Guthrie dies!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith sat silent and motionless, his eyes fixed upon the speaker. +</P> + +<P> +"You were in Rangoon in 1908?" continued Dr. Fu-Manchu—"you remember +the Call?" +</P> + +<P> +From somewhere above us—I could not determine the exact +direction—came a low, wailing cry, an uncanny thing of falling +cadences, which, in that dismal vault, with the sinister yellow-robed +figure at the door, seemed to pour ice into my veins. Its effect upon +Smith was truly extraordinary. His face showed grayly in the faint +light, and I heard him draw a hissing breath through clenched teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"It calls for you!" said Fu-Manchu. "At half-past twelve it calls for +Graham Guthrie!" +</P> + +<P> +The door closed and darkness mantled us again. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said, "what was that?" The horrors about us were playing +havoc with my nerves. +</P> + +<P> +"It was the Call of Siva!" replied Smith hoarsely. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it? Who uttered it? What does it mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what it is, Petrie, nor who utters it. But it means +death!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap14"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<P> +THERE may be some who could have lain, chained to that noisome cell, +and felt no fear—no dread of what the blackness might hold. I confess +that I am not one of these. I knew that Nayland Smith and I stood in +the path of the most stupendous genius who in the world's history had +devoted his intellect to crime. I knew that the enormous wealth of the +political group backing Dr. Fu-Manchu rendered him a menace to Europe +and to America greater than that of the plague. He was a scientist +trained at a great university—an explorer of nature's secrets, who had +gone farther into the unknown, I suppose, than any living man. His +mission was to remove all obstacles—human obstacles—from the path of +that secret movement which was progressing in the Far East. Smith and +I were two such obstacles; and of all the horrible devices at his +command, I wondered, and my tortured brain refused to leave the +subject, by which of them were we doomed to be dispatched? +</P> + +<P> +Even at that very moment some venomous centipede might be wriggling +towards me over the slime of the stones, some poisonous spider be +preparing to drop from the roof! Fu-Manchu might have released a +serpent in the cellar, or the air be alive with microbes of a loathsome +disease! +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said, scarcely recognizing my own voice, "I can't bear this +suspense. He intends to kill us, that is certain, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry," came the reply; "he intends to learn our plans first." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean—?" +</P> + +<P> +"You heard him speak of his files and of his wire jacket?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my God!" I groaned; "can this be England?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith laughed dryly, and I heard him fumbling with the steel collar +about his neck. +</P> + +<P> +"I have one great hope," he said, "since you share my captivity, but we +must neglect no minor chance. Try with your pocket-knife if you can +force the lock. I am trying to break this one." +</P> + +<P> +Truth to tell, the idea had not entered my half-dazed mind, but I +immediately acted upon my friend's suggestion, setting to work with the +small blade of my knife. I was so engaged, and, having snapped one +blade, was about to open another, when a sound arrested me. It came +from beneath my feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I whispered, "listen!" +</P> + +<P> +The scraping and clicking which told of Smith's efforts ceased. +Motionless, we sat in that humid darkness and listened. +</P> + +<P> +Something was moving beneath the stones of the cellar. I held my +breath; every nerve in my body was strung up. +</P> + +<P> +A line of light showed a few feet from where we lay. It +widened—became an oblong. A trap was lifted, and within a yard of me, +there rose a dimly seen head. Horror I had expected—and death, or +worse. Instead, I saw a lovely face, crowned with a disordered mass of +curling hair; I saw a white arm upholding the stone slab, a shapely arm +clasped about the elbow by a broad gold bangle. +</P> + +<P> +The girl climbed into the cellar and placed the lantern on the stone +floor. In the dim light she was unreal—a figure from an opium vision, +with her clinging silk draperies and garish jewelry, with her feet +encased in little red slippers. In short, this was the houri of my +vision, materialized. It was difficult to believe that we were in +modern, up-to-date England; easy to dream that we were the captives of +a caliph, in a dungeon in old Bagdad. +</P> + +<P> +"My prayers are answered," said Smith softly. "She has come to save +YOU." +</P> + +<P> +"S-sh!" warned the girl, and her wonderful eyes opened widely, +fearfully. "A sound and he will kill us all." +</P> + +<P> +She bent over me; a key jarred in the lock which had broken my +penknife—and the collar was off. As I rose to my feet the girl turned +and released Smith. She raised the lantern above the trap, and signed +to us to descend the wooden steps which its light revealed. +</P> + +<P> +"Your knife," she whispered to me. "Leave it on the floor. He will +think you forced the locks. Down! Quickly!" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith, stepping gingerly, disappeared into the darkness. I +rapidly followed. Last of all came our mysterious friend, a gold band +about one of her ankles gleaming in the rays of the lantern which she +carried. We stood in a low-arched passage. +</P> + +<P> +"Tie your handkerchiefs over your eyes and do exactly as I tell you," +she ordered. +</P> + +<P> +Neither of us hesitated to obey her. Blind-folded, I allowed her to +lead me, and Smith rested his hand upon my shoulder. In that order we +proceeded, and came to stone steps, which we ascended. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep to the wall on the left," came a whisper. "There is danger on +the right." +</P> + +<P> +With my free hand I felt for and found the wall, and we pressed +forward. The atmosphere of the place through which we were passing was +steamy, and loaded with an odor like that of exotic plant life. But a +faint animal scent crept to my nostrils, too, and there was a subdued +stir about me, infinitely suggestive—mysterious. +</P> + +<P> +Now my feet sank in a soft carpet, and a curtain brushed my shoulder. +A gong sounded. We stopped. +</P> + +<P> +The din of distant drumming came to my ears. +</P> + +<P> +"Where in Heaven's name are we?" hissed Smith in my ear; "that is a +tom-tom!" +</P> + +<P> +"S-sh! S-sh!" +</P> + +<P> +The little hand grasping mine quivered nervously. We were near a door +or a window, for a breath of perfume was wafted through the air; and it +reminded me of my other meetings with the beautiful woman who was now +leading us from the house of Fu-Manchu; who, with her own lips, had +told me that she was his slave. Through the horrible phantasmagoria +she flitted—a seductive vision, her piquant loveliness standing out +richly in its black setting of murder and devilry. Not once, but a +thousand times, I had tried to reason out the nature of the tie which +bound her to the sinister Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +Silence fell. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick! This way!" +</P> + +<P> +Down a thickly carpeted stair we went. Our guide opened a door, and +led us along a passage. Another door was opened; and we were in the +open air. But the girl never tarried, pulling me along a graveled +path, with a fresh breeze blowing in my face, and along until, +unmistakably, I stood upon the river bank. Now, planking creaked to +our tread; and looking downward beneath the handkerchief, I saw the +gleam of water beneath my feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Be careful!" I was warned, and found myself stepping into a narrow +boat—a punt. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith followed, and the girl pushed the punt off and poled out +into the stream. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't speak!" she directed. +</P> + +<P> +My brain was fevered; I scarce knew if I dreamed and was waking, or if +the reality ended with my imprisonment in the clammy cellar and this +silent escape, blindfolded, upon the river with a girl for our guide +who might have stepped out of the pages of "The Arabian Nights" were +fantasy—the mockery of sleep. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, I began seriously to doubt if this stream whereon we floated, +whose waters plashed and tinkled about us, were the Thames, the Tigris, +or the Styx. +</P> + +<P> +The punt touched a bank. +</P> + +<P> +"You will hear a clock strike in a few minutes," said the girl, with +her soft, charming accent, "but I rely upon your honor not to remove +the handkerchiefs until then. You owe me this." +</P> + +<P> +"We do!" said Smith fervently. +</P> + +<P> +I heard him scrambling to the bank, and a moment later a soft hand was +placed in mine, and I, too, was guided on to terra firma. Arrived on +the bank, I still held the girl's hand, drawing her towards me. +</P> + +<P> +"You must not go back," I whispered. "We will take care of you. You +must not return to that place." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me go!" she said. "When, once, I asked you to take me from him, +you spoke of police protection; that was your answer, police +protection! You would let them lock me up—imprison me—and make me +betray him! For what? For what?" She wrenched herself free. "How +little you understand me. Never mind. Perhaps one day you will know! +Until the clock strikes!" +</P> + +<P> +She was gone. I heard the creak of the punt, the drip of the water +from the pole. Fainter it grew, and fainter. +</P> + +<P> +"What is her secret?" muttered Smith, beside me. "Why does she cling +to that monster?" +</P> + +<P> +The distant sound died away entirely. A clock began to strike; it +struck the half-hour. In an instant my handkerchief was off, and so was +Smith's. We stood upon a towing-path. Away to the left the moon shone +upon the towers and battlements of an ancient fortress. +</P> + +<P> +It was Windsor Castle. +</P> + +<P> +"Half-past ten," cried Smith. "Two hours to save Graham Guthrie!" +</P> + +<P> +We had exactly fourteen minutes in which to catch the last train to +Waterloo; and we caught it. But I sank into a corner of the +compartment in a state bordering upon collapse. Neither of us, I +think, could have managed another twenty yards. With a lesser stake +than a human life at issue, I doubt if we should have attempted that +dash to Windsor station. +</P> + +<P> +"Due at Waterloo at eleven-fifty-one," panted Smith. "That gives us +thirty-nine minutes to get to the other side of the river and reach his +hotel." +</P> + +<P> +"Where in Heaven's name is that house situated? Did we come up or down +stream?" +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't determine. But at any rate, it stands close to the +riverside. It should be merely a question of time to identify it. I +shall set Scotland Yard to work immediately; but I am hoping for +nothing. Our escape will warn him." +</P> + +<P> +I said no more for a time, sitting wiping the perspiration from my +forehead and watching my friend load his cracked briar with the +broadcut Latakia mixture. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said at last, "what was that horrible wailing we heard, and +what did Fu-Manchu mean when he referred to Rangoon? I noticed how it +affected you." +</P> + +<P> +My friend nodded and lighted his pipe. +</P> + +<P> +"There was a ghastly business there in 1908 or early in 1909," he +replied: "an utterly mysterious epidemic. And this beastly wailing +was associated with it." +</P> + +<P> +"In what way? And what do you mean by an epidemic?" +</P> + +<P> +"It began, I believe, at the Palace Mansions Hotel, in the cantonments. +A young American, whose name I cannot recall, was staying there on +business connected with some new iron buildings. One night he went to +his room, locked the door, and jumped out of the window into the +courtyard. Broke his neck, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"Suicide?" +</P> + +<P> +"Apparently. But there were singular features in the case. For +instance, his revolver lay beside him, fully loaded!" +</P> + +<P> +"In the courtyard?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the courtyard!" +</P> + +<P> +"Was it murder by any chance?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith shrugged his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"His door was found locked from the inside; had to be broken in." +</P> + +<P> +"But the wailing business?" +</P> + +<P> +"That began later, or was only noticed later. A French doctor, named +Lafitte, died in exactly the same way." +</P> + +<P> +"At the same place?" +</P> + +<P> +"At the same hotel; but he occupied a different room. Here is the +extraordinary part of the affair: a friend shared the room with him, +and actually saw him go!" +</P> + +<P> +"Saw him leap from the window?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. The friend—an Englishman—was aroused by the uncanny wailing. +I was in Rangoon at the time, so that I know more of the case of +Lafitte than of that of the American. I spoke to the man about it +personally. He was an electrical engineer, Edward Martin, and he told +me that the cry seemed to come from above him." +</P> + +<P> +"It seemed to come from above when we heard it at Fu-Manchu's house." +</P> + +<P> +"Martin sat up in bed, it was a clear moonlight night—the sort of +moonlight you get in Burma. Lafitte, for some reason, had just gone to +the window. His friend saw him look out. The next moment with a +dreadful scream, he threw himself forward—and crashed down into the +courtyard!" +</P> + +<P> +"What then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Martin ran to the window and looked down. Lafitte's scream had +aroused the place, of course. But there was absolutely nothing to +account for the occurrence. There was no balcony, no ledge, by means +of which anyone could reach the window." +</P> + +<P> +"But how did you come to recognize the cry?" +</P> + +<P> +"I stopped at the Palace Mansions for some time; and one night this +uncanny howling aroused me. I heard it quite distinctly, and am never +likely to forget it. It was followed by a hoarse yell. The man in the +next room, an orchid hunter, had gone the same way as the others!" +</P> + +<P> +"Did you change your quarters?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Fortunately for the reputation of the hotel—a first-class +establishment—several similar cases occurred elsewhere, both in +Rangoon, in Prome and in Moulmein. A story got about the native +quarter, and was fostered by some mad fakir, that the god Siva was +reborn and that the cry was his call for victims; a ghastly story, +which led to an outbreak of dacoity and gave the District +Superintendent no end of trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"Was there anything unusual about the bodies?" +</P> + +<P> +"They all developed marks after death, as though they had been +strangled! The marks were said all to possess a peculiar form, though +it was not appreciable to my eye; and this, again, was declared to be +the five heads of Siva." +</P> + +<P> +"Were the deaths confined to Europeans?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no. Several Burmans and others died in the same way. At first +there was a theory that the victims had contracted leprosy and +committed suicide as a result; but the medical evidence disproved that. +The Call of Siva became a perfect nightmare throughout Burma." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever hear it again, before this evening?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I heard it on the Upper Irrawaddy one clear, moonlight night, +and a Colassie—a deck-hand—leaped from the top deck of the steamer +aboard which I was traveling! My God! to think that the fiend +Fu-Manchu has brought That to England!" +</P> + +<P> +"But brought what, Smith?" I cried, in perplexity. "What has he +brought? An evil spirit? A mental disease? What is it? What CAN it +be?" +</P> + +<P> +"A new agent of death, Petrie! Something born in a plague-spot of +Burma—the home of much that is unclean and much that is inexplicable. +Heaven grant that we be in time, and are able to save Guthrie." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap15"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<P> +THE train was late, and as our cab turned out of Waterloo Station and +began to ascend to the bridge, from a hundred steeples rang out the +gongs of midnight, the bell of St. Paul's raised above them all to vie +with the deep voice of Big Ben. +</P> + +<P> +I looked out from the cab window across the river to where, towering +above the Embankment, that place of a thousand tragedies, the light of +some of London's greatest caravanserais formed a sort of minor +constellation. From the subdued blaze that showed the public +supper-rooms I looked up to the hundreds of starry points marking the +private apartments of those giant inns. +</P> + +<P> +I thought how each twinkling window denoted the presence of some bird +of passage, some wanderer temporarily abiding in our midst. There, +floor piled upon floor above the chattering throngs, were these less +gregarious units, each something of a mystery to his fellow-guests, +each in his separate cell; and each as remote from real human +companionship as if that cell were fashioned, not in the bricks of +London, but in the rocks of Hindustan! +</P> + +<P> +In one of those rooms Graham Guthrie might at that moment be sleeping, +all unaware that he would awake to the Call of Siva, to the summons of +death. As we neared the Strand, Smith stopped the cab, discharging the +man outside Sotheby's auction-rooms. +</P> + +<P> +"One of the doctor's watch-dogs may be in the foyer," he said +thoughtfully, "and it might spoil everything if we were seen to go to +Guthrie's rooms. There must be a back entrance to the kitchens, and so +on?" +</P> + +<P> +"There is," I replied quickly. "I have seen the vans delivering there. +But have we time?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Lead on." +</P> + +<P> +We walked up the Strand and hurried westward. Into that narrow court, +with its iron posts and descending steps, upon which opens a well-known +wine-cellar, we turned. Then, going parallel with the Strand, but on +the Embankment level, we ran round the back of the great hotel, and +came to double doors which were open. An arc lamp illuminated the +interior and a number of men were at work among the casks, crates and +packages stacked about the place. We entered. +</P> + +<P> +"Hallo!" cried a man in a white overall, "where d'you think you're +going?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith grasped him by the arm. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to get to the public part of the hotel without being seen from +the entrance hall," he said. "Will you please lead the way?" +</P> + +<P> +"Here—" began the other, staring. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't waste time!" snapped my friend, in that tone of authority which +he knew so well how to assume. "It's a matter of life and death. Lead +the way, I say!" +</P> + +<P> +"Police, sir?" asked the man civilly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Smith; "hurry!" +</P> + +<P> +Off went our guide without further demur. Skirting sculleries, +kitchens, laundries and engine-rooms, he led us through those +mysterious labyrinths which have no existence for the guest above, but +which contain the machinery that renders these modern khans the +Aladdin's palaces they are. On a second-floor landing we met a man in +a tweed suit, to whom our cicerone presented us. +</P> + +<P> +"Glad I met you, sir. Two gentlemen from the police." +</P> + +<P> +The man regarded us haughtily with a suspicious smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you?" he asked. "You're not from Scotland Yard, at any rate!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith pulled out a card and thrust it into the speaker's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"If you are the hotel detective," he said, "take us without delay to +Mr. Graham Guthrie." +</P> + +<P> +A marked change took place in the other's demeanor on glancing at the +card in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, sir," he said deferentially, "but, of course, I didn't know +who I was speaking to. We all have instructions to give you every +assistance." +</P> + +<P> +"Is Mr. Guthrie in his room?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's been in his room for some time, sir. You will want to get there +without being seen? This way. We can join the lift on the third +floor." +</P> + +<P> +Off we went again, with our new guide. In the lift: +</P> + +<P> +"Have you noticed anything suspicious about the place to-night?" asked +Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"I have!" was the startling reply. "That accounts for your finding me +where you did. My usual post is in the lobby. But about eleven +o'clock, when the theater people began to come in, I had a hazy sort of +impression that someone or something slipped past in the +crowd—something that had no business in the hotel." +</P> + +<P> +We got out of the lift. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't quite follow you," said Smith. "If you thought you saw +something entering, you must have formed a more or less definite +impression regarding it." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the funny part of the business," answered the man doggedly. "I +didn't! But as I stood at the top of the stairs I could have sworn +that there was something crawling up behind a party—two ladies and two +gentlemen." +</P> + +<P> +"A dog, for instance?" +</P> + +<P> +"It didn't strike me as being a dog, sir. Anyway, when the party +passed me, there was nothing there. Mind you, whatever it was, it +hadn't come in by the front. I have made inquiries everywhere, but +without result." He stopped abruptly. "No. 189—Mr. Guthrie's door, +sir." +</P> + +<P> +Smith knocked. +</P> + +<P> +"Hallo!" came a muffled voice; "what do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"Open the door! Don't delay; it is important." +</P> + +<P> +He turned to the hotel detective. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay right there where you can watch the stairs and the lift," he +instructed; "and note everyone and everything that passes this door. +But whatever you see or hear, do nothing without my orders." +</P> + +<P> +The man moved off, and the door was opened. Smith whispered in my ear: +</P> + +<P> +"Some creature of Dr. Fu-Manchu is in the hotel!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Graham Guthrie, British resident in North Bhutan, was a big, +thick-set man—gray-haired and florid, with widely opened eyes of the +true fighting blue, a bristling mustache and prominent shaggy brows. +Nayland Smith introduced himself tersely, proffering his card and an +open letter. +</P> + +<P> +"Those are my credentials, Mr. Guthrie," he said; "so no doubt you will +realize that the business which brings me and my friend, Dr. Petrie, +here at such an hour is of the first importance." +</P> + +<P> +He switched off the light. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no time for ceremony," he explained. "It is now twenty-five +minutes past twelve. At half-past an attempt will be made upon your +life!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Smith," said the other, who, arrayed in his pajamas, was seated on +the edge of the bed, "you alarm me very greatly. I may mention that I +was advised of your presence in England this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know anything respecting the person called Fu-Manchu—Dr. +Fu-Manchu?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only what I was told to-day—that he is the agent of an advanced +political group." +</P> + +<P> +"It is opposed to his interests that you should return to Bhutan. A +more gullible agent would be preferable. Therefore, unless you +implicitly obey my instructions, you will never leave England!" +</P> + +<P> +Graham Guthrie breathed quickly. I was growing more used to the gloom, +and I could dimly discern him, his face turned towards Nayland Smith, +whilst with his hand he clutched the bed-rail. Such a visit as ours, I +think, must have shaken the nerve of any man. +</P> + +<P> +"But, Mr. Smith," he said, "surely I am safe enough here! The place is +full of American visitors at present, and I have had to be content with +a room right at the top; so that the only danger I apprehend is that of +fire." +</P> + +<P> +"There is another danger," replied Smith. "The fact that you are at +the top of the building enhances that danger. Do you recall anything +of the mysterious epidemic which broke out in Rangoon in 1908—the +deaths due to the Call of Siva?" +</P> + +<P> +"I read of it in the Indian papers," said Guthrie uneasily. "Suicides, +were they not?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" snapped Smith. "Murders!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a brief silence. +</P> + +<P> +"From what I recall of the cases," said Guthrie, "that seems +impossible. In several instances the victims threw themselves from the +windows of locked rooms—and the windows were quite inaccessible." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly," replied Smith; and in the dim light his revolver gleamed +dully, as he placed it on the small table beside the bed. "Except that +your door is unlocked, the conditions to-night are identical. Silence, +please, I hear a clock striking." +</P> + +<P> +It was Big Ben. It struck the half-hour, leaving the stillness +complete. In that room, high above the activity which yet prevailed +below, high above the supping crowds in the hotel, high above the +starving crowds on the Embankment, a curious chill of isolation swept +about me. Again I realized how, in the very heart of the great +metropolis, a man may be as far from aid as in the heart of a desert. +I was glad that I was not alone in that room—marked with the +death-mark of Fu-Manchu; and I am certain that Graham Guthrie welcomed +his unexpected company. +</P> + +<P> +I may have mentioned the fact before, but on this occasion it became so +peculiarly evident to me that I am constrained to record it here—I +refer to the sense of impending danger which invariably preceded a +visit from Fu-Manchu. Even had I not known that an attempt was to be +made that night, I should have realized it, as, strung to high tension, +I waited in the darkness. Some invisible herald went ahead of the +dreadful Chinaman, proclaiming his coming to every nerve in one's body. +It was like a breath of astral incense, announcing the presence of the +priests of death. +</P> + +<P> +A wail, low but singularly penetrating, falling in minor cadences to a +new silence, came from somewhere close at hand. +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" hissed Guthrie, "what was that?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Call of Siva," whispered Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't stir, for your life!" +</P> + +<P> +Guthrie was breathing hard. +</P> + +<P> +I knew that we were three; that the hotel detective was within hail; +that there was a telephone in the room; that the traffic of the +Embankment moved almost beneath us; but I knew, and am not ashamed to +confess, that King Fear had icy fingers about my heart. It was +awful—that tense waiting—for—what? +</P> + +<P> +Three taps sounded—very distinctly upon the window. +</P> + +<P> +Graham Guthrie started so as to shake the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"It's supernatural!" he muttered—all that was Celtic in his blood +recoiling from the omen. "Nothing human can reach that window!" +"S-sh!" from Smith. "Don't stir." +</P> + +<P> +The tapping was repeated. +</P> + +<P> +Smith softly crossed the room. My heart was beating painfully. He +threw open the window. Further inaction was impossible. I joined him; +and we looked out into the empty air. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't come too near, Petrie!" he warned over his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +One on either side of the open window, we stood and looked down at the +moving Embankment lights, at the glitter of the Thames, at the +silhouetted buildings on the farther bank, with the Shot Tower starting +above them all. +</P> + +<P> +Three taps sounded on the panes above us. +</P> + +<P> +In all my dealings with Dr. Fu-Manchu I had had to face nothing so +uncanny as this. What Burmese ghoul had he loosed? Was it outside, in +the air? Was it actually in the room? +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let me go, Petrie!" whispered Smith suddenly. "Get a tight hold +on me!" +</P> + +<P> +That was the last straw; for I thought that some dreadful fascination +was impelling my friend to hurl himself out! Wildly I threw my arms +about him, and Guthrie leaped forward to help. +</P> + +<P> +Smith leaned from the window and looked up. +</P> + +<P> +One choking cry he gave—smothered, inarticulate—and I found him +slipping from my grip—being drawn out of the window—drawn to his +death! +</P> + +<P> +"Hold him, Guthrie!" I gasped hoarsely. "My God, he's going! Hold +him!" +</P> + +<P> +My friend writhed in our grasp, and I saw him stretch his arm upward. +The crack of his revolver came, and he collapsed on to the floor, +carrying me with him. +</P> + +<P> +But as I fell I heard a scream above. Smith's revolver went hurtling +through the air, and, hard upon it, went a black shape—flashing past +the open window into the gulf of the night. +</P> + +<P> +"The light! The light!" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +Guthrie ran and turned on the light. Nayland Smith, his eyes starting +from his head, his face swollen, lay plucking at a silken cord which +showed tight about his throat. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a Thug!" screamed Guthrie. "Get the rope off! He's choking!" +</P> + +<P> +My hands a-twitch, I seized the strangling-cord. +</P> + +<P> +"A knife! Quick!" I cried. "I have lost mine!" +</P> + +<P> +Guthrie ran to the dressing-table and passed me an open penknife. I +somehow forced the blade between the rope and Smith's swollen neck, and +severed the deadly silken thing. +</P> + +<P> +Smith made a choking noise, and fell back, swooning in my arms. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When, later, we stood looking down upon the mutilated thing which had +been brought in from where it fell, Smith showed me a mark on the +brow—close beside the wound where his bullet had entered. +</P> + +<P> +"The mark of Kali," he said. "The man was a phansigar—a religious +strangler. Since Fu-Manchu has dacoits in his service I might have +expected that he would have Thugs. A group of these fiends would seem +to have fled into Burma; so that the mysterious epidemic in Rangoon was +really an outbreak of thuggee—on slightly improved lines! I had +suspected something of the kind but, naturally, I had not looked for +Thugs near Rangoon. My unexpected resistance led the strangler to +bungle the rope. You have seen how it was fastened about my throat? +That was unscientific. The true method, as practiced by the group +operating in Burma, was to throw the line about the victim's neck and +jerk him from the window. A man leaning from an open window is very +nicely poised: it requires only a slight jerk to pitch him forward. No +loop was used, but a running line, which, as the victim fell, remained +in the hand of the murderer. No clew! Therefore we see at once what +commended the system to Fu-Manchu." +</P> + +<P> +Graham Guthrie, very pale, stood looking down at the dead strangler. +</P> + +<P> +"I owe you my life, Mr. Smith," he said. "If you had come five minutes +later—" +</P> + +<P> +He grasped Smith's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," Guthrie continued, "no one thought of looking for a Thug in +Burma! And no one thought of the ROOF! These fellows are as active as +monkeys, and where an ordinary man would infallibly break his neck, +they are entirely at home. I might have chosen my room especially for +the business!" +</P> + +<P> +"He slipped in late this evening," said Smith. "The hotel detective +saw him, but these stranglers are as elusive as shadows, otherwise, +despite their having changed the scene of their operations, not one +could have survived." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't you mention a case of this kind on the Irrawaddy?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," was the reply; "and I know of what you are thinking. The +steamers of the Irrawaddy flotilla have a corrugated-iron roof over the +top deck. The Thug must have been lying up there as the Colassie +passed on the deck below." +</P> + +<P> +"But, Smith, what is the motive of the Call?" I continued. +</P> + +<P> +"Partly religious," he explained, "and partly to wake the victims! You +are perhaps going to ask me how Dr. Fu-Manchu has obtained power over +such people as phansigars? I can only reply that Dr. Fu-Manchu has +secret knowledge of which, so far, we know absolutely nothing; but, +despite all, at last I begin to score." +</P> + +<P> +"You do," I agreed; "but your victory took you near to death." +</P> + +<P> +"I owe my life to you, Petrie," he said. "Once to your strength of +arm, and once to—" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't speak of her, Smith," I interrupted. "Dr. Fu-Manchu may have +discovered the part she played! In which event—" +</P> + +<P> +"God help her!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap16"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<P> +UPON the following day we were afoot again, and shortly at handgrips +with the enemy. In retrospect, that restless time offers a chaotic +prospect, with no peaceful spot amid its turmoils. +</P> + +<P> +All that was reposeful in nature seemed to have become an irony and a +mockery to us—who knew how an evil demigod had his sacrificial altars +amid our sweetest groves. This idea ruled strongly in my mind upon +that soft autumnal day. +</P> + +<P> +"The net is closing in," said Nayland Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us hope upon a big catch," I replied, with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond where the Thames tided slumberously seaward showed the roofs of +Royal Windsor, the castle towers showing through the autumn haze. The +peace of beautiful Thames-side was about us. +</P> + +<P> +This was one of the few tangible clews upon which thus far we had +chanced; but at last it seemed indeed that we were narrowing the +resources of that enemy of the white race who was writing his name over +England in characters of blood. To capture Dr. Fu-Manchu we did not +hope; but at least there was every promise of destroying one of the +enemy's strongholds. +</P> + +<P> +We had circled upon the map a tract of country cut by the Thames, with +Windsor for its center. Within that circle was the house from which +miraculously we had escaped—a house used by the most highly organized +group in the history of criminology. So much we knew. Even if we +found the house, and this was likely enough, to find it vacated by +Fu-Manchu and his mysterious servants we were prepared. But it would +be a base destroyed. +</P> + +<P> +We were working upon a methodical plan, and although our cooperators +were invisible, these numbered no fewer than twelve—all of them +experienced men. Thus far we had drawn blank, but the place for which +Smith and I were making now came clearly into view: an old mansion +situated in extensive walled grounds. Leaving the river behind us, we +turned sharply to the right along a lane flanked by a high wall. On an +open patch of ground, as we passed, I noted a gypsy caravan. An old +woman was seated on the steps, her wrinkled face bent, her chin resting +in the palm of her hand. +</P> + +<P> +I scarcely glanced at her, but pressed on, nor did I notice that my +friend no longer was beside me. I was all anxiety to come to some +point from whence I might obtain a view of the house; all anxiety to +know if this was the abode of our mysterious enemy—the place where he +worked amid his weird company, where he bred his deadly scorpions and +his bacilli, reared his poisonous fungi, from whence he dispatched his +murder ministers. Above all, perhaps, I wondered if this would prove +to be the hiding-place of the beautiful slave girl who was such a +potent factor in the Doctor's plans, but a two-edged sword which yet we +hoped to turn upon Fu-Manchu. Even in the hands of a master, a woman's +beauty is a dangerous weapon. +</P> + +<P> +A cry rang out behind me. I turned quickly. And a singular sight met +my gaze. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith was engaged in a furious struggle with the old gypsy +woman! His long arms clasped about her, he was roughly dragging her +out into the roadway, she fighting like a wild thing—silently, +fiercely. +</P> + +<P> +Smith often surprised me, but at that sight, frankly, I thought that he +was become bereft of reason. I ran back; and I had almost reached the +scene of this incredible contest, and Smith now was evidently hard put +to it to hold his own when a man, swarthy, with big rings in his ears, +leaped from the caravan. +</P> + +<P> +One quick glance he threw in our direction, and made off towards the +river. +</P> + +<P> +Smith twisted round upon me, never releasing his hold of the woman. +</P> + +<P> +"After him, Petrie!" he cried. "After him. Don't let him escape. +It's a dacoit!" +</P> + +<P> +My brain in a confused whirl; my mind yet disposed to a belief that my +friend had lost his senses, the word "dacoit" was sufficient. +</P> + +<P> +I started down the road after the fleetly running man. Never once did +he glance behind him, so that he evidently had occasion to fear +pursuit. The dusty road rang beneath my flying footsteps. That sense +of fantasy, which claimed me often enough in those days of our struggle +with the titanic genius whose victory meant the victory of the yellow +races over the white, now had me fast in its grip again. I was an +actor in one of those dream-scenes of the grim Fu-Manchu drama. +</P> + +<P> +Out over the grass and down to the river's brink ran the gypsy who was +no gypsy, but one of that far more sinister brotherhood, the dacoits. +I was close upon his heels. But I was not prepared for him to leap in +among the rushes at the margin of the stream; and seeing him do this I +pulled up quickly. Straight into the water he plunged; and I saw that +he held some object in his hand. He waded out; he dived; and as I +gained the bank and looked to right and left he had vanished +completely. Only ever-widening rings showed where he had been. I had +him. +</P> + +<P> +For directly he rose to the surface he would be visible from either +bank, and with the police whistle which I carried I could, if +necessary, summon one of the men in hiding across the stream. I +waited. A wild-fowl floated serenely past, untroubled by this strange +invasion of his precincts. A full minute I waited. From the lane +behind me came Smith's voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let him escape, Petrie!" +</P> + +<P> +Never lifting my eyes from the water, I waved my hand reassuringly. +But still the dacoit did not rise. I searched the surface in all +directions as far as my eyes could reach; but no swimmer showed above +it. Then it was that I concluded he had dived too deeply, become +entangled in the weeds and was drowned. With a final glance to right +and left and some feeling of awe at this sudden tragedy—this grim +going out of a life at glorious noonday—I turned away. Smith had the +woman securely; but I had not taken five steps towards him when a faint +splash behind warned me. Instinctively I ducked. From whence that +saving instinct arose I cannot surmise, but to it I owed my life. For +as I rapidly lowered my head, something hummed past me, something that +flew out over the grass bank, and fell with a jangle upon the dusty +roadside. A knife! +</P> + +<P> +I turned and bounded back to the river's brink. I heard a faint cry +behind me, which could only have come from the gypsy woman. Nothing +disturbed the calm surface of the water. The reach was lonely of +rowers. Out by the farther bank a girl was poling a punt along, and +her white-clad figure was the only living thing that moved upon the +river within the range of the most expert knife-thrower. +</P> + +<P> +To say that I was nonplused is to say less than the truth; I was +amazed. That it was the dacoit who had shown me this murderous +attention I could not doubt. But where in Heaven's name WAS he? He +could not humanly have remained below water for so long; yet he +certainly was not above, was not upon the surface, concealed amongst +the reeds, nor hidden upon the bank. +</P> + +<P> +There, in the bright sunshine, a consciousness of the eerie possessed +me. It was with an uncomfortable feeling that my phantom foe might be +aiming a second knife at my back that I turned away and hastened +towards Smith. My fearful expectations were not realized, and I picked +up the little weapon which had so narrowly missed me, and with it in my +hand rejoined my friend. +</P> + +<P> +He was standing with one arm closely clasped about the apparently +exhausted woman, and her dark eyes were fixed upon him with an +extraordinary expression. +</P> + +<P> +"What does it mean, Smith?" I began. +</P> + +<P> +But he interrupted me. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is the dacoit?" he demanded rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +"Since he seemingly possesses the attributes of a fish," I replied, "I +cannot pretend to say." +</P> + +<P> +The gypsy woman lifted her eyes to mine and laughed. Her laughter was +musical, not that of such an old hag as Smith held captive; it was +familiar, too. +</P> + +<P> +I started and looked closely into the wizened face. +</P> + +<P> +"He's tricked you," said Smith, an angry note in his voice. "What is +that you have in your hand?" +</P> + +<P> +I showed him the knife, and told him how it had come into my possession. +</P> + +<P> +"I know," he rapped. "I saw it. He was in the water not three yards +from where you stood. You must have seen him. Was there nothing +visible?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing." +</P> + +<P> +The woman laughed again, and again I wondered. +</P> + +<P> +"A wild-fowl," I added; "nothing else." +</P> + +<P> +"A wild-fowl," snapped Smith. "If you will consult your recollections +of the habits of wild-fowl you will see that this particular specimen +was a RARA AVIS. It's an old trick, Petrie, but a good one, for it is +used in decoying. A dacoit's head was concealed in that wild-fowl! +It's useless. He has certainly made good his escape by now." +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said, somewhat crestfallen, "why are you detaining this +gypsy woman?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gypsy woman!" he laughed, hugging her tightly as she made an impatient +movement. "Use your eyes, old man." +</P> + +<P> +He jerked the frowsy wig from her head, and beneath was a cloud of +disordered hair that shimmered in the sunlight. +</P> + +<P> +"A wet sponge will do the rest," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Into my eyes, widely opened in wonder, looked the dark eyes of the +captive; and beneath the disguise I picked out the charming features of +the slave girl. There were tears on the whitened lashes, and she was +submissive now. +</P> + +<P> +"This time," said my friend hardly, "we have fairly captured her—and +we will hold her." +</P> + +<P> +From somewhere up-stream came a faint call. +</P> + +<P> +"The dacoit!" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith's lean body straightened; he stood alert, strung up. +</P> + +<P> +Another call answered, and a third responded. Then followed the flatly +shrill note of a police whistle, and I noted a column of black vapor +rising beyond the wall, mounting straight to heaven as the smoke of a +welcome offering. +</P> + +<P> +The surrounded mansion was in flames! +</P> + +<P> +"Curse it!" rapped Smith. "So this time we were right. But, of +course, he has had ample opportunity to remove his effects. I knew +that. The man's daring is incredible. He has given himself till the +very last moment—and we blundered upon two of the outposts." +</P> + +<P> +"I lost one." +</P> + +<P> +"No matter. We have the other. I expect no further arrests, and the +house will have been so well fired by the Doctor's servants that +nothing can save it. I fear its ashes will afford us no clew, Petrie; +but we have secured a lever which should serve to disturb Fu-Manchu's +world." +</P> + +<P> +He glanced at the queer figure which hung submissively in his arms. +She looked up proudly. +</P> + +<P> +"You need not hold me so tight," she said, in her soft voice. "I will +come with you." +</P> + +<P> +That I moved amid singular happenings, you, who have borne with me thus +far, have learned, and that I witnessed many curious scenes; but of the +many such scenes in that race-drama wherein Nayland Smith and Dr. +Fu-Manchu played the leading parts, I remember none more bizarre than +the one at my rooms that afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Without delay, and without taking the Scotland Yard men into our +confidence, we had hurried our prisoner back to London, for my friend's +authority was supreme. A strange trio we were, and one which excited +no little comment; but the journey came to an end at last. Now we were +in my unpretentious sitting-room—the room wherein Smith first had +unfolded to me the story of Dr. Fu-Manchu and of the great secret +society which sought to upset the balance of the world—to place Europe +and America beneath the scepter of Cathay. +</P> + +<P> +I sat with my elbows upon the writing-table, my chin in my hands; Smith +restlessly paced the floor, relighting his blackened briar a dozen +times in as many minutes. In the big arm-chair the pseudogypsy was +curled up. A brief toilet had converted the wizened old woman's face +into that of a fascinatingly pretty girl. Wildly picturesque she +looked in her ragged Romany garb. She held a cigarette in her fingers +and watched us through lowered lashes. +</P> + +<P> +Seemingly, with true Oriental fatalism, she was quite reconciled to her +fate, and ever and anon she would bestow upon me a glance from her +beautiful eyes which few men, I say with confidence, could have +sustained unmoved. Though I could not be blind to the emotions of that +passionate Eastern soul, yet I strove not to think of them. Accomplice +of an arch-murderer she might be; but she was dangerously lovely. +</P> + +<P> +"That man who was with you," said Smith, suddenly turning upon her, +"was in Burma up till quite recently. He murdered a fisherman thirty +miles above Prome only a month before I left. The D.S.P. had placed a +thousand rupees on his head. Am I right?" +</P> + +<P> +The girl shrugged her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose—What then?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I handed you over to the police?" suggested Smith. But he +spoke without conviction, for in the recent past we both had owed our +lives to this girl. +</P> + +<P> +"As you please," she replied. "The police would learn nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not belong to the Far East," my friend said abruptly. "You may +have Eastern blood in your veins, but you are no kin of Fu-Manchu." +</P> + +<P> +"That is true," she admitted, and knocked the ash from her cigarette. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you tell me where to find Fu-Manchu?" +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged her shoulders again, glancing eloquently in my direction. +</P> + +<P> +Smith walked to the door. +</P> + +<P> +"I must make out my report, Petrie," he said. "Look after the +prisoner." +</P> + +<P> +And as the door closed softly behind him I knew what was expected of +me; but, honestly, I shirked my responsibility. What attitude should I +adopt? How should I go about my delicate task? In a quandary, I stood +watching the girl whom singular circumstances saw captive in my rooms. +</P> + +<P> +"You do not think we would harm you?" I began awkwardly. "No harm +shall come to you. Why will you not trust us?" +</P> + +<P> +She raised her brilliant eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Of what avail has your protection been to some of those others," she +said; "those others whom HE has sought for?" +</P> + +<P> +Alas! it had been of none, and I knew it well. I thought I grasped +the drift of her words. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean that if you speak, Fu-Manchu will find a way of killing you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of killing ME!" she flashed scornfully. "Do I seem one to fear for +myself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then what do you fear?" I asked, in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +She looked at me oddly. +</P> + +<P> +"When I was seized and sold for a slave," she answered slowly, "my +sister was taken, too, and my brother—a child." She spoke the word +with a tender intonation, and her slight accent rendered it the more +soft. "My sister died in the desert. My brother lived. Better, far +better, that he had died, too." +</P> + +<P> +Her words impressed me intensely. +</P> + +<P> +"Of what are you speaking?" I questioned. "You speak of slave-raids, +of the desert. Where did these things take place? Of what country are +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Does it matter?" she questioned in turn. "Of what country am I? A +slave has no country, no name." +</P> + +<P> +"No name!" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +"You may call me Karamaneh," she said. "As Karamaneh I was sold to Dr. +Fu-Manchu, and my brother also he purchased. We were cheap at the +price he paid." She laughed shortly, wildly. +</P> + +<P> +"But he has spent a lot of money to educate me. My brother is all that +is left to me in the world to love, and he is in the power of Dr. +Fu-Manchu. You understand? It is upon him the blow will fall. You ask +me to fight against Fu-Manchu. You talk of protection. Did your +protection save Sir Crichton Davey?" +</P> + +<P> +I shook my head sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"You understand now why I cannot disobey my master's orders—why, if I +would, I dare not betray him." +</P> + +<P> +I walked to the window and looked out. How could I answer her +arguments? What could I say? I heard the rustle of her ragged skirts, +and she who called herself Karamaneh stood beside me. She laid her +hand upon my arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me go," she pleaded. "He will kill him! He will kill him!" +</P> + +<P> +Her voice shook with emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"He cannot revenge himself upon your brother when you are in no way to +blame," I said angrily. "We arrested you; you are not here of your own +free will." +</P> + +<P> +She drew her breath sharply, clutching at my arm, and in her eyes I +could read that she was forcing her mind to some arduous decision. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen." She was speaking rapidly, nervously. "If I help you to take +Dr. Fu-Manchu—tell you where he is to be found ALONE—will you promise +me, solemnly promise me, that you will immediately go to the place +where I shall guide you and release my brother; that you will let us +both go free?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will," I said, without hesitation. "You may rest assured of it." +</P> + +<P> +"But there is a condition," she added. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"When I have told you where to capture him you must release me." +</P> + +<P> +I hesitated. Smith often had accused me of weakness where this girl +was concerned. What now was my plain duty? That she would utterly +decline to speak under any circumstances unless it suited her to do so +I felt assured. If she spoke the truth, in her proposed bargain there +was no personal element; her conduct I now viewed in a new light. +Humanity, I thought, dictated that I accept her proposal; policy also. +</P> + +<P> +"I agree," I said, and looked into her eyes, which were aflame now with +emotion, an excitement perhaps of anticipation, perhaps of fear. +</P> + +<P> +She laid her hands upon my shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"You will be careful?" she said pleadingly. +</P> + +<P> +"For your sake," I replied, "I shall." +</P> + +<P> +"Not for my sake." +</P> + +<P> +"Then for your brother's." +</P> + +<P> +"No." Her voice had sunk to a whisper. "For your own." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap17"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<P> +A COOL breeze met us, blowing from the lower reaches of the Thames. +Far behind us twinkled the dim lights of Low's Cottages, the last +regular habitations abutting upon the marshes. Between us and the +cottages stretched half-a-mile of lush land through which at this +season there were, however, numerous dry paths. Before us the flats +again, a dull, monotonous expanse beneath the moon, with the promise of +the cool breeze that the river flowed round the bend ahead. It was +very quiet. Only the sound of our footsteps, as Nayland Smith and I +tramped steadily towards our goal, broke the stillness of that lonely +place. +</P> + +<P> +Not once but many times, within the last twenty minutes, I had thought +that we were ill-advised to adventure alone upon the capture of the +formidable Chinese doctor; but we were following out our compact with +Karamaneh; and one of her stipulations had been that the police must +not be acquainted with her share in the matter. +</P> + +<P> +A light came into view far ahead of us. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the light, Petrie," said Smith. "If we keep that straight +before us, according to our information we shall strike the hulk." +</P> + +<P> +I grasped the revolver in my pocket, and the presence of the little +weapon was curiously reassuring. I have endeavored, perhaps in +extenuation of my own fears, to explain how about Dr. Fu-Manchu there +rested an atmosphere of horror, peculiar, unique. He was not as other +men. The dread that he inspired in all with whom he came in contact, +the terrors which he controlled and hurled at whomsoever cumbered his +path, rendered him an object supremely sinister. I despair of +conveying to those who may read this account any but the coldest +conception of the man's evil power. +</P> + +<P> +Smith stopped suddenly and grasped my arm. We stood listening. +"What?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"You heard nothing?" +</P> + +<P> +I shook my head. +</P> + +<P> +Smith was peering back over the marshes in his oddly alert way. He +turned to me, and his tanned face wore a peculiar expression. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't think it's a trap?" he jerked. "We are trusting her +blindly." +</P> + +<P> +Strange it may seem, but something within me rose in arms against the +innuendo. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," I said shortly. +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. We pressed on. +</P> + +<P> +Ten minutes' steady tramping brought us within sight of the Thames. +Smith and I both had noticed how Fu-Manchu's activities centered always +about the London river. Undoubtedly it was his highway, his line of +communication, along which he moved his mysterious forces. The opium +den off Shadwell Highway, the mansion upstream, at that hour a +smoldering shell; now the hulk lying off the marshes. Always he made +his headquarters upon the river. It was significant; and even if +to-night's expedition should fail, this was a clew for our future +guidance. +</P> + +<P> +"Bear to the right," directed Smith. "We must reconnoiter before +making our attack." +</P> + +<P> +We took a path that led directly to the river bank. Before us lay the +gray expanse of water, and out upon it moved the busy shipping of the +great mercantile city. But this life of the river seemed widely +removed from us. The lonely spot where we stood had no kinship with +human activity. Its dreariness illuminated by the brilliant moon, it +looked indeed a fit setting for an act in such a drama as that wherein +we played our parts. When I had lain in the East End opium den, when +upon such another night as this I had looked out upon a peaceful +Norfolk countryside, the same knowledge of aloofness, of utter +detachment from the world of living men, had come to me. +</P> + +<P> +Silently Smith stared out at the distant moving lights. +</P> + +<P> +"Karamaneh merely means a slave," he said irrelevantly. +</P> + +<P> +I made no comment. +</P> + +<P> +"There's the hulk," he added. +</P> + +<P> +The bank upon which we stood dipped in mud slopes to the level of the +running tide. Seaward it rose higher, and by a narrow inlet—for we +perceived that we were upon a kind of promontory—a rough pier showed. +Beneath it was a shadowy shape in the patch of gloom which the moon +threw far out upon the softly eddying water. Only one dim light was +visible amid this darkness. +</P> + +<P> +"That will be the cabin," said Smith. +</P> + +<P> +Acting upon our prearranged plan, we turned and walked up on to the +staging above the hulk. A wooden ladder led out and down to the deck +below, and was loosely lashed to a ring on the pier. With every motion +of the tidal waters the ladder rose and fell, its rings creaking +harshly, against the crazy railing. +</P> + +<P> +"How are we going to get down without being detected?" whispered Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got to risk it," I said grimly. +</P> + +<P> +Without further words my friend climbed around on to the ladder and +commenced to descend. I waited until his head disappeared below the +level, and, clumsily enough, prepared to follow him. +</P> + +<P> +The hulk at that moment giving an unusually heavy heave, I stumbled, +and for one breathless moment looked down upon the glittering surface +streaking the darkness beneath me. My foot had slipped, and but that I +had a firm grip upon the top rung, that instant, most probably, had +marked the end of my share in the fight with Fu-Manchu. As it was I had +a narrow escape. I felt something slip from my hip pocket, but the +weird creaking of the ladder, the groans of the laboring hulk, and the +lapping of the waves about the staging drowned the sound of the splash +as my revolver dropped into the river. +</P> + +<P> +Rather white-faced, I think, I joined Smith on the deck. He had +witnessed my accident, but— +</P> + +<P> +"We must risk it," he whispered in my ear. "We dare not turn back now." +</P> + +<P> +He plunged into the semi-darkness, making for the cabin, I perforce +following. +</P> + +<P> +At the bottom of the ladder we came fully into the light streaming out +from the singular apartments at the entrance to which we found +ourselves. It was fitted up as a laboratory. A glimpse I had of +shelves loaded with jars and bottles, of a table strewn with scientific +paraphernalia, with retorts, with tubes of extraordinary shapes, +holding living organisms, and with instruments—some of them of a form +unknown to my experience. I saw too that books, papers and rolls of +parchment littered the bare wooden floor. Then Smith's voice rose +above the confused sounds about me, incisive, commanding: +</P> + +<P> +"I have you covered, Dr. Fu-Manchu!" +</P> + +<P> +For Fu-Manchu sat at the table. +</P> + +<P> +The picture that he presented at that moment is one which persistently +clings in my memory. In his long, yellow robe, his masklike, +intellectual face bent forward amongst the riot of singular objects +upon the table, his great, high brow gleaming in the light of the +shaded lamp above him, and with the abnormal eyes, filmed and green, +raised to us, he seemed a figure from the realms of delirium. But, +most amazing circumstance of all, he and his surroundings tallied, +almost identically, with the dream-picture which had come to me as I +lay chained in the cell! +</P> + +<P> +Some of the large jars about the place held anatomy specimens. A faint +smell of opium hung in the air, and playing with the tassel of one of +the cushions upon which, as upon a divan, Fu-Manchu was seated, leaped +and chattered a little marmoset. +</P> + +<P> +That was an electric moment. I was prepared for anything—for anything +except for what really happened. +</P> + +<P> +The doctor's wonderful, evil face betrayed no hint of emotion. The +lids flickered over the filmed eyes, and their greenness grew +momentarily brighter, and filmed over again. +</P> + +<P> +"Put up your hands!" rapped Smith, "and attempt no tricks." His voice +quivered with excitement. "The game's up, Fu-Manchu. Find something to +tie him up with, Petrie." +</P> + +<P> +I moved forward to Smith's side, and was about to pass him in the +narrow doorway. The hulk moved beneath our feet like a living thing +groaning, creaking—and the water lapped about the rotten woodwork with +a sound infinitely dreary. +</P> + +<P> +"Put up your hands!" ordered Smith imperatively. +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu slowly raised his hands, and a smile dawned upon the +impassive features—a smile that had no mirth in it, only menace, +revealing as it did his even, discolored teeth, but leaving the filmed +eyes inanimate, dull, inhuman. +</P> + +<P> +He spoke softly, sibilantly. +</P> + +<P> +"I would advise Dr. Petrie to glance behind him before he moves." +</P> + +<P> +Smith's keen gray eyes never for a moment quitted the speaker. The +gleaming barrel moved not a hair's-breadth. But I glanced quickly over +my shoulder—and stifled a cry of pure horror. +</P> + +<P> +A wicked, pock-marked face, with wolfish fangs bared, and jaundiced +eyes squinting obliquely into mine, was within two inches of me. A +lean, brown hand and arm, the great thews standing up like cords, held +a crescent-shaped knife a fraction of an inch above my jugular vein. A +slight movement must have dispatched me; a sweep of the fearful weapon, +I doubt not, would have severed my head from my body. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith!" I whispered hoarsely, "don't look around. For God's sake keep +him covered. But a dacoit has his knife at my throat!" +</P> + +<P> +Then, for the first time, Smith's hand trembled. But his glance never +wavered from the malignant, emotionless countenance of Dr. Fu-Manchu. +He clenched his teeth hard, so that the muscles stood out prominently +upon his jaw. +</P> + +<P> +I suppose that silence which followed my awful discovery prevailed but +a few seconds. To me those seconds were each a lingering death. +</P> + +<P> +There, below, in that groaning hulk, I knew more of icy terror than any +of our meetings with the murder-group had brought to me before; and +through my brain throbbed a thought: the girl had betrayed us! +</P> + +<P> +"You supposed that I was alone?" suggested Fu-Manchu. "So I was." +</P> + +<P> +Yet no trace of fear had broken through the impassive yellow mask when +we had entered. +</P> + +<P> +"But my faithful servant followed you," he added. "I thank him. The +honors, Mr. Smith, are mine, I think?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith made no reply. I divined that he was thinking furiously. +Fu-Manchu moved his hand to caress the marmoset, which had leaped +playfully upon his shoulder, and crouched there gibing at us in a +whistling voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't stir!" said Smith savagely. "I warn you!" +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu kept his hand raised. +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask you how you discovered my retreat?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"This hulk has been watched since dawn," lied Smith brazenly. +</P> + +<P> +"So?" The Doctor's filmed eyes cleared for a moment. "And to-day you +compelled me to burn a house, and you have captured one of my people, +too. I congratulate you. She would not betray me though lashed with +scorpions." +</P> + +<P> +The great gleaming knife was so near to my neck that a sheet of +notepaper could scarcely have been slipped between blade and vein, I +think; but my heart throbbed even more wildly when I heard those words. +</P> + +<P> +"An impasse," said Fu-Manchu. "I have a proposal to make. I assume +that you would not accept my word for anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"I would not," replied Smith promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Therefore," pursued the Chinaman, and the occasional guttural alone +marred his perfect English, "I must accept yours. Of your resources +outside this cabin I know nothing. You, I take it, know as little of +mine. My Burmese friend and Doctor Petrie will lead the way, then; you +and I will follow. We will strike out across the marsh for, say, three +hundred yards. You will then place your pistol on the ground, pledging +me your word to leave it there. I shall further require your assurance +that you will make no attempt upon me until I have retraced my steps. +I and my good servant will withdraw, leaving you, at the expiration of +the specified period, to act as you see fit. Is it agreed?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith hesitated. Then: +</P> + +<P> +"The dacoit must leave his knife also," he stipulated. Fu-Manchu +smiled his evil smile again. +</P> + +<P> +"Agreed. Shall I lead the way?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" rapped Smith. "Petrie and the dacoit first; then you; I last." +</P> + +<P> +A guttural word of command from Fu-Manchu, and we left the cabin, with +its evil odors, its mortuary specimens, and its strange instruments, +and in the order arranged mounted to the deck. +</P> + +<P> +"It will be awkward on the ladder," said Fu-Manchu. "Dr. Petrie, I will +accept your word to adhere to the terms." +</P> + +<P> +"I promise," I said, the words almost choking me. +</P> + +<P> +We mounted the rising and dipping ladder, all reached the pier, and +strode out across the flats, the Chinaman always under close cover of +Smith's revolver. Round about our feet, now leaping ahead, now +gamboling back, came and went the marmoset. The dacoit, dressed solely +in a dark loin-cloth, walked beside me, carrying his huge knife, and +sometimes glancing at me with his blood-lustful eyes. Never before, I +venture to say, had an autumn moon lighted such a scene in that place. +</P> + +<P> +"Here we part," said Fu-Manchu, and spoke another word to his follower. +</P> + +<P> +The man threw his knife upon the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Search him, Petrie," directed Smith. "He may have a second concealed." +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor consented; and I passed my hands over the man's scanty +garments. +</P> + +<P> +"Now search Fu-Manchu." +</P> + +<P> +This also I did. And never have I experienced a similar sense of +revulsion from any human being. I shuddered, as though I had touched a +venomous reptile. +</P> + +<P> +Smith threw down his revolver. +</P> + +<P> +"I curse myself for an honorable fool," he said. "No one could dispute +my right to shoot you dead where you stand." +</P> + +<P> +Knowing him as I did, I could tell from the suppressed passion in +Smith's voice that only by his unhesitating acceptance of my friend's +word, and implicit faith in his keeping it, had Dr. Fu-Manchu escaped +just retribution at that moment. Fiend though he was, I admired his +courage; for all this he, too, must have known. +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor turned, and with the dacoit walked back. Nayland Smith's +next move filled me with surprise. For just as, silently, I was +thanking God for my escape, my friend began shedding his coat, collar, +and waistcoat. +</P> + +<P> +"Pocket your valuables, and do the same," he muttered hoarsely. "We +have a poor chance but we are both fairly fit. To-night, Petrie, we +literally have to run for our lives." +</P> + +<P> +We live in a peaceful age, wherein it falls to the lot of few men to +owe their survival to their fleetness of foot. At Smith's words I +realized in a flash that such was to be our fate to-night. +</P> + +<P> +I have said that the hulk lay off a sort of promontory. East and west, +then, we had nothing to hope for. To the south was Fu-Manchu; and even +as, stripped of our heavier garments, we started to run northward, the +weird signal of a dacoit rose on the night and was answered—was +answered again. +</P> + +<P> +"Three, at least," hissed Smith; "three armed dacoits. Hopeless." +</P> + +<P> +"Take the revolver," I cried. "Smith, it's—" +</P> + +<P> +"No," he rapped, through clenched teeth. "A servant of the Crown in +the East makes his motto: 'Keep your word, though it break your neck!' +I don't think we need fear it being used against us. Fu-Manchu avoids +noisy methods." +</P> + +<P> +So back we ran, over the course by which, earlier, we had come. It +was, roughly, a mile to the first building—a deserted cottage—and +another quarter of a mile to any that was occupied. +</P> + +<P> +Our chance of meeting a living soul, other than Fu-Manchu's dacoits, +was practically nil. +</P> + +<P> +At first we ran easily, for it was the second half-mile that would +decide our fate. The professional murderers who pursued us ran like +panthers, I knew; and I dare not allow my mind to dwell upon those +yellow figures with the curved, gleaming knives. For a long time +neither of us looked back. +</P> + +<P> +On we ran, and on—silently, doggedly. +</P> + +<P> +Then a hissing breath from Smith warned me what to expect. +</P> + +<P> +Should I, too, look back? Yes. It was impossible to resist the horrid +fascination. +</P> + +<P> +I threw a quick glance over my shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +And never while I live shall I forget what I saw. Two of the pursuing +dacoits had outdistanced their fellow (or fellows), and were actually +within three hundred yards of us. +</P> + +<P> +More like dreadful animals they looked than human beings, running bent +forward, with their faces curiously uptilted. The brilliant moonlight +gleamed upon bared teeth, as I could see, even at that distance, even +in that quick, agonized glance, and it gleamed upon the crescent-shaped +knives. +</P> + +<P> +"As hard as you can go now," panted Smith. "We must make an attempt to +break into the empty cottage. Only chance." +</P> + +<P> +I had never in my younger days been a notable runner; for Smith I +cannot speak. But I am confident that the next half-mile was done in +time that would not have disgraced a crack man. Not once again did +either of us look back. Yard upon yard we raced forward together. My +heart seemed to be bursting. My leg muscles throbbed with pain. At +last, with the empty cottage in sight, it came to that pass with me +when another three yards looks as unattainable as three miles. Once I +stumbled. +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" came from Smith weakly. +</P> + +<P> +But I recovered myself. Bare feet pattered close upon our heels, and +panting breaths told how even Fu-Manchu's bloodhounds were hard put to +it by the killing pace we had made. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I whispered, "look in front. Someone!" +</P> + +<P> +As through a red mist I had seen a dark shape detach itself from the +shadows of the cottage, and merge into them again. It could only be +another dacoit; but Smith, not heeding, or not hearing, my faintly +whispered words, crashed open the gate and hurled himself blindly at +the door. +</P> + +<P> +It burst open before him with a resounding boom, and he pitched forward +into the interior darkness. Flat upon the floor he lay, for as, with a +last effort, I gained the threshold and dragged myself within, I almost +fell over his recumbent body. +</P> + +<P> +Madly I snatched at the door. His foot held it open. I kicked the +foot away, and banged the door to. As I turned, the leading dacoit, +his eyes starting from their sockets, his face the face of a demon +leaped wildly through the gateway. +</P> + +<P> +That Smith had burst the latch I felt assured, but by some divine +accident my weak hands found the bolt. With the last ounce of strength +spared to me I thrust it home in the rusty socket—as a full six inches +of shining steel split the middle panel and protruded above my head. +</P> + +<P> +I dropped, sprawling, beside my friend. +</P> + +<P> +A terrific blow shattered every pane of glass in the solitary window, +and one of the grinning animal faces looked in. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry, old man," whispered Smith, and his voice was barely audible. +Weakly he grasped my hand. "My fault. I shouldn't have let you come." +</P> + +<P> +From the corner of the room where the black shadows lay flicked a long +tongue of flame. Muffled, staccato, came the report. And the yellow +face at the window was blotted out. +</P> + +<P> +One wild cry, ending in a rattling gasp, told of a dacoit gone to his +account. +</P> + +<P> +A gray figure glided past me and was silhouetted against the broken +window. +</P> + +<P> +Again the pistol sent its message into the night, and again came the +reply to tell how well and truly that message had been delivered. In +the stillness, intense by sharp contrast, the sound of bare soles +pattering upon the path outside stole to me. Two runners, I thought +there were, so that four dacoits must have been upon our trail. The +room was full of pungent smoke. I staggered to my feet as the gray +figure with the revolver turned towards me. Something familiar there +was in that long, gray garment, and now I perceived why I had thought +so. +</P> + +<P> +It was my gray rain-coat. +</P> + +<P> +"Karamaneh," I whispered. +</P> + +<P> +And Smith, with difficulty, supporting himself upright, and holding +fast to the ledge beside the door, muttered something hoarsely, which +sounded like "God bless her!" +</P> + +<P> +The girl, trembling now, placed her hands upon my shoulders with that +quaint, pathetic gesture peculiarly her own. +</P> + +<P> +"I followed you," she said. "Did you not know I should follow you? +But I had to hide because of another who was following also. I had but +just reached this place when I saw you running towards me." +</P> + +<P> +She broke off and turned to Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"This is your pistol," she said naively. "I found it in your bag. +Will you please take it!" +</P> + +<P> +He took it without a word. Perhaps he could not trust himself to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Now go. Hurry!" she said. "You are not safe yet." +</P> + +<P> +"But you?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"You have failed," she replied. "I must go back to him. There is no +other way." +</P> + +<P> +Strangely sick at heart for a man who has just had a miraculous escape +from death, I opened the door. Coatless, disheveled figures, my friend +and I stepped out into the moonlight. +</P> + +<P> +Hideous under the pale rays lay the two dead men, their glazed eyes +upcast to the peace of the blue heavens. Karamaneh had shot to kill, +for both had bullets in their brains. If God ever planned a more +complex nature than hers—a nature more tumultuous with conflicting +passions, I cannot conceive of it. Yet her beauty was of the sweetest; +and in some respects she had the heart of a child—this girl who could +shoot so straight. +</P> + +<P> +"We must send the police to-night," said Smith. "Or the papers—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hurry," came the girl's voice commandingly from the darkness of the +cottage. +</P> + +<P> +It was a singular situation. My very soul rebelled against it. But +what could we do? +</P> + +<P> +"Tell us where we can communicate," began Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurry. I shall be suspected. Do you want him to kill me!" +</P> + +<P> +We moved away. All was very still now, and the lights glimmered +faintly ahead. Not a wisp of cloud brushed the moon's disk. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-night, Karamaneh," I whispered softly. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap18"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<P> +TO pursue further the adventure on the marshes would be a task at once +useless and thankless. In its actual and in its dramatic significance +it concluded with our parting from Karamaneh. And in that parting I +learned what Shakespeare meant by "Sweet Sorrow." +</P> + +<P> +There was a world, I learned, upon the confines of which I stood, a +world whose very existence hitherto had been unsuspected. Not the +least of the mysteries which peeped from the darkness was the mystery +of the heart of Karamaneh. I sought to forget her. I sought to +remember her. Indeed, in the latter task I found one more congenial, +yet, in the direction and extent of the ideas which it engendered, one +that led me to a precipice. +</P> + +<P> +East and West may not intermingle. As a student of world-policies, as +a physician, I admitted, could not deny, that truth. Again, if +Karamaneh were to be credited, she had come to Fu-Manchu a slave; had +fallen into the hands of the raiders; had crossed the desert with the +slave-drivers; had known the house of the slave-dealer. Could it be? +With the fading of the crescent of Islam I had thought such things to +have passed. +</P> + +<P> +But if it were so? +</P> + +<P> +At the mere thought of a girl so deliciously beautiful in the brutal +power of slavers, I found myself grinding my teeth—closing my eyes in +a futile attempt to blot out the pictures called up. +</P> + +<P> +Then, at such times, I would find myself discrediting her story. +Again, I would find myself wondering, vaguely, why such problems +persistently haunted my mind. But, always, my heart had an answer. +And I was a medical man, who sought to build up a family +practice!—who, in short, a very little time ago, had thought himself +past the hot follies of youth and entered upon that staid phase of life +wherein the daily problems of the medical profession hold absolute sway +and such seductive follies as dark eyes and red lips find—no +place—are excluded! +</P> + +<P> +But it is foreign from the purpose of this plain record to enlist +sympathy for the recorder. The topic upon which, here, I have ventured +to touch was one fascinating enough to me; I cannot hope that it holds +equal charm for any other. Let us return to that which it is my duty +to narrate and let us forget my brief digression. +</P> + +<P> +It is a fact, singular, but true, that few Londoners know London. +Under the guidance of my friend, Nayland Smith, I had learned, since +his return from Burma, how there are haunts in the very heart of the +metropolis whose existence is unsuspected by all but the few; places +unknown even to the ubiquitous copy-hunting pressman. +</P> + +<P> +Into a quiet thoroughfare not two minutes' walk from the pulsing life +of Leicester Square, Smith led the way. Before a door sandwiched in +between two dingy shop-fronts he paused and turned to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever you see or hear," he cautioned, "express no surprise." +</P> + +<P> +A cab had dropped us at the corner. We both wore dark suits and fez +caps with black silk tassels. My complexion had been artificially +reduced to a shade resembling the deep tan of my friend's. He rang the +bell beside the door. +</P> + +<P> +Almost immediately it was opened by a negro woman—gross, hideously +ugly. +</P> + +<P> +Smith uttered something in voluble Arabic. As a linguist his +attainments were a constant source of surprise. The jargons of the +East, Far and Near, he spoke as his mother tongue. The woman +immediately displayed the utmost servility, ushering us into an +ill-lighted passage, with every evidence of profound respect. +Following this passage, and passing an inner door, from beyond whence +proceeded bursts of discordant music, we entered a little room bare of +furniture, with coarse matting for mural decorations, and a patternless +red carpet on the floor. In a niche burned a common metal lamp. +</P> + +<P> +The negress left us, and close upon her departure entered a very aged +man with a long patriarchal beard, who greeted my friend with dignified +courtesy. Following a brief conversation, the aged Arab—for such he +appeared to be—drew aside a strip of matting, revealing a dark recess. +Placing his finger upon his lips, he silently invited us to enter. +</P> + +<P> +We did so, and the mat was dropped behind us. The sounds of crude +music were now much plainer, and as Smith slipped a little shutter +aside I gave a start of surprise. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond lay a fairly large apartment, having divans or low seats around +three of its walls. These divans were occupied by a motley company of +Turks, Egyptians, Greeks, and others; and I noted two Chinese. Most of +them smoked cigarettes, and some were drinking. A girl was performing +a sinuous dance upon the square carpet occupying the center of the +floor, accompanied by a young negro woman upon a guitar and by several +members of the assembly who clapped their hands to the music or hummed +a low, monotonous melody. +</P> + +<P> +Shortly after our entrance into the passage the dance terminated, and +the dancer fled through a curtained door at the farther end of the +room. A buzz of conversation arose. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a sort of combined Wekaleh and place of entertainment for a +certain class of Oriental residents in, or visiting, London," Smith +whispered. "The old gentleman who has just left us is the proprietor +or host. I have been here before on several occasions, but have always +drawn blank." +</P> + +<P> +He was peering out eagerly into the strange clubroom. +</P> + +<P> +"Whom do you expect to find here?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a recognized meeting-place," said Smith in my ear. "It is +almost a certainty that some of the Fu-Manchu group use it at times." +</P> + +<P> +Curiously I surveyed all these faces which were visible from the +spy-hole. My eyes rested particularly upon the two Chinamen. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you recognize anyone?" I whispered. +</P> + +<P> +"S-sh!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith was craning his neck so as to command a sight of the doorway. He +obstructed my view, and only by his tense attitude and some subtle wave +of excitement which he communicated to me did I know that a new arrival +was entering. The hum of conversation died away, and in the ensuing +silence I heard the rustle of draperies. The newcomer was a woman, +then. Fearful of making any noise I yet managed to get my eyes to the +level of the shutter. +</P> + +<P> +A woman in an elegant, flame-colored opera cloak was crossing the floor +and coming in the direction of the spot where we were concealed. She +wore a soft silk scarf about her head, a fold partly draped across her +face. A momentary view I had of her—and wildly incongruous she looked +in that place—and she had disappeared from sight, having approached +someone invisible who sat upon the divan immediately beneath our point +of vantage. +</P> + +<P> +From the way in which the company gazed towards her, I divined that she +was no habitue of the place, but that her presence there was as greatly +surprising to those in the room as it was to me. +</P> + +<P> +Whom could she be, this elegant lady who visited such a haunt—who, it +would seem, was so anxious to disguise her identity, but who was +dressed for a society function rather than for a midnight expedition of +so unusual a character? +</P> + +<P> +I began a whispered question, but Smith tugged at my arm to silence me. +His excitement was intense. Had his keener powers enabled him to +recognize the unknown? +</P> + +<P> +A faint but most peculiar perfume stole to my nostrils, a perfume which +seemed to contain the very soul of Eastern mystery. Only one woman +known to me used that perfume—Karamaneh. +</P> + +<P> +Then it was she! +</P> + +<P> +At last my friend's vigilance had been rewarded. Eagerly I bent +forward. Smith literally quivered in anticipation of a discovery. +Again the strange perfume was wafted to our hiding-place; and, glancing +neither to right nor left, I saw Karamaneh—for that it was she I no +longer doubted—recross the room and disappear. +</P> + +<P> +"The man she spoke to," hissed Smith. "We must see him! We must have +him!" +</P> + +<P> +He pulled the mat aside and stepped out into the anteroom. It was +empty. Down the passage he led, and we were almost come to the door of +the big room when it was thrown open and a man came rapidly out, opened +the street door before Smith could reach him, and was gone, slamming it +fast. +</P> + +<P> +I can swear that we were not four seconds behind him, but when we +gained the street it was empty. Our quarry had disappeared as if by +magic. A big car was just turning the corner towards Leicester Square. +</P> + +<P> +"That is the girl," rapped Smith; "but where in Heaven's name is the +man to whom she brought the message? I would give a hundred pounds to +know what business is afoot. To think that we have had such an +opportunity and have thrown it away!" +</P> + +<P> +Angry and nonplused he stood at the corner, looking in the direction of +the crowded thoroughfare into which the car had been driven, tugging at +the lobe of his ear, as was his habit in such moments of perplexity, +and sharply clicking his teeth together. I, too, was very thoughtful. +Clews were few enough in those days of our war with that giant +antagonist. The mere thought that our trifling error of judgment +tonight in tarrying a moment too long might mean the victory of +Fu-Manchu, might mean the turning of the balance which a wise +providence had adjusted between the white and yellow races, was +appalling. +</P> + +<P> +To Smith and me, who knew something of the secret influences at work to +overthrow the Indian Empire, to place, it might be, the whole of Europe +and America beneath an Eastern rule, it seemed that a great yellow hand +was stretched out over London. Doctor Fu-Manchu was a menace to the +civilized world. Yet his very existence remained unsuspected by the +millions whose fate he sought to command. +</P> + +<P> +"Into what dark scheme have we had a glimpse?" said Smith. "What State +secret is to be filched? What faithful servant of the British Raj to +be spirited away? Upon whom now has Fu-Manchu set his death seal?" +</P> + +<P> +"Karamaneh on this occasion may not have been acting as an emissary of +the Doctor's." +</P> + +<P> +"I feel assured that she was, Petrie. Of the many whom this yellow +cloud may at any moment envelop, to which one did her message refer? +The man's instructions were urgent. Witness his hasty departure. +Curse it!" He dashed his right clenched fist into the palm of his left +hand. "I never had a glimpse of his face, first to last. To think of +the hours I have spent in that place, in anticipation of just such a +meeting—only to bungle the opportunity when it arose!" Scarce heeding +what course we followed, we had come now to Piccadilly Circus, and had +walked out into the heart of the night's traffic. I just dragged Smith +aside in time to save him from the off-front wheel of a big Mercedes. +Then the traffic was blocked, and we found ourselves dangerously penned +in amidst the press of vehicles. +</P> + +<P> +Somehow we extricated ourselves, jeered at by taxi-drivers, who +naturally took us for two simple Oriental visitors, and just before +that impassable barrier the arm of a London policeman was lowered and +the stream moved on, a faint breath of perfume became perceptible to me. +</P> + +<P> +The cabs and cars about us were actually beginning to move again, and +there was nothing for it but a hasty retreat to the curb. I could not +pause to glance behind, but instinctively I knew that someone—someone +who used that rare, fragrant essence—was leaning from the window of +the car. +</P> + +<P> +"ANDAMAN—SECOND!" floated a soft whisper. +</P> + +<P> +We gained the pavement as the pent-up traffic roared upon its way. +</P> + +<P> +Smith had not noticed the perfume worn by the unseen occupant of the +car, had not detected the whispered words. But I had no reason to +doubt my senses, and I knew beyond question that Fu-Manchu's lovely +slave, Karamaneh, had been within a yard of us, had recognized us, and +had uttered those words for our guidance. +</P> + +<P> +On regaining my rooms, we devoted a whole hour to considering what +"ANDAMAN—SECOND" could possibly mean. +</P> + +<P> +"Hang it all!" cried Smith, "it might mean anything—the result of a +race, for instance." +</P> + +<P> +He burst into one of his rare laughs, and began to stuff broadcut +mixture into his briar. I could see that he had no intention of +turning in. +</P> + +<P> +"I can think of no one—no one of note—in London at present upon whom +it is likely that Fu-Manchu would make an attempt," he said, "except +ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +We began methodically to go through the long list of names which we had +compiled and to review our elaborate notes. When, at last, I turned +in, the night had given place to a new day. But sleep evaded me, and +"ANDAMAN—SECOND" danced like a mocking phantom through my brain. +</P> + +<P> +Then I heard the telephone bell. I heard Smith speaking. +</P> + +<P> +A minute afterwards he was in my room, his face very grim. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew as well as if I'd seen it with my own eyes that some black +business was afoot last night," he said. "And it was. Within +pistol-shot of us! Someone has got at Frank Norris West. Inspector +Weymouth has just been on the 'phone." +</P> + +<P> +"Norris West!" I cried, "the American aviator—and inventor—"</p> + +<p>"Of the +West aero-torpedo—yes. He's been offering it to the English War +Office, and they have delayed too long." +</P> + +<P> +I got out of bed. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that the potentialities have attracted the attention of Dr. +Fu-Manchu!" +</P> + +<P> +Those words operated electrically. I do not know how long I was in +dressing, how long a time elapsed ere the cab for which Smith had +'phoned arrived, how many precious minutes were lost upon the journey; +but, in a nervous whirl, these things slipped into the past, like the +telegraph poles seen from the window of an express, and, still in that +tense state, we came upon the scene of this newest outrage. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Norris West, whose lean, stoic face had latterly figured so often +in the daily press, lay upon the floor in the little entrance hall of +his chambers, flat upon his back, with the telephone receiver in his +hand. +</P> + +<P> +The outer door had been forced by the police. They had had to remove a +piece of the paneling to get at the bolt. A medical man was leaning +over the recumbent figure in the striped pajama suit, and +Detective-Inspector Weymouth stood watching him as Smith and I entered. +</P> + +<P> +"He has been heavily drugged," said the Doctor, sniffing at West's +lips, "but I cannot say what drug has been used. It isn't chloroform +or anything of that nature. He can safely be left to sleep it off, I +think." +</P> + +<P> +I agreed, after a brief examination. +</P> + +<P> +"It's most extraordinary," said Weymouth. "He rang up the Yard about +an hour ago and said his chambers had been invaded by Chinamen. Then +the man at the 'phone plainly heard him fall. When we got here his +front door was bolted, as you've seen, and the windows are three floors +up. Nothing is disturbed." +</P> + +<P> +"The plans of the aero-torpedo?" rapped Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"I take it they are in the safe in his bedroom," replied the detective, +"and that is locked all right. I think he must have taken an overdose +of something and had illusions. But in case there was anything in what +he mumbled (you could hardly understand him) I thought it as well to +send for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite right," said Smith rapidly. His eyes shone like steel. "Lay +him on the bed, Inspector." +</P> + +<P> +It was done, and my friend walked into the bedroom. +</P> + +<P> +Save that the bed was disordered, showing that West had been sleeping +in it, there were no evidences of the extraordinary invasion mentioned +by the drugged man. It was a small room—the chambers were of that +kind which are let furnished—and very neat. A safe with a combination +lock stood in a corner. The window was open about a foot at the top. +Smith tried the safe and found it fast. He stood for a moment clicking +his teeth together, by which I knew him to be perplexed. He walked +over to the window and threw it up. We both looked out. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," came Weymouth's voice, "it is altogether too far from the +court below for our cunning Chinese friends to have fixed a ladder with +one of their bamboo rod arrangements. And, even if they could get up +there, it's too far down from the roof—two more stories—for them to +have fixed it from there." +</P> + +<P> +Smith nodded thoughtfully, at the same time trying the strength of an +iron bar which ran from side to side of the window-sill. Suddenly he +stooped, with a sharp exclamation. Bending over his shoulder I saw +what it was that had attracted his attention. +</P> + +<P> +Clearly imprinted upon the dust-coated gray stone of the sill was a +confused series of marks—tracks call them what you will. +</P> + +<P> +Smith straightened himself and turned a wondering look upon me. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Petrie?" he said amazedly. "Some kind of bird has been +here, and recently." Inspector Weymouth in turn examined the marks. +</P> + +<P> +"I never saw bird tracks like these, Mr. Smith," he muttered. +</P> + +<P> +Smith was tugging at the lobe of his ear. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he returned reflectively; "come to think of it, neither did I." +</P> + +<P> +He twisted around, looking at the man on the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think it was all an illusion?" asked the detective. +</P> + +<P> +"What about those marks on the window-sill?" jerked Smith. +</P> + +<P> +He began restlessly pacing about the room, sometimes stopping before +the locked safe and frequently glancing at Norris West. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he walked out and briefly examined the other apartments, only +to return again to the bedroom. +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie," he said, "we are losing valuable time. West must be aroused." +</P> + +<P> +Inspector Weymouth stared. +</P> + +<P> +Smith turned to me impatiently. The doctor summoned by the police had +gone. "Is there no means of arousing him, Petrie?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Doubtless," I replied, "he could be revived if one but knew what drug +he had taken." +</P> + +<P> +My friend began his restless pacing again, and suddenly pounced upon a +little phial of tabloids which had been hidden behind some books on a +shelf near the bed. He uttered a triumphant exclamation. +</P> + +<P> +"See what we have here, Petrie!" he directed, handing the phial to me. +"It bears no label." +</P> + +<P> +I crushed one of the tabloids in my palm and applied my tongue to the +powder. +</P> + +<P> +"Some preparation of chloral hydrate," I pronounced. +</P> + +<P> +"A sleeping draught?" suggested Smith eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"We might try," I said, and scribbled a formula upon a leaf of my +notebook. I asked Weymouth to send the man who accompanied him to call +up the nearest chemist and procure the antidote. +</P> + +<P> +During the man's absence Smith stood contemplating the unconscious +inventor, a peculiar expression upon his bronzed face. +</P> + +<P> +"ANDAMAN—SECOND," he muttered. "Shall we find the key to the riddle +here, I wonder?" +</P> + +<P> +Inspector Weymouth, who had concluded, I think, that the mysterious +telephone call was due to mental aberration on the part of Norris West, +was gnawing at his mustache impatiently when his assistant returned. I +administered the powerful restorative, and although, as later +transpired, chloral was not responsible for West's condition, the +antidote operated successfully. +</P> + +<P> +Norris West struggled into a sitting position, and looked about him +with haggard eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"The Chinamen! The Chinamen!" he muttered. +</P> + +<P> +He sprang to his feet, glaring wildly at Smith and me, reeled, and +almost fell. +</P> + +<P> +"It is all right," I said, supporting him. "I'm a doctor. You have +been unwell." +</P> + +<P> +"Have the police come?" he burst out. "The safe—try the safe!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right," said Inspector Weymouth. "The safe is locked—unless +someone else knows the combination, there's nothing to worry about." +</P> + +<P> +"No one else knows it," said West, and staggered unsteadily to the +safe. Clearly his mind was in a dazed condition, but, setting his jaw +with a curious expression of grim determination, he collected his +thoughts and opened the safe. +</P> + +<P> +He bent down, looking in. +</P> + +<P> +In some way the knowledge came to me that the curtain was about to rise +on a new and surprising act in the Fu-Manchu drama. +</P> + +<P> +"God!" he whispered—we could scarcely hear him—"the plans are gone!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap19"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<P> +I HAVE never seen a man quite so surprised as Inspector Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"This is absolutely incredible!" he said. "There's only one door to +your chambers. We found it bolted from the inside." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," groaned West, pressing his hand to his forehead. "I bolted it +myself at eleven o'clock, when I came in." +</P> + +<P> +"No human being could climb up or down to your windows. The plans of +the aero-torpedo were inside a safe." +</P> + +<P> +"I put them there myself," said West, "on returning from the War +Office, and I had occasion to consult them after I had come in and +bolted the door. I returned them to the safe and locked it. That it +was still locked you saw for yourselves, and no one else in the world +knows the combination." +</P> + +<P> +"But the plans have gone," said Weymouth. "It's magic! How was it +done? What happened last night, sir? What did you mean when you rang +us up?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith during this colloquy was pacing rapidly up and down the room. He +turned abruptly to the aviator. +</P> + +<P> +"Every fact you can remember, Mr. West, please," he said tersely; "and +be as brief as you possibly can." +</P> + +<P> +"I came in, as I said," explained West, "about eleven o'clock and +having made some notes relating to an interview arranged for this +morning, I locked the plans in the safe and turned in." +</P> + +<P> +"There was no one hidden anywhere in your chambers?" snapped Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"There was not," replied West. "I looked. I invariably do. Almost +immediately, I went to sleep." +</P> + +<P> +"How many chloral tabloids did you take?" I interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +Norris West turned to me with a slow smile. +</P> + +<P> +"You're cute, Doctor," he said. "I took two. It's a bad habit, but I +can't sleep without. They are specially made up for me by a firm in +Philadelphia." +</P> + +<P> +"How long sleep lasted, when it became filled with uncanny dreams, and +when those dreams merged into reality, I do not know—shall never know, +I suppose. But out of the dreamless void a face came to +me—closer—closer—and peered into mine. +</P> + +<P> +"I was in that curious condition wherein one knows that one is dreaming +and seeks to awaken—to escape. But a nightmare-like oppression held +me. So I must lie and gaze into the seared yellow face that hung over +me, for it would drop so close that I could trace the cicatrized scar +running from the left ear to the corner of the mouth, and drawing up +the lip like the lip of a snarling cur. I could look into the +malignant, jaundiced eyes; I could hear the dim whispering of the +distorted mouth—whispering that seemed to counsel something—something +evil. That whispering intimacy was indescribably repulsive. Then the +wicked yellow face would be withdrawn, and would recede until it became +as a pin's head in the darkness far above me—almost like a glutinous, +liquid thing. +</P> + +<P> +"Somehow I got upon my feet, or dreamed I did—God knows where dreaming +ended and reality began. Gentlemen maybe you'll conclude I went mad +last night, but as I stood holding on to the bedrail I heard the blood +throbbing through my arteries with a noise like a screw-propeller. I +started laughing. The laughter issued from my lips with a shrill +whistling sound that pierced me with physical pain and seemed to wake +the echoes of the whole block. I thought myself I was going mad, and I +tried to command my will—to break the power of the chloral—for I +concluded that I had accidentally taken an overdose. +</P> + +<P> +"Then the walls of my bedroom started to recede, till at last I stood +holding on to a bed which had shrunk to the size of a doll's cot, in +the middle of a room like Trafalgar Square! That window yonder was +such a long way off I could scarcely see it, but I could just detect a +Chinaman—the owner of the evil yellow face—creeping through it. He +was followed by another, who was enormously tall—so tall that, as they +came towards me (and it seemed to take them something like half-an-hour +to cross this incredible apartment in my dream), the second Chinaman +seemed to tower over me like a cypress-tree. +</P> + +<P> +"I looked up to his face—his wicked, hairless face. Mr. Smith, +whatever age I live to, I'll never forget that face I saw last +night—or did I see it? God knows! The pointed chin, the great dome +of a forehead, and the eyes—heavens above, the huge green eyes!" +</P> + +<P> +He shook like a sick man, and I glanced at Smith significantly. +Inspector Weymouth was stroking his mustache, and his mingled +expression of incredulity and curiosity was singular to behold. +</P> + +<P> +"The pumping of my blood," continued West, "seemed to be bursting my +body; the room kept expanding and contracting. One time the ceiling +would be pressing down on my head, and the Chinamen—sometimes I +thought there were two of them, sometimes twenty—became dwarfs; the +next instant it shot up like the roof of a cathedral. +</P> + +<P> +"'Can I be awake,' I whispered, 'or am I dreaming?' +</P> + +<P> +"My whisper went sweeping in windy echoes about the walls, and was lost +in the shadowy distances up under the invisible roof. +</P> + +<P> +"'You are dreaming—yes.' It was the Chinaman with the green eyes who +was addressing me, and the words that he uttered appeared to occupy an +immeasurable time in the utterance. 'But at will I can render the +subjective objective.' I don't think I can have dreamed those singular +words, gentlemen. +</P> + +<P> +"And then he fixed the green eyes upon me—the blazing green eyes. I +made no attempt to move. They seemed to be draining me of something +vital—bleeding me of every drop of mental power. The whole nightmare +room grew green, and I felt that I was being absorbed into its +greenness. +</P> + +<P> +"I can see what you think. And even in my delirium—if it was +delirium—I thought the same. Now comes the climax of my +experience—my vision—I don't know what to call it. I SAW some WORDS +issuing from my own mouth!" +</P> + +<P> +Inspector Weymouth coughed discreetly. Smith whisked round upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"This will be outside your experience, Inspector, I know," he said, +"but Mr. Norris West's statement does not surprise me in the least. I +know to what the experience was due." +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth stared incredulously, but a dawning perception of the truth +was come to me, too. +</P> + +<P> +"How I SAW a SOUND I just won't attempt to explain; I simply tell you I +saw it. Somehow I knew I had betrayed myself—given something away." +</P> + +<P> +"You gave away the secret of the lock combination!" rapped Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"Eh!" grunted Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +But West went on hoarsely: +</P> + +<P> +"Just before the blank came a name flashed before my eyes. It was +'Bayard Taylor.'" +</P> + +<P> +At that I interrupted West. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand!" I cried. "I understand! Another name has just +occurred to me, Mr. West—that of the Frenchman, Moreau." +</P> + +<P> +"You have solved the mystery," said Smith. "It was natural Mr. West +should have thought of the American traveler, Bayard Taylor, though. +Moreau's book is purely scientific. He has probably never read it." +</P> + +<P> +"I fought with the stupor that was overcoming me," continued West, +"striving to associate that vaguely familiar name with the fantastic +things through which I moved. It seemed to me that the room was empty +again. I made for the hall, for the telephone. I could scarcely drag +my feet along. It seemed to take me half-an-hour to get there. I +remember calling up Scotland Yard, and I remember no more." +</P> + +<P> +There was a short, tense interval. +</P> + +<P> +In some respects I was nonplused; but, frankly, I think Inspector +Weymouth considered West insane. Smith, his hands locked behind his +back, stared out of the window. +</P> + +<P> +"ANDAMAN—SECOND" he said suddenly. "Weymouth, when is the first train +to Tilbury?" +</P> + +<P> +"Five twenty-two from Fenchurch Street," replied the Scotland Yard man +promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Too late!" rapped my friend. "Jump in a taxi and pick up two good men +to leave for China at once! Then go and charter a special to Tilbury +to leave in twenty-five minutes. Order another cab to wait outside for +me." +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth was palpably amazed, but Smith's tone was imperative. The +Inspector departed hastily. +</P> + +<P> +I stared at Smith, not comprehending what prompted this singular course. +</P> + +<P> +"Now that you can think clearly, Mr. West," he said, "of what does your +experience remind you? The errors of perception regarding time; the +idea of SEEING A SOUND; the illusion that the room alternately +increased and diminished in size; your fit of laughter, and the +recollection of the name Bayard Taylor. Since evidently you are +familiar with that author's work—'The Land of the Saracen,' is it +not?—these symptoms of the attack should be familiar, I think." +</P> + +<P> +Norris West pressed his hands to his evidently aching head. +</P> + +<P> +"Bayard Taylor's book," he said dully. "Yes!… I know of what my +brain sought to remind me—Taylor's account of his experience under +hashish. Mr. Smith, someone doped me with hashish!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith nodded grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"Cannabis indica," I said—"Indian hemp. That is what you were drugged +with. I have no doubt that now you experience a feeling of nausea and +intense thirst, with aching in the muscles, particularly the deltoid. +I think you must have taken at least fifteen grains." +</P> + +<P> +Smith stopped his perambulations immediately in front of West, looking +into his dulled eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Someone visited your chambers last night," he said slowly, "and for +your chloral tabloids substituted some containing hashish, or perhaps +not pure hashish. Fu-Manchu is a profound chemist." +</P> + +<P> +Norris West started. +</P> + +<P> +"Someone substituted—" he began. +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly," said Smith, looking at him keenly; "someone who was here +yesterday. Have you any idea whom it could have been?" +</P> + +<P> +West hesitated. "I had a visitor in the afternoon," he said, seemingly +speaking the words unwillingly, "but—" +</P> + +<P> +"A lady?" jerked Smith. "I suggest that it was a lady." +</P> + +<P> +West nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"You're quite right," he admitted. "I don't know how you arrived at +the conclusion, but a lady whose acquaintance I made recently—a +foreign lady." +</P> + +<P> +"Karamaneh!" snapped Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you mean in the least, but she came here—knowing +this to be my present address—to ask me to protect her from a +mysterious man who had followed her right from Charing Cross. She said +he was down in the lobby, and naturally, I asked her to wait here +whilst I went and sent him about his business." +</P> + +<P> +He laughed shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"I am over-old," he said, "to be guyed by a woman. You spoke just now +of someone called Fu-Manchu. Is that the crook I'm indebted to for the +loss of my plans? I've had attempts made by agents of two European +governments, but a Chinaman is a novelty." +</P> + +<P> +"This Chinaman," Smith assured him, "is the greatest novelty of his +age. You recognize your symptoms now from Bayard Taylor's account?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. West's statement," I said, "ran closely parallel with portions of +Moreau's book on 'Hashish Hallucinations.' Only Fu-Manchu, I think, +would have thought of employing Indian hemp. I doubt, though, if it +was pure Cannabis indica. At any rate, it acted as an opiate—" +</P> + +<P> +"And drugged Mr. West," interrupted Smith, "sufficiently to enable +Fu-Manchu to enter unobserved." +</P> + +<P> +"Whilst it produced symptoms which rendered him an easy subject for the +Doctor's influence. It is difficult in this case to separate +hallucination from reality, but I think, Mr. West, that Fu-Manchu must +have exercised an hypnotic influence upon your drugged brain. We have +evidence that he dragged from you the secret of the combination." +</P> + +<P> +"God knows we have!" said West. "But who is this Fu-Manchu, and +how—how in the name of wonder did he get into my chambers?" +</P> + +<P> +Smith pulled out his watch. "That," he said rapidly, "I cannot delay +to explain if I'm to intercept the man who has the plans. Come along, +Petrie; we must be at Tilbury within the hour. There is just a bare +chance." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap20"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<P> +IT was with my mind in a condition of unique perplexity that I hurried +with Nayland Smith into the cab which waited and dashed off through the +streets in which the busy life of London just stirred into being. I +suppose I need not say that I could penetrate no farther into this, +Fu-Manchu's latest plot, than the drugging of Norris West with hashish? +Of his having been so drugged with Indian hemp—that is, converted +temporarily into a maniac—would have been evident to any medical man +who had heard his statement and noted the distressing after-effects +which conclusively pointed to Indian hemp poisoning. Knowing something +of the Chinese doctor's powers, I could understand that he might have +extracted from West the secret of the combination by sheer force of +will whilst the American was under the influence of the drug. But I +could not understand how Fu-Manchu had gained access to locked chambers +on the third story of a building. +</P> + +<P> +"Smith," I said, "those bird tracks on the window-sill—they furnish +the key to a mystery which is puzzling me." +</P> + +<P> +"They do," said Smith, glancing impatiently at his watch. "Consult +your memories of Dr. Fu-Manchu's habits—especially your memories of +his pets." +</P> + +<P> +I reviewed in my mind the creatures gruesome and terrible which +surrounded the Chinaman—the scorpions, the bacteria, the noxious +things which were the weapons wherewith he visited death upon +whomsoever opposed the establishment of a potential Yellow Empire. But +no one of them could account for the imprints upon the dust of West's +window-sill. +</P> + +<P> +"You puzzle me, Smith," I confessed. "There is much in this +extraordinary case that puzzles me. I can think of nothing to account +for the marks." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you thought of Fu-Manchu's marmoset?" asked Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"The monkey!" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +"They were the footprints of a small ape," my friend continued. "For a +moment I was deceived as you were, and believed them to be the tracks +of a large bird; but I have seen the footprints of apes before now, and +a marmoset, though an American variety, I believe, is not unlike some +of the apes of Burma." +</P> + +<P> +"I am still in the dark," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"It is pure hypothesis," continued Smith, "but here is the theory—in +lieu of a better one it covers the facts. The marmoset—and it is +contrary from the character of Fu-Manchu to keep any creature for mere +amusement—is trained to perform certain duties. +</P> + +<P> +"You observed the waterspout running up beside the window; you observed +the iron bar intended to prevent a window-cleaner from falling out? +For an ape the climb from the court below to the sill above was a +simple one. He carried a cord, probably attached to his body. He +climbed on to the sill, over the bar, and climbed down again. By means +of this cord a rope was pulled up over the bar, by means of the rope +one of those ladders of silk and bamboo. One of the Doctor's servants +ascended—probably to ascertain if the hashish had acted successfully. +That was the yellow dream-face which West saw bending over him. Then +followed the Doctor, and to his giant will the drugged brain of West +was a pliant instrument which he bent to his own ends. The court would +be deserted at that hour of the night, and, in any event, directly +after the ascent the ladder probably was pulled up, only to be lowered +again when West had revealed the secret of his own safe and Fu-Manchu +had secured the plans. The reclosing of the safe and the removing of +the hashish tabloids, leaving no clew beyond the delirious ravings of a +drug slave—for so anyone unacquainted with the East must have +construed West's story—is particularly characteristic. His own +tabloids were returned, of course. The sparing of his life alone is a +refinement of art which points to a past master." +</P> + +<P> +"Karamaneh was the decoy again?" I said shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. Hers was the task to ascertain West's habits and to +substitute the tabloids. She it was who waited in the luxurious +car—infinitely less likely to attract attention at that hour in that +place than a modest taxi—and received the stolen plans. She did her +work well. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Karamaneh; she had no alternative! I said I would have given a +hundred pounds for a sight of the messenger's face—the man to whom she +handed them. I would give a thousand now!" +</P> + +<P> +"ANDAMAN—SECOND," I said. "What did she mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then it has not dawned upon you?" cried Smith excitedly, as the cab +turned into the station. "The ANDAMAN, of the Oriental Navigation +Company's line, leaves Tilbury with the next tide for China ports. Our +man is a second-class passenger. I am wiring to delay her departure, +and the special should get us to the docks inside of forty minutes." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Very vividly I can reconstruct in my mind that dash to the docks +through the early autumn morning. My friend being invested with +extraordinary powers from the highest authorities, by Inspector +Weymouth's instructions the line had been cleared all the way. +</P> + +<P> +Something of the tremendous importance of Nayland Smith's mission came +home to me as we hurried on to the platform, escorted by the +station-master, and the five of us—for Weymouth had two other C.I.D. +men with him—took our seats in the special. +</P> + +<P> +Off we went on top speed, roaring through stations, where a glimpse +might be had of wondering officials upon the platforms, for a special +train was a novelty on the line. All ordinary traffic arrangements +were held up until we had passed through, and we reached Tilbury in +time which I doubt not constituted a record. +</P> + +<P> +There at the docks was the great liner, delayed in her passage to the +Far East by the will of my royally empowered companion. It was novel, +and infinitely exciting. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith?" said the captain interrogatively, +when we were shown into his room, and looked from one to another and +back to the telegraph form which he held in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"The same, Captain," said my friend briskly. "I shall not detain you a +moment. I am instructing the authorities at all ports east of Suez to +apprehend one of your second-class passengers, should he leave the +ship. He is in possession of plans which practically belong to the +British Government!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not arrest him now?" asked the seaman bluntly. +</P> + +<P> +"Because I don't know him. All second-class passengers' baggage will +be searched as they land. I am hoping something from that, if all else +fails. But I want you privately to instruct your stewards to watch any +passenger of Oriental nationality, and to cooperate with the two +Scotland Yard men who are joining you for the voyage. I look to you to +recover these plans, Captain." +</P> + +<P> +"I will do my best," the captain assured him. +</P> + +<P> +Then, from amid the heterogeneous group on the dockside, we were +watching the liner depart, and Nayland Smith's expression was a very +singular one. Inspector Weymouth stood with us, a badly puzzled man. +Then occurred the extraordinary incident which to this day remains +inexplicable, for, clearly heard by all three of us, a guttural voice +said: +</P> + +<P> +"Another victory for China, Mr. Nayland Smith!" +</P> + +<P> +I turned as though I had been stung. Smith turned also. My eyes +passed from face to face of the group about us. None was familiar. No +one apparently had moved away. +</P> + +<P> +But the voice was the voice of DOCTOR FU-MANCHU. +</P> + +<P> +As I write of it, now, I can appreciate the difference between that +happening, as it appealed to us, and as it must appeal to you who +merely read of it. It is beyond my powers to convey the sense of the +uncanny which the episode created. Yet, even as I think of it, I feel +again, though in lesser degree, the chill which seemed to creep through +my veins that day. +</P> + +<P> +From my brief history of the wonderful and evil man who once walked, by +the way unsuspected, in the midst of the people of England—near whom +you, personally, may at some time unwittingly, have been—I am aware +that much must be omitted. I have no space for lengthy examinations of +the many points but ill illuminated with which it is dotted. This +incident at the docks is but one such point. +</P> + +<P> +Another is the singular vision which appeared to me whilst I lay in the +cellar of the house near Windsor. It has since struck me that it +possessed peculiarities akin to those of a hashish hallucination. Can +it be that we were drugged on that occasion with Indian hemp? Cannabis +indica is a treacherous narcotic, as every medical man knows full well; +but Fu-Manchu's knowledge of the drug was far in advance of our slow +science. West's experience proved so much. +</P> + +<P> +I may have neglected opportunities—later, you shall judge if I did +so—opportunities to glean for the West some of the strange knowledge +of the secret East. Perhaps, at a future time, I may rectify my +errors. Perhaps that wisdom—the wisdom stored up by Fu-Manchu—is +lost forever. There is, however, at least a bare possibility of its +survival, in part; and I do not wholly despair of one day publishing a +scientific sequel to this record of our dealings with the Chinese +doctor. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap21"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<P> +TIME wore on and seemingly brought us no nearer, or very little nearer, +to our goal. So carefully had my friend Nayland Smith excluded the +matter from the press that, whilst public interest was much engaged +with some of the events in the skein of mystery which he had come from +Burma to unravel, outside the Secret Service and the special department +of Scotland Yard few people recognized that the several murders, +robberies and disappearances formed each a link in a chain; fewer still +were aware that a baneful presence was in our midst, that a past master +of the evil arts lay concealed somewhere in the metropolis; searched +for by the keenest wits which the authorities could direct to the task, +but eluding all—triumphant, contemptuous. +</P> + +<P> +One link in that chain Smith himself for long failed to recognize. Yet +it was a big and important link. +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie," he said to me one morning, "listen to this: +</P> + +<P> +"'… In sight of Shanghai—a clear, dark night. On board the deck of +a junk passing close to seaward of the Andaman a blue flare started up. +A minute later there was a cry of "Man overboard!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Mr. Lewin, the chief officer, who was in charge, stopped the engines. +A boat was put out. But no one was recovered. There are sharks in +these waters. A fairly heavy sea was running. +</P> + +<P> +"'Inquiry showed the missing man to be a James Edwards, second class, +booked to Shanghai. I think the name was assumed. The man was some +sort of Oriental, and we had had him under close observation.…'" +</P> + +<P> +"That's the end of their report," exclaimed Smith. +</P> + +<P> +He referred to the two C.I.D. men who had joined the Andaman at the +moment of her departure from Tilbury. +</P> + +<P> +He carefully lighted his pipe. +</P> + +<P> +"IS it a victory for China, Petrie?" he said softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Until the great war reveals her secret resources—and I pray that the +day be not in my time—we shall never know," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +Smith began striding up and down the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Whose name," he jerked abruptly, "stands now at the head of our danger +list?" +</P> + +<P> +He referred to a list which we had compiled of the notable men +intervening between the evil genius who secretly had invaded London and +the triumph of his cause—the triumph of the yellow races. +</P> + +<P> +I glanced at our notes. "Lord Southery," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +Smith tossed the morning paper across to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Look," he said shortly. "He's dead." +</P> + +<P> +I read the account of the peer's death, and glanced at the long +obituary notice; but no more than glanced at it. He had but recently +returned from the East, and now, after a short illness, had died from +some affection of the heart. There had been no intimation that his +illness was of a serious nature, and even Smith, who watched over his +flock—the flock threatened by the wolf, Fu-Manchu—with jealous zeal, +had not suspected that the end was so near. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think he died a natural death, Smith?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +My friend reached across the table and rested the tip of a long finger +upon one of the sub-headings to the account: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"SIR FRANK NARCOMBE SUMMONED TOO LATE." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"You see," said Smith, "Southery died during the night, but Sir Frank +Narcombe, arriving a few minutes later, unhesitatingly pronounced death +to be due to syncope, and seems to have noticed nothing suspicious." +</P> + +<P> +I looked at him thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Frank is a great physician," I said slowly; "but we must remember +he would be looking for nothing suspicious." +</P> + +<P> +"We must remember," rapped Smith, "that, if Dr. Fu-Manchu is +responsible for Southery's death, except to the eye of an expert there +would be nothing suspicious to see. Fu-Manchu leaves no clews." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going around?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +Smith shrugged his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"I think not," he replied. "Either a greater One than Fu-Manchu has +taken Lord Southery, or the yellow doctor has done his work so well +that no trace remains of his presence in the matter." +</P> + +<P> +Leaving his breakfast untasted, he wandered aimlessly about the room, +littering the hearth with matches as he constantly relighted his pipe, +which went out every few minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"It's no good, Petrie," he burst out suddenly; "it cannot be a +coincidence. We must go around and see him." +</P> + +<P> +An hour later we stood in the silent room, with its drawn blinds and +its deathful atmosphere, looking down at the pale, intellectual face of +Henry Stradwick, Lord Southery, the greatest engineer of his day. The +mind that lay behind that splendid brow had planned the construction of +the railway for which Russia had paid so great a price, had conceived +the scheme for the canal which, in the near future, was to bring two +great continents, a full week's journey nearer one to the other. But +now it would plan no more. +</P> + +<P> +"He had latterly developed symptoms of angina pectoris," explained the +family physician; "but I had not anticipated a fatal termination so +soon. I was called about two o'clock this morning, and found Lord +Southery in a dangerously exhausted condition. I did all that was +possible, and Sir Frank Narcombe was sent for. But shortly before his +arrival the patient expired." +</P> + +<P> +"I understand, Doctor, that you had been treating Lord Southery for +angina pectoris?" I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," was the reply, "for some months." +</P> + +<P> +"You regard the circumstances of his end as entirely consistent with a +death from that cause?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. Do you observe anything unusual yourself? Sir Frank +Narcombe quite agrees with me. There is surely no room for doubt?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Smith, tugging reflectively at the lobe of his left ear. +"We do not question the accuracy of your diagnosis in any way, sir." +</P> + +<P> +The physician seemed puzzled. +</P> + +<P> +"But am I not right in supposing that you are connected with the +police?" asked the physician. +</P> + +<P> +"Neither Dr. Petrie nor myself are in any way connected with the +police," answered Smith. "But, nevertheless, I look to you to regard +our recent questions as confidential." +</P> + +<P> +As we were leaving the house, hushed awesomely in deference to the +unseen visitor who had touched Lord Southery with gray, cold fingers, +Smith paused, detaining a black-coated man who passed us on the stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"You were Lord Southery's valet?" +</P> + +<P> +The man bowed. +</P> + +<P> +"Were you in the room at the moment of his fatal seizure?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see or hear anything unusual—anything unaccountable?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"No strange sounds outside the house, for instance?" +</P> + +<P> +The man shook his head, and Smith, taking my arm, passed out into the +street. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps this business is making me imaginative," he said; "but there +seems to be something tainting the air in yonder—something peculiar to +houses whose doors bear the invisible death-mark of Fu-Manchu." +</P> + +<P> +"You are right, Smith!" I cried. "I hesitated to mention the matter, +but I, too, have developed some other sense which warns me of the +Doctor's presence. Although there is not a scrap of confirmatory +evidence, I am as sure that he has brought about Lord Southery's death +as if I had seen him strike the blow." +</P> + +<P> +It was in that torturing frame of mind—chained, helpless, in our +ignorance, or by reason of the Chinaman's supernormal genius—that we +lived throughout the ensuing days. My friend began to look like a man +consumed by a burning fever. Yet, we could not act. +</P> + +<P> +In the growing dark of an evening shortly following I stood idly +turning over some of the works exposed for sale outside a second-hand +bookseller's in New Oxford Street. One dealing with the secret +societies of China struck me as being likely to prove instructive, and +I was about to call the shopman when I was startled to feel a hand +clutch my arm. +</P> + +<P> +I turned around rapidly—and was looking into the darkly beautiful eyes +of Karamaneh! She—whom I had seen in so many guises—was dressed in a +perfectly fitting walking habit, and had much of her wonderful hair +concealed beneath a fashionable hat. +</P> + +<P> +She glanced about her apprehensively. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick! Come round the corner. I must speak to you," she said, her +musical voice thrilling with excitement. +</P> + +<P> +I never was quite master of myself in her presence. He must have been +a man of ice who could have been, I think, for her beauty had all the +bouquet of rarity; she was a mystery—and mystery adds charm to a +woman. Probably she should have been under arrest, but I know I would +have risked much to save her from it. +</P> + +<P> +As we turned into a quiet thoroughfare she stopped and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I am in distress. You have often asked me to enable you to capture +Dr. Fu-Manchu. I am prepared to do so." +</P> + +<P> +I could scarcely believe that I heard right. +</P> + +<P> +"Your brother—" I began. +</P> + +<P> +She seized my arm entreatingly, looking into my eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a doctor," she said. "I want you to come and see him now." +</P> + +<P> +"What! Is he in London?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is at the house of Dr. Fu-Manchu." +</P> + +<P> +"And you would have me—" +</P> + +<P> +"Accompany me there, yes." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith, I doubted not, would have counseled me against trusting +my life in the hands of this girl with the pleading eyes. Yet I did +so, and with little hesitation; shortly we were traveling eastward in a +closed cab. Karamaneh was very silent, but always when I turned to her +I found her big eyes fixed upon me with an expression in which there +was pleading, in which there was sorrow, in which there was something +else—something indefinable, yet strangely disturbing. The cabman she +had directed to drive to the lower end of the Commercial Road, the +neighborhood of the new docks, and the scene of one of our early +adventures with Dr. Fu-Manchu. The mantle of dusk had closed about the +squalid activity of the East End streets as we neared our destination. +Aliens of every shade of color were about us now, emerging from +burrow-like alleys into the glare of the lamps upon the main road. In +the short space of the drive we had passed from the bright world of the +West into the dubious underworld of the East. +</P> + +<P> +I do not know that Karamaneh moved; but in sympathy, as we neared the +abode of the sinister Chinaman, she crept nearer to me, and when the +cab was discharged, and together we walked down a narrow turning +leading riverward, she clung to me fearfully, hesitated, and even +seemed upon the point of turning back. But, overcoming her fear or +repugnance, she led on, through a maze of alleyways and courts, wherein +I hopelessly lost my bearings, so that it came home to me how wholly I +was in the hands of this girl whose history was so full of shadows, +whose real character was so inscrutable, whose beauty, whose charm +truly might mask the cunning of a serpent. +</P> + +<P> +I spoke to her. +</P> + +<P> +"S-SH!" She laid her hand upon my arm, enjoining me to silence. +</P> + +<P> +The high, drab brick wall of what looked like some part of a dock +building loomed above us in the darkness, and the indescribable +stenches of the lower Thames were borne to my nostrils through a +gloomy, tunnel-like opening, beyond which whispered the river. The +muffled clangor of waterside activity was about us. I heard a key +grate in a lock, and Karamaneh drew me into the shadow of an open door, +entered, and closed it behind her. +</P> + +<P> +For the first time I perceived, in contrast to the odors of the court +without, the fragrance of the peculiar perfume which now I had come to +associate with her. Absolute darkness was about us, and by this +perfume alone I knew that she was near to me, until her hand touched +mine, and I was led along an uncarpeted passage and up an uncarpeted +stair. A second door was unlocked, and I found myself in an +exquisitely furnished room, illuminated by the soft light of a shaded +lamp which stood upon a low, inlaid table amidst a perfect ocean of +silken cushions, strewn upon a Persian carpet, whose yellow richness +was lost in the shadows beyond the circle of light. +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh raised a curtain draped before a doorway, and stood listening +intently for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +The silence was unbroken. +</P> + +<P> +Then something stirred amid the wilderness of cushions, and two tiny +bright eyes looked up at me. Peering closely, I succeeded in +distinguishing, crouched in that soft luxuriance, a little ape. It was +Dr. Fu-Manchu's marmoset. "This way," whispered Karamaneh. +</P> + +<P> +Never, I thought, was a staid medical man committed to a more unwise +enterprise, but so far I had gone, and no consideration of prudence +could now be of avail. +</P> + +<P> +The corridor beyond was thickly carpeted. Following the direction of a +faint light which gleamed ahead, it proved to extend as a balcony +across one end of a spacious apartment. Together we stood high up +there in the shadows, and looked down upon such a scene as I never +could have imagined to exist within many a mile of that district. +</P> + +<P> +The place below was even more richly appointed than the room into which +first we had come. Here, as there, piles of cushions formed splashes +of gaudy color about the floor. Three lamps hung by chains from the +ceiling, their light softened by rich silk shades. One wall was almost +entirely occupied by glass cases containing chemical apparatus, tubes, +retorts and other less orthodox indications of Dr. Fu-Manchu's +pursuits, whilst close against another lay the most extraordinary +object of a sufficiently extraordinary room—a low couch, upon which +was extended the motionless form of a boy. In the light of a lamp +which hung directly above him, his olive face showed an almost +startling resemblance to that of Karamaneh—save that the girl's +coloring was more delicate. He had black, curly hair, which stood out +prominently against the white covering upon which he lay, his hands +crossed upon his breast. +</P> + +<P> +Transfixed with astonishment, I stood looking down upon him. The +wonders of the "Arabian Nights" were wonders no longer, for here, in +East-End London, was a true magician's palace, lacking not its +beautiful slave, lacking not its enchanted prince! +</P> + +<P> +"It is Aziz, my brother," said Karamaneh. +</P> + +<P> +We passed down a stairway on to the floor of the apartment. Karamaneh +knelt and bent over the boy, stroking his hair and whispering to him +lovingly. I, too, bent over him; and I shall never forget the anxiety +in the girl's eyes as she watched me eagerly whilst I made a brief +examination. +</P> + +<P> +Brief, indeed, for even ere I had touched him I knew that the comely +shell held no spark of life. But Karamaneh fondled the cold hands, and +spoke softly in that Arabic tongue which long before I had divined must +be her native language. +</P> + +<P> +Then, as I remained silent, she turned and looked at me, read the truth +in my eyes, and rose from her knees, stood rigidly upright, and +clutched me tremblingly. +</P> + +<P> +"He is not dead—he is NOT dead!" she whispered, and shook me as a +child might, seeking to arouse me to a proper understanding. "Oh, tell +me he is not—" +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot," I replied gently, "for indeed he is." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" she said, wild-eyed, and raising her hands to her face as though +half distraught. "You do not understand—yet you are a doctor. You do +not understand—" +</P> + +<P> +She stopped, moaning to herself and looking from the handsome face of +the boy to me. It was pitiful; it was uncanny. But sorrow for the +girl predominated in my mind. +</P> + +<P> +Then from somewhere I heard a sound which I had heard before in houses +occupied by Dr. Fu-Manchu—that of a muffled gong. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick!" Karamaneh had me by the arm. "Up! He has returned!" +</P> + +<P> +She fled up the stairs to the balcony, I close at her heels. The +shadows veiled us, the thick carpet deadened the sound of our tread, or +certainly we must have been detected by the man who entered the room we +had just quitted. +</P> + +<P> +It was Dr. Fu-Manchu! +</P> + +<P> +Yellow-robed, immobile, the inhuman green eyes glittering catlike even, +it seemed, before the light struck them, he threaded his way through +the archipelago of cushions and bent over the couch of Aziz. +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh dragged me down on to my knees. +</P> + +<P> +"Watch!" she whispered. "Watch!" +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fu-Manchu felt for the pulse of the boy whom a moment since I had +pronounced dead, and, stepping to the tall glass case, took out a +long-necked flask of chased gold, and from it, into a graduated glass, +he poured some drops of an amber liquid wholly unfamiliar to me. I +watched him with all my eyes, and noted how high the liquid rose in the +measure. He charged a needle-syringe, and, bending again over Aziz, +made an injection. +</P> + +<P> +Then all the wonders I had heard of this man became possible, and with +an awe which any other physician who had examined Aziz must have felt, +I admitted him a miracle-worker. For as I watched, all but breathless, +the dead came to life! The glow of health crept upon the olive +cheek—the boy moved—he raised his hands above his head—he sat up, +supported by the Chinese doctor! +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu touched some hidden bell. A hideous yellow man with a +scarred face entered, carrying a tray upon which were a bowl containing +some steaming fluid, apparently soup, what looked like oaten cakes, and +a flask of red wine. +</P> + +<P> +As the boy, exhibiting no more unusual symptoms than if he had just +awakened from a normal sleep, commenced his repast, Karamaneh drew me +gently along the passage into the room which we had first entered. My +heart leaped wildly as the marmoset bounded past us to drop hand over +hand to the lower apartment in search of its master. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," said Karamaneh, her voice quivering, "he is not dead! But +without Fu-Manchu he is dead to me. How can I leave him when he holds +the life of Aziz in his hand?" +</P> + +<P> +"You must get me that flask, or some of its contents," I directed. +"But tell me, how does he produce the appearance of death?" +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot tell you," she replied. "I do not know. It is something in +the wine. In another hour Aziz will be again as you saw him. But +see." And, opening a little ebony box, she produced a phial half +filled with the amber liquid. +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" I said, and slipped it into my pocket. "When will be the best +time to seize Fu-Manchu and to restore your brother?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will let you know," she whispered, and, opening the door, pushed me +hurriedly from the room. "He is going away to-night to the north; but +you must not come to-night. Quick! Quick! Along the passage. He may +call me at any moment." +</P> + +<P> +So, with the phial in my pocket containing a potent preparation unknown +to Western science, and with a last long look into the eyes of +Karamaneh, I passed out into the narrow alley, out from the fragrant +perfumes of that mystery house into the place of Thames-side stenches. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap22"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<P> +"WE must arrange for the house to be raided without delay," said Smith. +"This time we are sure of our ally—" +</P> + +<P> +"But we must keep our promise to her," I interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"You can look after that, Petrie," my friend said. "I will devote the +whole of my attention to Dr. Fu-Manchu!" he added grimly. +</P> + +<P> +Up and down the room he paced, gripping the blackened briar between his +teeth, so that the muscles stood out squarely upon his lean jaws. The +bronze which spoke of the Burmese sun enhanced the brightness of his +gray eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"What have I all along maintained?" he jerked, looking back at me +across his shoulder—"that, although Karamaneh was one of the strongest +weapons in the Doctor's armory, she was one which some day would be +turned against him. That day has dawned." +</P> + +<P> +"We must await word from her." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so." +</P> + +<P> +He knocked out his pipe on the grate. Then: +</P> + +<P> +"Have you any idea of the nature of the fluid in the phial?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not the slightest. And I have none to spare for analytical purposes." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith began stuffing mixture into the hot pipe-bowl, and +dropping an almost equal quantity on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot rest, Petrie," he said. "I am itching to get to work. Yet, +a false move, and—" He lighted his pipe, and stood staring from the +window. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall, of course, take a needle-syringe with me," I explained. +</P> + +<P> +Smith made no reply. +</P> + +<P> +"If I but knew the composition of the drug which produced the semblance +of death," I continued, "my fame would long survive my ashes." +</P> + +<P> +My friend did not turn. But: +</P> + +<P> +"She said it was something he put in the wine?" he jerked. +</P> + +<P> +"In the wine, yes." +</P> + +<P> +Silence fell. My thoughts reverted to Karamaneh, whom Dr. Fu-Manchu +held in bonds stronger than any slave-chains. For, with Aziz, her +brother, suspended between life and death, what could she do save obey +the mandates of the cunning Chinaman? What perverted genius was his! +If that treasury of obscure wisdom which he, perhaps alone of living +men, had rifled, could but be thrown open to the sick and suffering, +the name of Dr. Fu-Manchu would rank with the golden ones in the +history of healing. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith suddenly turned, and the expression upon his face amazed +me. +</P> + +<P> +"Look up the next train to L—!" he rapped. +</P> + +<P> +"To L—? What—?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's the Bradshaw. We haven't a minute to waste." +</P> + +<P> +In his voice was the imperative note I knew so well; in his eyes was +the light which told of an urgent need for action—a portentous truth +suddenly grasped. +</P> + +<P> +"One in half-an-hour—the last." +</P> + +<P> +"We must catch it." +</P> + +<P> +No further word of explanation he vouchsafed, but darted off to dress; +for he had spent the afternoon pacing the room in his dressing-gown and +smoking without intermission. +</P> + +<P> +Out and to the corner we hurried, and leaped into the first taxi upon +the rank. Smith enjoined the man to hasten, and we were off—all in +that whirl of feverish activity which characterized my friend's +movements in times of important action. +</P> + +<P> +He sat glancing impatiently from the window and twitching at the lobe +of his ear. +</P> + +<P> +"I know you will forgive me, old man," he said, "but there is a little +problem which I am trying to work out in my mind. Did you bring the +things I mentioned?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +Conversation lapsed, until, just as the cab turned into the station, +Smith said: "Should you consider Lord Southery to have been the first +constructive engineer of his time, Petrie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Undoubtedly," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Greater than Von Homber, of Berlin?" +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly not. But Von Homber has been dead for three years." +</P> + +<P> +"Three years, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Roughly." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +We reached the station in time to secure a non-corridor compartment to +ourselves, and to allow Smith leisure carefully to inspect the +occupants of all the others, from the engine to the guard's van. He +was muffled up to the eyes, and he warned me to keep out of sight in +the corner of the compartment. In fact, his behavior had me bursting +with curiosity. The train having started: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't imagine, Petrie," said Smith "that I am trying to lead you +blindfolded in order later to dazzle you with my perspicacity. I am +simply afraid that this may be a wild-goose chase. The idea upon which +I am acting does not seem to have struck you. I wish it had. The fact +would argue in favor of its being sound." +</P> + +<P> +"At present I am hopelessly mystified." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, I will not bias you towards my view. But just study the +situation, and see if you can arrive at the reason for this sudden +journey. I shall be distinctly encouraged if you succeed." +</P> + +<P> +But I did not succeed, and since Smith obviously was unwilling to +enlighten me, I pressed him no more. The train stopped at Rugby, where +he was engaged with the stationmaster in making some mysterious +arrangements. At L—, however, their object became plain, for a +high-power car was awaiting us, and into this we hurried and ere the +greater number of passengers had reached the platform were being driven +off at headlong speed along the moon-bathed roads. +</P> + +<P> +Twenty minutes' rapid traveling, and a white mansion leaped into the +line of sight, standing out vividly against its woody backing. +</P> + +<P> +"Stradwick Hall," said Smith. "The home of Lord Southery. We are +first—but Dr. Fu-Manchu was on the train." +</P> + +<P> +Then the truth dawned upon the gloom of my perplexity. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap23"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H3> + +<P> +"YOUR extraordinary proposal fills me with horror, Mr. Smith!" +</P> + +<P> +The sleek little man in the dress suit, who looked like a head waiter +(but was the trusted legal adviser of the house of Southery) puffed at +his cigar indignantly. Nayland Smith, whose restless pacing had led +him to the far end of the library, turned, a remote but virile figure, +and looked back to where I stood by the open hearth with the solicitor. +</P> + +<P> +"I am in your hands, Mr. Henderson," he said, and advanced upon the +latter, his gray eyes ablaze. "Save for the heir, who is abroad on +foreign service, you say there is no kin of Lord Southery to consider. +The word rests with you. If I am wrong, and you agree to my proposal, +there is none whose susceptibilities will suffer—" +</P> + +<P> +"My own, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"If I am right, and you prevent me from acting, you become a murderer, +Mr. Henderson." +</P> + +<P> +The lawyer started, staring nervously up at Smith, who now towered over +him menacingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Lord Southery was a lonely man," continued my friend. "If I could +have placed my proposition before one of his blood, I do not doubt what +my answer had been. Why do you hesitate? Why do you experience this +feeling of horror?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Henderson stared down into the fire. His constitutionally ruddy +face was pale. +</P> + +<P> +"It is entirely irregular, Mr. Smith. We have not the necessary +powers—" +</P> + +<P> +Smith snapped his teeth together impatiently, snatching his watch from +his pocket and glancing at it. +</P> + +<P> +"I am vested with the necessary powers. I will give you a written +order, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"The proceeding savors of paganism. Such a course might be admissible +in China, in Burma—" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you weigh a life against such quibbles? Do you suppose that, +granting MY irresponsibility, Dr. Petrie would countenance such a thing +if he doubted the necessity?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Henderson looked at me with pathetic hesitance. +</P> + +<P> +"There are guests in the house—mourners who attended the ceremony +to-day. They—" +</P> + +<P> +"Will never know, if we are in error," interrupted Smith. "Good God! +why do you delay?" +</P> + +<P> +"You wish it to be kept secret?" +</P> + +<P> +"You and I, Mr. Henderson, and Dr. Petrie will go now. We require no +other witnesses. We are answerable only to our consciences." +</P> + +<P> +The lawyer passed his hand across his damp brow. +</P> + +<P> +"I have never in my life been called upon to come to so momentous a +decision in so short a time," he confessed. But, aided by Smith's +indomitable will, he made his decision. As its result, we three, +looking and feeling like conspirators, hurried across the park beneath +a moon whose placidity was a rebuke to the turbulent passions which +reared their strangle-growth in the garden of England. Not a breath of +wind stirred amid the leaves. The calm of perfect night soothed +everything to slumber. Yet, if Smith were right (and I did not doubt +him), the green eyes of Dr. Fu-Manchu had looked upon the scene; and I +found myself marveling that its beauty had not wilted up. Even now the +dread Chinaman must be near to us. +</P> + +<P> +As Mr. Henderson unlocked the ancient iron gates he turned to Nayland +Smith. His face twitched oddly. +</P> + +<P> +"Witness that I do this unwillingly," he said—"most unwillingly." +</P> + +<P> +"Mine be the responsibility," was the reply. +</P> + +<P> +Smith's voice quivered, responsive to the nervous vitality pent up +within that lean frame. He stood motionless, listening—and I knew for +whom he listened. He peered about him to right and left—and I knew +whom he expected but dreaded to see. +</P> + +<P> +Above us now the trees looked down with a solemnity different from the +aspect of the monarchs of the park, and the nearer we came to our +journey's end the more somber and lowering bent the verdant arch—or so +it seemed. +</P> + +<P> +By that path, patched now with pools of moonlight, Lord Southery had +passed upon his bier, with the sun to light his going; by that path +several generations of Stradwicks had gone to their last resting-place. +</P> + +<P> +To the doors of the vault the moon rays found free access. No branch, +no leaf, intervened. Mr. Henderson's face looked ghastly. The keys +which he carried rattled in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Light the lantern," he said unsteadily. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith, who again had been peering suspiciously about into the +shadows, struck a match and lighted the lantern which he carried. He +turned to the solicitor. +</P> + +<P> +"Be calm, Mr. Henderson," he said sternly. "It is your plain duty to +your client." +</P> + +<P> +"God be my witness that I doubt it," replied Henderson, and opened the +door. +</P> + +<P> +We descended the steps. The air beneath was damp and chill. It +touched us as with clammy fingers; and the sensation was not wholly +physical. +</P> + +<P> +Before the narrow mansion which now sufficed Lord Southery, the great +engineer whom kings had honored, Henderson reeled and clutched at me +for support. Smith and I had looked to him for no aid in our uncanny +task, and rightly. +</P> + +<P> +With averted eyes he stood over by the steps of the tomb, whilst my +friend and myself set to work. In the pursuit of my profession I had +undertaken labors as unpleasant, but never amid an environment such as +this. It seemed that generations of Stradwicks listened to each turn +of every screw. +</P> + +<P> +At last it was done, and the pallid face of Lord Southery questioned +the intruding light. Nayland Smith's hand was as steady as a rigid bar +when he raised the lantern. Later, I knew, there would be a sudden +releasing of the tension of will—a reaction physical and mental—but +not until his work was finished. +</P> + +<P> +That my own hand was steady I ascribed to one thing +solely—professional zeal. For, under conditions which, in the event +of failure and exposure, must have led to an unpleasant inquiry by the +British Medical Association, I was about to attempt an experiment never +before essayed by a physician of the white races. +</P> + +<P> +Though I failed, though I succeeded, that it ever came before the +B.M.A., or any other council, was improbable; in the former event, all +but impossible. But the knowledge that I was about to practice +charlatanry, or what any one of my fellow-practitioners must have +designated as such, was with me. Yet so profound had my belief become +in the extraordinary being whose existence was a danger to the world +that I reveled in my immunity from official censure. I was glad that +it had fallen to my lot to take at least one step—though blindly—into +the FUTURE of medical science. +</P> + +<P> +So far as my skill bore me, Lord Southery was dead. Unhesitatingly, I +would have given a death certificate, save for two considerations. The +first, although his latest scheme ran contrary from the interests of +Dr. Fu-Manchu, his genius, diverted into other channels, would serve +the yellow group better than his death. The second, I had seen the boy +Aziz raised from a state as like death as this. +</P> + +<P> +From the phial of amber-hued liquid which I had with me, I charged the +needle syringe. I made the injection, and waited. +</P> + +<P> +"If he is really dead!" whispered Smith. "It seems incredible that he +can have survived for three days without food. Yet I have known a +fakir to go for a week." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Henderson groaned. +</P> + +<P> +Watch in hand, I stood observing the gray face. +</P> + +<P> +A second passed; another; a third. In the fourth the miracle began. +Over the seemingly cold clay crept the hue of pulsing life. It came in +waves—in waves which corresponded with the throbbing of the awakened +heart; which swept fuller and stronger; which filled and quickened the +chilled body. +</P> + +<P> +As we rapidly freed the living man from the trappings of the dead one, +Southery, uttering a stifled scream, sat up, looked about him with +half-glazed eyes, and fell back. "My God!" cried Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"It is all right," I said, and had time to note how my voice had +assumed a professional tone. "A little brandy from my flask is all +that is necessary now." +</P> + +<P> +"You have two patients, Doctor," rapped my friend. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Henderson had fallen in a swoon to the floor of the vault. +</P> + +<P> +"Quiet," whispered Smith; "HE is here." +</P> + +<P> +He extinguished the light. +</P> + +<P> +I supported Lord Southery. "What has happened?" he kept moaning. +"Where am I? Oh, God! what has happened?" +</P> + +<P> +I strove to reassure him in a whisper, and placed my traveling coat +about him. The door at the top of the mausoleum steps we had reclosed +but not relocked. Now, as I upheld the man whom literally we had +rescued from the grave, I heard the door reopen. To aid Henderson I +could make no move. Smith was breathing hard beside me. I dared not +think what was about to happen, nor what its effects might be upon Lord +Southery in his exhausted condition. +</P> + +<P> +Through the Memphian dark of the tomb cut a spear of light, touching +the last stone of the stairway. +</P> + +<P> +A guttural voice spoke some words rapidly, and I knew that Dr. +Fu-Manchu stood at the head of the stairs. Although I could not see my +friend, I became aware that Nayland Smith had his revolver in his hand, +and I reached into my pocket for mine. +</P> + +<P> +At last the cunning Chinaman was about to fall into a trap. It would +require all his genius, I thought, to save him to-night. Unless his +suspicions were aroused by the unlocked door, his capture was imminent. +</P> + +<P> +Someone was descending the steps. +</P> + +<P> +In my right hand I held my revolver, and with my left arm about Lord +Southery, I waited through ten such seconds of suspense as I have +rarely known. +</P> + +<P> +The spear of light plunged into the well of darkness again. +</P> + +<P> +Lord Southery, Smith and myself were hidden by the angle of the wall; +but full upon the purplish face of Mr. Henderson the beam shone. In +some way it penetrated to the murk in his mind; and he awakened from +his swoon with a hoarse cry, struggled to his feet, and stood looking +up the stair in a sort of frozen horror. +</P> + +<P> +Smith was past him at a bound. Something flashed towards him as the +light was extinguished. I saw him duck, and heard the knife ring upon +the floor. +</P> + +<P> +I managed to move sufficiently to see at the top, as I fired up the +stairs, the yellow face of Dr. Fu-Manchu, to see the gleaming, +chatoyant eyes, greenly terrible, as they sought to pierce the gloom. +A flying figure was racing up, three steps at a time (that of a brown +man scantily clad). He stumbled and fell, by which I knew that he was +hit; but went on again, Smith hard on his heels. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Henderson!" I cried, "relight the lantern and take charge of Lord +Southery. Here is my flask on the floor. I rely upon you." +</P> + +<P> +Smith's revolver spoke again as I went bounding up the stair. Black +against the square of moonlight I saw him stagger, I saw him fall. As +he fell, for the third time, I heard the crack of his revolver. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly I was at his side. Somewhere along the black aisle beneath +the trees receding footsteps pattered. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hurt, Smith?" I cried anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +He got upon his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"He has a dacoit with him," he replied, and showed me the long curved +knife which he held in his hand, a full inch of the blade bloodstained. +"A near thing for me, Petrie." +</P> + +<P> +I heard the whir of a restarted motor. +</P> + +<P> +"We have lost him," said Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"But we have saved Lord Southery," I said. "Fu-Manchu will credit us +with a skill as great as his own." +</P> + +<P> +"We must get to the car," Smith muttered, "and try to overtake them. +Ugh! my left arm is useless." +</P> + +<P> +"It would be mere waste of time to attempt to overtake them," I argued, +"for we have no idea in which direction they will proceed." +</P> + +<P> +"I have a very good idea," snapped Smith. "Stradwick Hall is less than +ten miles from the coast. There is only one practicable means of +conveying an unconscious man secretly from here to London." +</P> + +<P> +"You think he meant to take him from here to London?" +</P> + +<P> +"Prior to shipping him to China; I think so. His clearing-house is +probably on the Thames." +</P> + +<P> +"A boat?" +</P> + +<P> +"A yacht, presumably, is lying off the coast in readiness. Fu-Manchu +may even have designed to ship him direct to China." +</P> + +<P> +Lord Southery, a bizarre figure, my traveling coat wrapped about him, +and supported by his solicitor, who was almost as pale as himself, +emerged from the vault into the moonlight. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a triumph for you, Smith," I said. +</P> + +<P> +The throb of Fu-Manchu's car died into faintness and was lost in the +night's silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Only half a triumph," he replied. "But we still have another +chance—the raid on his house. When will the word come from Karamaneh?" +</P> + +<P> +Southery spoke in a weak voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen," he said, "it seems I am raised from the dead." +</P> + +<P> +It was the weirdest moment of the night wherein we heard that newly +buried man speak from the mold of his tomb. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Smith slowly, "and spared from the fate of Heaven alone +knows how many men of genius. The yellow society lacks a Southery, but +that Dr. Fu-Manchu was in Germany three years ago I have reason to +believe; so that, even without visiting the grave of your great +Teutonic rival, who suddenly died at about that time, I venture to +predict that they have a Von Homber. And the futurist group in China +knows how to MAKE men work!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap24"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<P> +FROM the rescue of Lord Southery my story bears me mercilessly on to +other things. I may not tarry, as more leisurely penmen, to round my +incidents; they were not of my choosing. I may not pause to make you +better acquainted with the figure of my drama; its scheme is none of +mine. Often enough, in those days, I found a fitness in the lines of +Omar: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +We are no other than a moving show<BR> +Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go<BR> +Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held<BR> +In Midnight by the Master of the Show.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +But "the Master of the Show," in this case, was Dr. Fu-Manchu! +</P> + +<P> +I have been asked many times since the days with which these records +deal: Who WAS Dr. Fu-Manchu? Let me confess here that my final answer +must be postponed. I can only indicate, at this place, the trend of my +reasoning, and leave my reader to form whatever conclusion he pleases. +</P> + +<P> +What group can we isolate and label as responsible for the overthrow of +the Manchus? The casual student of modern Chinese history will reply: +"Young China." This is unsatisfactory. What do we mean by Young +China? In my own hearing Fu-Manchu had disclaimed, with scorn, +association with the whole of that movement; and assuming that the name +were not an assumed one, he clearly can have been no anti-Manchu, no +Republican. +</P> + +<P> +The Chinese Republican is of the mandarin class, but of a new +generation which veneers its Confucianism with Western polish. These +youthful and unbalanced reformers, in conjunction with older but no +less ill-balanced provincial politicians, may be said to represent +Young China. Amid such turmoils as this we invariably look for, and +invariably find, a Third Party. In my opinion, Dr. Fu-Manchu was one +of the leaders of such a party. +</P> + +<P> +Another question often put to me was: Where did the Doctor hide during +the time that he pursued his operations in London? This is more +susceptible of explanation. For a time Nayland Smith supposed, as I +did myself, that the opium den adjacent to the old Ratcliff Highway was +the Chinaman's base of operations; later we came to believe that the +mansion near Windsor was his hiding-place, and later still, the hulk +lying off the downstream flats. But I think I can state with +confidence that the spot which he had chosen for his home was neither +of these, but the East End riverside building which I was the first to +enter. Of this I am all but sure; for the reason that it not only was +the home of Fu-Manchu, of Karamaneh, and of her brother, Aziz, but the +home of something else—of something which I shall speak of later. +</P> + +<P> +The dreadful tragedy (or series of tragedies) which attended the raid +upon the place will always mark in my memory the supreme horror of a +horrible case. Let me endeavor to explain what occurred. +</P> + +<P> +By the aid of Karamaneh, you have seen how we had located the whilom +warehouse, which, from the exterior, was so drab and dreary, but which +within was a place of wondrous luxury. At the moment selected by our +beautiful accomplice, Inspector Weymouth and a body of detectives +entirely surrounded it; a river police launch lay off the wharf which +opened from it on the river-side; and this upon a singularly black +night, than which a better could not have been chosen. +</P> + +<P> +"You will fulfill your promise to me?" said Karamaneh, and looked up +into my face. +</P> + +<P> +She was enveloped in a big, loose cloak, and from the shadow of the +hood her wonderful eyes gleamed out like stars. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you wish us to do?" asked Nayland Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"You—and Dr. Petrie," she replied swiftly, "must enter first, and +bring out Aziz. Until he is safe—until he is out of that place—you +are to make no attempt upon—" +</P> + +<P> +"Upon Dr. Fu-Manchu?" interrupted Weymouth; for Karamaneh hesitated to +pronounce the dreaded name, as she always did. "But how can we be sure +that there is no trap laid for us?" +</P> + +<P> +The Scotland Yard man did not entirely share my confidence in the +integrity of this Eastern girl whom he knew to have been a creature of +the Chinaman's. +</P> + +<P> +"Aziz lies in the private room," she explained eagerly, her old accent +more noticeable than usual. "There is only one of the Burmese men in +the house, and he—he dare not enter without orders!" +</P> + +<P> +"But Fu-Manchu?" +</P> + +<P> +"We have nothing to fear from him. He will be your prisoner within ten +minutes from now! I have no time for words—you must believe!" She +stamped her foot impatiently. "And the dacoit?" snapped Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"He also." +</P> + +<P> +"I think perhaps I'd better come in, too," said Weymouth slowly. +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh shrugged her shoulders with quick impatience, and unlocked +the door in the high brick wall which divided the gloomy, evil-smelling +court from the luxurious apartments of Dr. Fu-Manchu. +</P> + +<P> +"Make no noise," she warned. And Smith and myself followed her along +the uncarpeted passage beyond. +</P> + +<P> +Inspector Weymouth, with a final word of instruction to his second in +command, brought up the rear. The door was reclosed; a few paces +farther on a second was unlocked. Passing through a small room, +unfurnished, a farther passage led us to a balcony. The transition was +startling. +</P> + +<P> +Darkness was about us now, and silence: a perfumed, slumberous +darkness—a silence full of mystery. For, beyond the walls of the +apartment whereon we looked down waged the unceasing battle of sounds +that is the hymn of the great industrial river. About the scented +confines which bounded us now floated the smoke-laden vapors of the +Lower Thames. +</P> + +<P> +From the metallic but infinitely human clangor of dock-side life, from +the unpleasant but homely odors which prevail where ships swallow in +and belch out the concrete evidences of commercial prosperity, we had +come into this incensed stillness, where one shaded lamp painted dim +enlargements of its Chinese silk upon the nearer walls, and left the +greater part of the room the darker for its contrast. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing of the Thames-side activity—of the riveting and scraping—the +bumping of bales—the bawling of orders—the hiss of steam—penetrated +to this perfumed place. In the pool of tinted light lay the deathlike +figure of a dark-haired boy, Karamaneh's muffled form bending over him. +</P> + +<P> +"At last I stand in the house of Dr. Fu-Manchu!" whispered Smith. +</P> + +<P> +Despite the girl's assurance, we knew that proximity to the sinister +Chinaman must be fraught with danger. We stood, not in the lion's den, +but in the serpent's lair. +</P> + +<P> +From the time when Nayland Smith had come from Burma in pursuit of this +advance-guard of a cogent Yellow Peril, the face of Dr. Fu-Manchu +rarely had been absent from my dreams day or night. The millions might +sleep in peace—the millions in whose cause we labored!—but we who +knew the reality of the danger knew that a veritable octopus had +fastened upon England—a yellow octopus whose head was that of Dr. +Fu-Manchu, whose tentacles were dacoity, thuggee, modes of death, +secret and swift, which in the darkness plucked men from life and left +no clew behind. +</P> + +<P> +"Karamaneh!" I called softly. +</P> + +<P> +The muffled form beneath the lamp turned so that the soft light fell +upon the lovely face of the slave girl. She who had been a pliant +instrument in the hands of Fu-Manchu now was to be the means whereby +society should be rid of him. +</P> + +<P> +She raised her finger warningly; then beckoned me to approach. +</P> + +<P> +My feet sinking in the rich pile of the carpet, I came through the +gloom of the great apartment in to the patch of light, and, Karamaneh +beside me, stood looking down upon the boy. It was Aziz, her brother; +dead so far as Western lore had power to judge, but kept alive in that +deathlike trance by the uncanny power of the Chinese doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"Be quick," she said; "be quick! Awaken him! I am afraid." +</P> + +<P> +From the case which I carried I took out a needle-syringe and a phial +containing a small quantity of amber-hued liquid. It was a drug not to +be found in the British Pharmacopoeia. Of its constitution I knew +nothing. Although I had had the phial in my possession for some days I +had not dared to devote any of its precious contents to analytical +purposes. The amber drops spelled life for the boy Aziz, spelled +success for the mission of Nayland Smith, spelled ruin for the fiendish +Chinaman. +</P> + +<P> +I raised the white coverlet. The boy, fully dressed, lay with his arms +crossed upon his breast. I discerned the mark of previous injections +as, charging the syringe from the phial, I made what I hoped would be +the last of such experiments upon him. I would have given half of my +small worldly possessions to have known the real nature of the drug +which was now coursing through the veins of Aziz—which was tinting the +grayed face with the olive tone of life; which, so far as my medical +training bore me, was restoring the dead to life. +</P> + +<P> +But such was not the purpose of my visit. I was come to remove from +the house of Dr. Fu-Manchu the living chain which bound Karamaneh to +him. The boy alive and free, the Doctor's hold upon the slave girl +would be broken. +</P> + +<P> +My lovely companion, her hands convulsively clasped, knelt and devoured +with her eyes the face of the boy who was passing through the most +amazing physiological change in the history of therapeutics. The +peculiar perfume which she wore—which seemed to be a part of +her—which always I associated with her—was faintly perceptible. +Karamaneh was breathing rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +"You have nothing to fear," I whispered; "see, he is reviving. In a +few moments all will be well with him." +</P> + +<P> +The hanging lamp with its garishly colored shade swung gently above us, +wafted, it seemed, by some draught which passed through the apartment. +The boy's heavy lids began to quiver, and Karamaneh nervously clutched +my arm, and held me so whilst we watched for the long-lashed eyes to +open. The stillness of the place was positively unnatural; it seemed +inconceivable that all about us was the discordant activity of the +commercial East End. Indeed, this eerie silence was becoming +oppressive; it began positively to appall me. +</P> + +<P> +Inspector Weymouth's wondering face peeped over my shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Dr. Fu-Manchu?" I whispered, as Nayland Smith in turn +appeared beside me. "I cannot understand the silence of the house—" +</P> + +<P> +"Look about," replied Karamaneh, never taking her eyes from the face of +Aziz. +</P> + +<P> +I peered around the shadowy walls. Tall glass cases there were, +shelves and niches: where once, from the gallery above, I had seen the +tubes and retorts, the jars of unfamiliar organisms, the books of +unfamiliar lore, the impedimenta of the occult student and man of +science—the visible evidences of Fu-Manchu's presence. +Shelves—cases—niches—were bare. Of the complicated appliances +unknown to civilized laboratories, wherewith he pursued his strange +experiments, of the tubes wherein he isolated the bacilli of +unclassified diseases, of the yellow-bound volumes for a glimpse at +which (had they known of their contents) the great men of Harley Street +would have given a fortune—no trace remained. The silken cushions; +the inlaid tables; all were gone. +</P> + +<P> +The room was stripped, dismantled. Had Fu-Manchu fled? The silence +assumed a new significance. His dacoits and kindred ministers of death +all must have fled, too. +</P> + +<P> +"You have let him escape us!" I said rapidly. "You promised to aid us +to capture him—to send us a message—and you have delayed until—" +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said; "no!" and clutched at my arm again. "Oh! is he not +reviving slowly? Are you sure you have made no mistake?" +</P> + +<P> +Her thoughts were all for the boy; and her solicitude touched me. I +again examined Aziz, the most remarkable patient of my busy +professional career. +</P> + +<P> +As I counted the strengthening pulse, he opened his dark eyes—which +were so like the eyes of Karamaneh—and, with the girl's eager arms +tightly about him, sat up, looking wonderingly around. +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh pressed her cheek to his, whispering loving words in that +softly spoken Arabic which had first betrayed her nationality to +Nayland Smith. I handed her my flask, which I had filled with wine. +</P> + +<P> +"My promise is fulfilled!" I said. "You are free! Now for Fu-Manchu! +But first let us admit the police to this house; there is something +uncanny in its stillness." +</P> + +<P> +"No," she replied. "First let my brother be taken out and placed in +safety. Will you carry him?" +</P> + +<P> +She raised her face to that of Inspector Weymouth, upon which was +written awe and wonder. +</P> + +<P> +The burly detective lifted the boy as tenderly as a woman, passed +through the shadows to the stairway, ascended, and was swallowed up in +the gloom. Nayland Smith's eyes gleamed feverishly. He turned to +Karamaneh. +</P> + +<P> +"You are not playing with us?" he said harshly. "We have done our +part; it remains for you to do yours." +</P> + +<P> +"Do not speak so loudly," the girl begged. "HE is near us—and, oh, +God, I fear him so!" +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he?" persisted my friend. +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh's eyes were glassy with fear now. +</P> + +<P> +"You must not touch him until the police are here," she said—but from +the direction of her quick, agitated glances I knew that, her brother +safe now, she feared for me, and for me alone. Those glances sent my +blood dancing; for Karamaneh was an Eastern jewel which any man of +flesh and blood must have coveted had he known it to lie within his +reach. Her eyes were twin lakes of mystery which, more than once, I +had known the desire to explore. +</P> + +<P> +"Look—beyond that curtain"—her voice was barely audible—"but do not +enter. Even as he is, I fear him." +</P> + +<P> +Her voice, her palpable agitation, prepared us for something +extraordinary. Tragedy and Fu-Manchu were never far apart. Though we +were two, and help was so near, we were in the abode of the most +cunning murderer who ever came out of the East. +</P> + +<P> +It was with strangely mingled emotions that I crossed the thick carpet, +Nayland Smith beside me, and drew aside the draperies concealing a +door, to which Karamaneh had pointed. Then, upon looking into the dim +place beyond, all else save what it held was forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +We looked upon a small, square room, the walls draped with fantastic +Chinese tapestry, the floor strewn with cushions; and reclining in a +corner, where the faint, blue light from a lamp, placed upon a low +table, painted grotesque shadows about the cavernous face—was Dr. +Fu-Manchu! +</P> + +<P> +At sight of him my heart leaped—and seemed to suspend its functions, +so intense was the horror which this man's presence inspired in me. My +hand clutching the curtain, I stood watching him. The lids veiled the +malignant green eyes, but the thin lips seemed to smile. Then Smith +silently pointed to the hand which held a little pipe. A sickly +perfume assailed my nostrils, and the explanation of the hushed +silence, and the ease with which we had thus far executed our plan, +came to me. The cunning mind was torpid—lost in a brutish world of +dreams. +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu was in an opium sleep! +</P> + +<P> +The dim light traced out a network of tiny lines, which covered the +yellow face from the pointed chin to the top of the great domed brow, +and formed deep shadow pools in the hollows beneath his eyes. At last +we had triumphed. +</P> + +<P> +I could not determine the depth of his obscene trance; and mastering +some of my repugnance, and forgetful of Karamaneh's warning, I was +about to step forward into the room, loaded with its nauseating opium +fumes, when a soft breath fanned my cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not go in!" came Karamaneh's warning voice—hushed—trembling. +</P> + +<P> +Her little hand grasped my arm. She drew Smith and myself back from +the door. +</P> + +<P> +"There is danger there!" she whispered. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not enter that room! The police must reach him in some way—and +drag him out! Do not enter that room!" +</P> + +<P> +The girl's voice quivered hysterically; her eyes blazed into savage +flame. The fierce resentment born of dreadful wrongs was consuming her +now; but fear of Fu-Manchu held her yet. Inspector Weymouth came down +the stairs and joined us. +</P> + +<P> +"I have sent the boy to Ryman's room at the station," he said. "The +divisional surgeon will look after him until you arrive, Dr. Petrie. +All is ready now. The launch is just off the wharf and every side of +the place under observation. Where's our man?" +</P> + +<P> +He drew a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and raised his eyebrows +interrogatively. The absence of sound—of any demonstration from the +uncanny Chinaman whom he was there to arrest—puzzled him. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith jerked his thumb toward the curtain. +</P> + +<P> +At that, and before we could utter a word, Weymouth stepped to the +draped door. He was a man who drove straight at his goal and saved +reflections for subsequent leisure. I think, moreover, that the +atmosphere of the place (stripped as it was it retained its heavy, +voluptuous perfume) had begun to get a hold upon him. He was anxious +to shake it off; to be up and doing. +</P> + +<P> +He pulled the curtain aside and stepped into the room. Smith and I +perforce followed him. Just within the door the three of us stood +looking across at the limp thing which had spread terror throughout the +Eastern and Western world. Helpless as Fu-Manchu was, he inspired +terror now, though the giant intellect was inert—stupefied. +</P> + +<P> +In the dimly lit apartment we had quitted I heard Karamaneh utter a +stifled scream. But it came too late. +</P> + +<P> +As though cast up by a volcano, the silken cushions, the inlaid table +with its blue-shaded lamp, the garish walls, the sprawling figure with +the ghastly light playing upon its features—quivered, and shot upward! +</P> + +<P> +So it seemed to me; though, in the ensuing instant I remembered, too +late, a previous experience of the floors of Fu-Manchu's private +apartments; I knew what had indeed befallen us. A trap had been +released beneath our feet. +</P> + +<P> +I recall falling—but have no recollection of the end of my fall—of +the shock marking the drop. I only remember fighting for my life +against a stifling something which had me by the throat. I knew that I +was being suffocated, but my hands met only the deathly emptiness. +</P> + +<P> +Into a poisonous well of darkness I sank. I could not cry out. I was +helpless. Of the fate of my companions I knew nothing—could surmise +nothing. Then … all consciousness ended. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap25"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H3> + +<P> +I WAS being carried along a dimly lighted, tunnel-like place, slung, +sackwise, across the shoulder of a Burman. He was not a big man, but +he supported my considerable weight with apparent ease. A deadly +nausea held me, but the rough handling had served to restore me to +consciousness. My hands and feet were closely lashed. I hung limply +as a wet towel: I felt that this spark of tortured life which had +flickered up in me must ere long finally become extinguished. +</P> + +<P> +A fancy possessed me, in these the first moments of my restoration to +the world of realities, that I had been smuggled into China; and as I +swung head downward I told myself that the huge, puffy things which +strewed the path were a species of giant toadstool, unfamiliar to me +and possibly peculiar to whatever district of China I now was in. +</P> + +<P> +The air was hot, steamy, and loaded with a smell as of rotting +vegetation. I wondered why my bearer so scrupulously avoided touching +any of the unwholesome-looking growths in passing through what seemed a +succession of cellars, but steered a tortuous course among the bloated, +unnatural shapes, lifting his bare brown feet with a catlike delicacy. +</P> + +<P> +He passed under a low arch, dropped me roughly to the ground and ran +back. Half stunned, I lay watching the agile brown body melt into the +distances of the cellars. Their walls and roof seemed to emit a faint, +phosphorescent light. +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie!" came a weak voice from somewhere ahead.… "Is that you, +Petrie?" +</P> + +<P> +It was Nayland Smith! +</P> + +<P> +"Smith!" I said, and strove to sit up. But the intense nausea overcame +me, so that I all but swooned. +</P> + +<P> +I heard his voice again, but could attach no meaning to the words which +he uttered. A sound of terrific blows reached my ears, too. The +Burman reappeared, bending under the heavy load which he bore. For, as +he picked his way through the bloated things which grew upon the floors +of the cellars, I realized that he was carrying the inert body of +Inspector Weymouth. And I found time to compare the strength of the +little brown man with that of a Nile beetle, which can raise many times +its own weight. Then, behind him, appeared a second figure, which +immediately claimed the whole of my errant attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Fu-Manchu!" hissed my friend, from the darkness which concealed him. +</P> + +<P> +It was indeed none other than Fu-Manchu—the Fu-Manchu whom we had +thought to be helpless. The deeps of the Chinaman's cunning—the fine +quality of his courage, were forced upon me as amazing facts. +</P> + +<P> +He had assumed the appearance of a drugged opium-smoker so well as to +dupe me—a medical man; so well as to dupe Karamaneh—whose experience +of the noxious habit probably was greater than my own. And, with the +gallows dangling before him, he had waited—played the part of a +lure—whilst a body of police actually surrounded the place! +</P> + +<P> +I have since thought that the room probably was one which he actually +used for opium debauches, and the device of the trap was intended to +protect him during the comatose period. +</P> + +<P> +Now, holding a lantern above his head, the deviser of the trap +whereinto we, mouselike, had blindly entered, came through the cellars, +following the brown man who carried Weymouth. The faint rays of the +lantern (it apparently contained a candle) revealed a veritable forest +of the gigantic fungi—poisonously colored—hideously swollen—climbing +from the floor up the slimy walls—climbing like horrid parasites to +such part of the arched roof as was visible to me. +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu picked his way through the fungi ranks as daintily as though +the distorted, tumid things had been viper-headed. +</P> + +<P> +The resounding blows which I had noted before, and which had never +ceased, culminated in a splintering crash. Dr. Fu-Manchu and his +servant, who carried the apparently insensible detective, passed in +under the arch, Fu-Manchu glancing back once along the passages. The +lantern he extinguished, or concealed; and whilst I waited, my mind +dully surveying memories of all the threats which this uncanny being +had uttered, a distant clamor came to my ears. +</P> + +<P> +Then, abruptly, it ceased. Dr. Fu-Manchu had closed a heavy door; and +to my surprise I perceived that the greater part of it was of glass. +The will-o'-the-wisp glow which played around the fungi rendered the +vista of the cellars faintly luminous, and visible to me from where I +lay. Fu-Manchu spoke softly. His voice, its guttural note alternating +with a sibilance on certain words, betrayed no traces of agitation. +The man's unbroken calm had in it something inhuman. For he had just +perpetrated an act of daring unparalleled in my experience, and, in the +clamor now shut out by the glass door I tardily recognized the entrance +of the police into some barricaded part of the house—the coming of +those who would save us—who would hold the Chinese doctor for the +hangman! +</P> + +<P> +"I have decided," he said deliberately, "that you are more worthy of my +attention than I had formerly supposed. A man who can solve the secret +of the Golden Elixir (I had not solved it; I had merely stolen some) +should be a valuable acquisition to my Council. The extent of the +plans of Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith and of the English Scotland +Yard it is incumbent upon me to learn. Therefore, gentlemen, you +live—for the present!" +</P> + +<P> +"And you'll swing," came Weymouth's hoarse voice, "in the near future! +You and all your yellow gang!" +</P> + +<P> +"I trust not," was the placid reply. "Most of my people are safe: some +are shipped as lascars upon the liners; others have departed by +different means. Ah!" +</P> + +<P> +That last word was the only one indicative of excitement which had yet +escaped him. A disk of light danced among the brilliant poison hues of +the passages—but no sound reached us; by which I knew that the glass +door must fit almost hermetically. It was much cooler here than in the +place through which we had passed, and the nausea began to leave me, my +brain to grow more clear. Had I known what was to follow I should have +cursed the lucidity of mind which now came to me; I should have prayed +for oblivion—to be spared the sight of that which ensued. +</P> + +<P> +"It's Logan!" cried Inspector Weymouth; and I could tell that he was +struggling to free himself of his bonds. From his voice it was evident +that he, too, was recovering from the effects of the narcotic which had +been administered to us all. +</P> + +<P> +"Logan!" he cried. "Logan! This way—HELP!" +</P> + +<P> +But the cry beat back upon us in that enclosed space and seemed to +carry no farther than the invisible walls of our prison. +</P> + +<P> +"The door fits well," came Fu-Manchu's mocking voice. "It is fortunate +for us all that it is so. This is my observation window, Dr. Petrie, +and you are about to enjoy an unique opportunity of studying fungology. +I have already drawn your attention to the anaesthetic properties of +the lycoperdon, or common puff-ball. You may have recognized the fumes? +The chamber into which you rashly precipitated yourselves was charged +with them. By a process of my own I have greatly enhanced the value of +the puff-ball in this respect. Your friend, Mr. Weymouth, proved the +most obstinate subject; but he succumbed in fifteen seconds." +</P> + +<P> +"Logan! Help! HELP! This way, man!" +</P> + +<P> +Something very like fear sounded in Weymouth's voice now. Indeed, the +situation was so uncanny that it almost seemed unreal. A group of men +had entered the farthermost cellars, led by one who bore an electric +pocket-lamp. The hard, white ray danced from bloated gray fungi to +others of nightmare shape, of dazzling, venomous brilliance. The +mocking, lecture-room voice continued: +</P> + +<P> +"Note the snowy growth upon the roof, Doctor. Do not be deceived by +its size. It is a giant variety of my own culture and is of the order +empusa. You, in England, are familiar with the death of the common +house-fly—which is found attached to the window-pane by a coating of +white mold. I have developed the spores of this mold and have produced +a giant species. Observe the interesting effect of the strong light +upon my orange and blue amanita fungus!" +</P> + +<P> +Hard beside me I heard Nayland Smith groan, Weymouth had become +suddenly silent. For my own part, I could have shrieked in pure +horror. FOR I KNEW WHAT WAS COMING. I realized in one agonized instant +the significance of the dim lantern, of the careful progress through +the subterranean fungi grove, of the care with which Fu-Manchu and his +servant had avoided touching any of the growths. I knew, now, that Dr. +Fu-Manchu was the greatest fungologist the world had ever known; was a +poisoner to whom the Borgias were as children—and I knew that the +detectives blindly were walking into a valley of death. +</P> + +<P> +Then it began—the unnatural scene—the saturnalia of murder. +</P> + +<P> +Like so many bombs the brilliantly colored caps of the huge +toadstool-like things alluded to by the Chinaman exploded, as the white +ray sought them out in the darkness which alone preserved their +existence. A brownish cloud—I could not determine whether liquid or +powdery—arose in the cellar. +</P> + +<P> +I tried to close my eyes—or to turn them away from the reeling forms +of the men who were trapped in that poison-hole. It was useless: +</P> + +<P> +I must look. +</P> + +<P> +The bearer of the lamp had dropped it, but the dim, eerily illuminated +gloom endured scarce a second. A bright light sprang up—doubtless at +the touch of the fiendish being who now resumed speech: +</P> + +<P> +"Observe the symptoms of delirium, Doctor!" Out there, beyond the +glass door, the unhappy victims were laughing—tearing their garments +from their bodies—leaping—waving their arms—were become MANIACS! +</P> + +<P> +"We will now release the ripe spores of giant entpusa," continued the +wicked voice. "The air of the second cellar being super-charged with +oxygen, they immediately germinate. Ah! it is a triumph! That +process is the scientific triumph of my life!" +</P> + +<P> +Like powdered snow the white spores fell from the roof, frosting the +writhing shapes of the already poisoned men. Before my horrified gaze, +THE FUNGUS GREW; it spread from the head to the feet of those it +touched; it enveloped them as in glittering shrouds.… +</P> + +<P> +"They die like flies!" screamed Fu-Manchu, with a sudden febrile +excitement; and I felt assured of something I had long suspected: that +that magnificent, perverted brain was the brain of a homicidal +maniac—though Smith would never accept the theory. +</P> + +<P> +"It is my fly-trap!" shrieked the Chinaman. "And I am the god of +destruction!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap26"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</H3> + +<P> +THE clammy touch of the mist revived me. The culmination of the scene +in the poison cellars, together with the effects of the fumes which I +had inhaled again, had deprived me of consciousness. Now I knew that I +was afloat on the river. I still was bound: furthermore, a cloth was +wrapped tightly about my mouth, and I was secured to a ring in the deck. +</P> + +<P> +By moving my aching head to the left I could look down into the oily +water; by moving it to the right I could catch a glimpse of the +empurpled face of Inspector Weymouth, who, similarly bound and gagged, +lay beside me, but only of the feet and legs of Nayland Smith. For I +could not turn my head sufficiently far to see more. +</P> + +<P> +We were aboard an electric launch. I heard the hated guttural voice of +Fu-Manchu, subdued now to its habitual calm, and my heart leaped to +hear the voice that answered him. It was that of Karamaneh. His +triumph was complete. Clearly his plans for departure were complete; +his slaughter of the police in the underground passages had been a +final reckless demonstration of which the Chinaman's subtle cunning +would have been incapable had he not known his escape from the country +to be assured. +</P> + +<P> +What fate was in store for us? How would he avenge himself upon the +girl who had betrayed him to his enemies? What portion awaited those +enemies? He seemed to have formed the singular determination to +smuggle me into China—but what did he purpose in the case of Weymouth, +and in the case of Nayland Smith? +</P> + +<P> +All but silently we were feeling our way through the mist. Astern died +the clangor of dock and wharf into a remote discord. Ahead hung the +foggy curtain veiling the traffic of the great waterway; but through it +broke the calling of sirens, the tinkling of bells. +</P> + +<P> +The gentle movement of the screw ceased altogether. The launch lay +heaving slightly upon the swells. +</P> + +<P> +A distant throbbing grew louder—and something advanced upon us through +the haze. +</P> + +<P> +A bell rang and muffled by the fog a voice proclaimed itself—a voice +which I knew. I felt Weymouth writhing impotently beside me; heard him +mumbling incoherently; and I knew that he, too, had recognized the +voice. +</P> + +<P> +It was that of Inspector Ryman of the river police and their launch was +within biscuit-throw of that upon which we lay! +</P> + +<P> +"'Hoy! 'Hoy!" +</P> + +<P> +I trembled. A feverish excitement claimed me. They were hailing us. +We carried no lights; but now—and ignoring the pain which shot from my +spine to my skull I craned my neck to the left—the port light of the +police launch glowed angrily through the mist. +</P> + +<P> +I was unable to utter any save mumbling sounds, and my companions were +equally helpless. It was a desperate position. Had the police seen us +or had they hailed at random? The light drew nearer. +</P> + +<P> +"Launch, 'hoy!" +</P> + +<P> +They had seen us! Fu-Manchu's guttural voice spoke shortly—and our +screw began to revolve again; we leaped ahead into the bank of +darkness. Faint grew the light of the police launch—and was gone. +But I heard Ryman's voice shouting. +</P> + +<P> +"Full speed!" came faintly through the darkness. "Port! Port!" +</P> + +<P> +Then the murk closed down, and with our friends far astern of us we +were racing deeper into the fog banks—speeding seaward; though of this +I was unable to judge at the time. +</P> + +<P> +On we raced, and on, sweeping over growing swells. Once, a black, +towering shape dropped down upon us. Far above, lights blazed, bells +rang, vague cries pierced the fog. The launch pitched and rolled +perilously, but weathered the wash of the liner which so nearly had +concluded this episode. It was such a journey as I had taken once +before, early in our pursuit of the genius of the Yellow Peril; but +this was infinitely more terrible; for now we were utterly in +Fu-Manchu's power. +</P> + +<P> +A voice mumbled in my ear. I turned my bound-up face; and Inspector +Weymouth raised his hands in the dimness and partly slipped the bandage +from his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"I've been working at the cords since we left those filthy cellars," he +whispered. "My wrists are all cut, but when I've got out a knife and +freed my ankles—" +</P> + +<P> +Smith had kicked him with his bound feet. The detective slipped the +bandage back to position and placed his hands behind him again. Dr. +Fu-Manchu, wearing a heavy overcoat but no hat, came aft. He was +dragging Karamaneh by the wrists. He seated himself on the cushions +near to us, pulling the girl down beside him. Now, I could see her +face—and the expression in her beautiful eyes made me writhe. +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu was watching us, his discolored teeth faintly visible in the +dim light, to which my eyes were becoming accustomed. +</P> + +<P> +"Dr. Petrie," he said, "you shall be my honored guest at my home in +China. You shall assist me to revolutionize chemistry. Mr. Smith, I +fear you know more of my plans than I had deemed it possible for you to +have learned, and I am anxious to know if you have a confidant. Where +your memory fails you, and my files and wire jackets prove ineffectual, +Inspector Weymouth's recollections may prove more accurate." +</P> + +<P> +He turned to the cowering girl—who shrank away from him in pitiful, +abject terror. +</P> + +<P> +"In my hands, Doctor," he continued, "I hold a needle charged with a +rare culture. It is the link between the bacilli and the fungi. You +have seemed to display an undue interest in the peach and pearl which +render my Karamaneh so delightful, in the supple grace of her movements +and the sparkle of her eyes. You can never devote your whole mind to +those studies which I have planned for you whilst such distractions +exist. A touch of this keen point, and the laughing Karamaneh becomes +the shrieking hag—the maniacal, mowing—" +</P> + +<P> +Then, with an ox-like rush, Weymouth was upon him! +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh, wrought upon past endurance, with a sobbing cry, sank to the +deck—and lay still. I managed to writhe into a half-sitting posture, +and Smith rolled aside as the detective and the Chinaman crashed down +together. +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth had one big hand at the Doctor's yellow throat; with his left +he grasped the Chinaman's right. It held the needle. +</P> + +<P> +Now, I could look along the length of the little craft, and, so far as +it was possible to make out in the fog, only one other was aboard—the +half-clad brown man who navigated her—and who had carried us through +the cellars. The murk had grown denser and now shut us in like a box. +The throb of the motor—the hissing breath of the two who fought—with +so much at issue—these sounds and the wash of the water alone broke +the eerie stillness. +</P> + +<P> +By slow degrees, and with a reptilian agility horrible to watch, +Fu-Manchu was neutralizing the advantage gained by Weymouth. His +clawish fingers were fast in the big man's throat; the right hand with +its deadly needle was forcing down the left of his opponent. He had +been underneath, but now he was gaining the upper place. His powers of +physical endurance must have been truly marvelous. His breath was +whistling through his nostrils significantly, but Weymouth was palpably +tiring. +</P> + +<P> +The latter suddenly changed his tactics. By a supreme effort, to which +he was spurred, I think, by the growing proximity of the needle, he +raised Fu-Manchu—by the throat and arm—and pitched him sideways. +</P> + +<P> +The Chinaman's grip did not relax, and the two wrestlers dropped, a +writhing mass, upon the port cushions. The launch heeled over, and my +cry of horror was crushed back into my throat by the bandage. For, as +Fu-Manchu sought to extricate himself, he overbalanced—fell back—and, +bearing Weymouth with him—slid into the river! +</P> + +<P> +The mist swallowed them up. +</P> + +<P> +There are moments of which no man can recall his mental impressions, +moments so acutely horrible that, mercifully, our memory retains +nothing of the emotions they occasioned. This was one of them. A +chaos ruled in my mind. I had a vague belief that the Burman, forward, +glanced back. Then the course of the launch was changed. How long +intervened between the tragic end of that Gargantuan struggle and the +time when a black wall leaped suddenly up before us I cannot pretend to +state. +</P> + +<P> +With a sickening jerk we ran aground. A loud explosion ensued, and I +clearly remember seeing the brown man leap out into the fog—which was +the last I saw of him. +</P> + +<P> +Water began to wash aboard. +</P> + +<P> +Fully alive to our imminent peril, I fought with the cords that bound +me; but I lacked poor Weymouth's strength of wrist, and I began to +accept as a horrible and imminent possibility, a death from drowning, +within six feet of the bank. +</P> + +<P> +Beside me, Nayland Smith was straining and twisting. I think his +object was to touch Karamaneh, in the hope of arousing her. Where he +failed in his project, the inflowing water succeeded. A silent prayer +of thankfulness came from my very soul when I saw her stir—when I saw +her raise her hands to her head—and saw the big, horror-bright eyes +gleam through the mist veil. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap27"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXVII +</H3> + +<P> +WE quitted the wrecked launch but a few seconds before her stern +settled down into the river. Where the mud-bank upon which we found +ourselves was situated we had no idea. But at least it was terra firma +and we were free from Dr. Fu-Manchu. +</P> + +<P> +Smith stood looking out towards the river. +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" he groaned. "My God!" +</P> + +<P> +He was thinking, as I was, of Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +And when, an hour later, the police boat located us (on the mud-flats +below Greenwich) and we heard that the toll of the poison cellars was +eight men, we also heard news of our brave companion. +</P> + +<P> +"Back there in the fog, sir," reported Inspector Ryman, who was in +charge, and his voice was under poor command, "there was an uncanny +howling, and peals of laughter that I'm going to dream about for +weeks—" +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh, who nestled beside me like a frightened child, shivered; and +I knew that the needle had done its work, despite Weymouth's giant +strength. +</P> + +<P> +Smith swallowed noisily. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray God the river has that yellow Satan," he said. "I would +sacrifice a year of my life to see his rat's body on the end of a +grappling-iron!" +</P> + +<P> +We were a sad party that steamed through the fog homeward that night. +It seemed almost like deserting a staunch comrade to leave the spot—so +nearly as we could locate it—where Weymouth had put up that last +gallant fight. Our helplessness was pathetic, and although, had the +night been clear as crystal, I doubt if we could have acted otherwise, +it came to me that this stinking murk was a new enemy which drove us +back in coward retreat. +</P> + +<P> +But so many were the calls upon our activity, and so numerous the +stimulants to our initiative in those times, that soon we had matter to +relieve our minds from this stress of sorrow. +</P> + +<P> +There was Karamaneh to be considered—Karamaneh and her brother. A +brief counsel was held, whereat it was decided that for the present +they should be lodged at a hotel. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall arrange," Smith whispered to me, for the girl was watching us, +"to have the place patrolled night and day." +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot suppose—" +</P> + +<P> +"Petrie! I cannot and dare not suppose Fu-Manchu dead until with my +own eyes I have seen him so!" +</P> + +<P> +Accordingly we conveyed the beautiful Oriental girl and her brother +away from that luxurious abode in its sordid setting. I will not dwell +upon the final scene in the poison cellars lest I be accused of +accumulating horror for horror's sake. Members of the fire brigade, +helmed against contagion, brought out the bodies of the victims wrapped +in their living shrouds.… +</P> + +<P> +From Karamaneh we learned much of Fu-Manchu, little of herself. +</P> + +<P> +"What am I? Does my poor history matter—to anyone?" was her answer to +questions respecting herself. +</P> + +<P> +And she would droop her lashes over her dark eyes. +</P> + +<P> +The dacoits whom the Chinaman had brought to England originally +numbered seven, we learned. As you, having followed me thus far, will +be aware, we had thinned the ranks of the Burmans. Probably only one +now remained in England. They had lived in a camp in the grounds of +the house near Windsor (which, as we had learned at the time of its +destruction, the Doctor had bought outright). The Thames had been his +highway. +</P> + +<P> +Other members of the group had occupied quarters in various parts of +the East End, where sailormen of all nationalities congregate. +Shen-Yan's had been the East End headquarters. He had employed the +hulk from the time of his arrival, as a laboratory for a certain class +of experiments undesirable in proximity to a place of residence. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith asked the girl on one occasion if the Chinaman had had a +private sea-going vessel, and she replied in the affirmative. She had +never been on board, however, had never even set eyes upon it, and +could give us no information respecting its character. It had sailed +for China. +</P> + +<P> +"You are sure," asked Smith keenly, "that it has actually left?" +</P> + +<P> +"I understood so, and that we were to follow by another route." +</P> + +<P> +"It would have been difficult for Fu-Manchu to travel by a passenger +boat?" +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot say what were his plans." +</P> + +<P> +In a state of singular uncertainty, then, readily to be understood, we +passed the days following the tragedy which had deprived us of our +fellow-worker. +</P> + +<P> +Vividly I recall the scene at poor Weymouth's home, on the day that we +visited it. I then made the acquaintance of the Inspector's brother. +Nayland Smith gave him a detailed account of the last scene. +</P> + +<P> +"Out there in the mist," he concluded wearily, "it all seemed very +unreal." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish to God it had been!" +</P> + +<P> +"Amen to that, Mr. Weymouth. But your brother made a gallant finish. +If ridding the world of Fu-Manchu were the only good deed to his +credit, his life had been well spent." +</P> + +<P> +James Weymouth smoked awhile in thoughtful silence. Though but four +and a half miles S.S.E. of St. Paul's the quaint little cottage, with +its rustic garden, shadowed by the tall trees which had so lined the +village street before motor 'buses were, was a spot as peaceful and +secluded as any in broad England. But another shadow lay upon it +to-day—chilling, fearful. An incarnate evil had come out of the dim +East and in its dying malevolence had touched this home. +</P> + +<P> +"There are two things I don't understand about it, sir," continued +Weymouth. "What was the meaning of the horrible laughter which the +river police heard in the fog? And where are the bodies?" +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh, seated beside me, shuddered at the words. Smith, whose +restless spirit granted him little repose, paused in his aimless +wanderings about the room and looked at her. +</P> + +<P> +In these latter days of his Augean labors to purge England of the +unclean thing which had fastened upon her, my friend was more lean and +nervous-looking than I had ever known him. His long residence in Burma +had rendered him spare and had burned his naturally dark skin to a +coppery hue; but now his gray eyes had grown feverishly bright and his +face so lean as at times to appear positively emaciated. But I knew +that he was as fit as ever. +</P> + +<P> +"This lady may be able to answer your first question," he said. "She +and her brother were for some time in the household of Dr. Fu-Manchu. +In fact, Mr. Weymouth, Karamaneh, as her name implies, was a slave." +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth glanced at the beautiful, troubled face with scarcely veiled +distrust. "You don't look as though you had come from China, miss," he +said, with a sort of unwilling admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not come from China," replied Karamaneh. "My father was a pure +Bedawee. But my history does not matter." (At times there was +something imperious in her manner; and to this her musical accent added +force.) "When your brave brother, Inspector Weymouth, and Dr. +Fu-Manchu, were swallowed up by the river, Fu-Manchu held a poisoned +needle in his hand. The laughter meant that the needle had done its +work. Your brother had become mad!" +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth turned aside to hide his emotion. "What was on the needle?" +he asked huskily. +</P> + +<P> +"It was something which he prepared from the venom of a kind of swamp +adder," she answered. "It produces madness, but not always death." +</P> + +<P> +"He would have had a poor chance," said Smith, "even had he been in +complete possession of his senses. At the time of the encounter we +must have been some considerable distance from shore, and the fog was +impenetrable." +</P> + +<P> +"But how do you account for the fact that neither of the bodies have +been recovered?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ryman of the river police tells me that persons lost at that point are +not always recovered—or not until a considerable time later." +</P> + +<P> +There was a faint sound from the room above. The news of that tragic +happening out in the mist upon the Thames had prostrated poor Mrs. +Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"She hasn't been told half the truth," said her brother-in-law. "She +doesn't know about—the poisoned needle. What kind of fiend was this +Dr. Fu-Manchu?" He burst out into a sudden blaze of furious resentment. +"John never told me much, and you have let mighty little leak into the +papers. What was he? Who was he?" +</P> + +<P> +Half he addressed the words to Smith, half to Karamaneh. +</P> + +<P> +"Dr. Fu-Manchu," replied the former, "was the ultimate expression of +Chinese cunning; a phenomenon such as occurs but once in many +generations. He was a superman of incredible genius, who, had he +willed, could have revolutionized science. There is a superstition in +some parts of China according to which, under certain peculiar +conditions (one of which is proximity to a deserted burial-ground) an +evil spirit of incredible age may enter unto the body of a new-born +infant. All my efforts thus far have not availed me to trace the +genealogy of the man called Dr. Fu-Manchu. Even Karamaneh cannot help +me in this. But I have sometimes thought that he was a member of a +certain very old Kiangsu family—and that the peculiar conditions I +have mentioned prevailed at his birth!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith, observing our looks of amazement, laughed shortly, and quite +mirthlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor old Weymouth!" he jerked. "I suppose my labors are finished; but +I am far from triumphant. Is there any improvement in Mrs. Weymouth's +condition?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very little," was the reply; "she has lain in a semi-conscious state +since the news came. No one had any idea she would take it so. At one +time we were afraid her brain was going. She seemed to have delusions." +</P> + +<P> +Smith spun round upon Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Of what nature?" he asked rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +The other pulled nervously at his mustache. +</P> + +<P> +"My wife has been staying with her," he explained, "since—it happened; +and for the last three nights poor John's widow has cried out at the +same time—half-past two—that someone was knocking on the door." +</P> + +<P> +"What door?" +</P> + +<P> +"That door yonder—the street door." +</P> + +<P> +All our eyes turned in the direction indicated. +</P> + +<P> +"John often came home at half-past two from the Yard," continued +Weymouth; "so we naturally thought poor Mary was wandering in her mind. +But last night—and it's not to be wondered at—my wife couldn't sleep, +and she was wide awake at half-past two." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith was standing before him, alert, bright-eyed. +</P> + +<P> +"She heard it, too!" +</P> + +<P> +The sun was streaming into the cozy little sitting-room; but I will +confess that Weymouth's words chilled me uncannily. Karamaneh laid her +hand upon mine, in a quaint, childish fashion peculiarly her own. Her +hand was cold, but its touch thrilled me. For Karamaneh was not a +child, but a rarely beautiful girl—a pearl of the East such as many a +monarch has fought for. +</P> + +<P> +"What then?" asked Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"She was afraid to move—afraid to look from the window!" +</P> + +<P> +My friend turned and stared hard at me. +</P> + +<P> +"A subjective hallucination, Petrie?" +</P> + +<P> +"In all probability," I replied. "You should arrange that your wife be +relieved in her trying duties, Mr. Weymouth. It is too great a strain +for an inexperienced nurse." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap28"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXVIII +</H3> + +<P> +OF all that we had hoped for in our pursuit of Fu-Manchu how little had +we accomplished. Excepting Karamaneh and her brother (who were victims +and not creatures of the Chinese doctor's) not one of the formidable +group had fallen alive into our hands. Dreadful crimes had marked +Fu-Manchu's passage through the land. Not one-half of the truth (and +nothing of the later developments) had been made public. Nayland +Smith's authority was sufficient to control the press. +</P> + +<P> +In the absence of such a veto a veritable panic must have seized upon +the entire country; for a monster—a thing more than humanly +evil—existed in our midst. +</P> + +<P> +Always Fu-Manchu's secret activities had centered about the great +waterway. There was much of poetic justice in his end; for the Thames +had claimed him, who so long had used the stream as a highway for the +passage to and fro for his secret forces. Gone now were the yellow men +who had been the instruments of his evil will; gone was the giant +intellect which had controlled the complex murder machine. Karamaneh, +whose beauty he had used as a lure, at last was free, and no more with +her smile would tempt men to death—that her brother might live. +</P> + +<P> +Many there are, I doubt not, who will regard the Eastern girl with +horror. I ask their forgiveness in that I regarded her quite +differently. No man having seen her could have condemned her unheard. +Many, having looked into her lovely eyes, had they found there what I +found, must have forgiven her almost any crime. +</P> + +<P> +That she valued human life but little was no matter for wonder. Her +nationality—her history—furnished adequate excuse for an attitude not +condonable in a European equally cultured. +</P> + +<P> +But indeed let me confess that hers was a nature incomprehensible to me +in some respects. The soul of Karamaneh was a closed book to my +short-sighted Western eyes. But the body of Karamaneh was exquisite; +her beauty of a kind that was a key to the most extravagant rhapsodies +of Eastern poets. Her eyes held a challenge wholly Oriental in its +appeal; her lips, even in repose, were a taunt. And, herein, East is +West and West is East. +</P> + +<P> +Finally, despite her lurid history, despite the scornful +self-possession of which I knew her capable, she was an unprotected +girl—in years, I believe, a mere child—whom Fate had cast in my way. +At her request, we had booked passages for her brother and herself to +Egypt. The boat sailed in three days. But Karamaneh's beautiful eyes +were sad; often I detected tears on the black lashes. Shall I endeavor +to describe my own tumultuous, conflicting emotions? It would be +useless, since I know it to be impossible. For in those dark eyes +burned a fire I might not see; those silken lashes veiled a message I +dared not read. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith was not blind to the facts of the complicated situation. +I can truthfully assert that he was the only man of my acquaintance +who, having come in contact with Karamaneh, had kept his head. +</P> + +<P> +We endeavored to divert her mind from the recent tragedies by a round +of amusements, though with poor Weymouth's body still at the mercy of +unknown waters Smith and I made but a poor show of gayety; and I took a +gloomy pride in the admiration which our lovely companion everywhere +excited. I learned, in those days, how rare a thing in nature is a +really beautiful woman. +</P> + +<P> +One afternoon we found ourselves at an exhibition of water colors in +Bond Street. Karamaneh was intensely interested in the subjects of the +drawings—which were entirely Egyptian. As usual, she furnished matter +for comment amongst the other visitors, as did the boy, Aziz, her +brother, anew upon the world from his living grave in the house of Dr. +Fu-Manchu. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Aziz clutched at his sister's arm, whispering rapidly in +Arabic. I saw her peachlike color fade; saw her become pale and +wild-eyed—the haunted Karamaneh of the old days. +</P> + +<P> +She turned to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Dr. Petrie—he says that Fu-Manchu is here!" +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith rapped out the question violently, turning in a flash +from the picture which he was examining. +</P> + +<P> +"In this room!" she whispered glancing furtively, affrightedly about +her. "Something tells Aziz when HE is near—and I, too, feel strangely +afraid. Oh, can it be that he is not dead!" +</P> + +<P> +She held my arm tightly. Her brother was searching the room with big, +velvet black eyes. I studied the faces of the several visitors; and +Smith was staring about him with the old alert look, and tugging +nervously at the lobe of his ear. The name of the giant foe of the +white race instantaneously had strung him up to a pitch of supreme +intensity. +</P> + +<P> +Our united scrutinies discovered no figure which could have been that +of the Chinese doctor. Who could mistake that long, gaunt shape, with +the high, mummy-like shoulders, and the indescribable gait, which I can +only liken to that of an awkward cat? +</P> + +<P> +Then, over the heads of a group of people who stood by the doorway, I +saw Smith peering at someone—at someone who passed across the outer +room. Stepping aside, I, too, obtained a glimpse of this person. +</P> + +<P> +As I saw him, he was a tall, old man, wearing a black Inverness coat +and a rather shabby silk hat. He had long white hair and a patriarchal +beard, wore smoked glasses and walked slowly, leaning upon a stick. +</P> + +<P> +Smith's gaunt face paled. With a rapid glance at Karamaneh, he made +off across the room. +</P> + +<P> +Could it be Dr. Fu-Manchu? +</P> + +<P> +Many days had passed since, already half-choked by Inspector Weymouth's +iron grip, Fu-Manchu, before our own eyes, had been swallowed up by the +Thames. Even now men were seeking his body, and that of his last +victim. Nor had we left any stone unturned. Acting upon information +furnished by Karamaneh, the police had searched every known haunt of +the murder group. But everything pointed to the fact that the group +was disbanded and dispersed; that the lord of strange deaths who had +ruled it was no more. +</P> + +<P> +Yet Smith was not satisfied. Neither, let me confess, was I. Every +port was watched; and in suspected districts a kind of house-to-house +patrol had been instituted. Unknown to the great public, in those days +a secret war waged—a war in which all the available forces of the +authorities took the field against one man! But that one man was the +evil of the East incarnate. +</P> + +<P> +When we rejoined him, Nayland Smith was talking to the commissionaire +at the door. He turned to me. +</P> + +<P> +"That is Professor Jenner Monde," he said. "The sergeant, here, knows +him well." +</P> + +<P> +The name of the celebrated Orientalist of course was familiar to me, +although I had never before set eyes upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"The Professor was out East the last time I was there, sir," stated the +commissionaire. "I often used to see him. But he's an eccentric old +gentleman. Seems to live in a world of his own. He's recently back +from China, I think." +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith stood clicking his teeth together in irritable +hesitation. I heard Karamaneh sigh, and, looking at her, I saw that +her cheeks were regaining their natural color. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled in pathetic apology. +</P> + +<P> +"If he was here he is gone," she said. "I am not afraid now." +</P> + +<P> +Smith thanked the commissionaire for his information and we quitted the +gallery. +</P> + +<P> +"Professor Jenner Monde," muttered my friend, "has lived so long in +China as almost to be a Chinaman. I have never met him—never seen +him, before; but I wonder—" +</P> + +<P> +"You wonder what, Smith?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if he could possibly be an ally, of the Doctor's!" +</P> + +<P> +I stared at him in amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"If we are to attach any importance to the incident at all," I said, +"we must remember that the boy's impression—and Karamaneh's—was that +Fu-Manchu was present in person." +</P> + +<P> +"I DO attach importance to the incident, Petrie; they are naturally +sensitive to such impressions. But I doubt if even the abnormal +organization of Aziz could distinguish between the hidden presence of a +creature of the Doctor's and that of the Doctor himself. I shall make +a point of calling upon Professor Jenner Monde." +</P> + +<P> +But Fate had ordained that much should happen ere Smith made his +proposed call upon the Professor. +</P> + +<P> +Karamaneh and her brother safely lodged in their hotel (which was +watched night and day by four men under Smith's orders), we returned to +my quiet suburban rooms. +</P> + +<P> +"First," said Smith, "let us see what we can find out respecting +Professor Monde." +</P> + +<P> +He went to the telephone and called up New Scotland Yard. There +followed some little delay before the requisite information was +obtained. Finally, however, we learned that the Professor was +something of a recluse, having few acquaintances, and fewer friends. +</P> + +<P> +He lived alone in chambers in New Inn Court, Carey Street. A charwoman +did such cleaning as was considered necessary by the Professor, who +employed no regular domestic. When he was in London he might be seen +fairly frequently at the British Museum, where his shabby figure was +familiar to the officials. When he was not in London—that is, during +the greater part of each year—no one knew where he went. He never +left any address to which letters might be forwarded. +</P> + +<P> +"How long has he been in London now?" asked Smith. +</P> + +<P> +So far as could be ascertained from New Inn Court (replied Scotland +Yard) roughly a week. +</P> + +<P> +My friend left the telephone and began restlessly to pace the room. +The charred briar was produced and stuffed with that broad cut Latakia +mixture of which Nayland Smith consumed close upon a pound a week. He +was one of those untidy smokers who leave tangled tufts hanging from +the pipe-bowl and when they light up strew the floor with smoldering +fragments. +</P> + +<P> +A ringing came, and shortly afterwards a girl entered. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. James Weymouth to see you, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo!" rapped Smith. "What's this?" +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth entered, big and florid, and in some respects singularly like +his brother, in others as singularly unlike. Now, in his black suit, +he was a somber figure; and in the blue eyes I read a fear suppressed. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Smith," he began, "there's something uncanny going on at Maple +Cottage." +</P> + +<P> +Smith wheeled the big arm-chair forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down, Mr. Weymouth," he said. "I am not entirely surprised. But +you have my attention. What has occurred?" +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth took a cigarette from the box which I proffered and poured out +a peg of whisky. His hand was not quite steady. +</P> + +<P> +"That knocking," he explained. "It came again the night after you were +there, and Mrs. Weymouth—my wife, I mean—felt that she couldn't spend +another night there, alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Did she look out of the window?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Doctor; she was afraid. But I spent last night downstairs in the +sitting-room—and <I>I</I> looked out!" +</P> + +<P> +He took a gulp from his glass. Nayland Smith, seated on the edge of +the table, his extinguished pipe in his hand, was watching him keenly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll admit I didn't look out at once," Weymouth resumed. "There was +something so uncanny, gentlemen, in that knocking—knocking—in the +dead of the night. I thought"—his voice shook—"of poor Jack, lying +somewhere amongst the slime of the river—and, oh, my God! it came to +me that it was Jack who was knocking—and I dare not think what +he—what it—would look like!" +</P> + +<P> +He leaned forward, his chin in his hand. For a few moments we were all +silent. +</P> + +<P> +"I know I funked," he continued huskily. "But when the wife came to +the head of the stairs and whispered to me: 'There it is again. What +in heaven's name can it be'—I started to unbolt the door. The +knocking had stopped. Everything was very still. I heard Mary—HIS +widow—sobbing, upstairs; that was all. I opened the door, a little +bit at a time." +</P> + +<P> +Pausing again, he cleared his throat, and went on: +</P> + +<P> +"It was a bright night, and there was no one there—not a soul. But +somewhere down the lane, as I looked out into the porch, I heard most +awful groans! They got fainter and fainter. Then—I could have sworn +I heard SOMEONE LAUGHING! My nerves cracked up at that; and I shut the +door again." +</P> + +<P> +The narration of his weird experience revived something of the natural +fear which it had occasioned. He raised his glass, with unsteady hand, +and drained it. +</P> + +<P> +Smith struck a match and relighted his pipe. He began to pace the room +again. His eyes were literally on fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Would it be possible to get Mrs. Weymouth out of the house before +to-night? Remove her to your place, for instance?" he asked abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth looked up in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"She seems to be in a very low state," he replied. He glanced at me. +"Perhaps Dr. Petrie would give us an opinion?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will come and see her," I said. "But what is your idea, Smith?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want to hear that knocking!" he rapped. "But in what I may see fit +to do I must not be handicapped by the presence of a sick woman." +</P> + +<P> +"Her condition at any rate will admit of our administering an opiate," +I suggested. "That would meet the situation?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" cried Smith. He was intensely excited now. "I rely upon you +to arrange something, Petrie. Mr. Weymouth"—he turned to our +visitor—"I shall be with you this evening not later than twelve +o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +Weymouth appeared to be greatly relieved. I asked him to wait whilst I +prepared a draught for the patient. When he was gone: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think this knocking means, Smith?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +He tapped out his pipe on the side of the grate and began with nervous +energy to refill it again from the dilapidated pouch. +</P> + +<P> +"I dare not tell you what I hope, Petrie," he replied—"nor what I +fear." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap29"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXIX +</H3> + +<P> +DUSK was falling when we made our way in the direction of Maple +Cottage. Nayland Smith appeared to be keenly interested in the +character of the district. A high and ancient wall bordered the road +along which we walked for a considerable distance. Later it gave place +to a rickety fence. +</P> + +<P> +My friend peered through a gap in the latter. +</P> + +<P> +"There is quite an extensive estate here," he said, "not yet cut up by +the builder. It is well wooded on one side, and there appears to be a +pool lower down." +</P> + +<P> +The road was a quiet one, and we plainly heard the tread—quite +unmistakable—of an approaching policeman. Smith continued to peer +through the hole in the fence, until the officer drew up level with us. +Then: +</P> + +<P> +"Does this piece of ground extend down to the village, constable?" he +inquired. +</P> + +<P> +Quite willing for a chat, the man stopped, and stood with his thumbs +thrust in his belt. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. They tell me three new roads will be made through it +between here and the hill." +</P> + +<P> +"It must be a happy hunting ground for tramps?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've seen some suspicious-looking coves about at times. But after +dusk an army might be inside there and nobody would ever be the wiser." +</P> + +<P> +"Burglaries frequent in the houses backing on to it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no. A favorite game in these parts is snatching loaves and +bottles of milk from the doors, first thing, as they're delivered. +There's been an extra lot of it lately. My mate who relieves me has +got special instructions to keep his eye open in the mornings!" The +man grinned. "It wouldn't be a very big case even if he caught +anybody!" "No," said Smith absently; "perhaps not. Your business must +be a dry one this warm weather. Good-night." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-night, sir," replied the constable, richer by half-a-crown—"and +thank you." +</P> + +<P> +Smith stared after him for a moment, tugging reflectively at the lobe +of his ear. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know that it wouldn't be a big case, after all," he murmured. +"Come on, Petrie." +</P> + +<P> +Not another word did he speak, until we stood at the gate of Maple +Cottage. There a plain-clothes man was standing, evidently awaiting +Smith. He touched his hat. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you found a suitable hiding-place?" asked my companion rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," was the reply. "Kent—my mate—is there now. You'll +notice that he can't be seen from here." +</P> + +<P> +"No," agreed Smith, peering all about him. "He can't. Where is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Behind the broken wall," explained the man, pointing. "Through that +ivy there's a clear view of the cottage door." +</P> + +<P> +"Good. Keep your eyes open. If a messenger comes for me, he is to be +intercepted, you understand. No one must be allowed to disturb us. +You will recognize the messenger. He will be one of your fellows. +Should he come—hoot three times, as much like an owl as you can." +</P> + +<P> +We walked up to the porch of the cottage. In response to Smith's +ringing came James Weymouth, who seemed greatly relieved by our arrival. +</P> + +<P> +"First," said my friend briskly, "you had better run up and see the +patient." +</P> + +<P> +Accordingly, I followed Weymouth upstairs and was admitted by his wife +to a neat little bedroom where the grief-stricken woman lay, a wanly +pathetic sight. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you administer the draught, as directed?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. James Weymouth nodded. She was a kindly looking woman, with the +same dread haunting her hazel eyes as that which lurked in her +husband's blue ones. +</P> + +<P> +The patient was sleeping soundly. Some whispered instructions I gave +to the faithful nurse and descended to the sitting-room. It was a warm +night, and Weymouth sat by the open window, smoking. The dim light +from the lamp on the table lent him an almost startling likeness to his +brother; and for a moment I stood at the foot of the stairs scarce able +to trust my reason. Then he turned his face fully towards me, and the +illusion was lost. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think she is likely to wake, Doctor?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I think not," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith stood upon the rug before the hearth, swinging from one +foot to the other, in his nervously restless way. The room was foggy +with the fumes of tobacco, for he, too, was smoking. +</P> + +<P> +At intervals of some five to ten minutes, his blackened briar (which I +never knew him to clean or scrape) would go out. I think Smith used +more matches than any other smoker I have ever met, and he invariably +carried three boxes in various pockets of his garments. +</P> + +<P> +The tobacco habit is infectious, and, seating myself in an arm-chair, I +lighted a cigarette. For this dreary vigil I had come prepared with a +bunch of rough notes, a writing-block, and a fountain pen. I settled +down to work upon my record of the Fu-Manchu case. +</P> + +<P> +Silence fell upon Maple Cottage. Save for the shuddering sigh which +whispered through the over-hanging cedars and Smith's eternal +match-striking, nothing was there to disturb me in my task. Yet I +could make little progress. Between my mind and the chapter upon which +I was at work a certain sentence persistently intruded itself. It was +as though an unseen hand held the written page closely before my eyes. +This was the sentence: +</P> + +<P> +"Imagine a person, tall, lean, and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow +like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, +magnetic eyes of the true cat-green: invest him with all the cruel +cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant +intellect…" +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fu-Manchu! Fu-Manchu as Smith had described him to me on that +night which now seemed so remotely distant—the night upon which I had +learned of the existence of the wonderful and evil being born of that +secret quickening which stirred in the womb of the yellow races. +</P> + +<P> +As Smith, for the ninth or tenth time, knocked out his pipe on a bar of +the grate, the cuckoo clock in the kitchen proclaimed the hour. +</P> + +<P> +"Two," said James Weymouth. +</P> + +<P> +I abandoned my task, replacing notes and writing-block in the bag that +I had with me. Weymouth adjusted the lamp which had begun to smoke. +</P> + +<P> +I tiptoed to the stairs and, stepping softly, ascended to the sick +room. All was quiet, and Mrs. Weymouth whispered to me that the +patient still slept soundly. I returned to find Nayland Smith pacing +about the room in that state of suppressed excitement habitual with him +in the approach of any crisis. At a quarter past two the breeze +dropped entirely, and such a stillness reigned all about us as I could +not have supposed possible so near to the ever-throbbing heart of the +great metropolis. Plainly I could hear Weymouth's heavy breathing. He +sat at the window and looked out into the black shadows under the +cedars. Smith ceased his pacing and stood again on the rug very still. +He was listening! I doubt not we were all listening. +</P> + +<P> +Some faint sound broke the impressive stillness, coming from the +direction of the village street. It was a vague, indefinite +disturbance, brief, and upon it ensued a silence more marked than ever. +Some minutes before, Smith had extinguished the lamp. In the darkness +I heard his teeth snap sharply together. +</P> + +<P> +The call of an owl sounded very clearly three times. +</P> + +<P> +I knew that to mean that a messenger had come; but from whence or +bearing what tidings I knew not. My friend's plans were +incomprehensible to me, nor had I pressed him for any explanation of +their nature, knowing him to be in that high-strung and somewhat +irritable mood which claimed him at times of uncertainty—when he +doubted the wisdom of his actions, the accuracy of his surmises. He +gave no sign. +</P> + +<P> +Very faintly I heard a clock strike the half-hour. A soft breeze stole +again through the branches above. The wind I thought must be in a new +quarter since I had not heard the clock before. In so lonely a spot it +was difficult to believe that the bell was that of St. Paul's. Yet such +was the fact. +</P> + +<P> +And hard upon the ringing followed another sound—a sound we all had +expected, had waited for; but at whose coming no one of us, I think, +retained complete mastery of himself. +</P> + +<P> +Breaking up the silence in a manner that set my heart wildly leaping it +came—an imperative knocking on the door! +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" groaned Weymouth—but he did not move from his position at +the window. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand by, Petrie!" said Smith. +</P> + +<P> +He strode to the door—and threw it widely open. +</P> + +<P> +I know I was very pale. I think I cried out as I fell back—retreated +with clenched hands from before THAT which stood on the threshold. +</P> + +<P> +It was a wild, unkempt figure, with straggling beard, hideously staring +eyes. With its hands it clutched at its hair—at its chin; plucked at +its mouth. No moonlight touched the features of this unearthly +visitant, but scanty as was the illumination we could see the gleaming +teeth—and the wildly glaring eyes. +</P> + +<P> +It began to laugh—peal after peal—hideous and shrill. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing so terrifying had ever smote upon my ears. I was palsied by +the horror of the sound. +</P> + +<P> +Then Nayland Smith pressed the button of an electric torch which he +carried. He directed the disk of white light fully upon the face in +the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, God!" cried Weymouth. "It's John!"—and again and again: "Oh, +God! Oh, God!" +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps for the first time in my life I really believed (nay, I could +not doubt) that a thing of another world stood before me. I am ashamed +to confess the extent of the horror that came upon me. James Weymouth +raised his hands, as if to thrust away from him that awful thing in the +door. He was babbling—prayers, I think, but wholly incoherent. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold him, Petrie!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith's voice was low. (When we were past thought or intelligent +action, he, dominant and cool, with that forced calm for which, a +crisis over, he always paid so dearly, was thinking of the woman who +slept above.) +</P> + +<P> +He leaped forward; and in the instant that he grappled with the one who +had knocked I knew the visitant for a man of flesh and blood—a man who +shrieked and fought like a savage animal, foamed at the mouth and +gnashed his teeth in horrid frenzy; knew him for a madman—knew him for +the victim of Fu-Manchu—not dead, but living—for Inspector +Weymouth—a maniac! +</P> + +<P> +In a flash I realized all this and sprang to Smith's assistance. There +was a sound of racing footsteps and the men who had been watching +outside came running into the porch. A third was with them; and the +five of us (for Weymouth's brother had not yet grasped the fact that a +man and not a spirit shrieked and howled in our midst) clung to the +infuriated madman, yet barely held our own with him. +</P> + +<P> +"The syringe, Petrie!" gasped Smith. "Quick! You must manage to make +an injection!" +</P> + +<P> +I extricated myself and raced into the cottage for my bag. A +hypodermic syringe ready charged I had brought with me at Smith's +request. Even in that thrilling moment I could find time to admire the +wonderful foresight of my friend, who had divined what would +befall—isolated the strange, pitiful truth from the chaotic +circumstances which saw us at Maple Cottage that night. +</P> + +<P> +Let me not enlarge upon the end of the awful struggle. At one time I +despaired (we all despaired) of quieting the poor, demented creature. +But at last it was done; and the gaunt, blood-stained savage whom we +had known as Detective-Inspector Weymouth lay passive upon the couch in +his own sitting-room. A great wonder possessed my mind for the genius +of the uncanny being who with the scratch of a needle had made a brave +and kindly man into this unclean, brutish thing. +</P> + +<P> +Nayland Smith, gaunt and wild-eyed, and trembling yet with his +tremendous exertions, turned to the man whom I knew to be the messenger +from Scotland Yard. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" he rapped. +</P> + +<P> +"He is arrested, sir," the detective reported. "They have kept him at +his chambers as you ordered." +</P> + +<P> +"Has she slept through it?" said Smith to me. (I had just returned +from a visit to the room above.) I nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Is HE safe for an hour or two?"—indicating the figure on the couch. +"For eight or ten," I replied grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, then. Our night's labors are not nearly complete." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A id="chap30"></A> +<H3 class="center"> +CHAPTER XXX +</H3> + +<P> +LATER was forthcoming evidence to show that poor Weymouth had lived a +wild life, in hiding among the thick bushes of the tract of land which +lay between the village and the suburb on the neighboring hill. +Literally, he had returned to primitive savagery and some of his food +had been that of the lower animals, though he had not scrupled to +steal, as we learned when his lair was discovered. +</P> + +<P> +He had hidden himself cunningly; but witnesses appeared who had seen +him, in the dusk, and fled from him. They never learned that the +object of their fear was Inspector John Weymouth. How, having escaped +death in the Thames, he had crossed London unobserved, we never knew; +but his trick of knocking upon his own door at half-past two each +morning (a sort of dawning of sanity mysteriously linked with old +custom) will be a familiar class of symptom to all students of +alienation. +</P> + +<P> +I revert to the night when Smith solved the mystery of the knocking. +</P> + +<P> +In a car which he had in waiting at the end of the village we sped +through the deserted streets to New Inn Court. I, who had followed +Nayland Smith through the failures and successes of his mission, knew +that to-night he had surpassed himself; had justified the confidence +placed in him by the highest authorities. +</P> + +<P> +We were admitted to an untidy room—that of a student, a traveler and a +crank—by a plain-clothes officer. Amid picturesque and disordered +fragments of a hundred ages, in a great carven chair placed before a +towering statue of the Buddha, sat a hand-cuffed man. His white hair +and beard were patriarchal; his pose had great dignity. But his +expression was entirely masked by the smoked glasses which he wore. +</P> + +<P> +Two other detectives were guarding the prisoner. +</P> + +<P> +"We arrested Professor Jenner Monde as he came in, sir," reported the +man who had opened the door. "He has made no statement. I hope there +isn't a mistake." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope not," rapped Smith. +</P> + +<P> +He strode across the room. He was consumed by a fever of excitement. +Almost savagely, he tore away the beard, tore off the snowy wig—dashed +the smoked glasses upon the floor. +</P> + +<P> +A great, high brow was revealed, and green, malignant eyes, which fixed +themselves upon him with an expression I never can forget. +</P> + +<P> +IT WAS DR. FU-MANCHU! +</P> + +<P> +One intense moment of silence ensued—of silence which seemed to throb. +Then: +</P> + +<P> +"What have you done with Professor Monde?" demanded Smith. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fu-Manchu showed his even, yellow teeth in the singularly evil +smile which I knew so well. A manacled prisoner he sat as unruffled as +a judge upon the bench. In truth and in justice I am compelled to say +that Fu-Manchu was absolutely fearless. +</P> + +<P> +"He has been detained in China," he replied, in smooth, sibilant +tones—"by affairs of great urgency. His well-known personality and +ungregarious habits have served me well, here!" +</P> + +<P> +Smith, I could see, was undetermined how to act; he stood tugging at +his ear and glancing from the impassive Chinaman to the wondering +detectives. +</P> + +<P> +"What are we to do, sir?" one of them asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Leave Dr. Petrie and myself alone with the prisoner, until I call you." +</P> + +<P> +The three withdrew. I divined now what was coming. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you restore Weymouth's sanity?" rapped Smith abruptly. "I cannot +save you from the hangman, nor"—his fists clenched convulsively—"would +I if I could; but—" +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu fixed his brilliant eyes upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"Say no more, Mr. Smith," he interrupted; "you misunderstand me. I do +not quarrel with that, but what I have done from conviction and what I +have done of necessity are separated—are seas apart. The brave +Inspector Weymouth I wounded with a poisoned needle, in self-defense; +but I regret his condition as greatly as you do. I respect such a man. +There is an antidote to the poison of the needle." +</P> + +<P> +"Name it," said Smith. +</P> + +<P> +Fu-Manchu smiled again. +</P> + +<P> +"Useless," he replied. "I alone can prepare it. My secrets shall die +with me. I will make a sane man of Inspector Weymouth, but no one else +shall be in the house but he and I." +</P> + +<P> +"It will be surrounded by police," interrupted Smith grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"As you please," said Fu-Manchu. "Make your arrangements. In that +ebony case upon the table are the instruments for the cure. Arrange +for me to visit him where and when you will—" +</P> + +<P> +"I distrust you utterly. It is some trick," jerked Smith. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fu-Manchu rose slowly and drew himself up to his great height. His +manacled hands could not rob him of the uncanny dignity which was his. +He raised them above his head with a tragic gesture and fixed his +piercing gaze upon Nayland Smith. +</P> + +<P> +"The God of Cathay hear me," he said, with a deep, guttural note in his +voice—"I swear—" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The most awful visitor who ever threatened the peace of England, the +end of the visit of Fu-Manchu was characteristic—terrible—inexplicable. +</P> + +<P> +Strange to relate, I did not doubt that this weird being had conceived +some kind of admiration or respect for the man to whom he had wrought +so terrible an injury. He was capable of such sentiments, for he +entertained some similar one in regard to myself. +</P> + +<P> +A cottage farther down the village street than Weymouth's was vacant, +and in the early dawn of that morning became the scene of outre +happenings. Poor Weymouth, still in a comatose condition, we removed +there (Smith having secured the key from the astonished agent). I +suppose so strange a specialist never visited a patient +before—certainly not under such conditions. +</P> + +<P> +For into the cottage, which had been entirely surrounded by a ring of +police, Dr. Fu-Manchu was admitted from the closed car in which, his +work of healing complete, he was to be borne to prison—to death! +</P> + +<P> +Law and justice were suspended by my royally empowered friend that the +enemy of the white race might heal one of those who had hunted him down! +</P> + +<P> +No curious audience was present, for sunrise was not yet come; no +concourse of excited students followed the hand of the Master; but +within that surrounded cottage was performed one of those miracles of +science which in other circumstances had made the fame of Dr. Fu-Manchu +to live forever. +</P> + +<P> +Inspector Weymouth, dazed, disheveled, clutching his head as a man who +has passed through the Valley of the Shadow—but sane—sane!—walked +out into the porch! +</P> + +<P> +He looked towards us—his eyes wild, but not with the fearsome wildness +of insanity. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Smith!" he cried—and staggered down the path—"Dr. Petrie! +What—" +</P> + +<P> +There came a deafening explosion. From EVERY visible window of the +deserted cottage flames burst forth! +</P> + +<P> +"QUICK!" Smith's voice rose almost to a scream—"into the house!" +</P> + +<P> +He raced up the path, past Inspector Weymouth, who stood swaying there +like a drunken man. I was close upon his heels. Behind me came the +police. +</P> + +<P> +The door was impassable! Already, it vomited a deathly heat, borne +upon stifling fumes like those of the mouth of the Pit. We burst a +window. The room within was a furnace! +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" cried someone. "This is supernatural!" +</P> + +<P> +"Listen!" cried another. "Listen!" +</P> + +<P> +The crowd which a fire can conjure up at any hour of day or night, out +of the void of nowhere, was gathering already. But upon all descended +a pall of silence. +</P> + +<P> +From the heat of the holocaust a voice proclaimed itself—a voice +raised, not in anguish but in TRIUMPH! It chanted barbarically—and +was still. +</P> + +<P> +The abnormal flames rose higher—leaping forth from every window. +</P> + +<P> +"The alarm!" said Smith hoarsely. "Call up the brigade!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I come to the close of my chronicle, and feel that I betray a +trust—the trust of my reader. For having limned in the colors at my +command the fiendish Chinese doctor, I am unable to conclude my task as +I should desire, unable, with any consciousness of finality, to write +Finis to the end of my narrative. +</P> + +<P> +It seems to me sometimes that my pen is but temporarily idle—that I +have but dealt with a single phase of a movement having a hundred +phases. One sequel I hope for, and against all the promptings of logic +and Western bias. If my hope shall be realized I cannot, at this time, +pretend to state. +</P> + +<P> +The future, 'mid its many secrets, holds this precious one from me. +</P> + +<P> +I ask you then, to absolve me from the charge of ill completing my +work; for any curiosity with which this narrative may leave the reader +burdened is shared by the writer. +</P> + +<P> +With intent, I have rushed you from the chambers of Professor Jenner +Monde to that closing episode at the deserted cottage; I have made the +pace hot in order to impart to these last pages of my account something +of the breathless scurry which characterized those happenings. +</P> + +<P> +My canvas may seem sketchy: it is my impression of the reality. No +hard details remain in my mind of the dealings of that night. +Fu-Manchu arrested—Fu-Manchu, manacled, entering the cottage on his +mission of healing; Weymouth, miraculously rendered sane, coming forth; +the place in flames. +</P> + +<P> +And then? +</P> + +<P> +To a shell the cottage burned, with an incredible rapidity which +pointed to some hidden agency; to a shell about ashes which held NO +TRACE OF HUMAN BONES! +</P> + +<P> +It has been asked of me: Was there no possibility of Fu-Manchu's +having eluded us in the ensuing confusion? Was there no loophole of +escape? +</P> + +<P> +I reply, that so far as I was able to judge, a rat could scarce have +quitted the building undetected. Yet that Fu-Manchu had, in some +incomprehensible manner and by some mysterious agency, produced those +abnormal flames, I cannot doubt. Did he voluntarily ignite his own +funeral pyre? +</P> + +<P> +As I write, there lies before me a soiled and creased sheet of vellum. +It bears some lines traced in a cramped, peculiar, and all but +illegible hand. This fragment was found by Inspector Weymouth (to this +day a man mentally sound) in a pocket of his ragged garments. +</P> + +<P> +When it was written I leave you to judge. How it came to be where +Weymouth found it calls for no explanation: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"To Mr. Commissioner NAYLAND SMITH and Dr. PETRIE— +</P> + +<P> +"Greeting! I am recalled home by One who may not be denied. In much +that I came to do I have failed. Much that I have done I would undo; +some little I have undone. Out of fire I came—the smoldering fire of +a thing one day to be a consuming flame; in fire I go. Seek not my +ashes. I am the lord of the fires! Farewell. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"FU-MANCHU." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Who has been with me in my several meetings with the man who penned +that message I leave to adjudge if it be the letter of a madman bent +upon self-destruction by strange means, or the gibe of a +preternaturally clever scientist and the most elusive being ever born +of the land of mystery—China. +</P> + +<P> +For the present, I can aid you no more in the forming of your verdict. +A day may come—though I pray it do not—when I shall be able to throw +new light upon much that is dark in this matter. That day, so far as I +can judge, could only dawn in the event of the Chinaman's survival; +therefore I pray that the veil be never lifted. +</P> + +<P> +But, as I have said, there is another sequel to this story which I can +contemplate with a different countenance. How, then, shall I conclude +this very unsatisfactory account? +</P> + +<P> +Shall I tell you, finally, of my parting with lovely, dark-eyed +Karamaneh, on board the liner which was to bear her to Egypt? +</P> + +<P> +No, let me, instead, conclude with the words of Nayland Smith: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I</I> sail for Burma in a fortnight, Petrie. I have leave to break my +journey at the Ditch. How would a run up the Nile fit your programme? +Bit early for the season, but you might find something to amuse you!" +</P> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 173 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + |