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THE RETURN OF DR. FUMANCHU ...........................................................................................................1

SAX ROHMER.......................................................................................................................................1

"Two months ago," I said; "he's a poor correspondent and rather soured, I fancy."

"Some affair of that sort. He's such a reticent beggar, I really know very little about it."

I placed a whisky and soda before the Rev. J. D. Eltham, also sliding the tobacco jar nearer to his hand. The

refined and sensitive face of the clergyman offered no indication of the truculent character of the man. His

scanty fair hair, already gray over the temples, was silken and softlooking; in appearance he was indeed a

typical English churchman; but in China he had been known as "the fighting missionary," and had fully

deserved the title. In fact, this peacefullooking gentleman had directly brought about the Boxer Risings!

"You know," he said, in his clerical voice, but meanwhile stuffing tobacco into an old pipe with fierce

"That accursed Chinaman! Since the cellar place beneath the site of the burntout cottage in Dulwich

"You see," he continued, peering across at me in his oddly nervous way, "one never knows, does one? If I

thought that Dr. FuManchu lived; if I seriously suspected that that stupendous intellect, that wonderful

genius, Petrie, er" he hesitated characteristically"survived, I should feel it my duty"

"If that Satanic genius were not indeed destroyed, then the peace of the world, may be threatened anew at any

He was becoming excited, shooting out his jaw in the truculent manner I knew, and snapping his fingers to

emphasize his words; a man composed of the oddest complexities that ever dwelt beneath a clerical frock.

"He may have got back to China, Doctor!" he cried, and his eyes had the fighting glint in them. "Could you

rest in peace if you thought that he lived? Should you not fear for your life every time that a nightcall took

you out alone? Why, man alive, it is only two years since he was here among us, since we were searching

every shadow for those awful green eyes! What became of his band of assassinshis stranglers, his dacoits,

"You" he hesitated diffidently"searched in Egypt with Nayland Smith, did you not?"

"Contradict me if I am wrong," he continued; but my impression is that you were searching for the girlthe

"I never met Karamaneh, but from your account, and from others, she was quite unusually"

"She was very beautiful," I said, and stood up, for I was anxious to terminate that phase of the conversation.

Eltham regarded me sympathetically; he knew something of my search with Nayland Smith for the

darkeyed, Eastern girl who had brought romance into my drab life; he knew that I treasured my memories of

her as I loathed and abhorred those of the fiendish, brilliant Chinese doctor who had been her master.

Eltham began to pace up and down the rug, his pipe bubbling furiously; and something in the way he carried

his head reminded me momentarily of Nayland Smith. Certainly, between this pinkfaced clergyman, with

his deceptively mild appearance, and the gaunt, bronzed, and steelyeyed Burmese commissioner, there was

externally little in common; but it was some little nervous trick in his carriage that conjured up through the

smoky haze one distant summer evening when Smith had paced that very room as Eltham paced it now, when

before my startled eyes he had rung up the curtain upon the savage drama in which, though I little suspected

I wondered if Eltham's thoughts ran parallel with mine. My own were centered upon the unforgettable figure

of the murderous Chinaman. These words, exactly as Smith had used them, seemed once again to sound in

my ears: "Imagine a person tall, lean, and feline, high shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face

like Satan, a closeshaven 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, and you have a mental picture of Dr. FuManchu, the 'Yellow Peril' incarnate in one man."

This visit of Eltham's no doubt was responsible for my mood; for this singular clergyman had played his part

"I should like to see Smith again," he said suddenly; "it seems a pity that a man like that should be buried in

Burma. Burma makes a mess of the best of men, Doctor. You said he was not married?"

"Quite soquite so! And, you know, Doctor, neither am I; but"he was growing painfully

embarrassed"it may be your dueIerI have a correspondent, in the interior of China"

"Well, I would not desire to raisevain hopesnor to occasion, shall I say, empty fears; buter . . . no,

Doctor!" He flushed like a girl"It was wrong of me to open this conversation. Perhaps, when I know

"Hullo!" cried Eltham"hard luck, Doctor!"but I could see that he welcomed the interruption. "Why!" he

"Certainly," I replied, for Mrs. Hewett was not only a profitable patient but an estimable lady" I shall be

"I should much prefer to walk over with you, if it would not be intruding. Our conversation has ill prepared

"Right!" I said; for I welcomed his company; and three minutes later we were striding across the deserted

A sort of mist floated amongst the trees, seeming in the moonlight like a veil draped from trunk to trunk, as in

silence we passed the Mound pond, and struck out for the north side of the common.

I suppose the presence of Eltham and the irritating recollection of his halfconfidence were the responsible

factors, but my mind persistently dwelt upon the subject of FuManchu and the atrocities which he had

committed during his sojourn in England. So actively was my imagination at work that I felt again the

menace which so long had hung over me; I felt as though that murderous yellow cloud still cast its shadow

upon England. And I found myself longing for the company of Nayland Smith. I cannot state what was the

It was with a conscious effort that I shook myself out of this morbidly reflective mood, on finding that we

"I shall take a little walk," announced Eltham; for I gather that you don't expect to be detained long? I shall

There were no lights to be seen in any of the windows, which circumstance rather surprised me, as my patient

occupied, or had occupied when last I had visited her, a firstfloor bedroom in the front of the house. My

knocking and ringing produced no response for three or four minutes; then, as I persisted, a scantily clothed

and half awake maid servant unbarred the door and stared at me stupidly in the moonlight.

"Not from here, sir," declared the now wideeyed girl. "We haven't got a telephone, sir."

For a few moments I stood there, staring as foolishly as she; then abruptly I turned and descended the steps.

At the gate I stood looking up and down the road. The houses were all in darkness. What could be the

meaning of the mysterious summons? I had made no mistake respecting the name of my patient; it had been

twice repeated over the telephone; yet that the call had not emanated from Mrs. Hewett's house was now

palpably evident. Days had been when I should have regarded the episode as preluding some outrage, but

"You're in demand tonight, Doctor," he said. "A young person called for you almost directly you had left

"Indeed!" I said, a trifle incredulously. "There are plenty of other doctors if the case is an urgent one."

"She may have thought it would save time as you were actually up and dressed," explained Eltham; "and the

I looked at him a little blankly. Was this another effort of the unknown jester?

"But I feel certain," declared Eltham, earnestly, "that this is genuine! The poor girl was dreadfully agitated;

her master has broken his leg and is lying helpless: number 280, Rectory Grove."

"I should imagine so: French, I think. But she was so wrapped up I had little more than a glimpse of her. I am

sorry to hear that some one has played a silly joke on you, but believe me" he was very earnest "this is

no jest. The poor girl could scarcely speak for sobs. She mistook me for you, of course."

"Oh!" said I grimly "well, I suppose I must go. Broken leg, you said? and my surgical bag, splints and so

"My dear Petrie!" cried Eltham, in his enthusiastic way"you no doubt can do something to alleviate the

poor man's suffering immediately. I will run back to your rooms for the bag and rejoin you at 280, Rectory

"The call of suffering humanity, Petrie, is one which I may no more refuse to hear than you."

I made no further protest after that, for his point of view was evident and his determination adamant, but told

him where he would find the bag and once more set out across the moonbright common, he pursuing a

Some three hundred yards I had gone, I suppose, and my brain had been very active the while, when

something occurred to me which placed a new complexion upon this second summons. I thought of the

falsity of the first, of the improbability of even the most hardened practical joker practising his wiles at one

o'clock in the morning. I thought of our recent conversation; above all I thought of the girl who had delivered

the message to Eltham, the girl whom he had described as a French maid whose personal charm had so

completely enlisted his sympathies. Now, to this train of thought came a new one, and, adding it, my

I remembered (as, knowing the district, I should have remembered before) that there was no number 280 in

Pulling up sharply I stood looking about me. Not a living soul was in sight; not even a policeman. Where the

lamps marked the main paths across the common nothing moved; in the shadows about me nothing stirred.

A breeze caressed the leaves overhead, breaking the silence with mysterious whisperings. Some portentous

truth was seeking for admittance to my brain. I strove to reassure myself, but the sense of impending evil and

of mystery became heavier. At last I could combat my strange fears no longer. I turned and began to run

I had hoped to head him off, but came upon no sign of him. An allnight tramcar passed at the moment that I

reached the high road, and as I ran around behind it I saw that my windows were lighted and that there was a

Standing by the writingtable was a tall, thin man, his gaunt face brown as a coffeeberry and his steely gray

He wrung my hand hard, looking at me with his searching eyes; but there was little enough of gladness in his

Smith dashed his right fist into the palm of his left hand and his eyes gleamed almost wildly.

My dreadful fears in that instant were confirmed. I seemed to feel my legs totter beneath me.

"I do, Petrie!" His voice sounded very far away. "FuManchu is here; and Eltham, God help him . . . is his

Smith went racing down the stairs like a man possessed. Heavy with such a foreboding of calamity as I had

not known for two years, I followed himalong the hall and out into the road. The very peace and beauty of

the night in some way increased my mental agitation. The sky was lighted almost tropically with such a blaze

of stars as I could not recall to have seen since, my futile search concluded, I had left Egypt. The glory of the

moonlight yellowed the lamps speckled across the expanse of the common. The night was as still as night can

ever be in London. The dimming pulse of a cab or car alone disturbed the stillness.

With a quick glance to right and left, Smith ran across on to the common, and, leaving the door wide open

behind me, I followed. The path which Eltham had pursued terminated almost opposite to my house. One's

gaze might follow it, white and empty, for several hundred yards past the pond, and further, until it became

I came up with Smith, and side by side we ran on, whilst pantingly, I told my tale.

"It was a trick to get you away from him!" cried Smith. "They meant no doubt to make some attempt at your

I took his arm, turning him slightly to the right, and pointed across the moonbathed common.

"You see that clump of bushes on the other side of the road?" I said. "There's a path to the left of it. I took

Smith walked right down to the edge of the water and peered about over the surface.

What he hoped to find there I could not imagine. Whatever it had been he was disappointed, and he turned to

me again, frowning perplexedly, and tugging at the lobe of his left ear, an old trick which reminded me of

From the tone of his voice I knew that he was tensed up nervously, and his mood but added to the

Behind us, along the highroad, a tramcar went rocking by, doubtless bearing a few belated workers

homeward. The stark incongruity of the thing was appalling. How little those weary toilers, hemmed about

with the commonplace, suspected that almost within sight from the car windows, in a place of prosy benches,

iron railings, and unromantic, flickering lamps, two fellow men moved upon the border of a horrorland!

Beneath the trees a shadow carpet lay, its edges tropically sharp; and fully ten yards from the first of the

group, we two, hatless both, and sharing a common dread, paused for a moment and listened.

The car had stopped at the further extremity of the common, and now with a moan that grew to a shriek was

rolling on its way again. We stood and listened until silence reclaimed the night. Not a footstep could be

heard. Then slowly we walked on. At the edge of the little coppice we stopped again abruptly.

Smith turned and thrust his pistol into my hand. A white ray of light pierced the shadows; my companion

There had been a heavy shower of rain during the evening just before sunset, and although the open paths

were dry again, under the trees the ground was still moist. Ten yards within the coppice we came upon

Abruptly the tracks terminated; others, softer, joined them, two sets converging from left and right. There was

a confused patch, trailing off to the west; then this became indistinct, and was finally lost upon the hard

For perhaps a minute, or more, we ran about from tree to tree, and from bush to bush, searching like hounds

for a scent, and fearful of what we might find. We found nothing; and fully in the moonlight we stood facing

Nayland Smith stepped back into the shadows, and began slowly to turn his head from left to right, taking in

the entire visible expanse of the common. Toward a point where the road bisected it he stared intently. Then,

Vaulting a railing he went away over a field like a madman. Recovering from the shock of surprise, I

followed him, but he was well ahead of me, and making for some vaguely seen object moving against the

Another railing was vaulted, and the corner of a second, triangular grass patch crossed at a hot sprint. We

were twenty yards from the road when the sound of a starting motor broke the silence. We gained the

"Eltham is in that car!" he gasped. "Just God! are we to stand here and see him taken away to"

He beat his fist upon the tree, in a sort of tragic despair. The nearest cabrank was no great distance away,

but, excluding the possibility of no cab being there, it might, for all practical purposes, as well have been a

The beat of the retreating motor was scarcely audible; the lights might but just be distinguished. Then,

coming in an opposite direction, appeared the headlamp of another car, of a car that raced nearer and nearer

to us, so that, within a few seconds of its first appearance, we found ourselves bathed in the beam of its

Smith bounded out into the road, and stood, a weird silhouette, with upraised arms, fully in its course!

The brakes were applied hurriedly. It was a big limousine, and its driver swerved perilously in avoiding

Smith and nearly ran into me. But, the breathless moment past, the car was pulled up, head on to the railings;

and a man in evening clothes was demanding excitedly what had happened. Smith, a hatless, disheveled

"My name is Nayland Smith," he said rapidlyBurmese Commissioner." He snatched a letter from his

pocket and thrust it into the hands of the bewildered man. "Read that. It is signed by another

"You see," continued my friend, tersely"it is carte blanche. I wish to commandeer your car, sir, on a matter

"Allow me to offer it!" he said, descending. "My man will take your orders. I can finish my journey by cab. I

"Quick!" he cried to the stupefied chauffeur"You passed a car a minute agoyonder. Can you overtake

One last glimpse I had of the man we had dispossessed, standing alone by the roadside, and at ever increasing

Smith was too highly excited for ordinary conversation, but he threw out short, staccato remarks.

"I have followed FuManchu from Hongkong," he jerked. "Lost him at Suez. He got here a boat ahead of me.

Eltham has been corresponding with some mandarin upcountry. Knew that. Came straight to you. Only got

in this evening. HeFuManchuhas been sent here to get Eltham. My God! and he has him! He will

question him! The interior of Chinaa seething pot, Petrie! They had to stop the leakage of information. He

The car pulled up with a jerk that pitched me out of my seat, and the chauffeur leaped to the road and ran

ahead. Smith was out in a trice, as the man, who had run up to a constable, came racing back.

"Jump in, sirjump in!" he cried, his eyes bright with the lust of the chase; "they are making for Battersea!"

Through the empty streets we roared on. A place of gasometers and desolate waste lots slipped behind and we

were in a narrow way where gates of yards and a few lowly houses faced upon a prospect of high blank wall.

"Thames on our right," said Smith, peering ahead. "His rathole is by the river as usual. Hi!" he grabbed up

The limousine swung in to the narrow sidewalk, and pulled up close by a yard gate. I, too, had seen our

quarrya long, low bodied car, showing no inside lights. It had turned the next corner, where a street lamp

"That must be a cul de sac," he said, and turned to the eagereyed chauffeur. "Run back to that last turning,"

he ordered, "and wait there, out of sight. Bring the car up when you hear a policewhistle."

The man looked disappointed, but did not question the order. As he began to back away, Smith grasped me

"We must get to that corner," he said, "and see where the car stands, without showing ourselves."

I suppose we were not more than a dozen paces from the lamp when we heard the thudding of the motor. The

It was a desperate moment, for it seemed that we could not fail to be discovered. Nayland Smith began to

look about him, feverishly, for a hidingplace, a quest in which I seconded with equal anxiety. And Fate was

kind to usdoubly kind as after events revealed. A wooden gate broke the expanse of wall hard by upon the

right, and, as the result of some recent accident, a ragged gap had been torn in the panels close to the top.

The chain of the padlock hung loosely; and in a second Smith was up, with his foot in this as in a stirrup. He

threw his arm over the top and drew himself upright. A second later he was astride the broken gate.

I got my foot into the loop of chain, grasped at a projection in the gatepost and found myself up.

He climbed over and vanished in the darkness. I was still astride the broken gate when the car turned the

corner, slowly, for there was scanty room; but I was standing upon the bar on the inside and had my head

"Stay where you are until he passes," hissed my companion, below. "There is a row of kegs under you."

The sound of the motor passing outside grew loudlouderthen began to die away. I felt about with my

"That we have followed the right car?" he interrupted. "Ask yourself the question: what would any ordinary

Beyond a great expanse of unbroken darkness a ray of moonlight slanted into the place wherein we stood,

"That's another door," continued my friendI now began dimly to perceive him beside me. "If my

"I'm right!" snapped Smith. "That turning leads down to the gate. Come on, Petrie!"

He directed the light of the electric torch upon a narrow path through the ranks of casks, and led the way to

the further door. A good two feet of moonlight showed along the top. I heard Smith straining; then

"These kegs are all loaded with grease!" he said, "and I want to reconnoiter over that door."

"I am leaning on a crate which seems easy to move," I reported. "Yes, it's empty. Lend a hand."

We grasped the empty crate, and between us, set it up on a solid pedestal of casks. Then Smith mounted to

this observation platform and I scrambled up beside him, and looked down upon the lane outside.

It terminated as Smith had foreseen at a wharf gate some six feet to the right of our post. Piled up in the lane

beneath us, against the warehouse door, was a stack of empty casks. Beyond, over the way, was a kind of

ramshackle building that had possibly been a dwellinghouse at some time. Bills were stuck in the

groundfloor window indicating that the three floors were to let as offices; so much was discernible in that

I could hear the tide, lapping upon the wharf, could feel the chill from the river and hear the vague noises

"Down!" whispered Smith. "Make no noise! I suspected it. They heard the car following!"

I obeyed, clutching at him for support; for I was suddenly dizzy, and my heart was leaping wildlyfuriously.

Saw her! yes, I had seen her! And my poor dreamworld was toppling about me, its cities, ashes and its

Peering from the window, her great eyes wondrous in the moonlight and her red lips parted, hair gleaming

like burnished foam and her anxious gaze set upon the corner of the lanewas Karamaneh . . . Karamaneh

whom once we had rescued from the house of this fiendish Chinese doctor; Karamaneh who had been our

ally; in fruitless quest of whom,when, too late, I realized how empty my life was becomeI had wasted

"Poor old Petrie," murmured Smith"I knew, but I hadn't the heartHe has her againGod knows by

what chains he holds her. But she's only a woman, old boy, and women are very much alikevery much

He rested his hand on my shoulder for a moment; I am ashamed to confess that I was trembling; then,

clenching my teeth with that mechanical physical effort which often accompanies a mental one, I swallowed

the bitter draught of Nayland Smith's philosophy. He was raising himself, to peer, cautiously, over the top of

The window from which the girl had looked was nearly on a level with our eyes, and as I raised my head

above the woodwork, I quite distinctly saw her go out of the room. The door, as she opened it, admitted a dull

light, against which her figure showed silhouetted for a moment. Then the door was reclosed.

Before I had grasped the nature of his plan he was over and had dropped almost noiselessly upon the casks

"PetrieEltham is in that house. He has been brought here to be put to the question, in the medieval, and

I shuddered. This had been in my mind, certainly, but so expressed it was definitely horriblerevolting, yet

He walked across the tops of the casks and leaped down, pointing to that nearest to the closed door of the

house. I helped him place it under the open window. A second we set beside it, and, not without some noise,

His jaw muscles were very prominent and his eyes shone like steel; but he was as cool as though he were

about to enter a theater and not the den of the most stupendous genius who ever worked for evil. I would

forgive any man who, knowing Dr. FuManchu, feared him; I feared him myselffeared him as one fears a

scorpion; but when Nayland Smith hauled himself up on the wooden ledge above the door and swung thence

into the darkened room, I followed and was in close upon his heels. But I admired him, for he had every

I thought of Karamaneh, of lovely darkeyed Karamaneh whom this wonderful, evil product of secret China

There are things that one seeks to forget, but it is my lot often to remember the sound which at that moment

literally struck me rigid with horror. Yet it was only a groan; but, merciful God! I pray that it may never be

"No, no!" screamed a woman's voicea voice that thrilled me anew, but with another emotion

I distinctly heard the sound of a blow. Followed a sort of vague scuffling. A door somewhere at the back of

the house openedand shut again. Some one was coming along the passage toward us!

Nearer came the footsteps and nearer. I could hear suppressed sobs. The door opened, admitting again the

faint lightand Karamaneh came in. The place was quite unfurnished, offering no possibility of hiding; but

Her slim figure had not crossed the threshold ere Smith had his arm about the girl's waist and one hand

clapped to her mouth. A stifled gasp she uttered, and he lifted her into the room.

I stepped forward and closed the door. A faint perfume stole to my nostrilsa vague, elusive breath of the

East, reminiscent of strange days that, now, seemed to belong to a remote past. Karamaneh! that faint,

indefinable perfume was part of her dainty personality; it may appear absurdimpossiblebut many and

I bent over the girl as he held her. She was quite still, but I could have wished that I had had more certain

mastery of myself. I took the torch from Smith's pocket, and, mechanically, directed it upon the captive.

She was dressed very plainly, wearing a simple blue skirt, and white blouse. It was easy to divine that it was

she whom Eltham had mistaken for a French maid. A brooch set with a ruby was pinned at the point where

the blouse openedgleaming fierily and harshly against the soft skin. Her face was pale and her eyes wide

"There is some cord in my righthand pocket," said Smith; "I came provided. Tie her wrists."

I obeyed him, silently. The girl offered no resistance, but I think I never essayed a less congenial task than

that of binding her white wrists. The jeweled fingers lay quite listlessly in my own.

Smith removed his hand from her mouth but did not relax his grip of her. She looked up at me with eyes in

which I could have sworn there was no recognition. But a flush momentarily swept over her face, and left it

"Please don't be cruel to me," she whispered, with that soft accent which always played havoc with my

composure. "Every oneevery oneis cruel to me. I will promiseindeed I will swear, to be quiet. Oh,

believe me, if you can save him I will do nothing to hinder you." Her beautiful head drooped. "Have some

"You know my name!" Her voice was barely audible. "Yet I have never seen you in my life"

Dazed by the apparent sincerity in the voice of our lovely captive vacant from wonder of it allI opened

We left Karamaneh crouching against the wall; her great eyes were turned towards me fascinatedly. Smith

locked the door with much care. We began a tiptoed progress along the dimly lighted passage.

From beneath a door on the left, and near the end, a brighter light shone. Beyond that again was another door.

A voice was speaking in the lighted room; yet I could have sworn that Karamaneh had come, not from there

But the voice!who, having once heard it, could ever mistake that singular voice, alternately guttural and

"I have asked you," came with everincreasing clearness (Smith had begun to turn the knob), "to reveal to me

the name of your correspondent in NanYang. I have suggested that he may be the Mandarin YenSunYat,

but you have declined to confirm me. Yet I know" (Smith had the door open a good three inches and was

peering in) "that some official, some high official, is a traitor. Am I to resort again to the question to learn his

Ice seemed to enter my veins at the unseen inquisitor's intonation of the words "the question." This was the

Through a sort of haze, born mostly of horror, but not entirely, I saw Eltham, stripped to the waist and tied,

with his arms upstretched, to a rafter in the ancient ceiling. A Chinaman who wore a slopshop blue suit and

who held an open knife in his hand, stood beside him. Eltham was ghastly white. The appearance of his chest

puzzled me momentarily, then I realized that a sort of tourniquet of wirenetting was screwed so tightly

"God in heaven!" screamed Smith frenziedly"they have the wirejacket on him! Shoot down that damned

Lithely as a cat the man with the knife leaped aroundbut I raised the Browning, and deliberatelywith a

cool deliberation that came to me suddenlyshot him through the head. I saw his oblique eyes turn up to the

whites; I saw the mark squarely between his brows; and with no word nor cry he sank to his knees and

toppled forward with one yellow hand beneath him and one outstretched, Clutchingclutching

convulsively. His pigtail came unfastened and began to uncoil, slowly, like a snake.

I handed the pistol to Smith; I was perfectly cool, now; and I leaped forward, took up the bloody knife from

"Praise God," he murmured, weakly. "He is more merciful to me than perhaps I deserve. Unscrew . . . the

jacket, Petrie . . . I think . . . I was very near to . . .. weakening. Praise the good God, Who . . . gave me . . .

I got the screw of the accursed thing loosened, but the act of removing the jacket was too agonizing for

Nayland Smith, from just within the door, threw out the query in a tone of stark amaze. I stood upI could

do nothing more for the poor victim at the momentand looked about me. The room was innocent of

furniture, save for heaps of rubbish on the floor, and a tin oillamp hung, on the wall. The dead Chinaman lay

close beside Smith. There was no second door, the one window was barred, and from this room we had heard

Neither of us could accept the fact for a moment; we stood there, looking from the dead man to the tortured

Then the explanation flashed upon us both, simultaneously, and with a cry of baffled rage Smith leaped along

the passage to the second door. It was wide open. I stood at his elbow when he swept its emptiness with the

"Yet, Petrie," he said, "we have learnt something. FuManchu had evidently promised Eltham his life if he

would divulge the name of his correspondent. He meant to keep his word; it is a sidelight on his character."

"Eltham has never seen Dr. FuManchu, but Eltham knows certain parts of China better than you know the

Strand. Probably, if he saw FuManchu, he would recognize him for whom he really is, and this, it seems,

"Defeated, Petrie!" said Smith, bitterly. "The Yellow Devil is loosed on London again!"

He leaned from the window and the skirl of a police whistle split the stillness of the night.

Such were the episodes that marked the coming of Dr. FuManchu to London, that awakened fears long

dormant and reopened old woundsnay, poured poison into them. I strove desperately, by close attention to

my professional duties, to banish the very memory of Karamaneh from my mind; desperately, but how

vainly! Peace was for me no more, joy was gone from the world, and only mockery remained as my portion.

Poor Eltham we had placed in a nursing establishment, where his indescribable hurts could be properly

tended: and his uncomplaining fortitude not infrequently made me thoroughly ashamed of myself. Needless

to say, Smith had made such other arrangements as were necessary to safeguard the injured man, and these

proved so successful that the malignant being whose plans they thwarted abandoned his designs upon the

heroic clergyman and directed his attention elsewhere, as I must now proceed to relate.

Dusk always brought with it a cloud of apprehensions, for darkness must ever be the ally of crime; and it was

one night, long after the clocks had struck the mystic hour "when churchyards yawn," that the hand of Dr.

FuManchu again stretched out to grasp a victim. I was dismissing a chance patient.

"Good night, Mr. Forsyth," I replied; and, having conducted my late visitor to the door, I closed and bolted it,

My patient was chief officer of one of the P. and O. boats. He had cut his hand rather badly on the homeward

run, and signs of poisoning having developed, had called to have the wound treated, apologizing for troubling

me at so late an hour, but explaining that he had only just come from the docks. The hall dock announced the

hour of one as I ascended the stairs. I found myself wondering what there was in Mr. Forsyth's appearance

which excited some vague and elusive memory. Coming to the top floor, I opened the door of a front

"Come here and watch!" was the terse response. Nayland Smith was sitting in the dark at the open window

and peering out across the common. Even as I saw him, a dim silhouette, I could detect that tensity in his

His masterful voice had the dry tone in it betokening excitement. I leaned on the ledge beside him and looked

out. The blaze of stars almost compensated for the absence of the moon and the night had a quality of

stillness that made for awe. This was a tropical summer, and the common, with its dancing lights dotted

irregularly about it, had an unfamiliar look tonight. The clump of nine elms showed as a dense and irregular

Such moods as that which now claimed my friend are magnetic. I had no thought of the night's beauty, for it

only served to remind me that somewhere amid London's millions was lurking an uncanny being, whose life

His abrupt query diverted my thoughts into a new channel. No footstep disturbed the silence of the highroad;

"I did, and I can't make out what he is doing. He seems to have remained standing at the gate for some

His hand remained upon my arm, gripping it nervously. Shall I say that I was surprised? I can say it with

truth. But I shall add that I was thrilled, eerily; for this subdued excitement and alert watching of Smith could

And that was enough to set me watching as keenly as he; to set me listening; not only for sounds outside the

house but for sounds within. Doubts, suspicions, dreads, heaped themselves up in my mind. Why was Forsyth

standing there at the gate? I had never seen him before, to my knowledge, yet there was something oddly

reminiscent about the man. Could it be that his visit formed part of a plot? Yet his wound had been genuine

enough. Thus my mind worked, feverishly; such was the effect of an unspoken thoughtFuManchu.

His words were wholly unnecessary. I, too, had seen it; a wonderful and uncanny sight. Out of the darkness

under the elms, low down upon the ground, grew a vaporous blue light. It flared up, elfinish, then began to

ascend. Like an igneous phantom, a witch flame, it rose, highhigherhigher, to what I adjudged to be

some twelve feet or more from the ground. Then, high in the air, it died away again as it had come!

He paused. Rapid footsteps sounded below. Over Smith's shoulder I saw Forsyth cross the road, climb the

"We must stop him!" he said hoarsely; then, clapping a hand to my mouth as I was about to call out"Not a

I overtook him as he threw wide the door of my dispensing room. Through it he ran and opened the door at

the other end. I followed him out, closing it behind me. The smell from some tobacco plants in a neighboring

flowerbed was faintly perceptible; no breeze stirred; and in the great silence I could hear Smith, in front of

Then he had it open, and I stepped out, close on his heels, and left the door ajar.

"We must not appear to have come from your house," explained Smith rapidly. "I will go along the highroad

and cross to the common a hundred yards up, where there is a pathway, as though homeward bound to the

north side. Give me half a minute's start, then you proceed in an opposite direction and cross from the corner

of the next road. Directly you are out of the light of the street lamps, get over the rails and run for the elms!"

While he had been with me, speaking in that incisive, impetuous way of his, with his dark face close to mine,

and his eyes gleaming like steel, I had been at one with him in his feverish mood, but now, when I stood

alone, in that staid and respectable byway, holding a loaded pistol in my hand, the whole thing became utterly

It was in an odd frame of mind that I walked to the next corner, as directed; for I was thinking, not of Dr.

FuManchu, the great and evil man who dreamed of Europe and America under Chinese rule, not of Nayland

Smith, who alone stood between the Chinaman and the realization of his monstrous schemes, not even of

Karamaneh the slave girl, whose glorious beauty was a weapon of might in FuManchu's hand, but of what

Such were my ideas up to the moment that I crossed to the common and vaulted into the field on my right. As

I began to run toward the elms I found myself wondering what it was all about, and for what we were come.

Fifty yards west of the trees it occurred to me that if Smith had counted on cutting Forsyth off we were too

I was right. Twenty paces more I ran, and ahead of me, from the elms, came a sound. Clearly it came through

the still airthe eerie hoot of a nighthawk. I could not recall ever to have heard the cry of that bird on the

common before, but oddly enough I attached little significance to it until, in the ensuing instant, a most

dreadful screama scream in which fear, and loathing, and anger were hideously blendedthrilled me with

After that I have no recollection of anything until I found myself standing by the southernmost elm.

As if in answer to my cry came an indescribable sound, a mingled sobbing and choking. Out from the

shadows staggered a ghastly figurethat of a man whose face appeared to be streaked. His eyes glared at me

I started back; words died upon my tongue. The figure reeled and the man fell babbling and sobbing at my

Inert I stood, looking down at him. He writhed a momentand was still. The silence again became perfect.

Then, from somewhere beyond the elms, Nayland Smith appeared. I did not move. Even when he stood

"I let him walk to his death, Petrie," I heard dimly. "God forgive me God forgive me!"

"So did some one else," he rapped. "Our poor sailor has met the end designed for me, Petrie!"

At that I realized two things: I knew why Forsyth's face had struck me as being familiar in some puzzling

way, and I knew why Forsyth now lay dead upon the grass. Save that he was a fair man and wore a slight

We raised the poor victim and turned him over on his back. I dropped upon my knees, and with unsteady

fingers began to strike a match. A slight breeze was arising and sighing gently through the elms, but, screened

by my hands, the flame of the match took life. It illuminated wanly the sunbaked face of Nayland Smith, his

eyes gleaming with unnatural brightness. I bent forward, and the dying light of the match touched that other

In all my surgical experience I had never met with anything quite so horrible. Forsyth's livid face was

streaked with tiny streams of blood, which proceeded from a series of irregular wounds. One group of these

clustered upon his left temple, another beneath his right eye, and others extended from the chin down to the

throat. They were black, almost like tattoo marks, and the entire injured surface was bloated indescribably.

Smith's piercing eyes were set upon me eloquently as I knelt on the path and made my examinationan

examination which that first glimpse when Forsyth came staggering out from the trees had rendered

Smith began beating his fist into his left palm and taking little, short, nervous strides up and down beside the

dead man. I could hear a car humming along the highroad, but I remained there on my knees staring dully at

the disfigured bloody face which but a matter of minutes since had been that of a clean looking British

seaman. I found myself contrasting his neat, squarely trimmed mustache with the bloated face above it, and

counting the little drops of blood which trembled upon its edge. There were footsteps approaching. I stood

"What's this?" he demanded gruffly, and stood with his fists clenched, looking from Smith to me and down at

that which lay between us. Then his hand flew to his breast; there was a silvern gleam and

"Drop that whistle!" snapped Smithand struck it from the man's hand. "Where's your lantern? Don't ask

The constable started back and was evidently debating upon his chances with the two of us, when my friend

There was something in his voice which changed the officer's opinion of the situation. He directed the light of

"If you have any doubts," continued Smith"you may not be familiar with the Commissioner's

signatureyou have only to ring up Scotland Yard from Dr. Petrie's house, to which we shall now return, to

disperse them." He pointed to Forsyth. "Help us to carry him there. We must not be seen; this must be hushed

The man saluted respectfully; and the three of us addressed ourselves to the mournful task. By slow stages we

bore the dead man to the edge of the common, carried him across the road and into my house, without

exciting attention even on the part of those vagrants who nightly slept out in the neighborhood.

"You will want to make an examination, Petrie," said Smith in his decisive way, "and the officer here might

'phone for the ambulance. I have some investigations to make also. I must have the pocket lamp."

He raced upstairs to his room, and an instant later came running down again. The front door banged.

He went out of the surgery as I switched on the lamp over the table and began to examine the marks upon

Forsyth's skin. These, as I have said, were in groups and nearly all in the form of elongated punctures; a fairly

deep incision with a pearshaped and superficial scratch beneath it. One of the tiny wounds had penetrated

The symptoms, or those which I had been enabled to observe as Forsyth had first staggered into view from

among the elms, were most puzzling. Clearly enough, the muscles of articulation and the respiratory muscles

had been affected; and now the livid face, dotted over with tiny wounds (they were also on the throat), set me

No clue presented itself; and my detailed examination of the body availed me nothing. The gray herald of

He stood there in the gray light of the hallway, tugging at the lobe of his left ear, an old trick of his.

The bronzed face looked very gaunt, I thought, and his eyes were bright with that febrile glitter which once I

had disliked, but which I had learned from experience were due to tremendous nervous excitement. At such

times he could act with icy coolness and his mental faculties seemed temporarily to acquire an abnormal

So wholly unexpected was the question, that for a moment I failed to grasp it. Then

"The remains of the turbot from dinner, Petrie, would also be welcome, and I think I should like a trowel."

"Forgive me, old man," he replied. "I was so preoccupied with my own train of thought that it never occurred

to me how absurd my request must have sounded. I will explain my singular tastes later; at the moment,

Evidently he was in earnest, and I ran downstairs accordingly, returning with a garden trowel, a plate of cold

I was past wondering, so I simply went and fetched a jug, into which he poured the milk. Then, with the

trowel in his pocket, the plate of cold turbot in one hand and the milk jug in the other, he made for the door.

"Don't assume that I want to mystify you," he added, "but the presence of any one else might jeopardize my

The cold light of dawn flooded the hallway momentarily; then the door closed again and I went upstairs to

my study, watching Nayland Smith as he strode across the common in the early morning mist. He was

I sat there for some time, watching for the first glow of sunrise. A policeman tramped past the house, and, a

while later, a belated reveler in evening clothes. That sense of unreality assailed me again. Out there in the

gray mists a man who was vested with powers which rendered him a law unto himself, who had the British

Government behind him in all that he might choose to do, who had been summoned from Rangoon to

London on singular and dangerous business, was employing himself with a plate of cold turbot, a jug of milk,

Away to the right, and just barely visible, a traincar stopped by the common; then proceeded on its way,

coming in a westerly direction. Its lights twinkled yellowly through the grayness, but I was less concerned

with the approaching car than with the solitary traveler who had descended from it.

As the car went rocking by below me, I strained my eyes in an endeavor more clearly to discern the figure,

which, leaving the highroad, had struck out across the common. It was that of a woman, who seemingly

One must be a gross materialist to doubt that there are latent powers in man which man, in modern times,

neglects, or knows not how to develop. I became suddenly conscious of a burning curiosity respecting this

lonely traveler who traveled at an hour so strange. With no definite plan in mind, I went downstairs, took a

cap from the rack, and walked briskly out of the house and across the common in a direction which I thought

I had slightly miscalculated the distance, as Fate would have it, and with a patch of gorse effectually

screening my approach, I came upon her, kneeling on the damp grass and unfastening the bundle which had

She was dressed in bedraggled fashion in rusty black, wore a common black straw hat and a thick veil; but it

seemed to me that the dexterous hands at work untying the bundle were slim and white; and I perceived a pair

of hideous cotton gloves lying on the turf beside her. As she threw open the wrappings and lifted out

something that looked like a small shrimping net, I stepped around the bush, crossed silently the intervening

A faint breath of perfume reached meof a perfume which, like the secret incense of Ancient Egypt, seemed

to assail my soul. The glamour of the Orient was in that subtle essence; and I only knew one woman who

She came to her feet like a startled deer, and flung away from me with the lithe movement of some Eastern

Now came the sun, and its heralding rays struck sparks from the jewels, upon the white fingers of this woman

who wore the garments of a mendicant. My heart gave a great leap. It was with difficulty that I controlled my

She stood watching me; even through the coarse veil I could see how her eyes glittered. I stooped and picked

"Oh!" The whispered word was scarcely audible, but it was enough; I doubted no longer.

"This is a net for bird snaring," I said. "What strange bird are you seekingKaramaneh?"

With a passionate gesture Karamaneh snatched off the veil, and with it the ugly black hat. The cloud of

wonderful, intractable hair came rumpling about her face, and her glorious eyes blazed out upon me. How

beautiful they were, with the dark beauty of an Egyptian night; how often had they looked into mine in

To labor against a ceaseless yearning for a woman whom one knows, upon evidence that none but a fool

might reject, to be worthlessevil; is there any torture to which the soul of man is subject, more pitiless? Yet

this was my lot, for what past sins assigned to me I was unable to conjecture; and this was the woman, this

"It is very convenient to forget, sometimes," I ran on bitterly, then checked myself; for I knew that my words

were prompted by a feckless desire to hear her defense, by a fool's hope that it might be an acceptable one.

I looked again at the net contrivance in my hand; it had a strong spring fitted to it and a line attached. Quite

"What were you about to do?" I demanded sharplybut in my heart, poor fool that I was, I found admiration

for the exquisite arch of Karamaneh's lips, and reproach because they were so tremulous.

"You seem to beangry with me, not so much because of what I do, as because I do not remember you.

"Kindly do not revert to the matter," I interrupted. "You have chosen, very conveniently, to forget that once

"Why do you treat me so!" she cried; she had the most fascinating accent imaginable. "Throw me into prison,

kill me if you like, for what I have done!" She stamped her foot. "For what I have done! But do not torture

me, try to drive me mad with your reproachesthat I forget you! I tell youagain I tell youthat until you

came one night, last week, to rescue some one from" There was the old trick of hesitating before the name

The dark eyes looked into mine, afire with a positive hunger for beliefor so I was sorely tempted to

"Such a declaration is worthless," I said, as coldly as I could. "You are a traitress; you betray those who are

"This is mere nonsense. You think that it will pay you better to serve FuManchu than to remain true to your

friends. Your 'slavery'for I take it you are posing as a slave againis evidently not very harsh. You serve

FuManchu, lure men to their destruction, and in return he loads you with jewels, lavishes gifts"

She sprang forward, raising flaming eyes to mine; her lips were slightly parted. With that wild abandon which

betrayed the desert blood in her veins, she wrenched open the neck of her bodice and slipped a soft shoulder

free of the garment. She twisted around, so that the white skin was but inches removed from me.

I clenched my teeth. Insane thoughts flooded my mind. For that creamy skin was red with the marks of the

She turned, quickly rearranging her dress, and watching me the while. I could not trust myself to speak for a

"If I am a stranger to you, as you claim, why do you give me your confidence?" I asked.

"I have known you long enough to trust you!" she said simply, and turned her head aside.

She snapped her fingers oddly, and looked up at me from under her lashes. "Why do you question me if you

And now a memory was born within my brain; it was that of the cry of the nighthawk which had harbingered

the death of Forsyth! The net was a large and strong one; could it be that some horrible fowl of the airsome

creature unknown to Western naturalistshad been released upon the common last night? I thought of the

marks upon Forsyth's face and throat; I thought of the profound knowledge of obscure and dreadful things

The wrapping, in which the net had been, lay at my feet. I stooped and took out from it a wicker basket.

Karamaneh stood watching me and biting her lip, but she made no move to check me. I opened the basket. It

contained a large phial, the contents of which possessed a pungent and peculiar smell.

Karamaneh upturned her great eyes to mine. They were wide with fear. She was on the point of speaking

when I extended my hand to grasp her. At that, the look of fear was gone and one of rebellion held its place.

Ere I had time to realize her purpose, she flung back from me with that wild grace which I had met with in no

Fatuously, net and basket in hand, I stood looking after her. The idea of pursuit came to me certainly; but I

doubted if I could have outrun her. For Karamaneh ran, not like a girl used to town or even country life, but

with the lightness and swiftness of a gazelle; ran like the daughter of the desert that she was.

Some two hundred yards she went, stopped, and looked back. It would seem that the sheer joy of physical

effort had aroused the devil in her, the devil that must lie latent in every woman with eyes like the eyes of

In the ever brightening sunlight I could see the lithe figure swaying; no rags imaginable could mask its

beauty. I could see the red lips and gleaming teeth. Thenand it was music good to hear, despite its taunt

I resigned myself to defeat; I blush to add, gladly! Some evidences of a world awakening were perceptible

about me now. Feathered choirs hailed the new day joyously. Carrying the mysterious contrivance which I

had captured from the enemy, I set out in the direction of my house, my mind very busy with conjectures

respecting the link between this bird snare and the cry like that of a nighthawk which we had heard at the

The path that I had chosen led me around the border of the Mound Pond a small pool having an islet in the

center. Lying at the margin of the pond I was amazed to see the plate and jug which Nayland Smith had

Dropping my burden, I walked down to the edge of the water. I was filled with a sudden apprehension. Then,

I started up, looked to right and left; but, although the voice had been that of Nayland Smith, no sign could I

Seriously doubting my senses, I looked in the direction from which the voice had seemed to proceedand

He stood on the islet in the center of the pond, and, as I perceived him, he walked down into the shallow

"You must think me mad this morning, Petrie!" he said. "But I have made several discoveries. Do you know

"Nothing of the kind; it is a burial mound, Petrie! It marks the site of one of the Plague Pits where victims

were buried during the Great Plague of London. You will observe that, although you have seen it every

morning for some years, it remains for a British Commissioner resident in Burma to acquaint you with its

history! Hullo!"the laughter was gone from his eyes, and they were steely hard again "what the blazes

"I did not exactly find it," I replied; and I related to him the circumstances of my meeting with Karamaneh.

He directed that cold stare upon me throughout the narrative, and when, with some embarrassment, I had told

I flushed with anger, for not even from Nayland Smith, whom I esteemed above all other men, could I accept

"Karamaneh," he continued coldly, "is a beautiful toy, I grant you; but so is a cobra. Neither is suitable for

"Smith!" I cried hotly"drop that! Adopt another tone or I cannot listen to you!"

"You must listen," he said, squaring his lean jaw truculently. "You are playing, not only with a pretty girl

who is the favorite of a Chinese Nero, but with my life! And I object, Petrie, on purely personal grounds!"

I felt my anger oozing from me; for this was strictly just. I had nothing to say, and Smith continued:

"You know that she is utterly false, yet a glance or two from those dark eyes of hers can make a fool of you!

A woman made a fool of me, once; but I learned my lesson; you have failed to learn yours. If you are

determined to go to pieces on the rock that broke up Adam, do so! But don't involve me in the wreck,

"Your words are unnecessarily brutal, Smith," I said, feeling very crestfallen, "but thereperhaps I fully

"You do!" he assured me, but he relaxed immediately. "A murderous attempt is made upon my life, resulting

in the death of a perfectly innocent man in no way concerned. Along you come and let an accomplice,

perhaps a participant, escape, merely, because she has a red mouth, or black lashes, or whatever it is that

We proceeded. Many questions there were that I wanted to put to him, but one above all.

"Smith," I said, "what, in Heaven's name, were you doing on the mound? Digging something up?"

Dusk found Nayland Smith and me at the top bedroom window. We knew, now that poor Forsyth's body had

been properly examined, that he had died from poisoning. Smith, declaring that I did not deserve his

confidence, had refused to confide in me his theory of the origin of the peculiar marks upon the body.

"On the soft ground under the trees," he said, "I found his tracks right up to the point where something

happened. There were no other fresh tracks for several yards around. He was attacked as he stood close to the

trunk of one of the elms. Six or seven feet away I found some other tracks, very much like this."

"Claws!" I cried. "That eerie call! like the call of a nighthawkis it some unknown species offlying

"We shall see, shortly; possibly tonight," was his reply. "Since, probably owing to the absence of any moon,

a mistake was made," his jaw hardened at the thoughts of poor Forsyth"another attempt along the same

So in the darkness, expectant, we sat watching the group of nine elms. Tonight the moon was come, raising

her Aladdin's lamp up to the star world and summoning magic shadows into being. By midnight the highroad

showed deserted, the common was a place of mystery; and save for the periodical passage of an electric car,

No notice of the tragedy had appeared in print; Nayland Smith was vested with powers to silence the press.

No detectives, no special constables, were posted. My friend was of opinion that the publicity which had been

given to the deeds of Dr. FuManchu in the past, together with the sometimes clumsy cooperation of the

"There is only one thing to fear," he jerked suddenly; "he may not be ready for another attempt tonight."

"Since he has only been in England for a short time, his menagerie of venomous things may be a limited one

Earlier in the evening there had been a brief but violent thunderstorm, with a tropical downpour of rain, and

now clouds were scudding across the blue of the sky. Through a temporary rift in the veiling the crescent of

the moon looked down upon us. It had a greenish tint, and it set me thinking of the filmed, green eyes of

The cloud passed and a lake of silver spread out to the edge of the coppice, where it terminated at a shadow

A lambent light was born in the darkness; it rose slowly, unsteadily, to a great height, and died.

"Bring the pistol, Petrie!" he cried; "I have another. Give me at least twenty yards' start or no attempt may be

Out of the house we ran, and over onto the common, which latterly had been a pageant ground for phantom

warring. The light did not appear again; and as Smith plunged off toward the trees, I wondered if he knew

what uncanny thing was hidden there. I more than suspected that he had solved the mystery.

His instructions to keep well in the rear I understood. FuManchu, or the creature of FuManchu, would

attempt nothing in the presence of a witness. But we knew full well that the instrument of death which was

hidden in the elm coppice could do its ghastly work and leave no clue, could slay and vanish. For had not

Forsyth come to a dreadful end while Smith and I were within twenty yards of him?

Not a breeze stirred, as Smith, ahead of mefor I had slowed my pacecame up level with the first tree.

The moon sailed clear of the straggling cloud wisps which alone told of the recent storm; and I noted that an

irregular patch of light lay silvern on the moist ground under the elms where otherwise lay shadow.

He passed on, slowly. I began to run again. Black against the silvern patch, I saw him emergeand look up.

Mixed up with his excited cry I had heard a loud splintering and sweeping of branches overhead; and now as

we staggered into the shadows it seemed that one of the elms was reaching down to touch us! So, at least, the

phenomenon presented itself to my mind in that fleeting moment while Smith, uttering his warning cry, was

With an appalling crash, a huge bough fell from above. One piercing, awful shriek there was, a crackling of

"Missed!" he yelled. "Shoot it, Petrie! On your left! For God's sake don't miss it!"

I turned. A lithe black shape was streaking past me. I firedonce twice. Another frightful cry made yet

I stood beside him, looking down. From the tangle of leaves and twigs an evil yellow face looked up at us.

The features were contorted with agony, but the malignant eyes, wherein light was dying, regarded us with

inflexible hatred. The man was pinned beneath the heavy bough; his back was broken; and as we watched, he

expired, frothing slightly at the mouth, and quitted his tenement of clay, leaving those glassy eyes set

"The pagan gods fight upon our side," said Smith strangely. "Elms have a dangerous habit of shedding

boughs in still weatherparticularly after a storm. Pan, god of the woods, with this one has performed

"Up the tree, lying along the bough which fell, Petrie! That is why he left no footmarks. Last night no doubt

he made his escape by swinging from bough to bough, ape fashion, and descending to the ground somewhere

"You are wondering, perhaps," he suggested, what caused the mysterious light? I could have told you this

morning, but I fear I was in a bad temper, Petrie. It's very simple: a length of tape soaked in spirit or

something of the kind, and sheltered from the view of any one watching from your windows, behind the trunk

of the tree; then, the end ignited, lowered, still behind the tree, to the ground. The operator swinging it

around, the flame ascended, of course. I found the unburned fragment of the tape last night, a few yards from

I was peering down at FuManchu's servant, the hideous yellow man who lay dead in a bower of elm leaves.

"Exactly!" rapped Smith. "In that he carried his dangerous instrument of death; from that he released it!"

"You saw the marks on Forsyth's body, and I told you of those which I had traced upon the ground here. They

"The claws of a poisonous thing. I recaptured the one used last night, killed itagainst my willand buried

it on the mound. I was afraid to throw it in the pond, lest some juvenile fisherman should pull it out and

"You are treating me like a child, Smith," I said slowly. "No doubt I am hopelessly obtuse, but perhaps you

will tell me what this Chinaman carried in a leather bag and released upon Forsyth. It was something which

you recaptured, apparently with the aid of a plate of cold turbot and a jug of milk! It was something, also,

"Go on," said Nayland Smith, turning the ray to the left, "what did she have in the basket?"

"A cat will go through fire and water for valerian," said Smith; "but I got first innings this morning with fish

and milk! I had recognized the imprints under the trees for those of a cat, and I knew, that if a cat had been

released here it would still be hiding in the neighborhood, probably in the bushes. I finally located a cat, sure

enough, and came for bait! I laid my trap, for the animal was too frightened to be approachable, and then shot

it; I had to. That yellow fiend used the light as a decoy. The branch which killed him jutted out over the path

at a spot where an opening in the foliage above allowed some moon rays to penetrate. Directly the victim

stood beneath, the Chinaman uttered his bird cry; the one below looked up, and the cat, previously held silent

"The cat's claws are sheathed now," he said; but if you could examine them you would find that they are

coated with a shining black substance. Only FuManchu knows what that substance is, Petrie, but you and I

"I don't blame you!" rapped Nayland Smith. "Suppose we say, then, a thousand pounds if you show us the

present hidingplace of FuManchu, the payment to be in no way subject to whether we profit by your

Abel Slattin shrugged his shoulders, racially, and returned to the armchair which he had just quitted. He

Smith raised himself up out of the white cane chair, and, bending forward over a corner of the table, scribbled

The while he did so, I covertly studied our visitor. He lay back in the armchair, his heavy eyelids lowered

deceptively. He was a thought overdresseda big man, darkhaired and well groomed, who toyed with a

monocle most unsuitable to his type. During the preceding conversation, I had been vaguely surprised to note

Sometimes, when Slattin moved, a big diamond which he wore upon the third finger of his right hand

glittered magnificently. There was a sort of bluish tint underlying the dusky skin, noticeable even in his hands

but proclaiming itself significantly in his puffy face and especially under the eyes. I diagnosed a laboring

Nayland Smith's pen scratched on. My glance strayed from our Semitic caller to his cane, lying upon the red

leather before me. It was of most unusual workmanship, apparently Indian, being made of some kind of dark

brown, mottled wood, bearing a marked resemblance to a snake's skin; and the top of the cane was carved in

conformity, to represent the head of what I took to be a puffadder, fragments of stone, or beads, being

inserted to represent the eyes, and the whole thing being finished with an artistic realism almost startling.

When Smith had tossed the written page to Slattin, and he, having read it with an appearance of carelessness,

Our visitor, whose dark eyes revealed all the satisfaction which, by his manner, he sought to conceal, nodded

"It comes from Australia, Doctor," he replied; "it's aboriginal work, and was given to me by a client. You

"It is indeed. Its former owner ascribed magical powers to it! In fact, I believe he thought that it was one of

"Something of the sort," said Slattin, standing up and again preparing to depart.

Smith returned to the cane armchair, and Slattin, bowing to both of us, made his way to the door as I rang for

"Considering the importance of his proposal," I began, as the door closed, "you hardly received our visitor

"I hate to have any relations with him," answered my friend; "but we must not be squeamish respecting our

instruments in dealing with Dr. FuManchu. Slattin has a rotten reputationeven for a private inquiry agent.

"Because I called on our friend Weymouth at the Yard yesterday and looked up the man's record."

"I knew that he was concerning himself, for some reason, in the case. Beyond doubt he has established some

No doubt, Slattin knew that this gaunt, eagereyed Burmese commissioner was vested with ultimate authority

in his quest of the mighty Chinaman who represented things unutterable, whose potentialities for evil were

boundless as his genius, who personified a secret danger, the extent and nature of which none of us truly

understood. And, learning of these things, with unerring Semitic instinct he had sought an opening in this

"You think he may have sunk so low as to become a creature of FuManchu?" I asked, aghast.

"Exactly! If it paid him well I do not doubt that he would serve that master as readily as any other. His record

is about as black as it well could be. Slattin is of course an assumed name; he was known as Lieutenant

Pepley when he belonged to the New York Police, and he was kicked out of the service for complicity in an

"Yes, Petrie, it made me wonder, too; and we must not forget that he is undeniably a clever scoundrel."

"No; at his private residence. If, as I more than suspect, his object is to draw us into some trap, he will

"He has been followed, Petrie," he replied, with one of his rare smiles. "Two C.I.D. men have been watching

"By the way," I said, "you saw Eltham this morning. He will soon be convalescent. Where, in heaven's name,

"Don't be alarmed on his behalf, Petrie," interrupted Smith. "His life is no longer in danger."

"He received, some time yesterday, a letter, written in Chinese, upon Chinese paper, and enclosed in an

ordinary business envelope, having a typewritten address and bearing a London postmark."

"As nearly as I can render the message in English, it reads: 'Although, because you are a brave man, you

would not betray your correspondent in China, he has been discovered. He was a mandarin, and as I cannot

write the name of a traitor, I may not name him. He was executed four days ago. I salute you and pray for

"On the contrary, PetrieFuManchu would not have written in Chinese unless he were sincere; and, to

clear all doubt, I received a cable this morning reporting that the Mandarin YenSunYat was assassinated in

Together we marched down the slope of the quiet, suburban avenue; to take pause before a small, detached

house displaying the hatchet boards of the Estate Agent. Here we found unkempt laurel bushes and acacias

Smith, with an alert glance to right and left, pushed open the wooden gate and drew me in upon the gravel

path. Darkness mantled all; for the nearest street lamp was fully twenty yards beyond.

A shadowy figure uprose, and vaguely I made it out for that of a man in the unobtrusive blue serge which is

"Mr. Slattin returned ten minutes ago, sir," reported the constable. "He came in a cab which he dismissed"

"A few minutes after his return," the man continued, "another cab came up, and a lady alighted."

He half turned, nodding his head; and my heart began to throb foolishly. For now the manner of Slattin's

campaign suddenly was revealed to me. In our operations against the Chinese murdergroup two years

before, we had had an ally in the enemy's campKaramaneh the beautiful slave, whose presence in those

happenings of the past had colored the sometimes sordid drama with the opulence of old Arabia; who had

seemed a fitting figure for the romances of Bagdad during the CaliphateKaramaneh, whom I had thought

sincere, whose inscrutable Eastern soul I had presumed, fatuously, to have laid bare and analyzed.

Now, once again she was plying her old trade of gobetween; professing to reveal the secrets of Dr.

FuManchu, and all the timeI could not doubt itinveigling men into the net of this awful fisher.

Yesterday, I had been her dupe; yesterday, I had rejoiced in my captivity. Today, I was not the favored one;

today I had not been selected recipient of her confidencesconfidences sweet, seductive, deadly: but Abel

Slattin, a plausible rogue, who, in justice, should be immured in Sing Sing, was chosen out, was enslaved by

those lovely mysterious eyes, was taking to his soul the lies which fell from those perfect lips, triumphant in a

conquest that must end in his undoing; deeming, poor fool, that for love of him this pearl of the Orient was

Companioned by these bitter reflections, I had lost the remainder of the conversation between Nayland Smith

and the police officer; now, casting off the succubus memory which threatened to obsess me, I put forth a

giant mental effort to purge my mind of this uncleanness, and became again an active participant in the

Our plans being evidently complete, Smith seized my arm, and I found myself again out upon the avenue. He

led me across the road and into the gate of a house almost opposite. From the fact that two upper windows

were illuminated, I adduced that the servants were retiring; the other windows were in darkness, except for

one on the ground floor to the extreme left of the building, through the lowered venetian blinds whereof

"Slattin's study!" whispered Smith. "He does not anticipate surveillance, and you will note that the window is

With that my friend crossed the strip of lawn, and careless of the fact that his silhouette must have been

visible to any one passing the gate, climbed carefully up the artificial rockery intervening, and crouched upon

A moment I hesitated, fearful that if I followed, I should stumble or dislodge some of the larva blocks of

Through the open window came the sound of a musical voicea voice possessing a haunting accent,

possessing a quality which struck upon my heart and set it quivering as though it were a gong hung in my

Upon hands and knees, heedless of damage to my garments, I crawled up beside Smith. One of the laths was

slightly displaced and over this my friend was peering in. Crouching close beside him, I peered in also.

I saw the study of a business man, with its files, neatly arranged works of reference, rolltop desk, and

Milner safe. Before the desk, in a revolving chair, sat Slattin. He sat half turned toward the window, leaning

back and smiling; so that I could note the gold crown which preserved the lower left molar. In an armchair by

She, who, in my dreams, I always saw, was ever seeing, in an Eastern dress, with gold bands about her white

ankles, with jewelladen fingers, with jewels in her hair, wore now a fashionable costume and a hat that

could only have been produced in Paris. Karamaneh was the one Oriental woman I had ever known who

could wear European clothes; and as I watched that exquisite profile, I thought that Delilah must have been

just such another as this, that, excepting the Empress Poppaea, history has record of no woman, who, looking

"Yes, my dear," Slattin was saying, and through his monocle ogling his beautiful visitor, "I shall be ready for

"My dear little girl," replied Slattin, rising and standing looking down at her, with his gold tooth twinkling in

the lamplight, "there will be a whole division, if a whole division is necessary."

He sought to take her white gloved hand, which rested upon the chair arm; but she evaded the attempt with

"I am not prepared to do so, yet," replied the girl, composedly; "but now that I know you are ready, I can

She glided past him to the door, avoiding his outstretched arm with an artless art which made me writhe; for

"I will ring you up in less than half an hour," said Karamaneh and without further ceremony, she opened the

I still had my eyes glued to the aperture in the blind, when Smith began tugging at my arm.

Realizing this, and none too soon, I turned, and rather clumsily followed my friend. I dislodged a piece of

granite in my descent; but, fortunately, Slattin had gone out into the hall and could not well have heard it.

We were crouching around an angle of the house, when a flood of light poured down the steps, and

Karamaneh rapidly descended. I had a glimpse of a darkfaced man who evidently had opened the door for

her, then all my thoughts were, centered upon that graceful figure receding from me in the direction of the

avenue. She wore a loose cloak, and I saw this fluttering for a moment against the white gate posts; then she

Yet Smith did not move. Detaining me with his hand he crouched there against a quickset hedge; until, from

a spot lower down the hill, we heard the start of the cab which had been waiting. Twenty seconds elapsed,

"That's Weymouth!" snapped Smith. With decent luck, we should know FuManchu's hidingplace before

"Oh! as it happens, he's apparently playing the game."In the halflight, Smith stared at me

significantly"Which makes it all the more important," he concluded, "that we should not rely upon his

My companion made no attempt to communicate with the detective (or detectives) who shared our vigil; we

Once, a taxicab labored hideously up the steep gradient of the avenue . . . It was gone. The lights at the

upper windows above us became extinguished. A policeman tramped past the gateway, casually flashing his

lamp in at the opening. One by one the illuminated windows in other houses visible to us became dull; then

lived again as mirrors for the pallid moon. In the silence, words spoken within the study were clearly audible;

and we heard someonepresumably the man who had opened the doorinquire if his services would be

Smith inclined his head and hung over me in a tense attitude, in order to catch Slattin's reply.

"Yes, Burke," it came"I want you to sit up until I return; I shall be going out shortly."

Evidently the man withdrew at that; for a complete silence followed which prevailed for fully half an hour. I

sought cautiously to move my cramped limbs, unlike Smith, who seeming to have sinews of pianowire,

crouched beside me immovable, untiringly. Then loud upon the stillness, broke the strident note of the

I started, nervously, clutching at Smith's arm. It felt hard as iron to my grip.

"Hullo!" I heard Slattin call"who is speaking? . . . Yes, yes! This is Mr. A. S. . . . I am to come at once ? . .

. I know whereyes I . . . you will meet me there? . . . Good!I shall be with you in half an hour . . . .

Distinctly I heard the creak of the revolving officechair as Slattin rose; then Smith had me by the arm, and

we were flying swiftly away from the door to take up our former post around the angle of the building. This

"He's going to his death!" rapped Smith beside me; "but Carter has a cab from the Yard waiting in the nearest

rank. We shall follow to see where he goesfor it is possible that Weymouth may have been thrown off the

scent; then, when we are sure of his destination, we can take a hand in the game! We . . ."

The end of the sentence was lost to medrowned in such a frightful wave of sound as I despair to describe.

It began with a high, thin scream, which was choked off staccato fashion; upon it followed a loud and

I was on my feet now, and automatically making for the door. I had a vague impression of Nayland Smith's

face beside me, the eyes glassy with a fearful apprehension. Then the door was flung open, and, in the bright

light of the hallway, I saw Slattin standingswaying and seemingly fighting with the empty air.

"What is it? For God's sake, what has happened!" reached my ears dimly and the man Burke showed

behind his master. Whitefaced I saw him to be; for now Smith and I were racing up the steps.

Ere we could reach him, Slattin, uttering another choking cry, pitched forward and lay half across the

We burst into the hall, where Burke stood with both his hands raised dazedly to his head. I could hear the

sound of running feet upon the gravel, and knew that Carter was coming to join us.

Burke, a heavy man with a lowering, bulldog type of face, collapsed onto his knees beside Slattin, and

"Drop that!" snapped Smith, and grasping him by the shoulders, he sent him spinning along the hallway,

where he sank upon the bottom step of the stairs, to sit with his outstretched fingers extended before his face,

There were rustlings and subdued cries from the upper part of the house. Carter came in out of the darkness,

carefully stepping over the recumbent figure; and the three of us stood there in the lighted hall looking down

"Help us to move him back," directed Smith, tensely; "far enough to close the door."

Between us we accomplished this, and Carter fastened the door. We were alone with the shadow of

FuManchu's vengeance; for as I knelt beside the body on the floor, a look and a touch sufficed to tell me

Smith met my glance as I raised my head, and his teeth came together with a loud snap; the jaw muscles

stood out prominently beneath the dark skin; and his face was grimly set in that odd, halfdespairful

expression which I knew so well but which boded so ill for whomsoever occasioned it.

Together we stooped and rolled the heavy body on its back. A flood of whispers came sibilantly from the

stairway. Smith spun around rapidly, and glared upon the group of halfdressed servants.

"Return to your rooms!" he rapped, imperiously; "let no one come into the hall without my orders."

The masterful voice had its usual result; there was a hurried retreat to the upper landing. Burke, shaking like a

man with an ague, sat on the lower step, pathetically drumming his palms upon his uplifted knees.

"I warned him, I warned him!" he mumbled monotonously, "I warned him, oh, I warned him!"

The man, with his frightened eyes turning to right and left, and seeming to search for something in the

"Now," continued Smith, "you, Petrie, will want to examine him, I suppose?" He pointed to the body. "And

"No one is accusing you," said Smith, less harshly; but since you were the only witness, it is by your aid that

Exerting a gigantic effort to regain control of himself, Burke nodded, watching my friend with a childlike

eagerness. During the ensuing conversation, I examined Slattin for marks of violence; and of what I found,

"In the first place," said Smith, "you say that you warned him. When did you warn him and of what?"

"He accidentally met a Chinaman at an East End gaminghouse, a man he had known in Friscoa man

Smith began to tug at the lobe of his left ear, reflectively, as I saw out of the corner of my eye.

"The Seven Group!" he mused. "That is significant. I always suspected that Dr. FuManchu and the

"The lieutenant!" began Smith; then: "Oh! of course; Slattin used to be a police lieutenant!"

"Well, sir, heMr. Slattinhad a sort of hold on this Singapore Charlie, and two years ago, when he first

met him, he thought that with his aid he was going to pull off the biggest thing of his life"

Smith nodded grimly, glancing at the Scotland Yard man, who returned his nod with equal grimness.

"A couple of months ago," resumed Burke, "he met Charlie again down East, and the Chinaman introduced

"He saw her a good many timesand she came here once or twice. She made out that she and Singapore

"I know all that," interrupted Smith. "I merely want to know, what took place after the telephone call?"

"Well, he told me to wait up, and I was dozing in the next room to the studythe diningroomwhen the

'phone bell aroused me. I heard the lieutenantMr. Slattin, coming out, and I ran out too, but only in time to

"He never got it off the peg! Just as he reached up to take it, he gave a most frightful scream, and turned

"No one at all. I was standing down there outside the diningroom just by the stairs, but he didn't turn in my

direction, he turned and looked right behind himwhere there was no onenothing. His cries were

frightful." Burke's voice broke, and he shuddered feverishly. "Then he made a rush for the front door. It

seemed as though he had not seen me. He stood there screaming; but, before I could reach him, he fell. . . ."

"As God is my judge, sir, that's all I know, and all I saw. There was no living thing near him when he met his

"We shall see," muttered Smith. He turned to me"What killed him?" he asked, shortly.

"Apparently, a minute wound on the left wrist," I replied, and, stooping, I raised the already cold hand in

A tiny, inflamed wound showed on the wrist; and a certain puffiness was becoming observable in the injured

"Certainly. It was too late to employ a ligature and useless to inject ammonia. Death was practically

"Carter!" cried Smith, turning to the detective, open that door to no oneno one. Explain who I am"

"Burke, stand exactly where you are! Carter, you can speak to whoever knocks, through the letterbox.

Our search of the house of Abel Slattin ceased only with the coming of the dawn, and yielded nothing but

disappointment. Failure followed upon failure; for, in the gray light of the morning, our own quest concluded,

Inspector Weymouth returned to report that the girl, Karamaneh, had thrown him off the scent.

Again he stood before me, the big, burly friend of old and dreadful days, a little grayer above the temples,

which I set down for a record of former horrors, but deliberate, stoical, thorough, as ever. His blue eyes

melted in the old generous way as he saw me, and he gripped my hand in greeting.

"Once again," he said, "your darkeyed friend has been too clever for me, Doctor. But the track as far as I

could follow, leads to the old spot. In fact,"he turned to Smith, who, grimfaced and haggard, looked

thoroughly ill in that gray light"I believe FuManchu's lair is somewhere near the former opiumden of

"We will turn our attention in that direction," he replied, "at a very early date."

"Clumsily for FuManchu," I replied. "A snake was introduced into the house by some means"

"My own idea," said Smith, "is that it was concealed about his clothing. When he fell by the open door it

glided out of the house. We must have the garden searched thoroughly by daylight."

"He"Weymouth glanced at that which lay upon the floor"must be moved; but otherwise we can leave

"I have already given orders to that effect," answered Smith. He spoke wearily and with a note of conscious

defeat in his voice. "Nothing has been disturbed;"he swept his arm around comprehensively"papers and

Presently we quitted that house upon which the fateful Chinaman had set his seal, as the suburb was

awakening to a new day. The clank of milkcans was my final impression of the avenue to which a dreadful

minister of death had come at the bidding of the death lord. We left Inspector Weymouth in charge and

Nayland Smith, ignoring my entreaties, composed himself for slumber in the white cane chair in my study.

About noon he retired to the bathroom, and returning, made a pretense of breakfast; then resumed his seat in

the cane armchair. Carter reported in the afternoon, but his report was merely formal. Returning from my

round of professional visits at half past five, I found Nayland Smith in the same position; and so the day

In the corner of the big room by the empty fireplace, Nayland Smith lay, with his long, lean frame extended

in the white cane chair. A tumbler, from which two straws protruded, stood by his right elbow, and a perfect

continent of tobacco smoke lay between us, wafted toward the door by the draught from an open window. He

had littered the hearth with matches and tobacco ash, being the most untidy smoker I have ever met; and save

for his frequent rappingout of his pipe bowl and perpetual striking of matches, he had shown no sign of

activity for the past hour. Collarless and wearing an old tweed jacket, he had spent the evening, as he had

spent the day, in the cane chair, only quitting it for some ten minutes, or less, to toy with dinner.

My several attempts at conversation had elicited nothing but growls; therefore, as dusk descended, having

dismissed my few patients, I busied myself collating my notes upon the renewed activity of the Yellow

Doctor, and was thus engaged when the 'phone bell disturbed me. It was Smith who was wanted, however;

At the end of a lengthy conversation, he returned from the 'phone and began, restlessly, to pace the room. I

made a pretense of continuing my labors, but covertly I was watching him. He was twitching at the lobe of

"I shall throw the thing up, Petrie! Either I am growing too old to cope with such an adversary as

FuManchu, or else my intellect has become dull. I cannot seem to think clearly or consistently. For the

Doctor, this crime, this removal of Slattin, is clumsyunfinished. There are two explanations. Either he, too,

"Take the facts, Petrie,"Smith clapped his hands upon my table and bent down, peering into my eyes"is

it characteristic of FuManchu to kill a man by the direct agency of a snake and to implicate one of his own

"Certainly Karamaneh visited him on the evening of his death, but you must be perfectly well aware that even

"You are very useful to me, Petrie," he replied; as a counsel for the defense you constantly rectify my errors

of prejudice. Yet I am convinced that our presence at Slattin's house last night prevented FuManchu from

"Weymouth is responsible. He has rung me up from the Yard. The constable on duty at the house where the

murder was committed, reports that some one, less than an hour ago, attempted to break in."

"No; he only heard him. It was some one who endeavored to enter by the bathroom window, which, I am

"No; the constable interrupted, but failed to make a capture or even to secure a glimpse of the man."

"We must not let FuManchu's servants know," replied Smith, "but tonight I shall conceal myself in

Slattin's house and remain there for a week or a dayit matters not how longuntil that attempt is repeated.

Quite obviously, Petrie, we have overlooked something which implicates the murderer with the murder! In

short, either by accident, by reason of our superior vigilance, or by the clumsiness of his plans, FuManchu

In utter darkness we groped our way through into the hallway of Slattin's house, having entered, stealthily,

from the rear; for Smith had selected the study as a suitable base of operations. We reached it without mishap,

and presently I found myself seated in the very chair which Karamaneh had occupied; my companion took up

So we commenced our ghostly business in the house of the murdered man a house from which, but a few

hours since, his body had been removed. This was such a vigil as I had endured once before, when, with

Nayland Smith and another, I had waited for the coming of one of FuManchu's death agents.

Of all the sounds which, one by one, now began to detach themselves from the silence, there was a particular

sound, homely enough at another time, which spoke to me more dreadfully than the rest. It was the ticking of

the clock upon the mantelpiece; and I thought how this sound must have been familiar to Abel Slattin, how it

must have formed part and parcel of his life, as it were, and how it went on nowticktick

ticktickwhilst he, for whom it had ticked, lay unheeding would never heed it more.

As I grew more accustomed to the gloom, I found myself staring at his office chair; once I found myself

expecting Abel Slattin to enter the room and occupy it. There was a little China Buddha upon the bureau in

one corner, with a gilded cap upon its head, and as some reflection of the moonlight sought out this little cap,

Vague creakings from within the house, sounds as though of stealthy footsteps upon the stair, set my nerves

tingling; but Nayland Smith gave no sign, and I knew that my imagination was magnifying these ordinary

night sounds out of all proportion to their actual significance. Leaves rustled faintly outside the window at my

back: I construed their sibilant whispers into the dreaded nameFuManchuFu ManchuFuManchu!

So wore on the night; and, when the ticking clock hollowly boomed the hour of one, I almost leaped out of

my chair, so highly strung were my nerves, and so appallingly did the sudden clangor beat upon them. Smith,

like a man of stone, showed no sign. He was capable of so subduing his constitutionally highstrung

temperament, at times, that temporarily he became immune from human dreads. On such occasions he would

be icily cool amid universal panic; but, his object accomplished, I have seen him in such a state of collapse,

Ticktickticktick went the clock, and, with my heart still thumping noisily in my breast, I began to count

the tickings; one, two, three, four, five, and so on to a hundred, and from one hundred to many hundreds.

Then, out from the confusion of minor noises, a new, arresting sound detached itself. I ceased my counting;

no longer I noted the ticktick of the clock, nor the vague creakings, rustlings and whispers. I saw Smith,

shadowly, raise his hand in warningin needless warning, for I was almost holding my breath in an effort of

From high up in the house this new sound came from above the topmost room, it seemed, up under the roof; a

regular squeaking, oddly familiar, yet elusive. Upon it followed a very soft and muffled thud; then a metallic

sound as of a rusty hinge in motion; then a new silence, pregnant with a thousand possibilities more eerie

My mind was rapidly at work. Lighting the topmost landing of the house was a sort of glazed trap, evidently

set in the floor of a loftlike place extending over the entire building. Somewhere in the redtiled roof above,

So I argued; and, ere I had come to any proper decision, another sound, more intimate, came to interrupt me.

This time I could be in no doubt; some one was lifting the trap above the stairheadslowly, cautiously, and

all but silently. Yet to my ears, attuned to trifling disturbances, the trap creaked and groaned noisily.

Nayland Smith waved to me to take a stand on the other side of the opened doorbehind it, in fact, where I

A dull thud told of the trap fully raised and resting upon some supporting joist. A faint rustling (of discarded

garments, I told myself) spoke to my newly awakened, acute perceptions, of the visitor preparing to lower

himself to the landing. Followed a groan of woodwork submitted to sudden strainand the unmistakable pad

I knew now that one of Dr. FuManchu's uncanny servants had gained the roof of the house by some means,

had broken through the skylight and had descended by means of the trap beneath on to the landing.

In such a tensedup state as I cannot describe, nor, at this hour mentally reconstruct, I waited for the creaking

I was disappointed. Removed scarce a yard from me as he was, I could hear Nayland Smith's soft, staccato

breathing; but my eyes were all for the darkened hallway, for the smudgy outline of the stairrail with the

It was amid an utter silence, unheralded by even so slight a sound as those which I had acquired the power of

detectingthat I saw the continuity of the smudgy line of stairrail to be interrupted.

A dark patch showed upon it, just within my line of sight, invisible to Smith on the other side of the doorway,

No sound reached me, but the dark patch vanished and reappeared three feet lower down.

Still I knew that this phantom approach must be unknown to my companionand I knew that it was

A third time the dark patchthe hand of one who, ghostly, silent, was creeping down into the

hallwayvanished and reappeared on a level with my eyes. Then a vague shape became visible; no more

than a blur upon the dim design of the wallpaper . . . and Nayland Smith got his first sight of the stranger.

It ended all secrecythat hysterical weakness of mine. It might have frustrated our hopes; that it did not do

so was in no measure due to me. But in a sort of passionate whirl, the ensuing events moved swiftly.

Smith hesitated not one instant. With a pantherlike leap he hurled himself into the hall.

I clenched my fists in a swift effort to regain control of my treacherous nerves, and, bounding past Smith, and

past the foot of the stair, I reached out my hand to the switch, the situation of which, fortunately, I knew.

Around I came, in response to a shrill cry from behind mean inhuman cry, less a cry than the shriek of

With his left foot upon the first stair, Nayland Smith stood, his lean body bent perilously backward, his arms

rigidly thrust out, and his sinewy fingers gripping the throat of an almost naked mana man whose brown

body glistened unctuously, whose shaven head was apish low, whose bloodshot eyes were the eyes of a mad

dog! His teeth, upper and lower, were bared; they glistened, they gnashed, and a froth was on his lips. With

both his hands, he clutched a heavy stick, and once twice, he brought it down upon Nayland Smith's head!

I leaped forward to my friend's aid; but as though the blows had been those of a feather, he stood like some

figure of archaic statuary, nor for an instant relaxed the death grip which he had upon his adversary's throat.

Thrusting my way up the stairs, I wrenched the stick from the hand of the dacoitfor in this glistening

brown man, I recognized one of that deadly brotherhood who hailed Dr. FuManchu their Lord and Master.

I cannot dwell upon the end of that encounter; I cannot hope to make acceptable to my readers an account of

how Nayland Smith, glassyeyed, and with consciousness ebbing from him instant by instant, stood there, a

realization of Leighton's "Athlete," his arms rigid as iron bars even after FuManchu's servant hung limply in

In his last moments of consciousness, with the blood from his wounded head trickling down into his eyes, he

pointed to the stick which I had torn from the grip of the dacoit, and which I still held in my hand.

"Not Aaron's rod, Petrie!" he gasped hoarsely"the rod of Moses! Slattin's stick!"

"But," I beganand turned to the rack in which Slattin's favorite cane at that moment reposedhad reposed

Yes! there stood Slattin's cane; we had not moved it; we had disturbed nothing in that stricken house; there

I glanced at the cane in my hand. Surely there could not be two such in the world?

"Examine the one in the rack, Petrie," he whispered, almost inaudibly, "but do not touch it. It may not be yet.

I propped him up against the foot of the stairs, and as the constable began knocking violently at the street

door, crossed to the rack and lifted out the replica of the cane which I held in my hand.

A faint cry from Smithand as if it had been a leprous thing, I dropped the cane instantly.

Although, in every other particular, it corresponded with that which I heldwhich I had taken from the

dacoitwhich he had come to substitute for the cane now lying upon the floorin one dreadful particular it

Either from pain, fear or starvation, the thing confined in the hollow tube of this awful duplicate was become

torpid. Otherwise, no power on earth could have saved me from the fate of Abel Slattin; for the creature was

Nayland Smith wasted no time in pursuing the plan of campaign which he had mentioned to Inspector

Weymouth. Less than fortyeight hours after quitting the house of the murdered Slattin, I found myself

A very fine rain was falling, which rendered it difficult to see clearly from the windows; but the weather

apparently had little effect upon the commercial activities of the district. The cab was threading a hazardous

way through the cosmopolitan throng crowding the street. On either side of me extended a row of stalls,

seemingly established in opposition to the more legitimate shops upon the inner side of the pavement.

Jewish hawkers, many of them in their shirtsleeves, acclaimed the rarity of the bargains which they had to

offer; and, allowing for the difference of costume, these tireless Israelites, heedless of climatic conditions,

sweating at their mongery, might well have stood, not in a squalid London thoroughfare, but in an equally

They offered linen and fine raiment; from footgear to hairoil their wares ranged. They enlivened their

auctioneering with conjuring tricks and witty stories, selling watches by the aid of legerdemain, and fancy

Poles, Russians, Serbs, Roumanians, Jews of Hungary, and Italians of Whitechapel mingled in the throng.

Near East and Far East rubbed shoulders. Pidgin English contested with Yiddish for the ownership of some

tawdry article offered by an auctioneer whose nationality defied conjecture, save that always some branch of

Some wearing mens' caps, some with shawls thrown over their oily locks, and some, more true to primitive

instincts, defying, bareheaded, the unkindly elements, bedraggled womenmore often than not burdened

with muffled infantscrowded the pavements and the roadway, thronged about the stalls like white ants

And the fine drizzling rain fell upon all alike, pattering upon the hood of the taxicab, trickling down the

front windows; glistening upon the unctuous hair of those in the street who were hatless; dewing the bare

arms of the auctioneers, and dripping, melancholy, from the tarpaulin coverings of the stalls. Heedless of the

rain above and of the mud beneath, North, South, East, and West mingled their cries, their bids, their

Sometimes a yellow face showed close to one of the streaming windows; sometimes a blackeyed, pallid

face, but never a face wholly sane and healthy. This was an underworld where squalor and vice went hand in

hand through the beautiless streets, a meltingpot of the world's outcasts; this was the shadowland, which last

Ceaselessly I peered to right and left, searching amid that rainsoaked company for any face known to me.

Whom I expected to find there, I know not, but I should have counted it no matter for surprise had I detected

amid that ungracious ugliness the beautiful face of Karamaneh the Eastern slavegirl, the leering yellow face

of a Burmese dacoit, the gaunt, bronzed features of Nayland Smith; a hundred times I almost believed that I

had seen the ruddy countenance of Inspector Weymouth, and once (at which instant my heart seemed to stand

still) I suffered from the singular delusion that the oblique green eyes of Dr. FuManchu peered out from the

It was mere phantasy, of course, the sick imaginings of a mind overwrought. I had not slept and had scarcely

tasted food for more than thirty hours; for, following up a faint clue supplied by Burke, Slattin's man, and,

like his master, an exofficer of New York Police, my friend, Nayland Smith, on the previous evening had

set out in quest of some obscene den where the man called ShenYanformer keeper of an

ShenYan we knew to be a creature of the Chinese doctor, and only a most urgent call had prevented me

At any rate, Fate willing it so, he had gone without me; and nowalthough Inspector Weymouth, assisted by

a number of C. I. D. men, was sweeping the district about meto the time of my departure nothing whatever

had been heard of Smith. The ordeal of waiting finally had proved too great to be borne. With no definite idea

of what I proposed to do, I had thrown myself into the search, filled with such dreadful apprehensions as I

I did not know the exact situation of the place to which Smith was gone, for owing to the urgent case which I

have mentioned, I had been absent at the time of his departure; nor could Scotland Yard enlighten me upon

this point. Weymouth was in charge of the caseunder Smith's directionand since the inspector had left

the Yard, early that morning, he had disappeared as completely as Smith, no report having been received

As my driver turned into the black mouth of a narrow, illlighted street, and the glare and clamor of the

greater thoroughfare died behind me, I sank into the corner of the cab burdened with such a sense of

We were heading now for that strange settlement off the West India Dock Road, which, bounded by

Limehouse Causeway and Pennyfields, and narrowly confined within four streets, composes an unique

Chinatown, a miniature of that at Liverpool, and of the greater one in San Francisco. Inspired with an idea

"Take me first to the River Police Station," I directed; "along Ratcliffe Highway."

Presently we swerved to the right and into an even narrower street. This inclined in an easterly direction, and

proved to communicate with a wide thoroughfare along which passed brilliantly lighted electric trams. I had

lost all sense of direction, and when, swinging to the left and to the right again, I looked through the window

and perceived that we were before the door of the Police Station, I was dully surprised.

In quite mechanical fashion I entered the depot. Inspector Ryman, our associate in one of the darkest episodes

of the campaign with the Yellow Doctor two years before, received me in his office.

"The ten o'clock boat is lying off the Stone Stairs, Doctor," he said, "and cooperating with some of the

I shuddered at the word "dragging"; Ryman had not used it literally, but nevertheless it had conjured up a

dread possibilitya possibility in accordance with the methods of Dr. FuManchu. All within space of an

instant I saw the tide of Limehouse Reach, the Thames lapping about the greencoated timbers of a dock

pier; and risingfalling sometimes disclosing to the pallid light a rigid hand, sometimes a horribly

bloated faceI saw the body of Nayland Smith at the mercy of those oily waters. Ryman continued:

"There is a launch out, too, patrolling the riverside from here to Tilbury. Another lies at the breakwater"he

jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Should you care to take a run down and see for yourself ?"

"No, thanks," I replied, shaking my head. "You are doing all that can be done. Can you give me the address

"Certainly," said Ryman; "I thought you knew it. You remember ShenYan's placeby Limehouse Basin?

Well, further easteast of the Causeway, between Gill Street and Three Colt Streetis a block of wooden

"It appears so, but, although you have evidently not been informed of the fact, Weymouth raided the

"Unfortunately with no result," continued the inspector. "The notorious ShenYan was missing, and although

there is no real doubt that the place is used as a gaminghouse, not a particle of evidence to that effect could

be obtained. Alsothere was no sign of Mr. Nayland Smith, and no sign of the American, Burke, who had

"Two C. I. D. men who were shadowing, actually saw the pair of them enter. A signal had been arranged, but

"But there was no evidence!" cried Ryman. "Every inch of the ratburrow was searched. The Chinese

gentleman who posed as the proprietor of what he claimed to be a respectable lodginghouse offered every

"Certainly," said Ryman. "Both from the river and from the shore. Oh! they are not there! God knows where

I stood for a moment in silence, endeavoring to determine my course; then, telling Ryman that I hoped to see

him later, I walked out slowly into the rain and mist, and nodding to the taxidriver to proceed to our original

As we moved off, the lights of the River Police depot were swallowed up in the humid murk, and again I

found myself being carried through the darkness of those narrow streets, which, like a maze, hold secret

within their labyrinth mysteries as great, and at least as foul, as that of Pasiphae.

The marketing centers I had left far behind me; to my right stretched the broken range of riverside buildings,

and beyond them flowed the Thames, a stream more heavily burdened with secrets than ever was Tiber or

Tigris. On my left, occasional flickering lights broke through the mist, for the most part the lights of taverns;

and saving these rents in the veil, the darkness was punctuated with nothing but the faint and yellow

Ahead was a black mouth, which promised to swallow me up as it had swallowed up my friend.

In short, what with my lowered condition and consequent frame of mind, and what with the traditions, for me

inseparable from that gloomy quarter of London, I was in the grip of a shadowy menace which at any

moment might become tangibleI perceived, in the most commonplace objects, the yellow hand of Dr.

When the cab stopped in a place of utter darkness, I aroused myself with an effort, opened the door, and

stepped out into the mud of a narrow lane. A high brick wall frowned upon me from one side, and, dimly

perceptible, there towered a smoke stack, beyond. On my right uprose the side of a wharf building, shadowly,

and some distance ahead, almost obscured by the drizzling rain, a solitary lamp flickered, I turned up the

collar of my raincoat, shivering, as much at the prospect as from physical chill.

"You will wait here," I said to the man; and, feeling in my breastpocket, I added: "If you hear the note of a

He listened attentively and with a certain eagerness. I had selected him that night for the reason that he had

driven Smith and myself on previous occasions and had proved himself a man of intelligence. Transferring a

Browning pistol from my hippocket to that of my raincoat, I trudged on into the mist.

The headlights of the taxi were swallowed up behind me, and just abreast of the street lamp I stood listening.

Save for the dismal sound of rain, and the trickling of water along the gutters, all about me was silent.

Sometimes this silence would be broken by the distant, muffled note of a steam siren; and always, forming a

sort of background to the near stillness, was the remote din of riverside activity.

I walked on to the corner just beyond the lamp. This was the street in which the wooden buildings were

situated. I had expected to detect some evidences of surveillances, but if any were indeed being observed, the

fact was effectively masked. Not a living creature was visible, peer as I could.

Plans, I had none, and perceiving that the street was empty, and that no lights showed in any of the windows,

A rickety gate gave access to a descending flight of stone steps, the bottom invisible in the denser shadows of

Still uninspired by any definite design, I tried the gate and found that it was unlocked. Like some wandering

soul, as it has since seemed to me, I descended. There was a lamp over the archway, but the glass was broken,

and the rain apparently had extinguished the light; as I passed under it, I could hear the gas whistling from the

Continuing my way, I found myself upon a narrow wharf with the Thames flowing gloomily beneath me. A

Suddenly, quite near, there arose a weird and mournful crya cry indescribable, and inexpressibly uncanny!

I started back so violently that how I escaped falling into the river I do not know to this day. That cry, so eerie

and so wholly unexpected, had unnerved me; and realizing the nature of my surroundings, and the folly of my

presence alone in such a place, I began to edge back toward the foot of the steps, away from the thing that

There are few men, I suppose, whose lives have been crowded with so many eerie happenings as mine, but

this phantom thing which grew out of the darkness, which seemed about to envelope me, takes rank in my

I knew that I was frozen with a sort of supernatural terror. I stood there with hands clenched, staringstaring

As I stared, every nerve in my body thrilling, I distinguished the outline of the phantom. With a subdued cry,

I stepped forward. A new sensation claimed me. In that one stride I passed from the horrible to the bizarre.

I found myself confronted with something tangible, certainly, but something whose presence in that place

was utterly extravagantcould only be reconcilable in the dreams of an opium slave.

Was I awake, was I sane? Awake and sane beyond doubt, but surely moving, not in the purlieus of

Swooping, with open arms, I rounded up in an angle against the building and gathered in this screaming thing

The great, ghostly fan was closed as I did so, and I stumbled back toward the stair with my struggling captive

tucked under my arm; I mounted into one of London's darkest slums, carrying a beautiful white peacock!

My adventure had done nothing to relieve the feeling of unreality which held me enthralled. Grasping the

struggling bird firmly by the body, and having the long white tail fluttering a yard or so behind me, I returned

"Open the door!" I said to the manwho greeted me with such a stare of amazement that I laughed outright,

He jumped into the road and did as I directed. Making sure that both windows were closed, I thrust the

"It has probably escaped from some collector's place on the riverside," I explained, "but one never knows.

See that it does not escape again, and if at the end of an hour, as arranged, you do not hear from me, take it

"Right you are, sir," said the man, remounting his seat. "It's the first time I ever saw a peacock in

It was the first time I had seen one, and the incident struck me as being more than odd; it gave me an idea,

and a new, faint hope. I returned to the head of the steps, at the foot of which I had met with this singular

experience, and gazed up at the dark building beneath which they led. Three windows were visible, but they

were broken and neglected. One, immediately above the arch, had been pasted up with brown paper, and this

was now peeling off in the rain, a little stream of which trickled down from the detached corner to drop,

Where were the detectives? I could only assume that they had directed their attention elsewhere, for had the

In pursuit of my new idea, I again descended the steps. The persuasion (shortly to be verified) that I was close

upon the secret hold of the Chinaman, grew stronger, unaccountably. I had descended some eight steps, and

was at the darkest part of the archway or tunnel, when confirmation of my theories came to me.

A noose settled accurately upon my shoulders, was snatched tightly about my throat, and with a feeling of

insupportable agony at the base of my skull, and a sudden supreme knowledge that I was being

How long I remained unconscious, I was unable to determine at the time, but I learned later, that it was for no

The first sensation to return to me was a sort of repetition of the asphyxia. The blood seemed to be forcing

itself into my eyesI choked I felt that my end was come. And, raising my hands to my throat, I found it

to be swollen and inflamed. Then the floor upon which I lay seemed to be rocking like the deck of a ship, and

My second awakening was heralded by a returning sense of smell; for I became conscious of a faint, exquisite

It brought me to my senses as nothing else could have done, and I sat upright with a hoarse cry. I could have

distinguished that perfume amid a thousand others, could have marked it apart from the rest in a scent bazaar.

And in the first moments of my awakening, I groped about in the darkness blindly seeking her.

Then my swollen throat and throbbing head, together with my utter inability to move my neck even slightly,

reminded me of the facts as they were. I knew in that bitter moment that Karamaneh was no longer my friend;

but, for all her beauty and charm, was the most heartless, the most fiendish creature in the service of Dr.

Something stirred, near to me in the room, and set my nerves creeping with a new apprehension. I became

To my certain knowledge, Dr. FuManchu at this time had been in England for fully three months, which

meant that by now he must be equipped with all the instruments of destruction, animate and inanimate, which

Now, as I crouched there in that dark apartment listening for a repetition of the sound, I scarcely dared to

conjecture what might have occasioned it, but my imagination peopled the place with reptiles which writhed

upon the floor, with tarantulas and other deadly insects which crept upon the walls, which might drop upon

Then, since nothing stirred about me, I ventured to move, turning my shoulders, for I was unable to move my

aching head; and I looked in the direction from which a faint, very faint, light proceeded.

A regular tapping sound now began to attract my attention, and, having turned about, I perceived that behind

me was a broken window, in places patched with brown paper; the corner of one sheet of paper was detached,

In a flash I realized that I lay in the room immediately above the archway; and listening intently, I perceived

above the other faint sounds of the night, or thought that I perceived, the hissing of the gas from the

Unsteadily I rose to my feet, but found myself swaying like a drunken man. I reached out for support,

stumbling in the direction of the wall. My foot came in contact with something that lay there, and I pitched

I anticipated a crash which would put an end to my hopes of escape, but my fall was comparatively

noiselessfor I fell upon the body of a man who lay bound up with rope close against the wall!

A moment I stayed as I fell, the chest of my fellow captive rising and falling beneath me as he breathed.

Knowing that my life depended upon retaining a firm hold upon myself, I succeeded in overcoming the

dizziness and nausea which threatened to drown my senses, and, moving back so that I knelt upon the floor, I

fumbled in my pocket for the electric lamp which I had placed there. My raincoat had been removed whilst I

I took it out, pressed the button, and directed the ray upon the face of the man beside me.

Trussed up and fastened to a ring in the wall he lay, having a cork gag strapped so tightly between his teeth

But, although a grayish pallor showed through the tan of his skin, his eyes were feverishly bright, and there,

Then, in furious haste, I set to work to remove the gag. It was most ingeniously secured by means of leather

straps buckled at the back of his head, but I unfastened these without much difficulty, and he spat out the gag,

"Thank God, old man!" he said, huskily. "Thank God that you are alive! I saw them drag you in, and I

"I have been thinking the same about you for more than twentyfour hours," I said, reproachfully. "Why did

"I did not want you to come, Petrie," he replied. "I had a sort of premonition. You see it was realized; and

instead of being as helpless as I, Fate has made you the instrument of my release. Quick! You have a knife?

Good!" The old, feverish energy was by no means extinguished in him. "Cut the ropes about my wrists and

"Now," Smith continued, "put that filthy gag in place againbut you need not strap it so tightly! Directly

they find that you are alive, they will treat you the sameyou understand? She has been here three times"

"Quick! the straps of the gag!" whispered Smith, "and pretend to recover consciousness just as they enter"

Clumsily I followed his directions, for my fingers were none too steady, replaced the lamp in my pocket, and

Through halfshut eyes, I saw the door open and obtained a glimpse of a desolate, empty passage beyond. On

the threshold stood Karamaneh. She held in her hand a common tin oil lamp which smoked and flickered

with every movement, filling the already none too cleanly air with an odor of burning paraffin. She

personified the outre; nothing so incongruous as her presence in that place could well be imagined. She was

dressed as I remembered once to have seen her two years before, in the gauzy silks of the harem. There were

pearls glittering like great tears amid the cloud of her wonderful hair. She wore broad gold bangles upon her

bare arms, and her fingers were laden with jewelry. A heavy girdle swung from her hips, defining the lines of

As she appeared in the doorway I almost entirely closed my eyes, but my gaze rested fascinatedly upon the

Again I detected the exquisite, elusive perfume, which, like a breath of musk, spoke of the Orient; and, as

always, it played havoc with my reason, seeming to intoxicate me as though it were the very essence of her

But I had a part to play, and throwing out one clenched hand so that my fist struck upon the floor, I uttered a

One quick glimpse I had of her wonderful eyes, widely opened and turned upon me with such an enigmatical

expression as set my heart leaping wildlythen, stepping back, Karamaneh placed the lamp upon the boards

As I sank upon the floor in assumed exhaustion, a Chinaman with a perfectly impassive face, and a Burman,

whose pockmarked, evil countenance was set in an apparently habitual leer, came running into the room

With a hand which trembled violently, she held the lamp whilst the two yellow ruffians tied me. I groaned

and struggled feebly, fixing my gaze upon the lampbearer in a silent reproach which was by no means

She lowered her eyes, and I could see her biting her lip, whilst the color gradually faded from her cheeks.

Then, glancing up again quickly, and still meeting that reproachful stare, she turned her head aside altogether,

It was a singular ordeal for more than one of that incongruous group; but in order that I may not be charged

with hypocrisy or with seeking to hide my own folly, I confess, here, that when again I found myself in

darkness, my heart was leaping not because of the success of my strategy, but because of the success of that

reproachful glance which I had directed toward the lovely, darkeyed Karamaneh, toward the faithless, evil

The door had not been closed ten seconds, ere Smith again was spitting out the gag, swearing under his

breath, and stretching his cramped limbs free from their binding. Within a minute from the time of my

trussing, I was a free man again; save that look where I wouldto right, to left, or inward, to my own

"A higher than FuManchu, apparently. I have an idea of the identity of this person, but no more than an

idea. Something unusual is going on, Petrie; otherwise I should have been a dead man twentyfour hours ago.

Something even more important than my death engages FuManchu's attentionand this can only be the

presence of the mysterious visitor. Your seductive friend, Karamaneh, is arrayed in her very becoming

national costume in his honor, I presume." He stopped abruptly; then added: "I would give five hundred

"God knows what has become of Burke, Petrie! We were both caught napping in the establishment of the

amiable ShenYan, where, amid a very mixed company of poker players, we were losing our money like

"Burke and I had both been neatly sandbagged, my dear Petrie, and removed elsewhere, some hours before

Weymouth raided the gaminghouse. Oh! I don't know how they smuggled us away with the police watching

the place; but my presence here is sufficient evidence of the fact. Are you armed?"

In the dim light from the broken window, I could see Smith tugging reflectively at the lobe of his left ear.

"I should present myself before the important meeting, which, I am assured, is being held somewhere in this

building; and tonight would see the end of my struggle with the FuManchu groupthe end of the whole

Yellow menace! For not only is FuManchu here, Petrie, with all his gang of assassins, but he whom I

Smith stepped quietly across the room and tried the door. It proved to be unlocked, and an instant later, we

were both outside in the passage. Coincident with our arrival there, arose a sudden outcry from some place at

the westward end. A highpitched, grating voice, in which guttural notes alternated with a serpentlike

Indeed, it was the unmistakable voice of the Chinaman, raised hysterically in one of those outbursts which in

The voice rose to a scream, the scream of some angry animal rather than anything human. Then, chokingly, it

ceased. Another short sharp cry followedbut not in the voice of FuManchua dull groan, and the sound

With Smith still grasping my wrist, I shrank back into the doorway, as something that looked in the darkness

like a great ball of fluff came rapidly along the passage toward me. Just at my feet the thing stopped and I

made it out for a small animal. The tiny, gleaming eyes looked up at me, and, chattering wickedly, the

Smith dragged me back into the room which we had just left. As he partly reclosed the door, I heard the

clapping of hands. In a condition of most dreadful suspense, we waited; until a new, ominous sound

proclaimed itself. Some heavy body was being dragged into the passage. I heard the opening of a trap.

Exclamations in guttural voices told of a heavy task in progress; there was a great straining and

"FuManchu has chastised one of his servants," he whispered. "There will be food for the grapplingirons

I shuddered violently, for, without Smith's words, I knew that a bloody deed had been done in that house

In the new silence, I could hear the drip, drip, drip of the rain outside the window; then a steam siren hooted

dismally upon the river, and I thought how the screw of that very vessel, even as we listened, might be tearing

Again we slipped out into the passage and began a stealthy progress to the west. Ten paces amid absolute

darkness, and we found ourselves abreast of a branch corridor. At the further end, through a kind of little

I directed the ray of the pocketlamp upon the floor, and there at my feet was a square wooden trap. As I

stooped to examine it, I glanced back, painfully, over my shoulderand saw Nayland Smith tiptoeing away

Inwardly I cursed his folly, but the temptation to peep in at that little window proved too strong for me, as it

Fearful that some board would creak beneath my tread, I followed; and side by side we two crouched,

looking into a small rectangular room. It was a bare and cheerless apartment with unpapered walls and

Seated in the chair, with his back toward us, was a portly Chinaman who wore a yellow, silken robe. His face,

it was impossible to see; but he was beating his fist upon the table, and pouring out a torrent of words in a

thin, piping voice. So much I perceived at a glance; then, into view at the distant end of the room, paced a

tall, highshouldered figurea figure unforgettable, at once imposing and dreadful, stately and sinister.

With the long, bony hands behind him, fingers twining and intertwining serpentinely about the handle of a

little fan, and with the pointed chin resting on the breast of the yellow robe, so that the light from the lamp

swinging in the center of the ceiling gleamed upon the great, domelike brow, this tall man paced somberly

He cast a sidelong, venomous glance at the voluble speaker out of halfshut eyes; in the act they seemed to

light up as with an internal luminance; momentarily they sparkled like emeralds; then their brilliance was

My blood seemed to chill, and my heart to double its pulsations; beside me Smith was breathing more rapidly

than usual. I knew now the explanation of the feeling which had claimed me when first I had descended the

stone stairs. I knew what it was that hung like a miasma over that house. It was the aura, the glamour, which

radiated from this wonderful and evil man as light radiates from radium. It was the vril, the force, of Dr.

I began to move away from the window. But Smith held my wrist as in a vise. He was listening raptly to the

torrential speech of the Chinaman who sat in the chair; and I perceived in his eyes the light of a sudden

As the tall figure of the Chinese doctor came pacing into view again, Smith, his head below the level of the

Regaining the site of the trap, he whispered to me: "We owe our lives, Petrie, to the national childishness of

the Chinese! A race of ancestor worshipers is capable of anything, and Dr. FuManchu, the dreadful being

who has rained terror upon Europe stands in imminent peril of disgrace for having lost a decoration."

"I mean that this is no time for delay, Petrie! Here, unless I am greatly mistaken, lies the rope by means of

which you made your entrance. It shall be the means of your exit. Open the trap!"

Handling the lamp to Smith, I stooped and carefully raised the trapdoor. At which moment, a singular and

In my surprise and confusion I all but let the trap fall, but I retained sufficient presence of mind to replace it

gently. Standing upright, I turned . . . and there, with her little jeweled hand resting upon Smith's arm, stood

In all my experience of him, I had never seen Nayland Smith so utterly perplexed. Between anger, distrust

and dismay, he wavered; and each passing emotion was written legibly upon the lean bronzed features. Rigid

with surprise, he stared at the beautiful face of the girl. She, although her hand still rested upon Smith's arm,

had her dark eyes turned upon me with that same enigmatical expression. Her lips were slightly parted, and

This ten seconds of silence in which we three stood looking at one another encompassed the whole gamut of

"They will be coming back that way!" she whispered, bending eagerly toward me. (How, in the most

desperate moments, I loved to listen to that odd, musical accent!) "Please, if you would save your life, and

spare mine, trust me!"She suddenly clasped her hands together and looked up into my face, passionately

"Oh!" she whispered, tremulously, and stamped one little red slipper upon the floor. "Won't you heed me?

I glanced anxiously at my friend; the voice of Dr. FuManchu, now raised in anger, was audible above the

piping tones of the other Chinaman. And as I caught Smith's eye, in silent querythe trap at my feet began

Karamaneh stifled a little sobbing cry; but the warning came too late. A hideous yellow face with oblique

I found myself inert, useless; I could neither think nor act. Nayland Smith, however, as if instinctively,

A sickening crushing sound, with a sort of muffled snap, spoke of a broken jawbone; and with no word or

cry, the Chinaman fell. As the trap descended with a bang, I heard the thud of his body on the stone stairs

But we were lost. Karamaneh fled along one of the passages lightly as a bird, and disappeared as Dr.

FuManchu, his top lip drawn up above his teeth in the manner of an angry jackal, appeared from the other.

"This way!" cried Smith, in a voice that rose almost to a shriek "this way!"and he led toward the room

Off we dashed with panic swiftness, only to find that this retreat also was cut off. Dimly visible in the

darkness was a group of yellow men, and despite the gloom, the curved blades of the knives which they

Smith and I turned, together, The trap was raised again, and the Burman, who had helped to tie me, was just

scrambling up beside Dr. FuManchu, who stood there watching us, a shadowy, sinister figure.

"The game's up, Petrie!" muttered Smith. "It has been a long fight, but FuManchu wins!"

"Not entirely!" I cried. I whipped the police whistle from my pocket, and raised it to my lips; but brief as the

A sinewy brown arm shot over my shoulder and the whistle was dashed from my grasp. Then came a whirl of

maelstrom fighting with Smith and myself ever sinking lower amid a whirlpool, as it seemed, of bloodlustful

I had some vague idea that the rasping voice of FuManchu broke once through the turmoil, and when, with

my wrists tied behind me, I emerged from the strife to find myself lying beside Smith in the passage, I could

only assume that the Chinaman had ordered his bloody servants to take us alive; for saving numerous bruises

The place was utterly deserted again, and we two panting captives found ourselves alone with Dr.

FuManchu. The scene was unforgettable; that dimly lighted passage, its extremities masked in shadow, and

the tall, yellowrobed figure of the Satanic Chinaman towering over us where we lay.

He had recovered his habitual calm, and as I peered at him through the gloom I was impressed anew with the

tremendous intellectual force of the man. He had the brow of a genius, the features of a born ruler; and even

in that moment I could find time to search my memory, and to discover that the face, saving the indescribable

evil of its expression, was identical with that of Seti, the mighty Pharaoh who lies in the Cairo Museum.

Down the passage came leaping and gamboling the doctor's marmoset. Uttering its shrill, whistling cry, it

leaped onto his shoulder, clutched with its tiny fingers at the scanty, neutralcolored hair upon his crown, and

Dr. FuManchu stroked the little creature; and crooned to it, as a mother to her infant. Only this crooning,

"You come at an opportune time, Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith, and Dr. Petrie; at a time when the

greatest man in China flatters me with a visit. In my absence from home, a tremendous honor has been

conferred upon me, and, in the hour of this supreme honor, dishonor and calamity have befallen! For my

services to Chinathe New China, the China of the futureI have been admitted by the Sublime Prince to

Warming to his discourse, he threw wide his arms, hurling the chattering marmoset fully five yards along the

"O god of Cathay!" he cried, sibilantly, "in what have I sinned that this catastrophe has been visited upon my

head! Learn, my two dear friends, that the sacred white peacock brought to these misty shores for my

undying glory, has been lost to me! Death is the penalty of such a sacrilege; death shall be my lot, since death

Covertly Smith nudged me with his elbow. I knew what the nudge was designed to convey; he would remind

me of his wordsanent the childish trifles which sway the life of intellectual China.

Personally, I was amazed. That FuManchu's anger, grief, sorrow and resignation were real, no one watching

"By one deed, and one deed alone, may I win a lighter punishment. By one deed, and the resignation of all

my titles, all my lands, and all my honors, may I merit to be spared to my workwhich has only begun."

I knew now that we were lost, indeed; these were confidences which our graves should hold inviolate! He

suddenly opened fully those blazing green eyes and directed their baneful glare upon Nayland Smith.

"The Director of the Universe," he continued, softly, "has relented toward me. Tonight, you die! Tonight,

the archenemy of our caste shall be no more. This is my offeringthe price of redemption . . ."

My mind was working again, and actively. I managed to grasp the stupendous truthand the stupendous

He paused, and the weird film, which sometimes became visible in his eyes, now obscured their greenness,

"I have an offer to make," I continued, seeking to steady my voice. "Give us our freedom, and I will restore

Dr. FuManchu bent forward until his face was so close to mine that I could see the innumerable lines which,

"I can restore your white peacock," I said; "I and I alone, know where it is!"and I strove not to shrink from

Upright shot the tall figure; high above his head FuManchu threw his armsand a light of exaltation

"O god!" he screamed, frenziedly"O god of the Golden Age! like a phoenix I arise from the ashes of

"You will release me, now, immediately. In another ten minutes it will be too late; my friend will remain.

One of yourservantscan accompany me, and give the signal when I return with the peacock. Mr.

Nayland Smith and yourself, or another, will join me at the corner of the street where the raid took place last

night. We shall then give you ten minutes grace, after which we shall take whatever steps we choose."

"Agreed!" cried FuManchu. "I ask but one thing from an Englishman; your word of honor?"

Ten minutes later, Nayland Smith and I, standing beside the cab, whose lights gleamed yellowly through the

mist, exchanged a struggling, frightened bird for our livescapitulated with the enemy of the white race.

With characteristic audacityand characteristic trust in the British sense of honorDr. FuManchu came in

person with Nayland Smith, in response to the wailing signal of the dacoit who had accompanied me. No

word was spoken, save that the cabman suppressed a curse of amazement; and the Chinaman, his sinister

servant at his elbow, bowed lowand left us, surely to the mocking laughter of the gods!

My sleep was troubled often enough in these days, which immediately followed our almost miraculous

escape, from the den of FuManchu; and now as I crouched there, nerves aquiverlisteninglisteningI

could not be sure if this dank panic which possessed me had its origin in nightmare or in something else.

Surely a scream, a choking cry for help, had reached my ears; but now, almost holding my breath in that sort

of nervous tensity peculiar to one aroused thus, I listened, and the silence seemed complete. Perhaps I had

My doubts were dissolved; this was no trick of an imagination disordered. Some dreadful menace threatened

my friend. Not delaying even to snatch my dressinggown, I rushed out on to the landing, up the stairs,

barefooted as I was, threw open the door of Smith's room and literally hurled myself in.

Those cries had been the cries of one assailed, had been uttered, I judged, in the brief interval of a life and

A certain amount of moonlight found access to the room, without spreading so far as the bed in which my

friend lay. But at the moment of my headlong entrance, and before I had switched on the light, my gaze

automatically was directed to the pale moonbeam streaming through the window and down on to one corner

What with my recent awakening and the panic at my heart, I could not claim that my vision was true; but

across this moonbeam passed a sort of gray streak, for all the world as though some long thin shape had been

withdrawn, snakelike, from the room, through the open window . . . From somewhere outside the house, and

below, I heard the cough again, followed by a sharp cracking sound like the lashing of a whip.

I depressed the switch, flooding the room with light, and as I leaped forward to the bed a word picture of

what I had seen formed in my mind; and I found that I was thinking of a gray feather boa.

"Smith!" I cried (my voice seemed to pitch itself, unwilled, in a very high key), "Smith, old man!"

He made no reply, and a sudden, sorrowful fear clutched at my heartstrings. He was lying half out of bed

flat upon his back, his head at a dreadful angle with his body. As I bent over him and seized him by the

shoulders, I could see the whites of his eyes. His arms hung limply, and his fingers touched the carpet.

I heaved him back onto the pillow, and looked anxiously into his face. Habitually gaunt, the flesh so refined

away by the consuming nervous energy of the man as to reveal the cheekbones in sharp prominence, he now

looked truly ghastly. His skin was so sunbaked as to have changed constitutionally; nothing could ever

eradicate that tan. But tonight a fearful grayness was mingled with the brown, his lips were purple . . . and

there were marks of strangulation upon the lean throatever darkening weals made by clutching fingers.

He began to breathe stentoriously and convulsively, inhalation being accompanied by a significant gurgling

in the throat. But now my calm was restored in face of a situation which called for professional attention.

I aided my friend's labored respirations by the usual means, setting to work vigorously; so that presently he

began to clutch at his inflamed throat which that murderous pressure had threatened to close.

I could hear sounds of movement about the house, showing that not I alone had been awakened by those

He opened his eyesthey looked bleared and bloodshotand gave me a quick glance of recognition.

I ran across to the dressingtable, whereon I perceived his flask to lie, and mixed him a weak stimulant with

As I bent over him again, my housekeeper appeared in the doorway, pale and wideeyed.

"There is no occasion for alarm," I said over my shoulder; "Mr. Smith's nerves are overwrought and he was

Nayland Smith seemed to experience much difficulty in swallowing the contents of the tumbler which I held

to his lips; and, from the way in which he fingered the swollen glands, I could see that his throat, which I had

vigorously massaged, was occasioning him great pain. But the danger was past, and already that glassy look

"God, Petrie!" he whispered, "that was a near shave! I haven't the strength of a kitten!"

"The weakness will pass off," I replied; "there will be no collapse, now. A little more fresh air . . ."

I stood up, glancing at the windows, then back at Smith, who forced a wry smile in answer to my look.

His words referred to the state of the windows. Although the night was oppressively hot, these were only

opened some four inches at top and bottom. Further opening was impossible because of iron brackets screwed

firmly into the casements which prevented the windows being raised or lowered further.

It was a precaution adopted after long experience of the servants of Dr. FuManchu.

Now, as I stood looking from the halfstrangled man upon the bed to those screwedup windows, the fact

came home to my mind that this precaution had proved futile. I thought of the thing which I had likened to a

feather boa; and I looked at the swollen weals made by clutching fingers upon the throat of Nayland Smith.

I suppose the question was written in my face; for, as I turned again to Smith, who, having struggled upright,

For us, the night was ended so far as sleep was concerned. Arrayed in his dressinggown, Smith sat in the

white cane chair in my study with a glass of brandyandwater beside him, and (despite my official

prohibition) with the cracked briar which had sent up its incense in many strange and dark places of the East

and which yet survived to perfume these prosy rooms in suburban London, steaming between his teeth. I

stood with my elbow resting upon the mantelpiece looking down at him where he sat.

"By God! Petrie," he said, yet again, with his fingers straying gently over the surface of his throat, "that was a

"Narrower than perhaps you appreciate, old man," I replied. "You were a most unusual shade of blue when I

"I managed," said Smith evenly, "to tear those clutching fingers away for a moment and to give a cry for help.

"I know that," rapped Smith. "I shouldn't have been sleeping in it, had it been within reach of the window;

but, knowing that the doctor avoids noisy methods, I had thought myself fairly safe so long as I made it

"I have always insisted, Smith," I cried, "that there was danger! What of poisoned darts? What of the

"Familiarity breeds contempt, I suppose," he replied. "But as it happened none of those agents was employed.

The very menace that I sought to avoid reached me somehow. It would almost seem that Dr. FuManchu

deliberately accepted the challenge of those screwedup windows! Hang it all, Petrie! one cannot sleep in a

room hermetically sealed, in weather like this! It's positively Burmese; and although I can stand tropical heat,

"The humidity; that's easily understood. But you'll have to put up with it in the future. After nightfall our

Nayland Smith knocked out his pipe upon the side of the fireplace. The bowl sizzled furiously, but without

delay he stuffed broadcut mixture into the hot pipe, dropping a liberal quantity upon the carpet during the

"Petrie," he said, striking a match on the heel of his slipper, "the resources of Dr. FuManchu are by no

means exhausted. Before we quit this room it is up to us to come to a decision upon a certain point." He got

his pipe well alight. "What kind of thing, what unnatural, distorted creature, laid hands upon my throat

tonight? I owe my life, primarily, to you, old man, but, secondarily, to the fact that I was awakened, just

before the attackby the creature's coughingby its vile, highpitched coughing . . ."

I glanced around at the books upon my shelves. Often enough, following some outrage by the brilliant

Chinese doctor whose genius was directed to the discovery of new and unique death agents, we had obtained

a clue in those works of a scientific nature which bulk largely in the library of a medical man. There are

creatures, there are drugs, which, ordinarily innocuous, may be so employed as to become inimical to human

life; and in the distorting of nature, in the disturbing of balances and the diverting of beneficent forces into

strange and dangerous channels, Dr. FuManchu excelled. I had known him to enlarge, by artificial culture, a

minute species of fungus so as to render it a powerful agent capable of attacking man; his knowledge of

venomous insects has probably never been paralleled in the history of the world; whilst, in the sphere of pure

toxicology, he had, and has, no rival; the Borgias were children by comparison. But, look where I would,

think how I might, no adequate explanation of this latest outrage seemed possible along normal lines.

"There's the clue," said Nayland Smith, pointing to a little ashtray upon the table near by. "Follow it if you

"As I have explained," continued my friend, "I was awakened by a sound of coughing; then came a death grip

on my throat, and instinctively my hands shot out in search of my attacker. I could not reach him; my hands

came in contact with nothing palpable. Therefore I clutched at the fingers which were dug into my windpipe,

and found them to be smallas the marks showand hairy. I managed to give that first cry for help, then

with all my strength I tried to unfasten the grip that was throttling the life out of me. At last I contrived to

move one of the hands, and I called out again, though not so loudly. Then both the hands were back again; I

was weakening; but I clawed like a madman at the thin, hairy arms of the strangling thing, and with a

bloodred mist dancing before my eyes, I seemed to be whirling madly round and round until all became a

For the twentieth time, I should think, I carried the ashtray in my hand and laid it immediately under the

tablelamp in order to examine its contents. In the little brass bowl lay a bloodstained fragment of grayish

hair attached to a tatter of skin. This fragment of epidermis had an odd bluish tinge, and the attached hair was

much darker at the roots than elsewhere. Saving its singular color, it might have been torn from the forearm

of a very hirsute human; but although my thoughts wandered unfettered, north, south, east and west;

although, knowing the resources of FuManchu, I considered all the recognized Mongolian types, and, in

quest of hirsute mankind, even roamed far north among the blubbering Esquimo; although I glanced at

Australasia, at Central Africa, and passed in mental review the dark places of the Congo, nowhere in the

known world, nowhere in the history of the human species, could I come upon a type of man answering to the

Nayland Smith was watching me curiously as I bent over the little brass ashtray.

So am Iutterly puzzled. FuManchu's gallery of monstrosities clearly has become reinforced; for even if

"Fully four feet from the window, Petrie, and that window but a few inches open! Look"he bent forward,

resting his chest against the table, and stretched out his hand toward me. "You have a rule there; just

Setting down the ashtray, I opened out the rule and measured the distance from the further edge of the table

"Twentyeight inchesand I have a long reach!" snapped Smith, withdrawing his arm and striking a match

to relight his pipe." There's one thing, Petrie, often proposed before, which now we must do without delay.

The ivy must be stripped from the walls at the back. It's a pity, but we can not afford to sacrifice our lives to

our sense of the aesthetic. What do you make of the sound like the cracking of a whip?"

"I make nothing of it, Smith," I replied, wearily. "It might have been a thick branch of ivy breaking beneath

"I must confess that the explanation does not convince me, but I have no better one."

Smith, permitting his pipe to go out, sat staring straight before him, and tugging at the lobe of his left ear.

"The old bewilderment is seizing me," I continued. "At first, when I realized that Dr. FuManchu was back in

England, when I realized that an elaborate murdermachine was set up somewhere in London, it seemed

unreal, fantastical. Then I metKaramaneh! She, whom we thought to be his victim, showed herself again to

be his slave. Now, with Weymouth and Scotland Yard at work, the old secret evil is established again in our

midst, unaccountablyour lives are menacedsleep is a danger every shadow threatens death . . . oh! it

Smith remained silent; he did not seem to have heard my words. I knew these moods and had learnt that it

was useless to seek to interrupt them. With his brows drawn down, and his deepset eyes staring into space,

he sat there gripping his cold pipe so tightly that my own jaw muscles ached sympathetically. No man was

better equipped than this gaunt British Commissioner to stand between society and the menace of the Yellow

Doctor; I respected his meditations, for, unlike my own, they were informed by an intimate knowledge of the

dark and secret things of the East, of that mysterious East out of which FuManchu came, of that jungle of

noxious things whose miasma had been wafted Westward with the implacable Chinaman.

"You say you have two items of news for me?" said Nayland Smith, looking across the breakfast table to

"There are two pointsyes," replied the Scotland Yard man, whilst Smith paused, eggspoon in hand, and

fixed his keen eyes upon the speaker. "The first is this: the headquarters of the Yellow group is no longer in

"For two reasons. In the first place, that district must now be too hot to hold Dr. FuManchu; in the second

place, we have just completed a housetohouse inquiry which has scarcely overlooked a rathole or a rat.

That place where you say FuManchu was visited by some Chinese mandarin; where you, Mr. Smith,"

"Well," continued the inspector, "it is all deserted, now. There is not the slightest doubt that the Chinaman

has fled to some other abode. I am certain of it. My second piece of news will interest you very much, I am

sure. You were taken to the establishment of the Chinaman, ShenYan, by a certain exofficer of New York

"So did I," replied Weymouth grimly; "but they haven't! He got away in the confusion following the raid, and

"Exactlyhiding. He has been afraid to stir ever since, and has scarcely shown his nose outside the door. He

"He realized that something must be done," continued the inspector, "and made a break this morning. He is so

convinced of this constant surveillance that he came away secretly, hidden under the boxes of a

marketwagon. He landed at Covent Garden in the early hours of this morning and came straight away to the

"He knows something," he said in a low voice, "and they are aware that he knows it!"

"Every man has his price," replied Weymouth with a smile, "and Burke seems to think that you are a more

"He wants you to go and see him," was the reply. "I think he anticipates that you may make a capture of the

"Several. He spoke of a sort of gipsy girl with whom he had a short conversation one day, over the fence

"I think you are right, Doctor," said Weymouth with his slow smile; "it was Karamaneh. She asked him the

way to somewhere or other and got him to write it upon a loose page of his notebook, so that she should not

"I do!" rapped Smith; "I didn't sit up the greater part of last night thrashing my weary brains for nothing! But

I am going to the British Museum today, to confirm a certain suspicion." He turned to Weymouth. "Did

"He returned hidden under the empty boxes," was the reply. "Oh! you never saw a man in such a funk in all

"He has good reasons!" replied Nayland Smith grimly; "if that man really possesses information inimical to

the safety of FuManchu, he can only escape doom by means of a miracle similar to that which has hitherto

"Burke insists," said Weymouth at this point, that something comes almost every night after dusk, slinking

about the houseit's an old farmhouse, I understand; and on two or three occasions he has been awakened

(fortunately for him he is a light sleeper) by sounds of coughing immediately outside his window. He is a

man who sleeps with a pistol under his pillow, and more than once, on running to the window, he has had a

vague glimpse of some creature leaping down from the tiles of the roof, which slopes up to his room, into the

"I used the word deliberately," replied Weymouth, "because Burke seems to have the idea that it goes on all

"In descending a sloping roof," I suggested, "a human being would probably employ his hands as well as his

"Quite so," agreed the inspector. "I am merely reporting the impression of Burke."

"Has he heard no other sound?" rapped Smith; "one like the cracking of dry branches, for instance?"

"One of his cousin's vans," said Weymouth, with his slight smile, "has remained behind at Covent Garden

and will return late this afternoon. I propose that you and I, Mr. Smith, imitate Burke and ride down to

Nayland Smith stood up, leaving his breakfast half finished, and began to wander up and down the room,

reflectively tugging at his ear. Then he began to fumble in the pockets of his dressinggown and finally

produced the inevitable pipe, dilapidated pouch, and box of safety matches. He began to load the

"Do I understand that Burke is actually too afraid to go out openly even in daylight?" he asked suddenly.

"He has not hitherto left his cousin's plantations at all," replied Weymouth. "He seems to think that openly to

communicate with the authorities, or with you, would be to seal his death warrant."

"Therefore he came and returned secretly," continued the inspector; "and if we are to do any good, obviously

we must adopt similar precautions. The market wagon, loaded in such a way as to leave ample space in the

interior for us, will be drawn up outside the office of Messrs. Pike and Pike, in Covent Garden, until about

five o'clock this afternoon. At, say, half past four, I propose that we meet there and embark upon the

"Certainly," was the reply; "it is most commodious, but I cannot guarantee its comfort."

Nayland Smith promenaded the room, unceasingly, and presently he walked out altogether, only to return ere

the inspector and I had had time to exchange more than a glance of surprise, carrying a brass ashtray. He

The inspector examined the gruesome relic with obvious curiosity, turning it over with the tip of his little

finger and manifesting considerable repugnancein touching it at all. Smith and I watched him in silence,

and, finally, placing the tray again upon the table, he looked up in a puzzled way.

"A water rat? Now that you come to mention it, I perceive a certain resemblanceyes. But"he had been

wearing a silk scarf about his throat and now he unwrapped it"did you ever see a water rat that could make

In his own terse fashion, Nayland Smith related the happenings of the night. At the conclusion of the story:

"By heaven!" whispered Weymouth, "the thing on the roofthe coughing thing that goes on all fours, seen

"FuManchu," I said excitedly, "has brought some new, some dreadful creature, from Burma . . ."

"No, Petrie," snapped Smith, turning upon me suddenly. "Not from Burmafrom Abyssinia."

That day was destined to be an eventful one; a day never to be forgotten by any of us concerned in those

happenings which I have to record. Early in the morning Nayland Smith set off for the British Museum to

pursue his mysterious investigations, and having performed my brief professional round (for, as Nayland

Smith had remarked on one occasion, this was a beastly healthy district), I found, having made the necessary

arrangements, that, with over three hours to spare, I had nothing to occupy my time until the appointment in

Covent Garden Market. My lonely lunch completed, a restless fit seized me, and I felt unable to remain

longer in the house. Inspired by this restlessness, I attired myself for the adventure of the evening, not

neglecting to place a pistol in my pocket, and, walking to the neighboring Tube station, I booked to Charing

Cross, and presently found myself rambling aimlessly along the crowded streets. Led on by what link of

memory I know not, I presently drifted into New Oxford Street, and looked up with a startto learn that I

stood before the shop of a secondhand bookseller where once two years before I had met Karamaneh.

The thoughts conjured up at that moment were almost too bitter to be borne, and without so much as glancing

at the books displayed for sale, I crossed the roadway, entered Museum Street, and, rather in order to distract

my mind than because I contemplated any purchase, began to examine the Oriental Pottery, Egyptian

statuettes, Indian armor, and other curios, displayed in the window of an antique dealer.

But, strive as I would to concentrate my mind upon the objects in the window, my memories persistently

haunted me, and haunted me to the exclusion even of the actualities. The crowds thronging the Pavement, the

traffic in New Oxford Street, swept past unheeded; my eyes saw nothing of pot nor statuette, but only met, in

a misty imaginative world, the glance of two other eyesthe dark and beautiful eyes of Karamaneh. In the

exquisite tinting of a Chinese vase dimly perceptible in the background of the shop, I perceived only the

blushing cheeks of Karamaneh; her face rose up, a taunting phantom, from out of the darkness between a

I strove to dispel this obsessing thought, resolutely fixing my attention upon a tall Etruscan vase in the corner

of the window, near to the shop door. Was I losing my senses indeed? A doubt of my own sanity

momentarily possessed me. For, struggle as I would to dispel the illusionthere, looking out at me over that

Probably I was glaring madly, and possibly I attracted the notice of the passersby; but of this I cannot be

certain, for all my attention was centered upon that phantasmal face, with the cloudy hair, slightly parted red

lips, and the brilliant dark eyes which looked into mine out of the shadows of the shop.

It was bewilderingit was uncanny; for, delusion or verity, the glamour prevailed. I exerted a great mental

effort, stepped to the door, turned the handle, and entered the shop with as great a show of composure as I

A curtain draped in a little door at the back of one counter swayed slightly, with no greater violence than may

have been occasioned by the draught. But I fixed my eyes upon this swaying curtain almost fiercely . . . as an

impassive halfcaste of some kind who appeared to be a strange cross between a GraecoHebrew and a

"Can I show you anything, sir?" inquired the new arrival, with a second slight inclination of the head.

"I thought I saw a lady of my acquaintance here a moment ago," I said. "Was I mistaken?"

"Quite mistaken, sir," replied the shopman, raising his black eyebrows ever so slightly; "a mistake possibly

due to a reflection in the window. Will you take a look around now that you are here?"

I turned and quitted the shop abruptly. Either I was mad, or Karamaneh was concealed somewhere therein.

However, realizing my helplessness in the matter, I contented myself with making a mental note of the name

which appeared above the establishmentJ. Salamanand walked on, my mind in a chaotic condition and

Within my view, from the corner of the room where I sat in deepest shadow, through the partly opened

window (it was screwed, like our own) were rows of glasshouses gleaming in the moonlight, and, beyond

them, orderly ranks of flowerbeds extending into a blue haze of distance. By reason of the moon's position,

no light entered the room, but my eyes, from long watching, were grown familiar with the darkness, and I

could see Burke quite clearly as he lay in the bed between my post and the window. I seemed to be back

again in those days of the troubled past when first Nayland Smith and I had come to grips with the servants of

Dr. FuManchu. A more peaceful scene than this flowerplanted corner of Essex it would be difficult to

imagine; but, either because of my knowledge that its peace was chimerical, or because of that outflung

consciousness of danger which, actually, or in my imagination, preceded the coming of the Chinaman's

agents, to my seeming the silence throbbed electrically and the night was laden with stilly omens.

Already cramped by my journey in the marketcart, I found it difficult to remain very long in any one

position. What information had Burke to sell? He had refused, for some reason, to discuss the matter that

evening, and now, enacting the part allotted him by Nayland Smith, he feigned sleep consistently, although at

All the chances were in our favor tonight; for whilst I could not doubt that Dr. FuManchu was set upon the

removal of the exofficer of New York police, neither could I doubt that our presence in the farm was

unknown to the agents of the Chinaman. According to Burke, constant attempts had been made to achieve

Any one who has been forced by circumstance to undertake such a vigil as this will be familiar with the

marked changes (corresponding with phases of the earth's movement) which take place in the atmosphere, at

midnight, at two o'clock, and again at four o'clock. During those fours hours falls a period wherein all life is

at its lowest ebb, and every Physician is aware that there is a greater likelihood of a patient's passing between

midnight and four A. M., than at any other period during the cycle of the hours.

Tonight I became specially aware of this lowering of vitality, and now, with the night at that darkest phase

which precedes the dawn, an indescribable dread, such as I had known before in my dealings with the

Chinaman, assailed me, when I was least prepared to combat it. The stillness was intense. Then:

The chill at the very center of my being, which but corresponded with the chill of all surrounding nature at

I rose stealthily out of my chair, and from my nest of shadows watched watched intently, the bright oblong

Without the slightest heralding sounda black silhouette crept up against the pane . . . the silhouette of a

small, malformed head, a doglike head, deepset in square shoulders. Malignant eyes peered intently in.

Higher it arosethat wicked headagainst the window, then crouched down on the sill and became less

sharply defined as the creature stooped to the opening below. There was a faint sound of sniffing.

Judging from the stark horror which I experienced, myself, I doubted, now, if Burke could sustain the role

allotted him. In beneath the slightly raised window came a hand, perceptible to me despite the darkness of the

room. It seemed to project from the black silhouette outside the pane, to be thrust forwardand

The unknown possesses unique terrors; and since I was unable to conceive what manner of thing this could

be, which, extending its incredibly long arms, now sought the throat of the man upon the bed, I tasted of that

Choking down an urgent dread that I had of touching the thing which reached through the window to kill the

Heavens! Never have I felt such muscles, such tendons, as those beneath the hirsute skin! They seemed to be

of steel wire, and with a sudden frightful sense of impotence, I realized that I was as powerless as a child to

relax that stranglehold. Burke was making the most frightful sounds and quite obviously was being

Despite the confusion of my mind I became aware of sounds outside and below me. Twice the thing at the

window coughed; there was an incessant, lashlike cracking, then some shouted words which I was unable to

Snarling like that of a wild beast came from the creature with the hairy arms, together with renewed

I realized two things: the first, that in my terror at the suddenness of the attack I had omitted to act as

prearranged: the second, that I had discredited the strength of the visitant, whilst Smith had foreseen it.

Desisting in my vain endeavor to pit my strength against that of the nameless thing, I sprang back across the

room and took up the weapon which had been left in my charge earlier in the night, but which I had been

unable to believe it would be necessary to employ. This was a sharp and heavy axe, which Nayland Smith,

when I had met him in Covent Garden, had brought with him, to the great amazement of Weymouth and

As I leaped back to the window and uplifted this primitive weapon, a second shot sounded from below, and

more fierce snarling, coughing, and guttural mutterings assailed my ears from beyond the pane.

Lifting the heavy blade, I brought it down with all my strength upon the nearer of those hairy arms where it

crossed the windowledge, severing muscle, tendon and bone as easily as a knife might cut cheese. . . .

A shrieka shriek neither human nor animal, but gruesomely compounded of bothfollowed . . . and

merged into a choking cough. Like a flash the other shaggy arm was withdrawn, and some vaguelyseen

body went rolling down the sloping red tiles and crashed on to the ground beneath.

With a second piercing shriek, louder than that recently uttered by Burke, wailing through the night from

somewhere below, I turned desperately to the man on the bed, who now was become significantly silent. A

candle, with matches, stood upon a table hard by, and, my fingers far from steady, I set about obtaining a

light. This accomplished, I stood the candle upon the little chestofdrawers and returned to Burke's side.

Of all the pictures which remain in my memory, some of them dark enough, I can find none more horrible

than that which now confronted me in the dim candlelight. Burke lay crosswise on the bed, his head thrown

back and sagging; one rigid hand he held in the air, and with the other grasped the hairy forearm which I had

severed with the ax; for, in a deathgrip, the dead fingers were still fastened, viselike, at his throat.

His face was nearly black, and his eyes projected from their sockets horribly. Mastering my repugnance, I

seized the hideous piece of bleeding anatomy and strove to release it. It defied all my efforts; in death it was

as implacable as in life. I took a knife from my pocket, and, tendon by tendon, cut away that uncanny grip

I think I failed to realize this for some time. My clothes were sticking clammily to my body; I was bathed in

perspiration, and, shaking furiously, I clutched at the edge of the window, avoiding the bloody patch upon the

ledge, and looked out over the roofs to where, in the more distant plantations, I could hear excited voices.

What had been the meaning of that scream which I had heard but to which in my frantic state of mind I had

Footsteps came racing up the stairs. Behind me the door burst open and Nayland Smith stumbled into the

"Have you got it, Smith?" I demanded hoarsely. "In sanity's name what is itwhat is it?"

"Come downstairs," replied Smith quietly, "and see for yourself." He turned his head aside from the bed.

Very unsteadily I followed him down the stairs and through the rambling old house out into the stonepaved

courtyard. There were figures moving at the end of a long alleyway between the glass houses, and one,

"That's Burke's cousin with the lantern," whispered Smith in my ear; "don't tell him yet."

I nodded, and we hurried up to join the group. I found myself looking down at one of those thickset

Burmans whom I always associated with FuManchu's activities. He lay quite flat, face downward; but the

back of his head was a shapeless blooddotted mass, and a heavy stockwhip, the butt end ghastly because of

the blood and hair which clung to it, lay beside him. I started back appalled as Smith caught my arm.

"It turned on its keeper!" he hissed in my ear. "I wounded it twice from below, and you severed one arm; in

its insensate fury, its unreasoning malignity, it returnedand there lies its second victim . . ."

He stooped, and from the clenched left hand of the dead Burman, extracted a piece of paper and opened it.

"As I expecteda leaf of Burke's notebook; it worked by scent." He turned to me with an odd expression in

his gray eyes. "I wonder what piece of my personal property FuManchu has pilfered," he said, "in order to

"Perhaps you had better return to the house," he said, looking him squarely in the eyes.

"Brace up!" said Smith, laying his hand upon his shoulder. "Remember he chose to play with fire!"

One wild look the man cast from Smith to me, then went off, staggering, toward the farm.

"Weymouth has driven into Upminster," he snapped; "and the whole district will be scoured before morning.

They probably motored here, but the sounds of the shots will have enabled whoever was with the car to make

good his escape. And exhausted from loss of blood, its capture is only a matter of time, Petrie."

Nayland Smith returned from the telephone. Nearly twentyfour hours had elapsed since the awful death of

"No news, Petrie," he said, shortly. "It must have crept into some inaccessible hole to die."

I glanced up from my notes. Smith settled into the white cane armchair, and began to surround himself with

clouds of aromatic smoke. I took up a halfsheet of foolscap covered with penciled writing in my friend's

cramped characters, and transcribed the following, in order to complete my account of the latest FuManchu

"The Amharun, a Semitic tribe allied to the Falashas, who have been settled for many generations in the

southern province of Shoa (Abyssinia) have been regarded as unclean and outcast, apparently since the days

of Menelekson of Suleyman and the Queen of Shebafrom whom they claim descent. Apart from their

custom of eating meat cut from living beasts, they are accursed because of their alleged association with the

Cynocephalus hamadryas (Sacred Baboon). I, myself, was taken to a hut on the banks of the Hawash and

shown a creature . . . whose predominant trait was an unreasoning malignity toward . . . and a ferocious

tenderness for the society of its furry brethren. Its powers of scent were fully equal to those of a bloodhound,

whilst its abnormally long forearms possessed incredible strength . . . a Cynocephalyte such as this, contracts

"You have not explained to me, Smith," I said, having completed this note, "how you got in touch with

FuManchu; how you learnt that he was not dead, as we had supposed, but livingactive."

Nayland Smith stood up and fixed his steely eyes upon me with an indefinable expression in them. Then:

"There is no real reason," said Smith; "or"staring at me very hard "I hope there is no real reason."

"Well"he grabbed up his pipe from the table and began furiously to load it"I blundered upon the truth

one day in Rangoon. I was walking out of a house which I occupied there for a time, and as I swung around

Again he hesitated oddly; then closed up his pouch and tossed it into the cane chair. He struck a match.

"I ran into Karamaneh," he continued abruptly, and began to puff away at his pipe, filling the air with clouds

I caught my breath. This was the reason why he had kept me so long in ignorance of the story. He knew of

my hopeless, uncrushable sentiments toward the gloriously beautiful but utterly hypocritical and evil Eastern

girl who was perhaps the most dangerous of all Dr. FuManchu's servants; for the power of her loveliness

"Naturally enough," continued Smith, "with a cry of recognition I held out both my hands to her, gladly. I

welcomed her as a dear friend regained; I thought of the joy with which you would learn that I had found the

missing one; I thought how you would be in Rangoon just as quickly as the fastest steamer could get you

"Karamaneh started back and treated me to a glance of absolute animosity. No recognition was there, and no

"I dealt with the situation rather promptly, I think. I simply picked her up without another word, right there in

the public street, and raced back into the house, with her kicking and fighting like a little demon! She did not

shriek or do anything of that kind, but fought silently like a vicious wild animal. Oh! I had some scars, I

assure you; but I carried her up into my office, which fortunately was empty at the time, plumped her down in

"She glared at me with those wonderful eyes, an expression of implacable hatred in them! Remembering all

that we had done for her; remembering our former friendship; above all, remembering youthis look of hers

almost made me shiver. She was dressed very smartly in European fashion, and the whole thing had been so

sudden that as I stood looking at her I half expected to wake up presently and find it all a daydream. But it

was realas real as her enmity. I felt the need for reflection, and having vainly endeavored to draw her into

conversation, and elicited no other answer than this glare of hatredI left her there, going out and locking

"A commissioner has certain privileges, Petrie, and any action I might choose to take was not likely to be

questioned. There was only one window to the office, and it was fully twenty feet above the level; it

overlooked a narrow street off the main thoroughfare (I think I have explained that the house stood on a

corner) so I did not fear her escaping. I had an important engagement which I had been on my way to fulfil

when the encounter took place, and now, with a word to my native servantwho chanced to be

Smith's pipe had gone out as usual, and he proceeded to relight it, whilst, with my eyes lowered, I continued

"This boy took her some tea later in the afternoon," he continued, "and apparently found her in a more placid

frame of mind. I returned immediately after dusk, and he reported that when last he had looked in, about half

an hour earlier, she had been seated in an armchair reading a newspaper (I may mention that everything of

value in the office was securely locked up!) I was determined upon a certain course by this time, and I went

slowly upstairs, unlocked the door, and walked into the darkened office. I turned up the light . . . the place

"The window was open, and the bird flown! Oh! it was not so simple a flightas you would realize if you

knew the place. The street, which the window overlooked, was bounded by a blank wall, on the opposite side,

for thirty or forty yards along; and as we had been having heavy rains, it was full of glutinous mud.

Furthermore, the boy whom I had left in charge had been sitting in the doorway immediately below the office

window watching for my return ever since his last visit to the room above . . ."

"She must have bribed him," I said bitterly"or corrupted him with her infernal blandishments."

"I'll swear she did not," rapped Smith decisively. "I know my man, and I'll swear she did not. There were no

marks in the mud of the road to show that a ladder had been placed there; moreover, nothing of the kind

could have been attempted whilst the boy was sitting in the doorway; that was evident. In short, she did not

"No; it was impossible to climb to right or left of the window or up on to the roof. I convinced myself of

"But, my dear man!" I cried, "you are eliminating every natural mode of egress! Nothing remains but flight."

"I am aware, Petrie, that nothing remains but flight; in other words I have never to this day understood how

"I saw in this incredible escape the cunning hand of Dr. FuManchu saw it at once. Peace was ended; and

I set to work along certain channels without delay. In this manner I got on the track at last, and learned,

beyond the possibility of doubt, that the Chinese doctor livednay! was actually on his way to Europe

"I suppose it's a mystery that will be cleared up some day," concluded Smith; "but to date the riddle remains

intact." He glanced at the clock. "I have an appointment with Weymouth; therefore, leaving you to the task of

solving this problem which thus far has defied my own efforts, I will get along."

"Oh! I shall not be late," he added; "I think I may venture out alone on this occasion without personal

Nayland Smith went upstairs to dress, leaving me seated at my writing table, deep in thought. My notes upon

the renewed activity of Dr. FuManchu were stacked at my left hand, and, opening a new writing block, I

commenced to add to them particulars of this surprising event in Rangoon which properly marked the

opening of the Chinaman's second campaign. Smith looked in at the door on his way out, but seeing me thus

I think I have made it sufficiently evident in these records that my practice was not an extensive one, and my

hour for receiving patients arrived and passed with only two professional interruptions.

My task concluded, I glanced at the clock, and determined to devote the remainder of the evening to a little

private investigation of my own. From Nayland Smith I had preserved the matter a secret, largely because I

feared his ridicule; but I had by no means forgotten that I had seen, or had strongly imagined that I had seen,

Karamanehthat beautiful anomaly, who (in modern London) asserted herself to be a slavein the shop of

A theory was forming in my brain, which I was burningly anxious to put to the test. I remembered how, two

years before, I had met Karamaneh near to this same spot; and I had heard Inspector Weymouth assert

positively that FuManchu's headquarters were no longer in the East End, as of yore. There seemed to me to

be a distinct probability that a suitable center had been established for his reception in this place, so much less

likely to be suspected by the authorities. Perhaps I attached too great a value to what may have been a

delusion; perhaps my theory rested upon no more solid foundation than the belief that I had seen Karamaneh

in the shop of the curio dealer. If her appearance there should prove to have been phantasmal, the structure of

my theory would be shattered at its base. Tonight I should test my premises, and upon the result of my

Museum Street certainly did not seem a likely spot for Dr. FuManchu to establish himself, yet, unless my

imagination had strangely deceived me, from the window of the antique dealer who traded under the name of

J. Salaman, those wonderful eyes of Karamaneh like the velvet midnight of the Orient, had looked out at me.

As I paced slowly along the pavement toward that lighted window, my heart was beating far from normally,

and I cursed the folly which, in spite of all, refused to die, but lingered on, poisoning my life. Comparative

quiet reigned in Museum Street, at no time a busy thoroughfare, and, excepting another shop at the Museum

end, commercial activities had ceased there. The door of a block of residential chambers almost immediately

opposite to the shop which was my objective, threw out a beam of light across the pavement, but not more

The same dark and immobile individual whom I had seen before, and whose nationality defied conjecture,

"Good evening, sir," he said monotonously, with a slight inclination of the head; "is there anything which you

"I merely wish to take a look around," I replied. "I have no particular item in view."

The shop man inclined his head again, swept a yellow hand comprehensively about, as if to include the entire

I lighted a cigarette with such an air of nonchalance as I could summon to the operation, and began casually

to inspect the varied objects of interest loading the shelves and tables about me. I am bound to confess that I

retain no one definite impression of this tour. Vases I handled, statuettes, Egyptian scarabs, bead necklaces,

illuminated missals, portfolios of old prints, jade ornaments, bronzes, fragments of rare lace, early printed

books, Assyrian tablets, daggers, Roman rings, and a hundred other curiosities, leisurely, and I trust with

apparent interest, yet without forming the slightest impression respecting any one of them.

Probably I employed myself in this way for half an hour or more, and whilst my hands busied themselves

among the stock of J. Salaman, my mind was occupied entirely elsewhere. Furtively I was studying the

shopman himself, a human presentment of a Chinese idol; I was listening and watching; especially I was

"We close at about this time, sir," the man interrupted me, speaking in the emotionless, monotonous voice

I replaced upon the glass counter a little Sekhet boat, carved in wood and highly colored, and glanced up with

a start. Truly my methods were amateurish; I had learnt nothing; I was unlikely to learn anything. I wondered

how Nayland Smith would have conducted such an inquiry, and I racked my brains for some means of

penetrating into the recesses of the establishment. Indeed, I had been seeking such a plan for the past half an

Why I did not admit failure I cannot imagine, but, instead, I began to tax my brains anew for some means of

gaining further time; and, as I looked about the place, the shopman very patiently awaiting my departure, I

observed an open case at the back of the counter. The three lower shelves were empty, but upon the fourth

"I should like to examine the silver image yonder," I said; "what price are you asking for it?"

"It is not for sale, sir," replied the man, with a greater show of animation than he had yet exhibited.

"Not for sale!" I said, my eyes ever seeking the curtained doorway; "how's that?"

Such a rebuff from a tradesman would have been more than sufficient to call for a sharp retort at any other

time, but now it excited the strangest suspicions. The street outside looked comparatively deserted, and

prompted, primarily, by an emotion which I did not pause to analyze, I adopted a singular measure; without

doubt I relied upon the unusual powers vested in Nayland Smith to absolve me in the event of error. I made

as if to go out into the street, then turned, leaped past the shopman, ran behind the counter, and grasped at the

That I was likely to be arrested for attempted larceny I cared not; the idea that Karamaneh was concealed

somewhere in the building ruled absolutely, and a theory respecting this silver image had taken possession of

my mind. Exactly what I expected to happen at that moment I cannot say, but what actually happened was far

At the instant that I grasped the figure I realized that it was attached to the woodwork; in the next I knew that

it was a handle . . . as I tried to pull it toward me I became aware that this handle was the handle of a door.

For that door swung open before me, and I found myself at the foot of a flight of heavily carpeted stairs.

Anxious as I had been to proceed a moment before, I was now trebly anxious to retire, and for this reason: on

I cannot conceive that any ordinary mortal ever attained to anything like an intimacy with Dr. FuManchu; I

cannot believe that any man could ever grow used to his presence, could ever cease to fear him. I suppose I

had set eyes upon FuManchu some five or six times prior to this occasion, and now he was dressed in the

manner which I always associated with him, probably because it was thus I first saw him. He wore a plain

yellow robe, and, with his pointed chin resting upon his bosom, he looked down at me, revealing a great

Never in my experience have I known such force to dwell in the glance of any human eye as dwelt in that of

this uncanny being. His singular affliction (if affliction it were), the film or slight membrane which

sometimes obscured the oblique eyes, was particularly evident at the moment that I crossed the threshold, but

now, as I looked up at Dr. FuManchu, it liftedrevealing the eyes in all their emerald greenness.

The idea of physical attack upon this incredible being seemed childish inadequate. But, following that first

A dull, crushing blow descended on the top of my skull, and I became oblivious of all things.

My return to consciousness was accompanied by tremendous pains in my head, whereby, from previous

experience, I knew that a sandbag had been used against me by some one in the shop, presumably by the

immobile shopman. This awakening was accompanied by none of those hazy doubts respecting previous

events and present surroundings which are the usual symptoms of revival from sudden unconsciousness; even

before I opened my eyes, before I had more than a partial command of my senses, I knew that, with my wrists

handcuffed behind me, I lay in a room which was also occupied by Dr. FuManchu. This absolute certainty

of the Chinaman's presence was evidenced, not by my senses, but only by an inner consciousness, and the

same that always awoke into life at the approach not only of FuManchu in person but of certain of his

A faint perfume hung in the air about me; I do not mean that of any essence or of any incense, but rather the

smell which is suffused by Oriental furniture, by Oriental draperies; the indefinable but unmistakable

Thus, London has a distinct smell of its own, and so has Paris, whilst the difference between Marseilles and

Now, the atmosphere surrounding me was Eastern, but not of the East that I knew; rather it was Far Eastern.

Perhaps I do not make myself very clear, but to me there was a mysterious significance in that perfumed

I lay upon a long low settee, in a fairly large room which was furnished as I had anticipated in an absolutely

Oriental fashion. The two windows were so screened as to have lost, from the interior point of view, all

resemblance to European windows, and the whole structure of the room had been altered in conformity,

bearing out my idea that the place had been prepared for FuManchu's reception some time before his actual

return. I doubt if, East or West, a duplicate of that singular apartment could be found.

The end in which I lay, was, as I have said, typical of an Eastern house, and a large, ornate lantern hung from

the ceiling almost directly above me. The further end of the room was occupied by tall cases, some of them

containing books, but the majority filled with scientific paraphernalia; rows of flasks and jars, frames of

testtubes, retorts, scales, and other objects of the laboratory. At a large and very finely carved table sat Dr.

FuManchu, a yellow and faded volume open before him, and some dark red fluid, almost like blood,

The enormously long nail of his right index finger rested upon the opened page of the book to which he

seemed constantly to refer, dividing his attention between the volume, the contents of the testtube, and the

progress of a second experiment, or possibly a part of the same, which was taking place upon another corner

A huge glass retort (the bulb was fully two feet in diameter), fitted with a Liebig's Condenser, rested in a

metal frame, and within the bulb, floating in an oily substance, was a fungus some six inches high, shaped

like a toadstool, but of a brilliant and venomous orange color. Three flat tubes of light were so arranged as to

cast violet rays upward into the retort, and the receiver, wherein condensed the product of this strange

experiment, contained some drops of a red fluid which may have been identical with that boiling in the

These things I perceived at a glance: then the filmy eyes of Dr. FuManchu were raised from the book,

"I regret," came the sibilant voice, "that unpleasant measures were necessary, but hesitation would have been

"You have long been aware of my esteem for your acquirements," continued the Chinaman, his voice

occasionally touching deep guttural notes, "and you will appreciate the pleasure which this visit affords me. I

kneel at the feet of my silver Buddha. I look to you, when you shall have overcome your prejudicesdue to

ignorance of my true motivesto assist me in establishing that intellectual control which is destined to be

the new World Force. I bear you no malice for your ancient enmity, and even now"he waved one yellow

hand toward the retort"I am conducting an experiment designed to convert you from your

Quite unemotionally he spoke, then turned again to his book, his testtube and retort, in the most

matteroffact way imaginable. I do not think the most frenzied outburst on his part, the most fiendish

threats, could have produced such effect upon me as those cold and carefully calculated words, spoken in that

unique voice which rang about the room sibilantly. In its tones, in the glance of the green eyes, in the very

I counted myself lost, and in view of the doctor's words, studied the progress of the experiment with frightful

interest. But a few moments sufficed in which to realize that, for all my training, I knew as little of

chemistryof chemistry as understood by this man's genius as a junior student in surgery knows of

trephining. The process in operation was a complete mystery to me; the means and the end alike

Thus, in the heavy silence of that room, a silence only broken by the regular bubbling from the test tube, I

found my attention straying from the table to the other objects surrounding it; and at one of them my gaze

It was a glass jar, some five feet in height and filled with viscous fluid of a light amber color. Out from this

peered a hideous, doglike face, low browed, with pointed ears and a nose almost hoggishly flat. By the

deathgrin of the face the gleaming fangs were revealed; and the body, the long yellowgray body, rested, or

seemed to rest, upon short, malformed legs, whilst one long limp arm, the right, hung down straightly in the

FuManchu, finding his experiment to be proceeding favorably, lifted his eyes to me again.

"You are interested in my poor Cynocephalyte?" he said; and his eyes were filmed like the eyes of one

afflicted with cataract. "He was a devoted servant, Dr. Petrie, but the lower influences in his genealogy,

sometimes conquered. Then he got out of hand; and at last he was so ungrateful toward those who had

educated him, that, in one of those paroxysms of his, he attacked and killed a most faithful Burman, one of

Not the slightest emotion had he exhibited thus far, but had chatted with me as any other scientist might chat

with a friend who casually visits his laboratory. The horror of the thing was playing havoc with my own

composure, however. There I lay, fettered, in the same room with this man whose existence was a menace to

the entire white race, whilst placidly he pursued an experiment designed, if his own words were believable, to

cut me off from my kindto wreak some change, psychological or physiological I knew not; to place me, it

might be, upon a level with such brutethings as that which now hung, half floating, in the glass jar!

Something I knew of the history of that ghastly specimen, that thing neither man nor ape; for within my own

knowledge had it not attempted the life of Nayland Smith, and was it not I who, with an ax, had maimed it in

Of these things Dr. FuManchu was well aware, so that his placid speech was doubly, trebly horrible to my

ears. I sought, furtively, to move my arms, only to realize that, as I had anticipated, the handcuffs were

chained to a ring in the wall behind me. The establishments of Dr. FuManchu were always well provided

I uttered a short, harsh laugh. FuManchu stood up slowly from the table, and, placing the testtube in a rack,

"I am happy to find you in such good humor," he said softly. "Other affairs call me; and, in my absence, that

profound knowledge of chemistry, of which I have had evidence in the past, will enable you to follow with

intelligent interest the action of these violet rays upon this exceptionally fine specimen of Siberian amanita

muscaria. At some future time, possibly when you are my guest in Chinawhich country I am now making

arrangements for you to visitI shall discuss with you some lesserknown properties of this species; and I

may say that one of your first tasks when you commence your duties as assistant in my laboratory in

Kiangsu, will be to conduct a series of twelve experiments, which I have outlined, into other potentialities of

He walked quietly to a curtained doorway, with his catlike yet awkward gait, lifted the drapery, and, with a

How long I lay there alone I had no means of computing. My mind was busy with many matters, but

principally concerned with my fate in the immediate future. That Dr. FuManchu entertained for me a

singular kind of regard, I had had evidence before. He had formed the erroneous opinion that I was an

advanced scientist who could be of use to him in his experiments and I was aware that he cherished a project

of transporting me to some place in China where his principal laboratory was situated. Respecting the means

which he proposed to employ, I was unlikely to forget that this man, who had penetrated further along certain

byways of science than seemed humanly possible, undoubtedly was master of a process for producing

artificial catalepsy. It was my lot, then, to be packed in a chest (to all intents and purposes a dead man for the

What a fool I had been. To think that I had learned nothing from my long and dreadful experience of the

methods of Dr. FuManchu; to think that I had come alone in quest of him; that, leaving no trace behind me,

I have said that my wrists were manacled behind me, the manacles being attached to a chain fastened in the

wall. I now contrived, with extreme difficulty, to reverse the position of my hands; that is to say, I climbed

backward through the loop formed by my fettered arms, so that instead of their being locked behind me, they

Then I began to examine the fetters, learning, as I had anticipated, that they fastened with a lock. I sat gazing

at the steel bracelets in the light of the lamp which swung over my head, and it became apparent to me that I

A slight noise disturbed these unpleasant reveries. It was nothing less than the rattling of keys!

For a moment I wondered if I had heard aright, or if the sound portended the coming of some servant of the

doctor, who was locking up the establishment for the night. The jangling sound was repeated, and in such a

way that I could not suppose it to be accidental. Some one was deliberately rattling a small bunch of keys in

With a low whistling cry a little gray shape shot through the doorway by which FuManchu had retired, and

rolled, like a ball of fluff blown by the wind, completely under the table which bore the weird scientific

appliances of the Chinaman; the advent of the gray object was accompanied by a further rattling of keys.

My fear left me, and a mighty anxiety took its place. This creature which now crouched chattering at me from

beneath the big table was FuManchu's marmoset, and in the intervals of its chattering and grimacing, it

nibbled, speculatively, at the keys upon the ring which it clutched in its tiny hands. Key after key it sampled

in this manner, evincing a growing dissatisfaction with the uncrackable nature of its find.

I could not believe that the tortures of Tantulus were greater than were mine at this moment. In all my hopes

of rescue or release, I had included nothing so strange, so improbable as this. A sort of awe possessed me; for

if by this means the key which should release me should come into my possession, how, ever again, could I

But they were not yet in my possession; moreover, the key of the handcuffs might not be amongst the bunch.

Whilst I racked my brains for some scheme, the little animal took the matter out of my hands. Tossing the

ring with its jangling contents a yard or so across the carpet in my direction, it leaped in pursuit, picked up

the ring, whirled it over its head, and then threw a complete somersault around it. Now it snatched up the

keys again, and holding them close to its ear, rattled them furiously. Finally, with an incredible spring, it

leaped onto the chain supporting the lamp above my head, and with the garish shade swinging and spinning

wildly, clung there looking down at me like an acrobat on a trapeze. The tiny, bluish face, completely framed

in grotesque whiskers, enhanced the illusion of an acrobatic comedian. Never for a moment did it release its

My suspense now was intolerable. I feared to move, lest, alarming the marmoset, it should run off again,

taking the keys with it. So as I lay there, looking up at the little creature swinging above me, the second

A voice that I could never forget, strive how I would, a voice that haunted my dreams by night, and for which

The effect upon the marmoset was instantaneous. Down came the bunch of keys upon one side of the shade,

almost falling on my head, and down leaped the ape upon the other. In two leaps it had traversed the room

If ever I had need of coolness it was now; the slightest mistake would be fatal. The keys had slipped from the

mattress of the divan, and now lay just beyond reach of my fingers. Rapidly I changed my position, and

I had actually succeeded in sliding them back on to the mattress, when, unheralded by any audible footstep,

Karamaneh came through the doorway, holding the marmoset in her arms. She wore a dress of fragile muslin

material, and out from its folds protruded one silkstockinged foot, resting in a highheeled red shoe. . . .

For a moment she stood watching me, with a sort of enforced composure; then her glance strayed to the keys

lying upon the floor. Slowly, and with her eyes fixed again upon my face, she crossed the room, stooped, and

It was one of the poignant moments of my life; for by that simple act all my hopes had been shattered!

Any poor lingering doubt that I may have had, left me now. Had the slightest spark of friendship animated the

bosom of Karamaneh most certainly she would have overlooked the presence of the keysof the keys which

There is a silence more eloquent than words. For half a minute or more, Karamaneh stood watching

meforcing herself to watch meand I looked up at her with a concentrated gaze in which rage and

reproach must have been strangely mingled. What eyes she had!of that blackly lustrous sort nearly always

associated with unusually dark complexions; but Karamaneh's complexion was peachlike, or rather of an

exquisite and delicate fairness which reminded me of the petal of a rose. By some I had been accused of

raving about this girl's beauty, but only by those who had not met her; for indeed she was astonishingly

At last her eyes fell, the long lashes drooped upon her cheeks. She turned and walked slowly to the chair in

which FuManchu had sat. Placing the keys upon the table amid the scientific litter, she rested one dimpled

elbow upon the yellow page of the book, and with her chin in her palm, again directed upon me that

I dared not think of the past, of the past in which this beautiful, treacherous girl had played a part; yet,

watching her, I could not believe, even now, that she was false! My state was truly a pitiable one; I could

have cried out in sheer anguish. With her long lashes partly lowered, she watched me awhile, then spoke; and

her voice was music which seemed to mock me; every inflection of that elusive accent reopened, lancetlike,

"Why do you look at me so?" she said, almost in a whisper. "By what right do you reproach me?Have you

ever offered me friendship, that I should repay you with friendship? When first you came to the house where

I was, by the rivercame to save some one from" (there was the familiar hesitation which always preceded

the name of FuManchu) "fromhim, you treated me as your enemy, althoughI would have been your

There was appeal in the soft voice, but I laughed mockingly, and threw myself back upon the divan.

Karamaneh stretched out her hands toward me, and I shall never forget the expression which flashed into

those glorious eyes; but, seeing me intolerant of her appeal, she drew back and quickly turned her head aside.

Even in this hour of extremity, of impotent wrath, I could find no contempt in my heart for her feeble

hypocrisy; with all the old wonder I watched that exquisite profile, and Karamaneh's very deceitfulness was a

"Not by word, nor by look," she said, quietly, "have you asked for my friendship, but because I cannot bear

you to think of me as you do, I will prove that I am not the hypocrite and the liar you think me. You will not

I looked up into her eyes, and knew a pagan joy when they faltered before my searching gaze. She threw

herself upon her knees beside me, and the faint exquisite perfume inseparable from my memories of her,

became perceptible, and seemed as of old to intoxicate me. The lock clicked . . . and I was free.

Karamaneh rose swiftly to her feet as I stood upright and outstretched my cramped arms. For one delirious

moment her bewitching face was close to mine, and the dictates of madness almost ruled; but I clenched my

With FuManchu's marmoset again gamboling before us, she walked through the curtained doorway into the

room beyond. It was in darkness, but I could see the slavegirl in front of me, a slim silhouette, as she walked

to a screened window, and, opening the screen in the manner of a folding door, also threw up the window.

I crept forward and stood beside her. I found myself looking down into Museum Street from a firstfloor

window! Belated traffic still passed along New Oxford Street on the left, but not a solitary figure was visible

to the right, as far as I could see, and that was nearly to the railings of the Museum. Immediately opposite, in

one of the flats which I had noticed earlier in the evening, another window was opened. I turned, and in the

reflected light saw that Karamaneh held a cord in her hand. Our eyes met in the semidarkness.

She began to haul the cord into the window, and, looking upward, I perceived that is was looped in some way

over the telegraph cables which crossed the street at that point. It was a slender cord, and it appeared to be

passed across a joint in the cables almost immediately above the center of the roadway. As it was hauled in, a

second and stronger line attached to it was pulled, in turn, over the cables, and thence in by the window.

Karamaneh twisted a length of it around a metal bracket fastened in the wall, and placed a light wooden

"Make sure that there is no one in the street," she said, craning out and looking to right and left, "then swing

across. The length of the rope is just sufficient to enable you to swing through the open window opposite, and

there is a mattress inside to drop upon. But release the bar immediately, or you may be dragged back. The

door of the room in which you will find yourself is unlocked, and you have only to walk down the stairs and

I peered at the crossbar in my hand, then looked hard at the girl beside me. I missed something of the old fire

She suppressed a little cry as I spoke her name, and drew back into the shadows.

"I believe you are my friend," I said, "but I cannot understand. Won't you help me to understand?"

I took her unresisting hand, and drew her toward me. My very soul seemed to thrill at the contact of her lithe

She was trembling wildly and seemed to be trying to speak, but although her lips framed the words no sound

followed. Suddenly comprehension came to me. I looked down into the street, hitherto deserted . . . and into

Wearing a heavy furcollared coat, and with his yellow, malignant countenance grotesquely horrible beneath

the shade of a large tweed motor cap, he stood motionless, looking up at me. That he had seen me, I could not

"He has not seen me! I have done much for you; do in return a small thing for me. Save my life!"

She dragged me back from the window and fled across the room to the weird laboratory where I had lain

captive. Throwing herself upon the divan, she held out her white wrists and glanced significantly at the

Great as was my mental disturbance, I managed to grasp the purpose of this device. The very extremity of my

danger found me cool. I fastened the manacles, which so recently had confined my own wrists, upon the slim

wrists of Karamaneh. A faint and muffled disturbance, doubly ominous because there was nothing to

"Tie something around my mouth!" directed Karamaneh with nervous rapidity. As I began to look about

I seized the flimsy muslin and tore off half a yard or so from the hem of the skirt. The voice of Dr

FuManchu became audible. He was speaking rapidly, sibilantly, and evidently was approachingwould be

upon me in a matter of moments. I fastened the strip of fabric over the girl's mouth and tied it behind,

experiencing a pang half pleasurable and half fearful as I found my hands in contact with the foamy

Snatching up the bunch of keys, I turned and ran, for in another instant my retreat would be cut off. As I burst

once more into the darkened room I became aware that a door on the further side of it was open; and framed

in the opening was the tall, highshouldered figure of the Chinaman, still enveloped in his fur coat and

wearing the grotesque cap. As I saw him, so he perceived me; and as I sprang to the window, he advanced.

I turned desperately and hurled the bunch of keys with all my force into the dimlyseen face . . .

Either because they possessed a chatoyant quality of their own (as I had often suspected), or by reason of the

light reflected through the open window, the green eyes gleamed upon me vividly like those of a giant cat.

One short guttural exclamation paid tribute to the accuracy of my aim; then I had the crossbar in my hand. I

threw one leg across the sill, and dire as was my extremity, hesitated for an instant ere trusting myself to the

Hazily I became aware that the dark room was flooded with figures. The whole yellow gang were upon

methe entire murdergroup composed of units recruited from the darkest place of the East!

I have never counted myself a man of resource, and have always envied Nayland Smith his possession of that

quality, in him extraordinarily developed; but on this occasion the gods were kind to me, and I resorted to the

only device, perhaps, which could have saved me. Without releasing my hold upon the crossbar, I clutched at

the ledge with the fingers of both hands and swung back into the room my right leg, which was already across

the sill. With all my strength I kicked out. My heel came in contact, in sickening contact, with a human head;

The grip upon my ankle was released automatically; and now consigning all my weight to the rope I slipped

forward, as a diver, across the broad ledge and found myself sweeping through the night like a winged thing .

The line, as Karamaneh had assured me, was of welljudged length. Down I swept to within six or seven feet

of the street level, then up, at ever decreasing speed, toward the vague oblong of the open window beyond.

I hope I have been successful, in some measure, in portraying the varied emotions which it was my lot to

experience that night, and it may well seem that nothing more exquisite could remain for me. Yet it was

written otherwise; for as I swept up to my goal, describing the inevitable arc which I had no power to check, I

Crouching forward half out of the open window was a Burmese dacoit, a crosseyed, leering being whom I

well remembered to have encountered two years before in my dealings with Dr. FuManchu. One bare,

sinewy arm held rigidly at right angles before his breast, he clutched a long curved knife and

I have said that a strange coolness had come to my aid; even now it did not fail me, and so incalculably rapid

are the workings of the human mind that I remember complimenting myself upon an achievement which

Smith himself could not have bettered, and this in the immeasurable interval which intervened between the

I threw my body back and thrust my feet forward. As my legs went through the opening, an acute pain in one

calf told me that I was not to escape scatheless from the night's melee. But the dacoit went rolling over in the

darkness of the room, as helpless in face of that ramrod stroke as the veriest infant . . .

Back I swept upon my trapeze, a sight to have induced any passing citizen to question his sanity. With might

and main I sought to check the swing of the pendulum, for if I should come within reach of the window

behind I doubted not that other knives awaited me. It was no difficult feat, and I succeeded in checking my

flight. Swinging there above Museum Street I could even appreciate, so lucid was my mind, the ludicrous

I dropped. My wounded leg almost failed me; and greatly shaken, but with no other serious damage, I picked

myself up from the dust of the roadway. It was a mockery of Fate that the problem which Nayland Smith had

set me to solve, should have been solved thus; for I could not doubt that by means of the branch of a tall tree

or some other suitable object situated opposite to Smith's house in Rangoon, Karamaneh had made her escape

Apart from the acute pain in my calf I knew that the dacoit's knive had bitten deeply, by reason of the fact

that a warm liquid was trickling down into my boot. Like any drunkard I stood there in the middle of the road

looking up at the vacant window where the dacoit had been, and up at the window above the shop of J.

Salaman where I knew FuManchu to be. But for some reason the latter window had been closed or almost

The sound of running footsteps came from the direction of New Oxford Street. I turnedto see two

This was a time for quick decisions and prompt action. I weighed all the circumstances in the balance, and

made the last vital choice of the night; I turned and ran toward the British Museum as though the worst of

No one else was in sight, but, as I whirled into the Square, the red lamp of a slowly retreating taxi became

visible some hundred yards to the left. My leg was paining me greatly, but the nature of the wound did not

interfere with my progress; therefore I continued my headlong career, and ere the police had reached the end

of Museum Street I had my hand upon the door handle of the cabfor, the Fates being persistently kind to

"Dr. Cleeve's, Harley Street!" I shouted at the man. "Drive like hell! It's an urgent case."

Within five seconds from the time that I slammed the door and dropped back panting upon the cushions, we

were speeding westward toward the house of the famous pathologist, thereby throwing the police hopelessly

Faintly to my ears came the purr of a police whistle. The taximan evidently did not hear the significant

sound. Merciful Providence had rung down the curtain; for tonight my role in the yellow drama was

Less than two hours later, Inspector Weymouth and a party of men from Scotland Yard raided the house in

Museum Street. They found the stock of J. Salaman practically intact, and, in the strangely appointed rooms

above, every evidence of a hasty outgoing. But of the instruments, drugs and other laboratory paraphernalia

not one item remained. I would gladly have given my income for a year, to have gained possession of the

books, alone; for, beyond all shadow of doubt, I knew them to contain formula calculated to revolutionize the

Exhausted, physically and mentally, and with my mind a whisperinggallery of conjectures (it were needless

for me to mention whom respecting) I turned in, gratefully, having patched up the slight wound in my calf.

I seemed scarcely to have closed my eyes, when Nayland Smith was shaking me into wakefulness.

"You are probably tired out," he said; "but your crazy expedition of last night entitles you to no sympathy.

Read this; there is a train in an hour. We will reserve a compartment and you can resume your interrupted

As I struggled upright in bed, rubbing my eyes sleepily, Smith handed me the Daily Telegraph, pointing to

Messrs. M announce that they will publish shortly the long delayed work of Kegan Van Roon, the

celebrated American traveler, Orientalist and psychic investigator, dealing with his recent inquiries in China.

It will be remembered that Mr. Van Roon undertook to motor from Canton to Siberia last winter, but met

with unforeseen difficulties in the province of HoNan. He fell into the hands of a body of fanatics and was

fortunate to escape with his life. His book will deal in particular with his experiences in HoNan, and some

sensational revelations regarding the awakening of that most mysterious race, the Chinese, are promised. For

reasons of his own he has decided to remain in England until the completion of his book (which will be

published simultaneously in New York and London) and has leased Cragmire Tower, Somersetshire, in

which romantic and historical residence he will collate his notes and prepare for the world a work

"From what I have been able to learn," he said, evenly, "we should reach Saul, with decent luck, just before

As he turned, and quitted the room without another word, I realized, in a flash, the purport of our mission; I

The Fates were with us (or so it seemed); and whereas we had not hoped to gain Saul before sunset, as a

matter of fact, the autumn afternoon was in its most glorious phase as we left the little village with its oldtime

hostelry behind us and set out in an easterly direction, with the Bristol Channel far away on our left and a

The crooked highstreet practically constituted the entire hamlet of Saul, and the inn, "The Wagoners," was

the last house in the street. Now, as we followed the ribbon of moorpath to the top of the rise, we could

stand and look back upon the way we had come; and although we had covered fully a mile of ground, it was

possible to detect the sunlight gleaming now and then upon the gilt lettering of the inn sign as it swayed in

the breeze. The day had been unpleasantly warm, but was relieved by this same sea breeze, which, although

but slight, had in it the tang of the broad Atlantic. Behind us, then, the footpath sloped down to Saul,

unpeopled by any living thing; east and northeast swelled the monotony of the moor right out to the hazy

distance where the sky began and the sea remotely lay hidden; west fell the gentle gradient from the top of

the slope which we had mounted, and here, as far as the eye could reach, the country had an appearance

suggestive of a huge and driedup lake. This idea was borne out by an odd blotchiness, for sometimes there

would be half a mile or more of seeming moorland, then a sharply defined change (or it seemed sharply

defined from that bird'seye point of view). A vivid greenness marked these changes, which merged into a

duncolored smudge and again into the brilliant green; then the moor would begin once more.

"That will be the Tor of Glastonbury, I suppose," said Smith, suddenly peering through his fieldglasses in an

easterly direction; "and yonder, unless I am greatly mistaken, is Cragmire Tower."

Shading my eyes with my hand, I also looked ahead, and saw the place for which we were bound; one of

those round towers, more common in Ireland, which some authorities have declared to be of Phnician origin.

Ramshackle buildings clustered untidily about its base, and to it a sort of tongue of that oddly venomous

green which patched the lowlands, shot out and seemed almost to reach the towerbase. The land for miles

around was as flat as the palm of my hand, saving certain hummocks, lesser tors, and irregular piles of

boulders which dotted its expanse. Hills and uplands there were in the hazy distance, forming a sort of mighty

inland bay which I doubted not in some past age had been covered by the sea. Even in the brilliant sunlight

the place had something of a mournful aspect, looking like a great driedup pool into which the children of

We met no living soul upon the moor. With Cragmire Tower but a quarter of a mile off, Smith paused again,

Dropping the glasses back into their case, my companion began to tug at his left ear.

"Have we been overconfident?" he said, narrowing his eyes in speculative fashion. "No less than three times

I have had the idea that something, or some one, has just dropped out of sight, behind me, as I focused . . ."

Silently we looked into one another's eyes, each seeking for the dread which neither had named. Then:

"Come on Petrie!" said Smith, grasping my arm; and at quick march we were off again.

Cragmire Tower stood upon a very slight eminence, and what had looked like a green tongue, from the

moorland slopes above, was in fact a creek, flanked by lush land, which here found its way to the sea. The

house which we were come to visit consisted in a low, twostory building, joining the ancient tower on the

east with two smaller outbuildings. There was a miniature kitchengarden, and a few stunted fruit trees in the

The shadow of the tower fell sharply across the path, which ran up almost alongside of it. We were both

extremely warm by reason of our long and rapid walk on that hot day, and this shade should have been

grateful to us, In short, I find it difficult to account for the unwelcome chill which I experienced at the

moment that I found myself at the foot of the timeworn monument. I know that we both pulled up sharply

But not a sound broke the stillness save a remote murmuring, until a solitary sea gull rose in the air and

circled directly over the tower, uttering its mournful and unmusical cry. Automatically to my mind sprang the

Far from all brothermen, in the weird of the fen, With God's creatures I bide, 'mid the birds that I ken;

Where the winds ever dree, where the hymn of the sea Brings a message of peace from the ocean to me.

Not a soul was visible about the premises; there was no sound of human activity and no dog barked. Nayland

Smith drew a long breath, glanced back along the way we had come, then went on, following the wall, I

beside him, until we came to the gate. It was unfastened, and we walked up the stone path through a

wilderness of weeds. Four windows of the house were visible, two on the ground floor and two above. Those

on the ground floor were heavily boarded up, those above, though glazed, boasted neither blinds nor curtains.

We mounted three steps and stood before a tremendously massive oaken door. An iron bellpull, ancient and

rusty, hung on the right of the door, and Smith, giving me an odd glance, seized the ring and tugged it.

From somewhere within the building answered a mournful clangor, a cracked and toneless jangle, which,

seeming to echo through empty apartments, sought and found an exit apparently by way of one of the

openings in the round tower; for it was from above our heads that the noise came to us.

It died away, that eerie ringingthat clanging so dismal that it could chill my heart even then with the bright

sunlight streaming down out of the blue; it awoke no other response than the mournful cry of the sea gull

circling over our heads. Silence fell. We looked at one another, and we were both about to express a mutual

doubt when, unheralded by any unfastening of bolts or bars, the oaken door was opened, and a huge mulatto,

I started nervously, for the apparition was so unexpected, but Nayland Smith, without evidence of surprise,

"Take my card to Mr. Van Roon, and say that I wish to see him on important business," he directed,

The mulatto bowed and retired. His white figure seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness within, for

beyond the patch of uncarpeted floor revealed by the peeping sunlight, was a barnlike place of densest

shadow. I was about to speak, but Smith laid his hand upon my arm warningly, as, out from the shadows the

"Be pleased to enter," he said, in his harsh, negro voice. "Mr. Van Roon will see you."

The gladness of the sun could no longer stir me; a chill and sense of foreboding bore me company, as beside

The room in which Van Roon received us was roughly of the shape of an oldfashioned keyhole; one end of

it occupied the base of the tower, upon which the remainder had evidently been built. In many respects it was

a singular room, but the feature which caused me the greatest amazement was this:it had no windows!

In the deep alcove formed by the tower sat Van Roon at a littered table, upon which stood an oil

readinglamp, green shaded, of the "Victoria" pattern, to furnish the entire illumination of the apartment.

That bookshelves lined the rectangular portion of this strange study I divined, although that end of the place

was dark as a catacomb. The walls were woodpaneled, and the ceiling was oaken beamed. A small

bookshelf and tumbledown cabinet stood upon either side of the table, and the celebrated American author

and traveler lay propped up in a long splitcane chair. He wore smoked glasses, and had a cleanshaven,

olive face, with a profusion of jet black hair. He was garbed in a dirty red dressinggown, and a perfect fog

of cigar smoke hung in the room. He did not rise to greet us, but merely extended his right hand, between two

"You will excuse the seeming discourtesy of an invalid, gentlemen?" he said; "but I am suffering from undue

He waved his hand vaguely, and I saw that two rough deal chairs stood near the table. Smith and I seated

ourselves, and my friend, leaning his elbow upon the table, looked fixedly at the face of the man whom we

had come from London to visit. Although comparatively unfamiliar to the British public, the name of Van

Roon was wellknown in American literary circles; for he enjoyed in the United States a reputation

somewhat similar to that which had rendered the name of our mutual friend, Sir Lionel Barton, a household

word in England. It was Van Roon who, following in the footsteps of Madame Blavatsky, had sought out the

haunts of the fabled mahatmas in the Himalayas, and Van Roon who had essayed to explore the fever

swamps of Yucatan in quest of the secret of lost Atlantis; lastly, it was Van Roon, who, with an overland car

specially built for him by a celebrated American firm, had undertaken the journey across China.

I studied the olive face with curiosity. Its natural impassivity was so greatly increased by the presence of the

colored spectacles that my study was as profitless as if I had scrutinized the face of a carven Buddha. The

mulatto had withdrawn, and in an atmosphere of gloom and tobacco smoke, Smith and I sat staring, perhaps

"Mr. Van Roon," began my friend abruptly, "you will no doubt have seen this paragraph. It appeared in this

He stood up, and taking out the cutting from his notebook, placed it on the table.

"I have seen thisyes," said Van Roon, revealing a row of even, white teeth in a rapid smile. "Is it to this

"The paragraph appeared in this morning's issue," replied Smith. "An hour from the time of seeing it, my

"Your visit delights me, gentlemen, and I should be ungrateful to question its cause; but frankly I am at a loss

to understand why you should have honored me thus. I am a poor host, God knows; for what with my

tortured limb, a legacy from the Chinese devils whose secrets I surprised, and my semiblindness, due to the

Nayland Smith held up his right hand deprecatingly. Van Roon tendered a box of cigars and clapped his

"I see that you have a story to tell me, Mr. Smith," he said; "therefore I suggest whiskyandsodaor you

Smith and I chose the former refreshment, and the softfooted halfbreed having departed upon his errand,

my companion, leaning forward earnestly across the littered table, outlined for Van Roon the story of Dr.

FuManchu, the great and malign being whose mission in England at that moment was none other than the

stoppage of just such information as our host was preparing to give to the world.

"There is a giant conspiracy, Mr. Van Roon," he said, "which had its birth in this very province of HoNan,

from which you were so fortunate to escape alive; whatever its scope or limitations, a great secret society is

established among the yellow races. It means that China, which has slumbered for so many generations, now

stirs in that agelong sleep. I need not tell you how much more it means, this seething in the pot . . ."

"In a word," interrupted Van Roon, pushing Smith's glass across the table "you would say?"

"That your life is not worth that!" replied Smith, snapping his fingers before the other's face.

A very impressive silence fell. I watched Van Roon curiously as he sat propped up among his cushions, his

smooth face ghastly in the green light from the lampshade. He held the stump of a cigar between his teeth,

but, apparently unnoticed by him, it had long since gone out. Smith, out of the shadows, was watching him,

"Your information is very disturbing," said the American. "I am the more disposed to credit your statement

because I am all too painfully aware of the existence of such a group as you mention, in China, but that they

had an agent here in England is something I had never conjectured. In seeking out this solitary residence I

have unwittingly done much to assist their designs . . . Butmy dear Mr. Smith, I am very remiss! Of course

"It seems like forcing our company upon you," he said, "but in your own interests I think it will be best to do

as you are good enough to suggest. I hope and believe that our arrival here has not been noticed by the

enemy; therefore it will be well if we remain concealed as much as possible for the present, until we have

"Hagar shall go to the station for your baggage," said the American rapidly, and clapped his hands, his usual

Whilst the latter was receiving his orders I noticed Nayland Smith watching him closely; and when he had

"H'm," muttered Smith, and automatically he took out and began to fill his pipe.

"I can offer you no company but my own, gentlemen," continued Van Roon, "but unless it interferes with

your plans, you may find the surrounding district of interest and worthy of inspection, between now and

dinner time. By the way, I think I can promise you quite a satisfactory meal, for Hagar is a model chef."

"To one in my crippled condition, an alarming outlook! However, I place myself unreservedly in your hands.

But really, you must not leave this interesting district before you have made the acquaintance of some of its

historical spots. To me, steeped as I am in what I may term the lore of the odd, it is a veritable wonderland,

almost as interesting, in its way, as the caves and jungles of Hindustan depicted by Madame Blavatsky."

His highpitched voice, with a certain labored intonation, not quite so characteristically American as was his

"When I learned that Cragmire Tower was vacant," he continued, "I leaped at the chance (excuse the

metaphor, from a lame man!). This is a ghost hunter's paradise. The tower itself is of unknown origin, though

probably Phnician, and the house traditionally sheltered Dr. Macleod, the necromancer, after his flight from

the persecution of James of Scotland. Then, to add to its interest, it borders on Sedgemoor, the scene of the

bloody battle during the Monmouth rising, whereat a thousand were slain on the field. It is a local legend that

the unhappy Duke and his staff may be seen, on stormy nights, crossing the path which skirts the mire, after

"Merely marshlights, I take it?" interjected Smith, gripping his pipe hard between his teeth.

"Your practical mind naturally seeks a practical explanation," smiled Van Roon, "but I myself have other

theories. Then in addition to the charms of Sedgemoorhaunted Sedgemooron a fine day it is quite

possible to see the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey from here; and Glastonbury Abbey, as you may know, is

closely bound up with the history of alchemy. It was in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey that the adept Kelly,

companion of Dr. Dee, discovered, in the reign of Elizabeth, the famous caskets of St. Dunstan, containing

So he ran on, enumerating the odd charms of his residence, charms which for my part I did not find

"We cannot presume further upon your kindness," said Nayland Smith, standing up. "No doubt we can amuse

"Look upon Cragmire Tower as your own, gentlemen!" cried Van Roon. "Most of the rooms are unfurnished,

and the garden is a wilderness, but the structure of the brickwork in the tower may interest you

archaeologically, and the view across the moor is at least as fine as any in the neighborhood."

So, with his brilliant smile and a gesture of one thin yellow hand, the crippled traveler made us free of his odd

dwelling. As I passed out from the room close at Smith's heels, I glanced back, I cannot say why. Van Roon

already was bending over his papers, in his green shadowed sanctuary, and the light shining down upon his

smoked glasses created the odd illusion that he was looking over the tops of the lenses and not down at the

table as his attitude suggested. However, it was probably ascribable to the weird chiaroscuro of the scene,

although it gave the seated figure an oddly malignant appearance, and I passed out through the utter darkness

of the outer room to the front door. Smith opening it, I was conscious of surprise to find dusk cometo meet

The silver wisps which had raced along the horizon, as we came to Cragmire Tower, had been harbingers of

other and heavier banks. A stormy sunset smeared crimson streaks across the skyline, where a great range of

clouds, like the oily smoke of a city burning, was banked, mountain topping mountain, and lighted from

below by this angry red. As we came down the steps and out by the gate, I turned and looked across the moor

behind us. A sort of reflection from this distant blaze encrimsoned the whole landscape. The inland bay

glowed sullenly, as if internal fires and not reflected light were at work; a scene both wild and majestic.

Nayland Smith was staring up at the conelike top of the ancient tower in a curious, speculative fashion.

Under the influence of our host's conversation I had forgotten the reasonless dread which had touched me at

the moment of our arrival, but now, with the red light blazing over Sedgemoor, as if in memory of the blood

which had been shed there, and with the tower of unknown origin looming above me, I became very

uncomfortable again, nor did I envy Van Roon his eerie residence. The proximity of a tower of any kind, at

night, makes in some inexplicable way for awe, and tonight there were other agents, too.

He was peering southward, toward the distant hamlet, and, starting violently at his words and the sudden

"We were followed, Petrie," he almost whispered. "I never got a sight of our follower, but I'll swear we were

Together we stood staring into the dusk; then Smith burst abruptly into one of his rare laughs, and clapped me

"It's Hagar, the mulatto!" he cried"and our grips. That extraordinary American with his tales of

Together we waited by the gate until the halfcaste appeared on the bend of the path with a grip in either

hand. He was a great, muscular fellow with a stoic face, and, for the purpose of visiting Saul, presumably, he

"I wonder where Van Roon obtains his provisions and so forth," he muttered. "It's odd they knew nothing

There came a sort of sudden expectancy into his manner for which I found myself at a loss to account. He

turned his gaze inland and stood there tugging at his left ear and clicking his teeth together. He stared at me,

and his eyes looked very bright in the dusk, for a sort of red glow from the sunset touched them; but he spoke

no word, merely taking my arm and leading me off on a rambling walk around and about the house. Neither

The lofty place immediately within the doorway proved, in the light of a lamp now fixed in an iron bracket,

to be a square entrance hall meagerly furnished. The closed study door faced the entrance, and on the left of it

ascended an open staircase up which the mulatto led the way. We found ourselves on the floor above, in a

corridor traversing the house from back to front. An apartment on the immediate left was indicated by the

mulatto as that allotted to Smith. It was a room of fair size, furnished quite simply but boasting a wardrobe

cupboard, and Smith's grip stood beside the white enameled bed. I glanced around, and then prepared to

He still wore his dark livery, and as I followed the lithe, broadshouldered figure along the corridor, I found

myself considering critically his breadth of shoulder and the extraordinary thickness of his neck.

I have repeatedly spoken of a sort of foreboding, an elusive stirring in the depths of my being of which I

became conscious at certain times in my dealings with Dr. FuManchu and his murderous servants. This

sensation, or something akin to it, claimed me now, unaccountably, as I stood looking into the neat bedroom,

on the same side of the corridor but at the extreme end, wherein I was to sleep.

A voiceless warning urged me to return; a kind of childish panic came fluttering about my heart, a dread of

Doubtless this was no more than a subconscious product of my observations respecting his abnormal

breadth of shoulder. But whatever the origin of the impulse, I found myself unable to disobey it. Therefore, I

"You are curiously sensitive to this sort of thing," he replied slowly; "I have noticed it before as a useful

capacity. I don't like the look of the man myself. The fact that he has been in Van Roon's employ for some

years goes for nothing. We are neither of us likely to forget Kwee, the Chinese servant of Sir Lionel Barton,

and it is quite possible that FuManchu has corrupted this man as he corrupted the other. It is quite possible .

His voice trailed off into silence, and he stood looking across the room with unseeing eyes, meditating

deeply. It was quite dark now outside, as I could see through the uncurtained window, which opened upon the

dreary expanse stretching out to haunted Sedgemoor. Two candles were burning upon the dressing table; they

were but recently lighted, and so intense was the stillness that I could distinctly hear the spluttering of one of

the wicks, which was damp. Without giving the slightest warning of his intention, Smith suddenly made two

strides forward, stretched out his long arms, and snuffed the pair of candles in a twinkling.

I moved cautiously to join him, but as I did so, perceived that he was moving too. Vaguely, against the

With my heart thumping furiously in my breast, I bent over him; and for the second time since our coming to

There are shades in the fen; ghosts of women and men Who have sinned and have died, but are living again.

O'er the waters they tread, with their lanterns of dread, And they peer in the poolsin the pools of the dead .

A light was dancing out upon the moor, a witchlight that came and went unaccountably, up and down, in and

"Then wedge the chair under the knob and let no one enter until I return!" he said, amazingly.

With that he opened the window to its fullest extent, threw his leg over the sill, and went creeping along a

wide concrete ledge, in which ran a leaded gutter, in the direction of the tower on the right!

Not pausing to follow his instructions respecting the chair, I craned out of the window, watching his progress,

and wondering with what sudden madness he was bitten. Indeed, I could not credit my senses, could not

believe that I heard and saw aright. Yet there out in the darkness on the moor moved the willo'thewisp,

and ten yards along the gutter crept my friend, like a great gaunt cat. Unknown to me he must have

prospected the route by daylight, for now I saw his design. The ledge terminated only where it met the

ancient wall of the tower, and it was possible for an agile climber to step from it to the edge of the unglazed

window some four feet below, and to scramble from that point to the stone fence and thence on to the path by

This difficult operation Nayland Smith successfully performed, and, to my unbounded amazement, went

racing into the darkness toward the dancing light, headlong, like a madman! The night swallowed him up,

and between my wonder and my fear my hands trembled so violently that I could scarce support myself

I seemed now to be moving through the fevered phases of a nightmare. Around and below me Cragmire

Tower was profoundly silent, but a faint odor of cookery was now perceptible. Outside, from the night, came

a faint whispering as of the distant sea, but no moon and no stars relieved the impenetrable blackness. Only

Onetwothreefourfive minutes passed. The night vanished and did not appear again. Five more

agelong minutes elapsed in absolute silence, whilst I peered into the darkness of the night and listened,

every nerve in my body tense, for the return of Nayland Smith. Yet two more minutes, which embraced an

agony of suspense, passed in the same fashion; then a shadowy form grew, phantomesque, out of the gloom;

a moment more, and I distinctly heard the heavy breathing of a man nearly spent, and saw my friend

scrambling up toward the black embrasure in the tower. His voice came huskily, pantingly:

I crept through the window, steadied my quivering nerves by an effort of the will, and reached the end of the

ledge in time to take Smith's extended hand and to draw him up beside me against the wall of the tower. He

was shaking with his exertions, and must have fallen, I think, without my assistance. Inside the room again:

Having expended several matches in vain, for my fingers twitched nervously, I ultimately succeeded in

"Get along to your room!" directed Smith. "Your apprehensions are unfounded at the moment, but you may

I looked into his faceit was very drawn and grim, and his brow was wet with perspiration, but his eyes had

Of the events intervening between this moment and that when death called to us out of the night, I have the

haziest recollections. An excelent dinner was served in the bleak and gloomy diningroom by the mulatto,

and the crippled author was carried to the head of the table by this same Herculean attendant, as lightly as

Van Roon talked continuously, revealing a deep knowledge of all sorts of obscure matters; and in the brief

intervals, Nayland Smith talked also, with almost feverish rapidity. Plans for the future were discussed. I can

I could not stifle my queer sentiments in regard to the mulatto, and every time I found him behind my chair I

was hard put to repress an shudder. In this fashion the strange evening passed; and to the accompaniment of

distant, muttering thunder, we two guests retired to our chambers in Cragmire Tower. Smith had contrived to

give me my instructions in a whisper, and five minutes after entering my own room, I had snuffed the

candles, slipped a wedge, which he had given me, under the door, crept out through the window onto the

guttered ledge, and joined Smith in his room. He, too, had extinguished his candles, and the place was in

darkness. As I climbed in, he grasped my wrist to silence me, and turned me forcibly toward the window.

I turned and looked out upon a prospect which had been a fit setting for the witch scene in Macbeth. Thunder

clouds hung low over the moor, but through them ran a sort of chasm, or rift, allowing a bar of lurid light to

stretch across the drear, from east to westa sort of lane walled by darkness. There came a remote

murmuring, as of a troubled seaa hushed and distant chorus; and sometimes in upon it broke the drums of

"Mr. Smith!" came the agonized cry . . . "Nayland Smith, help! for God's sake. . . ."

"Quick, Smith!" I cried, "quick, man! It's Van Roonhe's been dragged out . . . they are murdering him . . ."

Louder and more agonized came the cry for aid, and I became more than ever certain that it was poor Van

"Mr. Smith! Dr. Petrie! for God's sake come . . . or . . . it will be . . . too . . . late . . ."

"Smith!" I said, turning furiously upon my friend, "if you are going to remain here whilst murder is done, I

My blood boiled now with hot resentment. It was incredible, inhuman, that we should remain there inert

whilst a fellow man, and our host to boot, was being done to death out there in the darkness. I exerted all my

strength to break away; but although my efforts told upon him, as his loud breathing revealed, Nayland Smith

clung to me tenaciously. Had my hands been free, in my fury, I could have struck him, for the pitiable cries,

growing fainter, now, told their own tale. Then Smith spoke shortly and angrilybreathing hard between the

"Be quiet, you fool!" he snapped; "it's little less than an insult, Petrie, to think me capable of refusing help

"You remember the Call of Siva?" he said, thrusting me away irritably, "two years ago, and what it meant

"Told you! You would have been through the window before I had uttered two words!"

"Forgive me, old man," I said, very crestfallen, "but my impulse was a natural one, you'll admit. You must

The cries had ceased now, entirely, and a peal of thunder, louder than any yet, echoed over distant

Sedgemoor. The chasm of light splitting the heavens closed in, leaving the night wholly black.

"Good. Get into that cupboard, have your Browning ready, and keep the door very slightly ajar."

He was in that mood of repressed fever which I knew and which always communicated itself to me. I spoke

no further word, but stepped into the wardrobe indicated and drew the door nearly shut. The recess just

accommodated me, and through the aperture I could see the bed, vaguely, the open window, and part of the

opposite wall. I saw Smith cross the floor, as a mighty clap of thunder boomed over the house.

I saw the bed for a moment, distinctly, and it appeared to me that Smith lay therein, with the sheets pulled up

over his head. The light was gone, and I could hear big drops of rain pattering upon the leaden gutter below

My mood was strange, detached, and characterized by vagueness. That Van Roon lay dead upon the moor I

was convinced; andalthough I recognized that it must be a sufficient oneI could not even dimly divine

the reason why we had refrained from lending him aid. To have failed to save him, knowing his peril, would

have been bad enough; to have refused, I thought was shameful. Better to have shared his fateyet . . .

The downpour was increasing, and beating now a regular tattoo upon the gutterway. Then, splitting the

oblong of greater blackness which marked the casement, quivered dazzlingly another flash of lightning in

which I saw the bed again, with that impression of Smith curled up in it. The blinding light died out; came the

crash of thunder, harsh and fearsome, more imminently above the tower than ever. The building seemed to

Coming as they did, horror and the wrath of heaven together, suddenly, crashingly, black and angry after the

fairness of the day, these happenings and their setting must have terrorized the stoutest heart; but somehow I

seemed detached, as I have said, and set apart from the whirl of events; a spectator. Even when a vague

yellow light crept across the room from the direction of the door, and flickered unsteadily on the bed, I

remained unmoved to a certain degree, although passively alive to the significance of the incident. I realized

that the ultimate issue was at hand, but either because I was emotionally exhausted, or from some other cause,

Going on tiptoe, in stockinged feet, across my field of vision, passed Kegan Van Roon! He was in his

shirtsleeves and held a lighted candle in one hand whilst with the other he shaded it against the draught from

the window. He was a cripple no longer, and the smoked glasses were discarded; most of the light, at the

moment when first I saw him, shone upon his thin, olive face, and at sight of his eyes much of the mystery of

Cragmire Tower was resolved. For they were oblique, very slightly, but nevertheless unmistakably oblique.

Though highly educated, and possibly an American citizen, Van Roon was a Chinaman!

Upon the picture of his face as I saw it then, I do not care to dwell. It lacked the unique horror of Dr.

FuManchu's unforgettable countenance, but possessed a sort of animal malignancy which the latter lacked . .

. He approached within three or four feet of the bed, peeringpeering. Then, with a timidity which spoke

well for Nayland Smith's reputation, paused and beckoned to some one who evidently stood in the doorway

behind him. As he did so I noted that the legs of his trousers were caked with greenish brown mud nearly up

The huge mulatto, silentfooted, crossed to the bed in three strides. He was stripped to the waist, and,

excepting some few professional athletes, I had never seen a torso to compare with that which, brown and

glistening, now bent over Nayland Smith. The muscular development was simply enormous; the man had a

neck like a column, and the thews around his back and shoulders were like ivy tentacles wreathing some

Whilst Van Roon, his evil gaze upon the bed, held the candle aloft, the mulatto, with a curious preparatory

writhing movement of the mighty shoulders, lowered his outstretched fingers to the disordered bed linen . . .

I pushed open the cupboard door and thrust out the Browning. As I did so a dramatic thing happened. A tall,

Upraised in his hand he held a heavy walking cane. I knew the handle to be leaded, and I could judge of the

force with which he wielded it by the fact that it cut the air with a keen swishing sound. It descended upon the

back of the mulatto's skull with a sickening thud, and the great brown body dropped inert upon the padded

Van Roon, dropping the candle, in the falling gleam of which I saw the whites of the oblique eyes turned and

leaped from the room with the agility of a wild cat. The ensuing darkness was split by a streak of lightning . .

. and there was Nayland Smith scrambling around the foot of the bed and making for the door in hot pursuit.

We gained it almost together. Smith had dropped the cane, and now held his pistol in his hand. Together we

fired into the chasm of the corridor, and in the flash, saw Van Roon hurling himself down the stairs. He went

silently in his stockinged feet, and our own clatter was drowned by the awful booming of the thunder which

Crack!crack!crack! Three times our pistols spat venomously after the flying figure . . . then we had

crossed the hall below and were in the wilderness of the night with the rain descending upon us in sheets.

Vaguely I saw the white shirtsleeves of the fugitive near the corner of the stone fence. A moment he

hesitated, then darted away inland, not toward Saul, but toward the moor and the cup of the inland bay.

"Steady, Petrie! steady!" cried Nayland Smith. He ran, panting, beside me. "It is the path to the mire." He

breathed sibilantly between every few words. It was out there . . . that he hoped to lure us . . . with the cry for

A great blaze of lightning illuminated the landscape as far as the eye could see. Ahead of us a flying shape,

hair lank and glistening in the downpour, followed a faint path skirting that green tongue of morass which we

had noted from the upland. It was Kegan Van Roon. He glanced over his shoulder, showing a yellow,

terrorstricken face. We were gaining upon him. Darkness fell, and the thunder cracked and boomed as

"Another fifty yards, Petrie," breathed Nayland Smith, "and after that it's unchartered ground."

Indeed, already I had made one false stepand the hungry mire had fastened upon my foot, almost tripping

We stopped dead. The falling rain walled us in. I dared not move, for I knew that the mire, the devouring

mire, stretched, eager, close about my feet. We were both waiting for the next flash of lightning, I think, but,

before it came, out of the darkness ahead of us rose a cry that sometimes rings in my ears to this hour. Yet it

was no more than a repetition of that which had called to us, deathfully, awhile before.

"We dare not move, Petriewe dare not move!" he breathed. "It's God's justicevisible for once."

Then came the lightning; andignoring a splitting crash behind uswe both looked ahead, over the mire.

Just on the edge of the venomous green path, not thirty yards away, I saw the head and shoulders and

upstretched, appealing arms of Van Roon. Even as the lightning flickered and we saw him, he was gone; with

one last, long, drawnout cry, horribly like the mournful wail of a sea gull, he was gone!

That eerie light died, and in the instant before the sound of the thunder came shatteringly, we turned about . . .

in time to see Cragmire Tower, a blacker silhouette against the night, topple and fall! A red glow began to be

perceptible above the building. The thunder came booming through the caverns of space. Nayland Smith

"Kegan Van Roon never returned from China. It was a trap. Those were two creatures of Dr. FuManchu . .

"You have not learned the Morse Code, Petrie. It was a signal, and it read:S M I T H . . . SOS."

"I took the chance, as you know. And it was Karamaneh! She knew of the plot to bury us in the mire. She had

followed from London, but could do nothing until dusk. God forgive me if I've misjudged herfor we owe

Flames were bursting up from the building beside the ruin of the ancient tower which had faced the storms of

countless ages only to succumb at last. The lightning literally had cloven it in twain.

Again the lightning flashed, and we saw the path and began to retrace our steps. Nayland Smith turned to me;

From out over Sedgemoor it came, cracking and rolling and booming toward us, swelling in volume to a

In looking over my notes dealing with the second phase of Dr. FuManchu's activities in England, I find that

one of the worst hours of my life was associated with the singular and seemingly inconsequent adventure of

the fiery hand. I shall deal with it in this place, begging you to bear with me if I seem to digress.

Inspector Weymouth called one morning, shortly after the Van Roon episode, and entered upon a surprising

account of a visit to a house at Hampstead which enjoyed the sinister reputation of being uninhabitable.

"But in what way does the case enter into your province?" inquired Nayland Smith, idly tapping out his pipe

We had not long finished breakfast, but from an early hour Smith had been at his eternal smoking, which only

"Well," replied the inspector, who occupied a big armchair near the window, "I was sent to look into it, I

The ejaculation had a veiled significance; for our quest of Dr. FuManchu had come to an abrupt termination

by reason of the fact that all trace of that malignant genius, and of the group surrounding him, had vanished

"The house is called the Gables," continued the Scotland Yard man, "and I knew I was on a wild goose chase

"Because I was there before, six months ago or sojust before your present return to Englandand I knew

"I was unaware," he said with a slight smile, "that the cleaningup of haunted houses came within the

"In the ordinary way," replied the big man goodhumoredly, "it doesn't. But a sudden death always excites

"A sudden death?" I said, glancing up; "you didn't explain that the ghost had killed any one!"

"I'm afraid I'm a poor hand at yarnspinning, Doctor," said Weymouth, turning his blue, twinkling eyes in my

"You begin to interest me," declared Smith, and there came something of the old, eager look into his gaunt

"I had hoped for some little excitement, myself," confessed the inspector. "This deadend, with not a ghost of

"Although Dr. FuManchu has been in England for some months, now," continued Weymouth, "I have never

set eyes upon him; the house we raided in Museum Street proved to be empty; in a word, I am wasting my

time. So that I volunteered to run up to Hampstead and look into the matter of the Gables, principally as a

distraction. It's a queer business, but more in the Psychical Research Society's line than mine, I'm afraid. Still,

if there were no Dr. FuManchu it might be of interest to youand to you, Dr. Petrie, because it illustrates

the fact, that, given the right sort of subject, death can be brought about without any elaborate

"You interest me more and more," declared Smith, stretching himself in the long, white cane restchair.

"Two men, both fairly sound, except that the first one had an asthmatic heart, have died at the Gable without

any one laying a little finger upon them. Oh! there was no jugglery! They weren't poisoned, or bitten by

venomous insects, or suffocated, or anything like that. They just died of fearstark fear."

With my elbows resting upon the table cover, and my chin in my hands, I was listening attentively, now, and

Nayland Smith, a big cushion behind his head, was watching the speaker with a keen and speculative look in

"You imply that Dr. FuManchu has something to learn from the Gables?" he jerked.

"I can't work up anything like amazement in these days," continued the latter; "every other case seems stale

and hackneyed alongside the case. But I must confess that when the Gables came on the books of the Yard

the second time, I began to wonder. I thought there might be some tangible clue, some link connecting the

two victims; perhaps some evidence of robbery or of revengeof some sort of motive. In short, I hoped to

"Yes; we find them occasionally, these uninhabitable places, where there is something, something malignant

and harmful to human life, but something that you cannot arrest, that you cannot hope to bring into court."

"Ah," replied Smith slowly; "I suppose you are right. There are historic instances, of course: Glamys Castle

and Spedlins Tower in Scotland, Peel Castle, Isle of Man, with its Maudhe Dhug, the gray lady of Rainham

Hall, the headless horses of Caistor, the Wesley ghost of Epworth Rectory, and others. But I have never come

in personal contact with such a case, and if I did I should feel very humiliated to have to confess that there

was any agency which could produce a physical resultdeathbut which was immune from physical

"I might feel a bit sour about it, too," he replied, "if it were not that I haven't much pride left in these days,

"A home thrust, Weymouth!" snapped Nayland Smith, with one of those rare, boyish laughs of his. "We're

children to that Chinese doctor, Inspector, to that weird product of a weird people who are as old in evil as the

"Well, it's an uncanny place. You mentioned Glamys Castle a moment ago, and it's possible to understand an

old stronghold like that being haunted, but the Gables was only built about 1870; it's quite a modern house. It

was built for a wealthy Quaker family, and they occupied it, uninterruptedly and apparently without anything

unusual occurring, for over forty years. Then it was sold to a Mr. Maddisonand Mr. Maddison died there

"Maddison?" said Smith sharply, staring across at Weymouth. "What was he? Where did he come from?"

"There was a link with the East, certainly, if that's what you are thinking; and it was this fact which interested

me at the time, and which led me to waste precious days and nights on the case. But there was no mortal

connection between this liverish individual and the schemes of Dr. FuManchu. I'm certain of that."

"He just died in his chair one evening, in the room which he used as a library. It was his custom to sit there

every night, when there were no visitors, reading, until twelve o'clockor later. He was a bachelor, and his

household consisted of a cook, a housemaid, and a man who had been with him for thirty years, I believe. At

the time of Mr. Maddison's death, his household had recently been deprived of two of its members. The cook

and housemaid both resigned one morning, giving as their reason the fact that the place was haunted."

"I interviewed the precious pair at the time, and they told me absurd and various tales about dark figures

wandering along the corridors and bending over them in bed at night, whispering; but their chief trouble was

"They said that it became unbearable. Night and day there were bells ringing all over the house. At any rate,

they went, and for three or four days the Gables was occupied only by Mr. Maddison and his man, whose

name was Stevens. I interviewed the latter also, and he was an altogether more reliable witness; a decent,

"He swore to ita sort of jangle, sometimes up in the air, near the ceilings, and sometimes under the floor,

Nayland Smith stood up abruptly and began to pace the room, leaving great trails of bluegray smoke behind

"Your story is sufficiently interesting, Inspector," he declared, "even to divert my mind from the eternal

contemplation of the FuManchu problem. This would appear to be distinctly a case of an 'astral bell' such as

"It was Stevens," continued Weymouth, "who found Mr. Maddison. He (Stevens) had been out on business

connected with the household arrangements, and at about eleven o'clock he returned, letting himself in with a

key. There was a light in the library, and getting no response to his knocking, Stevens entered. He found his

master sitting bolt upright in a chair, clutching the arms with rigid fingers and staring straight before him with

a look of such frightful horror on his face, that Stevens positively ran from the room and out of the house. Mr.

Maddison was stone dead. When a doctor, who lives at no great distance away, came and examined him, he

could find no trace of violence whatever; he had apparently died of fright, to judge from the expression on his

"Only this: I learnt, indirectly, that the last member of the Quaker family to occupy the house had apparently

witnessed the apparition, which had led to his vacating the place. I got the story from the wife of a man who

had been employed as gardener there at that time. The apparitionwhich he witnessed in the hallway, if I

remember rightly took the form of a sort of luminous hand clutching a long, curved knife."

"This gentleman told no one of the occurrence until after he had left the house, no doubt in order that the

place should not acquire an evil reputation. Most of the original furniture remained, and Mr. Maddison took

the house furnished. I don't think there can be any doubt that what killed him was fear at seeing a

"Quite so. Well, I examined the Gables pretty closely, and, with another Scotland Yard man, spent a night in

the empty house. We saw nothing; but once, very faintly, we heard the ringing of bells."

"I can swear to it," declared Weymouth stolidly. "It seemed to be over our heads. We were sitting in the

diningroom. Then it was gone, and we heard nothing more whatever of an unusual nature. Following the

death of Mr. Maddison, the Gables remained empty until a while ago, when a French gentleman, name Lejay,

"A married couple living in the neighborhood undertook to do so. The man attended to the lawn and so forth,

"He came in only last week, having leased the house for six months. His family were to have joined him in a

day or two, and he, with the aid of the pair I have just mentioned, and assisted by a French servant he brought

over with him, was putting the place in order. At about twelve o'clock on Friday night this servant ran into a

neighboring house screaming 'the fiery hand!' and when at last a constable arrived and a frightened group

went up the avenue of the Gables, they found M. Lejay, dead in the avenue, near the steps just outside the hall

The owner has managed to keep it quiet so far, but this time I think it will leak into the pressyes."

"I was there on Saturday, but there's not a scrap of evidence. The man undoubtedly died of fright in the same

"Unholy is the word," I said. "I never heard anything like it. This M. Lejay had no enemies?there could be

"None whatever. He was a business man from Marseilles, and his affairs necessitated his remaining in or near

London for some considerable time; therefore, he decided to make his headquarters here, temporarily, and

Nayland Smith was pacing the floor with increasing rapidity; he was tugging at the lobe of his left ear and his

I started to my feet as a tall, bearded man swung open the door and hurled himself impetuously into the room.

He wore a silk hat, which fitted him very ill, and a black frock coat which did not fit him at all.

"The first time I have employed a disguise," continued my friend rapidly, "since the memorable episode of

the false pigtail." He threw a small brown leather grip upon the floor. "In case you should care to visit the

Two days had elapsed, and I had entirely forgotten the strange story of the Gables which Inspector

Weymouth had related to us; evidently it was otherwise with my friend, and utterly at a loss for an

explanation of his singular behavior, I stooped mechanically and opened the grip. It contained an odd

assortment of garments, and amongst other things several gray wigs and a pair of goldrimmed spectacles.

Kneeling there with this strange litter about me, I looked up amazedly. Nayland Smith, with the unsuitable

silk hat set right upon the back of his head, was pacing the room excitedly, his fuming pipe protruding from

"You see, Petrie," he began again, rapidly, "I did not entirely trust the agent. I've leased the house in the name

"I've never stuck at anything, Smith," I replied, "however undignified, when it has seemed that my presence

As I rose to my feet, Smith stepped in front of me, and the steely gray eyes shone out strangely from the

"If I assure you that your presence is necessary to my safety," he said"that if you fail me I must seek

Intuitively, I knew that he was keeping something back, and I was conscious of some resentment, but

nevertheless my reply was a foregone conclusion, andwith the borrowed appearance of an extremely

untidy old manI crept guiltily out of my house that evening and into the cab which Smith had waiting.

The Gables was a roomy and rambling place lying back a considerable distance from the road. A semicircular

drive gave access to the door, and so densely wooded was the ground, that for the most part the drive was

practically a tunnela verdant tunnel. A high brick wall concealed the building from the point of view of

any one on the roadway, but either horn of the crescent drive terminated at a heavy, wroughtiron gateway.

Smith discharged the cab at the corner of the narrow and winding road upon which the Gables fronted. It was

walled in on both sides; on the left the wall being broken by tradesmen's entrances to the houses fronting

upon another street, and on the right following, uninterruptedly, the grounds of the Gables. As we came to the

"Nothing now," said Smith, pointing into the darkness of the road before us, "except a couple of studios, until

He inserted the key in the lock of the gate and swung it creakingly open. I looked into the black arch of the

avenue, thought of the haunted residence that lay hidden somewhere beyond, of those who had died in

itespecially of the one who had died there under the trees and found myself out of love with the

"Come on!" said Nayland Smith briskly, holding the gate open; "there should be a fire in the library and

I heard the great gate clang to behind us. Even had there been any moon (and there was none) I doubted if

more than a patch or two of light could have penetrated there. The darkness was extraordinary. Nothing broke

it, and I think Smith must have found his way by the aid of some sixth sense. At any rate, I saw nothing of the

house until I stood some five paces from the steps leading up to the porch. A light was burning in the

hallway, but dimly and inhospitably; of the facade of the building I could perceive little.

When we entered the hall and the door was closed behind us, I began wondering anew what purpose my

friend hoped to serve by a vigil in this haunted place. There was a light in the library, the door of which was

ajar, and on the large table were decanters, a siphon, and some biscuits and sandwiches. A large grip stood

upon the floor, also. For some reason which was a mystery to me, Smith had decided that we must assume

The proposal was welcome enough, for I felt strangely dispirited, and, to tell the truth, in my strange disguise,

All my nerves, no doubt, were highly strung, and my sense of hearing unusually acute, for I went in

momentary expectation of some uncanny happening. I had not long to wait. As I raised the glass to my lips

and glanced across the table at my friend, I heard the first faint sound heralding the coming of the bells.

It did not seem to proceed from anywhere within the library, but from some distant room, far away overhead.

A musical sound it was, but breaking in upon the silence of that illomened house, its music was the music of

terror. In a faint and very sweet cascade it rippled; a ringing as of tiny silver bells.

I set down my glass upon the table, and rising slowly from the chair in which I had been seated, stared fixedly

at my companion, who was staring with equal fixity at me. I could see that I had not been deluded; Nayland

"The ghosts waste no time!" he said softly. "This is not new to me; I spent an hour here last night and heard

I glanced hastily around the room. It was furnished as a library, and contained a considerable collection of

works, principally novels. I was unable to judge of the outlook, for the two lofty windows were draped with

heavy purple curtains which were drawn close. A silk shaded lamp swung from the center of the ceiling, and

immediately over the table by which I stood. There was much shadow about the room; and now I glanced

The ringing of bells was repeated, and seemingly much nearer to us; in fact it appeared to come from

somewhere above, up near the ceiling of the room in which we stood. Simultaneously, we looked up, then

"Instinctive, I suppose," he snapped; "but what do we expect to see in the air?"

The musical sound now grew in volume; the first tiny peal seemed to be reinforced by others and by others

again, until the air around about us was filled with the pealings of these invisible bellringers.

Although, as I have said, the sound was rather musical than horrible, it was, on the other hand, so utterly

unaccountable as to touch the supreme heights of the uncanny. I could not doubt that our presence had

attracted these unseen ringers to the room in which we stood, and I knew quite well that I was growing pale.

This was the room in which at least one unhappy occupant of the Gables had died of fear. I recognized the

fact that if this mere overture were going to affect my nerves to such an extent, I could not hope to survive the

ordeal of the night; a great effort was called for. I emptied my glass at a gulp, and stared across the table at

Nayland Smith with a sort of defiance. He was standing very upright and motionless, but his eyes were

"Good!" he said in a very low voice. "The terrorizing power of the Unknown is boundless, but we must not

get in the grip of panic, or we could not hope to remain in this house ten minutes."

I nodded without speaking. Then Smith, to my amazement, suddenly began to speak in a loud voice, a

Clearly the latter words were spoken for the benefit of the unseen intelligence controlling these

manifestations; and although I regarded such finesse as somewhat wasted, I followed my friend's lead and

Silence followed my words, a silence in which both stood watchful and listening. Then, very faintly, I seemed

to detect the silvern ringing receding away through distant rooms. Finally it became inaudible, and in the

stillness of the Gables I could distinctly hear my companion breathing. For fully ten minutes we two

remained thus, each momentarily expecting a repetition of the ringing, or the coming of some new and more

He turned and walked out of the library, his boots creaking very loudly in that aweinspiring silence.

Standing beside the table, I watched the open door for his return, crushing down a dread that another form

I could hear him moving from room to room, and presently, as I waited in hushed, tense watchfulness, he

"The house is haunted, Pearce!" he cried. "But no ghost ever frightened me! Come, I will show you your

Smith walked ahead of me upstairs; he had snapped up the light in the hallway, and now he turned and cried

Again I detected the appeal to a hidden Audience; and there was something very uncanny in the idea. The

house now was deathly still; the ringing had entirely subsided. In the upper corridor my companion, who

seemed to be well acquainted with the position of the switches, again turned up all the lights, and in pursuit of

the strange comedy which he saw fit to enact, addressed me continuously in the loud and unnatural voice

We looked into a number of rooms all well and comfortably furnished, but although my imagination may

have been responsible for the idea, they all seemed to possess a chilly and repellent atmosphere. I felt that to

essay sleep in any one of them would be the merest farce, that the place to all intents and purposes was

And through it all, so obtuse was I, that no glimmer of the truth entered my mind. Outside again in the long,

brightly lighted corridor, we stood for a moment as if a mutual anticipation of some new event pending had

come to us. It was curious that sudden pulling up and silent questioning of one another; because, although we

acted thus, no sound had reached us. A few seconds later our anticipation was realized. From the direction of

the stairs it camea low wailing in a woman's voice; and the sweetness of the tones added to the terror of the

sound. I clutched at Smith's arm convulsively whilst that uncanny cry rose and fellrose and felland died

Neither of us moved immediately. My mind was working with feverish rapidity and seeking to run down a

memory which the sound had stirred into faint quickness. My heart was still leaping wildly when the wailing

began again, rising and falling in regular cadence. At that instant I identified it.

During the time Smith and I had spent together in Egypt, two years before, searching for Karamaneh, I had

found myself on one occasion in the neighborhood of a native cemetery near to Bedrasheen. Now, the scene

which I had witnessed there rose up again vividly before me, and I seemed to see a little group of

blackrobed women clustered together about a native grave; for the wailing which now was dying away

again in the Gables was the same, or almost the same, as the wailing of those Egyptian mourners.

The house was very silent again, now. My forehead was damp with perspiration, and I became more and

more convinced that the uncanny ordeal must prove too much for my nerves. Hitherto, I had accorded little

credence to tales of the supernatural, but face to face with such manifestations as these, I realized that I would

have faced rather a group of armed dacoits, nay! Dr. FuManchu himself, than have remained another hour in

My companion must have read as much in my face. But he kept up the strange, and to me, purposeless

"I feel it to be incumbent upon me to suggest," he said, "that we spend the night at a hotel after all."

He walked rapidly downstairs and into the library and began to strap up the grip.

"After all," he said, "there may be a natural explanation of what we've heard; for it is noteworthy that we have

actually seen nothing. It might even be possible to get used to the ringing and the wailing after a time.

Whilst I stared at him in amazement, he stood there indeterminate as it seemed, Then:

"Come, Pearce!" he cried loudly, "I can see that you do not share my views; but for my own part I shall return

Extinguishing the light, he walked out into the hallway, carrying the grip in his hand. I was not far behind

"Turn the light out, Pearce," directed Smith; the switch is at your elbow. We can see our way to the door well

In order to carry out these instructions, it became necessary for me to remain a few paces in the rear of my

companion, and I think I have never experienced such a pang of nameless terror as pierced me at the moment

of extinguishing the light; for Smith had not yet opened the door, and the utter darkness of the Gables was

horrible beyond expression. Surely darkness is the most potent weapon of the Unknown. I know that at the

moment my hand left the switch, I made for the door as though the hosts of hell pursued me. I collided

violently with Smith. He was evidently facing toward me in the darkness, for at the moment of our collision,

I was enabled to judge of the extent and reality of his fear by the fact that the strange subterfuge of addressing

Never can I forget what I saw. Many strange and terrible memories are mine, memories stranger and more

terrible than those of the average man; but this thing which now moved slowly down upon us through the

impenetrable gloom of that haunted place, was (if the term be understood) almost absurdly horrible. It was a

medieval legend come to life in modern London; it was as though some horrible chimera of the black and

A luminous handa hand in the veins of which fire seemed to run so that the texture of the skin and the

shape of the bones within were perceptiblein short a hand of glowing, fiery flesh clutching a short knife or

dagger which also glowed with the same hellish, internal luminance, was advancing upon us where we

What I did or how I came to do it, I can never recall. In all my years I have experienced nothing to equal the

stark panic which seized upon me then. I know that I uttered a loud and frenzied cry; I know that I tore

But, dimly I recollect that, finding the thing approaching yet nearer, I lashed out with my fistsmadly,

What was the result, I cannot say. At that point my recollections merge into confusion. Something or some

one (Smith, as I afterwards discovered) was hauling me by main force through the darkness; I fell a

considerable distance onto gravel which lacerated my hands and gashed my knees. Then, with the cool night

air fanning my brow, I was running, runningmy breath coming in hysterical sobs. Beside me fled another

figure. . . . And my definite recollections commence again at that point. For this companion of my flight from

It was Nayland Smith. That healing realization came to me, bringing such a gladness as no words of mine can

"There's a policeman's lantern," panted my companion. "They'll attempt nothing, now!"

I gulped down the stiff brandyandsoda, then glanced across to where Nayland Smith lay extended in the

"Perhaps you will explain," I said, "for what purpose you submitted me to that ordeal. If you proposed to

correct my skepticism concerning supernatural manifestations, you have succeeded."

"Yes," said my companion, musingly, "they are devilishly clever; but we knew that already."

"Have you ever known me to waste my time when there was important work to do?" he continued. "Do you

seriously believe that my ghosthunting was undertaken for amusement? Really, Petrie, although you are

very fond of assuring me that I need a holiday, I think the shoe is on the other foot!"

From the pocket of his dressinggown, he took out a piece of silk fringe which had apparently been torn from

I did as he directedand gave a great start. The silk exhaled a faint perfume, but its effect upon me was as

Beyond doubt the silken fragment had belonged to the beautiful servant of Dr. FuManchu, to the darkeyed,

"It was sufficient evidence in itself," continued my friend, "but I thought it better to seek confirmation, and

"Let me explain, Petrie. The history of the Gables seemed to be susceptible of only one explanation; in short

it was fairly evident to me that the object of the manifestations was to insure the place being kept empty. This

idea suggested another, and with them both in mind, I set out to make my inquiries, first taking the precaution

to disguise my identity, to which end Weymouth gave me the freedom of Scotland Yard's fancy wardrobe. I

did not take the agent into my confidence, but posed as a stranger who had heard that the house was to let

furnished and thought it might suit his purpose. My inquiries were directed to a particular end, but I failed to

achieve it at the time. I had theories, as I have said, and when, having paid the deposit and secured possession

of the keys, I was enabled to visit the place alone, I was fortunate enough to obtain evidence to show that my

"You were very curious the other morning, I recall, respecting my object in borrowing a large brace and bit.

My object, Petrie, was to bore a series of holes in the wainscoating of various rooms at the Gablesin

"I had crossexamined Weymouth closely regarding the phenomenon of the bellringing, and an exhaustive

search of the premises led to the discovery that the house was in such excellent condition that, from

groundfloor to attic, there was not a solitary crevice large enough to admit of the passage of a mouse."

I suppose I must have been staring very foolishly indeed, for Nayland Smith burst into one of his sudden

"A mouse, I said, Petrie!'' he cried. "With the braceandbit I rectified that matter. I made the holes I have

mentioned, and before each set a trap baited with a piece of succulent, toasted cheese. Just open that grip!"

The light at last was dawning upon my mental darkness, and I pounced upon the grip, which stood upon a

chair near the window, and opened it. A sickly smell of cooked cheese assailed my nostrils.

Out from the grip I began to take mousetraps! Two or three of them were still set but in the case of the

greater number the catches had slipped. Nine I took out and placed upon the table, and all were empty. In the

tenth there crouched, panting, its soft furry body dank with perspiration, a little white mouse!

"Only one capture!" cried my companion, "showing how wellfed the creatures were. Examine his tail!"

But already I had perceived that to which Smith would draw my attention, and the mystery of the "astral

bells" was a mystery no longer. Bound to the little creature's tail, close to the root, with fine soft wire such as

is used for making up bouquets, were three tiny silver bells. I looked across at my companion in speechless

"Almost childish, is it not?" he said; "yet by means of this simple device the Gables has been emptied of

occupant after occupant. There was small chance of the trick being detected, for, as I have said, there was

absolutely no aperture from roof to basement by means of which one of them could have escaped into the

"They were admitted into the wall cavities and the rafters, from some cellar underneath, Petrie, to which,

after a brief scamper under the floors and over the ceilings, they instinctively returned for the food they were

accustomed to receive, and for which, even had it been possible (which it was not) they had no occasion to

I, too, stood up; for excitement was growing within me. I took up the piece of silk from the table.

"In a sort of wine cellar, Petrie," he replied, "under the stair. There is no cellar proper to the Gablesat least

"But there is one beyond doubtyes! It must be part of some older building which occupied the site before

the Gables was built. One can only surmise that it exists, although such a surmise is a fairly safe one, and the

entrance to the subterranean portion of the building is situated beyond doubt in the wine cellar. Of this we

have at least two evidences:the finding of the fragment of silk there, and the fact that in one case at

leastas I learnedthe light was extinguished in the library unaccountably. This could only have been done

"I mean that Dr. FuManchu has had a hidingplace under the Gables for an indefinite period!" he replied. "I

always suspected that a man of his genius would have a second retreat prepared for him, anticipating the

event of the first being discovered. Oh! I don't doubt it! The place probably is extensive, and I am almost

certainthough the point has to be confirmedthat there is another entrance from the studio further along

the road. We know, now, why our recent searchings in the East End have proved futile; why the house in

"Your superstitious fears overcame you to such an extent, Petrieand I don't wonder at it; the sight was a

ghastly onethat probably you don't remember what occurred when you struck out at that same ghostly

"That was why we ran. But I think our retreat had all the appearance of a rout, as I intended that it should.

Pardon my playing upon your very natural fears, old man, but you could not have simulated panic half so

naturally! And if they had suspected that the device was discovered, we might never have quitted the Gables

Wondering greatly, I did as he desired. I turned out the light . . . and in the darkness of my own study I saw a

fiery fist being shaken at me threateningly! . . . The bones were distinctly visible, and the luminosity of the

Deeply mystified, I did so . . . and my friend tossed a little electric pocketlamp on to the writingtable.

"They used merely a small electric lamp fitted into the handle of a glass dagger," he said with a sort of

contempt. "It was very effective, but the luminous hand is a phenomenon producible by any one who

The bell was ringing furiously, although midnight was long past. Whom could my late visitor be? Almost

certainly this ringing portended an urgent case. In other words, I was not fated to take part in what I

"Every one is in bed," I said, ruefully; "and how can I possibly see a patientin this costume?"

Smith and I were both arrayed in rough tweeds, and anticipating the labors before us, had dispensed with

collars and wore soft mufflers. It was hard to be called upon to face a professional interview dressed thus, and

Across the writingtable we confronted one another in dismayed silence, whilst, below, the bell sent up its

"It has to be done, Smith," I said, regretfully. "Almost certainly it means a journey and probably an absence

I threw my cap upon the table, turned up my coat to hide the absence of collar, and started for the door. My

last sight of Smith showed him standing looking after me, tugging at the lobe of his ear and clicking his teeth

together with suppressed irritability. I stumbled down the dark stairs, along the hall, and opened the front

door. Vaguely visible in the light of a street lamp which stood at no great distance away, I saw a slender man

of medium height confronting me. From the shadowed face two large and luminous eyes looked out into

mine. My visitor, who, despite the warmth of the evening, wore a heavy greatcoat, was an Oriental!

"Ah! Dr. Petrie!" he said in a softly musical voice which made me start again, "to God be all praise that I

Some emotion, which at present I could not define, was stirring within me. Where had I seen this graceful

"Do you wish to see me professionally?" I askedyet even as I put the question, I seemed to know it

"So you know me no more?" said the strangerand his teeth gleamed in a slight smile.

Heavens! I knew now what had struck that vibrant chord within me! The voice, though infinitely deeper, yet

had an unmistakable resemblance to the dulcet tones of Karamanehof Karamaneh whose eyes haunted my

"So you know me no more?" he repeated; "but I know you, and give praise to Allah that I have found you!"

I stepped back, pressed the electric switch, and turned, with leaping heart, to look into the face of my visitor.

It was a face of the purest Greek beauty, a face that might have served as a model for Praxiteles; the skin had

a golden pallor, which, with the crisp black hair and magnetic yet velvety eyes, suggested to my fancy that

this was the young Antinious risen from the Nile, whose wraith now appeared to me out of the night. I stifled

Never could the entrance of a figure upon the stage of a drama have been more dramatic than the coming of

Aziz upon this night of all nights. I seized the outstretched hand and drew him forward, then reclosed the

A vaguely troubled look momentarily crossed the handsome face; with the Oriental's unerring instinct, he had

detected the reserve of my greeting. Yet, when I thought of the treachery of Karamaneh, when I remember

how she, whom we had befriended, whom we had rescued from the house of FuManchu, now had turned

like the beautiful viper that she was to strike at the hand that caressed her; when I thought how tonight we

were set upon raiding the place where the evil Chinese doctor lurked in hiding, were set upon the arrest of

that malignant genius and of all his creatures, Karamaneh amongst them, is it strange that I hesitated? Yet,

again, when I thought of my last meeting with her, and of how, twice, she had risked her life to save me . . .

So, avoiding the gaze of the lad, I took his arm, and in silence we two ascended the stairs and entered my

study . . . where Nayland Smith stood bolt upright beside the table, his steely eyes fixed upon the face of the

No look of recognition crossed the bronzed features, and Aziz who had started forward with outstretched

hands, fell back a step and looked pathetically from me to Nayland Smith, and from the grim commissioner

back again to me. The appeal in the velvet eyes was more than I could tolerate, unmoved.

"Yes, yes!" cried Aziz laying his hand upon my arm with a gesture painfully reminiscent of Karamaneh"I

came only tonight to London. Oh, my gentlemen! I have searched, and searched, and searched, until I am

"To Rangoon!" snapped Smith, still with the gray eyes fixed almost fiercely upon the lad's face.

"To Rangoonyes; and there I heard news at last. I hear that you have seen herhave seen

Karamanehthat you are back in London." He was not entirely at home with his English. "I know then that

she must be here, too. I ask them everywhere, and they answer 'yes.' Oh, Smith Pasha!"he stepped forward

and impulsively seized both Smith's hands "You know where she istake me to her!"

Smith's face was a study in perplexity, now. In the past we had befriended the young Aziz, and it was hard to

look upon him in the light of an enemy. Yet had we not equally befriended his sister?and she . . .

"What do you make of it, Petrie?" he said harshly. "Personally I take it to mean that our plans have leaked

out." He sprang suddenly back from Aziz and I saw his glance traveling rapidly over the slight figure as if in

A moment he stood so, regarding him, and despite my wellgrounded distrust of the Oriental character, I

could have sworn that the expression of pained surprise upon the youth's face was not simulated but real.

Even Smith, I think, began to share my view; for suddenly he threw himself into the white cane restchair,

"Perhaps I have wronged you," he said. "If I have, you shall know the reason presently. Tell your own story!"

There was a pathetic humidity in the velvet eyes of Azizeyes so like those others that were ever looking

into mine in dreamsas glancing from Smith to me he began, hands outstretched, characteristically, palms

upward and fingers curling, to tell in broken English the story of his search for Karamaneh . . .

"It was FuManchu, my kind gentlemen it was the hakim who is really not a man at all, but an efreet. He

found us again less than four days after you had left us, Smith Pasha! . . . He found us in Cairo, and to

For my own part I understood well enough, remembering how the brilliant Chinese doctor once had

performed such an operation as this upon poor Inspector Weymouth; how, by means of an injection of some

serum prepared (as Karamaneh afterwards told us) from the venom of a swamp adder or similar reptile, he

had induced amnesia, or complete loss of memory. I felt every drop of blood recede from my cheeks.

"They tried to take us both," continued Aziz still speaking in that soft, melodious manner, but with deep

seriousness. "I escaped, I, who am swift of foot, hoping to bring help."He shook his head sadly "But,

except the All Powerful, who is so powerful as the Hakim FuManchu? I hid, my gentlemen, and watched

and waited, onetwo three weeks. At last I saw her again, my sister, Karamaneh; but ah! she did not

know me, did not know me, Aziz her brother! She was in an arabeeyeh, and passed me quickly along the

Sharia enNahhasin. I ran, and ran, and ran, crying her name, but although she looked back, she did not know

meshe did not know me! I felt that I was dying, and presently I fellupon the steps of the Mosque of

He dropped the expressive hands wearily to his sides and sank his chin upon his breast.

"Alas! from that day to this I see her no more, my gentlemen. I travel, not only in Egypt, but near and far, and

still I see her no more until in Rangoon I hear that which brings me to England again"he extended his

"Either I am growing overcredulous," he said, or Aziz speaks the truth. But"he held up his hand"you

can tell me all that at some other time, Petrie! We must take no chances. Sergeant Carter is downstairs with

the cab; you might ask him to step up. He and Aziz can remain here until our return."

The muffled drumming of sleepless London seemed very remote from us, as side by side we crept up the

narrow path to the studio. This was a starry but moonless night, and the little dingy white building with a

solitary tree peeping, in silhouette, above the glazed roof, bore an odd resemblance to one of those tombs

which form a city of the dead so near to the city of feverish life on the slopes of the Mokattam Hills. This line

The shriek of a trainwhistle reached me, a sound which breaks the stillness of the most silent London night,

telling of the ceaseless, febrile life of the great worldcapital whose activity ceases not with the coming of

darkness. Around and about us a very great stillness reigned, however, and the velvet dusk which, with the

starjeweled sky, was strongly suggestive of an Eastern nightgave up no sign to show that it masked the

presence of more than twenty men. Some distance away on our right was the Gables, that sinister and

deserted mansion which we assumed, and with good reason, to be nothing less than the gateway to the

subterranean abode of Dr. FuManchu; before us was the studio, which, if Nayland Smith's deductions were

As my friend, glancing cautiously all about him, inserted the key in the lock, an owl hooted dismally almost

immediately above our heads. I caught my breath sharply, for it might be a signal; but, looking upward, I saw

a great black shape float slantingly from the tree beyond the studio into the coppice on the right which

hemmed in the Gables. Silently the owl winged its uncanny flight into the greater darkness of the trees, and

was gone. Smith opened the door and we stepped into the studio. Our plans had been well considered, and in

accordance with these, I now moved up beside my friend, who was dimly perceptible to me in the starlight

which found access through the glass roof, and pressed the catch of my electric pocketlamp . . .

I suppose that by virtue of my selfimposed duty as chronicler of the deeds of Dr. FuManchuthe greatest

and most evil genius whom the later centuries have produced, the man who dreamt of an universal Yellow

EmpireI should have acquired a certain facility in describing bizarre happenings. But I confess that it fails

me now as I attempt in cold English to portray my emotions when the white beam from the little lamp cut

through the darkness of the studio, and shone fully upon the beautiful face of Karamaneh!

Less than six feet away from me she stood, arrayed in the gauzy dress of the harem, her fingers and slim

white arms laden with barbaric jewelry! The light wavered in my suddenly nerveless hand, gleaming

I spoke no word, and Smith was as silent as I; both of us, I think, were speechless rather from amazement

than in obedience to the evident wishes of FuManchu's slavegirl. Yet I have only to close my eyes at this

moment to see her as she stood, one finger raised to her lips, enjoining us to silence. She looked ghastly pale

in the light of the lamp, but so lovely that my rebellious heart threatened already, to make a fool of me.

So we stood in that untidy studio, with canvases and easels heaped against the wall and with all sorts of litter

about us, a trio strangely met, and one to have amused the high gods watching through the windows of the

I saw the red lips moving and read a dreadful horror in the widely opened eyes, in those eyes like pools of

mystery to taunt the thirsty soul. The world of realities was slipping past me; I seemed to be losing my hold

on things actual; I had built up an Eastern palace about myself and Karamaneh wherein, the world shut out, I

might pass the hours in reading the mystery of those dark eyes. Nayland Smith brought me sharply to my

"Steady with the light, Petrie!" he hissed in my, ear. "My skepticism has been shaken, tonight, but I am

He moved from my side and forward toward that lovely, unreal figure which stood immediately before the

model's throne and its background of plush curtains. Karamaneh started forward to meet him, suppressing a

"Go back! go back!" she whispered urgently, and thrust out her hands against Smith's breast. "For God's sake,

go back! I have risked my life to come here tonight. He knows, and is ready!". . .

The words were spoken with passionate intensity, and Nayland Smith hesitated. To my nostrils was wafted

that faint, delightful perfume which, since one night, two years ago, it had come to disturb my senses, had

taunted me many times as the mirage taunts the parched Sahara traveler. I took a step forward.

"Listen to me!" she said, beseechingly and stamped one little foot upon the floor"listen to me! You are a

clever man, but you know nothing of a woman's heartnothingnothingif seeing me, hearing me,

knowing, as you do know, I risk, you can doubt that I speak the truth. And I tell you that it is death to go

"That's what I wanted to know!" snapped Smith. His voice quivered with excitement.

Suddenly grasping Karamaneh by the waist, he lifted her and set her aside; then in three bounds he was on to

the model's throne and had torn the Plush curtains bodily from their fastenings.

How it occurred I cannot hope to make dear, for here my recollections merge into a chaos. I know that Smith

seemed to topple forward amid the purple billows of velvet, and his muffled cry came to me:

The pale face of Karamaneh looked up into mine and her hands were clutching me, but the glamour of her

personality had lost its hold, for I knewheavens, how poignantly it struck home to me!that Nayland

Smith was gone to his death. What I hoped to achieve, I know not, but hurling the trembling girl aside, I

snatched the Browning pistol from my coat pocket, and with the ray of the lamp directed upon the purple

I think I realized that the curtains had masked a collapsible trap, a sheer pit of blackness, an instant before I

was precipitated into it, but certainly the knowlege came too late. With the sound of a soft, shuddering cry in

my ears, I fell, dropping lamp and pistol, and clutching at the fallen hangings. But they offered me no

support. My head seemed to be bursting; I could utter only a hoarse groan, as I fellfellfell . . .

When my mind began to work again, in returning consciousness, I found it to be laden with reproach. How

often in the past had we blindly hurled ourselves into just such a trap as this? Should we never learn that

where FuManchu was, impetuosity must prove fatal? On two distinct occasions in the past we had been

made the victims of this device, yet even although we had had practically conclusive evidence that this studio

was used by Dr. FuManchu, we had relied upon its floor being as secure as that of any other studio, we had

"There is such a divine simplicity in the English mind that one may lay one's plans with mathematical

precision, and rely upon the Nayland Smiths and Dr. Petries to play their allotted parts. Excepting two

faithful followers, my friends are long since departed. But here, in these vaults which time has overlooked

and which are as secret and as serviceable today as they were two hundred years ago, I wait patiently, with

To the sound of that taunting voice, I opened my eyes. As I did so I strove to spring uprightonly to realize

that I was tied fast to a heavy ebony chair inlaid with ivory, and attached by means of two iron brackets to the

"Even children learn from experience," continued the unforgettable voice, alternately guttural and sibilant,

but always as deliberate as though the speaker were choosing with care words which should perfectly clothe

his thoughts. "For 'a burnt child fears the fire,' says your English adage. But Mr. Commissioner Nayland

Smith, who enjoys the confidence of the India Office, and who is empowered to control the movements of the

Criminal Investigation Department, learns nothing from experience. He is less than a child, since he has twice

rashly precipitated himself into a chamber charged with an anesthetic prepared, by a process of my own, from

I became fully master of my senses, and I became fully alive to a stupendous fact. At last it was ended; we

I sat in a low vaulted room. The roof was of ancient brickwork, but the walls were draped with exquisite

Chinese fabric having a green ground whereon was a design representing a grotesque procession of white

peacocks. A green carpet covered the floor, and the whole of the furniture was of the same material as the

chair to which I was strapped, viz:ebony inlaid with ivory. This furniture was scanty. There was a heavy

table in one corner of the dungeonesque place, on which were a number of books and papers. Before this

table was a highbacked, heavily carven chair. A smaller table stood upon the right of the only visible

opening, a low door partially draped with bead work curtains, above which hung a silver lamp. On this

smaller table, a stick of incense, in a silver holder, sent up a pencil of vapor into the air, and the chamber was

loaded with the sickly sweet fumes. A faint haze from the incensestick hovered up under the roof.

In the highbacked chair sat Dr. FuManchu, wearing a green robe upon which was embroidered a design,

the subject of which at first glance was not perceptible, but which presently I made out to be a huge white

peacock. He wore a little cap perched upon the dome of his amazing skull, and with one clawish hand resting

upon the ebony of the table, be sat slightly turned toward me, his emotionless face a mask of incredible evil.

In spite of, or because of, the high intellect written upon it, the face of Dr. FuManchu was more utterly

repellent than any I have ever known, and the green eyes, eyes green as those of a cat in the darkness, which

sometimes burned like witch lamps, and sometimes were horribly filmed like nothing human or imaginable,

might have mirrored not a soul, but an emanation of hell, incarnate in this gaunt, highshouldered body.

Stretched flat upon the floor lay Nayland Smith, partially stripped, his arms thrown back over his head and

his wrists chained to a stout iron staple attached to the wall; he was fully conscious and staring intently at the

Chinese doctor. His bare ankles also were manacled, and fixed to a second chain, which quivered tautly

across the green carpet and passed out through the doorway, being attached to something beyond the curtain,

FuManchu was now silent. I could hear Smith's heavy breathing and hear my watch ticking in my pocket. I

suddenly realized that although my body was lashed to the ebony chair, my hands and arms were free. Next,

looking dazedly about me, my attention was drawn to a heavy sword which stood hilt upward against the wall

within reach of my hand. It was a magnificent piece, of Japanese workmanship; a long, curved Damascened

blade having a doublehanded hilt of steel, inlaid with gold, and resembling fine Kuft work. A host of

possibilities swept through my mind. Then I perceived that the sword was attached to the wall by a thin steel

"Even if you had the dexterity of a Mexican knifethrower," came the guttural voice of FuManchu, "you

Smith turned his eyes upon me momentarily, only to look away again in the direction of FuManchu. My

friend's face was slightly pale beneath the tan, and his jaw muscles stood out with unusual prominence. By

this fact alone did he reveal his knowledge that he lay at the mercy of this enemy of the white race, of this

inhuman being who himself knew no mercy, of this man whose very genius was inspired by the cool,

calculated cruelty of his race, of that race which to this day disposes of hundreds, nay! thousands, of its

unwanted girlchildren by the simple measure of throwing them down a well specially dedicated to the

"The weapon near your hand," continued the Chinaman, imperturbably, "is a product of the civilization of our

near neighbors, the Japanese, a race to whose courage I prostrate myself in meekness. It is the sword of a

samurai, Dr. Petrie. It is of very great age, and was, until an unfortunate misunderstanding with myself led to

the extinction of the family, a treasured possession of a noble Japanese house . . ."

The soft voice, into which an occasional sibilance crept, but which never rose above a cool monotone,

gradually was lashing me into fury, and I could see the muscles moving in Smith's jaws as he convulsively

clenched his teeth; whereby I knew that, impotent, he burned with a rage at least as great as mine. But I did

"The ancient tradition of seppuku," continued the Chinaman, "or harakiri, still rules, as you know, in the

great families of Japan. There is a sacred ritual, and the samurai who dedicates himself to this honorable end,

must follow strictly the ritual. As a physician, the exact nature of the ceremony might possibly interest you,

Dr. Petrie, but a technical account of the two incisions which the sacrificant employs in his selfdismissal,

might, on the other hand, bore Mr. Nayland Smith. Therefore I will merely enlighten you upon one little

point, a minor one, but interesting to the student of human nature. In short, even a samuraiand no braver

race has ever honored the worldsometimes hesitates to complete the operation. The weapon near to your

hand, my dear Dr. Petrie, is known as the Friend's Sword. On such occasions as we are discussing, a trusty

friend is given the postan honored one of standing behind the brave man who offers himself to his gods,

and should the latter's courage momentarily fail him, the friend with the trusty blade (to which now I

especially direct your attention) diverts the hierophant's mind from his digression, and rectifies his temporary

breach of etiquette by severing the cervical vertebrae of the spinal column with the friendly bladewhich

Some dim perceptions of the truth was beginning to creep into my mind. When I say a perception of the truth,

I mean rather of some part of the purpose of Dr. FuManchu; of the whole horrible truth, of the scheme

which had been conceived by that mighty, evil man, I had no glimmering, but I foresaw that a frightful ordeal

"That I hold you in high esteem," continued FuManchu, "is a fact which must be apparent to you by this

time, but in regard to your companion, I entertain very different sentiments. . . ."

Always underlying the deliberate calm of the speaker, sometimes showing itself in an unusually deep

guttural, sometimes in an unusually serpentine sibilance, lurked the frenzy of hatred which in the past had

revealed itself occasionally in wild outbursts. Momentarily I expected such an outburst now, but it did not

"One quality possessed by Mr. Nayland Smith," resumed the Chinaman, "I admire; I refer to his courage. I

would wish that so courageous a man should seek his own end, should voluntarily efface himself from the

path of that worldmovement which he is powerless to check. In short, I would have him show himself a

samurai. Always his friend, you shall remain so to the end, Dr. Petrie. I have arranged for this."

He struck lightly a little silver gong, dependent from the corner of the table, whereupon, from the curtained

doorway, there entered a short, thickly built Burman whom I recognized for a dacoit. He wore a shoddy blue

suit, which had been made for a much larger man; but these things claimed little of my attention, which

Upon his back he carried a sort of wire box rather less than six feet long, some two feet high, and about two

feet wide. In short, it was a stout framework covered with fine wirenetting on the top, sides and ends, but

being open at the bottom. It seemed to be made in five sections or to contain four sliding partitions which

could be raised or lowered at will. These were of wood, and in the bottom of each was cut a little arch. The

arches in the four partitions varied in size, so that whereas the first was not more than five inches high, the

fourth opened almost to the wire roof of the box or cage; and a fifth, which was but little higher than the first,

So intent was I upon this device, the purpose of which I was wholly unable to divine, that I directed the whole

of my attention upon it. Then, as the Burman paused in the doorway, resting a corner of the cage upon the

brilliant carpet, I glanced toward FuManchu, He was watching Nayland Smith, and revealing his irregular

yellow teeththe teeth of an opium smokerin the awful mirthless smile which I knew.

"The knowledge of my beautiful country serves you well," replied FuManchu gently.

Instantly I looked to my friend . . . and every drop of blood seemed to recede from my heart, leaving it cold in

my breast. If I did not know the purpose of the cage, obviously Smith knew it all too well. His pallor had

grown more marked, and although his gray eyes stared defiantly at the Chinaman, I, who knew him, could

The dacoit, in obedience to a guttural order from Dr. FuManchu, placed the cage upon the carpet,

completely covering Smith's body, but leaving his neck and head exposed. The seared and pockmarked face

set in a sort of placid leer, the dacoit adjusted the sliding partitions to Smith's recumbent form, and I saw the

purpose of the graduated arches. They were intended to divide a human body in just such fashion, and, as I

realized, were most cunningly shaped to that end. The whole of Smith's body lay now in the wire cage, each

The Burman stepped back and stood waiting in the doorway. Dr. FuManchu, removing his gaze from the

"Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith shall have the honor of acting as hierophant, admitting himself to the

He glanced toward the Burman, who retired immediately, to reenter a moment later carrying a curious

leather sack, in shape not unlike that of a sakka or Arab watercarrier. Opening a little trap in the top of the

first compartment of the cage (that is, the compartment which covered Smith's bare feet and ankles) he

inserted the neck of the sack, then suddenly seized it by the bottom and shook it vigorously. Before my

horrified gaze four huge rats came tumbling out from the bag into the cage! The dacoit snatched away the

sack and snapped the shutter fast. A moving mist obscured my sight, a mist through which I saw the green

eyes of Dr. FuManchu fixed upon me, and through which, as from a great distance, his voice, sunk to a

"Cantonese rats, Dr. Petrie, the most ravenous in the world . . . they have eaten nothing for nearly a week!"

Then all became blurred as though a painter with a brush steeped in red had smudged out the details of the

picture. For an indefinite period, which seemed like many minutes yet probably was only a few seconds, I

saw nothing and heard nothing; my sensory nerves were dulled entirely. From this state I was awakened and

brought back to the realities by a sound which ever afterward I was doomed to associate with that ghastly

The red mist seemed to disperse at that, and with frightfully intense interest, I began to study the awful torture

to which Nayland Smith was being subjected. The dacoit had disappeared, and FuManchu placidly was

watching the four lean and hideous animals in the cage. As I also turned my eyes in that direction, the rats

"You have been good enough to notice," said the Chinaman, his voice still sunk in that sibilant whisper, "my

partiality for dumb allies. You have met my scorpions, my deathadders, my baboonman. The uses of such

a playful little animal as a marmoset have never been fully appreciated before, I think, but to an indiscretion

of this lastnamed pet of mine, I seem to remember that you owed something in the past, Dr. Petrie . . ."

Nayland Smith stifled a deep groan. One rapid glance I ventured at his face. It was a grayish hue, now, and

"Much depends upon yourself, Doctor," continued FuManchu, slightly raising his voice. "I credit Mr.

Commissioner Nayland Smith with courage high enough to sustain the raising of all the gates; but I estimate

the strength of your friendship highly, also, and predict that you will use the sword of the samurai certainly

A low shuddering sound, which I cannot hope to describe, but alas I can never forget, broke from the lips of

"In China," resumed FuManchu, "we call this quaint fancy the Six Gates of joyful Wisdom. The first gate,

by which the rats are admitted, is called the Gate of joyous Hope; the second, the Gate of Mirthful Doubt.

The third gate is poetically named, the Gate of True Rapture, and the fourth, the Gate of Gentle Sorrow. I

once was honored in the friendship of an exalted mandarin who sustained the course of joyful Wisdom to the

raising of the Fifth Gate (called the Gate of Sweet Desires) and the admission of the twentieth rat. I esteem

him almost equally with my ancestors. The Sixth, or Gate Celestial whereby a man enters into the joy of

Complete UnderstandingI have dispensed with, here, substituting a Japanese fancy of an antiquity nearly

as great and honorable. The introduction of this element of speculation, I count a happy thought, and

"The sword, Petrie!" whispered Smith. I should not have recognized his voice, but he spoke quite evenly and

steadily. "I rely upon you, old man, to spare me the humiliation of asking mercy from that yellow fiend!"

My mind throughout this time had been gaining a sort of dreadful clarity. I had avoided looking at the sword

of harakiri, but my thoughts had been leading me mercilessly up to the point at which we were now arrived.

No vestige of anger, of condemnation of the inhuman being seated in the ebony chair, remained; that was

past. Of all that had gone before, and of what was to come in the future, I thought nothing, knew nothing. Our

long fight against the yellow group, our encounters with the numberless creatures of FuManchu, the

dacoits even Karamanehwere forgotten, blotted out. I saw nothing of the strange appointments of that

subterranean chamber; but face to face with the supreme moment of a lifetime, I was alone with my poor

I turned and took up the samurai sword. My hands were very hot and dry, but perfectly steady, and I tested

the edge of the heavy weapon upon my left thumbnail as quietly as one might test a razor blade. It was as

keen, this blade of ghastly history, as any razor ever wrought in Sheffield. I seized the graven hilt, bent

forward in my chair, and raised the Friend's Sword high above my head. With the heavy weapon poised there,

I looked into my friend's eyes. They were feverishly bright, but never in all my days, nor upon the many beds

of suffering which it had been my lot to visit, had I seen an expression like that within them.

"The raising of the First Gate is always a crucial moment," came the guttural voice of the Chinaman.

Although I did not see him, and barely heard his words, I was aware that he had stood up and was bending

From somewheresomewhere remoteI heard a hoarse and animallike cry, followed by the sound of a

heavy fall. I can scarcely bear to write of that moment, for I had actually begun the downward sweep of the

great sword when that sound camea faint Hope, speaking of aid where I had thought no aid possible.

How I contrived to divert the blade, I do not know to this day; but I do know that its mighty sweep sheared a

lock from Smith's head and laid bare the scalp. With the hilt in my quivering hands I saw the blade bite

deeply through the carpet and floor above Nayland Smith's skull. There, buried fully two inches in the

woodwork, it stuck, and still clutching the hilt, I looked to the right and across the roomI looked to the

FuManchu, with one long, clawlike hand upon the top of the First Gate, was bending over the trap, but his

brilliant green eyes were turned in the same direction as my ownupon the curtained doorway.

Upright within it, her beautiful face as pale as death, but her great eyes blazing with a sort of splendid

She looked, not at the tortured man, not at me, but fully at Dr. FuManchu. One hand clutched the trembling

draperies; now she suddenly raised the other, so that the jewels on her white arm glittered in the light of the

lamp above the door. She held my Browning pistol! FuManchu sprang upright, inhaling sibilantly, as

I saw a little red streak appear, up by the neutral colored hair, under the black cap. I became as a detached

intelligence, unlinked with the corporeal, looking down upon a thing which for some reason I had never

FuManchu threw up both arms, so that the sleeves of the green robe fell back to the elbows. He clutched at

his head, and the black cap fell behind him. He began to utter short, guttural cries; he swayed backwardto

the rightto the left then lurched forward right across the cage. There he lay, writhing, for a moment, his

baneful eyes turned up, revealing the whites; and the great gray rats, released, began leaping about the room.

Two shot like gray streaks past the slim figure in the doorway, one darted behind the chair to which I was

lashed, and the fourth ran all around against the wall . . . FuManchu, prostrate across the overturned cage,

I experienced a mental repetition of my adventure in the earlier eveningI was dropping, dropping,

dropping into some bottomless pit . . . warm arms were about my neck; and burning kisses upon my lips.

I seemed to haul myself back out of the pit of unconsciousness by the aid of two little hands which clasped

I was sitting in the big redleathern armchair in my own study . . . and a lovely but truly bizarre figure, in a

harem dress, was kneeling on the carpet at my feet; so that my first sight of the world was the sweetest sight

that the world had to offer me, the dark eyes of Karamaneh, with tears trembling like jewels upon her lashes!

I looked no further than that, heeded not if there were others in the room beside we two, but, gripping the

jewelladen fingers in what must have been a cruel clasp, I searched the depths of the glorious eyes in ever

growing wonder. What change had taken place in those limpid, mysterious pools? Why was a wild madness

growing up within me like a flame? Why was the old longing returned, tenthousandfold, to snatch that

No word was spoken, but the spoken words of a thousand ages could not have expressed one tithe of what

was held in that silent communion. A hand was laid hesitatingly on my shoulder. I tore my gaze away from

"God is all merciful," he said. "My sister is restored to us" (I loved him for the plural); "and she remembers."

Those few words were enough; I understood now that this lovely girl, who half knelt, half lay, at my feet, was

not the evil, perverted creature of FuManchu whom we had gone out to arrest with the other vile servants of

the Chinese doctor, but was the old, beloved companion of two years ago, the Karamaneh for whom I had

sought long and wearily in Egypt, who had been swallowed up and lost to me in that land of mystery.

The loss of memory which FuManchu had artificially induced was subject to the same inexplicable laws

which ordinarily rule in cases of amnesia. The shock of her brave action that night had begun to effect a cure;

Inspector Weymouth was standing by the writingtable. My mind cleared rapidly now, and standing up, but

Dr. Gray, a neighboring practitioner, appeared in the doorway at the moment that I spoke the words.

"It's all right, Petrie," he said, reassuringly; "I think we took it in time. I have thoroughly cauterized the

wounds, and granted that no complication sets in, he'll be on his feet again in a week or two."

I suppose I was in a condition closely bordering upon the hysterical. At any rate, my behavior was

"Thank Him, indeed," responded the musical voice of Aziz. He spoke with all the passionate devoutness of

Everything, even Karamaneh was forgotten, and I started for the door as though my life depended upon my

speed. With one foot upon the landing, I turned, looked back, and met the glance of Inspector Weymouth.

"We haven't been able to get to it. That end of the vault collapsed two minutes after we hauled you out!"

As I write, now, of those strange days, already they seem remote and unreal. But, where other and more

dreadful memories already are grown misty, the memory of that evening in my rooms remains clearcut and

During the days that immediately followed, whilst Smith was slowly recovering from his hurts, I made my

plans deliberately; I prepared to cut myself off from old associationsprepared to exile myself, gladly; how

That my friend approved of my projects, I cannot truthfully state, but his disapproval at least was not openly

expressed. To Karamaneh I said nothing of my plans, but her complete reliance in my powers to protect her,

Since, always, I have sought in these chronicles to confine myself to the facts directly relating to the

malignant activity of Dr. FuManchu, I shall abstain from burdening you with details of my private affairs.

As an instrument of the Chinese doctor, it has sometimes been my duty to write of the beautiful Eastern girl; I

cannot suppose that my readers have any further curiosity respecting her from the moment that Fate freed her

from that awful servitude. Therefore, when I shall have dealt with the episodes which marked our voyage to

EgyptI had opened negotiations in regard to a practice in CairoI may honorably lay down my pen.

These episodes opened, dramatically, upon the second night of the voyage from Marseilles.

I suppose I did not awake very readily. Following the nervous vigilance of the past six months, my tired

nerves, in the enjoyment of this relaxation, were rapidly recuperating. I no longer feared to awake to find a

So that the voice may have been calling (indeed, had been calling) for some time, and of this I had been

hazily conscious before finally I awoke. Then, ere the new sense of security came to reassure me, the old

sense of impending harm set my heart leaping nervously. There is always a certain physical panic attendant

upon such awakening in the still of night, especially in novel surroundings. Now, I sat up abruptly, clutching

There was a soft thudding on my cabin door, and a voice, low and urgent, was crying my name.

Through the open porthole the moonlight streamed into my room, and save for a remote and soothing throb,

inseparable from the progress of a great steamship, nothing else disturbed the stillness; I might have floated

lonely upon the bosom of the Mediterranean. But there was the drumming on the door again, and the urgent

I threw off the bedclothes and stepped on to the floor of the cabin, fumbling hastily for my slippers. A fear

that something was amiss, that some aftermath, some wraith of the dread Chinaman, was yet to come to

Upon the gleaming deck, blackly outlined against a wondrous sky, stood a man who wore a blue greatcoat

over his pyjamas, and whose unstockinged feet were thrust into red slippers. It was Platts, the Marconi

"I'm awfully sorry to disturb you, Dr. Petrie," he said, "and I was even less anxious to arouse your neighbor;

but somebody seems to be trying to get a message, presumably urgent, through to you."

"I cannot make it out," admitted Platts, running his fingers through disheveled hair, "but I thought it better to

I turned without a word, slipped into my dressinggown, and with Platts passed aft along the deserted deck.

The sea was as calm as a great lake. Ahead, on the port bow, an angry flambeau burned redly beneath the

peaceful vault of the heavens. Platts nodded absently in the direction of the weird flames.

"Stromboli," he said; "we shall be nearly through the Straits by breakfasttime."

We mounted the narrow stair to the Marconi deck. At the table sat Platts' assistant with the Marconi

attachment upon his headan apparatus which always set me thinking of the electric chair.

"It's still coming through," replied the other without moving, "but in the same jerky fashion. Every time I get

"That's the mystery," he declared. "Look!"and he pointed to the table; "according to the Marconi chart,

there's a Messagerie boat due west between us and Marseilles, and the homewardbound P. & O. which we

passed this morning must be getting on that way also, by now. The Isis is somewhere ahead, but I've spoken

"It doesn't come from Messina," replied the man at the table, beginning to write rapidly.

Stepping in turn to the table, I leaned over between the two and read these words as the operator wrote them

I drew a quick breath and gripped Platts' shoulder harshly. His assistant began fingering the instrument with

The operator stood up and unclasped the receivers from his ears. There, high above the sleeping ship's

company, with the carpet of the blue Mediterranean stretched indefinitely about us, we three stood looking at

one another. By virtue of a miracle of modern science, some one, divided from me by mile upon mile of

"They gave no code word," he said. "God knows who they were. It's a strange business and a strange

message. Have you any sort of idea, Dr. Petrie, respecting the identity of the sender?"

I stared him hard in the face; an idea had mechanically entered my mind, but one of which I did not choose to

But, had I not seen with my own eyes the bloody streak across his forehead as the shot fired by Karamaneh

entered his high skull, had I not known, so certainly as it is given to man to know, that the giant intellect was

My reflections were rudely terminated and my sinister thoughts given new stimulus, by a loud though

muffled cry which reached me from somewhere in the ship, below. Both my companions started as violently

as I, whereby I knew that the mystery of the wireless message had not been without its effect upon their

minds also. But whereas they paused in doubt, I leaped from the room and almost threw myself down the

Although I could perceive no connection betwixt the strange message and the cry in the night, intuitively I

linked them, intuitively I knew that my fears had been wellgrounded; that the shadow of FuManchu still

Karamaneh occupied a large stateroom aft on the main deck; so that I had to descend from the upper deck on

which my own room was situated to the promenade deck, again to the main deck and thence proceed nearly

Karamaneh and her brother, Aziz, who occupied a neighboring room, met me, near the library. Karamaneh's

eyes were wide with fear; her peerless coloring had fled, and she was white to the lips. Aziz, who wore a

dressinggown thrown hastily over his night attire, had his arm protectively about the girl's shoulders.

There came a sound of opening doors, and several passengers, whom Karamaneh cries had alarmed, appeared

in various stages of undress. A stewardess came running from the far end of the alleyway, and I found time to

wonder at my own speed; for, starting from the distant Marconi deck, yet I had been the first to arrive upon

Stacey, the ship's doctor, was quartered at no great distance from the spot, and he now joined the group.

Anticipating the question which trembled upon the lips of several of those about me:

"Come to Dr. Stacey's room," I said, taking Karamaneh arm; "we will give you something to enable you to

sleep." I turned to the group. "My patient has had severe nerve trouble," I explained, "and has developed

I declined the stewardess' offer of assistance, with a slight shake of the head, and shortly the four of us

entered the doctor's cabin, on the deck above. Stacey carefully closed the door. He was an old fellow student

of mine, and already he knew much of the history of the beautiful Eastern girl and her brother Aziz.

I glanced at Karamaneh who, since the moment of my arrival had never once removed her gaze from me; she

remained in that state of passive fear in which I had found her, the lovely face pallid; and she stared at me

fixedly in a childish, expressionless way which made me fear that the shock to which she had been subjected,

whatever its nature, had caused a relapse into that strange condition of forgetfulness from which a previous

"Something has frightened you," he said gently, seating himself on the arm of Karamaneh chair and patting

For the first time since our meeting that night, the girl turned her eyes from me and glanced up at Stacey, a

sudden warm blush stealing over her face and throat and as quickly departing, to leave her even more pale

"Send for Mr. Nayland Smith without delay!" she said, and her sweet voice was slightly tremulous. "He must

Aziz who evidently was as anxious as myself for information, and who now knelt at his sister's feet looking at

her with that strange love, which was almost adoration, in his eyes, glanced back at me and nodded his head

"Something"Karamaneh paused, shuddering violently"some dreadful thing, like a mummy escaped

"Yes, yes, through the porthole! A creature tall and very, very thin. He wore wrappingsyellow

wrappingsswathed about his head, so that only his eyes, his evil gleaming eyes, were visible. . . . From

waist to knees he was covered, also, but his body, his feet, and his legs were bare . . .

"He was a brown man, yes"Karamaneh divining my question, nodded, and the shimmering cloud of her

wonderful hair, hastily confined, burst free and rippled about her shoulders. "A gaunt, fleshless brown man,

"Heitthe mummy thingwould have strangled me if I had slept, for he crouched over the

"No," added Karamaneh; "the light was out." She turned her eyes toward me, as the wonderful blush

overspread her face once more. "I was sitting thinking. It all happened within a few seconds, and quite

silently. As the mummy crouched over the berth, I unlocked the door and leaped out into the passage. I think

I screamed; I did not mean to. Oh, Dr. Stacey, there is not a moment to spare! Mr. Nayland Smith must be

Nayland Smith leaned against the edge of the dressingtable, attired in pyjamas. The little stateroom was

hazy with smoke, and my friend gripped the charred briar between his teeth and watched the bluegray

clouds arising from the bowl, in an abstracted way. I knew that he was thinking hard, and from the fact that

he had exhibited no surprise when I had related to him the particular's of the attack upon Karamaneh I judged

that he had half anticipated something of the kind. Suddenly he stood up, staring at me fixedly.

"Your tact has saved the situation, Petrie," he snapped. "It failed you momentarily, though, when you

proposed to me just now that we should muster the lascars for inspection. Our game is to pretend that we

"It would be useless, Petrie," he interrupted me. "You cannot suppose that I overlooked the possibility of

some creature of the doctor's being among the lascars. I can assure you that not one of them answers to the

description of the midnight assailant. From the girl's account we have to look (discarding the idea of a

revivified mummy) for a man of unusual heightand there's no lascar of unusual height on board; and from

the visible evidence, that he entered the stateroom through the porthole, we have to look for a man more than

normally thin. In a word, the servant of Dr. FuManchu who attempted the life of Karamaneh is either in

With his usual clarity of vision, Nayland Smith had visualized the facts of the case; I passed in mental survey

each one of the passengers, and those of the crew whose appearances were familiar to me, with the result that

I had to admit the justice of my friend's conclusions. Smith began to pace the narrow strip of carpet between

the dressingtable and the door. Suddenly he began again. "From our knowledge of FuManchu and of the

group surrounding him (and, don't forget, surviving him)we may further assume that the wireless message

was no gratuitous piece of melodrama, but that it was directed to a definite end. Let us endeavor to link up the

chain a little. You occupy an upper deck berth; so do I. Experience of the Chinaman has formed a habit in

both of us; that of sleeping with closed windows. Your port was fastened and so was my own. Karamaneh is

quartered on the main deck, and her brother's stateroom opens into the same alleyway. Since the ship is in the

Straits of Messina, and the glass set fair, the stewards have not closed the portholes nightly at present. We

know that that of Karamaneh's stateroom was open. Therefore, in any attempt upon our quartet, Karamaneh

would automatically be selected for the victim, since failing you or myself she may be regarded as being the

I nodded comprehendingly. Smith's capacity for throwing the white light of reason into the darkest places

"You may have noticed," he continued, "that Karamaneh's room is directly below your own. In the event of

any outcry, you would be sooner upon the scene than I should, for instance, because I sleep on the opposite

side of the ship. This circumstance I take to be the explanation of the wireless message, which, because of its

hesitancy (a piece of ingenuity very characteristic of the group), led to your being awakened and invited up to

the Marconi deck; in short, it gave the wouldbe assassin a better chance of escaping before your arrival."

I watched my friend in growing wonder. The strange events, seemingly having no link, took their places in

the drama, and became wellordered episodes in a plot that only a criminal genius could have devised. As I

studied the keen, bronzed face, I realized to the full the stupendous mental power of Dr. FuManchu,

measuring it by the criterion of Nayland Smith's. For the cunning Chinaman, in a sense, had foiled this

brilliant man before me, whereby, if by nought else, I might know him a master of his evil art.

"I regard the episode," continued Smith, "as a posthumous attempt of the doctor's; a legacy of hate which may

prove more disastrous than any attempt made upon us by FuManchu in life. Some fiendish member of the

murder group is on board the ship. We must, as always, meet guile with guile. There must be no appeal to the

captain, no public examination of passengers and crew. One attempt has failed; I do not doubt that others will

be made. At present, you will enact the role of physicianinattendance upon Karamaneh, and will put it

about for whom it may interest that a slight return of her nervous trouble is causing her to pass uneasy nights.

"I haven't troubled to make inquiries," added Smith, "but I think it probable that the regulation respecting

closed ports will come into operation immediately we have passed the Straits, or at any rate immediately

"I mean that no alteration should be made in our habits. A second attempt along similar lines is to be

As I entered the saloon for breakfast in the morning, I was subjected to solicitous inquiries from Mrs. Prior,

the gossip of the ship. Her room adjoined Karamaneh's and she had been one of the passengers aroused by the

girl's cries in the night. Strictly adhering to my role, I explained that my patient was threatened with a second

nervous breakdown, and was subject to vivid and disturbing dreams. One or two other inquiries I met in the

That ironbound code of conduct which rules the AngloIndian, in the first days of the voyage had

threatened to ostracize Karamaneh and Aziz, by reason of the Eastern blood to which their brilliant but

peculiar type of beauty bore witness. Smith's attitude, howeverand, in a Burmese commissioner, it

constituted something of a lawhad done much to break down the barriers; the extraordinary beauty of the

girl had done the rest. So that now, far from finding themselves shunned, the society of Karamaneh and her

romanticlooking brother was universally courted. The last inquiry that morning, respecting my interesting

patient, came from the bishop of Damascus, a benevolent old gentleman whose ancestry was not wholly

innocent of Oriental strains, and who sat at a table immediately behind me. As I settled down to my porridge,

"Mrs. Prior tells me that your charming friend was disturbed last night," he whispered. "She seems rather pale

I swung around, with a smile. Owing to my carelessness, there was a slight collision, and the poor bishop,

who had been invalided to England after typhoid, in order to undergo special treatment, suppressed an

exclamation of pain, although his fine dark eyes gleamed kindly upon me through the pebbles of his

Indeed, despite his Eastern blood, he might have posed for a Sadler picture, his small and refined features

But the bishop raised his small, slim fingered hand of old ivory hue, deprecatingly.

His system was supercharged with typhoid bacilli, and, as sometimes occurs, the superfluous "bugs" had

sought exit. He could only walk with the aid of two stout sticks, and bent very much at that. His left leg had

been surgically scraped to the bone, and I appreciated the exquisite torture to which my awkwardness had

subjected him. But he would entertain no apologies, pressing his inquiry respecting Karamaneh in the kindly

"Many thanks for your solicitude," I said; "I have promised her sound repose tonight, and since my

In short, we were in pleasant company, and the day passed happily enough and without notable event. Smith

spent some considerable time with the chief officer, wandering about unfrequented parts of the ship. I learned

later that he had explored the lascars' quarters, the forecastle, the engineroom, and had even descended to

the stokehold; but this was done so unostentatiously that it occasioned no comment.

With the approach of evening, in place of that physical contentment which usually heralds the dinnerhour, at

sea, I experienced a fit of the seemingly causeless apprehension which too often in the past had harbingered

the coming of grim events; which I had learnt to associate with the nearing presence of one of FuManchu's

deathagents. In view of the facts, as I afterwards knew them to be, I cannot account for this.

Yet, in an unexpected manner, my forebodings were realized. That night I was destined to meet a sorrow

surpassing any which my troubled life had known. Even now I experience great difficulty in relating the

matters which befell, in speaking of the sense of irrevocable loss which came to me. Briefly, then, at about

ten minutes before the dining hour, whilst all the passengers, myself included, were below, dressing, a faint

cry arose from somewhere aft on the upper decka cry which was swiftly taken up by other voices, so that

All my premonitions rallying in that one sickening moment, I sprang out on the deck, half dressed as I was,

and leaping past the boat which swung nearly opposite my door, craned over the rail, looking astern.

For a long time I could detect nothing unusual. The engineroom telegraph was ringingand the motion of

the screws momentarily ceased; then, in response to further ringing, recommenced, but so as to jar the whole

structure of the vessel; whereby I knew that the engines were reversed. Peering intently into the wake of the

ship, I was but dimly aware of the ever growing turmoil around me, of the swift mustering of a boat's crew, of

the shouted orders of the thirdofficer. Suddenly I saw itthe sight which was to haunt me for succeeding

Half in the streak of the wake and half out of it, I perceived the sleeve of a white jacket, and, near to it, a soft

felt hat. The sleeve rose up once into clear view, seemed to describe a halfcircle in the air then sink back

again into the glassy swell of the water. Only the hat remained floating upon the surface.

By the evidence of the white sleeve alone I might have remained unconvinced, although upon the voyage I

had become familiar enough with the drill shootingjacket, but the presence of the gray felt hat was almost

I cannot hope, writing now, to convey in any words at my command, a sense, even remote, of the utter

To spring overboard to the rescue was a natural impulse, but to have obeyed it would have been worse than

quixotic. In the first place, the drowning man was close upon half a mile astern; in the second place, others

had seen the hat and the white coat as clearly as I; among them the thirdofficer, standing upright in the stern

of the boatwhich, with commendable promptitude had already been swung into the water. The steamer was

being put about, describing a wide arc around the little boat dancing on the deep blue rollers. . . .

Of the next hour, I cannot bear to write at all. Long as I had known him, I was ignorant of my friend's powers

as a swimmer, but I judged that he must have been a poor one from the fact that he had sunk so rapidly in a

calm sea. Except the hat, no trace of Nayland Smith remained when the boat got to the spot.

Dinner was out of the question that night for all of us. Karamaneh who had spoken no word, but, grasping my

hands, had looked into my eyesher own glassy with unshed tearsand then stolen away to her cabin, had

not since reappeared. Seated upon my berth, I stared unseeingly before me, upon a changed ship, a changed

sea and sky upon another world. The poor old bishop, my neighbor, had glanced in several times, as he

hobbled by, and his spectacles were unmistakably humid; but even he had vouchsafed no word, realizing that

When at last I became capable of connected thought, I found myself faced by a big problem. Should I place

the facts of the matter, as I knew them to be, before the captain? or could I hope to apprehend FuManchu's

servant by the methods suggested by my poor friend? That Smith's death was an accident, I did not believe

for a moment; it was impossible not to link it with the attempt upon Karamaneh. In my misery and doubt, I

determined to take counsel with Dr. Stacey. I stood up, and passed out on to the deck.

Those passengers whom I met on my way to his room regarded me in respectful silence. By contrast, Stacey's

"I'd be prepared to stake all I possessalthough it's not much," he said, "that this was not the work of your

He blankly refused to give me his reasons for the statement and strongly advised me to watch and wait but to

At this hour I can look back and savor again something of the profound dejection of that time. I could not

face the passengers; I even avoided Karamaneh and Aziz. I shut myself in my cabin and sat staring aimlessly

into the growing darkness. The steward knocked, once, inquiring if I needed anything, but I dismissed him

Those groups of promenaders who passed my door, invariably were discussing my poor friend's tragic end;

but as the night wore on, the deck grew empty, and I sat amid a silence that in my miserable state I welcomed

more than the presence of any friend, saving only the one whom I should never welcome again.

Since I had not counted the bells, to this day I have only the vaguest idea respecting the time whereat the next

incident occurred which it is my duty to chronicle. Perhaps I was on the verge of falling asleep, seated there

as I was; at any rate, I could scarcely believe myself awake, when, unheralded by any footsteps to indicate his

coming, some one who seemed to be crouching outside my stateroom, slightly raised himself and peered in

He must have been a fairly tall man to have looked in at all, and although his features were indistinguishable

in the darkness, his outline, which was clearly perceptible against the white boat beyond, was unfamiliar to

me. He seemed to have a small, and oddly swathed head, and what I could make out of the gaunt neck and

square shoulders in some way suggested an unnatural thinness; in short, the smudgy silhouette in the porthole

For some moments I stared at the apparition; then, rousing myself from the apathy into which I had sunk, I

stood up very quickly and stepped across the room. As I did so the figure vanished, and when I threw open

I realized at once that it would be useless, even had I chosen the course, to seek confirmation of what I had

seen from the officer on the bridge: my own berth, together with the one adjoiningthat of the bishopwas

For some time I stood in my doorway, wondering in a disinterested fashion which now I cannot explain, if

the hidden enemy had revealed himself to me, or if disordered imagination had played me a trick. Later, I was

destined to know the truth of the matter, but when at last I fell into a troubled sleep, that night, I was still in

My state of mind when I awakened on the following day was indescribable; I found it difficult to doubt that

Nayland Smith would meet me on the way to the bathroom as usual, with the cracked briar fuming between

his teeth. I felt myself almost compelled to pass around to his stateroom in order to convince myself that he

was not really there. The catastrophe was still unreal to me, and the world a dreamworld. Indeed I retain

scarcely any recollections of the traffic of that day, or of the days that followed it until we reached Port Said.

Two things only made any striking appeal to my dulled intelligence at that time. These were: the aloof

attitude of Dr. Stacey, who seemed carefully to avoid me; and a curious circumstance which the second

officer mentioned in conversation one evening as we strolled up and down the main deck together.

"Either I was fast asleep at my post, Dr. Petrie," he said, "or last night, in the middle watch, some one or

something came over the side of the ship just aft the bridge, slipped across the deck, and disappeared."

"Nothing could very well have come up out of the sea," he replied, smiling slightly, "so that it must have

"It looked like a man, and a fairly tall one, but be came and was gone like a flash, and I saw no more of him

up to the time I was relieved. To tell you the truth, I did not report it because I thought I must have been

dozing; it's a dead slow watch, and the navigation on this part of the run is child's play."

I was on the point of telling him what I had seen myself, two evenings before, but for some reason I refrained

from doing so, although I think had I confided in him he would have abandoned the idea that what he had

seen was phantasmal; for the pair of us could not very well have been dreaming. Some malignant presence

haunted the ship; I could not doubt this; yet I remained passive, sunk in a lethargy of sorrow.

We were scheduled to reach Port Said at about eight o'clock in the evening, but by reason of the delay

occasioned so tragically, I learned that in all probability we should not arrive earlier than midnight, whilst

passengers would not go ashore until the following morning. Karamaneh who had been staring ahead all day,

seeking a first glimpse of her native land, was determined to remain up until the hour of our arrival, but after

dinner a notice was posted up that we should not be in before two A.M. Even those passengers who were the

most enthusiastic thereupon determined to postpone, for a few hours, their first glimpse of the land of the

Pharaohs and even to forego the sightone of the strangest and most interesting in the worldof Port Said

For my own part, I confess that all the interest and hope with which I had looked forward to our arrival, had

left me, and often I detected tears in the eyes of Karamaneh whereby I knew that the coldness in my heart had

manifested itself even to her. I had sustained the greatest blow of my life, and not even the presence of so

lovely a companion could entirely recompense me for the loss of my dearest friend.

The lights on the Egyptian shore were faintly visible when the last group of stragglers on deck broke up. I had

long since prevailed upon Karamaneh to retire, and now, utterly sick at heart, I sought my own stateroom,

It may, or may not be singular that I had neglected all precautions since the night of the tragedy; I was not

even conscious of a desire to visit retribution upon our hidden enemy; in some strange fashion I took it for

granted that there would be no further attempts upon Karamaneh, Aziz, or myself. I had not troubled to

confirm Smith's surmise respecting the closing of the portholes; but I know now for a fact that, whereas they

had been closed from the time of our leaving the Straits of Messina, tonight, in sight of the Egyptian coast,

the regulation was relaxed again. I cannot say if this is usual, but that it occurred on this ship is a fact to

The night was steamingly hot, and because I welcomed the circumstance that my own port was widely

opened, I reflected that those on the lower decks might be open also. A faint sense of danger stirred within

me; indeed, I sat upright and was about to spring out of my berth when that occurred which induced me to

All passengers had long since retired, and a midnight silence descended upon the ship, for we were not yet

Clearly outlined in the open porthole there suddenly arose that same grotesque silhouette which I had seen

Prompted by I know not what, I lay still and simulated heavy breathing; for it was evident to me that I must

be partly visible to the watcher, so bright was the night. For tentwentythirty seconds he studied me in

absolute silence, that gaunt thing so like a mummy; and, with my eyes partly closed, I watched him, breathing

heavily all the time. Then, making no more noise than a cat, he moved away across the deck, and I could

judge of his height by the fact that his small, swathed head remained visible almost to the time that he passed

In a moment I slipped quietly to the floor, crossed, and peered out of the porthole; so that at last I had a clear

view of the sinister mummyman. He was crouching under the bow of the boat, and attaching to the white

rails, below, a contrivance of a kind with which I was not entirely unfamiliar. This was a thin ladder of silken

rope, having bamboo rungs, with two metal hooks for attaching it to any suitable object.

The one thus engaged was, as Karamaneh had declared, almost superhumanly thin. His loins were swathed in

a sort of linen garment, and his head so bound about, turban fashion, that only his gleaming eyes remained

visible. The bare limbs and body were of a dusky yellow color, and, at sight of him, I experienced a sudden

My pistol was in my cabintrunk, and to have found it in the dark, without making a good deal of noise,

would have been impossible. Doubting how I should act, I stood watching the man with the swathed head

whilst he threw the end of the ladder over the side, crept past the bow of the boat, and swung his gaunt body

over the rail, exhibiting the agility of an ape. One quick glance fore and aft he gave, then began to swarm

With a choking cry, which forced itself unwilled from my lips, I tore at the door, threw it open, and sprang

across the deck. Plans, I had none, and since I carried no instrument wherewith to sever the ladder, the

murderer might indeed have carried out his design for all that I could have done to prevent him, were it not

At the moment that the mummymanhis head now on a level with the deckperceived me, he stopped

dead. Coincident with his stopping, the crack of a pistol shot soundedfrom immediately beyond the boat.

Uttering a sort of sobbing sound, the creature fellthen clutched, with straining yellow fingers, at the rails,

and, seemingly by dint of a great effort, swarmed along aft some twenty feet, with incredible swiftness and

A second shot cracked sharply; and a voice (God! was I mad!) cried: "Hold him, Petrie!"

Rigid with fearful astonishment I stood, as out from the boat above me leaped a figure attired solely in shirt

and trousers. The newcomer leaped away in the wake of the mummymanwho had vanished around the

I clutched at my headwhich seemed to be fiery hot; I realized in my own person the sensation of one who

I stood in the bishop's stateroom, Nayland Smith, his gaunt face wet with perspiration, beside me, handling

certain odd looking objects which littered the place, and lay about amid the discarded garments of the absent

"Pneumatic pads!" he snapped. "The man was a walking aircushion!" He gingerly fingered two strange

rubber appliances. "For distending the cheeks," he muttered, dropping them disgustedly on the floor. "His

hands and wrists betrayed him, Petrie. He wore his cuff unusually long but he could not entirely hide his

bony wrists. To have watched him, whilst remaining myself unseen, was next to impossible; hence my device

of tossing a dummy overboard, calculated to float for less than ten minutes! It actually floated nearly fifteen,

"My dear old chapthere was no other way, believe me. From that boat I could see right into his stateroom,

but, once in, I dare not leave itexcept late at night, stealthily! The second spotted me one night and I

"Impossible! I'll admit I nearly fell to the temptation that first night; for I could see into your room as well as

into his!" He slapped me boisterously on the back, but his gray eyes were suspiciously moist. "Dear old

Petrie! Thank God for our friends! But you'd be the first to admit, old man, that you're a dead rotten actor!

Your portrayal of grief for the loss of a valued chum would not have convinced a soul on board!

"Therefore I made use of Stacey, whose callous attitude was less remarkable. Gad, Petrie! I nearly bagged our

man the first night! The elaborate planMarconi message to get you out of the way, and so forthhad

miscarried, and he knew the porthole trick would be useless once we got into the open sea. He took a big

chance. He discarded his clerical guise and peeped into your roomyou remember?but you were awake,

and I made no move when he slipped back to his own cabin; I wanted to take him redhanded."

"Who he is? No more than where he is! Probably some creature of Dr. FuManchu specially chosen for the

purpose; obviously a man of culture, and probably of thug ancestry. I hit himin the shoulder; but even then

he ran like a hare. We've searched the ship, without result. He may have gone overboard and chanced the

We stepped out onto the deck. Around us was that unforgettable scenePort Said by night. The ship was

barely moving through the glassy water, now. Smith took my arm and we walked forward. Above us was the

mighty peace of Egypt's sky ablaze with splendor; around and about us moved the unique turmoil of the

"I would give much to know the real identity of the bishop of Damascus," muttered Smith.

He stopped abruptly, snapping his teeth together and grasping my arm as in a vise. Hard upon his words had

followed the rattling clangor as the great anchor was let go; but horribly intermingled with the metallic roar

there came to us such a fearful, inarticulate shrieking as to chill one's heart.

The anchor plunged into the water of the harbor; the shrieking ceased. Smith turned to me, and his face was

"We shall never know," he whispered. "God forgive himhe must be in bloody tatters now. Petrie, the poor

A little hand stole into mine. I turned quickly. Karamaneh stood beside me. I placed my arm about her

shoulders, drawing her close; and I blush to relate that all else was forgotten.

For a moment, heedless of the fearful turmoil forward, Nayland Smith stood looking at us. Then he turned,