Sax Rohmer - The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu

yourself."

She shook her head, flashed a rapid glance at me with her beautiful

eyes, and looked away in a sort of sorrowful embarrassment, for which I

was entirely at a loss to account. Suddenly she resumed:

"I cannot let my name be mentioned in this dreadful matter, but--I

think I have some information--for the police. Will you give this

to--whomever you think proper?"

She handed me a sealed envelope, again met my eyes with one of her

dazzling glances, and hurried away. She had gone no more than ten or

twelve yards, and I still was standing bewildered, watching her

graceful, retreating figure, when she turned abruptly and came back.

Without looking directly at me, but alternately glancing towards a

distant corner of the square and towards the house of Major-General

Platt-Houston, she made the following extraordinary request:

"If you would do me a very great service, for which I always would be

grateful,"--she glanced at me with passionate intentness--"when you

have given my message to the proper person, leave him and do not go

near him any more to-night!"

Before I could find words to reply she gathered up her cloak and ran.

Before I could determine whether or not to follow her (for her words

had aroused anew all my worst suspicions) she had disappeared! I heard

the whir of a restarted motor at no great distance, and, in the instant

that Nayland Smith came running down the steps, I knew that I had

nodded at my post.

"Smith!" I cried as he joined me, "tell me what we must do!" And

rapidly I acquainted him with the incident.

My friend looked very grave; then a grim smile crept round his lips.

"She was a big card to play," he said; "but he did not know that I held

one to beat it."

"What! You know this girl! Who is she?"

"She is one of the finest weapons in the enemy's armory, Petrie. But a

woman is a two-edged sword, and treacherous. To our great good

fortune, she has formed a sudden predilection, characteristically

Oriental, for yourself. Oh, you may scoff, but it is evident. She was

employed to get this letter placed in my hands. Give it to me."

I did so.

"She has succeeded. Smell."

He held the envelope under my nose, and, with a sudden sense of nausea,

I recognized the strange perfume.

"You know what this presaged in Sir Crichton's case? Can you doubt any

longer? She did not want you to share my fate, Petrie."

"Smith," I said unsteadily, "I have followed your lead blindly in this

horrible business and have not pressed for an explanation, but I must

insist before I go one step farther upon knowing what it all means."

"Just a few steps farther," he rejoined; "as far as a cab. We are

hardly safe here. Oh, you need not fear shots or knives. The man

whose servants are watching us now scorns to employ such clumsy,

tell-tale weapons."

Only three cabs were on the rank, and, as we entered the first,

something hissed past my ear, missed both Smith and me by a miracle,

and, passing over the roof of the taxi, presumably fell in the enclosed

garden occupying the center of the square.

"What was that?" I cried.

"Get in--quickly!" Smith rapped back. "It was attempt number one!

More than that I cannot say. Don't let the man hear. He has noticed

nothing. Pull up the window on your side, Petrie, and look out behind.

Good! We've started."

The cab moved off with a metallic jerk, and I turned and looked back

through the little window in the rear.

"Someone has got into another cab. It is following ours, I think."

Nayland Smith lay back and laughed unmirthfully.

"Petrie," he said, "if I escape alive from this business I shall know

that I bear a charmed life."

I made no reply, as he pulled out the dilapidated pouch and filled his

pipe.

"You have asked me to explain matters," he continued, "and I will do so

to the best of my ability. You no doubt wonder why a servant of the

British Government, lately stationed in Burma, suddenly appears in

London, in the character of a detective. I am here, Petrie--and I bear

credentials from the very highest sources--because, quite by accident,

I came upon a clew. Following it up, in the ordinary course of

routine, I obtained evidence of the existence and malignant activity of

a certain man. At the present stage of the case I should not be

justified in terming him the emissary of an Eastern Power, but I may

say that representations are shortly to be made to that Power's

ambassador in London."

He paused and glanced back towards the pursuing cab.

"There is little to fear until we arrive home," he said calmly.

"Afterwards there is much. To continue: This man, whether a fanatic

or a duly appointed agent, is, unquestionably, the most malign and

formidable personality existing in the known world today. He is a

linguist who speaks with almost equal facility in any of the civilized

languages, and in most of the barbaric. He is an adept in all the arts

and sciences which a great university could teach him. He also is an

adept in certain obscure arts and sciences which no university of

to-day can teach. He has the brains of any three men of genius.

Petrie, he is a mental giant."

"You amaze me!" I said.

"As to his mission among men. Why did M. Jules Furneaux fall dead in a

Paris opera house? Because of heart failure? No! Because his last

speech had shown that he held the key to the secret of Tongking. What

became of the Grand Duke Stanislaus? Elopement? Suicide? Nothing of

the kind. He alone was fully alive to Russia's growing peril. He

alone knew the truth about Mongolia. Why was Sir Crichton Davey

murdered? Because, had the work he was engaged upon ever seen the

light it would have shown him to be the only living Englishman who

understood the importance of the Tibetan frontiers. I say to you

solemnly, Petrie, that these are but a few. Is there a man who would

arouse the West to a sense of the awakening of the East, who would

teach the deaf to hear, the blind to see, that the millions only await

their leader? He will die. And this is only one phase of the devilish

campaign. The others I can merely surmise."

"But, Smith, this is almost incredible! What perverted genius controls

this awful secret movement?"

"Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow

like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long,

magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel

cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect,

with all the resources of science past and present, with all the

resources, if you will, of a wealthy government--which, however,

already has denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful

being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril

incarnate in one man."

I SANK into an arm-chair in my rooms and gulped down a strong peg of

brandy.

"We have been followed here," I said. "Why did you make no attempt to

throw the pursuers off the track, to have them intercepted?"

Smith laughed.

"Useless, in the first place. Wherever we went, HE would find us. And

of what use to arrest his creatures? We could prove nothing against

them. Further, it is evident that an attempt is to be made upon my

life to-night--and by the same means that proved so successful in the

case of poor Sir Crichton."