dramatic thing happened.
A softly musical voice—the voice of my dreams!—spoke.
'Not that way! O God, not that way!'
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 Karamaneh!
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 her breast heaved tumultuously.
This ten seconds of silence in which we three stood looking at one another encompassed the whole gamut of human emotion. The silence was broken by Karamaneh.
'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—'Trust me— just for once—and I will show you the way!'
Nayland Smith never removed his gaze from her for a moment, nor did he stir.
'Oh!' she whispered, tremulously, and stamped one little red slipper upon the floor. 'Won't you heed me? Come, or it will be too late!'
I glanced anxiously at my friend; the voice of Dr. Fu-Manchu, now raised in anger, was audible above the piping tones of the other Chinaman. And as I caught Smith's eye, in silent query—the trap at my feet began slowly to lift!
Karamaneh stifled a little sobbing cry; but the warning came too late. A hideous yellow face with oblique squinting eyes, appeared in the aperture.
I found myself inert, useless; I could neither think nor act. Nayland Smith, however, as if instinctively, delivered a pitiless kick at the head protruding above the trap.
A sickening crushing sound, with a sort of muffled snap, spoke of a broken jaw-bone; 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 beneath.
But we were lost. Karamaneh fled along one of the passages lightly as a bird, and disappeared as Dr. Fu- Manchu, 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 overhanging the steps.
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 carried glittered menacingly. The passage was full of dacoits!
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. Fu-Manchu, who stood there watching us, a shadowy, sinister figure.
'The game's up, Petrie!' muttered Smith. 'It has been a long fight, but Fu-Manchu wins!'
'Not entirely!' I cried. I whipped the police whistle from my pocket, and raised it to my lips; but brief as the interval had been, the dacoits were upon me.
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 blood-lustful eyes, yellow fangs, and gleaming blades.
I had some vague idea that the rasping voice of Fu-Manchu 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 and a few superficial cuts, I was unwounded.
The place was utterly deserted again, and we two panting captives found ourselves alone with Dr. Fu- Manchu. The scene was unforgettable; that dimly lighted passage, its extremities masked in shadow, and the tall, yellow-robed 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, neutral-colored hair upon his crown, and bent forward, peering grotesquely into that still, dreadful face.
Dr. Fu-Manchu stroked the little creature; and crooned to it, as a mother to her infant. Only this crooning, and the labored breathing of Smith and myself, broke that impressive stillness.
Suddenly the guttural voice began:
'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 China— the New China, the China of the future—I have been admitted by the Sublime Prince to the Sacred Order of the White Peacock.'
Warming to his discourse, he threw wide his arms, hurling the chattering marmoset fully five yards along the corridor.
'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 I deserve.'
Covertly Smith nudged me with his elbow. I knew what the nudge was designed to convey; he would remind me of his words—anent the childish trifles which sway the life of intellectual China.
Personally, I was amazed. That Fu-Manchu's anger, grief, sorrow and resignation were real, no one watching him, and hearing his voice, could doubt.
He continued:
'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 work—which 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. To-night, you die! To-night, the arch-enemy of our caste shall be no more. This is my offering—the price of redemption… '
My mind was working again, and actively. I managed to grasp the stupendous truth—and the stupendous possibility.
Dr. Fu-Manchu was in the act of clapping his hands, when I spoke.
'Stop!' I cried.
He paused, and the weird film, which sometimes became visible in his eyes, now obscured their greenness, and lent him the appearance of a blind man.
'Dr. Petrie,' he said, softly, 'I shall always listen to you with respect.'
'I have an offer to make,' I continued, seeking to steady my voice. 'Give us our freedom, and I will restore your shattered honor—I will restore the sacred peacock!'
Dr. Fu-Manchu bent forward until his face was so close to mine that I could see the innumerable lines which, an intricate network, covered his yellow skin.
'Speak!' he hissed. 'You lift up my heart from a dark pit!'
'I can restore your white peacock,' I said; 'I and I alone, know where it is!'—and I strove not to shrink from the face so close to mine.
Upright shot the tall figure; high above his head Fu-Manchu threw his arms—and a light of exaltation gleamed
