The Hand of Fu-Manchu

I did as he directed.

'Look into these two cavities where one is expected to thrust one's fingers!'

Weymouth and I craned forward so that our heads came into contact.

'My God!' whispered the Inspector, 'we know now what killed him!'

Visible, in either little cavity against the edge of the steel handcuff, was the point of a needle, which evidently worked in an exquisitely made socket through which the action of raising the lid caused it to protrude. Underneath the lid, midway between the two pomegranates, as I saw by slowly moving the lamp, was a little receptacle of metal communicating with the base of the hollow needles.

The action of lifting the lid not only protruded the points but also operated the hypodermic syringe!

'Note,' snapped Smith—but his voice was slightly hoarse.

He removed the points of the bracelets. The box immediately reclosed with no other sound than a faint click.

'God forgive him,' said Smith, glancing toward the other room, 'for he died in my stead!—and Dr. Fu-Manchu scores an undeserved failure!'

Chapter 15 ZARMI REAPPEARS

'Come in!' I cried.

The door opened and a page-boy entered.

'A cable for Dr. Petrie.'

I started up from my chair. A thousand possibilities—some of a sort to bring dread to my heart—instantly occurred to me. I tore open the envelope and, as one does, glanced first at the name of the sender.

It was signed 'Karamaneh!'

'Smith!' I said hoarsely, glancing over the massage, 'Karamaneh is on her way to England. She arrives by the Nicobar to-morrow!'

'Eh?' cried Nayland Smith, in turn leaping to his feet. 'She had no right to come alone, unless——'

The boy, open-mouthed, was listening to our conversation, and I hastily thrust a coin into his hand and dismissed him. As the door closed—

'Unless what, Smith?' I said, looking my friend squarely in the eyes.

'Unless she has learnt something, or—is flying away from some one!'

My mind set in a whirl of hopes and fears, longings and dreads.

'What do you mean, Smith?' I asked. 'This is the place of danger, as we know to our cost; she was safe in Egypt.'

Nayland Smith commenced one of his restless perambulations, glancing at me from time to time and frequently tugging at the lobe of his ear.

'Was she safe in Egypt?' he rapped. 'We are dealing, remember, with the Si-Fan, which, if I am not mistaken, is a sort of Eleusinian Mystery holding some kind of dominion over the eastern mind, and boasting initiates throughout the Orient. It is almost certain that there is an Egyptian branch, or group—call it what you will—of the damnable organization.'

'But Dr. Fu-Manchu——'

'Dr. Fu-Manchu—for he lives, Petrie! my own eyes bear witness to the fact—Dr. Fu-Manchu is a sort of delegate from the headquarters. His prodigious genius will readily enable him to keep in touch with every branch of the movement, East and West.'

He paused to knock out his pipe into an ashtray and to watch me for some moments in silence.

'He may have instructed his Cairo agents,' he added significantly.

'God grant she get to England in safety,' I whispered. 'Smith! can we make no move to round up the devils who defy us, here in the very heart of civilized England? Listen. You will not have forgotten the wild-cat Eurasian Zarmi?'

Smith nodded. 'I recall the lady perfectly!' he snapped.

'Unless my imagination has been playing me tricks, I have seen her twice within the last few days—once in the neighborhood of this hotel and once in a cab in Piccadilly.'

'You mentioned the matter at the time,' said Smith shortly; 'but although I made inquiries, as you remember, nothing came of them.'

'Nevertheless, I don't think I was mistaken. I feel in my very bones that the Yellow hand of Fu-Manchu is about to stretch out again. If only we could apprehend Zarmi.'

Nayland Smith lighted his pipe with care.

'If only we could, Petrie!' he said; 'but, damn it!'—he dashed his left fist into the palm of his right hand—'we are doomed to remain inactive. We can only await the arrival of Karamaneh and see if she has anything to tell us. I must admit that there are certain theories of my own which I haven't yet had an opportunity of testing. Perhaps in the near future such an opportunity may arise.'

How soon that opportunity was to arise neither of us suspected then; but Fate is a merry trickster, and even as we spoke of these matters events were brewing which were to lead us along strange paths.

With such glad anticipations as my pen cannot describe, their gladness not unmixed with fear, I retired to rest that night, scarcely expecting to sleep, so eager was I for the morrow. The musical voice of Karamaneh seemed to ring in my ears; I seemed to feel the touch of her soft hands and to detect, as I drifted into the borderland betwixt reality and slumber, that faint, exquisite perfume which from the first moment of my meeting with the beautiful Eastern girl, had become to me inseparable from her personality.

It seemed that sleep had but just claimed me when I was awakened by some one roughly shaking my shoulder. I sprang upright, my mind alert to sudden danger. The room looked yellow and dismal, illuminated as it was by a cold light of dawn which crept through the window and with which competed the luminance of the electric lamps.

Nayland Smith stood at my bedside, partially dressed!

'Wake up, Petrie!' he cried; 'you instincts serve you better than my reasoning. Hell's afoot, old man! Even as you predicted it, perhaps in that same hour, the yellow fiends were at work!'

'What, Smith, what!' I said, leaping out of bed; 'you don't mean——'

'Not that, old man,' he replied, clapping his hand upon my shoulder; 'there is no further news of her, but Weymouth is waiting outside. Sir Baldwin Frazer has disappeared!'

I rubbed my eyes hard and sought to clear my mind of the vapors of sleep.

'Sir Baldwin Frazer!' I said, 'of Half-Moon Street? But what——'

'God knows what,' snapped Smith; 'but our old friend Zarmi, or so it would appear, bore him off last night, and he has completely vanished, leaving practically no trace behind.'

Only a few sleeping servants were about as we descended the marble stairs to the lobby of the hotel where Weymouth was awaiting us.

'I have a cab outside from the Yard,' he said. 'I came straight here to fetch you before going on to Half-Moon Street.'

'Quite right!' snapped Smith; 'but you are sure the cab is from the Yard? I have had painful experience of strange cabs recently!'

'You can trust this one,' said Weymouth, smiling slightly. 'It has carried me to the scene of many a crime.'

'Hem!' said Smith—'a dubious recommendation.'

We entered the waiting vehicle and soon were passing through the nearly deserted streets of London. Only those workers whose toils began with the dawn were afoot at that early hour, and in the misty gray light the streets had an unfamiliar look and wore an aspect of sadness in ill accord with the sentiments which now were stirring within me. For whatever might be the fate of the famous mental specialist, whatever the mystery before us—even though Dr. Fu-Manchu himself, malignantly active, threatened our safety—Karamaneh would be with me again that day—Karamaneh, my beautiful wife to be!

So selfishly occupied was I with these reflections that I paid little heed to the words of Weymouth, who was acquainting Nayland Smith with the facts bearing upon the mysterious disappearance of Sir Baldwin Frazer. Indeed,