'Then, with Said in touch, I started. I had found one man I could trust....
'I reached Barton's tent three minutes too late. He had just scrawled that last message -- '
'What!' Weymouth interrupted excit- edly. 'You actually saw the message? '
'I read it,' Nayland Smith replied quietly. 'Barton, awakened by the needle, miracu- lously realized what had happened. I am prepared to leam that he expected it... that, at last, he had begun to distrust 'Madame Ingomar.' It had just dropped from his hand as I entered.
'It was my voice, Greville, not his--that awakened you....'
Nayland Smith ceased speaking, and step- ping up to the table, began to knock ash from the steaming bowl of his briar, whilst I watched him in a sort of stupefaction. Petrie and Weymouth were watching him too. Truly, here was a remarkable man.
'I slipped away as quietly as I had come. I watched for developments... then I set out for the head of the wadi, where Said was watching. And Said had news for me. Someone had passed his hiding place ten minutes before-- someone who slipped by rapidly. Said had not dared to follow. His orders were to wait... but I guessed that he had seen the agent ofFah Lo Suee who had entered Barton's tent ahead of me, and who had done his appointed work....
''He was Burmese,' Said assured me. 'and I saw the mark of Kali on his brow!' 'In a deep hollow, by the light of my torch, I wrote a message to Fletcher. Said set out for Luxor. I was taking no chances. The result of that message, Petrie, you know--you also, Weymouth. Fletcher despatched two telegrams.
'Then I returned, and from the slope above Sir Lionel's tent, overheard the confer- ence. I still distrusted everybody. As early as Lafleur's time, a certain person was interested in the Tomb of the Black Ape. Of this I am confident. The nature of his interest it remains for us to find out. In the meantime, a member of the family of that great but evil man has penetrated to the Tomb-- '
'Smith!' Petrie interrupted. 'Some age- old secret--probably a ghastly weapon of destruction--has lain there, for thousands of years!'
Nayland Smith stared hard at the speaker; then:
'Right,' he snapped--'as regards the first part. Wrong as regards the second.'
Giving us no chance to ask him what he meant:
'My point of vantage regained,' he went on rapidly, 'I saw all that took place. I saw the hut opened and two lanterns placed inside. I realized that it was proposed to carry Sir Lionel there. I saw the body placed in the hut, and the door locked. I could do no more --for Barton.'
2
'Since it seemed fairly certain that the objective of these mysterious crimes was the Tomb of the Black Ape, I now made my way round to the enclosure. The door was locked, but I managed to find a spot where I could climb up the fencing and look over. I stared down into the pit and listened intently. In that silence, any movement below must have been clearly audible. But I could not hear a sound.
'I was mystified--utterly mystified. I began to wonder if poor Barton had been mistaken in his own symptoms. I began to think he might really be dead! Perhaps the man whom Said had seen had had no connec- tion with the matter. For I confess I could imagine no object in inducing that form of artificial catalepsy of which we know Dr. Fu Manchu to have been a master.
'Crawling above the camp like a jackal, I taxed my brain to discover some line of action.
'None of you sleep much that night, and I had to watch my steps. It was a nerve-racking business, especially as I suspected that a trained assassin was prowling about some- where--and possibly covering my move- ments.
'Failure seemed to threaten me again. I had failed in London. I had failed here. But I was expecting the return of Said at any moment, now, and presently I heard our prearranged signal: the howling of a dog.
'He, at least, had done his job. I replied.
'Perhaps my imitation was a poor one. All I know is that you, Greville, and others, came out into the wadi with lanterns, and began to search all about the camp. '
'We did,' I interrupted. 'That howling was unnatural. Dogs never came as near to the camp at such an hour. '
'You found nothing,' Nayland Smith went on; 'and when all was quiet again, I crept round and rejoined Said. He had more news. As he had pulled across from Luxor to Kurna, and in sight of the landing place, a motor-boat had passed, heading upstream. Note that, Weymouth. Standing in the bows was the Burman whom Said had seen near Sir Lionel's camp!
This set me thinking. I came back here and turned up some recent reports. I discov- ered, Weymouth, that a certain Sheikh Ismail --who once slipped through our fingers in London--was living in the Oasis of Kharga. This venerable gentleman, for he must be well past eighty, I believe to be the present holder of the title of Sheikh al- Jebal, or head of the murderous sect of the HashishW 'A member of the old group!' said Weymouth excitedly.
'Exactly! And an associate of Dr. Fu Manchu! As a result, after a few hours' rest, I started for Esna. And I spent a very profitable day there. '
'Esna!' I exclaimed. 'Why Esna? '
'Because the old caravan road to the oasis starts from there, and because Esna is upstream. But whilst I was so employed, there's little doubt, I think, that Fah Lo Suee and her party, operating from Lafleur's Shaft, were completing the work begun by Barton.... '
'Amazing,' I interrupted, 'but fate, I suppose, that not a soul went down all day. The men, of course, were given a holiday. '
'I know,' Smith said. 'Said was with me. However, I got back just before dusk and went straight to the camp to see how the land lay. Everything seemed to be quiet, and I was following the edge of the wadi and had reached a point just above the hut in which Sir Lionel's body lay, when I pulled up....
'It must have been inaudible from the tents. It came from directly below me--a soft, wailing cry. But I knew it! Good God, how well I knew it!...
'The call of a dacoit!
'Over these dangerous madmen, Greville, as well as the thugs and the hashishin, the late Dr. Fu Manchu had acquired a mysterious control. I dropped flat on the ground, wrig- gled to the edge and looked down. Nothing moved--the place was dark and silent. But I continued to watch and presently I saw a seeming miracle.
'The door of the hut was open! I clenched my fists and stared. It was as though the gate of a tomb had opened. I did not know what to expect. But what I saw was this: 'A thick-set brown man, naked except for his loin-cloth, came out, bending double in the manner of a laden Eastern porter, and carrying on his shoulders the body of Sir Lionel Barton wrapped in a grey blanket! 'On the threshold, he laid him down. He locked the door with a key he carried, shoul- dered the body again, and set off up the wadi.... How had he got into the hut and where had he obtained the key? '
'Weymouth has solved that mystery,' Petrie interrupted. 'The key was on Sir Lionel's chain. He had only partially undressed on the previous night, and the dacoit must have slipped in between the time that the hut was opened and the time that Sir Lionel was carried there.'
Nayland Smith tugged at his ear, a nervous mannerism which I had already observed, and turning to Weymouth: 'Congratulations!' he said. 'What was your clue? '
'The man had been chewing betel but. I found some.... '
'Chunam! Brilliant, Weymouth! No school to equal that of experience. But do you grasp the astounding fact that he had stuck to his post for some twenty hours, with nothing but betel nut to sustain him! Yet he still had the strength of a tiger--as I was to learn!...
'I started to follow. By the smaller hut, as you know, Greville'--turning to me --'there's a steep path leading to the plateau: it begins as a sort of gully. And in the dense shadow there my dacoit stopped.
'Need I say that I was searching madly for a proper plan of action? What was the right course? Barton, if not dead, was palpably unconscious. What was the purpose of this mysterious body-snatching? Even if they knew that you, Petrie, had been sent for-- '
'They did!' I interrupted. 'I was followed to Cairo!' 'Even so, I argued, it must be as Barton himself had believed. Someone needed him--alive! My decision was made. I would not arouse the camp--my first, natural impulse--nor interfere in any way. I would follow and see where he was being taken.
'At which moment I nearly made a fatal mistake. I was on the point of moving from the deep belt of shadow
