So whilst it was true that to Petrie and to Weymouth I owed the fact that I now stood staring down again on the busy life ofPic- cadilly, I owed even more to... someone else! I was all but fit. I had taken a stroll in the Park, and with decent precautions for a week or two was competent to take up once more the battle of life. But--who was Dr. Amber?
Almost a deeper mystery than that of the hiatus, to me represented by a blank in my existence; and this, heaven knows was strange enough! The house of the Sheikh Ismail had been raided by a party under the mudir of Kharga. This official, it seems, was already suspicious of the strange visitors to the town.
They found not a soul on the premises! El-Kharga was combed carefully. No trace. The mudir got in touch with Esna, and all roads were watched. Nothing resulted. The dreadful Seven had dispersed--into thin air! Nayland Smith was missing, I was missing; and Said had disappeared with the car....
Weymouth set the official wires humming. Too late, it had occurred to him that Fah Lo Suee might have retired not upon Esna but upon Asyut. Later, this theory was proved to be the correct one.
A dead man, a piece of baggage, I had been carried across the desert to Asyut, entrained for Port Said, and shipped to England, as cargo is shipped! Three days too late to hold her in the Egyptian port, Weymouth, inspecting the books of the Suez Canal Company, discovered that a Clyde- built steamer chartered by a Chinese firm for some private enterprise had passed through the Canal and cleared Port Said at a date which corresponded with his suspicions. Radio was set humming all over the Mediter- ranean; and the suspected craft was finally boarded off Cherbourg by the French police.
Her papers were in order; but consign- ments of goods and a number of her people had already been dispatched overland.
This was the state of affairs when the party reached England. Weymouth, of course, had secured leave of absence in the circumstances; and acting upon the policy adopted by poor Nayland Smith in earlier days, had succeeded with the backing of Scot- land Yard in keeping all publicity out of the press.
It was the efficiency of Detective- Inspector Yale and of K Division which led to my rescue. For some time they had been watching certain premises in the Limehouse area. Apart from consignments of suspicious goods and of the presence, particularly at night, of Asiatics of a character not usual in that district, a smartly dressed woman had visited the place.
Now, furnished by Weymouth with particulars of those goods sent overland from Cherbourg, Yale secretly inspected some of the crates and packing cases stored in the yard of the suspected premises. As a result of what he found, I was rescued from the green and gold room, and restored to health by Dr. Petrie. But a shadow lay upon all of us--one indeed, which had retarded my convales- cence.
4
'Our last battle against Fu Manchu,' said Weymouth sadly, 'has opened with a big score for the enemy. We've lost our field- marshal.'
Detective-Inspector Yale nodded gloomily. I had met him several times before, and I knew that with Fletcher he had been put in charge of this case, which, in his eyes, had neither beginning nor end. '
'It's a blank mystery to me,' he confessed. 'Excepting one badly murdered dwarf, there wasn't a thing of any use to us in the Lime- house raid. '
'You're rather overlooking me!'
Detective-Inspector Yale smiled; Weymouth laughed aloud.
'Sorry, sir,' said Yale. 'But the fact remains--we drew blank. The house was undoubtedly used by these Si Fan people. But where are they? I knew when Sir Denis took personal control there was something serious in the wind. He was overdue leave, it's true, but he was a demon for work; and I saw when he started for Egypt with Fletcher he'd gone for business, not pleasure. Besides, there was a big dossier accumulating.'
He smiled again, turning slightly in my direction.
'The death of Professor Zeitland was a bad show for the Yard,' he admitted. 'It was long after the event that we realized his death wasn't due to natural causes. This in strict confidence, Mr. Greville. There's been no publicity about the absence of Sir Denis, because we've kept on hoping from day to day, and his instructions on that point were explicit. But personally....'
He turned aside and stared out of the window.
'I'm afraid so,' Weymouth whispered.
'It's a job,' Yale went on, 'which I admit is above my weight. Most extraordinary reports are accumulating and the Foreign Office has nearly driven me crazy. I never knew very much about this Dr. Fu Manchu, outside department records. I was just a plain detective officer in those days. But it looks to me--and this is where I am badly out of my depth, Superintendent--as though this delayed visit of Swazi Pasha comes into the case! '
'I'm sure it does!' I replied. 'The woman you knew as Madame Ingomar regards the present rulers of Turkey as her enemies. Swazi Pasha is probably the biggest man in Stamboul to-day. She told me with her own lips that he was marked! '
'Amazing!' said Yale. 'He is to occupy Suite Number 5 in this hotel, and apart from routine measures, I'm going to satisfy myself about the staff.'
I accompanied Weymouth and Yale on their tour of inspection. The suite was on the floor below, and we went down the stairs. Yale had the key and we entered. Everything had been prepared for the comfort of the distinguished visitor and his confidential private secretary.
Suite Number 5 consisted of a reception room entered from a lobby, a dining room, and two bedrooms with bathrooms adjoining. Swazi Pasha had been detained by illness in Paris, so the Press informed us, but would arrive at Victoria that evening.
Detective-Inspector Yale seemed to suspect everything in the place. The principal bedroom he explored as though he antici- pated discovering there trap-doors, sliding panels, or other mediaeval devices. He even turned on the electric heater, an excellent imitation of a coal fire, and considered it carefully; until:
'Once he gets here,' said Weymouth, 'he's safe enough. It's outside that he's in danger.'
Yale turned to him, one eyebrow raised interrogatively, and:
'Queer you should say that,' he replied. 'I've been going carefully through the records--and you ought to know better than I do that if we're really up against this Asiatic group the best hotel in London isn't safe!'
I glanced at Weymouth, and saw his expression change.
'True enough,' he admitted. 'Dr. Fu Manchu got a man in the New Louvre once, under our very eyes. Yes, you're right.'
With enthusiasm he also began to sound walls and to examine fittings, until:
'I have had painful personal evidence of what these people can do,' I said, 'but I rather feel that any attempt on the life of Swazi Pasha will be made outside.'
Yale turned and:
'Outside,' he assured me stolidly, 'short of a fanatic who is prepared to pay the price with his life, Swazi Pasha is as safe as any man in Europe. But in the absence of Sir Denis, I'm responsible for him and, knowing what I know now, I'm prepared for anything.'
5
When presently I left Weymouth and Yale, I became selfishly absorbed in my own affairs again. The chief had engaged rooms by radio for himself and Rima here at the Park Avenue, and as I wandered back to my own apartment I found myself wondering which rooms they were. Indeed, a perfectly childish impulse prompted me to go down and inquire of the office.
As I entered the corridor in which my own quarters were located as well as those of Dr. Petrie and his wife, I saw a figure hurrying ahead of me. Reaching the door next to my own, he inserted and turned the key in the lock. As he did so, I had a view of his face in profile....
Then he went in, and I heard the door shut.
Entering my own room, I sat down on the bed, lighted a cigarette, and wondered why this chance encounter seemed so important. It was striking discords of memory which I couldn't solve. I smoked one cigarette and lighted a second, thinking hard all the time, before the solution came, then:
'I've got it!' I cried.
This man in the next room was the Turk who had attended the Council of Seven! I glanced at the telephone. Here was a mystery completely beyond my powers-- something which Weymouth and Yale should know about at once. I hesitated, realising that in all probability they were on their way to Victoria. A tremendous unrest seized me.
