The schemes of the Lady Fah Lo Suee were not approved by us. The authority she has stolen must be restored to those who know how to wield it. In other words, Sir Denis Nayland Smith's aim and our own are identical--at the moment. But he is marked down! '
'He knows it! '
'He may know it--but to-night he is walking into a trap! Since he left Norfolk-- where he failed to arrest the prime mover-- you have lost touch with him. He is following up a clue discovered by Inspector Yale. It is a false clue... a snare. He stands in the way: she is afraid to move until he is silenced.
'Here'--he handed me a slip of paper --'is the address to which he is going to- night. Death waits for him.'
I glanced at the writing.
'The garden of this house adjoins the Regent Canal,' Li King Su went on. 'And it is intended that Sir Denis's body shall be found in the Canal in the morning! Here'-- he passed a second slip--'is the address at which Sir Denis is hiding.'
The second address was that of a Dr. Murray in a southwest suburb.
'Dr. Murray bought Dr. Petrie's practice,' the even voice continued, 'when the latter went to Egypt. I must warn you against any attempt to communicate by tele- phone. The Lady Fah Lo Suee has a spy in the house! Take what steps you please, Mr. Greville, but move quickly! For my own part, I leave London in an hour. I can do no more. It is unnecessary to remind you of our bargain.'
3
At the very moment that I entered the lift, that occult knowledge of being watched left me. It was the same--but intensified--as that which had warned me in Cairo, and later on the road to el-Kharga. Li King Su, on acquaintance, was a remarkable man. But some vastly greater personality had been concealed in that inner room. I could not forget that Dr. Fu Manchu had been seen a stone's throw from Babylon House!
Could I trust Li King Su?
Simple enough to test his statements. I had only to take a taxi to Dr. Murray's address.
But, as I thought, as I walked out into Piccadilly, a mistake now might carry unimaginable consequences; better to consult Weymouth or Yale before I committed an irreparable blunder.
Dusk was falling. I saw that the lamps in Burlington Arcade had been lighted as well as those in the Piccadilly Arcade which forms a sort of abbreviated continuation of the older bazaar and breaks through to Jermyn Street. Deep in thought I passed the entrance to the latter. A French sedan was drawn up beside the pavement.
I was level with it when an exclamation of annoyance checked me sharply--and just prevented my collision with a woman who, crossing before me, had evidently been making for the car.
She was a fashionable figure, wearing a fur-trimmed coat, and a short veil attached to her close-fitting hat quite obscured her features. She carried several parcels, one of which she had dropped almost at my feet.
Steeping, I picked it up--a paper-wrapped package fastened with green tape and apparently containing very light purchases. The chauffeur sprang down and opened the door of the car, as:
'Thank you very much,' said the laden lady. 'Will you be so kind as to hand it in to me?'
She entered the car. I followed with the dropped package and bent forward into the dark interior. Through the opposite windows I saw the sign above a popular restaurant suddenly become illuminated. I detected a damnably familiar perfume....
I was enveloped. I felt a sudden paralysing pressure in my spine--a muscular arm levered me into the car... and I realized that I had been garroted in Piccadilly, amid hundreds of passers-by and in sight of my hotel!
4
I shot up from green depths in which I had been submerged for an immeasurable time. I had dived into a deep lake, I thought, and had become entangled in clinging weeds which sprang from its bed. I could not free my limbs; I knew that I was drowning--that never again should I see the sun and the blue sky above....
Then, the clasp of those octopus tentacles was relaxed. And I shot to the surface like a cork....
Green!... Everything about me was green! What had happened? Where was I?
Great heavens! I was back in Limehouse! ... But no--this place was green and gold, but smaller--much smaller than the room of my long captivity.
It was a miniature room--something was radically wrong with it. There were tow windows, draped in those heavy gold curtains which I remembered; a tracing of green figures was brushed across the gold. There was a tall lacquer cabinet and upon it stood a jade image of Kali... tiny, minute. There were flat green doors and a green carpet; golden rugs. An amber lamp gave green light. Upon a black divan was a second, larger figure of Kali... as large as a carnival doll.
But, no! This figure resembled Kali only in her features:
she wore a green robe and high-heeled black shoes. In one slender hand, a soft hand nurtured in luxury, was a long cigarette holder. I could see the smoke from the burning cigarette.... A doll--but a living doll! The picture grew smaller yet. The doll became so tiny that I could no longer discern her features. I was a giant in a microscopic room!
And then--the colours became audible! 'I am green' said the carpet. 'We are gold,' the miniature curtains replied....
Raising both hands I clutched my head! I was mad! I knew it--because I wanted to laugh!
The room began to increase in size! From the dimensions of a doll's house fashioned by gnomes it swelled to those of a gigantic palace!... I was a mere fly in an apartment which could scarcely have found ground space in Trafalgar Square!
But, now--I recognized that green- draped figure on the black divan. It was Fah Lo Suee!
The mighty roof, higher than that of any mosque, of any cathedral in the world, began to descend: the walls closed in... huge pieces of furniture were pushed towards me. Fah Lo Suee towered above my shrinking body, her monstrous cigarette sending up a column of smoke like that of a sacrifice....
I cried out... and saw the cry!
'God help me!'
It issued from my lips in squat green letters! I closed my eyes, and:
'So you are awake, Shan?' said a bell-like voice.
But I was afraid to raise my eyelids.
'Look at me. You are all right now....'
I looked.
My head was swimming and every muscle in my body ached--but the room had taken on normal proportions. It was a large room, filled with modern furniture, except that its scheme was severely green and gold and that there were Oriental pieces placed about.
Fah Lo Suee watched me... but the jade- green eyes were hard.
'You are better,' she continued. 'Cannabis indica produces strange delusions-- but as we use it, there is no drug so swift to serve our purpose.'
I considered the situation. I was seated in a big armchair facing the divan upon which Fah Lo Suee reclined indolently watching me. The damnable fumes of the drug began to leave my brain. Fah Lo Suee, slender, sinuous, insolent, was a woman--but a deadly enemy. I knew what Nayland Smith would have done!
Preparatory to a spring, I drew my feet together... a certain distance. Then-- My ankles were fastened to the chair! Fah Lo Suee dropped ash from her yellow cigarette into a copper bowl upon the low table beside her. I watched the elegant, voluptuous movements of that feline hand with a queer sense of novelty. What a tigress she was!
'The chief purpose of my visit to England,' she said, speaking as though nothing unusual existed between hostess and visitor, 'was defeated by Sir Denis Nayland Smith. My further plans are in abeyance-- pending his suppression.'
My head ached as though my brain were on fire, but:
'He is by way of being rather a nuisance?' I suggested viciously.
Fah Lo Suee smiled, a smile of contempt.
'I could have dealt with him--alone. But one of my own people proved treacherous. In your pocket, Shan, you had two addresses. One was that of Dr. Murray--in whose home your brilliant friend is hiding; the other was that of this house.'
