“Yes, I know, but I can’t possibly explain.”
“In your absence. Sir Denis,” Dr. Fu Manchu went on, ‘“Which I regretted, I chose Mr. Kerrigan as your deputy and gave him an opportunity of glancing over some of my resources. His unaccountable disappearance threatened to derange my plans. But his return in your company suggest to me that he may have acquainted you with these particulars.”
“He has,” Smith replied, tonelessly.
“In that case you are aware that as the result of many years of labour I am at last in a position to dictate to any and every government in the world. The hordes now overrunning Europe could not deter me for a week from any objective I might decide to seize. Their vaunted air force, or, if you prefer it, that of the Allies, I could destroy as readily as I could destroy a wasp’s nest. The methods pursued by the Nazis are a clumsy imitation of my own. I too have my Fifth Column, and it is composed exclusively of men who understand their business. Those, for I am not infallible, who seek to betray me are disposed of.”
He took up the jade snuff-box and delicately raised a pinch of snuff to his nostrils. He was not looking at us now but seemed to be thinking aloud.
“There is a peril threatening the United States which, although it might be defeated, would nevertheless create a maximim of disorder and shake the national unity. I charge you. Sir Denis, to dismiss from your mind your picture of myself as a common criminal. I am no more a criminal than was Napoleon, no more a criminal than Caesar.”
His voice was rising, quivering, and now his eyes were widely open. He was an imposing but an evil figure.
“Transmit the order to the agents and to the troops who have entered these premises to return to their posts outside, until further instructions reach them. Washington has sent you here and I wish you to put before Washington a proposal which I have drawn up, which I shall place in your hands whenever you ask me to do so. Knowing something of your prejudices, of your misconceptions, of your ignorance, I give you time to adjust your outlook. I can grant you one hour. Sir Denis. Word has reached me of a shipwreck which threatens to block my sea-gate. I shall go down to investigate the matter. When I return, no doubt you will have made up your mind. I leave Companion Doughty in your company. As it would be unwise to remove the Ericksen screen at present, you would be well advised to remain nearer the centre of the laboratory. Proximity to the screen is dangerous.”
CHAPTER XLI
AN ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCE
“Barton has done it!”
Smith spoke in a hoarse whisper. The two men of our bodyguard sat on a long bench, mopping their perspiring foreheads and glancing about them with profound apprehension. Dr. Marriot Doughty was seated on the other side of the room, and Finlay alone remained in the lobby beyond the red line. Smith had ordered the others to withdraw. The heat in the windowless laboratory was indescribable, and that “consciousness of cerebral pressure” created by Ericksen waves was all that I could endure.
“Yes, Barton has succeeded; but we are trapped.”
Although no reflection of lightning penetrated, apparently the great storm had not passed but had gathered again overhead. A crash of thunder came which rattled the glass instruments in their racks: the sound of it boomed and rolled and echoed weirdly above and about us. Marriot Doughty stood up and approached.
“If you will permit me to prescribe,” he said, “there are several masks of a kind we wear during Ericksen experiments. I can reach them without leaving the free zone.”
He crossed to a tall cabinet, opened a drawer and took out a number of headpieces resembling those used by radio operators.
“Can we trust him?” whispered Smith.
“Yes. He is thinking primarily of himself, I believe.”
Marriot Doughty distributed the headpieces.
“There are six,” he said, “but I fear that the gentleman in the lobby will have to go without one. The lobby, however, is partially insulated.”
We adjusted the thing; and that unendurable sense of inward pressure was immediately relieved.
“Anything like an hour’s exposure,” the physician explained, “might result in cerebral haemorrhage.”
Smith turned to him. With the headpiece framing his lean features, he suddenly reminded me of Horus, the hawk god.
“Dr. Doughty,” he said, “knowing nothing of the circumstances I am not entitled to question your principles; but may I ask some questions?”
“Certainly, and I shall be prepared to answer them.”
“Is there any means of disconnecting the Ericksen apparatus?”
“From our point of view, none. The controls are out of reach.”
“Is there any exit from this room other than that beyond the lobby or that at the other end used by Fu Manchu?”
“None.”
Smith nodded grimly and attempted to pull at the lobe of his ear, but part of the headpiece foiled him. Marriot Doughty seemed to hesitate, and then: “There is one feature of our present situation,” he said, “which contains elements of great danger.”
‘What is that?” asked Smith.
“Expressed simply, it is a certain affinity which exists between Ericksen waves and lightning. You cannot have failed to notice that the electric storm, which had passed to the east, is now concentrated directly above us.One of the Doctor’s own precepts—which he would seem to have overlooked . . . . ”
The sentence was never finished.
A veil of blinding light—I cannot otherwise describe it—descended between me and the farther end of the laboratory. The rubber-covered floor heaved like the deck of a ship; fragments of masonry fell all about! The Ferris Globe crashed from the roof into a cavity which suddenly yawned in the centre of the long room. The whole of one glass wall fell in!
Somewhere, a loud voice was shouting: “This way! This way! All the floor’s going!”
I remember joining in a panic rush. Who ran beside me I cannot say—nor where we ran. The earth heaved beneath my feet; the night was torn by spears of lightning which seemed to strike down directly upon us. Through a hell beyond my powers to depict I ran—and ran—and ran . . . .
* * *
“That’s better. Mr. Kerrigan!”
I stared up into the speaker’s face, a sunbrowned, bearded face, not comprehending. Then, aware of an unpleasant nausea, I looked about me. I was in bed; the speaker was a doctor. A dreadful suspicion came—and I sat up.
“Where amI?”
“You are in my house in Cap Haitien. My name isDr. Ralph——”
“You are not—”
“I am a United States citizen, Mr. Kerrigan,” he said cheerily. “But there is no English physician here, so Mr. Finlay ran you in to me.”
I dropped back, with a long sigh of relief.
“Smith—”
“Sir Denis Nayland Smith is here. His recovery was a quicker business than yours.”
“His recovery?” I sat up again. “What happened to us? Was I struck by something?”
“No, no—fumes. The earth tremor which partially destroyed the San Damien Sisal Works released fumes to which you both succumbed. What were you doing there last night with so large a body of men is none of my business. But, you see”—he tapped me on the chest—”there had been passive congestion in the left lung, and you were more seriously affected than the others. However”—he stood up—”you will be all right now, and I know you would wish to see your friend.”
Dr. Ralph went out; and a moment later Nayland Smith came in.
