The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (best novels for teenagers TXT) 📖

me, but alternately glancing towards a distant

corner of the square and towards the house of Major-General Platt-Houston,

she made the following extraordinary request:

 

“If you would do me a very great service, for which I always would

be grateful,”—she glanced at me with passionate intentness—“when you

have given my message to the proper person, leave him and do not go

near him any more tonight!”

 

Before I could find words to reply she gathered up her cloak and ran.

Before I could determine whether or not to follow her (for her words

had aroused anew all my worst suspicions) she had disappeared!

I heard the whir of a restarted motor at no great distance, and,

in the instant that Nayland Smith came running down the steps,

I knew that I had nodded at my post.

 

“Smith!” I cried as he joined me, “tell me what we must do!”

And rapidly I acquainted him with the incident.

 

My friend looked very grave; then a grim smile crept round his lips.

 

“She was a big card to play,” he said; “but he did not know that I

held one to beat it.”

 

“What! You know this girl! Who is she?”

 

“She is one of the finest weapons in the enemy’s armory, Petrie.

But a woman is a two-edged sword, and treacherous.

To our great good fortune, she has formed a sudden predilection,

characteristically Oriental, for yourself. Oh, you may scoff, but it

is evident. She was employed to get this letter placed in my hands.

Give it to me.”

 

I did so.

 

“She has succeeded. Smell.”

 

He held the envelope under my nose, and, with a sudden sense of nausea,

I recognized the strange perfume.

 

“You know what this presaged in Sir Crichton’s case?

Can you doubt any longer? She did not want you to share

my fate, Petrie.”

 

“Smith,” I said unsteadily, “I have followed your lead blindly

in this horrible business and have not pressed for an explanation,

but I must insist before I go one step farther upon knowing

what it all means.”

 

“Just a few steps farther,” he rejoined; “as far as a cab.

We are hardly safe here. Oh, you need not fear shots or knives.

The man whose servants are watching us now scorns to employ

such clumsy, tell-tale weapons.”

 

Only three cabs were on the rank, and, as we entered the first,

something hissed past my ear. missed both Smith and me

by a miracle, and, passing over the roof of the taxi,

presumably fell in the enclosed garden occupying the center

of the square.

 

“What was that?” I cried.

 

“Get in—quickly!” Smith rapped back. “It was attempt number one!

More than that I cannot say. Don’t let the man hear.

He has noticed nothing. Pull up the window on your side,

Petrie, and look out behind. Good! We’ve started.”

 

The cab moved off with a metallic jerk, and I turned and looked

back through the little window in the rear.

 

“Someone has got into another cab. It is following ours, I think.”

 

Nayland Smith lay back and laughed unmirthfully.

 

“Petrie,” he said, “if I escape alive from this business I shall

know that I bear a charmed life.”

 

I made no reply, as he pulled out the dilapidated pouch and filled his pipe.

 

“You have asked me to explain matters,” he continued, “and I

will do so to the best of my ability. You no doubt wonder why

a servant of the British Government, lately stationed in Burma,

suddenly appears in London, in the character of a detective.

I am here, Petrie—and I bear credentials from the very

highest sources—because, quite by accident, I came upon a clew.

Following it up, in the ordinary course of routine, I obtained

evidence of the existence and malignant activity of a certain man.

At the present stage of the case I should not be justified

in terming him the emissary of an Eastern Power, but I may say

that representations are shortly to be made to that Power’s

ambassador in London.”

 

He paused and glanced back towards the pursuing cab.

 

“There is little to fear until we arrive home,” he said calmly.

“Afterwards there is much. To continue: This man, whether a fanatic

or a duly appointed agent, is, unquestionably, the most malign

and formidable personality existing in the known world today.

He is a linguist who speaks with almost equal facility in any

of the civilized languages, and in most of the barbaric.

He is an adept in all the arts and sciences which a great

university could teach him. He also is an adept in certain obscure

arts and sciences which no university of to-day can teach.

He has the brains of any three men of genius. Petrie, he is

a mental giant.”

 

“You amaze me!” I said.

 

“As to his mission among men. Why did M. Jules Furneaux fall

dead in a Paris opera house? Because of heart failure?

No! Because his last speech had shown that he held the key

to the secret of Tongking. What became of the Grand

Duke Stanislaus? Elopement? Suicide? Nothing of the kind.

He alone was fully alive to Russia’s growing peril.

He alone knew the truth about Mongolia. Why was Sir Crichton

Davey murdered? Because, had the work he was engaged upon ever

seen the light it would have shown him to be the only living

Englishman who understood the importance of the Tibetan frontiers.

I say to you solemnly, Petrie, that these are but a few.

Is there a man who would arouse the West to a sense of

the awakening of the East, who would teach the deaf to hear,

the blind to see, that the millions only await their leader?

He will die. And this is only one phase of the devilish campaign.

The others I can merely surmise.”

 

“But, Smith, this is almost incredible! What perverted genius

controls this awful secret movement?”

 

“Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a

brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull,

and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all

the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one

giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present,

with all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy government—

which, however, already has denied all knowledge of his existence.

Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu,

the yellow peril incarnate in one man.”