by Sax Rohmer
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. What did it mean? That it meant mischief-- and bloody mischief--I felt certain. But what should I do?
I lighted a pipe and stared down into Piccadilly. Inaction was intolerable. What could I do? I couldn't give this man in charge of the police. Apart from the possibility of a mistake, what evidence had I against him? Finally I grabbed my hat and went out into the corridor. I had detected no sound of movement in the neighbouring room.
Walking over to the lift, I rang the bell. The cage had just arrived and I was on the point of stepping in, when I thought someone passed swiftly behind me.
I turned. My nerves were badly over- tuned. The figure had gone, but:
"Who was that?" I said to the lift-boy "Who do you mean, sir," he asked. "I didn't see anyone."
I thought that he was looking at me rather oddly, and:
"Ground floor," I said.
Had this thing got me more deeply than I realized? Small wonder if it were so, consid- ering my own experience. But was I begin- ning to imagine creatures of Dr. Fu Manchu, shadows, menaces, where really there was no physical presence? It was a dreadful thought, one to be repelled at all costs by a man who had passed through the nightmare of that month which I had survived.
For I had been dead and I lived again.
Sometimes the horror of it wakened me in the middle of the night. A drug, unknown to Western science, had been pumped into my veins. The skill of an Asiatic physician had brought me back to life. Petrie's experience-- aided by the mysterious "Dr. Amber"--had done the rest. But there might be an after- math, beyond the control even of this dreadful Chinaman whose shadow again was creeping over Europe.
My present intention was to walk across to Cook's and learn at what time the s. s. Andaman, in which Sir Lionel and Rima were travelling, docked, and when the boat-train arrived. I was in that state of anxiety in which one ceases to trust that high authority, the hotel hall porter.
This purpose was frustrated by the sudden appearance, as I came down the steps, of Dr. Petrie and his wife. I was instantly struck by the fact that something had terrified Mrs. Petrie. The doctor was almost supporting her....
"Hello, Greville," he said. "My wife has had rather a shock. Come back with us for a minute."
The fact was obvious enough. Filled with a sudden new concern, I realized, as I took Mrs. Petrie's arm and walked back up the hotel steps, that she was in a condition bordering on collapse. Well enough I knew that this could mean only one thing. As I had suspected, as Weymouth had suspected--the enemy was near us!
In the lobby she sat down and her husband regarded her anxiously. Normally, she had the most wonderful flower-like complexion--I mean naturally, without artifi- cial aid--of any woman I had ever met. Now she was pale, and her wonderful eyes mirrored a sort of mysterious horror.
"Are you sure, Kara? Are you sure?" Petrie asked with deep concern.
"Could I ever be wrong about him? "
"When you are safely upstairs, dear," he replied, "I am going back to confirm your suspicion--or disprove it. "
"But," I exclaimed, "whatever is wrong? "
"He is here. "
"What do you mean, Mrs. Petrie? Who is here?"
She looked up at me, and for all her pallor I knew how beautiful she was. I thought that if those strange, wonderful eyes had beckoned to me before I had known Rima, I should have followed wherever they led. She was, indeed, very lovely, and very terrified; and: "It seems like madness," she whispered; "but about this I can never be mistaken. If I had not seen, I should have felt. But I saw. "
"Do you understand, Greville," Petrie interrupted tersely, "my wife saw--I can't doubt her; she has never been wrong on this point--someone looking out from a window above a shop in Burlington Arcade. "
"I know it is madness, but I know it is true," she said.
"When?" I demanded.
"A moment ago. "
"But do you mean--"
Mrs. Petrie nodded.
Her eyes were tragic. She stood up.
"I am going upstairs," she said. "No, truly, I'm quite all right again. Go back, or it may be too late. But take Mr. Greville with you."
She walked towards the lift, whilst Petrie and I watched her. As she entered and the lift went up:
"It seems simply incredible to me," I declared. "But do you mean that in a room over a shop in Burlington Arcade-- "
"A dealer in Oriental jewellery, yes!" Petrie took me up quickly. "I could see nothing--the room above was in darkness-- but Karamaneh saw Dr. Fu Manchu looking down!"
6
I wondered if Nayland Smith would have approved of Petrie's method of inquiry. Personally, I thought it admirable, for as we entered the establishment, oddly reminiscent, as many are in the Arcade, of a shop in an Eastern bazaar:
"My wife came along this afternoon," said Petrie, "and noticed a large Chinese figure in the room above. She asked me to call and learn the price."
The salesman, who would not have been out of place in any jewel market of the Orient, except for the fact that he wore a well-cut morning coat, raised his eyebrows in surprise. He was leaning upon a case containing typical Levantine exhibits, and all sorts of beaded necklaces framed him about. I thought that, saving the presence of civilised London around us, he might, considered alone, have been termed a sinister figure.
"The room above, sir," he replied "is not my property. It is used as a store-room by another firm. See"--he turned--"the stair is there, but the door is locked. I have a case upon it as you may observe for yourself. That door is very rarely opened. And I assure you it contains no Chinese figure."
He made no attempt to sell us anything.
But outside, in the Arcade,we both stared up at the window above the shop. The room to which it belonged appeared to be empty. Petrie shrugged.
"She has never been wrong before," he said significantly. "And the gentleman with whom we have been chatting gives one the shudders. "
"I agree, but what can we do? "
"Nothing," he replied.
Turning, we walked back to the Park Avenue Hotel. The journey was a short one, but long enough for me to tell Petrie of my encounter in the corridor. He stopped as we reached the comer of Berkeley Street, and:
"There's some very black business under- lying all this, Greville," he said. "We've lost the best man of the lot already. Now it looks as though the arch-devil had taken personal charge. Where's Weymouth? "
"Gone to
Victoria, I expect. Yale was with him."
Petrie nodded.
"If you weren't mistaken, Greville, it looks as though the danger to Swazi Pasha is here, in London. If my wife isn't mistaken--it's a certainty! We can at least learn the name of the man you saw; because in dealing with Dr. Fu Manchu and his Burmans I don't believe in coincidences!"
We consulted the reception clerk and learned without difficulty that the room, of which I naturally remembered the number, was occupied by a Mr. Solkel, of Smyrna.
"Has he stayed here before?" Petrie asked.
No. It was Mr. Solkel's first visit.
"Thank you," said Petrie, and as we walked towards the lift:
"Mr. Solkel, of Smyrna," he mused. "I don't like the sound of him. "
"I don't like the look of him! "
"Yet it is just possible you were wrong; and so--what can we do?"
We went up to Petrie's sitting-room where his wife, apparently recovered, was waiting to receive us.
She smiled, her gaze set on Petrie's face; and I wondered if Rima would greet me with a smile like that. He simply shook his head and ran his fingers through her beautiful hair.
"I knew," she whispered; and although she continued bravely to smile, there was horror in her eyes.
"He is so clever! But I was right!"
A nameless but chill foreboding possessed my mind. I believe the others shared it. I was thinking of the man who had gone out to meet this menace, and had come to his end, alone against many, in that damnable house in Kharga. But, Petrie now ringing for cock- tails, we all tried to show a bold front to our troubles. Yet even as I raised my glass I seemed to detect, like a sort of patrol, the approach of something; not as a memory, but as words spoken eerily, to hear a bell-like voice:
"I am so lonely, Shan...."
For days and nights, for weeks, I had lain in her power... the witch-woman; daughter of this fiend incarnate, Dr. Fu Manchu. "She is evil, evil..." Rima had said. And I knew it for truth. Much as we had all suffered, I felt that worse was to come. I could hear the cheery, familiar roar of London's traffic beneath me; sometimes, dimly, I could catch snatches of conversation in the adjoining apartment, occupied by an enthusiastic Amer- ican traveller and his wife.
Everything was so safe, so normal. Yet I knew, I could not venture to doubt, that some climax in the incredible business which had blotted out a month of my life and had brought Sir Lionel Barton to the edge of eternity, was creeping upon us.
7
"Thank goodness that part of the business is over," said Weymouth. "There were no official formalities, as the Pasha is still indisposed. He was all silk mufflers and fur collar. He has only one secretary with him. The other members of his suite are staying at the Platz over the way. He's safe indoors, anyhow. "
"Safe?" Mrs Petrie echoed and laughed unhappily. "After what I have told you. Superintendent?"
Weymouth's kindly face looked very grim, and he exchanged a troubled glance with Petrie; then:
"She never used to be wrong, doctor," he confessed. "Honestly, I don't know what to make of it. I sent a man around directly I got the news. But of course the shop was closed and locked. I don't know what to make of it," he repeated. The woman was rapidly becoming a nightmare to me, but if the Doctor in person has appeared on the scene..."
He spread his hands in a helpless gesture; and we were all silent for some time. Then Weymouth stood up:
"It's very nice of you, Mrs. Petrie," he said, "to ask me to dine with you. I have one or two little jobs to do downstairs, first--and I'm going to have another shot to get a look at Mr. Solkel. It isn't really my case." He smiled in the awkwardly boyish manner which made the man so lovable. "But I've been retained as a sort of specialist, and Yale is good enough to be glad. "
"I suppose," said Petrie, as Weymouth made for the door, "there are detectives on duty in the hotel? "
"Five, with Fletcher in charge. That should be enough. But I'm worried about Mr. Solkel. His official description doesn't corre- spond with yours, Greville. For one thing, they tell me he wears glasses, is in delicate health, and keeps to his room constantly. However...."
He went out.
Petrie stared hard in my direction.
"There's absolutely no doubt," he said slowly, "that Madame Ingomar's campaign has opened well, for her. Her astonishing indiscretion, I can only ascribe to"--he paused, smiling, and glanced at his wife--"a sudden and characteristically Oriental infatu- ation."
She flushed, glancing at him, and:
"Nayland Smith once said that about me!" she replied.
"I'm glad he did!" Petrie returned. "But if the daughter is anything like the father, I confess even now I don't envy Swazi Pasha's chances. Just check up on madame's record, and you will see what I mean. Apart from certain mysterious movements last year, in such widely divided places as Pekin, Turkestan, Siberia, and the northern provinces of India, we may take if for a fact that Professor Zeitland fell a victim to this Chinese she-devil. He stood in her way. He knew something about Lafleur's Tomb which she wanted to know. Having learned it, it became necessary that he should be blotted out. This duly occurred, according to schedule. Barton was next in her path. He served her purpose and escaped by a miracle. She got what she wanted--the contents of the tomb. If we could even guess the importance of these, we might begin to understand why she stuck at nothing to achieve her end."
He paused to light a fresh cigarette, and then:
"I believe poor old Smith knew," he went on. "He was the one man in the world she had really to fear. And he..." the sentence remained unfinished.
"That she regarded Swazi Pasha as an obstruction," I said, "she was good enough to tell me herself."
Petrie glanced at his wife, whose expres- sive eyes registered a deep horror; then:
"I said a while ago," he added, "that I don't give very much for his chances. Self- ishly, I can find it in my heart to wish that he had chosen another hotel. Karamaneh has lived in the storm centre too long to want any further experiences."
This, then, was the atmosphere which surrounded us all that evening in a London hotel; this the shadow under which we lay.
During dinner--which was served in Petrie's sitting-room, for Weymouth had had no opportunity of dressing:
"I suppose," said I, "that Mr. Solkel is receiving suitable attention?"
Weymouth nodded.
"He hasn't gone out," he replied. "But I hear that a new wardrobe trunk was delivered and taken up to his room this afternoon. This suggests that he is leaving shortly. If he goes out he will be followed. If he rings for anything, the waiter will be a Scotland Yard man."
Weymouth had secured a small room right up under the roof, for London was packed. But I drew a great sense of security from his presence in the building. At his wife's request, Petrie had abandoned a programme for the evening, arranged earlier, and had decided to remain at home.
When we said good night to our host and hostess, Weymouth came along to my room. Pausing in the corridor, he stared at the door of Number 41; but not until we had entered my adjoining apartment and lighted our pipes, did he speak; then:
"Swazi Pasha has cancelled an engage- ment to dine with the Prime Minister to- night, owing to the delay in Paris," he said. "He's not going out and is receiving no one. Even the Press have been refused. But Yale's job starts tomorrow. The Pasha has four public appointments. "
"You feel fairly confident, then, of his safety to-night? "
"Perfectly," Weymouth replied grimly. "I feel so confident about it that I'm going to patrol the hotel in person! You turn in, Greville. You're not really fit yet. Good night."
8
Sleep was a difficult problem. Apart from a morbid and uncontrollable apprehension, I was intensely strung up by reason of the fact that Rima was due in the morning. I tried reading, but simply couldn't concentrate upon the printed page.
The jade-green eyes ofFah Lo Suee began to haunt me, and in the dialogue of the story I was trying to read
I seemed to hear her voice, speaking the lines in that bell-like, hypnotic voice.
I relived those ages of horror and torment in the green-gold room: I saw again the malignant dwarf-- "A hashishin," Weymouth had told me. "They belong to the Old Man of the Mountain--Sheikh Ismail." I heard the creature's dying shrieks; I saw the dacoit return, carrying his bloody knife....
Throwing down the magazine disgust- edly, I began to pace my room. I contem- plated another whisky-and-soda, but realized in time that it would be a poor cure for insomnia. The after-theatre rush was subsiding. Piccadilly was settling down into its nightly somnolence. That inner circle of small, expensive streets containing the exclu- sive dance clubs would be full of motor traffic now, for London's night life is highly centralised, the Bohemia of Soho impinging on the white-shirted gaiety ofMayfair; two tiny spots on the map; sleepless eyes in a sleeping world.
I wondered if Petrie and his wife were awake--and I wondered what Weymouth was doing. This curiosity about Weymouth grew so intense that I determined to ring and find out. It was at this moment that I first heard the sound.
It was difficult to identify. I stood still, listening--all those doubts and surmises centred now upon my mysterious neighbour, Mr. Solkel. What I heard was this:
A dim, metallic sound, which might have been made by someone slightly shaking a sheet of thin metal. Next, a faint sibilance which oddly suggested paying out a line. Then came silence....
My brain was functioning at high pres- sure. Whereas, in the foggy stage that followed my dreadful experience, I should have been incapable of thinking consistently about anything, now a dozen theories sprang to my mind. I decided to stand still--and to listen.
The sound was renewed. It came from beyond the fireplace!
An electric radiator, which I had had no occasion to use, stood there. Stooping, I quietly placed it on the rug; and kneeling down I pressed my ear to the tiles of the recess in which it had rested.
Whispering!
And at this very moment a fact occurred to me... a startling fact!
My room was directly above Suite Number 5!
The connection defied me, but of one thing I was sure: these strange noises, which had temporarily ceased, portended some attempt on Swazi Pasha's apartments below.