The Yellow Claw

by Sax Rohmer

  XVI

  HO-PIN'S CATACOMBS

  The newly-created Mr. Lucas entered upon a sort of cave-man existencein this fantastic abode where night was day and day was night; where thesun never shone.

  He was awakened on the first morning of his sojourn in the establishmentof Ho-Pin by the loud ringing of an electric bell immediately beside hisbed. He sprang upright with a catching of the breath, peering about himat the unfamiliar surroundings and wondering, in the hazy manner of asleeper newly awakened, where he was, and how come there. He was fullydressed, and his strapped-up grip lay beside him on the floor; for hehad not dared to remove his clothes, had not dared to seek slumberafter that terrifying interview with Mr. King. But outraged nature hadprevailed, and sleep had come unbeckoned, unbidden.

  The electric light was still burning in the room, as he had left it, andas he sat up, looking about him, a purring whistle drew his attention toa speaking-tube which protruded below the bell.

  Soames rolled from the bed, head throbbing, and an acrid taste in hismouth, and spoke into the tube:

  "Hullo!"

  "You will pwrepare for youwr duties," came the metallic gutturals ofHo-Pin. "Bwreakfast will be bwrought to you in a quawrter-of-an-hour."

  He made no reply, but stood looking about him dully. It had not been adream, then, nor was he mad. It was a horrible reality; here, in London,in modern, civilized London, he was actually buried in some incrediblecatacomb; somewhere near to him, very near to him, was the cave of thegolden dragon, and, also adjacent--terrifying thought--was the doorlesslibrary, the rose-scented haunt where the beautiful Eurasian spoke,oracularly, the responses of Mr. King!

  Soames could not understand it all; he felt that such things couldnot be; that there must exist an explanation of those seemingimpossibilities other than that they actually existed. But theinstructions were veritable enough, and would not be denied.

  Rapidly he began to unpack his grip. His watch had stopped, since hehad neglected to wind it, and he hurried with his toilet, fearful ofincurring the anger of Ho-Pin--of Ho-Pin, the beetlesque.

  He observed, with passive interest, that the operation of shaving didnot appreciably lighten the stain upon his skin, and, by the time thathe was shaved, he had begun to know the dark-haired, yellow-facedman grimacing in the mirror for himself; but he was far from beingreconciled to his new appearance.

  Said peeped in at the door. He no longer wore his chauffeur's livery,but was arrayed in a white linen robe, red-sashed, and wore loose, redslippers; a tarboosh perched upon his shaven skull.

  Pushing the door widely open, he entered with a tray upon which wasspread a substantial breakfast.

  "Hurryup!" he muttered, as one word; wherewith he departed again.

  Soames seated himself at the little table upon which the tray rested,and endeavored to eat. His usual appetite had departed with hisidentity; Mr. Lucas was a poor, twitching being of raw nerves andinternal qualms. He emptied the coffee-pot, however, and smoked acigarette which he found in his case.

  Said reappeared.

  "Ta'ala!" he directed.

  Soames having learnt that that term was evidently intended as aninvitation to follow Said, rose and followed, dumbly.

  He was conducted along the matting-lined corridor to the left; and now,where formerly he had seen a blank wall, he saw an open door! Passingthis, he discovered himself in the cave of the golden dragon.Ho-Pin, dressed in a perfectly fitting morning coat and its usualaccompaniments, received him with a mirthless smile.

  "Good mowrning!" he said; "I twrust your bwreakfast was satisfactowry?"

  "Quite, sir," replied Soames, mechanically, and as he might have repliedto Mr. Leroux.

  "Said will show you to a wroom," continued Ho-Pin, "where you will finda gentleman awaiting you. You will valet him and perfowrm any otherservices which he may wrequire of you. When he departs, you will cleanthe wroom and adjoining bath-wroom, and put it into thowrough orderfor an incoming tenant. In short, your duties in this wrespect will beidentical to those which formerly you perfowrmed at sea. There isone important diffewrence: your name is Lucas, and you will answer noquestions."

  The metallic voice seemed to reach Soames' comprehension from some placeother than the room of the golden dragon--from a great distance, or asthough he were fastened up in a box and were being addressed by someoneoutside it.

  "Yes, sir," he replied.

  Said opened the yellow door upon the right of the room, and Soamesfollowed him into another of the matting-lined corridors, this onerunning right and left and parallel with the wall of the apartment whichhe had just quitted. Six doors opened out of this corridor; four ofthem upon the side opposite to that by which he had entered, and one ateither end.

  These doors were not readily to be detected; and the wall, at firstglance, presented an unbroken appearance. But from experience, he hadlearned that where the strips of bamboo which overlay the straw mattingformed a rectangular panel, there was a door, and by the light of theelectric lamp hung in the center of the corridor, he counted six ofthese.

  Said, selecting a key from a bunch which he carried, opened one of thedoors, held it ajar for Soames to enter, and permitted it to reclosebehind him.

  Soames entered nervously. He found himself in a room identical in sizewith his own private apartment; a bathroom, etc., opened out of it inone corner after the same fashion. But there similarity ended.

  The bed in this apartment was constructed more on the lines of a modernsteamer bunk; that is, it was surrounded by a rail, and was raised nomore than a foot from the floor. The latter was covered with a richcarpet, worked in many colors, and the wall was hung with such paperas Soames had never seen hitherto in his life. The scheme of this muraldecoration was distinctly Chinese, and consisted in an intricate designof human and animal figures, bewilderingly mingled; its coloring wasbrilliant, and the scheme extended, unbroken, over the entire ceiling.Cushions, most fancifully embroidered, were strewn about the floor, andthe bed coverlet was a piece of heavy Chinese tapestry. A lamp, shadedwith silk of a dull purple, swung in the center of the apartment, andan ebony table, inlaid with ivory, stood on one side of the bed; on theother was a cushioned armchair figured with the eternal, chaotic Chinesedesign, and being littered, at the moment, with the garments of the manin the bed. The air of the room was disgusting, unbreathable; it caughtSoames by the throat and sickened him. It was laden with some kind offumes, entirely unfamiliar to his nostrils. A dainty Chinese tea-servicestood upon the ebony table.

  For fully thirty seconds Soames, with his back to the door, gazed at theman in the bed, and fought down the nausea which the air of the placehad induced in him.

  This sleeper was a man of middle age, thin to emaciation and havinglank, dark hair. His face was ghastly white, and he lay with his headthrown back and with his arms hanging out upon either side of the bunk,so that his listless hands rested upon the carpet. It was a tragic face;a high, intellectual brow and finely chiseled features; but it presentedan indescribable aspect of decay; it was as the face of some classicstatue which has long lain buried in humid ruins.

  Soames shook himself into activity, and ventured to approach the bed. Hemoistened his dry lips and spoke:

  "Good morning, sir"--the words sounded wildly, fantastically out ofplace. "Shall I prepare your bath?"

  The sleeper showed no signs of awakening.

  Soames forced himself to touch one of the thrown-back shoulders. Heshook it gently.

  The man on the bed raised his arms and dropped them back again intotheir original position, without opening his eyes.

  "They... are hiding," he murmured thickly... "in the... orange grove....If the felucca sails... closer... they will"...

  Soames, finding something very horrifying in the broken words, shook thesleeper more urgently.

  "Wake up, sir!" he cried; "I am going to prepare your bath."

  "Don't let them... escape," murmured the man, slowly opening hiseyes--"I have not"...

  He strugg
led upright, glaring madly at the intruder. His light grayeyes had a glassiness as of long sickness, and his pupils, which wereunnaturally dilated, began rapidly to contract; became almost invisible.Then they expanded again--and again contracted.

  "Who--the deuce are you?" he murmured, passing his hand across hisunshaven face.

  "My name is--Lucas, sir," said Soames, conscious that if he remainedmuch longer in the place he should be physically sick. "At yourservice--shall I prepare the bath?"

  "The bath?" said the man, sitting up more straightly--"certainly,yes--of course"...

  He looked at Soames, with a light of growing sanity creeping into hiseyes; a faint flush tinged the pallid face, and his loose mouth twitchedsensitively.

  "Then, Said," he began, looking Soames up and down... "let me see, whomdid you say you were?"

  "Lucas, sir--at your service."

  "Ah," muttered the man, lowering his eyes in unmistakable shame--"yes,yes, of course. You are new here?"

  "Yes, sir. Shall I prepare your bath?"

  "Yes, please. This is Wednesday morning?"

  "Wednesday morning, sir; yes."

  "Of course--it is Wednesday. You said your name was?"

  "Lucas, sir," reiterated Soames, and, crossing the fantastic apartment,he entered the bathroom beyond.

  This contained the most modern appointments and was on an altogethermore luxurious scale than that attached to his own quarters. He noted,without drawing any deduction from the circumstance, that the fittingswere of American manufacture. Here, as in the outer room, there was nowindow; an electric light hung from the center of the ceiling. Soamesbusied himself in filling the bath, and laying out the towels upon therack.

  "Fairly warm, sir?" he asked.

  "Not too warm, thank you," replied the other, now stumbling out of bedand falling into the armchair--"not too warm."

  "If you will take your bath, sir," said Soames, returning to the outerroom, "I will brush your clothes and be ready to shave you."

  "Yes, yes," said the man, rubbing his hands over his face wearily. "Youare new here?"

  Soames, who was becoming used to answering this question, answered itonce more without irritation.

  "Yes, sir, will you take your bath now? It is nearly full, I think."

  The man stood up unsteadily and passed into the bathroom, closing thedoor behind him. Soames, seeking to forget his surroundings, took outfrom a small hand-bag which he found beneath the bed, a razor-case and ashaving stick. The clothes-brush he had discovered in the bathroom;and now he set to work to brush the creased garments stacked in thearmchair. He noted that they were of excellent make, and that the linenwas of the highest quality. He was thus employed when the outer doorsilently opened and the face of Said looked in.

  "Gazm," said the Oriental; and he placed inside, upon the carpet, a pairof highly polished boots.

  The door was reclosed.

  Soames had all the garments in readiness by the time that the manemerged from the bathroom, looking slightly less ill, and not quite sopallid. He wore a yellow silk kimono; and, with greater composure thanhe had yet revealed, he seated himself in the armchair that Soames mightshave him.

  This operation Soames accomplished, and the subject, having partiallydressed, returned to the bathroom to brush his hair. When his toilet waspractically completed:

  "Shall I pack the rest of the things in the bag, sir?" asked Soames.

  The man nodded affirmatively.

  Five minutes later he was ready to depart, and stood before theex-butler a well-dressed, intellectual, but very debauched-lookinggentleman. Being evidently well acquainted with the regime of theestablishment, he pressed an electric bell beside the door, presentedSoames with half-a-sovereign, and, as Said reappeared, took hisdeparture, leaving Soames more reconciled to his lot than he could everhave supposed possible.

  The task of cleaning the room was now commenced by Soames. Saidreturned, bringing him the necessary utensils; and for fifteen minutesor so he busied himself between the outer apartment and the bathroom.During this time he found leisure to study the extraordinary muraldecorations; and, as he looked at them, he learned that they possessed asingular property.

  If one gazed continuously at any portion of the wall, the intertwinedfigures thereon took shape--nay, took life; the intricate, elaboratedesign ceased to be a design, and became a procession, a saturnalia;became a sinister comedy, which, when first visualized, shocked Soamesimmoderately. The horrors presented by these devices of evil cunning,crowding the walls, appalled the narrow mind of the beholder, revoltedhim in an even greater degree than they must have revolted a man ofbroader and cleaner mind. He became conscious of a quality of evilwhich pervaded the room; the entire place seemed to lie beneath a spell,beneath the spell of an invisible, immeasurably wicked intelligence.

  His reflections began to terrify him, and he hastened to complete hisduties. The stench of the place was sickening him anew, and when atlast Said opened the door, Soames came out as a man escaping from someimminent harm.

  "Di," muttered Said.

  He pointed to the opened door of a second room, identical in everyrespect with the first; and Soames started back with a smothered groan.Had his education been classical he might have likened himself toHercules laboring for Augeus; but his mind tending scripturally, hewondered if he had sold his soul to Satan in the person of the invisibleMr. King!