CHAPTER XXXIII
AN ANTI-CLIMAX
One hour later I stood in the entrance hall of our chambers in thecourt adjoining Fleet Street. Some one who had come racing up thestairs, now had inserted a key in the lock. Open swung the door--andNayland Smith entered, in a perfect whirl of excitement.
"Petrie! Petrie!" he cried, and seized both my hands--"you have misseda night of nights! Man alive! we have the whole gang--the great Ki-Mingincluded!" His eyes were blazing. "Weymouth has made no fewer thantwenty-five arrests, some of the prisoners being well-known Orientals.It will be the devil's own work to keep it all quiet, but ScotlandYard has already advised the Press."
"Congratulations, old man," I said, and looked him squarely in the eyes.
Something there must have been in my glance at variance with thespoken words. His expression changed; he grasped my shoulder.
"_She_ was not there," he said, "but please God, we'll find her now.It's only a question of time."
But, even as he spoke, the old, haunted look was creeping back into thelean face. He gave me a rapid glance; then:--
"I might as well make a clean breast of it," he rapped. "Fu-Manchuescaped! Furthermore, when we got lights, the woman had vanished, too."
"The woman!"
"There was a woman at this strange gathering, Petrie. Heaven onlyknows who she really is. According to Fu-Manchu she is that woman ofmystery concerning whose existence strange stories are current in theEast; the future Empress of a universal empire! But of course Idecline to accept the story, Petrie! if ever the Yellow races overranEurope, I am in no doubt respecting the identity of the person whowould ascend the throne of the world!"
"Nor I, Smith!" I cried excitedly. "Good God! he holds them all in thepalm of his hand! He has welded together the fanatics of every creedof the East into a giant weapon for his personal use! Small wonderthat he is so formidable. But, Smith--_who_ is that woman?"
"Petrie!" he said slowly, and I knew that I had betrayed my secret,"Petrie--where did you learn all this?"
I returned his steady gaze.
"I was present at the meeting of the Si-Fan," I replied steadily.
"What? What? _You_ were present?"
"I was present! Listen, and I will explain."
Standing there in the hallway I related, as briefly as possible, theastounding events of the night. As I told of the woman in the train--
"That confirms my impression that Fu-Manchu was imposing upon theothers!" he snapped. "I cannot conceive of a woman recluse from someLamaserie, surrounded by silent attendants and trained for her exalteddestiny in the way that the legendary veiled woman of Tibet is said tobe trained, traveling alone in an English railway carriage! Did youobserve, Petrie, if her eyes were _oblique_ at all?"
"They did not strike me as being oblique. Why do you ask?"
"Because I strongly suspect that we have to do with none other thanFu-Manchu's daughter! But go on."
"By heavens, Smith! You may be right! I had no idea that a Chinesewoman could possess such features."
"She may not have a Chinese mother; furthermore, there are pretty womenin China as well as in other countries; also, there are hair dyes andcosmetics. But for Heaven's sake go on!"
I continued my all but incredible narrative; came to the point where Idiscovered the straying marmoset and entered the empty house, withoutprovoking any comment from my listener. He stared at me with somethingvery like surprised admiration when I related how I had become anunseen spectator of that singular meeting.
"And I though I had achieved the triumph of my life in gainingadmission and smuggling Weymouth and Carter into the roof, armed withhooks and rope-ladders!" he murmured.
Now I came to the moment when, having withdrawn into the empty house,I had heard the police whistle and had heard Smith's voice; I came tothe moment when I had found myself face to face with Dr. Fu-Manchu.
Nayland Smith's eyes were on fire now; he literally quivered withexcitement, when--
"_Ssh!_ what's that?" he whispered, and grasped my arm. "I heardsomething move in the sitting-room, Petrie!"
"It was a coal dropping from the grate, perhaps," I said--and rapidlycontinued my story, telling how, with my pistol to his head, I hadforced the Chinese doctor to descend into the hallway of the emptyhouse.
"Yes, yes," snapped Smith. "For God's sake go on, man! What have youdone with him? Where is he?"
I clearly detected a movement myself immediately behind the half-opendoor of the sitting-room. Smith started and stared intently across myshoulder at the doorway; then his gaze shifted and became fixed uponmy face.
"He bought his life from me, Smith."
Never can I forget the change that came over my friend's tannedfeatures at those words; never can I forget the pang that I sufferedto see it. The fire died out of his eyes and he seemed to grow old andweary in a moment. None too steadily I went on:--
"He offered a price that I could not resist, Smith. Try to forgive me,if you can. I know that I have done a dastardly thing, but--perhaps aday may come in your own life when you will understand. He descendedwith me to a cellar under the empty house, in which some one waslocked. Had I arrested Fu-Manchu this poor captive must have died thereof starvation; for no one would ever have suspected that the place hadan occupant...."
The door of the sitting-room was thrown open, and, wearing mygreat-coat over the bizarre costume in which I had found her, with herbare ankles and little red slippers peeping grotesquely from below,and her wonderful cloud of hair rippling over the turned-up collar,Karamaneh came out!
Her great dark eyes were raised to Nayland Smith's with such an appealin them--an appeal for _me_--that emotion took me by the throat andhad me speechless. I could not look at either of them; I turned asideand stared into the lighted sitting-room.
How long I stood so God knows, and I never shall; but suddenly I foundmy hand seized in a vice-like grip, I looked around ... and Smith,holding my fingers fast in that iron grasp, had his left arm aboutKaramaneh's shoulders, and his gray eyes were strangely soft, whilsthers were hidden behind her upraised hands.
"Good old Petrie!" said Smith hoarsely. "Wake up, man; we have to gether to a hotel before they all close, remember. _I_ understand, oldman. That day came in my life long years ago!"