CHAPTER XII. DARK EYES LOOKED INTO MINE
My adventure had done nothing to relieve the feeling of unreality whichheld me enthralled. Grasping the struggling bird firmly by the body, andhaving the long white tail fluttering a yard or so behind me, I returnedto where the taxi waited.
"Open the door!" I said to the man--who greeted me with such a stare ofamazement that I laughed outright, though my mirth was but hollow.
He jumped into the road and did as I directed. Making sure that bothwindows were closed, I thrust the peacock into the cab and shut the doorupon it.
"For God's sake, sir!" began the driver--
"It has probably escaped from some collector's place on the riverside,"I explained, "but one never knows. See that it does not escape again,and if at the end of an hour, as arranged, you do not hear from me, takeit back with you to the River Police Station."
"Right you are, sir," said the man, remounting his seat. "It's the firsttime I ever saw a peacock in Limehouse!"
It was the first time I had seen one, and the incident struck me asbeing more than odd; it gave me an idea, and a new, faint hope. Ireturned to the head of the steps, at the foot of which I had met withthis singular experience, and gazed up at the dark building beneathwhich they led. Three windows were visible, but they were broken andneglected. One, immediately above the arch, had been pasted up withbrown paper, and this was now peeling off in the rain, a little streamof which trickled down from the detached corner to drop, drearily, uponthe stone stairs beneath.
Where were the detectives? I could only assume that they had directedtheir attention elsewhere, for had the place not been utterly deserted,surely I had been challenged.
In pursuit of my new idea, I again descended the steps. The persuasion(shortly to be verified) that I was close upon the secret hold of theChinaman, grew stronger, unaccountably. I had descended some eightsteps, and was at the darkest part of the archway or tunnel, whenconfirmation of my theories came to me.
A noose settled accurately upon my shoulders, was snatched tightly aboutmy throat, and with a feeling of insupportable agony at the base ofmy skull, and a sudden supreme knowledge that I was beingstrangled--hanged--I lost consciousness!
How long I remained unconscious, I was unable to determine at the time,but I learned later, that it was for no more than half an hour; at anyrate, recovery was slow.
The first sensation to return to me was a sort of repetition ofthe asphyxia. The blood seemed to be forcing itself into my eyes--Ichoked--I felt that my end was come. And, raising my hands to my throat,I found it to be swollen and inflamed. Then the floor upon which I layseemed to be rocking like the deck of a ship, and I glided back againinto a place of darkness and forgetfulness.
My second awakening was heralded by a returning sense of smell; for Ibecame conscious of a faint, exquisite perfume.
It brought me to my senses as nothing else could have done, and I satupright with a hoarse cry. I could have distinguished that perfume amida thousand others, could have marked it apart from the rest in a scentbazaar. For me it had one meaning, and one meaning only--Karamaneh.
She was near to me, or had been near to me!
And in the first moments of my awakening, I groped about in the darknessblindly seeking her.
Then my swollen throat and throbbing head, together with my utterinability to move my neck even slightly, reminded me of the facts asthey were. I knew in that bitter moment that Karamaneh was no longer myfriend; but, for all her beauty and charm, was the most heartless, themost fiendish creature in the service of Dr. Fu-Manchu. I groaned aloudin my despair and misery.
Something stirred, near to me in the room, and set my nerves creepingwith a new apprehension. I became fully alive to the possibilities ofthe darkness.
To my certain knowledge, Dr. Fu-Manchu at this time had been in Englandfor fully three months, which meant that by now he must be equipped withall the instruments of destruction, animate and inanimate, which dreadexperience had taught me to associate with him.
Now, as I crouched there in that dark apartment listening for arepetition of the sound, I scarcely dared to conjecture what might haveoccasioned it, but my imagination peopled the place with reptiles whichwrithed upon the floor, with tarantulas and other deadly insects whichcrept upon the walls, which might drop upon me from the ceiling at anymoment.
Then, since nothing stirred about me, I ventured to move, turning myshoulders, for I was unable to move my aching head; and I looked in thedirection from which a faint, very faint, light proceeded.
A regular tapping sound now began to attract my attention, and, havingturned about, I perceived that behind me was a broken window, in placespatched with brown paper; the corner of one sheet of paper was detached,and the rain trickled down upon it with a rhythmical sound.
In a flash I realized that I lay in the room immediately above thearchway; and listening intently, I perceived above the other faintsounds of the night, or thought that I perceived, the hissing of the gasfrom the extinguished lamp-burner.
Unsteadily I rose to my feet, but found myself swaying like a drunkenman. I reached out for support, stumbling in the direction of the wall.My foot came in contact with something that lay there, and I pitchedforward and fell....
I anticipated a crash which would put an end to my hopes of escape, butmy fall was comparatively noiseless--for I fell upon the body of a manwho lay bound up with rope close against the wall!
A moment I stayed as I fell, the chest of my fellow captive rising andfalling beneath me as he breathed. Knowing that my life dependedupon retaining a firm hold upon myself, I succeeded in overcoming thedizziness and nausea which threatened to drown my senses, and, movingback so that I knelt upon the floor, I fumbled in my pocket for theelectric lamp which I had placed there. My raincoat had been removedwhilst I was unconscious, and with it my pistol, but the lamp wasuntouched.
I took it out, pressed the button, and directed the ray upon the face ofthe man beside me.
It was Nayland Smith!
Trussed up and fastened to a ring in the wall he lay, having a cork gagstrapped so tightly between his teeth that I wondered how he had escapedsuffocation.
But, although a grayish pallor showed through the tan of his skin, hiseyes were feverishly bright, and there, as I knelt beside him, I thankedheaven, silently but fervently.
Then, in furious haste, I set to work to remove the gag. It was mostingeniously secured by means of leather straps buckled at the back ofhis head, but I unfastened these without much difficulty, and he spatout the gag, uttering an exclamation of disgust.
"Thank God, old man!" he said, huskily. "Thank God that you are alive! Isaw them drag you in, and I thought..."
"I have been thinking the same about you for more than twenty-fourhours," I said, reproachfully. "Why did you start without--"
"I did not want you to come, Petrie," he replied. "I had a sort ofpremonition. You see it was realized; and instead of being as helplessas I, Fate has made you the instrument of my release. Quick! You have aknife? Good!" The old, feverish energy was by no means extinguishedin him. "Cut the ropes about my wrists and ankles, but don't otherwisedisturb them--"
I set to work eagerly.
"Now," Smith continued, "put that filthy gag in place again--but youneed not strap it so tightly! Directly they find that you are alive,they will treat you the same--you understand? She has been here threetimes--"
"Karamaneh?"...
"Ssh!"
I heard a sound like the opening of a distant door.
"Quick! the straps of the gag!" whispered Smith, "and pretend to recoverconsciousness just as they enter--"
Clumsily I followed his directions, for my fingers were none too steady,replaced the lamp in my pocket, and threw myself upon the floor.
Through half-shut eyes, I saw the door open and obtained a glimpse ofa desolate, empty passage beyond. On the threshold stood Karamaneh. Sheheld in her hand a common tin oil lamp which smoked and flickered withevery movement
, filling the already none too cleanly air with an odor ofburning paraffin. She personified the outre; nothing so incongruous asher presence in that place could well be imagined. She was dressed as Iremembered once to have seen her two years before, in the gauzy silks ofthe harem. There were pearls glittering like great tears amid the cloudof her wonderful hair. She wore broad gold bangles upon her bare arms,and her fingers were laden with jewelry. A heavy girdle swung from herhips, defining the lines of her slim shape, and about one white anklewas a gold band.
As she appeared in the doorway I almost entirely closed my eyes, but mygaze rested fascinatedly upon the little red slippers which she wore.
Again I detected the exquisite, elusive perfume, which, like a breathof musk, spoke of the Orient; and, as always, it played havoc with myreason, seeming to intoxicate me as though it were the very essence ofher loveliness.
But I had a part to play, and throwing out one clenched hand so that myfist struck upon the floor, I uttered a loud groan, and made as if torise upon my knees.
One quick glimpse I had of her wonderful eyes, widely opened and turnedupon me with such an enigmatical expression as set my heart leapingwildly--then, stepping back, Karamaneh placed the lamp upon the boardsof the passage and clapped her hands.
As I sank upon the floor in assumed exhaustion, a Chinaman witha perfectly impassive face, and a Burman, whose pock-marked, evilcountenance was set in an apparently habitual leer, came running intothe room past the girl.
With a hand which trembled violently, she held the lamp whilst the twoyellow ruffians tied me. I groaned and struggled feebly, fixing my gazeupon the lamp-bearer in a silent reproach which was by no means withoutits effect.
She lowered her eyes, and I could see her biting her lip, whilst thecolor gradually faded from her cheeks. Then, glancing up again quickly,and still meeting that reproachful stare, she turned her head asidealtogether, and rested one hand upon the wall, swaying slightly as shedid so.
It was a singular ordeal for more than one of that incongruous group;but in order that I may not be charged with hypocrisy or with seekingto hide my own folly, I confess, here, that when again I found myselfin darkness, my heart was leaping not because of the success of mystrategy, but because of the success of that reproachful glance whichI had directed toward the lovely, dark-eyed Karamaneh, toward thefaithless, evil Karamaneh! So much for myself.
The door had not been closed ten seconds, ere Smith again was spittingout the gag, swearing under his breath, and stretching his cramped limbsfree from their binding. Within a minute from the time of my trussing,I was a free man again; save that look where I would--to right, to left,or inward, to my own conscience--two dark eyes met mine, enigmatically.
"What now?" I whispered.
"Let me think," replied Smith. "A false move would destroy us."
"How long have you been here?"
"Since last night."
"Is Fu-Manchu--"
"Fu-Manchu is here!" replied Smith, grimly--"and not only Fu-Manchu,but--another."
"Another!"
"A higher than Fu-Manchu, apparently. I have an idea of the identity ofthis person, but no more than an idea. Something unusual is going on,Petrie; otherwise I should have been a dead man twenty-four hoursago. Something even more important than my death engages Fu-Manchu'sattention--and this can only be the presence of the mysterious visitor.Your seductive friend, Karamaneh, is arrayed in her very becomingnational costume in his honor, I presume." He stopped abruptly; thenadded: "I would give five hundred pounds for a glimpse of that visitor'sface!"
"Is Burke--"
"God knows what has become of Burke, Petrie! We were both caught nappingin the establishment of the amiable Shen-Yan, where, amid a very mixedcompany of poker players, we were losing our money like gentlemen."
"But Weymouth--"
"Burke and I had both been neatly sand-bagged, my dear Petrie, andremoved elsewhere, some hours before Weymouth raided the gaming-house.Oh! I don't know how they smuggled us away with the police watching theplace; but my presence here is sufficient evidence of the fact. Are youarmed?"
"No; my pistol was in my raincoat, which is missing."
In the dim light from the broken window, I could see Smith tuggingreflectively at the lobe of his left ear.
"I am without arms, too," he mused. "We might escape from the window--"
"It's a long drop!"
"Ah! I imagined so. If only I had a pistol, or a revolver--"
"What should you do?"
"I should present myself before the important meeting, which, I amassured, is being held somewhere in this building; and to-night wouldsee the end of my struggle with the Fu-Manchu group--the end of thewhole Yellow menace! For not only is Fu-Manchu here, Petrie, with allhis gang of assassins, but he whom I believe to be the real head of thegroup--a certain mandarin--is here also!"