ONE DAY IN RANGOON
Nayland Smith returned from the telephone. Nearly twenty-four hours
had elapsed since the awful death of Burke.
"No news, Petrie," he said shortly. "It must have crept into some
inaccessible hole to die."
I glanced up from my notes. Smith settled into the white cane
armchair, and began to surround himself with clouds of aromatic smoke.
I took up a half-sheet of foolscap covered with pencilled writing in
my friend's cramped characters, and transcribed the following, in
order to complete my account of the latest Fu-Manchu outrage:
"The Amharûn, a Semitic tribe allied to the Falashas, who have been
settled for many generations in the southern province of Shoa
(Abyssinia), have been regarded as unclean and outcast, apparently
since the days of Menelek--son of Suleyman and the Queen of
Sheba--from whom they claim descent. Apart from their custom of eating
meat cut from living beasts, they are accursed because of their
alleged association with the _Cynocephalus hamadryas_ (Sacred Baboon).
I, myself, was taken to a hut on the banks of the Hawash and shown a
creature ... whose predominant trait was an unreasoning malignity
toward ... and a ferocious tenderness for the society of its furry
brethren. Its powers of _scent_ were fully equal to those of a
bloodhound, whilst its abnormally long forearms possessed incredible
strength ... a _Cynocephalyte_ such as this, contracts phthisis even
in the more northern provinces of Abyssinia...."
"You have not yet explained to me, Smith," I said, having completed
this note, "how you got in touch with Fu-Manchu; how you learnt that
he was not dead, as we had supposed, but living--active."
Nayland Smith stood up and fixed his steely eyes upon me with an
indefinable expression in them. Then:
"No," he replied; "I haven't. Do you wish to know?"
"Certainly," I said with surprise; "is there any reason why I should
not?"
"There is no real reason," said Smith; "or"--staring at me very
hard--"I hope there is no real reason."
"What do you mean?"
"Well"--he grabbed up his pipe from the table and began furiously to
load it--"I blundered upon the truth one day in Rangoon. I was
walking out of a house which I occupied there for a time, and as I
swung around the corner into the main street, I ran into--literally
ran into...."
Again he hesitated oddly; then closed up his pouch and tossed it into
the cane chair. He struck a match.
"I ran into Kâramanèh," he continued abruptly, and began to puff away
at his pipe, filling the air with clouds of tobacco smoke.
I caught my breath. This was the reason why he had kept me so long in
ignorance of the story. He knew of my hopeless, uncrushable sentiments
towards the gloriously beautiful but utterly hypocritical and evil
Eastern girl who was perhaps the most dangerous of all Dr. Fu-Manchu's
servants; for the power of her loveliness was magical, as I knew to my
cost.
"What did you do?" I asked quietly, my fingers drumming upon the
table.
"Naturally enough," continued Smith, "with a cry of recognition I held
out both my hands to her gladly. I welcomed her as a dear friend
regained; I thought of the joy with which _you_ would learn that I had
found the missing one; I thought how you would be in Rangoon just as
quickly as the fastest steamer would get you there...."
"Well?"
"Kâramanèh started back and treated me to a glance of absolute
animosity! No recognition was there, and no friendliness--only a sort
of scornful anger."
He shrugged his shoulders and began to walk up and down the room.
"I do not know what _you_ would have done in the circumstances,
Petrie, but I--"
"Yes?"
"I dealt with the situation rather promptly, I think. I simply picked
her up without another word, right there in the public street, and
raced back into the house, with her kicking and fighting like a
little demon! She did not shriek or do anything of that kind, but
fought silently like a vicious wild animal. Oh! I had some scars, I
assure you; but I carried her up into my office, which fortunately was
empty at the time, plumped her down in a chair, and stood looking at
her."
"Go on" I said rather hollowly; "what next?"
"She glared at me with those wonderful eyes, an expression of
implacable hatred in them! Remembering all that we had done for her;
remembering our former friendship; above all, remembering _you_--this
look of hers almost made me shiver. She was dressed very smartly in
European fashion, and the whole thing had been so sudden that as I
stood looking at her I half expected to wake up presently and find it
all a day-dream. But it was real--as real as her enmity. I felt the
need for reflection, and having vainly endeavoured to draw her into
conversation, and elicited no other answer than this glare of
hatred--I left her there, going out and locking the door behind me."
"Very high-handed?"
"A Commissioner has certain privileges, Petrie; and any action I might
choose to take was not likely to be questioned. There was only one
window to the office, and it was fully twenty feet above the level; it
overlooked a narrow street off the main thoroughfare (I think I have
explained that the house stood on a corner), so I did not fear her
escaping. I had an important engagement which I had been on my way to
fulfil when the encounter took place, and now, with a word to my
native servant--who chanced to be downstairs--I hurried off."
Smith's pipe had gone out as usual, and he proceeded to relight it,
whilst, my eyes lowered, I continued to drum upon the table.
"This boy took her some tea later in the afternoon," he continued,
"and apparently found her in a more placid frame of mind. I returned
immediately after dusk, and he reported that when last he had looked
in, about half an hour earlier, she had been seated in an armchair
reading a newspaper (I may mention that everything of value in the
office was securely locked up!). I was determined upon a certain
course by this time, and I went slowly upstairs, unlocked the door,
and walked into the darkened office. I turned up the light ... the
place was empty!"
"Empty!"
"The window was open, and the bird flown! Oh! it was not so simple a
flight--as you would realize if you knew the place. The street, which
the window overlooked, was bounded by a blank wall, on the opposite
side, for thirty or forty yards along; and as we had been having heavy
rains, it was full of glutinous mud. Furthermore, the boy whom I had
left in charge had been sitting in the doorway immediately below the
office window watching for my return ever since his last visit to the
room above...."
"She must have bribed him," I said bitterly, "or corrupted him with
her infernal blandishments."
"I'll swear she did not," rapped Smith decisively. "I know my man, and
I'll swear she did not. There were no marks in the mud of the road to
show that a ladder had been placed there; moreover, nothing of the
kind could have been attempted whilst the boy was sitting in the
doorway; that was evident. In short, she did not descend into the
roadway and did not come out by the door...."
"Was there a gallery outside the window?"
"No; it was impossible to climb to right or left of the window or up
on to the roof. I convinced myself of that."
"But, my dear man!" I cried, "you are eliminating every natural mode
of egress! Nothing remains but flight."
"I am aware, Petrie, that nothing remains but flight; in other words,
I have never to this day understood how she quitted the room. I only
know that she did."
"And then?"
"I saw in this incredible escape the cunning hand of Dr.
Fu-Manchu--saw it at once. Peace was ended; and I set to work along
certain channels without delay. In this manner I got on the track at
last, and learnt, beyond the possibility of doubt, that the Chinese
doctor lived--nay! was actually on his way to Europe again!"
There followed a short silence. Then--
"I suppose it's a mystery that will be cleared up some day," concluded
Smith; "but to date the riddle remains intact." He glanced at the
clock. "I have an appointment with Weymouth; therefore, leaving you to
the task of solving this problem which thus far has defied my own
efforts, I will get along."
He read a query in my glance.
"Oh! I shall not be late," he added; "I think I may venture out alone
on this occasion without personal danger."
Nayland Smith went upstairs to dress, leaving me seated at my
writing-table deep in thought. My notes upon the renewed activity of
Dr. Fu-Manchu were stacked on my left hand, and, opening a new
writing-block, I commenced to add to them particulars of this
surprising event in Rangoon which properly marked the opening of the
Chinaman's second campaign. Smith looked in at the door on his way
out, but seeing me thus engaged, did not disturb me.
I think I have made it sufficiently evident in these records that my
practice was not an extensive one, and my hour for receiving patients
arrived and passed with only two professional interruptions.
My task concluded, I glanced at the clock, and determined to devote
the remainder of the evening to a little private investigation of my
own. From Nayland Smith I had preserved the matter a secret, largely
because I feared his ridicule; but I had by no means forgotten that I
had seen, or had strongly imagined that I had seen, Kâramanèh--that
beautiful anomaly who (in modern London) asserted herself to be a
slave--in the shop of an antique dealer not a hundred yards from the
British Museum!
A theory was forming in my brain, which I was burningly anxious to put
to the test. I remembered how, two years before, I had met Kâramanèh
near to this same spot; and I had heard Inspector Weymouth assert
positively that Fu-Manchu's headquarters were no longer in the East
End, as of yore. There seemed to me to be a distinct probability that
a suitable centre had been established for his reception in this
place, so much less likely to be suspected by the authorities. Perhaps
I attached too great a value to what may have been a delusion; perhaps
my theory rested upon no more solid foundation than the belief that I
had seen Kâramanèh in the shop of the curio dealer. If her appearance
there should prove to have been imaginary, the structure of my theory
would be shattered at its base. To-night I should test my premises,
and upon the result of my investigations determine my future action.