THE SAMURAI'S SWORD
The muffled drumming of sleepless London seemed very remote from us,
as side by side we crept up the narrow path to the studio. This was a
starry but moonless night, and the little dingy white building with a
solitary tree peeping, in silhouette above its glazed roof, bore an
odd resemblance to one of those tombs which form a city of the dead so
near to the city of feverish life, on the slopes of the Mokattam
Hills. This line of reflection proved unpleasant, and I dismissed it
sternly from my mind.
The shriek of a train-whistle reached me, a sound which breaks the
stillness of the most silent London night, telling of the ceaseless,
febrile life of the great world-capital whose activity ceases not with
the coming of darkness. Around and about us a very great stillness
reigned, however, and the velvet dusk--which, with the star-jewelled
sky, was strongly suggestive of an Eastern night--gave up no sign to
show that it masked the presence of more than twenty men. Some
distance away on our right was The Gables, that sinister and deserted
mansion which we assumed, and with good reason, to be nothing less
than the gateway to the subterranean abode of Dr. Fu Manchu; before us
was the studio, which, if Nayland Smith's deductions were accurate,
concealed a second entrance to the same mysterious dwelling.
As my friend, glancing cautiously all about him, inserted the key in
the lock, an owl hooted dismally almost immediately above our heads. I
caught my breath sharply, for it might be a signal; but, looking
upward, I saw a great black shape float slantingly from the tree
beyond the studio into the coppice on the right which hemmed in The
Gables. Silently the owl winged its uncanny flight into the greater
darkness of the trees, and was gone. Smith opened the door and we
stepped into the studio. Our plans had been well considered, and in
accordance with these, I now moved up beside my friend, who was dimly
perceptible to me in the starlight which found access through the
glass roof, and pressed the catch of my electric pocket-lamp....
I suppose that by virtue of my self-imposed duty as chronicler of the
deeds of Dr. Fu Manchu--the greatest and most evil genius whom the
later centuries have produced, the man who dreamt of a universal
Yellow Empire--I should have acquired a certain facility in describing
bizarre happenings. But I confess that it fails me now as I attempt in
cold English to portray my emotions when the white beam from the
little lamp cut through the darkness of the studio, and shone fully
upon the beautiful face of _Kâramanèh_!
Less than six feet away from me she stood, arrayed in the gauzy dress
of the harêm, her fingers and slim white arms laden with barbaric
jewelry! The light wavered in my suddenly nerveless hand, gleaming
momentarily upon bare ankles and golden anklets, upon little
red-leather shoes.
I spoke no word, and Smith was as silent as I; both of us, I think,
were speechless rather from amazement than in obedience to the
evident wishes of Fu-Manchu's slave-girl. Yet I have only to close my
eyes at this moment to see her as she stood, one finger raised to her
lips, enjoining us to silence. She looked ghastly pale in the light of
the lamp, but so lovely that my rebellious heart threatened already to
make a fool of me.
So we stood in that untidy studio, with canvases and easels heaped
against the wall and with all sorts of litter about us, a trio
strangely met, and one to have amused the high gods watching through
the windows of the stars.
"Go back!" came in a whisper from Kâramanèh.
I saw the red lips moving and read a dreadful horror in the widely
opened eyes, in those eyes like pools of mystery to taunt the thirsty
soul. The world of realities was slipping past me; I seemed to be
losing my hold on things actual; I had built up an Eastern palace
about myself and Kâramanèh, wherein, the world shut out, I might pass
the hours in reading the mystery of those dark eyes. Nayland Smith
brought me sharply to my senses.
"Steady with the light, Petrie!" he hissed in my ear. "My scepticism
has been shaken to-night, but I am taking no chances."
He moved from my side and forward toward that lovely, unreal figure
which stood immediately before the model's throne and its background
of plush curtains. Kâramanèh started forward to meet him, suppressing
a little cry, whose real anguish could not have been simulated.
"Go back! go back!" she whispered urgently, and thrust out her hands
against Smith's breast. "For God's sake, go back! I have risked my
life to come here to-night. _He knows_, and is ready...."
The words were spoken with passionate intensity, and Nayland Smith
hesitated. To my nostrils was wafted that faint, delightful perfume
which, since one night, two years ago, it had come to disturb my
senses, had taunted me many times as the mirage taunts the parched
Sahara traveller. I took a step forward.
"Don't move!" snapped Smith.
Kâramanèh clutched frenziedly at the lapels of his coat.
"Listen to me!" she said beseechingly, and stamped one little foot
upon the floor--"listen to me! You are a clever man, but you know
nothing of a woman's heart--nothing--_nothing_--if seeing me, hearing
me, knowing, as you do know, what I risk, you can doubt that I speak
the truth. And I tell you that it is death to go behind those
curtains--that _he_...."
"That's what I wanted to know!" snapped Smith. His voice quivered with
excitement.
Suddenly grasping Kâramanèh by the waist, he lifted her and set her
aside; then in three bounds he was on to the model's throne and had
torn the plush curtains bodily from their fastenings.
How it occurred I cannot hope to make clear, for here my recollections
merge into a chaos. I know that Smith seemed to topple forward amid
the purple billows of velvet, and his muffled cry came to me:
"Petrie! My God, Petrie!..."
The pale face of Kâramanèh looked up into mine and her hands were
clutching me, but the glamour of her personality had lost its hold,
for I knew--heavens how poignantly it struck home to me!--that Nayland
Smith was gone to his death. What I hoped to achieve, I know not, but
hurling the trembling girl aside, I snatched the Browning pistol from
my coat pocket, and with the ray of the lamp directed upon the purple
mound of velvet, I leaped forward.
I think I realized that the curtains had masked a collapsible trap, a
sheer pit of blackness, an instant before I was precipitated into it,
but certainly the knowledge came too late. With the sound of a soft,
shuddering cry in my ears, I fell, dropping lamp and pistol, and
clutching at the fallen hangings. But they offered me no support. My
head seemed to be bursting; I could utter only a hoarse groan, as I
fell--fell--fell....
* * * * *
When my mind began to work again, in returning consciousness, I found
it to be laden with reproach. How often in the past had we blindly
hurled ourselves into just such a trap as this? Should we never learn
that, where Fu-Manchu was, impetuosity must prove fatal? On two
distinct occasions in the past we had been made the victims of this
device, yet although we had had practically conclusive evidence that
this studio was used by Dr. Fu-Manchu, we had relied upon its floor
being as secure as that of any other studio, we had failed to sound
every foot of it ere trusting our weight to its support....
"There is such a divine simplicity in the English mind that one may
lay one's plans with mathematical precision, and rely upon the Nayland
Smiths and Dr. Petries to play their allotted parts. Excepting two
faithful followers, my friends are long since departed. But here, in
these vaults which time has overlooked and which are as secret and as
serviceable to-day as they were two hundred years ago, I wait
patiently, with my trap set, like the spider for the fly!..."
To the sound of that taunting voice, I opened my eyes. As I did so I
strove to spring upright--only to realize that I was tied fast to a
heavy ebony chair inlaid with ivory, and attached by means of two iron
brackets to the floor.
"Even children learn from experience," continued the unforgettable
voice, alternately guttural and sibilant, but always as deliberate as
though the speaker were choosing with care words which should
perfectly clothe his thoughts. "For 'a burnt child fears the fire,'
says your English adage. But Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith, who
enjoys the confidence of the India Office, and who is empowered to
control the movements of the Criminal Investigation Department, learns
nothing from experience. He is less than a child, since he has twice
rashly precipitated himself into a chamber charged with an anæsthetic
prepared, by a process of my own, from the _lycoperdon_ or Common
Puffball."
I became fully master of my senses, and I became fully alive to a
stupendous fact. At last it was ended; we were utterly in the power of
Dr. Fu Manchu; our race was run.
I sat in a low vaulted room. The roof was of ancient brickwork, but
the walls were draped with exquisite Chinese fabric having a green
ground whereon was a design representing a grotesque procession of
white peacocks. A green carpet covered the floor, and the whole of the
furniture was of the same material as the chair to which I was
strapped, viz. ebony inlaid with ivory. This furniture was scanty.
There was a heavy table in one corner of the dungeonesque place, on
which were a number of books and papers. Before this table was a
high-backed, heavily carven chair. A smaller table stood upon the
right of the only visible opening, a low door partially draped with
bead-work curtains, above which hung a silver lamp. On this smaller
table, a stick of incense, in a silver holder, sent up a pencil of
vapour into the air, and the chamber was loaded with the sickly sweet
fumes. A faint haze from the incense-stick hovered up under the roof.
In the high-backed chair sat Dr. Fu Manchu, wearing a green robe upon
which was embroidered a design, the subject of which at first glance
was not perceptible, but which presently I made out to be a huge white
peacock. He wore a little cap perched upon the dome of his amazing
skull, and one clawish hand resting upon the ebony of the table, he
sat slightly turned toward me, his emotionless face a mask of
incredible evil. In spite of, or because of, the high intellect
written upon it, the face of Dr. Fu-Manchu was more utterly repellent
than any I have ever known, and the green eyes, eyes green as those of
a cat in the darkness, which sometimes burnt like witch-lamps, and
sometimes were horribly filmed like nothing human or imaginable, might
have mirrored not a soul, but an emanation of Hell, incarnate in this
gaunt, high-shouldered body.
Stretched flat upon the floor lay Nayland Smith, partially stripped,
his arms thrown back over his head and his wrists chained to a stout
iron staple attached to the wall; he was fully conscious and staring
intently at the Chinese doctor. His bare ankles also were manacled,
and fixed to a second chain, which quivered tautly across the green
carpet and passed out through the doorway, being attached to something
beyond the curtain, and invisible to me from where I sat.
Fu-Manchu was now silent. I could hear Smith's heavy breathing and
hear my watch ticking in my pocket. I suddenly realized that although
my body was lashed to the ebony chair, my hands and arms were free.
Next, looking dazedly about me, my attention was drawn to a heavy
sword which stood hilt upward against the wall within reach of my
hand. It was a magnificent piece, of Japanese workmanship; a long,
curved Damascened blade having a double-handed hilt of steel, inlaid
with gold, and resembling fine Kuft work. A host of possibilities
swept through my mind. Then I perceived that the sword was attached to
the wall by a thin steel chain some five feet in length.
"Even if you had the dexterity of a Mexican knife-thrower," came the
guttural voice of Fu-Manchu, "you would be unable to reach me, dear
Dr. Petrie."
The Chinaman had read my thoughts.
Smith turned his eyes upon me momentarily, only to look away again in
the direction of Fu Manchu. My friend's face was slightly pale beneath
the tan, and his jaw muscles stood out with unusual prominence. By
this fact alone did he reveal the knowledge that he lay at the mercy
of this enemy of the white race, of this inhuman being who himself
knew no mercy, of this man whose very genius was inspired by the cool,
calculated cruelty of his race, of that race which to this day
disposes of hundreds, nay, thousands, of its unwanted girl-children by
the simple measure of throwing them down a well specially dedicated to
the purpose.
"The weapon near your hand," continued the Chinaman imperturbably, "is
a product of the civilization of our near neighbours the Japanese, a
race to whose courage I prostrate myself in meekness. It is the sword
of a _samurai_, Dr. Petrie. It is of very great age, and was, until an
unfortunate misunderstanding with myself led to the extinction of the
family, a treasured possession of a noble Japanese house...."
The soft voice, into which an occasional sibilance crept, but which
never rose above a cool monotone, gradually was lashing me into fury,
and I could see the muscles moving in Smith's jaws as he convulsively
clenched his teeth; whereby I knew that, impotent, he burned with a
rage at least as great as mine. But I did not speak, and did not move.
"The ancient tradition of _seppuku_," continued the Chinaman, "or
_hara-kira_, still rules, as you know, in the great families of Japan.
There is a sacred ritual, and the _samurai_ who dedicates himself to
this honourable end, must follow strictly the ritual. As a physician,
the exact nature of the ceremony might possibly interest you, Dr.
Petrie, but a technical account of the two incisions which the
sacrificant employs in his self-dismissal, might, on the other hand,
bore Mr. Nayland Smith. Therefore I will merely enlighten you upon
one little point, a minor one, but interesting to the student of human
nature. In short, even a _samurai_--and no braver race has ever
honoured the world--sometimes hesitates to complete the operation. The
weapon near to your hand, my dear Dr. Petrie, is known as the Friend's
Sword. On such occasions as we are discussing, a trusty friend is
given the post--an honoured one--of standing behind the brave man who
offers himself to his gods, and should the latter's courage
momentarily fail him, the friend with the trusty blade (to which now I
especially direct your attention) diverts the hierophant's mind from
his digression, and rectifies his temporary breach of etiquette by
severing the cervical vertebræ of the spinal column with the friendly
blade--which you can reach quite easily, Dr. Petrie, if you care to
extend your hand."
Some dim perception of the truth was beginning to creep into my mind.
When I say a perception of the truth, I mean rather of some part of
the purpose of Dr. Fu-Manchu; of the whole horrible truth, of the
scheme which had been conceived by that mighty, evil man, I had no
glimmering, but I foresaw that a frightful ordeal was before us both.
"That I hold you in high esteem," continued Fu-Manchu, "is a fact
which must be apparent to you by this time, but in regard to your
companion, I entertain very different sentiments...."
Always underlying the deliberate calm of the speaker, sometimes
showing itself in an unusually deep guttural, sometimes in an
unusually serpentine sibilant, lurked the frenzy of hatred which in
the past had revealed itself occasionally in wild outbursts.
Momentarily I expected such an outburst now, but it did not come.
"One quality possessed by Mr. Nayland Smith," resumed the Chinaman, "I
admire; I refer to his courage. I would wish that so courageous a man
should seek his own end, should voluntarily efface himself from the
path of that world-movement which he is powerless to check. In short,
I would have him show himself a _samurai_. Always his friend, you
shall remain so to the end, Dr. Petrie. I have arranged for this."
He struck lightly a little silver gong, dependent from the corner of
the table, whereupon, from the curtained doorway, there entered a
short, thickly built Burman whom I recognized for a dacoit. He wore a
shoddy blue suit, which had been made for a much larger man; but these
things claimed little of my attention, which automatically was
directed to the load beneath which the Burman laboured.
Upon his back he carried a sort of wire box rather less than six feet
long, some two feet high, and about two feet wide. In short, it was a
stout framework covered with fine wire-netting on the tops, sides and
ends, but open at the bottom. It seemed to be made in five sections,
or to contain four sliding partitions which could be raised or lowered
at will. These were of wood, and in the bottom of each was cut a
little arch. The arches in the four partitions varied in size, so that
whereas the first was not more than five inches high, the fourth
opened almost to the wire roof of the box or cage; and a fifth, which
was but little higher than the first, was cut in the actual end of the
contrivance.
So intent was I upon this device, the purpose of which I was wholly
unable to divine, that I directed the whole of my attention upon it.
Then, as the Burman paused in the doorway, resting a corner of the
cage upon the brilliant carpet, I glanced toward Dr. Fu-Manchu. He was
watching Nayland Smith, and revealing his irregular yellow teeth--the
teeth of an opium smoker--in the awful mirthless smile which I knew.
"God!" whispered Smith, "the Six Gates!"
"Your knowledge of my beautiful country serves you well," replied
Fu-Manchu gently.
Instantly I looked to my friend ... and every drop of blood seemed to
recede from my heart, leaving it cold in my breast. If _I_ did not
know the purpose of the cage, obviously Smith knew it all too well.
His pallor had grown more marked, and although his grey eyes stared
defiantly at the Chinaman, I, who knew him, could read a deathly
horror in their depths.
The dacoit, in obedience to a guttural order from Dr. Fu Manchu,
placed the cage upon the carpet, completely covering Smith's body, but
leaving his neck and head exposed. The seared and pock-marked face set
in a sort of placid leer, the dacoit adjusted the sliding partitions
to Smith's recumbent form, and I saw the purpose of the graduated
arches. They were intended to divide a human body in just such
fashion, and, as I realized, were most cunningly shaped to that end.
The whole of Smith's body lay now in the wire cage, each of the five
compartments whereof was shut off from its neighbour.
The Burman stepped back and stood waiting in the doorway. Dr. Fu
Manchu, removing his gaze from the face of my friend, directed it now
upon me.
"Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith shall have the honour of acting as
hierophant, admitting himself to the Mysteries," said Fu Manchu
softly, "and you, Dr. Petrie, shall be the Friend."