“Dash it all, Petrie!” cried Smith, “this is most annoying!”
The bell was ringing furiously, although midnight was long past. Whom
could my late visitor be? Almost certainly this ringing portended an
urgent case. In other words, I was not fated to take part in what I
anticipated would prove to be the closing scene of the Fu-Manchu drama.
“Every one is in bed,” I said, ruefully; “and how can I possibly see a
patient--in this costume?”
Smith and I were both arrayed in rough tweeds, and anticipating the
labors before us, had dispensed with collars and wore soft mufflers.
It was hard to be called upon to face a professional interview dressed
thus, and having a big tweed cap pulled down over my eyes.
Across the writing-table we confronted one another in dismayed silence,
whilst, below, the bell sent up its ceaseless clangor.
“It has to be done, Smith,” I said, regretfully. “Almost certainly it
means a journey and probably an absence of some hours.”
I threw my cap upon the table, turned up my coat to hide the absence
of collar, and started for the door. My last sight of Smith showed him
standing looking after me, tugging at the lobe of his ear and clicking
his teeth together with suppressed irritability. I stumbled down the
dark stairs, along the hall, and opened the front door. Vaguely visible
in the light of a street lamp which stood at no great distance away,
I saw a slender man of medium height confronting me. From the shadowed
face two large and luminous eyes looked out into mine. My visitor,
who, despite the warmth of the evening, wore a heavy greatcoat, was an
Oriental!
I drew back, apprehensively; then:
“Ah! Dr. Petrie!” he said in a softly musical voice which made me start
again, “to God be all praise that I have found you!”
Some emotion, which at present I could not define, was stirring within
me. Where had I seen this graceful Eastern youth before? Where had I
heard that soft voice?
“Do you wish to see me professionally?” I asked--yet even as I put the
question, I seemed to know it unnecessary.
“So you know me no more?” said the stranger--and his teeth gleamed in a
slight smile.
Heavens! I knew now what had struck that vibrant chord within me! The
voice, though infinitely deeper, yet had an unmistakable resemblance
to the dulcet tones of Karamaneh--of Karamaneh whose eyes haunted my
dreams, whose beauty had done much to embitter my years.
The Oriental youth stepped forward, with outstretched hand.
“So you know me no more?” he repeated; “but I know you, and give praise
to Allah that I have found you!”
I stepped back, pressed the electric switch, and turned, with leaping
heart, to look into the face of my visitor. It was a face of the purest
Greek beauty, a face that might have served as a model for Praxiteles;
the skin had a golden pallor, which, with the crisp black hair and
magnetic yet velvety eyes, suggested to my fancy that this was the young
Antinious risen from the Nile, whose wraith now appeared to me out of
the night. I stifled a cry of surprise, not unmingled with gladness.
It was Aziz--the brother of Karamaneh!
Never could the entrance of a figure upon the stage of a drama have been
more dramatic than the coming of Aziz upon this night of all nights.
I seized the outstretched hand and drew him forward, then reclosed the
door and stood before him a moment in doubt.
A vaguely troubled look momentarily crossed the handsome face; with
the Oriental’s unerring instinct, he had detected the reserve of my
greeting. Yet, when I thought of the treachery of Karamaneh, when I
remember how she, whom we had befriended, whom we had rescued from the
house of Fu-Manchu, now had turned like the beautiful viper that she was
to strike at the hand that caressed her; when I thought how to-night we
were set upon raiding the place where the evil Chinese doctor lurked in
hiding, were set upon the arrest of that malignant genius and of all his
creatures, Karamaneh amongst them, is it strange that I hesitated? Yet,
again, when I thought of my last meeting with her, and of how, twice,
she had risked her life to save me...
So, avoiding the gaze of the lad, I took his arm, and in silence we two
ascended the stairs and entered my study... where Nayland Smith stood
bolt upright beside the table, his steely eyes fixed upon the face of
the new arrival.
No look of recognition crossed the bronzed features, and Aziz who had
started forward with outstretched hands, fell back a step and looked
pathetically from me to Nayland Smith, and from the grim commissioner
back again to me. The appeal in the velvet eyes was more than I could
tolerate, unmoved.
“Smith,” I said shortly, “you remember Aziz?”
Not a muscle visibly moved in Smith’s face, as he snapped back:
“I remember him perfectly.”
“He has come, I think, to seek our assistance.”
“Yes, yes!” cried Aziz laying his hand upon my arm with a gesture
painfully reminiscent of Karamaneh--“I came only to-night to London. Oh,
my gentlemen! I have searched, and searched, and searched, until I
am weary. Often I have wished to die. And then at last I come to
Rangoon...”
“To Rangoon!” snapped Smith, still with the gray eyes fixed almost
fiercely upon the lad’s face.
“To Rangoon--yes; and there I heard news at last. I hear that you have
seen her--have seen Karamaneh--that you are back in London.” He was not
entirely at home with his English. “I know then that she must be here,
too. I ask them everywhere, and they answer ‘yes.’ Oh, Smith Pasha!”--he
stepped forward and impulsively seized both Smith’s hands--“You know
where she is--take me to her!”
Smith’s face was a study in perplexity, now. In the past we had
befriended the young Aziz, and it was hard to look upon him in the light
of an enemy. Yet had we not equally befriended his sister?--and she...
At last Smith glanced across at me where I stood just within the
doorway.
“What do you make of it, Petrie?” he said harshly. “Personally I take
it to mean that our plans have leaked out.” He sprang suddenly back from
Aziz and I saw his glance traveling rapidly over the slight figure as if
in quest of concealed arms. “I take it to be a trap!”
A moment he stood so, regarding him, and despite my well-grounded
distrust of the Oriental character, I could have sworn that the
expression of pained surprise upon the youth’s face was not simulated
but real. Even Smith, I think, began to share my view; for suddenly
he threw himself into the white cane rest-chair, and, still fixedly
regarding Aziz:
“Perhaps I have wronged you,” he said. “If I have, you shall know the
reason presently. Tell your own story!”
There was a pathetic humidity in the velvet eyes of Aziz--eyes so like
those others that were ever looking into mine in dreams--as glancing
from Smith to me he began, hands outstretched, characteristically, palms
upward and fingers curling, to tell in broken English the story of his
search for Karamaneh...
“It was Fu-Manchu, my kind gentlemen--it was the hakim who is really not
a man at all, but an efreet. He found us again less than four days after
you had left us, Smith Pasha!... He found us in Cairo, and to Karamaneh
he made the forgetting of all things--even of me--even of me...”
Nayland Smith snapped his teeth together sharply; then:
“What do you mean by that?” he demanded.
For my own part I understood well enough, remembering how the brilliant
Chinese doctor once had performed such an operation as this upon poor
Inspector Weymouth; how, by means of an injection of some serum prepared
(as Karamaneh afterwards told us) from the venom of a swamp adder or
similar reptile, he had induced amnesia, or complete loss of memory. I
felt every drop of blood recede from my cheeks.
“Smith!” I began...
“Let him speak for himself,” interrupted my friend sharply.
“They tried to take us both,” continued Aziz still speaking in that
soft, melodious manner, but with deep seriousness. “I escaped, I, who
am swift of foot, hoping to bring help.”--He shook his head sadly--“But,
except the All Powerful, who is so powerful as the Hakim Fu-Manchu? I
hid, my gentlemen, and watched and waited, one--two--three weeks. At
last I saw her again, my sister, Karamaneh; but ah! she did not know me,
did not know me, Aziz her brother! She was in an arabeeyeh, and passed
me quickly along the Sharia en-Nahhasin. I ran, and ran, and ran, crying
her name, but although she looked back, she did not know me--she did not
know me! I felt that I was dying, and presently I fell--upon the steps
of the Mosque of Abu.”
He dropped the expressive hands wearily to his sides and sank his chin
upon his breast.
“And then?” I said, huskily--for my heart was fluttering like a captive
bird.
“Alas! from that day to this I see her no more, my gentlemen. I travel,
not only in Egypt, but near and far, and still I see her no more until
in Rangoon I hear that which brings me to England again”--he extended
his palms naively--“and here I am--Smith Pasha.”
Smith sprang upright again and turned to me.
“Either I am growing over-credulous,” he said, “or Aziz speaks the
truth. But”--he held up his hand--“you can tell me all that at some
other time, Petrie! We must take no chances. Sergeant Carter is
downstairs with the cab; you might ask him to step up. He and Aziz can
remain here until our return.”