by Sax Rohmer
“I must ask for silence now, sir,” Inspector Haredale said. “Elkin, our guide, has managed to open a section of this skylight.”
Elkin hauled a rope-ladder-from its hiding place, raised part of the skylight, hooked the ladder to the frame and climbed down. From below he flashed a light. “I’m holding the ladder fast,” he whispered. “Would you come next, Mr Garfield, and hang on to Miss Merton?”
The ladder was successfully negotiated, and the members of the party found themselves in a stuffy loft impregnated with stifling exotic odours. The warehouse had belonged to a firm of spice importers.
Stairs led down to a series of galleries surrounding a lofty, echoing place where even their cautious footsteps sounded like the tramp of a platoon.
“No use going tiptoe,” snapped Nayland Smith. “If there’s anyone here, he knows we’re here, too. The room you were in was on the ground floor, Pat. So let’s get a move on. A little more light, Sergeant.”
They descended from gallery to gallery until they reached the bottom. Then they stood still, listening. There was no sound. The place had the odour of a perfume bazaar.
“It was your mention of incense, miss,” Inspector Haredale told Pat, “that convinced me you had been here. Now, Elkin, what’s the lay of the land?”
“There’s an inner office, and a main office beyond which opens right on to the street.”
“Stand by for anything,” Nayland Smith directed. “If we’re lucky, Fu-Manchu will be in there. If the door is locked, we’ll break it down.”
The door was not locked. As it swung open, they saw a lighted room.
“Stay with Pat for a moment, Garfield,” Nayland Smith said tersely. “I want to make sure what’s ahead.”
He stepped in, followed by Haredale and Elkin. There was no one in the room. But as Pat strained forward to peer in, she saw a long couch illuminated by a tall pedestal lamp which shed a peculiar green light. “This is the room I was in!” she cried out.
She and Bruce joined Nayland Smith and, “Good God!” Bruce spoke almost in a whisper. “Can it be true?”
On a table beside the couch a curious object lay gleaming in the rays of the lamp. It was composed of some silver-like metal moulded in the form of two saucers, one inverted above the other and upheld by four squat columns apparently of vulcanite.
“My model!” Bruce shouted, and sprang forward.
“One moment, sir!” Inspector Haredale grasped his arm. “It may be booby-trapped. Elkin, make sure there’s no wiring under the table.”
As the detective dropped to his knees and began searching, Nayland Smith stepped to the door of the main office. It was locked.
“No wires, sir,” Elkin reported. “All clear.”
And almost before he had got to his feet Bruce had snatched up the model and was examining it.
“Bruce!” Pat spoke breathless. “Has it been tampered with?”
“I assure you, Miss Merton, it has not!” a sibilant, mocking voice replied.
“Fu-Manchu!” Nayland Smith snapped. “He’s in the next room. Come on, Haredale. We have him!” He fired three revolver shots in quick order. It was the signal for the raid.
There came a quiet laugh. “Ah, there you are Sir Denis Nayland Smith. Before you start the raiding party, I have a few words to say. I assume that you are there, Mr Garfield? I could not resist the temptation of telling you myself that you have far to go in the field of gravity. After inspecting your model, I saw no harm in sharing a few facts. So I laid a trail, with the assistance of your charming friend, Miss Merton, which I felt sure you could easily follow.”
Bruce, feeling like a man in a dream, said, “Very good of you!”
The wail of police whistles sounded, the roar of a racing engine, the screech as brakes were jammed on in the near-by street.
“Your model, Mr Garfield, is elementary,” the strangely sinister voice went on. “But I was interested to examine it. You have advanced only a short way in the science of anti-gravity. But you are on the right route. Listen.” The sibilant voice droned on as Dr Fu-Manchu became more explicit. Bruce listened, fascinated and rapidly made notes. Finally the voice concluded with this astonishing revelation.
“You may recall the sensation once created by the appearance of so-called flying saucers? Some of these — but not all — were test flights of my anti-gravity machine, which I have since perfected. The others, I assume, were from distant planets.”
The door of the outer office was being battered down. A voice shouted, “Inspector Haredale! Are you there?”
“You may call off your raiders,” the calm voice continued. “As I know you have already realised — I am not in the other office. I am fifty miles away. When you opened the door of the room in which you stand, you connected me with an amplifying device on a shortwave receiver, which, if you are patient, you may find in the main office. I installed it some time ago to enable me to give orders to subordinates assembled there.”
A crash announced the collapse of the street door. Men could be heard running down the stairs from the entrance on the roof. Pat was trembling. There were tears in her voice when she turned to Bruce, who was holding the model. “Bruce, darling, is it true? Have you failed?”
Bruce put the model down, hugged Pat — and laughed. “This is the first model I ever made, and I should have hated to lose it. I suppose I feel about it the way a sculptor feels about a rough clay study for a statue. But it doesn’t tell Fu-Manchu a thing. What’s more, his boastfulness has made him tell me more than I think he meant to. But no one — not even you Pat — knows how far I have gone since that first model. Dr Fu-Manchu isn’t the only man who has solved the riddle of gravity. The other saucers he mentioned don’t come from outer space. And so he’s in for a surprise. One of the greatest firms in the world has financed, and is now flight-testing, my own anti-gravity machine. That is the real secret of the flying saucers!”
The Short Stories
Little Tich, the English music hall comedian and dancer, whose biography Rohmer ghost wrote.
LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
THE YASHMAK OF PEARLS
THE DEATH-RING OF SNEFERU
THE LADY OF THE LATTICE
OMAR OF ISPAHAN
BREATH OF ALLAH
THE WHISPERING MUMMY
LORD OF THE JACKALS
LURE OF SOULS
THE SECRET OF ISMAIL
HARÛN PASHA
IN THE VALLEY OF THE SORCERESS
POMEGRANATE FLOWER
FIRST EPISODE. CASE OF THE TRAGEDIES IN THE GREEK ROOM
SECOND EPISODE. CASE OF THE POTSHERD OF ANUBIS
MR. CLIFFORD’S STORY OF THE EGYPTIAN POTSHERD
THIRD EPISODE. CASE OF THE CRUSADER’S AXE
THE MURDER AT CRESPIE HALL
FOURTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE IVORY STATUE
FIFTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE BLUE RAJAH
SIXTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE WHISPERING POPLARS
SEVENTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE HEADLESS MUMMIES
EIGHTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE HAUNTING OF GRANGE
EPISODE IX
CASE OF THE VEIL OF ISIS
THE HAUNTING OF LOW FENNEL
THE VALLEY OF THE JUST
THE BLUE MONKEY
THE RIDDLE OF RAGSTAFF
THE MASTER OF HOLLOW GRANGE
THE CURSE OF A THOUSAND KISSES
THE TURQUOISE NECKLACE
THE DAUGHTER OF HUANG CHOW
KERRY’S KID
THE PIGTAIL OF HI WING HO
MAN WITH THE SHAVEN SKULL
THE WHITE HAT
TCHERIAPIN
THE DANCE OF THE VEILS
THE HAND OF THE MANDARIN QUONG
THE WRATH OF FU-MANCHU
THE EYES OF FU-MANCHU
THE WORD OF FU-MANCHU
THE MIND OF FU-MANCHU
LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
BREATH OF ALLAH
CASE OF THE VEIL OF ISIS
EIGHTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE HAUNTING OF GRANGE
EPISODE IX
FIFTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE BLUE RAJAH
FIRST EPISODE. CASE OF THE TRAGEDIES IN THE GREEK ROOM
FOURTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE IVORY STATUE
HARÛN PASHA
IN THE VALLEY OF THE SORCERESS
KERRY’S KID
LORD OF THE JACKALS
LURE OF SOULS
MAN WITH THE SHAVEN SKULL
MR. CLIFFORD’S STORY OF THE EGYPTIAN POTSHERD
OMAR OF ISPAHAN
POMEGRANATE FLOWER
SECOND EPISODE. CASE OF THE POTSHERD OF ANUBIS
SEVENTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE HEADLESS MUMMIES
SIXTH EPISODE. CASE OF THE WHISPERING POPLARS
TCHERIAPIN
THE BLUE MONKEY
THE CURSE OF A THOUSAND KISSES
THE DANCE OF THE VEILS
THE DAUGHTER OF HUANG CHOW
THE DEATH-RING OF SNEFERU
THE EYES OF FU-MANCHU
THE HAND OF THE MANDARIN QUONG
THE HAUNTING OF LOW FENNEL
THE LADY OF THE LATTICE
THE MASTER OF HOLLOW GRANGE
THE MIND OF FU-MANCHU
THE MURDER AT CRESPIE HALL
THE PIGTAIL OF HI WING HO
THE RIDDLE OF RAGSTAFF
THE SECRET OF ISMAIL
THE TURQUOISE NECKLACE
THE VALLEY OF THE JUST
THE WHISPERING MUMMY
THE WHITE HAT
THE WORD OF FU-MANCHU
THE WRATH OF FU-MANCHU
THE YASHMAK OF PEARLS
THIRD EPISODE. CASE OF THE CRUSADER’S AXE
The Non-Fiction
One of the many popular magazines in which Rohmer’s tales were published: the 1948 issue of Avon Fantasy Reader
THE ROMANCE OF SORCERY
At the age of thirty Rohmer wrote this work of non fiction, published by Methuen in 1914. Rohmer uses a broad sweep with his subject matter, taking in many ideas, historical events, well known people and diverse theories and weaving them all together to suit his own point of view. The theory is this: that sorcery, the occult and witchcraft are simply magic by another name and should be seen as encompassing:
“all those doctrines concerning the nature and power of angels and spirits ; the methods of evoking shades of departed persons ; the conjuration of elementary spirits and of demons ; the production of any kind of supernormal phenomena ; the making of talismans, potions, wands, etc.; divination and crystallomancy; and Cabalistic and ceremonial rites”.
In other words, anything of the esoteric that is not addressed in “traditional” religions (but sometimes actually including some of their practices too) is magic. Rohmer also argues that many of the magical practices we are familiar with as originating in the East did in fact start in ancient Egypt, a culture which of course Rohmer refers to in the Fu Manchu books and also brought centre stage in Brood of a Witch Queen.
Rohmer’s theories are not as far-fetched as one may think. For example, when looking today at the European witch hunts of the early modern period, academics make the point that many of the so-called “witches”, where they practised anything at all that could be vaguely seen as the occult, were more than likely merely acting out local customs and superstitions that had been embedded in their communities for centuries — the “old magic” of healing, charms, potions and curses. Seen as a threat to the Christian church and social order, they had to be eliminated simply because this “magic” gave people (especially women) an autonomy that could not be tolerated. There are strong similarities between Rohmer’s description of the old practices, above, and the sweeping definition of old magic that is used to define historic witchcraft or sorcery today. Rohmer goes further – he writes in a matter of fact way about ginns or familiars, and quotes spells that are a bizarre mix of Christianity and the old magic:
“On a Wednesday after the Vesper prayer, and when your shadow measures twenty paces, write the following formula (chatim) with rose-water and sesame water on paper or parchment. Roll this up and throw it on the ground. Then write the formula on the palm of the left hand and fumigate with mastic, benzoin, and coriander. Say over the chapters Amran and Ichlas while your hand is held above the smoke, and then pick up the talisman from the ground. Touch your body with it, and that of the person on whom you have designs. Hang it to . . . your right side, and you will see something wonderful. God’s protection is with thee. But use the talisman only for what is lawful!”
The above is a typically eclectic mix of the Judaeo-Christian and local custom; the Lancashire Witches that were tried in 1612 also mixed snippets of the Christian creed and liturgy, and their own “magical” gibberish, in their spells and curses – more than likely, a case of using whatever sounded impressive to the impressionable.
However, it is the sheer scope of the work that is almost overwhelming. A dizzying array of demons, ginns, maji, spells and charms, the sphinx, demons, astrology, witches and more are here, plus every conceivable associated book from the Egyptian Book of the Dead to the Koran and the Cabalistic writings of Judaism. Famous names such as John Dee, Nostradamus and Apollonius are mentioned too.
It is difficult to judge how seriously Rohmer took the subject he writes about here. Certainly it was in his own interests to research the occult, as it features so strongly in many of his stories, and he writes with the confidence of an expert (indeed, the escape artist Harry Houdini even wrote to Rohmer to congratulate him on the work, and they became friends as a result). Rohmer also regarded the magic he wrote about as wholly benevolent and a way of benefiting not only the individual, but society as a whole, if only humankind would return to this old ways with respect and an open mind. Whatever his motivation, it is a comprehensive and interesting overview of the subject and despite being over a century old, remains remarkably modern in some of its interpretations.
The first edition’s frontispiece
CONTENTS
PREFACE
SORCERY AND SORCERERS
APOLLONIUS OF TYANA
MICHEL DE NOTRE DAME, CALLED NOSTRADAMUS
DR. JOHN DEE
RUDOLFUS II
CAGLIOSTRO
MADAME BLAVATSKY
SORCERY AND THE LAW
CONCLUSION: SORCERY AND SCIENCE
PREFACE
ALTHOUGH would-be explorers of the occult continent may be numbered only by the employment of seven figures, it is notable as a curious fact that the world’s master Magi have been neglected by popular biographers. Lives of all the great sorcerers there are, certainly, from Zarathustra to Éliphas Lévi, but without exception, so far as I am aware, these are designed for the use of the student: they are not for every man.
Fictionists have dipped into the magical pages, but lightly and warily. If we except some of the novels of Lord Lytton (who was an initiate, deeply versed) and the stories of Mr. Algernon Blackwood, to whom we are indebted for an account of a “Witches’ Sabbath” little short of clairvoyant, I believe there is no piece of purely imaginative writing which can be regarded as the work of an Adept, or even of a serious student.
In the following pages, then, I have endeavoured to bring out the red blood of the subject, and have treated the various episodes with which I have had to deal in the same manner that I should treat the episodes of an ordinary romance. Whilst those curious to learn more of the arts of sorcery have not been neglected, above all I have placed, and have aimed at satisfying, the reader who opens this book in quest of entertainment.
The section “Sorcery and Sorcerers” will be found to contain some passages from Francis Barrett and from Dr. Wynn Westcott’s valuable translation of one of Lévi’s most extraordinary works. Neither of these authors will be familiar to the general reader, and I have borrowed freely in both directions. Their writings are illuminative, and should be considered, if only in brief, by any one who hopes to comprehend the aims of the sorcerers, as set forth in The Romance of Sorcery.
It may be asked of me why certain characters have been included here and others omitted. I can only say that I have sought for variety. To my decision to include a life of Nostradamus I was guided, in some degree, by the existence of a very general misapprehension regarding this great and wonderful man; also by the fact that hitherto no complete life has appeared in the English language. Madame H. P. Blavatsky I have introduced, after much consideration, because certain phenomena associated with her activities come legitimately within the scope and limit of sorcery. I have dealt with these phenomena, but have not attempted, in so limited a space, even to outline her whole career.
At the time that I was engaged upon the section “Apollonius of Tyana,” an admirable edition of Philostratus’s work, translated by Mr. F. C. Conybeare, M.A., was added to the Loeb Classical Library. This lightened my labours, for the only other English version is that of E. Berwick, published in 1809. The freshness and freedom of Mr. Conybeare’s rendering make quite delightful reading, compared with the severely staid manner of the former writer.
I have to acknowledge the generous assistance offered to me by M. Homolle of the Bibliothèque Nationale, and the untiring labours of M. Lejay Jean, of the same institution. Not only has M. Lejay aided me in my quest of material, but he has completed those inquiries regarding Cagliostro’s house in the Rue Saint Claude and other matters which lack of time forced me to abandon.
A portion of the chapter “The Elementals” (“Sorcery and Sorcerers”) is included by courtesy of the Globe, and at this place I must also acknowledge indebtedness to my friend Dr. R. Watson Councell for the freedom of his library. Of inestimable assistance, too, has been the exact knowledge of old French, and of old French history, which Mr. Fred W. Winter has placed at my disposal. The sections “Nostradamus” and “Sorcery and the Law,” in particular, owe much to his scholarly attainments.
Finally, the adept guidance of Mr. Arthur N. Milne has been as that of a pharos in a night-storm, lacking which I could scarce have hoped to make safe harbourage.
