by Sax Rohmer
“I did my best with it.”
“Your best is perfection. Exactly what I said, and stickily technical.” He looked up at her with frank admiration. “Your scientific equipment is A-I wizard. Full marks for the Sorbonne.”
Camille veiled her eyes. She had long lashes which Craig felt sure were an act of God and not of Elizabeth Arden.
But all she said was, “Thank you, Dr. Craig,” spoken in a tone oddly constrained.
Carrying the signed letters and her glasses, she moved away. Craig turned and looked after the trim figure.
“Slip out now,” he advised, “for a plate of wholesome fodder. You stick it too closely. So long as you can give me an hour from ten onward, all’s well in a beautiful world.”
“Perhaps I may go out—although I’m really not hungry.” She went into her room and closed the door. For a long time she sat there, the useless glasses in her hand, staring straight before her… He was so kind, so delicately sympathetic. He almost apologized when he had to give orders, masking them under that affected form of speech which led many people to think him light-minded, but which had never deceived Camille.
Of course, he was brilliantly clever. One day the people of the world would wake up to find a new genius come among them.
He was so clever that she found it hard to believe he had really accepted her explanation. She had done her best on the urge of the moment, but it was only postponing the evil hour. Camille had never, before that day, met Sir Denis Nayland Smith, but his reputation made discovery certain. And he would tell Morris—
Or would he?
* * *
Meanwhile, Craig was tidying up prior to going out to join Nayland Smith. He arranged pencils, bowls of ink, and like impedimenta in some sort of order. The board to which the plan was pinned he lifted from its place and carried across the office. Before a large safe he set it down, pulled out a key-ring, manipulated the dial, and unlocked the safe. He placed the plan inside and relocked the steel door.
This done, he returned to his desk and pressed a button on the switchboard.
“Laboratory,” said a tired voice. “Regan speaking.”
“I’m cutting out for some dinner, Regan. Anything you want to see me about before I go?”
“Nothing, Doctor.”
“Right. Back around ten.”
He stood up—then remained standing, for a moment, quite still, and listening.
The sound of a short, harsh cough, more like that of a dog who has swallowed a fragment of bone than of a human being, had reached his ears.
Crossing, he opened the office door and looked out. The landing was empty.
“Sam!” he called.
Sam appeared from somewhere, chewing industriously.
“Yes, boss?”
“Did you cough?”
“Me? No, sir. Why?”
“Thought I heard someone coughing. Stand by. I want you to come along with me in a minute.”
He returned, took his jacket from a hook and put it on; then draped his topcoat over his arm. He was just reaching for his hat, when he remembered something. Dropping the coat over the back of a chair, he crossed to the door of Camille’s room, rapped, and opened.
She looked up in a startled way, glancing at the glasses beside her.
“Sorry—er—Miss Navarre, but may I borrow your key? Lent mine to Nayland Smith.”
Camille’s eyes appeared to Craig to change color, but that faint twitch of the lip which heralded a smile reassured him. “Certainly, Dr. Craig.”
She pulled a ring out of her handbag and began to detach the key which opened both elevators and the street door. Craig watched her deft white fingers, noting with approval that she did not go in for the kind of nail varnish which suggests that its wearer has been disembowelling a pig.
And as he watched, the meaning of Camille’s repressed smile suddenly came to him.
“I say!” he exclaimed. “Just a minute. Pause. Give me time to reflect.”
Camille looked up.
“Yes, Dr. Craig?”
“How are you going to cut out for eats, as recommended, if I pinch your key?”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter a little bit.”
“Doesn’t matter? It matters horribly. I’m not going to leave you locked up here in the ogre’s tower with no means of escape. I firmly repeat—pause. I will borrow Regan’s key.”
“But—”
“There are no buts. I want you to nip out for a speck of nourishment like a good girl.”
He waved his hand and was gone.
Camille sat looking towards the door for fully a minute after it had closed.
* * *
“It may be best,” said Nayland Smith, “if we dine in the restaurant here. I expect calls, too.”
“Must say I’ll breathe more freely,” Craig admitted. “I never expected to slink around New York as if crossing enemy territory. What news of Moreno?”
Smith knocked ash from his pipe with unusual care.
“Poor devil,” he said softly.
“Like that is it?”
Smith nodded. “I went there after leaving you. His wife had been sent for. Nice kid, little more than a child. Only married six months. Maddison Lowe is probably the ace man in his province, but he’s beaten this time.”
“Have they identified the stuff used?”
“No. It’s nothing on the order of curari. And there are no tetanus symptoms. He’s just completely unconscious, and slowly dying. I suppose I should feel indebted to Dr. Fu-Manchu. It’s evidently a painless death.”
“Good God, Smith! You make me shudder. What kind of man is this?”
“A genius, Craig. He is above ordinary emotions. Men and women are just pieces on the board. Any that become useless, or obstructive, he removes. It’s quite logical.”
“It may be. But it isn’t human.”
“You are not the first to doubt if Dr. Fu-Manchu is human, in the generally accepted sense of the word. Certainly he has long outlived man’s normal span. He claims to have mastered the secret of prolonging life.”
“Do you believe it?”
“I can’t doubt it. He was elderly from all accounts when I first set eyes on him, in a Burmese forest. He nearly did for me, then—using the same method—as he has done for poor Moreno, now. And that was more years ago than I care to count.”
“Good heavens! How old is he?”
“God knows. Come on. Let’s get some dinner. We have a lot to talk about.”
As they entered the restaurant, to be greeted by a maître d’hôtel who knew Nayland Smith, Craig saw the steely eyes turning swiftly right and left. With the ease of one who has been a target for criminals all over the world, Smith was analyzing every face in the room.
“That table by the wall,” he rapped, pointing.
“I am so sorry, Sir Denis. That table is reserved.”
“Reserve another, and say you made a mistake.”
A ten-dollar bill went far to clinch the matter. There was some running about by waiters, whispering and side glances, to which Nayland Smith paid no attention. As he and Craig sat down:
“You note,” he explained tersely, “I can see the entrance from here. Adjoining table occupied. People harmless.
Whilst Morris Craig attacked a honeydew melon, Smith covertly watched him, and then:
“Highly attractive girl, that secretary of yours,” he jerked casually.
Craig looked up.
“Quite agree. Highly competent, too.”
“Remarkable hair.”
“Ah, you noticed it! Pity she hides it like that.”
“Hides her eyes, too,” said Smith drily.
But Craig did not reply. He had been tempted to do so, and then had changed his mind. Instead he studied a wine list which a waiter had just handed to him. As he ordered a bottle of Château Margaux, he was thinking, “Has Camille gone out? Where has she gone? Is she doing herself well?” Yes, Camille had remarkable hair, and her eyes. For some obscu
re reason he found himself wondering who could have coughed in the office just before he left, and wondering, too, in view of the fact that, failing Sam, it was quite unaccountable, why he had dismissed the incident so lightly.
“The devil of it is, Craig,” Nayland Smith was saying, “that Fu-Manchu, who has come dangerously near to upsetting the order of things more than once, is no common criminal.”
“Evidently.”
“He doesn’t work for personal gain. He’s a sort of cranky idealist. I said tonight that I prayed you might never meet him. The prayer was a sincere one. The force which Dr. Fu-Manchu can project is as dangerous, in its way, as that which you have trapped in your laboratory. Five minutes in his company would convince you that you stood in the presence of a phenomenal character.”
“I’m prepared to believe you. But I don’t understand how such a modern Cesare Borgia can wander around New York and escape the police!”
Nayland Smith leaned across the table and fixed his steady gaze on Craig.
“Dr. Fu-Manchu,” he said deliberately, “will never be arrested by any ordinary policeman. In my opinion, the plant on top of the Huston Building should be smashed to smithereens.” His speech became rapid, rattling. “It’s scientific lunatics like you who make life perilous. Agents of three governments are watching you. I may manage the agents—but I won’t make myself responsible for Dr. Fu-Manchu.”
* * *
Could Morris Craig have seen the face of the Chinese doctor at that moment he might better have appreciated Nayland Smith’s warning.
In his silk-lined apartment in Pell Street, old Huan Tsung was contemplating the crystal as a Tibetan devotee contemplates the Grand Lama. Mirrored within it was that wonderful face, dominated by the blazing green eyes.
“I am served,” came sibilantly in Chinese, “by fools and knaves. We, of the Seven, are pledged to save the world from destruction by imbeciles. It seems that we are children, and blind ourselves.”
Huan Tsung did not speak. The cold voice continued.
“We betray our presence, our purpose, and our methods, to the common man-hunters. Had this purpose been achieved, we should have been justified. We need so short a time. Interference, now, can be fatal. But the method employed was clumsy. This victim of your blundering must not die.”
“Compassion, Excellency, is an attribute of the weak.”
The compelling eyes remained fixed upon him.
“Rejoice, then, that I entertain it for you. Otherwise you would have joined your revered ancestors tonight. I am moved by expediency—which is an attribute of the wise. In the death of a police officer the seed of retribution is sown. I must remain here until my work is done. If he dies, I shall be troubled. If he survives, the affair becomes less serious. In one hour from now he will be dead—unless we act. I am preparing the antidote. It is for you to find means to administer it… Take instant steps.”
The light in the crystal faded.
As a result of this conversation, just as Craig had begun on the sweet, Nayland Smith was called to the phone.
He was not away long. But when he came back, his face wore a curious expression. In part, it was an expression of relief—in part, of something else. As he sat down:
“A miracle has been performed in Manhattan,” he said.
Craig stared. “What do you mean?”
“What! Professor Lowe has won, after all?”
Nayland Smith shook his head.
“No. Professor Lowe was beaten. But some obscure practitioner, instructed by Moreno’s father, insisted upon seeing the patient. As the case was desperate, and the unknown doctor—who had practised in the tropics—claimed to recognize the symptoms, he was given permission to go ahead. Moreno would have died, anyway.”
“But he didn’t?”
“On the contrary. He recovered consciousness shortly after the injection which this obscure doctor administered. He is already off the danger list.”
“This was a brilliant bird, Smith! He doesn’t deserve to be obscure.”
Nayland Smith tugged reflectively at the lobe of his left ear. “He must remain so. The physician whose name he gave is absent in Philadelphia. Officer Moreno’s father was not even aware of his son’s illness.”
Huan Tsung had taken instant steps. But Craig laid his spoon down in bewilderment.
“Then—I mean to say—if he was an impostor—what the devil’s it all about?”
“Perfectly simple. For some deep reason we can’t hope to fathom, Dr. Fu-Manchu has decided that Moreno must live. I fear he has also decided that I must die. Granting equal efficiency, what are my chances?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Sam was free until nine forty-five. He studied the menus displayed outside a number of restaurants suitable for one of limited resources, before making a selection. His needs were simple, it seemed, and having finished his dinner, he moved along to a bar, mounted a stool, and ordered himself a bourbon.
Seated there, in his short leather jacket, a cap with a very long peak pushed to the back of his bullet head, he surveyed the scene through his spectacles whilst lighting a cigarette.
“You’re with the Huston Electric, aren’t you?” said someone almost at his elbow.
Sam turned. A personable young man, of Latin appearance, had mounted the next stool and was smiling at him amiably.
Sam stared.
“What about it?” he inquired.
“Oh, nothing. Just thought I’d seen you there.”
“What were you doing there?”
“Newspaper story. I’m a reporter.”
“Is that so?”
Sam eyed the reporter from head to heels, without favor.
“Sure. Laurillard’s my name—Jed Laurillard. And I’m always out for a good story.”
“Well, well,” said Sam.
“Push that back and have the other half. Just going to order one myself.”
“That’s fine. My name’s Sam.”
“Sam what?”
“Sam.”
“I mean, what’s your other name?”
“Jim.”
“Your name is Sam Jim?”
“You got it the wrong way around. Jim Sam.”
“I never heard of it before. How do you spell it?”
“S-a-m. I got an uncle the same name.”
For the decimal of a second, Laurillard’s jaw hardened. Then the hard line relaxed. He slapped Sam on the back and laughed, signalling the barman.
“You’re wasting your time,” he declared. “You ought to be in show business.”
Sam grinned, but made no reply. The second bourbon went the way of the first, apparently meeting with even less obstruction.
“This new thing Huston is bringing out,” Laurillard went on. “Breaking into the news next week, isn’t it?”
Sam held up his empty glass and appeared to be using it as a lens through which to count the bottles in the bar.
“Is it?” he said.
“You ought to know.” Laurillard signalled the barman again. “If I could get the exact date it would be worth money to me.”
“Would it? How much?”
“Well”—speculatively, he watched Sam considering his third drink—“enough to make it worth, say, fifty bucks to you.”
Sam looked at Laurillard over the top of his spectacles and finished his drink. He made no other reply. Laurillard caught the barman’s eye and glanced aside at Sam’s glass. It was re-filled.
For some time after the fourth, the barman, who was busy, lost count.
“You know what I’m talking about?” Laurillard presently inquired. “This new lighting system?”
“Sure.”
“Some English scientist working on it.”
“Sure.”
“Well, when the story breaks it’s going to be big. Science news is a dollar a word these days. Hurt nobody if I got it first. You’re a live guy. I spotted you first time I was up there. Never miss one. It’s my business—see?”
&
nbsp; Sam emptied his glass and nodded.
“Suppose you made a few inquiries. No harm in that. I could meet you here tomorrow. Any time you say.”
“What you wanna know, exac—’xac’ly?” Sam inquired.
His glance had become oblique. Laurillard signalled the barman and leaned forward confidentially.
“Get this.” He lowered his voice. “I want to know when the job will be finished. That gives me a lead. It’s easy enough.”
A full glass was set before Sam.
“Good luck,” he said, raising it.
“Same to you. What time tomorrow, here?”
“Same to you—mean, same time.”
“Good enough. I must rush. Hard life, reporting.”
Laurillard rushed. Outside, he looked in through the window and saw Sam raising the drink to his lips, sympathetically watched by the barman. What happened after that he didn’t see. He was hurrying to the spot where his car was parked.
He had some distance to go, but less than twenty minutes later the doorbell jangled in that Chinatown shop where a good-looking young Oriental labored tirelessly with India ink and brush. He laid his brush aside and looked up.
“Mr. Huan Tsung?” said Laurillard.
“Mr. Huan Tsung not in. You call before?”
Laurillard seemed to be consulting his memory, but, after a momentary pause, he replied.
“Yes.”
“How many time?”
“Seven.”
“Give me the message.”
Laurillard leaned confidentially forward.
“The man from Huston Electric is taken care of. He’s too drunk to go far. What’s better, I’ve sounded him—and I think he’ll play. That’s why I came to see you.”
“I think,” was the cold reply, “that you are a fool.” The young Oriental spoke now in perfect English. “You have exceeded your instructions. You are new to the work. You will never grow old in it.”
“But—”
“I have no more to say. I will put in your report.”
He scribbled a few lines in pencil, took up his brush, and went on writing.
Laurillard’s jaw hardened, and he clenched his gloved hands.
“Good-by,” said the industrious scribe.
Laurillard went out.
In his report concerning Sam he had stated, quite honestly, what he believed to be true. But evidently he was mistaken. Not three minutes had elapsed before the doorbell jangled again. A man came lurching in who walked as if on a moving deck. He wore a short leather jacket and a cap with a long peak. His eyes, seen through spectacles, were challenging. He chewed as he talked, using the gum as a sort of mute.
