The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu

in my rooms and gulped do

did you make no attempt to throw the pursue

h la

tures? We could prove nothing against them. Further, it is evident that an attempt is to be made upo

, and he leapt stormily to his feet, shak

Sir Crichton was next, and I was right. But I came too late, Petrie! Tha

his seat, s

messages. He has thrown away one powerful weapon-to get such a message into my hands-and he thinks that once safe within doors, I shall sleep, unsuspecting, and die as Sir Crichton

broke in, "

am inclined to believe the last, for she has no will but his

what-hanging over your head? What is the meaning of

tle mark upon the neck, face, or limb, which has earned, in those parts, the title of the 'Zayat Kiss.' The rest-houses along that route are shunned now. I have my theory and I hope to prove it to-night, if I live. It will be one more broken weapon in his fiendish armory, and it is thus, and thus only, that I can hope to crush him. Th

scented e

the traveler is attracted by this orchid. You will notice that the perfume clings to whatever it touches. I doubt if it can be washed off in the ordinary way. After at least one unsuccessful attempt to kill Sir Crichton-you r

kind of creature have got into

the evidence of the groom, Wills, I perceived that the cry from the lane or from the park was a signal. I noted that the movements of anyone seated at the study table were visible, in shadow, on the blind, and that the study occupied the corner of a two-storied wing and, therefore, had a short chimney. What did the signal mean? That Sir Crichton had leaped

xed up with which were a brass ring and a number of unusually larg

y means of this ring I assume that the weighted line was withdrawn, and the thing was only held by one slender thread, which sufficed, though, to draw it back again when it had done its work. It might have got tangled, of course, but they

sively into the dusky shadows of the room. "What is your

save for the bright patch beneath the reading-lamp. I have observed that the rear of this house is ivy-covered right up to and above your bedroom.

is a climb of thirty-five

h, dacoity, though quiescent, is by no means extinct. Fu-Manchu has dacoits in his train, and probably it is one who operates the Zaya

It is singular how trivialities thus assert themselves in moments of high tension. I will proceed,

oss the commo

ollowed the programme laid down. It was an easy matter to reach the rear of the house, by simply climbing a fenc

device we also had adopted in the case of the larger bed. The perfumed envelope lay upon a little coffee table in the center of the floor, and Smith, w

ont of the house, our vigil had been a silent one. The full moon had painted about the floor weird shadows of the clustering ivy, spread

ock struck a q

nd a new shadow added itself to th

I could see only its shadow, but a sharp, sibilant breath from Smit

g tensely. I was icy cold, expectant, and

ry. The dacoit was studyin

, I saw a lithe, black-clad form, surmounted by a Yellow face

-and then another. The man made absolutely no sound whatever. The second hand dis

h the agility of an ape, as, with a dull, muf

r life!" came Smith's

ss the room and played full upo

know that I paled at sight of the thing that

ts long, quivering antennae and its febrile, horrible vitality; but it was proportionately longer of body and smaller of head, and had

n the next-Smith had dashed the thing's poisonous li

om branch to branch of the ivy, and, without once offering a mark for a revolver-shot, it merged into the shadows beneath the trees of the garden. As I

and the enemy is poorer-unless he has any more unclassified centipedes. I understand now something that has been puzzling me since I heard of it-Sir Crichton's stifled cry. When we remember that