The Devil Doctor

r from Nayland Smith

n the siphon, refle

he's a poor correspondent a

oman or s

s such a reticent beggar, I re

the truculent character of the man. His scanty fair hair, already grey over the temples, was silken and soft-looking: in appearance he was indeed a typical English churchman; bu

tuffing tobacco into an old pipe with fierce energy, "I ha

ha

beneath the site of the burnt-out cottage in D

alked to the hearth to th

If I thought that Dr. Fu-Manchu lived; if I seriously suspected that that stupendous intellect, tha

g my elbows on the tab

destroyed, then the peace of the world

I knew, and snapping his fingers to emphasize his words; a man compose

ear for your life every time that a night-call took you out alone? Why, man alive, it is only two years since he was here amongst us, since we were searching every sha

d, takin

tly-"searched in Egypt with

odd

my impression is that you were searching for the

tly; "but we could fi

were int

eplied, "until I realiz

rom your account, and from ot

d stood up, for I was anxious to ter

yed Eastern girl who had brought romance into my drab life; he knew that I treasured my memories of

ld appearance, and the gaunt, bronzed and steely-eyed Burmese commissioner, there was externally little in common; but it was some little nervous trick in his carriage that conjured up through the smoke-haze one distant summer

ars: "Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull and long magnetic eyes of the true cat green. Invest him with all the cruel

e for my mood; for this singular clergyman had

pity that a man like that should be buried in Burma. Burma makes

rtly, "and is never

d at something

Nayland Smith is not the

ut"-he was growing painfully embarrassed-"it may be your d

watching him in

ears; but-er ... no, doctor!" He flushed like a girl. "It was wrong of me to open t

one bel

but I could see that he welcomed the interr

o the te

trie?" inquired

ho is s

ken more seriously ill.

only a profitable patient but an estimable lad

up the

?" asked Eltham,

it. You had b

ou, if it would not be intruding. Our con

ompany; and three minutes later we we

t like a veil draped from trunk to trunk, as in silence we passed

hich he had committed during his sojourn in England. So actively was my imagination at work that I felt again the menace which so long had hung over me; I felt as though that murderous yellow cloud s

this morbidly reflective mood, on finding that we had cr

I gather that you don't expect to be detained long? I

replied, and ra

n last I had visited her, a first-floor bedroom in the front of the house. My knocking and ringing produced no response for three or four

equires me?" I

ed more stupi

: "she don't, sir;

me!" I insisted, rat

d the now wide-eyed girl. "We

could be the meaning of the mysterious summons? I had made no mistake respecting the name of my patient; it had been twice repeated over the telephone; yet that the call had not emanated from Mrs.

alked up

person called for you almost directly you had left your

ously. "There are plenty of other d

ere actually up and dressed," explained Eltham; "

lankly. Was this another e

nce," I said. "That '

genuine! The poor girl was dreadfully agitated; her master has

e girl?" I a

ectly she had giv

he a s

her. I am sorry to hear that some one has played a silly joke on you, but believe me"-he was very ear

st go. Broken leg, you said?-and my surgic

an do something to alleviate the poor man's suffering immediately. I wil

ly good of

d up h

, Petrie, is one which I may no

ermination adamantine, but told him where he would find the bag and once more set o

f the improbability of even the most hardened practical joker practising his wiles at one o'clock in the morning. I thought of our recent conversation; above all I thought of the girl who had delivered the message to El

, I should have remembered before) tha

n. Where the lamps marked the main paths across the common nothing moved; in the shadows about me

was a

ittance to my brain. I strove to reassure myself, but the sense of impending evil and of mystery became heavier. At last I could c

r passed at the moment that I reached the high-road, and as I ran around behin

lock when my houseke

man just come, do

and raced up the s

face brown as a coffee-berry and his steely grey eyes fixed u

Nayland

ith, old man, by God,

ut there was little enough of gladness in his face. He was alto

Eltham?"

ack as though I

spered-"Eltham!

n minutes ago

o the palm of his left hand, an

said, "am I fated alw

nt were confirmed. I seemed to

you don'

far away. "Fu-Manchu is here; and Eltha