The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu Read Online Free PDF Page B

same when his mother died."
    At the moment I paid little attention to her words, for such
beliefs are common, unfortunately; but when she was sufficiently
composed I went on to explain what I thought necessary. And now the
old lady's embarrassment took precedence of her sorrow, and
presently the truth came out:
    "There's a-young lady-in his rooms, sir."
    I started. This might mean little or might mean much.
    "She came and waited for him last night, Doctor-from ten until
half-past-and this morning again. She came the third time about an
hour ago, and has been upstairs since."
    "Do you know her, Mrs. Dolan?"
    Mrs. Dolan grew embarrassed again.
    "Well, Doctor," she said, wiping her eyes the while, "I DO. And
God knows he was a good lad, and I like a mother to him; but she is
not the girl I should have liked a son of mine to take up
with."
    At any other time, this would have been amusing; now, it might
be serious. Mrs. Dolan's account of the wailing became suddenly
significant, for perhaps it meant that one of Fu-Manchu's dacoit
followers was watching the house, to give warning of any stranger's
approach! Warning to whom? It was unlikely that I should forget the
dark eyes of another of Fu-Manchu's servants. Was that lure of men
even now in the house, completing her evil work?
    "I should never have allowed her in his rooms-" began Mrs. Dolan
again. Then there was an interruption.
    A soft rustling reached my ears-intimately feminine. The girl
was stealing down!
    I leaped out into the hall, and she turned and fled blindly
before me-back up the stairs! Taking three steps at a time, I
followed her, bounded into the room above almost at her heels, and
stood with my back to the door.
    She cowered against the desk by the window, a slim figure in a
clinging silk gown, which alone explained Mrs. Dolan's distrust.
The gaslight was turned very low, and her hat shadowed her face,
but could not hide its startling beauty, could not mar the
brilliancy of the skin, nor dim the wonderful eyes of this modern
Delilah. For it was she!
    "So I came in time," I said grimly, and turned the key in the
lock.
    "Oh!" she panted at that, and stood facing me, leaning back with
her jewel-laden hands clutching the desk edge.
    "Give me whatever you have removed from here," I said sternly,
"and then prepare to accompany me."
    She took a step forward, her eyes wide with fear, her lips
parted.
    "I have taken nothing," she said. Her breast was heaving
tumultuously. "Oh, let me go! Please, let me go!" And impulsively
she threw herself forward, pressing clasped hands against my
shoulder and looking up into my face with passionate, pleading
eyes.
    It is with some shame that I confess how her charm enveloped me
like a magic cloud. Unfamiliar with the complex Oriental
temperament, I had laughed at Nayland Smith when he had spoken of
this girl's infatuation. "Love in the East," he had said, "is like
the conjurer's mango-tree; it is born, grows and flowers at the
touch of a hand." Now, in those pleading eyes I read confirmation
of his words. Her clothes or her hair exhaled a faint perfume. Like
all Fu-Manchu's servants, she was perfectly chosen for her peculiar
duties. Her beauty was wholly intoxicating.
    But I thrust her away.
    "You have no claim to mercy," I said. "Do not count upon any.
What have you taken from here?"
    She grasped the lapels of my coat.
    "I will tell you all I can-all I dare," she panted eagerly,
fearfully. "I should know how to deal with your friend, but with
you I am lost! If you could only understand you would not be so
cruel." Her slight accent added charm to the musical voice. "I am
not free, as your English women are. What I do I must do, for it is
the will of my master, and I am only a slave. Ah, you are not a man
if you can give me to the police. You have no heart if you can
forget that I tried to save you once."
    I had feared that plea, for, in her own Oriental fashion, she
certainly had tried to save me from a deadly peril once-at the
expense of