Smith ran across the room to where, beyond the open door, a glimpse
might be obtained of stacked-up curiosities. Holding back the curtain
to allow more light to penetrate, he bent forward over a crumpled-up
figure which lay upon the steps below.

"It is!" he cried aloud. "It is Sir Lionel's servant, Kwee."

Weymouth and I looked at one another across the body of the Italian;
then our eyes turned together to where my friend, grim-faced, stood
over the dead Chinaman. A breeze whispered through the leaves; a great
wave of exotic perfume swept from the open window towards the curtained
doorway.

It was a breath of the East--that stretched out a yellow hand to the
West. It was symbolic of the subtle, intangible power manifested in
Dr. Fu-Manchu, as Nayland Smith--lean, agile, bronzed with the suns of
Burma, was symbolic of the clean British efficiency which sought to
combat the insidious enemy.

"One thing is evident," said Smith: "no one in the house, Strozza
excepted, knew that Sir Lionel was absent."

"How do you arrive at that?" asked Weymouth.

"The servants, in the hall, are bewailing him as dead. If they had
seen him go out they would know that it must be someone else who lies
here."

"What about the Chinaman?"

"Since there is no other means of entrance to the conservatory save
through the study, Kwee must have hidden himself there at some time
when his master was absent from the room."

"Croxted found the communicating door closed. What killed the
Chinaman?"

"Both Miss Edmonds and Croxted found the study door locked from the
inside. What killed Strozza?" retorted Smith.

"You will have noted," continued the Inspector, "that the secretary is
wearing Sir Lionel's dressing-gown. It was seeing him in that, as she
looked in at the window, which led Miss Edmonds to mistake him for her
employer--and consequently to put us on the wrong scent."

"He wore it in order that anybody looking in at the window would be
sure to make that mistake," rapped Smith.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because he came here for a felonious purpose. See." Smith stooped
and took up several tools from the litter on the floor. "There lies
the lid. He came to open the sarcophagus. It contained the mummy of
some notable person who flourished under Meneptah II; and Sir Lionel
told me that a number of valuable ornaments and jewels probably were
secreted amongst the wrappings. He proposed to open the thing and to
submit the entire