ous epidemic in Rangoon was
really an outbreak of thuggee--on slightly improved lines! I had
suspected something of the kind but, naturally, I had not looked for
Thugs near Rangoon. My unexpected resistance led the strangler to
bungle the rope. You have seen how it was fastened about my throat?
That was unscientific. The true method, as practiced by the group
operating in Burma, was to throw the line about the victim's neck and
jerk him from the window. A man leaning from an open window is very
nicely poised: it requires only a slight jerk to pitch him forward. No
loop was used, but a running line, which, as the victim fell, remained
in the hand of the murderer. No clew! Therefore we see at once what
commended the system to Fu-Manchu."

Graham Guthrie, very pale, stood looking down at the dead strangler.

"I owe you my life, Mr. Smith," he said. "If you had come five minutes
later--"

He grasped Smith's hand.

"You see," Guthrie continued, "no one thought of looking for a Thug in
Burma! And no one thought of the ROOF! These fellows are as active as
monkeys, and where an ordinary man would infallibly break his neck,
they are entirely at home. I might have chosen my room especially for
the business!"

"He slipped in late this evening," said Smith. "The hotel detective
saw him, but these stranglers are as elusive as shadows, otherwise,
despite their having changed the scene of their operations, not one
could have survived."

"Didn't you mention a case of this kind on the Irrawaddy?" I asked.

"Yes," was the reply; "and I know of what you are thinking. The
steamers of the Irrawaddy flotilla have a corrugated-iron roof over the
top deck. The Thug must have been lying up there as the Colassie
passed on the deck below."

"But, Smith, what is the motive of the Call?" I continued.

"Partly religious," he explained, "and partly to wake the victims! You
are perhaps going to ask me how Dr. Fu-Manchu has obtained power over
such people as phansigars? I can only reply that Dr. Fu-Manchu has
secret knowledge of which, so far, we know absolutely nothing; but,
despite all, at last I begin to score."

"You do," I agreed; "but your victory took you near to death."

"I owe my life to you, Petrie," he said. "Once to your strength of
arm, and once to--"

"Don't speak of her, Smith," I interrupted. "Dr. Fu-Manchu may have
discovered the part she played! In which event--"

"God help her!"

CHAPTER XVI