ion.
"Dr. Petrie!--my dear sir, in mercy tell me--what does this mean? I
have been kidnaped--drugged; made the victim of an inconceivable
outrage at the very door of my own house...."

I stood up unsteadily.

"Sir Baldwin," I interrupted, "you ask me what it means. It means that
we are in the hands of Dr. Fu-Manchu!"

Sir Baldwin stared at me wildly; his face was white and drawn with
anxiety.

"Dr. Fu-Manchu!" he said; "but my dear sir, this name conveys nothing
to me--nothing!" His manner momentarily was growing more distrait.
"Since my captivity began I have been given the use of a singular
suite of rooms in this place, and received, I must confess, every
possible attention. I have been waited upon by the she-devil who
lured me here, but not one word other than a species of coarse
badinage has she spoken to me. At times I have been tempted to
believe that the fate which frequently befalls the specialist had
befallen me? You understand?"

"I quite understand," I replied dully. "There have been times in the
past when I, too, have doubted my sanity in my dealings with the group
who now hold us in their power."

"But," reiterated the other, his voice rising higher and higher,
"what does it mean, my dear sir? It is incredible--fantastic! Even
now I find it difficult to disabuse my mind of that old, haunting
idea."

"Disabuse it at once, Sir Baldwin," I said bitterly. "The facts are
as you see them; the explanation, at any rate in your own case, is
quite beyond me. I was tracked ..."

"Hush! some one is coming!"

We both turned and stared at an opening before which hung a sort of
gaudily embroidered mat, as the sound of dragging footsteps,
accompanied by a heavy tapping, announced the approach of _some one_.

The mat was pulled aside by Zarmi. She turned her head, flashing
around the apartment a glance of her black eyes, then held the
drapery aside to admit the entrance of another....

Supporting himself by the aid of two heavy walking sticks and
painfully dragging his gaunt frame along, _Dr. Fu-Manchu entered!_

I think I have never experienced in my life a sensation identical to
that which now possessed me. Although Nayland Smith had declared that
Fu-Manchu was alive, yet I would have sworn upon oath before any
jury summonable that he was dead; for with my own eyes I had seen
the bullet enter his skull. Now, whilst I crouched against the
matting-covered wall, teeth tightly clenched and my very hair
quive