a plan
for the past half an hour, but my mind had proved incapable of
suggesting one.

Why I did not admit failure I cannot imagine, but, instead, I began to
tax my brains anew for some means of gaining further time; and, as I
looked about the place, the shopman very patiently awaiting my
departure, I observed an open case at the back of the counter. The
three lower shelves were empty, but upon the fourth shelf squatted a
silver Buddha.

"I should like to examine the silver image yonder," I said; "what
price are you asking for it?"

"It is not for sale, sir," replied the man, with a greater show of
animation than he had yet exhibited.

"Not for sale!" I said, my eyes ever seeking the curtained doorway;
"how's that?"

"It is sold."

"Well, even so, there can be no objection to my examining it?"

"It is not for sale, sir."

Such a rebuff from a tradesman would have been more than sufficient to
call for a sharp retort at any other time, but now it excited the
strangest suspicions. The street outside looked comparatively
deserted, and prompted, primarily, by an emotion which I did not pause
to analyse, I adopted a singular measure; without doubt I relied upon
the unusual powers vested in Nayland Smith to absolve me in the event
of error. I made as if to go out into the street, then turned, leapt
past the shopman, ran behind the counter, and grasped at the silver
Buddha!

That I was likely to be arrested for attempted larceny I cared not;
the idea that Karamaneh was concealed somewhere in the building ruled
absolutely, and a theory respecting this silver image had taken
possession of my mind. Exactly what I expected to happen at that
moment I cannot say, but what actually happened was far more startling
than anything I could have imagined.

At the instant that I grasped the figure I realized that it was
attached to the woodwork; in the next I knew that it was a handle ...
as I tried to pull it toward me I became aware that this handle was
the handle of a door. For that door swung open before me, and I found
myself at the foot of a flight of heavily carpeted stairs.

Anxious as I had been to proceed a moment before, I was now trebly
anxious to retire, and for this reason: on the bottom step of the
stairs, facing me, _stood Dr. Fu-Manchu!_

CHAPTER XIX

DR. FU-MANCHU'S LABORATORY

I cannot conceive that any ordinary mortal ever attained to anything
like an intimacy with Dr. Fu-Manchu; I cannot beli