to visit--I shall discuss
with you some lesser-known properties of this species; and I may say
that one of your first tasks when you commence your duties as
assistant in my laboratory in Kiangsu, will be to conduct a series of
twelve experiments, which I have outlined, into other potentialities
of this unique fungus."

He walked quietly to a curtained doorway, with his catlike yet awkward
gait, lifted the drapery, and, bestowing upon me a slight bow of
farewell, went out of the room.

CHAPTER XX

THE CROSSBAR

How long I lay there alone I had no means of computing. My mind was
busy with many matters, but principally concerned with my fate in the
immediate future. That Dr. Fu-Manchu entertained for me a singular
kind of regard, I had had evidence before. He had formed the erroneous
opinion that I was an advanced scientist who could be of use to him in
his experiments, and I was aware that he cherished a project of
transporting me to some place in China where his principal laboratory
was situated. Respecting the means which he proposed to employ, I was
unlikely to forget that this man, who had penetrated further along
certain byways of science than seemed humanly possible, undoubtedly
was master of a process for producing artificial catalepsy. It was my
lot, then, to be packed in a chest (to all intents and purposes a dead
man for the time being) and dispatched to the interior of China!

What a fool I had been. To think that I had learnt nothing from my
long and dreadful experience of the methods of Dr. Fu-Manchu; to think
that I had come _alone_ in quest of him; that, leaving no trace behind
me, I had deliberately penetrated to his secret abode!

I have said that my wrists were manacled behind me, the manacles being
attached to a chain fastened in the wall. I now contrived, with
extreme difficulty, to reverse the position of my hands; that is to
say, I climbed backward through the loop formed by my fettered arms,
so that instead of the gyves being behind me, they now were in front.

Then I began to examine them, learning, as I had anticipated, that
they fastened with a lock. I sat gazing at the steel bracelets in the
light of the lamp which swung over my head, and it became apparent to
me that I had gained little by my contortion.

A slight noise disturbed these unpleasant reveries. It was nothing
less than the rattling of keys!

For a moment I wondered if I had heard aright, or if the sound
portended