ounds to
know what business is afoot. To think that we have had such an
opportunity and have thrown it away!"

Angry and nonplused he stood at the corner, looking in the direction of
the crowded thoroughfare into which the car had been driven, tugging at
the lobe of his ear, as was his habit in such moments of perplexity,
and sharply clicking his teeth together. I, too, was very thoughtful.
Clews were few enough in those days of our war with that giant
antagonist. The mere thought that our trifling error of judgment
tonight in tarrying a moment too long might mean the victory of
Fu-Manchu, might mean the turning of the balance which a wise
providence had adjusted between the white and yellow races, was
appalling.

To Smith and me, who knew something of the secret influences at work to
overthrow the Indian Empire, to place, it might be, the whole of Europe
and America beneath an Eastern rule, it seemed that a great yellow hand
was stretched out over London. Doctor Fu-Manchu was a menace to the
civilized world. Yet his very existence remained unsuspected by the
millions whose fate he sought to command.

"Into what dark scheme have we had a glimpse?" said Smith. "What State
secret is to be filched? What faithful servant of the British Raj to
be spirited away? Upon whom now has Fu-Manchu set his death seal?"

"Karamaneh on this occasion may not have been acting as an emissary of
the Doctor's."

"I feel assured that she was, Petrie. Of the many whom this yellow
cloud may at any moment envelop, to which one did her message refer?
The man's instructions were urgent. Witness his hasty departure.
Curse it!" He dashed his right clenched fist into the palm of his left
hand. "I never had a glimpse of his face, first to last. To think of
the hours I have spent in that place, in anticipation of just such a
meeting--only to bungle the opportunity when it arose!" Scarce heeding
what course we followed, we had come now to Piccadilly Circus, and had
walked out into the heart of the night's traffic. I just dragged Smith
aside in time to save him from the off-front wheel of a big Mercedes.
Then the traffic was blocked, and we found ourselves dangerously penned
in amidst the press of vehicles.

Somehow we extricated ourselves, jeered at by taxi-drivers, who
naturally took us for two simple Oriental visitors, and just before
that impassable barrier the arm of a London policeman was lowered and
the stream moved on a fain