"

"I will do my best," the captain assured him.

Then, from amid the heterogeneous group on the dockside, we were
watching the liner depart, and Nayland Smith's expression was a very
singular one. Inspector Weymouth stood with us, a badly puzzled man.
Then occurred the extraordinary incident which to this day remains
inexplicable, for, clearly heard by all three of us, a guttural voice
said:

"Another victory for China, Mr. Nayland Smith!"

I turned as though I had been stung. Smith turned also. My eyes
passed from face to face of the group about us. None was familiar. No
one apparently had moved away.

But the voice was the voice of DOCTOR FU-MANCHU.

As I write of it, now, I can appreciate the difference between that
happening, as it appealed to us, and as it must appeal to you who
merely read of it. It is beyond my powers to convey the sense of the
uncanny which the episode created. Yet, even as I think of it, I feel
again, though in lesser degree, the chill which seemed to creep through
my veins that day.

From my brief history of the wonderful and evil man who once walked, by
the way unsuspected, in the midst of the people of England--near whom
you, personally, may at some time unwittingly, have been--I am aware
that much must be omitted. I have no space for lengthy examinations of
the many points but ill illuminated with which it is dotted. This
incident at the docks is but one such point.

Another is the singular vision which appeared to me whilst I lay in the
cellar of the house near Windsor. It has since struck me that it
possessed peculiarities akin to those of a hashish hallucination. Can
it be that we were drugged on that occasion with Indian hemp? Cannabis
indica is a treacherous narcotic, as every medical man knows full well;
but Fu-Manchu's knowledge of the drug was far in advance of our slow
science. West's experience proved so much.

I may have neglected opportunities--later, you shall judge if I did
so--opportunities to glean for the West some of the strange knowledge
of the secret East. Perhaps, at a future time, I may rectify my
errors. Perhaps that wisdom--the wisdom stored up by Fu-Manchu--is
lost forever. There is, however, at least a bare possibility of its
survival, in part; and I do not wholly despair of one day publishing a
scientific sequel to this record of our dealings with the Chinese
doctor.

CHAPTER XXI

TIME wore on and seemingly brought us no neare