ring upon my scalp, he dragged himself laboriously across the
room, the sticks going _tap--tap--tap_ upon the floor, and the tall
body, enveloped in a yellow robe, bent grotesquely, gruesomely, with
every effort which he made. He wore a surgical bandage about his
skull and its presence seemed to accentuate the height of the great
domelike brow, to throw into more evil prominence the wonderful,
Satanic countenance of the man. His filmed eyes turning to right and
left, he dragged himself to a wooden chair that stood beside the
operating-table and sank down upon it, breathing sibilantly,
exhaustedly.

Zarmi dropped the curtain and stood before it. She had discarded the
dripping overall which she had been wearing when I had followed her
across the common, and now stood before me with her black, frizzy
hair unconfined and her beautiful, wicked face uplifted in a sort of
cynical triumph. The big gold rings in her ears glittered strangely
in the light of the electric lamps. She wore a garment which looked
like a silken shawl wrapped about her in a wildly picturesque
fashion, and, her hands upon her hips, leant back against the curtain
glancing defiantly from Sir Baldwin to myself.

Those moments of silence which followed the entrance of the Chinese
Doctor live in my memory and must live there for ever. Only the
labored breathing of Fu-Manchu disturbed the stillness of the place.
Not a sound penetrated to the room, no one uttered a word; then--

"Sir Baldwin Frazer." began Fu-Manchu in that indescribable voice,
alternating between the sibilant and the guttural, "you were promised
a certain fee for your services by my servant who summoned you. It
shall be paid and the gift of my personal gratitude be added to it."

He turned himself with difficulty to address Sir Baldwin; and it
became apparent to me that he was almost completely paralyzed down
one side of his body. Some little use he could make of his hand and
arm, for he still clutched the heavy carven stick, but the right side
of his face was completely immobile; and rarely had I seen anything
more ghastly than the effect produced upon that wonderful, Satanic
countenance. The mouth, from the center of the thin lips, opened only
to the left, as he spoke; in a word, seen in profile from where I sat,
or rather crouched, it was the face of a dead man.

Sir Baldwin Frazer uttered no word, but, crouching upon the bench
even as I crouched, stared--horror written upon every line