mbling ruins, this typical
London square. A slight breeze set the hatchet-board creaking above
my head, as I held my gloved hands about the pine-vesta.

At that moment some one or something whistled close beside me!

I turned, in a flash, dropping the match upon the pavement. There was
no lamp near the spot whereat I stood, and the gateway and porch of
the deserted residence seemed to be empty. I stood there peering in
the direction from which the mysterious whistle had come.

The drone of a taxicab, approaching from the north, increased in
volume, as the vehicle came spinning around the angle of the square,
passed me, and went droning on its way. I watched it swing around
the distant corner ... and, in the new stillness, the whistle was
repeated!

This time the sound chilled me. The whistle was pitched in a curious,
inhuman key, and it possessed a mocking note that was strangely uncanny.

Listening intently and peering towards the porch of the empty house,
I struck a second match, pushed the iron gate open and made for the
steps, sheltering the feeble flame with upraised hand. As I did so,
the whistle was again repeated, but from some spot further away, to
the left of the porch, and from low down upon the ground.

Just as I glimpsed something moving under the lee of the porch,
the match was blown out, for I was hampered by the handbag which I
carried. Thus reminded of its presence, however, I recollected that
my pocket-lamp was in it. Quickly opening the bag, I took out the
lamp, and, passing around the corner of the steps, directed a ray of
light into the narrow passage which communicated with the rear of
the building.

Half-way along the passage, looking back at me over its shoulder, and
whistling angrily, was a little marmoset!

I pulled up as sharply as though the point of a sword had been held at
my throat. One marmoset is sufficiently like another to deceive the
ordinary observer, but unless I was permitting a not unnatural
prejudice to influence my opinion, this particular specimen was the
pet of Dr. Fu-Manchu!

Excitement, not untinged with fear, began to grow up within me. Hyde
Park was no far cry, this was near to the heart of social London; yet,
somewhere close at hand, it might be, watching me as I stood--lurked,
perhaps, the great and evil being who dreamed of overthrowing the
entire white race!

With a grotesque grimace and a final, chattering whistle, the little
creature leapt away out of th