his wonderful, evil face emaciated by illness, but his long, magnetic
eyes blazing greenly, as though not a soul but an elemental spirit
dwelt within that gaunt, high-shouldered body, Dr. Fu-Manchu entered,
slowly, leaning upon a heavy stick!

The realities seemed to be slipping from me; I could not believe that
I looked upon a material world. This had been a night of wonders,
having no place in the life of a sane, modern man, but belonging to
the days of the jinn and the Arabian necromancers.

Fu-Manchu was greeted by a universal raising of hands, but in complete
silence. He also wore a cap surmounted by a coral ball, and this he
placed upon one of the black cushions set before a golden stool. Then,
resting heavily upon his stick, he began to speak--in French!

As on listens to a dream-voice, I listened to that, alternately
gutteral and sibilant, of the terrible Chinese doctor. He was
defending himself! With what he was charged by his sinister brethren
I knew not nor could I gather from his words, but that he was
rendering account of his stewardship became unmistakable. Scarce
crediting my senses, I heard him unfold to his listeners details of
crimes successfully perpetrated, and with the results of some of these
I was but too familiar; other there were in the ghastly catalogue
which had been accomplished secretly. Then my blood froze with horror.
My own name was mentioned--and that of Nayland Smith! We two stood in
the way of the coming of one whom he called the Lady of the Si-Fan,
in the way of Asiatic supremacy.

A fantastic legend once mentioned to me by Smith, of some woman
cherished in a secret fastness of Hindustan who was destined one day
to rule the world, now appeared, to my benumbed senses, to be the
unquestioned creed of the murderous, cosmopolitan group known as the
Si-Fan! At every mention of her name all heads were bowed in reverence.

Dr. Fu-Manchu spoke without the slightest trace of excitement; he
assured his auditors of his fidelity to their cause and proposed to
prove to them that he enjoyed the complete confidence of the Lady of
the Si-Fan.

And with every moment that passed the giant intellect of the speaker
became more and more apparent. Years ago Nayland Smith had asssure me
that Dr. Fu-Manchu was a linguist who spoke with almost equal facility
in any of th civilized languages and in most of the barbaric; now the
truth of this was demonstrated. For, following some passage which
might be