y pocket, I
snatched out the electric lamp ... and stepped back quickly into the
utter gloom of the room behind me.

Some one was crawling through the aperture into the conservatory!

As I watched I saw him, in the dim light, stoop to replace the movable
panel. Then, tapping upon the tiled floor as he walked, the fugitive
approached me. He was but three paces from the French window when I
pressed the button of my lamp and directed its ray fully upon his face.

"Hands up!" I said breathlessly. "I have you covered, Dr. Fu-Manchu!"

CHAPTER XXXIII

AN ANTI-CLIMAX

One hour later I stood in the entrance hall of our chambers in the
court adjoining Fleet Street. Some one who had come racing up the
stairs, now had inserted a key in the lock. Open swung the door--and
Nayland Smith entered, in a perfect whirl of excitement.

"Petrie! Petrie!" he cried, and seized both my hands--"you have missed
a night of nights! Man alive! we have the whole gang--the great Ki-Ming
included!" His eyes were blazing. "Weymouth has made no fewer than
twenty-five arrests, some of the prisoners being well-known Orientals.
It will be the devil's own work to keep it all quiet, but Scotland
Yard has already advised the Press."

"Congratulations, old man," I said, and looked him squarely in the eyes.

Something there must have been in my glance at variance with the
spoken words. His expression changed; he grasped my shoulder.

"_She_ was not there," he said, "but please God, we'll find her now.
It's only a question of time."

But, even as he spoke, the old, haunted look was creeping back into the
lean face. He gave me a rapid glance; then:--

"I might as well make a clean breast of it," he rapped. "Fu-Manchu
escaped! Furthermore, when we got lights, the woman had vanished, too."

"The woman!"

"There was a woman at this strange gathering, Petrie. Heaven only
knows who she really is. According to Fu-Manchu she is that woman of
mystery concerning whose existence strange stories are current in the
East; the future Empress of a universal empire! But of course I
decline to accept the story, Petrie! if ever the Yellow races overran
Europe, I am in no doubt respecting the identity of the person who
would ascend the throne of the world!"

"Nor I, Smith!" I cried excitedly. "Good God! he holds them all in the
palm of his hand! He has welded together the fanatics of every creed
of the East into a giant weapon for his personal use! Small won