"A thug!" I cried.

"He--it--the mummy thing--would have strangled me if I had slept, for
he crouched over the berth--seeking--seeking...."

I clenched my teeth convulsively.

"But I was sitting up--"

"With the light on?" interrupted Stacey in surprise.

"No," added Karamaneh; "the light was out." She turned her eyes toward
me, as the wonderful blush overspread her face once more. "I was
sitting thinking. It all happened within a few seconds, and quite
silently. As the mummy crouched over the berth, I unlocked the door
and leapt out into the passage. I think I screamed; I did not mean to.
Oh, Dr. Stacey, there is not a moment to spare! Mr. Nayland Smith must
be warned immediately. Some horrible servant of Dr. Fu-Manchu is on
the ship!"

CHAPTER XXXII

THE TRAGEDY

Nayland Smith leant against the edge of the dressing-table, attired in
pyjamas. The little stateroom was hazy with smoke, and my friend
gripped the charred briar between his teeth and watched the blue-grey
clouds arising from the bowl, in an abstracted way. I knew that he was
thinking hard, and from the fact that he had exhibited no surprise
when I had related to him the particulars of the attack upon
Karamaneh, I judged that he had half anticipated something of the
kind. Suddenly he stood up, staring at me fixedly.

"Your tact has saved the situation, Petrie," he snapped. "It failed
you momentarily, though, when you proposed to me just now that we
should muster the lascars for inspection. Our game is to pretend that
we know nothing--that we believe Karamaneh to have had a bad dream."

"But, Smith--" I began.

"It would be useless, Petrie," he interrupted me. "You cannot suppose
that I overlooked the possibility of some creature of the Doctor's
being among the lascars. I can assure you that not one of them answers
to the description of the midnight assailant. From the girl's account
we have to look (discarding the idea of a revivified mummy) for a man
of unusual height--and there's no lascar of unusual height on board;
and from the visible evidence, that he entered the stateroom through
the port-hole, we have to look for a man more than normally thin. In a
word, the servant of Dr. Fu-Manchu who attempted the life of Karamaneh
is either in hiding in the ship, or if visible, is disguised."

With his usual clarity, Nayland Smith had visualized the facts of the
case; I passed in mental survey each one of the passengers, and those
of the c