up surrounding him (and, don't forget, surviving him)--we may
further assume that the wireless message was no gratuitous piece of
melodrama, but that it was directed to a definite end. Let us endeavor
to link up the chain a little. You occupy an upper deck berth; so do
I. Experience of the Chinaman has formed a habit in both of us; that of
sleeping with closed windows. Your port was fastened and so was my own.
Karamaneh is quartered on the main deck, and her brother's stateroom
opens into the same alleyway. Since the ship is in the Straits of
Messina, and the glass set fair, the stewards have not closed the
portholes nightly at present. We know that that of Karamaneh's stateroom
was open. Therefore, in any attempt upon our quartet, Karamaneh would
automatically be selected for the victim, since failing you or myself
she may be regarded as being the most obnoxious to Dr. Fu-Manchu."

I nodded comprehendingly. Smith's capacity for throwing the white light
of reason into the darkest places often amazed me.

"You may have noticed," he continued, "that Karamaneh's room is directly
below your own. In the event of any outcry, you would be sooner upon the
scene than I should, for instance, because I sleep on the opposite
side of the ship. This circumstance I take to be the explanation of the
wireless message, which, because of its hesitancy (a piece of ingenuity
very characteristic of the group), led to your being awakened and
invited up to the Marconi deck; in short, it gave the would-be assassin
a better chance of escaping before your arrival."

I watched my friend in growing wonder. The strange events, seemingly
having no link, took their places in the drama, and became well-ordered
episodes in a plot that only a criminal genius could have devised. As
I studied the keen, bronzed face, I realized to the full the stupendous
mental power of Dr. Fu-Manchu, measuring it by the criterion of Nayland
Smith's. For the cunning Chinaman, in a sense, had foiled this brilliant
man before me, whereby, if by nought else, I might know him a master of
his evil art.

"I regard the episode," continued Smith, "as a posthumous attempt of
the doctor's; a legacy of hate which may prove more disastrous than any
attempt made upon us by Fu-Manchu in life. Some fiendish member of the
murder group is on board the ship. We must, as always, meet guile with
guile. There must be no appeal to the captain, no public examination of
passengers and crew. One