d; it is a sidelight on his
character."

"How so?"

"Eltham has never seen Dr. Fu-Manchu, but Eltham knows certain parts of
China better than you know the Strand. Probably, if he saw Fu-Manchu, he
would recognize him for who he really is, and this, it seems, the Doctor
is anxious to avoid."

We ran back to where we had left Karamaneh.

The room was empty!

"Defeated, Petrie!" said Smith, bitterly. "The Yellow Devil is loosed on
London again!"

He leaned from the window and the skirl of a police whistle split the
stillness of the night.

CHAPTER IV. THE CRY OF A NIGHTHAWK

Such were the episodes that marked the coming of Dr. Fu-Manchu to
London, that awakened fears long dormant and reopened old wounds--nay,
poured poison into them. I strove desperately, by close attention to
my professional duties, to banish the very memory of Karamaneh from my
mind; desperately, but how vainly! Peace was for me no more, joy was
gone from the world, and only mockery remained as my portion.

Poor Eltham we had placed in a nursing establishment, where his
indescribable hurts could be properly tended: and his uncomplaining
fortitude not infrequently made me thoroughly ashamed of myself.
Needless to say, Smith had made such other arrangements as were
necessary to safeguard the injured man, and these proved so successful
that the malignant being whose plans they thwarted abandoned his designs
upon the heroic clergyman and directed his attention elsewhere, as I
must now proceed to relate.

Dusk always brought with it a cloud of apprehensions, for darkness must
ever be the ally of crime; and it was one night, long after the clocks
had struck the mystic hour "when churchyards yawn," that the hand of
Dr. Fu-Manchu again stretched out to grasp a victim. I was dismissing a
chance patient.

"Good night, Dr. Petrie," he said.

"Good night, Mr. Forsyth," I replied; and, having conducted my late
visitor to the door, I closed and bolted it, switched off the light and
went upstairs.

My patient was chief officer of one of the P. and O. boats. He had cut
his hand rather badly on the homeward run, and signs of poisoning
having developed, had called to have the wound treated, apologizing for
troubling me at so late an hour, but explaining that he had only just
come from the docks. The hall clock announced the hour of one as I
ascended the stairs. I found myself wondering what there was in Mr.
Forsyth's appearance which excited some va