en Smith began
tugging at my arm.

"Down! you fool!" he hissed harshly--"if she sees us, all is lost!"

Realizing this, and none too soon, I turned, and rather clumsily
followed my friend. I dislodged a piece of granite in my descent; but,
fortunately, Slattin had gone out into the hall and could not well have
heard it.

We were crouching around an angle of the house, when a flood of light
poured down the steps, and Karamaneh rapidly descended. I had a glimpse
of a dark-faced man who evidently had opened the door for her, then all
my thoughts were centered upon that graceful figure receding from me
in the direction of the avenue. She wore a loose cloak, and I saw this
fluttering for a moment against the white gate posts; then she was gone.

Yet Smith did not move. Detaining me with his hand he crouched there
against a quick-set hedge; until, from a spot lower down the hill,
we heard the start of the cab which had been waiting. Twenty seconds
elapsed, and from some other distant spot a second cab started.

"That's Weymouth!" snapped Smith. "With decent luck, we should know
Fu-Manchu's hiding-place before Slattin tells us!"

"But--"

"Oh! as it happens, he's apparently playing the game."--In the
half-light, Smith stared at me significantly--"Which makes it all the
more important," he concluded, "that we should not rely upon his aid!"

Those grim words were prophetic.

My companion made no attempt to communicate with the detective (or
detectives) who shared our vigil; we took up a position close under the
lighted study window and waited--waited.

Once, a taxi-cab labored hideously up the steep gradient of the avenue
... It was gone. The lights at the upper windows above us became
extinguished. A policeman tramped past the gateway, casually flashing
his lamp in at the opening. One by one the illuminated windows in other
houses visible to us became dull; then lived again as mirrors for the
pallid moon. In the silence, words spoken within the study were clearly
audible; and we heard someone--presumably the man who had opened the
door--inquire if his services would be wanted again that night.

Smith inclined his head and hung over me in a tense attitude, in order
to catch Slattin's reply.

"Yes, Burke," it came--"I want you to sit up until I return; I shall be
going out shortly."

Evidently the man withdrew at that; for a complete silence followed
which prevailed for fully half an hour. I sought cautiously to m