CHAPTER IX
WITH the first coming of light, Eltham, Smith and I tested theelectrical contrivances from every point. They were in perfect order.It became more and more incomprehensible how anyone could have enteredand quitted Redmoat during the night. The barbed-wire fencing wasintact, and bore no signs of having been tampered with.
Smith and I undertook an exhaustive examination of the shrubbery.
At the spot where we had found the dog, some five paces to the west ofthe copper beech, the grass and weeds were trampled and the surroundinglaurels and rhododendrons bore evidence of a struggle, but no humanfootprint could be found.
"The ground is dry," said Smith. "We cannot expect much."
"In my opinion," I said, "someone tried to get at Caesar; his presenceis dangerous. And in his rage he broke loose."
"I think so, too," agreed Smith. "But why did this person make forhere? And how, having mastered the dog, get out of Redmoat? I am opento admit the possibility of someone's getting in during the day whilstthe gates are open, and hiding until dusk. But how in the name of allthat's wonderful does he GET OUT? He must possess the attributes of abird."
I thought of Greba Eltham's statements, reminding my friend of herdescription of the thing which she had seen passing into this strangelyhaunted shrubbery.
"That line of speculation soon takes us out of our depth, Petrie," hesaid. "Let us stick to what we can understand, and that may help us toa clearer idea of what, at present, is incomprehensible. My view ofthe case to date stands thus:
"(1) Eltham, having rashly decided to return to the interior of China,is warned by an official whose friendship he has won in some way tostay in England.
"(2) I know this official for one of the Yellow group represented inEngland by Dr. Fu-Manchu.
"(3) Several attempts, of which we know but little, to get at Elthamare frustrated, presumably by his curious 'defenses.' An attempt in atrain fails owing to Miss Eltham's distaste for refreshment-roomcoffee. An attempt here fails owing to her insomnia.
"(4) During Eltham's absence from Redmoat certain preparations are madefor his return. These lead to:
"(a) The death of Denby's collie;
"(b) The things heard and seen by Miss Eltham;
"(c) The things heard and seen by us all last night.
"So that the clearing up of my fourth point--id est, the discovery ofthe nature of these preparations--becomes our immediate concern. Theprime object of these preparations, Petrie, was to enable someone togain access to Eltham's room. The other events are incidental. Thedogs HAD to be got rid of, for instance; and there is no doubt thatMiss Eltham's wakefulness saved her father a second time."
"But from what? For Heaven's sake, from what?"
Smith glanced about into the light-patched shadows.
"From a visit by someone--perhaps by Fu-Manchu himself," he said in ahushed voice. "The object of that visit I hope we may never learn; forthat would mean that it had been achieved."
"Smith," I said, "I do not altogether understand you; but do you thinkhe has some incredible creature hidden here somewhere? It would belike him."
"I begin to suspect the most formidable creature in the known world tobe hidden here. I believe Fu-Manchu is somewhere inside Redmoat!"
Our conversation was interrupted at this point by Denby, who came toreport that he had examined the moat, the roadside, and the bank of thestream, but found no footprints or clew of any kind.
"No one left the grounds of Redmoat last night, I think," he said. Andhis voice had awe in it.
That day dragged slowly on. A party of us scoured the neighborhood fortraces of strangers, examining every foot of the Roman ruin hard by;but vainly.
"May not your presence here induce Fu-Manchu to abandon his plans?" Iasked Smith.
"I think not," he replied. "You see, unless we can prevail upon him,Eltham sails in a fortnight. So the Doctor has no time to waste.Furthermore, I have an idea that his arrangements are of such acharacter that they MUST go forward. He might turn aside, of course,to assassinate me, if opportunity arose! But we know, from experience,that he permits nothing to interfere with his schemes."
There are few states, I suppose, which exact so severe a toll fromone's nervous system as the ANTICIPATION of calamity.
All anticipation is keener, be it of joy or pain, than the realitywhereof it is a mental forecast; but that inactive waiting at Redmoat,for the blow which we knew full well to be pending exceeded in itsnerve taxation, anything I hitherto had experienced.
I felt as one bound upon an Aztec altar, with the priest's obsidianknife raised above my breast!
Secret and malign forces throbbed about us; forces against which we hadno armor. Dreadful as it was, I count it a mercy that the climax wasreached so quickly. And it came suddenly enough; for there in thatquiet Norfolk home we found ourselves at hand grips with one of themysterious horrors which characterized the operations of Dr. Fu-Manchu.It was upon us before we realized it. There is no incidental music tothe dramas of real life.
As we sat on the little terrace in the creeping twilight, I rememberthinking how the peace of the scene gave the lie to my fears that webordered upon tragic things. Then Caesar, who had been a docilepatient all day, began howling again; and I saw Greba Eltham shudder.
I caught Smith's eye, and was about to propose our retirement indoors,when the party was broken up in more turbulent fashion. I suppose itwas the presence of the girl which prompted Denby to the rash act, adesire personally to distinguish himself. But, as I recalledafterwards, his gaze had rarely left the shrubbery since dusk, save toseek her face, and now he leaped wildly to his feet, overturning hischair, and dashed across the grass to the trees.
"Did you see it?" he yelled. "Did you see it?"
He evidently carried a revolver. For from the edge of the shrubbery ashot sounded, and in the flash we saw Denby with the weapon raised.
"Greba, go in and fasten the windows," cried Eltham. "Mr. Smith, willyou enter the bushes from the west. Dr. Petrie, east. Edwards,Edwards--" And he was off across the lawn with the nervous activity ofa cat.
As I made off in an opposite direction I heard the gardener's voicefrom the lower gate, and I saw Eltham's plan. It was to surround theshrubbery.
Two more shots and two flashes from the dense heart of greenwood. Thena loud cry--I thought, from Denby--and a second, muffled one.
Following--silence, only broken by the howling of the mastiff.
I sprinted through the rose garden, leaped heedlessly over a bed ofgeranium and heliotrope, and plunged in among the bushes and under theelms. Away on the left I heard Edwards shouting, and Eltham'sanswering voice.
"Denby!" I cried, and yet louder: "Denby!"
But the silence fell again.
Dusk was upon Redmoat now, but from sitting in the twilight my eyes hadgrown accustomed to gloom, and I could see fairly well what lay beforeme. Not daring to think what might lurk above, below, around me, Ipressed on into the midst of the thicket.
"Vernon!" came Eltham's voice from one side.
"Bear more to the right, Edwards," I heard Nayland Smith cry directlyahead of me.
With an eerie and indescribable sensation of impending disaster uponme, I thrust my way through to a gray patch which marked a break in theelmen roof. At the foot of the copper beech I almost fell over Eltham.Then Smith plunged into view. Lastly, Edwards the gardener rounded abig rhododendron and completed the party.
We stood quite still for a moment.
A faint breeze whispered through the beech leaves.
"Where is he?"
I cannot remember who put it into words; I was too dazed with amazementto notice. Then Eltham began shouting:
"Vernon! Vernon! VERNON!"
His voice pitched higher upon each repetition. There was somethinghorrible about that vain calling, under the whispering beech, withshrubs banked about us cloaking God alone could know what.
From the back
of the house came Caesar's faint reply.
"Quick! Lights!" rapped Smith. "Every lamp you have!"
Off we went, dodging laurels and privets, and poured out on to thelawn, a disordered company. Eltham's face was deathly pale, and hisjaw set hard. He met my eye.
"God forgive me!" he said. "I could do murder to-night!"
He was a man composed of strange perplexities.
It seemed an age before the lights were found. But at last we returnedto the bushes, really after a very brief delay; and ten minutessufficed us to explore the entire shrubbery, for it was not extensive.We found his revolver, but there was no one there--nothing.
When we all stood again on the lawn, I thought that I had never seenSmith so haggard.
"What in Heaven's name can we do?" he muttered. "What does it mean?"
He expected no answer; for there was none to offer one.
"Search! Everywhere," said Eltham hoarsely.
He ran off into the rose garden, and began beating about among theflowers like a madman, muttering: "Vernon! Vernon!" For close uponan hour we all searched. We searched every square yard, I think,within the wire fencing, and found no trace. Miss Eltham slipped outin the confusion, and joined with the rest of us in that frantic hunt.Some of the servants assisted too.
It was a group terrified and awestricken which came together again onthe terrace. One and then another would give up, until only Eltham andSmith were missing. Then they came back together from examining thesteps to the lower gate.
Eltham dropped on to a rustic seat, and sank his head in his hands.
Nayland Smith paced up and down like a newly caged animal, snapping histeeth together and tugging at his ear.
Possessed by some sudden idea, or pressed to action by his tumultuousthoughts, he snatched up a lantern and strode silently off across thegrass and to the shrubbery once more. I followed him. I think hisidea was that he might surprise anyone who lurked there. He surprisedhimself, and all of us.
For right at the margin he tripped and fell flat. I ran to him.
He had fallen over the body of Denby, which lay there!
Denby had not been there a few moments before, and how he came to bethere now we dared not conjecture. Mr. Eltham joined us, uttered oneshort, dry sob, and dropped upon his knees. Then we were carryingDenby back to the house, with the mastiff howling a marche funebre.
We laid him on the grass where it sloped down from the terrace.Nayland Smith's haggard face was terrible. But the stark horror of thething inspired him to that, which conceived earlier, had saved Denby.Twisting suddenly to Eltham, he roared in a voice audible beyond theriver:
"Heavens! we are fools! LOOSE THE DOG!"
"But the dog--" I began.
Smith clapped his hand over my mouth.
"I know he's crippled," he whispered. "But if anything human lurksthere, the dog will lead us to it. If a MAN is there, he will fly!Why did we not think of it before. Fools, fools!" He raised his voiceagain. "Keep him on leash, Edwards. He will lead us."
The scheme succeeded.
Edwards barely had started on his errand when bells began ringinginside the house.
"Wait!" snapped Eltham, and rushed indoors.
A moment later he was out again, his eyes gleaming madly. "Above themoat," he panted. And we were off en masse round the edge of the trees.
It was dark above the moat; but not so dark as to prevent our seeing anarrow ladder of thin bamboo joints and silken cord hanging by twohooks from the top of the twelve-foot wire fence. There was no sound.
"He's out!" screamed Eltham. "Down the steps!"
We all ran our best and swiftest. But Eltham outran us. Like a furyhe tore at bolts and bars, and like a fury sprang out into the road.Straight and white it showed to the acclivity by the Roman ruin. Butno living thing moved upon it. The distant baying of the dog was borneto our ears.
"Curse it! he's crippled," hissed Smith. "Without him, as well pursuea shadow!"
A few hours later the shrubbery yielded up its secret, a simple oneenough: A big cask sunk in a pit, with a laurel shrub cunningly affixedto its movable lid, which was further disguised with tufts of grass. Aslender bamboo-jointed rod lay near the fence. It had a hook on thetop, and was evidently used for attaching the ladder.
"It was the end of this ladder which Miss Eltham saw," said Smith, "ashe trailed it behind him into the shrubbery when she interrupted him inher fathers room. He and whomever he had with him doubtless slipped induring the daytime--whilst Eltham was absent in London--bringing theprepared cask and all necessary implements with them. They concealedthemselves somewhere--probably in the shrubbery--and during the nightmade the cache. The excavated earth would be disposed of on theflower-beds; the dummy bush they probably had ready. You see, theproblem of getting IN was never a big one. But owing to the 'defenses'it was impossible (whilst Eltham was in residence at any rate) to getOUT after dark. For Fu-Manchu's purposes, then, a working-base INSIDERedmoat was essential. His servant--for he needed assistance--musthave been in hiding somewhere outside; Heaven knows where! During theday they could come or go by the gates, as we have already noted."
"You think it was the Doctor himself?"
"It seems possible. Who else has eyes like the eyes Miss Eltham sawfrom the window last night?"
Then remains to tell the nature of the outrage whereby Fu-Manchu hadplanned to prevent Eltham's leaving England for China. This we learnedfrom Denby. For Denby was not dead.
It was easy to divine that he had stumbled upon the fiendish visitor atthe very entrance to his burrow; had been stunned (judging from theevidence, with a sand-bag), and dragged down into the cache--to whichhe must have lain in such dangerous proximity as to render detection ofthe dummy bush possible in removing him. The quickest expedient, then,had been to draw him beneath. When the search of the shrubbery wasconcluded, his body had been borne to the edge of the bushes and laidwhere we found it.
Why his life had been spared, I cannot conjecture, but provision hadbeen made against his recovering consciousness and revealing the secretof the shrubbery. The ruse of releasing the mastiff alone hadterminated the visit of the unbidden guest within Redmoat.
Denby made a very slow recovery; and, even when convalescent,consciously added not one fact to those we already had collated; hismemory had completely deserted him!
This, in my opinion, as in those of the several specialists consulted,was due, not to the blow on the head, but to the presence, slightlybelow and to the right of the first cervical curve of the spine, of aminute puncture--undoubtedly caused by a hypodermic syringe. Then,unconsciously, poor Denby furnished the last link in the chain; forundoubtedly, by means of this operation, Fu-Manchu had designed toefface from Eltham's mind his plans of return to Ho-Nan.
The nature of the fluid which could produce such mental symptoms was amystery--a mystery which defied Western science: one of the manystrange secrets of Dr. Fu-Manchu.