CHAPTER XVII
I MEET DR. FU-MANCHU
My next impression was of a splitting headache, which, as memoryremounted its throne, brought up a train of recollections. I foundmyself to be seated upon a heavy wooden bench set flat against a wall,which was covered with a kind of straw matting. My hands were firmlytied behind me. In the first agony of that reawakening I became awareof two things.
I was in an operating-room, for the most conspicuous item of itsfurniture was an operating-table! Shaded lamps were suspended aboveit; and instruments, antiseptics, dressings, etc., were arranged upona glass-topped table beside it. Secondly, I had a companion.
Seated upon a similar bench on the other side of the room, was aheavily built man, his dark hair splashed with gray, as were hisshort, neatly trimmed beard and mustache. He, too, was pinioned; andhe stared across the table with a glare in which a sort of stupefiedwonderment predominated, but which was not free from terror.
It was Sir Baldwin Frazer!
"Sir Baldwin!" I muttered, moistening my parched lips with my tongue--"Sir Baldwin!--how----"
"It is Dr. Petrie, is it not?" he said, his voice husky with emotion."Dr. Petrie!--my dear sir, in mercy tell me--what does this mean? Ihave been kidnaped--drugged; made the victim of an inconceivableoutrage at the very door of my own house...."
I stood up unsteadily.
"Sir Baldwin," I interrupted, "you ask me what it means. It means thatwe are in the hands of Dr. Fu-Manchu!"
Sir Baldwin stared at me wildly; his face was white and drawn withanxiety.
"Dr. Fu-Manchu!" he said; "but my dear sir, this name conveys nothingto me--nothing!" His manner momentarily was growing more distrait."Since my captivity began I have been given the use of a singularsuite of rooms in this place, and received, I must confess, everypossible attention. I have been waited upon by the she-devil wholured me here, but not one word other than a species of coarsebadinage has she spoken to me. At times I have been tempted tobelieve that the fate which frequently befalls the specialist hadbefallen me? You understand?"
"I quite understand," I replied dully. "There have been times in thepast when I, too, have doubted my sanity in my dealings with the groupwho now hold us in their power."
"But," reiterated the other, his voice rising higher and higher,"what does it mean, my dear sir? It is incredible--fantastic! Evennow I find it difficult to disabuse my mind of that old, hauntingidea."
"Disabuse it at once, Sir Baldwin," I said bitterly. "The facts areas you see them; the explanation, at any rate in your own case, isquite beyond me. I was tracked ..."
"Hush! some one is coming!"
We both turned and stared at an opening before which hung a sort ofgaudily embroidered mat, as the sound of dragging footsteps,accompanied by a heavy tapping, announced the approach of _some one_.
The mat was pulled aside by Zarmi. She turned her head, flashingaround the apartment a glance of her black eyes, then held thedrapery aside to admit the entrance of another....
Supporting himself by the aid of two heavy walking sticks andpainfully dragging his gaunt frame along, _Dr. Fu-Manchu entered!_
I think I have never experienced in my life a sensation identical tothat which now possessed me. Although Nayland Smith had declared thatFu-Manchu was alive, yet I would have sworn upon oath before anyjury summonable that he was dead; for with my own eyes I had seenthe bullet enter his skull. Now, whilst I crouched against thematting-covered wall, teeth tightly clenched and my very hairquivering upon my scalp, he dragged himself laboriously across theroom, the sticks going _tap--tap--tap_ upon the floor, and the tallbody, enveloped in a yellow robe, bent grotesquely, gruesomely, withevery effort which he made. He wore a surgical bandage about hisskull and its presence seemed to accentuate the height of the greatdomelike brow, to throw into more evil prominence the wonderful,Satanic countenance of the man. His filmed eyes turning to right andleft, he dragged himself to a wooden chair that stood beside theoperating-table and sank down upon it, breathing sibilantly,exhaustedly.
Zarmi dropped the curtain and stood before it. She had discarded thedripping overall which she had been wearing when I had followed heracross the common, and now stood before me with her black, frizzyhair unconfined and her beautiful, wicked face uplifted in a sort ofcynical triumph. The big gold rings in her ears glittered strangelyin the light of the electric lamps. She wore a garment which lookedlike a silken shawl wrapped about her in a wildly picturesquefashion, and, her hands upon her hips, leant back against the curtainglancing defiantly from Sir Baldwin to myself.
Those moments of silence which followed the entrance of the ChineseDoctor live in my memory and must live there for ever. Only thelabored breathing of Fu-Manchu disturbed the stillness of the place.Not a sound penetrated to the room, no one uttered a word; then--
"Sir Baldwin Frazer." began Fu-Manchu in that indescribable voice,alternating between the sibilant and the guttural, "you were promiseda certain fee for your services by my servant who summoned you. Itshall be paid and the gift of my personal gratitude be added to it."
He turned himself with difficulty to address Sir Baldwin; and itbecame apparent to me that he was almost completely paralyzed downone side of his body. Some little use he could make of his hand andarm, for he still clutched the heavy carven stick, but the right sideof his face was completely immobile; and rarely had I seen anythingmore ghastly than the effect produced upon that wonderful, Sataniccountenance. The mouth, from the center of the thin lips, opened onlyto the left, as he spoke; in a word, seen in profile from where I sat,or rather crouched, it was the face of a dead man.
Sir Baldwin Frazer uttered no word, but, crouching upon the bencheven as I crouched, stared--horror written upon every lineament--atDr. Fu-Manchu. The latter continued:--
"Your experience, Sir Baldwin, will enable you readily to diagnose mysymptoms. Owing to the passage of a bullet along a portion of thethird left frontal into the postero-parietal convolution--upon which,from its lodgment in the skull, it continues to press--hemiplegia ofthe right side has supervened. Aphasia is present also...."
The effort of speech was ghastly. Beads of perspiration dewedFu-Manchu's brow, and I marveled at the iron will of the man, wherebyalone he forced his half-numbed brain to perform its function. Heseemed to select his words elaborately and by this monstrous effortof will to compel his partially paralyzed tongue to utter them. Someof the syllables were slurred; but nevertheless distinguishable. Itwas a demonstration of sheer _Force_ unlike any I had witnessed, andit impressed me unforgettably.
"The removal of this injurious particle," he continued, "would be anoperation which I myself could undertake to perform successfully uponanother. It is a matter of some delicacy as you, Sir Baldwin, and"--slowly, horribly, turning the half-dead and half-living head towardsme--"you, Dr. Petrie, will appreciate. In the event of clumsy surgery,death may supervene; failing this, permanent hemiplegia--or"--thefilm lifted from the green eyes, and for a moment they flickered withtransient horror--"idiocy! Any one of three of my pupils whom I mightname could perform this operation with ease, but their services arenot available. Only one English surgeon occurred to me in thisconnection, and you, Sir Baldwin"--again he slowly turned his head--"were he. Dr. Petrie will act as anaesthetist, and, your dutiescompleted, you shall return to your home richer by the amountstipulated. I have suitably prepared myself for the operation, and Ican assure you of the soundness of my heart. I may advise you, Dr.Petrie"--again turning to me--"that my constitution is inured to theuse of opium. You will make due allowance for this. Mr. Li-King-Su,a graduate of Canton, will act as dresser."
He turned laboriously to Zarmi. She clapped her hands and held thecurtain aside. A perfectly immobile Chinaman, whose age I was unableto guess, and who wore a white overall, entered, bowed composedly toFrazer and myself and began in a matter-of-fact way to prepare thedressings.