Free The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer

protection."
    "The phantom Yellow Peril," said Nayland Smith, "to-day
materializes under the very eyes of the Western world."
    "The 'Yellow Peril'!"
    "You scoff, sir, and so do others. We take the proffered right
hand of friendship nor inquire if the hidden left holds a knife!
The peace of the world is at stake, Mr. Eltham. Unknowingly, you
tamper with tremendous issues."
    Mr. Eltham drew a deep breath, thrusting both hands in his
pockets.
    "You are painfully frank, Mr. Smith," he said; "but I like you
for it. I will reconsider my position and talk this matter over
again with you to-morrow."
    Thus, then, the storm blew over. Yet I had never experienced
such an overwhelming sense of imminent peril-of a sinister
presence-as oppressed me at that moment. The very atmosphere of
Redmoat was impregnated with Eastern devilry; it loaded the air
like some evil perfume. And then, through the silence, cut a
throbbing scream-the scream of a woman in direst fear.
    "My God, it's Greba!" whispered Mr. Eltham.
     

Chapter 8
     
    In what order we dashed down to the drawing-room I cannot
recall. But none was before me when I leaped over the threshold and
saw Miss Eltham prone by the French windows.
    These were closed and bolted, and she lay with hands
outstretched in the alcove which they formed. I bent over her.
Nayland Smith was at my elbow.
    "Get my bag" I said. "She has swooned. It is nothing
serious."
    Her father, pale and wide-eyed, hovered about me, muttering
incoherently; but I managed to reassure him; and his gratitude
when, I having administered a simple restorative, the girl sighed
shudderingly and opened her eyes, was quite pathetic.
    I would permit no questioning at that time, and on her father's
arm she retired to her own rooms.
    It was some fifteen minutes later that her message was brought
to me. I followed the maid to a quaint little octagonal apartment,
and Greba Eltham stood before me, the candlelight caressing the
soft curves of her face and gleaming in the meshes of her rich
brown hair.
    When she had answered my first question she hesitated in pretty
confusion.
    "We are anxious to know what alarmed you, Miss Eltham."
    She bit her lip and glanced with apprehension towards the
window.
    "I am almost afraid to tell father," she began rapidly. "He will
think me imaginative, but you have been so kind. It was two green
eyes! Oh! Dr. Petrie, they looked up at me from the steps leading
to the lawn. And they shone like the eyes of a cat."
    The words thrilled me strangely.
    "Are you sure it was not a cat, Miss Eltham?"
    "The eyes were too large, Dr. Petrie. There was something
dreadful, most dreadful, in their appearance. I feel foolish and
silly for having fainted, twice in two days! But the suspense is
telling upon me, I suppose. Father thinks"-she was becoming
charmingly confidential, as a woman often will with a tactful
physician-"that shut up here we are safe from-whatever threatens
us." I noted, with concern, a repetition of the nervous shudder.
"But since our return someone else has been in Redmoat!"
    "Whatever do you mean, Miss Eltham?"
    "Oh! I don't quite know what I do mean, Dr. Petrie. What does it
ALL mean? Vernon has been explaining to me that some awful Chinaman
is seeking the life of Mr. Nayland Smith. But if the same man wants
to kill my father, why has he not done so?"
    "I am afraid you puzzle me."
    "Of course, I must do so. But-the man in the train. He could
have killed us both quite easily! And-last night someone was in
father's room."
    "In his room!"
    "I could not sleep, and I heard something moving. My room is the
next one. I knocked on the wall and woke father. There was nothing;
so I said it was the howling of the dog that had frightened
me."
    "How could anyone get into his room?"
    "I cannot imagine. But I am not sure it was a man."
    "Miss Eltham, you alarm me. What do you suspect?"
    "You must think me hysterical and silly, but whilst father and I
have been away from Redmoat perhaps the usual precautions have