Free Daughter of Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer Page B

contemplated excavations. He deeply resented what he looked upon as Sir Lionel’s intrusion. Did you know this?”
    He turned to me suddenly. His skin, as I now realized, had been artificially darkened. Looking out from that brown mask, his eyes were unnaturally piercing.
    “Perfectly well.”
    Superintendent Weymouth, whose unexpected meeting with Sir Denis had reduced him to an astounded silence, now spoke for the first time since he had entered the room.
    “Probably some of the professor’s notes were stolen,” he said.
    “They were!” rapped Nayland Smith: “which brings us to Barton. Are his notes intact?”
    He shot the question at me with startling rapidity.
    “He made few notes,” I replied. “He had a most astounding memory.”
    “In short, his memory was his notebook! This explains much…”
    He paused for a moment, and then:
    “I immediately adopted the device which you know,” he went on. “Fletcher installed himself here, and I used these rooms as my base of operations. I had first to track Fah Lo Suee to her lair. I use the term advisedly, for she is the most dangerous beast of prey which this century has known.”
    “I simply cannot understand,” cried Petrie, “why Sir Lionel never suspected this woman!”
    Nayland Smith shook his head irritably.
    “I think he did—but too late. However—naturally I distrusted everybody, but I decided to take Barton into my confidence. It was on that occasion, Greville, that we met for the first time. I bear you no ill will, but I could have strangled you cheerfully. Short of revealing my identity, I was helpless… and I decided to stick to my disguise…”
    He shrugged his shoulders.
    “I was wrong. The enemy struck. Forthright action might have saved him. I must have failed to do even what little I did do, for all the odds were against me, were it not that that very night I made up my mind to try to get to Sir Lionel secretly whilst the camp was sleeping.
    “In one of your workmen, Greville—Said by name—I recognized an old friend! Said was once my groom in Rangoon! I dug him out of his quarters at Kûrna and appointed him my liaison officer.
    “Then, with Said in touch, I started. I had found one man I could trust…
    “I reached Barton’s tent three minutes too late. He had just scrawled that last message—”
    “What!” Weymouth interrupted excitedly. “You actually saw the message?”
    “I read it,” Nayland Smith replied quietly. “Barton, awakened by the needle, miraculously realized what had happened. I am prepared to learn that he expected it… that, at last, he had begun to distrust ‘Madame Ingomar.’ It had just dropped from his hand as I entered.
    “It was my voice, Greville, not his—that awakened you…”
    Nayland Smith ceased speaking, and stepping up to the table, began to knock ash from the steaming bowl of his briar, whilst I watched him in a sort of stupefaction. Petrie and Weymouth were watching him too. Truly, here was a remarkable man.
    “I slipped away as quietly as I had come. I watched for developments… then I set out for the head of the wâdi, where Said was watching. And Said had news for me. Someone had passed his hiding place ten minutes before—someone who slipped by rapidly. Said had not dared to follow. His orders were to wait… but I guessed that he had seen the agent of Fah Lo Suee who had entered Barton’s tent ahead of me, and who had done his appointed work…
    “‘He was Burmese,’ Said assured me, ‘and I saw the mark of kâli on his brow!’
    “In a deep hollow, by the light of my torch, I wrote a message to Fletcher. Said set out for Luxor. I was taking no chances. The result of that message, Petrie, you know—you also, Weymouth. Fletcher despatched two telegrams.
    “Then I returned, and from the slope above Sir Lionel’s tent, overheard the conference. I still distrusted everybody. As early as Lafleur’s time, a certain person was interested in the Tomb of the Black Ape. Of