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Page 121
As I write, there lies before me a soiled and creased sheet of vellum.
It bears some lines traced in a cramped, peculiar, and all but
illegible hand. This fragment was found by Inspector Weymouth
(to this day a man mentally sound) in a pocket of his ragged garments.
When it was written I leave you to judge. How it came to be where Weymouth
found it calls for no explanation:
"To Mr. Commissioner NAYLAND SMITH and Dr. PETRIE--
"Greeting! I am recalled home by One who may not be denied.
In much that I came to do I have failed. Much that I
have done I would undo; some little I have undone.
Out of fire I came--the smoldering fire of a thing one day
to be a consuming flame; in fire I go. Seek not my ashes.
I am the lord of the fires! Farewell.
"FU-MANCHU."
Who has been with me in my several meetings with the man
who penned that message I leave to adjudge if it be the letter
of a madman bent upon self-destruction by strange means,
or the gibe of a preternaturally clever scientist and the most
elusive being ever born of the land of mystery--China.
For the present, I can aid you no more in the forming of your verdict.
A day may come though I pray it do not--when I shall be able to throw
new light upon much that is dark in this matter. That day, so far as I
can judge, could only dawn in the event of the Chinaman's survival;
therefore I pray that the veil be never lifted.
But, as I have said, there is another sequel to this story
which I can contemplate with a different countenance.
How, then, shall I conclude this very unsatisfactory account?
Shall I tell you, finally, of my parting with lovely, dark-eyed Karamaneh,
on board the liner which was to bear her to Egypt?
No, let me, instead, conclude with the words of Nayland Smith:
"_I_ sail for Burma in a fortnight, Petrie. I have leave to break my
journey at the Ditch. How would a run up the Nile fit your programme?
Bit early for the season, but you might find something to amuse you!"
End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer
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