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Page 41
"Snapshots taken by the spectators of the outrage yesterday disclosed
the presence of an accomplice, also armed with a revolver.
It is reported that this man, who was arrested last night,
was in possession of incriminating documentary evidence."
Later.
"Examination of the documents found on Li Hon Hung's accomplice
has disclosed the fact that both men were well financed by
the Canton Triad Society, the directors of which had enjoined
the assassination of Sir F. M. or Mr. C. S., the Colonial Secretary.
In a report prepared by the accomplice for dispatch to Canton,
also found on his person, he expressed regret that the attempt
had failed."--Reuter.
"It is officially reported in St. Petersburg that a force of Chinese soldiers
and villagers surrounded the house of a Russian subject named Said Effendi,
near Khotan, in Chinese Turkestan.
"They fired at the house and set it in flames. There were in the house
about 100 Russians, many of whom were killed.
"The Russian Government has instructed its Minister at Peking to make
the most vigorous representations on the subject."--Reuter.
Finally, in a Personal Column, I found the following:--
"HO-NAN. Have abandoned visit.--ELTHAM."
I had just pasted it into my book when Nayland Smith came in and
threw himself into an arm-chair, facing me across the table.
I showed him the cutting.
"I am glad, for Eltham's sake--and for the girl's," was his comment.
"But it marks another victory for Fu-Manchu! Just Heaven! Why is
retribution delayed!"
Smith's darkly tanned face had grown leaner than ever since he had
begun his fight with the most uncanny opponent, I suppose, against
whom a man ever had pitted himself. He stood up and began restlessly
to pace the room, furiously stuffing tobacco into his briar.
"I have seen Sir Lionel Barton," he said abruptly; "and, to put the whole
thing in a nutshell, he has laughed at me! During the months that I
have been wondering where he had gone to he has been somewhere in Egypt.
He certainly bears a charmed life, for on the evidence of his letter
to The Times he has seen things in Tibet which Fu-Manchu would
have the West blind to; in fact, I think he has found a new keyhole
to the gate of the Indian Empire!"
Long ago we had placed the name of Sir Lionel Barton upon the list of
those whose lives stood between Fu-Manchu and the attainment of his end.
Orientalist and explorer, the fearless traveler who first had penetrated
to Lhassa, who thrice, as a pilgrim, had entered forbidden Mecca,
he now had turned his attention again to Tibet--thereby signing
his own death-warrant.
"That he has reached England alive is a hopeful sign?" I suggested.
Smith shook his head, and lighted the blackened briar.
"England at present is the web," he replied. "The spider will be waiting.
Petrie, I sometimes despair. Sir Lionel is an impossible man to shepherd.
You ought to see his house at Finchley. A low, squat place completely
hemmed in by trees. Damp as a swamp; smells like a jungle.
Everything topsy-turvy. He only arrived to-day, and he is working and eating
(and sleeping I expect), in a study that looks like an earthquake at Sotheby's
auction-rooms. The rest of the house is half a menagerie and half a circus.
He has a Bedouin groom, a Chinese body-servant, and Heaven only knows
what other strange people!"
"Chinese!"
"Yes, I saw him; a squinting Cantonese he calls Kwee. I don't like him.
Also, there is a secretary known as Strozza, who has an unpleasant face.
He is a fine linguist, I understand, and is engaged upon the Spanish
notes for Barton's forthcoming book on the Mayapan temples.
By the way, all Sir Lionel's baggage disappeared from the landing-stage--
including his Tibetan notes."
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