|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 68
He walked quietly to a curtained doorway, with his cat-like yet
awkward gait, lifted the drapery, and, with a slight nod in my
direction, went out of the room.
CHAPTER XX
THE CROSS BAR
How long I lay there alone I had no means of computing. My mind was
busy with many matters, but principally concerned with my fate in the
immediate future. That Dr. Fu-Manchu entertained for me a singular
kind of regard, I had had evidence before. He had formed the erroneous
opinion that I was an advanced scientist who could be of use to him in
his experiments and I was aware that he cherished a project of
transporting me to some place in China where his principal laboratory
was situated. Respecting the means which he proposed to employ, I was
unlikely to forget that this man, who had penetrated further along
certain byways of science than seemed humanly possible, undoubtedly
was master of a process for producing artificial catalepsy. It was my
lot, then, to be packed in a chest (to all intents and purposes a dead
man for the time being) and despatched to the interior of China!
What a fool I had been. To think that I had learned nothing from my
long and dreadful experience of the methods of Dr. Fu-Manchu; to think
that I had come alone in quest of him; that, leaving no trace behind
me, I had deliberately penetrated to his secret abode!
I have said that my wrists were manacled behind me, the manacles being
attached to a chain fastened in the wall. I now contrived, with
extreme difficulty, to reverse the position of my hands; that is to
say, I climbed backward through the loop formed by my fettered arms,
so that instead of their being locked behind me, they now were locked
in front.
Then I began to examine the fetters, learning, as I had anticipated,
that they fastened with a lock. I sat gazing at the steel bracelets in
the light of the lamp which swung over my head, and it became apparent
to me that I had gained little by my contortion.
A slight noise disturbed these unpleasant reveries. It was nothing
less than the rattling of keys!
For a moment I wondered if I had heard aright, or if the sound
portended the coming of some servant of the doctor, who was locking up
the establishment for the night. The jangling sound was repeated, and
in such a way that I could not suppose it to be accidental. Some one
was deliberately rattling a small bunch of keys in an adjoining room.
And now my heart leaped wildly--then seemed to stand still.
With a low whistling cry a little gray shape shot through the doorway
by which Fu-Manchu had retired, and rolled, like a ball of fluff blown
by the wind, completely under the table which bore the weird
scientific appliances of the Chinaman; the advent of the gray object
was accompanied by a further rattling of keys.
My fear left me, and a mighty anxiety took its place. This creature
which now crouched chattering at me from beneath the big table was
Fu-Manchu's marmoset, and in the intervals of its chattering and
grimacing, it nibbled, speculatively, at the keys upon the ring which
it clutched in its tiny hands. Key after key it sampled in this
manner, evincing a growing dissatisfaction with the uncrackable nature
of its find.
One of those keys might be that of the handcuffs!
I could not believe that the tortures of Tantulus were greater than
were mine at this moment. In all my hopes of rescue or release, I had
included nothing so strange, so improbable as this. A sort of awe
possessed me; for if by this means the key which should release me
should come into my possession, how, ever again, could I doubt a
beneficent Providence?
But they were not yet in my possession; moreover, the key of the
handcuffs might not be amongst the bunch.
Were there no means whereby I could induce the marmoset to approach
me?
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|