"WE must arrange for the house to be raided without delay," said Smith. "This time we
are sure of our ally--"
"But we must keep our promise to her," I interrupted.
"You can look after that, Petrie," my friend said. "I will devote the whole of my attention
to Dr. Fu-Manchu!" he added grimly.
Up and down the room he paced, gripping the blackened briar between his teeth, so that
the muscles stood out squarely upon his lean jaws. The bronze which spoke of the
Burmese sun enhanced the brightness of his gray eyes.
"What have I all along maintained?" he jerked, looking back at me across his shoulder--
"that, although Karamaneh was one of the strongest weapons in the Doctor's armory, she
was one which some day would be turned against him. That day has dawned."
"We must await word from her."
He knocked out his pipe on the grate. Then:
"Have you any idea of the nature of the fluid in the phial?"
"Not the slightest. And I have none to spare for analytical purposes."
Nayland Smith began stuffing mixture into the hot pipe-bowl, and dropping an almost
equal quantity on the floor.
"I cannot rest, Petrie," he said. "I am itching to get to work. Yet, a false move, and--" He
lighted his pipe, and stood staring from the window.
"I shall, of course, take a needle-syringe with me," I explained.
"If I but knew the composition of the drug which produced the semblance of death," I
continued, "my fame would long survive my ashes."
My friend did not turn. But:
"She said it was something he put in the wine?" he jerked.
