NIGHT fell on Redmoat. I glanced from the window at the nocturne in silver and green
which lay beneath me. To the west of the shrubbery, with its broken canopy of elms and
beyond the copper beech which marked the center of its mazes, a gap offered a glimpse
of the Waverney where it swept into a broad. Faint bird-calls floated over the water.
These, with the whisper of leaves, alone claimed the ear.
Ideal rural peace, and the music of an English summer evening; but to my eyes, every
shadow holding fantastic terrors; to my ears, every sound a signal of dread. For the
deathful hand of Fu-Manchu was stretched over Redmoat, at any hour to loose strange,
Oriental horrors upon its inmates.
"Well," said Nayland Smith, joining me at the window, "we had dared to hope him dead,
but we know now that he lives!"
The Rev. J. D. Eltham coughed nervously, and I turned, leaning my elbow upon the table,
and studied the play of expression upon the refined, sensitive face of the clergyman.
"You think I acted rightly in sending for you, Mr. Smith?"
Nayland Smith smoked furiously.
"Mr. Eltham," he replied, "you see in me a man groping in the dark. I am to-day no nearer
to the conclusion of my mission than upon the day when I left Mandalay. You offer me a
clew; I am here. Your affair, I believe, stands thus: A series of attempted burglaries, or
something of the kind, has alarmed your household. Yesterday, returning from London
with your daughter, you were both drugged in some way and, occupying a compartment
to yourselves, you both slept. Your daughter awoke, and saw someone else in the
carriage-- a yellow-faced man who held a case of instruments in his hands."
"Yes; I was, of course, unable to enter into particulars over the telephone. The man was
standing by one of the windows. Directly he observed that my daughter was awake, he
stepped towards her."
"What did he do with the case in his hands?"
"She did not notice--or did not mention having noticed. In fact, as was natural, she was so
frightened that she recalls nothing more, beyond the fact that she strove to arouse me,
without succeeding, felt hands grasp her shoulders--and swooned."
"But someone used the emergency cord, and stopped the train."
"Greba has no recollection of having done so."
