Dusk found Nayland Smith and me at the top bedroom window. We knew, now that poor
Forsyth's body had been properly examined, that he had died from poisoning. Smith,
declaring that I did not deserve his confidence, had refused to confide in me his theory of
the origin of the peculiar marks upon the body.
"On the soft ground under the trees," he said, "I found his tracks right up to the point
where something happened. There were no other fresh tracks for several yards around.
He was attacked as he stood close to the trunk of one of the elms. Six or seven feet away
I found some other tracks, very much like this."
He marked a series of dots upon the blotting pad at his elbow.
"Claws!" I cried. "That eerie call! like the call of a nighthawk--is it some unknown
species of--flying thing?"
"We shall see, shortly; possibly to-night," was his reply. "Since, probably owing to the
absence of any moon, a mistake was made," his jaw hardened at the thoughts of poor
Forsyth--"another attempt along the same lines will almost certainly follow--you know
Fu-Manchu's system?"
So in the darkness, expectant, we sat watching the group of nine elms. To-night the moon
was come, raising her Aladdin's lamp up to the star world and summoning magic
shadows into being. By midnight the highroad showed deserted, the common was a place
of mystery; and save for the periodical passage of an electric car, in blazing modernity,
this was a fit enough stage for an eerie drama.
No notice of the tragedy had appeared in print; Nayland Smith was vested with powers to
silence the press. No detectives, no special constables, were posted. My friend was of
opinion that the publicity which had been given to the deeds of Dr. Fu-Manchu in the
past, together with the sometimes clumsy co-operation of the police, had contributed not
a little to the Chinaman's success.
"There is only one thing to fear," he jerked suddenly; "he may not be ready for another
attempt to-night."
"Since he has only been in England for a short time, his menagerie of venomous things
may be a limited one at present."
Earlier in the evening there had been a brief but violent thunderstorm, with a tropical
downpour of rain, and now clouds were scudding across the blue of the sky. Through a
