LITMIR.BIZ

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your head? What is the meaning of these perfumed envelopes? How

      did Sir Crichton die?"

      "He died of the Zayat Kiss. Ask me what that is and I reply 'I do not

      know.' The zayats are the Burmese caravanserais, or rest-houses. Along

      a certain route--upon which I set eyes, for the first and only time,

      upon Dr. Fu-Manchu--travelers who use them sometimes die as Sir

      Crichton died, with nothing to show the cause of death but a little

      mark upon the neck, face, or limb, which has earned, in those parts,

      the title of the 'Zayat Kiss.' The rest-houses along that route are

      shunned now. I have my theory and I hope to prove it to-night, if I

      live. It will be one more broken weapon in his fiendish armory, and it

      is thus, and thus only, that I can hope to crush him. This was my

      principal reason for not enlightening Dr. Cleeve. Even walls have ears

      where Fu-Manchu is concerned, so I feigned ignorance of the meaning of

      the mark, knowing that he would be almost certain to employ the same

      methods upon some other victim. I wanted an opportunity to study the

      Zayat Kiss in operation, and I shall have one."

      "But the scented envelopes?"

      "In the swampy forests of the district I have referred to a rare

      species of orchid, almost green, and with a peculiar scent, is

      sometimes met with. I recognized the heavy perfume at once. I take it

      that the thing which kills the traveler is attracted by this orchid.

      You will notice that the perfume clings to whatever it touches. I

      doubt if it can be washed off in the ordinary way. After at least one

      unsuccessful attempt to kill Sir Crichton--you recall that he thought

      there was something concealed in his study on a previous

      occasion?--Fu-Manchu hit upon the perfumed envelopes. He may have a

      supply of these green orchids in his possession--possibly to feed the

      creature."

      "What creature? How could any kind of creature have got into Sir

      Crichton's room tonight?"

      "You no doubt observed that I examined the grate of the study. I found

      a fair quantity of fallen soot. I at once assumed, since it appeared

      to be the only means of entrance, that something has been dropped down;

      and I took it for granted that the thing, whatever it was, must still

      be concealed either in the study or in the library. But when I had

      obtained the evidence of the groom, Wills, I perceived that the cry

      from the lane or from the park was a signal. I noted that the

      movements of anyone seated at the study table were visible, in shadow,

      on the blind, and that the study occupied the corner of a two-storied

      wing and, therefore, had a short chimney. What did the signal mean?

      That Sir Crichton had leaped up from his chair, and either had received

      the Zayat Kiss or had seen the thing which someone on the roof had

      lowered down the straight chimney. It was the signal to withdraw that

      deadly thing. By means of the iron stairway at the rear of

      Major-General Platt-Houston's, I quite easily, gained access to the

      roof above Sir Crichton's study--and I found this."

      Out from his pocket Nayland Smith drew a tangled piece of silk, mixed

      up with which were a brass ring and a number of unusually large-sized

      split-shot, nipped on in the manner usual on a fishing-line.

      "My theory proven," he resumed. "Not anticipating a search on the

      roof, they had been careless. This was to weight the line and to

      prevent the creature clinging to the walls of the chimney. Directly it

      had dropped in the grate, however, by means of this ring I assume that

      the weighted line was withdrawn, and the thing was only held by one

      slender thread, which sufficed, though, to draw it back again when it

      had done its work. It might have got tangled, of course, but they

      reckoned on its making straight up the carved leg of the writing-table

      for the prepared envelope. From there to the hand of Sir

      Crichton--which, from having touched the envelope, would also be

      scented with the perfume--was a certain move."

      "My God! How horrible!" I exclaimed, and glanced apprehensively into

      the dusky shadows of the room. "What is your theory respecting this

      creature--what shape, what color--?"

      "It is something that moves rapidly and silently. I will venture no

      more at present, but I think it works in the dark. The study was dark,

      remember, save for the bright patch beneath the reading-lamp. I have

      observed that the rear of this house is ivy-covered right up to and

      above your bedroom. Let us make ostentatious preparations to retire,

      and I think we may rely upon Fu-Manchu's servants to attempt my

      removal, at any rate--if not yours."

      "But, my dear fellow, it is a climb of thirty-five feet at the very

      least."

      "You remember the cry in the back lane? It suggested something to me,

      and I tested my idea--successfully. It was the cry of a dacoit. Oh,

      dacoity, though quiescent, is by no means extinct. Fu-Manchu has

      dacoits in his train, and probably it is one who operates the Zayat

      Kiss, since it was a dacoit who watched the window of the study this

      evening. To such a man an ivy-covered wall is a grand staircase."

      The horrible events that followed are punctuated, in my mind, by the

      striking of a distant clock. It is singular how trivialities thus

      assert themselves in moments of high tension. I will proceed, then, by

      these punctuations, to the coming of the horror that it was written we

      should encounter.

      The clock across the common struck two.

      Having removed all traces of the scent of the orchid from our hands

      with a solution of ammonia Smith and I had followed the programme laid

      down. It was an easy matter to reach the rear of the house, by simply

      climbing a fence, and we did not doubt that seeing the light go out in

      the front, our unseen watcher would proceed to the back.

      The room was a large one,

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