Weymouth's appearance--he wore dinner kit--also intrigued me. But I remembered that at least two days had elapsed; and in some way, I supposed wearily, this hiatus must explain these seeming discrepancies.
Then we reached the outside of the house. A big grey car stood before the door. There was a crowd. I saw several constables.
I saw the street....
I saw a long, neglected wall. From a doorway in this wall I had been carried out to the car. Adjoining was a row of drab two- storied houses. Similar houses faced them from across the narrow way. Some of the doors were open and in the dim light shining out groups were gathered.
They were Chinese--some of them. Others were nondescript. The crowd about the car, kept in check by two constables, was made up of typical East End London elements!
I was placed comfortably on the cushions. A man whom I suddenly recognized as Fletcher seated himself in front with the chauffeur. Weymouth got in beside me. The car moved off.
"You're all at sea!" he said, and rested his hand reassuringly on my arm. "Don't think too much about it yet. I'm going to take you to Dr. Petrie's hotel. Hell get you on your feet again. "
"But... where am I? "
"You're in Limehouse at the moment. "
"What!"
"Keep cool! You didn't know? Well, it is so. "
"But two days back, I was in Egypt!"
As the car swung into a wide, populous thoroughfare--West India Dock Road, I learned later--Weymouth turned to me. His expression, blank at first, gradually changed, and then:
"Good heavens, Greville," he said, "I'm just beginning to understand! "
"I wish I could! "
"Brace yourself up--because it's going to be a shock; although the facts must have prepared you for it. You said, which you can see now is impossible, that you were in Egypt two days back.... Can you stand the truth? You left Egypt a month ago!"
2
A week elapsed. Petrie's treatment worked wonders. And a day came when, looking down from a hotel sitting-room on the busy life ofPiccadilly, I realized that the raw edges of the thing had worn off.
I had lost a month out of my life. I had been translated in the manner of the old Arabian tales from the Oasis ofKharga to some place in Limehouse. The smooth channel of my ways had been diverted; and the shock of recognising this had staggered me. But now, as I say, I was reconciled. Also, better equipped to cope with it: indeed, nearly fit again.
"My extraordinary experience with Sir Lionel," said Petrie, who stood just behind me, "was of enormous assistance in your own case, Greville. "
"You mean the success of the new treat- ment suggested by Sir Brian Hawkins? "
"Yes... at least, so I believed."
I turned away from the window and stared at Petrie curiously. His expression puzzled me.
"I don't understand, doctor. You sent a telegram from Luxor to Sir Brian in London, giving him full details about the chief. He cabled back saying that he had communicated these particulars to a Dr. Amber--a former assistant--who was fortunately then in Cairo and who would ring you up. "
"Quite so, Greville. And this Dr. Amber did ring up, discussed the case with me, said he agreed with Sir Brian's suggestions and despatched, express, a small box. It contained a third of a fluid drachm of some preparation, labelled 'One minim per day subcutaneously until normal.'After four injections, Sir Lionel fully recovered--except that he had no recollection of what had taken place from the time of the attack to that when he opened his eyes in his room at the Luxor hotel. "
"That's plain sailing enough, Petrie, and a big success for Sir Brian Hawkins. You came to the conclusion that I was suffering from the effects of overdoses of the same drug-- "
"And so I tried the same cure--with equally marvellous results."
He paused, staring me hard in the face; then:
"When we got down to Cairo," he went on--"as you know, I postponed sailing--Dr. Amber had left his hotel. And when we reached London, Sir Brian Hawkins was abroad. He came home this morning. "
"Well?" I said, for he had paused again, staring at me in that peculiar manner.
"Sir Brian Hawkins never received my telegram. "
"What! "
"He was unacquainted with anyone called Dr. Amber--and the preparation, a specimen of which I had taken with me, was totally unknown to him! "
"Good God! "
"Don't let it worry you, Greville. We've been the victims of a cunning plot. But the unknown plotter has saved two valuable lives --and defeated Fah Lo Suee! Excuse me if I run away now. Please stay here and make yourself at home. My wife wants to do some shopping, and I never allow her out alone, even in London. You know why," he added significantly.
I nodded, as:
"Rima and Sir Lionel are due to- morrow," he said, "and I know how you're counting the hours."
3
So whilst it was true that to Petrie and to Weymouth I owed the fact that I now stood staring down again on the busy life ofPic- cadilly, I owed even more to... someone else! I was all but fit. I had taken a stroll in the Park, and with decent precautions for a week or two was competent to take up once more the battle of life. But--who was Dr. Amber?
Almost a deeper mystery than that of the hiatus, to me represented by a blank in my existence; and this, heaven knows was strange enough! The house of the Sheikh Ismail had been raided by a party under the mudir of Kharga. This official, it seems, was already suspicious of the strange visitors to the town.
They found not a soul on the premises! El-Kharga was combed carefully. No trace. The mudir got in touch with Esna, and all roads were watched. Nothing resulted. The dreadful Seven had dispersed--into thin air! Nayland Smith was missing, I was missing; and Said had disappeared with the car....
Weymouth set the official wires humming. Too late, it had occurred to him that Fah Lo Suee might have retired not upon Esna but upon Asyut. Later, this theory was proved to be the correct one.
A dead man, a piece of baggage, I had been carried across the desert to Asyut, entrained for Port Said, and shipped to England, as cargo is shipped! Three days too late to hold her in the Egyptian port, Weymouth, inspecting the books of the Suez Canal Company, discovered that a Clyde- built steamer chartered by a Chinese firm for some private enterprise had passed through the Canal and cleared Port Said at a date which corresponded with his suspicions. Radio was set humming all over the Mediter- ranean; and the suspected craft was finally boarded off Cherbourg by the French police.
Her papers were in order; but consign- ments of goods and a number of her people had already been dispatched overland.
This was the state of affairs when the party reached England. Weymouth, of course, had secured leave of absence in the circumstances; and acting upon the policy adopted by poor Nayland Smith in earlier days, had succeeded with the backing of Scot- land Yard in keeping all publicity out of the press.
It was the efficiency of Detective- Inspector Yale and of K Division which led to my rescue. For some time they had been watching certain premises in the Limehouse area. Apart from consignments of suspicious goods and of the presence, particularly at night, of Asiatics of a character not usual in that district, a smartly dressed woman had visited the place.
Now, furnished by Weymouth with particulars of those goods sent overland from Cherbourg, Yale secretly inspected some of the crates and packing cases stored in the yard of the suspected premises. As a result of what he found, I was rescued from the green and gold room, and restored to health by Dr. Petrie. But a shadow lay upon all of us--one indeed, which had retarded my convales- cence.
4
"Our last battle against Fu Manchu," said Weymouth sadly, "has opened with a big score for the enemy. We've lost our field- marshal."