Read Online The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer - Free Book Online Page B

thin scream, which was choked off staccato fashion; upon it
followed a loud and dreadful cry uttered with all the strength of
Slattin's lungs—
    "Oh, God!" he cried, and again—"Oh, God!"
    This in turn merged into a sort of hysterical sobbing.
    I was on my feet now, and automatically making for the door. I
had a vague impression of Nayland Smith's face beside me, the eyes
glassy with a fearful apprehension. Then the door was flung open,
and, in the bright light of the hall-way, I saw Slattin
standing—swaying and seemingly fighting with the empty air.
    "What is it? For God's sake, what has happened!" reached my ears
dimly—and the man Burke showed behind his master. White-faced I saw
him to be; for now Smith and I were racing up the steps.
    Ere we could reach him, Slattin, uttering another choking cry,
pitched forward and lay half across the threshold.
    We burst into the hall, where Burke stood with both his hands
raised dazedly to his head. I could hear the sound of running feet
upon the gravel, and knew that Carter was coming to join us.
    Burke, a heavy man with a lowering, bull-dog type of face,
collapsed onto his knees beside Slattin, and began softly to laugh
in little rising peals.
    "Drop that!" snapped Smith, and grasping him by the shoulders,
he sent him spinning along the hallway, where he sank upon the
bottom step of the stairs, to sit with his outstretched fingers
extended before his face, and peering at us grotesquely through the
crevices.
    There were rustlings and subdued cries from the upper part of
the house. Carter came in out of the darkness, carefully stepping
over the recumbent figure; and the three of us stood there in the
lighted hall looking down at Slattin.
    "Help us to move him back," directed Smith, tensely; "far enough
to close the door."
    Between us we accomplished this, and Carter fastened the door.
We were alone with the shadow of Fu-Manchu's vengeance; for as I
knelt beside the body on the floor, a look and a touch sufficed to
tell me that this was but clay from which the spirit had fled!
    Smith met my glance as I raised my head, and his teeth came
together with a loud snap; the jaw muscles stood out prominently
beneath the dark skin; and his face was grimly set in that odd,
half-despairful expression which I knew so well but which boded so
ill for whomsoever occasioned it.
    "Dead, Petrie!—already?"
    "Lightning could have done the work no better. Can I turn him
over?"
    Smith nodded.
    Together we stooped and rolled the heavy body on its back. A
flood of whispers came sibilantly from the stairway. Smith spun
around rapidly, and glared upon the group of half-dressed
servants.
    "Return to your rooms!" he rapped, imperiously; "let no one come
into the hall without my orders."
    The masterful voice had its usual result; there was a hurried
retreat to the upper landing. Burke, shaking like a man with an
ague, sat on the lower step, pathetically drumming his palms upon
his uplifted knees.
    "I warned him, I warned him!" he mumbled monotonously, "I warned
him, oh, I warned him!"
    "Stand up!" shouted Smith—"stand up and come here!"
    The man, with his frightened eyes turning to right and left, and
seeming to search for something in the shadows about him, advanced
obediently.
    "Have you a flask?" demanded Smith of Carter.
    The detective silently administered to Burke a stiff
restorative.
    "Now," continued Smith, "you, Petrie, will want to examine him,
I suppose?" He pointed to the body. "And in the meantime I have
some questions to put to you, my man."
    He clapped his hand upon Burke's shoulder.
    "My God!" Burke broke out, "I was ten yards from him when it
happened!"
    "No one is accusing you," said Smith, less harshly; "but since
you were the only witness, it is by your aid that we hope to clear
the matter up."
    Exerting a gigantic effort to regain control of himself, Burke
nodded, watching my friend with a childlike eagerness. During the
ensuing conversation, I examined Slattin for marks of violence;