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I noted, with concern, a repetition of the nervous shudder. "But since our return someone else has been in Redmoat!" "Whatever do you mean, Miss Eltham?" "Oh! I don't quite know what I do mean, Dr. Petrie. What does it ALL mean? Vernon has been explaining to me that some awful Chinaman is seeking the life of Mr. Nayland Smith. But if the same man wants to kill my father, why has he not done so?"
They concealed themselves somewhere probably in the shrubbery and during the night made the cache. The excavated earth would be disposed of on the flower-beds; the dummy bush they probably had ready. You see, the problem of getting IN was never a big one. For Fu-Manchu's purposes, then, a working-base INSIDE Redmoat was essential.
I could only suppose that he had treated the Boxers' raid in the same spirit wherein he met would-be trespassers within the precincts of Redmoat. It had been an escapade, of which he was afterwards ashamed, as, faintly, he was ashamed of his "fortifications." "But," rapped Smith, "it was not the visit of the burglar which prompted these elaborate precautions." Mr. Eltham coughed nervously.
I am happy to have met you, sir." The clergyman blushed again like a girl, and slightly inclined his head, with its scanty fair hair. "Has Redmoat, as its name implies, a moat round it? I was unable to see in the dusk." "It remains. Redmoat a corruption of Round Moat was formerly a priory, disestablished by the eighth Henry in 1536." His pedantic manner was quaint at times.
And in his rage he broke loose." "I think so, too," agreed Smith. "But why did this person make for here? And how, having mastered the dog, get out of Redmoat? I am open to admit the possibility of someone's getting in during the day whilst the gates are open, and hiding until dusk. But how in the name of all that's wonderful does he GET OUT? He must possess the attributes of a bird."
The howling and baying of the mastiff was almost continuous. When all else in Redmoat was still the dog's mournful note yet rose on the night with something menacing in it. I sat looking out across the sloping turf to where the shrubbery showed as a black island in a green sea. The moon swam in a cloudless sky, and the air was warm and fragrant with country scents.
These little pools of calm dotted along the torrential course of the circumstances which were bearing my friend and me onward to unknown issues form pleasant, sunny spots in my dark recollections. So I shall always remember, with pleasure, that dinner-party at Redmoat, in the old-world dining-room; it was so very peaceful, so almost grotesquely calm.
For I do assure you there is something here in Redmoat something that comes and goes in spite of father's 'fortifications'? Caesar knows there is. Listen to him. He drags at his chain so that I wonder he does not break it."
" Several attempts, of which we know but little, to get at Eltham are frustrated, presumably by his curious 'defenses. An attempt in a train fails owing to Miss Eltham's distaste for refreshment-room coffee. An attempt here fails owing to her insomnia. " During Eltham's absence from Redmoat certain preparations are made for his return.
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.
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