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I must have been acting like a man in a stupor; for I was aroused to the realities by the contact of a burning cigarette with the lobe of my right ear! "Hurry, quick, strong feller!" said Zarmi softly. At that it seemed as though some fine nerve of my brain, already strained to utmost tension, snapped. I turned, with a wild, inarticulate cry, my fists raised frenziedly above my head. "You fiend!"
I know how you feel, Doctor! but we must play our cards as they're dealt to us. We must wait wait." Out from the den of the opium-smokers came Zarmi, one hand resting upon her hip and the other uplifted, a smoldering yellow cigarette held between the first and second fingers. With a movement of her eyes she summoned us to join her, then turned and disappeared again through the low doorway.
Silent, motionless, we four stood looking down at that which lay upon the floor of the unholy place. In a pool of blood was stretched the Eurasian girl, Zarmi. Her picturesque finery was reft into tatters and her bare throat and arms were covered with weals and bruises occasioned by ruthless, clutching fingers.
I glanced at Fletcher across the table. "Zarmi!" he whispered. Again I raised my eyes to the face which now was close to mine, and became aware that I was trembling with excitement.... Heavens! why did enlightenment come too late! Either I was the victim of an odd delusion, or Zarmi had been the driver of the cab in which Nayland Smith had left the New Louvre Hotel!
Tossing the tray in the air she caught it, rested its edge upon her hip, turned, and walked away down the room, puffing her cigarette. "Listen," I said, bending across the table, "it was Zarmi who drove the cab that came for Nayland Smith to-day!" "My God!" whispered Fletcher, "then it was nothing less than the hand of Providence that brought us here to-night. Yes!
"The facts are as you see them; the explanation, at any rate in your own case, is quite beyond me. I was tracked ..." "Hush! some one is coming!" We both turned and stared at an opening before which hung a sort of gaudily embroidered mat, as the sound of dragging footsteps, accompanied by a heavy tapping, announced the approach of some one. The mat was pulled aside by Zarmi.
I have done my best" he smiled slightly "to get in her good books, and up to a point I've succeeded. I was there last night, and Zarmi asked me if I knew what she called a 'strong feller. "'These, she informed me, contemptuously referring to the rest of the company, 'are poor weak Johnnies!
Silently I watched her. Why was I silent? why did I not warn Smith of the presence of one of Dr. Fu-Manchu's servants? I cannot explain, although later, the strangeness of my behavior may become in some measure understandable. Zarmi raised her hand, beckoning to me, then stepped back, revealing the presence of a companion, hitherto masked by the dense shadows that lay under the arches.
Suddenly the girl sprang upright, and from its hiding-place within the silken scarf, plucked out a Malay krîs with a richly jeweled hilt. Her eyes now widely opened and blazing, she struck at my companion! I half rose from my chair, stifling a cry of horror; but Fletcher, regarding her fixedly, never moved ... and Zarmi stayed her hand just as the point of the dagger had reached his throat!
Zarmi dropped the curtain and stood before it. She had discarded the dripping overall which she had been wearing when I had followed her across the common, and now stood before me with her black, frizzy hair unconfined and her beautiful, wicked face uplifted in a sort of cynical triumph. The big gold rings in her ears glittered strangely in the light of the electric lamps.
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