The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer (icecream ebook reader TXT) 📕
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- Author: Sax Rohmer
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“Oh, Heavens!” cried Smith, and laughed shortly; “that’s quite in order!”
“This gentleman told no one of the occurrence until after he had left the house, no doubt in order that the place should not acquire an evil reputation. Most of the original furniture remained, and Mr. Maddison took the house furnished. I don’t think there can be any doubt that what killed him was fear at seeing a repetition—”
“Of the fiery hand?” concluded Smith.
“Quite so. Well, I examined the Gables pretty closely, and, with another Scotland Yard man, spent a night in the empty house. We saw nothing; but once, very faintly, we heard the ringing of bells.”
Smith spun around upon him rapidly.
“You can swear to that?” he snapped.
“I can swear to it,” declared Weymouth stolidly. “It seemed to be over our heads. We were sitting in the dining-room. Then it was gone, and we heard nothing more whatever of an unusual nature. Following the death of Mr. Maddison, the Gables remained empty until a while ago, when a French gentleman, name Lejay, leased it—”
“Furnished?”
“Yes; nothing was removed—”
“Who kept the place in order?”
“A married couple living in the neighborhood undertook to do so. The man attended to the lawn and so forth, and the woman came once a week, I believe, to clean up the house.”
“And Lejay?”
“He came in only last week, having leased the house for six months. His family were to have joined him in a day or two, and he, with the aid of the pair I have just mentioned, and assisted by a French servant he brought over with him, was putting the place in order. At about twelve o’clock on Friday night this servant ran into a neighboring house screaming ‘the fiery hand!’ and when at last a constable arrived and a frightened group went up the avenue of the Gables, they found M. Lejay, dead in the avenue, near the steps just outside the hall door! He had the same face of horror...”
“What a tale for the press!” snapped Smith.
“The owner has managed to keep it quiet so far, but this time I think it will leak into the press—yes.”
There was a short silence; then:
“And you have been down to the Gables again?”
“I was there on Saturday, but there’s not a scrap of evidence. The man undoubtedly died of fright in the same way as Maddison. The place ought to be pulled down; it’s unholy.”
“Unholy is the word,” I said. “I never heard anything like it. This M. Lejay had no enemies?—there could be no possible motive?”
“None whatever. He was a business man from Marseilles, and his affairs necessitated his remaining in or near London for some considerable time; therefore, he decided to make his headquarters here, temporarily, and leased the Gables with that intention.”
Nayland Smith was pacing the floor with increasing rapidity; he was tugging at the lobe of his left ear and his pipe had long since gone out.
CHAPTER XXV. THE BELLS
I started to my feet as a tall, bearded man swung open the door and hurled himself impetuously into the room. He wore a silk hat, which fitted him very ill, and a black frock coat which did not fit him at all.
“It’s all right, Petrie!” cried the apparition; “I’ve leased the Gables!”
It was Nayland Smith! I stared at him in amazement
“The first time I have employed a disguise,” continued my friend rapidly, “since the memorable episode of the false pigtail.” He threw a small brown leather grip upon the floor. “In case you should care to visit the house, Petrie, I have brought these things. My tenancy commences to-night!”
Two days had elapsed, and I had entirely forgotten the strange story of the Gables which Inspector Weymouth had related to us; evidently it was otherwise with my friend, and utterly at a loss for an explanation of his singular behavior, I stooped mechanically and opened the grip. It contained an odd assortment of garments, and amongst other things several gray wigs and a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles.
Kneeling there with this strange litter about me, I looked up amazedly. Nayland Smith, with the unsuitable silk hat set right upon the back of his head, was pacing the room excitedly, his fuming pipe protruding from the tangle of factitious beard.
“You see, Petrie,” he began again, rapidly, “I did not entirely trust the agent. I’ve leased the house in the name of Professor Maxton...”
“But, Smith,” I cried, “what possible reason can there be for disguise?”
“There’s every reason,” he snapped.
“Why should you interest yourself in the Gables?”
“Does no explanation occur to you?”
“None whatever; to me the whole thing smacks of stark lunacy.”
“Then you won’t come?”
“I’ve never stuck at anything, Smith,” I replied, “however undignified, when it has seemed that my presence could be of the slightest use.”
As I rose to my feet, Smith stepped in front of me, and the steely gray eyes shone out strangely from the altered face. He clapped his hands upon my shoulders.
“If I assure you that your presence is necessary to my safety,” he said—“that if you fail me I must seek another companion—will you come?”
Intuitively, I knew that he was keeping something back, and I was conscious of some resentment, but nevertheless my reply was a foregone conclusion, and—with the borrowed appearance of an extremely untidy old man—I crept guiltily out of my house that evening and into the cab which Smith had waiting.
The Gables was a roomy and rambling place lying back a considerable distance from the road. A semicircular drive gave access to the door, and so densely wooded was the ground, that for the most part the drive was practically a tunnel—a verdant tunnel. A high brick wall concealed the building from the point of view of any one on the roadway, but either horn of the crescent drive terminated at a heavy, wrought-iron gateway.
Smith discharged the cab at the corner of the narrow and winding road upon which the Gables fronted. It was walled in on both sides; on the left the wall being broken by tradesmen’s entrances to the houses fronting upon another street, and on the right following, uninterruptedly, the grounds of the Gables. As we came to the gate:
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