Kitabı oku: «THE DEVIL DOCTOR»

A MIDNIGHT SUMMONS

THE DEVIL DOCTOR

"When did you last hear from Nayland Smith?" asked my visitor.

I paused, my hand on the siphon, reflecting for a moment.

"Two months ago," I said: "he's a poor correspondent and rather

soured, I fancy."

"What--a woman or something?"

"Some affair of that sort. He's such a reticent beggar, I really know

very little about it."

I placed a whisky and soda before the Rev. J. D. Eltham, also sliding

the tobacco jar nearer to his hand. The refined and sensitive face of

the clergyman offered no indication to the truculent character of the

man. His scanty fair hair, already grey over the temples, was silken

and soft-looking: in appearance he was indeed a typical English

churchman; but in China he had been known as "the fighting

missionary," and had fully deserved the title. In fact, this

peaceful-looking gentleman had directly brought about the Boxer

Risings!

"You know," he said in his clerical voice, but meanwhile stuffing

tobacco into an old pipe with fierce energy, "I have often wondered,

Petrie--I have never left off wondering--"

"What?"

"That accursed Chinaman! Since the cellar place beneath the site of

the burnt-out cottage in Dulwich Village--I have wondered more than

ever."

He lighted his pipe and walked to the hearth to throw the match in the

grate.

"You see," he continued, peering across at me in his oddly nervous

way--"one never knows, does one? If I thought that Dr. Fu-Manchu lived;

if I seriously suspected that that stupendous intellect, that wonderful

genius, Petrie, er"--he hesitated characteristically--"survived, I

should feel it my duty--"

"Well?" I said, leaning my elbows on the table and smiling slightly.

"If that Satanic genius were not indeed destroyed, then the peace of

the world might be threatened anew at any moment!"

He was becoming excited, shooting out his jaw in the truculent manner

I knew, and snapping his fingers to emphasize his words; a man

composed of the oddest complexities that ever dwelt beneath a clerical

frock.

"He may have got back to China, doctor!" he cried, and his eyes had

the fighting glint in them. "Could you rest in peace if you thought

that he lived? Should you not fear for your life every time that a

night-call took you out alone? Why, man alive, it is only two years

since he was here amongst us, since we were searching every shadow for

those awful green eyes! What became of his band of assassins--his

stranglers, his dacoits, his damnable poisons and insects and

what-not--the army of creatures--"

He paused, taking a drink.

"You"--he hesitated diffidently--"searched in Egypt with Nayland

Smith, did you not?"

I nodded.

"Contradict me if I am wrong," he continued; "but my impression is

that you were searching for the girl--the girl--Kâramanèh, I think

she was called?"

"Yes," I replied shortly; "but we could find no trace--no trace."

"You--er--were interested?"

"More than I knew," I replied, "until I realized that I had--lost

her."

"I never met Kâramanèh, but from your account, and from others, she

was quite unusually--"

"She was very beautiful," I said, and stood up, for I was anxious to

terminate that phase of the conversation.

Eltham regarded me sympathetically; he knew something of my search

with Nayland Smith for the dark-eyed Eastern girl who had brought

romance into my drab life; he knew that I treasured my memories of her

as I loathed and abhorred those of the fiendish, brilliant Chinese

doctor who had been her master.

Eltham began to pace up and down the rug, his pipe bubbling furiously;

and something in the way he carried his head reminded me momentarily

of Nayland Smith. Certainly, between this pink-faced clergyman, with

his deceptively mild appearance, and the gaunt, bronzed and

steely-eyed Burmese commissioner, there was externally little in

common; but it was some little nervous trick in his carriage that

conjured up through the smoke-haze one distant summer evening when

Smith had paced that very room as Eltham paced it now, when before my

startled eyes he had rung up the curtain upon the savage drama in

which, though I little suspected it then, Fate had cast me for a

leading rôle.

I wondered if Eltham's thoughts ran parallel with mine. My own were

centred upon the unforgettable figure of the murderous Chinaman. These

words, exactly as Smith had used them, seemed once again to sound in

my ears: "Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered,

with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven

skull and long magnetic eyes of the true cat green. Invest him with

all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race accumulated in one

giant intellect, with all the resources of science, past and present,

and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the 'Yellow Peril'

incarnate in one man."

This visit of Eltham's no doubt was responsible for my mood; for this

singular clergyman had played his part in the drama of two years ago.

"I should like to see Smith again," he said suddenly; "it seems a pity

that a man like that should be buried in Burma. Burma makes a mess of

the best of men, doctor. You said he was not married?"

"No," I replied shortly, "and is never likely to be, now."

"Ah, you hinted at something of the kind."

"I know very little of it. Nayland Smith is not the kind of man to

talk much."

"Quite so--quite so! And, you know, doctor, neither am I; but"--he was

growing painfully embarrassed--"it may be your due--I--er--I have a

correspondent, in the interior of China--"

"Well?" I said, watching him in sudden eagerness.

"Well, I would not desire to raise--vain hopes--nor to occasion, shall

I say, empty fears; but--er ... no, doctor!" He flushed like a girl.

"It was wrong of me to open this conversation. Perhaps, when I know

more--will you forget my words, for the time?"

The 'phone bell rang.

"Hullo!" cried Eltham--"hard luck, doctor!"--but I could see that he

welcomed the interruption. "Why!" he added, "it is one o'clock!"

I went to the telephone.

"Is that Dr. Petrie?" inquired a woman's voice.

"Yes; who is speaking?"

"Mrs. Hewett has been taken more seriously ill. Could you come at

once?"

"Certainly," I replied, for Mrs. Hewett was not only a profitable

patient but an estimable lady. "I shall be with you in a quarter of an

hour."

I hung up the receiver.

"Something urgent?" asked Eltham, emptying his pipe.

"Sounds like it. You had better turn in."

"I should much prefer to walk over with you, if it would not be

intruding. Our conversation has ill prepared me for sleep."

"Right!" I said, for I welcomed his company; and three minutes later

we were striding across the deserted common.

A sort of mist floated amongst the trees, seeming in the moonlight

like a veil draped from trunk to trunk, as in silence we passed the

Mound Pond, and struck out for the north side of the common.

I suppose the presence of Eltham and the irritating recollection of

his half-confidence were the responsible factors, but my mind

persistently dwelt upon the subject of Fu-Manchu and the atrocities

which he had committed during his sojourn in England. So actively was

my imagination at work that I felt again the menace which so long had

hung over me; I felt as though that murderous yellow cloud still cast

its shadow upon England. And I found myself longing for the company of

Nayland Smith. I cannot state what was the nature of Eltham's

reflections, but I can guess; for he was as silent as I.

It was with a conscious effort that I shook myself out of this

morbidly reflective mood, on finding that we had crossed the common

and were come to the abode of my patient.

"I shall take a little walk," announced Eltham; "for I gather that you

don't expect to be detained long? I shall never be out of sight of the

door, of course."

"Very well," I replied, and ran up the steps.

There were no lights to be seen in any of the windows, which

circumstance rather surprised me, as my patient occupied, or had

occupied when last I had visited her, a first-floor bedroom in the

front of the house. My knocking and ringing produced no response for

three or four minutes; then, as I persisted, a scantily clothed and

half-awake maid-servant unbarred the door and stared at me stupidly in

the moonlight.

"Mrs. Hewett requires me?" I asked abruptly.

The girl stared more stupidly than ever.

"No, sir," she said: "she don't, sir; she's fast asleep!"

"But some one 'phoned me!" I insisted, rather irritably, I fear.

"Not from here, sir," declared the now wide-eyed girl. "We haven't got

a telephone, sir."

For a few moments I stood there, staring as foolishly as she; then

abruptly I turned and descended the steps. At the gate I stood looking

up and down the road. The houses were all in darkness. What could be

the meaning of the mysterious summons? I had made no mistake

respecting the name of my patient; it had been twice repeated over the

telephone; yet that the call had not emanated from Mrs. Hewett's house

was now palpably evident. Days had been when I should have regarded

the episode as preluding some outrage, but to-night I felt more

disposed to ascribe it to a silly practical joke.

Eltham walked up briskly.

"You're in demand to-night, doctor," he said. "A young person called

for you almost directly you had left your house, and, learning where

you were gone, followed you."

"Indeed!" I said, a trifle incredulously. "There are plenty of other

doctors if the case is an urgent one."

"She may have thought it would save time as you were actually up and

dressed," explained Eltham; "and the house is quite near to here, I

understand."

I looked at him a little blankly. Was this another effort of the

unknown jester?

"I have been fooled once," I said. "That 'phone call was a hoax--"

"But I feel certain," declared Eltham earnestly, "that this is

genuine! The poor girl was dreadfully agitated; her master has broken

his leg and is lying helpless: number 280 Rectory Grove."

"Where is the girl?" I asked sharply.

"She ran back directly she had given me her message."

"Was she a servant?"

"I should imagine so: French, I think. But she was so wrapped up I had

little more than a glimpse of her. I am sorry to hear that some one

has played a silly joke on you, but believe me"--he was very

earnest--"this is no jest. The poor girl could scarcely speak for

sobs. She mistook me for you, of course."

"Oh!" said I grimly; "well, I suppose I must go. Broken leg, you

said?--and my surgical bag, splints and so forth, are at home!"

"My dear Petrie!" cried Eltham, in his enthusiastic way, "you no doubt

can do something to alleviate the poor man's suffering immediately. I

will run back to your rooms for the bag and rejoin you at 280 Rectory

Grove."

"It's awfully good of you, Eltham--"

He held up his hand.

"The call of suffering humanity, Petrie, is one which I may no more

refuse to hear than you."

I made no further protest after that, for his point of view was

evident and his determination adamantine, but told him where he would

find the bag and once more set out across the moon-bright common, he

pursuing a westerly direction and I going east.

Some three hundred yards I had gone, I suppose, and my brain had been

very active the while, when something occurred to me which placed a

new complexion upon this second summons. I thought of the falsity of

the first, of the improbability of even the most hardened practical

joker practising his wiles at one o'clock in the morning. I thought of

our recent conversation; above all I thought of the girl who had

delivered the message to Eltham, the girl whom he had described as a

French maid--whose personal charm had so completely enlisted his

sympathies. Now, to this train of thought came a new one, and, adding

it, my suspicion became almost a certainty.

I remembered (as, knowing the district, I should have remembered

before) that there was no number 280 Rectory Grove.

Pulling up sharply, I stood looking about me. Not a living soul was in

sight; not even a policeman. Where the lamps marked the main paths

across the common nothing moved; in the shadows about me nothing

stirred. But something stirred within me--a warning voice which for

long had lain dormant.

What was afoot?

A breeze caressed the leaves overhead, breaking the silence with

mysterious whisperings. Some portentous truth was seeking for

admittance to my brain. I strove to reassure myself, but the sense of

impending evil and of mystery became heavier. At last I could combat

my strange fears no longer. I turned and began to run towards the

south side of the common--towards my rooms--and after Eltham.

I had hoped to head him off, but came upon no sign of him. An

all-night tramcar passed at the moment that I reached the high-road,

and as I ran around behind it I saw that my windows were lighted and

that there was a light in the hall.

My key was yet in the lock when my housekeeper opened the door.

"There's a gentleman just come, doctor," she began.

I thrust past her and raced up the stairs to my study.

Standing by the writing-table was a tall thin man, his gaunt face

brown as a coffee-berry and his steely grey eyes fixed upon me. My

heart gave a great leap--and seemed to stand still.

It was Nayland Smith!

"Smith!" I cried. "Smith, old man, by God, I'm glad to see you!"

He wrung my hand hard, looking at me with his searching eyes; but

there was little enough of gladness in his face. He was altogether

greyer than when last I had seen him--greyer and sterner.

"Where is Eltham?" I asked.

Smith started back as though I had struck him.

"Eltham!" he whispered--"_Eltham_! is Eltham here?"

"I left him ten minutes ago on the common."

Smith dashed his right fist into the palm of his left hand, and his

eyes gleamed almost wildly.

"My God, Petrie!" he said, "am I fated _always_ to come too late?"

My dreadful fears in that instant were confirmed. I seemed to feel my

legs totter beneath me.

"Smith, you don't mean--"

"I do, Petrie!" His voice sounded very far away. "Fu-Manchu is here;

and Eltham, God help him ... is his first victim!"