Dash it all, Petrie!" cried Smith, "this is most annoying!"  
The bell was ringing furiously, although midnight was long past. Whom could my late visitor be? Almost certainly this ringing portended an urgent case. In other words, I was not fated to take part
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in what I anticipated would prove to be the closing scene of the Fu-Manchu drama.
 
"Every one is in bed," I said ruefully; "and how can I possibly see a patient—in this costume?"
 
Smith and I were both arrayed in rough tweeds, and anticipating the labours before us, had dispensed with collars and wore soft mufflers. It was hard to be called upon to face a professional interview dressed thus, and having a big tweed cap pulled down over my eyes.
 
Across the writing-table we confronted one another, in dismayed silence, whilst, below, the bell sent up its ceaseless clangour.
 
"It has to be done, Smith," I said regretfully. "Almost certainly it means a journey and probably an absence of some hours."
 
I threw my cap upon the table, turned up my coat to hide the absence of collar, and started for the door. My last sight of Smith showed him standing looking after me, tugging at the lobe of his ear and clicking his teeth together with suppressed irritability. I stumbled down the dark stairs, along the hall, and opened the front door. Vaguely visible in the light of a street lamp which stood at no great distance away, I saw a slender man of medium height confronting me. From the shadowed face two large and luminous eyes looked out into mine. My visitor, who, despite the warmth of the evening, wore a heavy greatcoat, was an Oriental!
 
I drew back, apprehensively; then:—
 
"Ah! Dr. Petrie!" he said in a softly musical voice which made me start again, "to God be all praise that I have found you!"
 
Some emotion, which at present I could not define, was stirring within me. Where had I seen this graceful Eastern youth before? Where had I heard that soft voice?
 
"Do you wish to see me professionally?" I
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asked—yet even as I put the question, I seemed to know it unnecessary.
 
"So you know me no more?" said the stranger—and his teeth gleamed in a slight smile.
 
Heavens! I knew now what had struck that vibrant chord within me! The voice, though infinitely deeper, yet had an unmistakable resemblance to the dulcet tones of Kâramanèh—of Kâramanèh, whose eyes haunted my dreams, whose beauty had done much to embitter my years.
 
The Oriental youth stepped forward, with outstretched hand.
 
"So you know me no more?" he repeated; "but I know you, and give praise to Allah that I have found you!"
 
I stepped back, pressed the electric switch, and turned, with leaping heart, to look into the face of my visitor. It was a face of the purest Greek beauty, a face that might have served as a model for Praxiteles; the skin had a golden pallor, which, with the crisp black hair and magnetic yet velvety eyes, suggested to my fancy that this was the young Antinoüs risen from the Nile, whose wraith now appeared to me out of the night. I stifled a cry of surprise, not unmingled with gladness.
 
It was Azîz—the brother of Kâramanèh!
 
Never could the entrance of a figure upon the stage of a drama have been more dramatic than the coming of Azîz upon this night of all nights. I seized the outstretched hand and drew him forward, then reclosed the door and stood before him a moment in doubt.
 
A vaguely troubled look momentarily crossed the handsome face; with the Oriental's unerring instinct, he had detected the reserve of my greeting. Yet, when I thought of the treachery of Kâramanèh, when I remembered how she, whom we had befriended, whom we had rescued from the house of Fu-Manchu, now had turned like the beautiful viper
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that she was to strike at the hand that caressed her; when I thought how to-night we were set upon raiding the place where the evil Chinese doctor lurked in hiding, were set upon the arrest of that malignant genius and of all his creatures, Kâramanèh amongst them, is it strange that I hesitated? Yet, again, when I thought of my last meeting with her, and of how, twice, she had risked her life to save me....
 
So, avoiding the gaze of the lad, I took his arm, and in silence we two ascended the stairs and entered my study ... where Nayland Smith stood bolt upright beside the table, his steely eyes fixed upon the face of the new arrival.
 
No look of recognition crossed the bronzed features, and Azîz, who had started forward with outstretched hands, fell back a step and looked pathetically from me to Nayland Smith, and from the grim Commissioner back again to me. The appeal in the velvet eyes was more than I could tolerate, unmoved.
 
"Smith," I said shortly, "you remember Azîz?"
 
Not a muscle visibly moved in Smith's face, as he snapped back:
 
"I remember him perfectly."
 <............