One hour later I stood in the entrance hall of our chambers in the court adjoining Fleet Street. Some one who had come racing up the stairs, now had inserted a key in the lock. Open swung the door—and Nayland Smith entered, in a perfect whirl of excitement.  
"Petrie! Petrie!" he cried, and seized both my hands—"you have missed a night of nights! Man alive! we have the whole gang—the great Ki-Ming included!" His eyes were blazing. "Weymouth has made no fewer than twenty-five arrests, some of the prisoners being well-known Orientals. It will be the devil's own work to keep it all quiet, but Scotland Yard has already advised the Press."
 
"Congratulations, old man," I said, and looked him squarely in the eyes.
 
Something there must have been in my glance at variance with the spoken words. His expression changed; he grasped my shoulder.
 
"She was not there," he said, "but please God, we'll find her now. It's only a question of time."
 
But, even as he spoke, the old, haunted look was creeping back into the lean face. He gave me a rapid glance; then:—
 
"I might as well make a clean breast of it," he rapped. "Fu-Manchu escaped! Furthermore, when we got lights, the woman had vanished, too."
 
"The woman!"
 
"There was a woman at this strange gathering, Petrie. Heaven only knows who she really is. According to Fu-Manchu she is that woman of mystery concerning whose existence strange stories are current in the East; the future Empress of a universal empire! But of course I decline to accept the story, Petrie! if ever the Yellow races overran Europe, I am in no doubt respecting the identity of the person who would ascend the throne of the world!"
 
"Nor I, Smith!" I cried excitedly. "Good God! he holds them all in the palm of his hand! He has welded together the fanatics of every creed of the East into a giant weapon for his personal use! Small wonder that he is so formidable. But, Smith—who is that woman?"
 
"Petrie!" he said slowly, and I knew that I had betrayed my secret,
"Petrie—where did you learn all this?"
 
I returned his steady gaze.
 
"I was present at the meeting of the Si-Fan," I replied steadily.
 
"What? What? You were present?"
 
"I was present! Listen, and I will explain."
 
Standing there in the hallway I related, as briefly as possible, the astounding events of the night. As I told of the woman in the train—
 
"That confirms my impression that Fu-Manchu was imposing upon the others!" he snapped. "I cannot conceive of a woman recluse from some Lamaserie, surrounded by silent attendants and trained for her exalted destiny in the way that the legendary veiled woman of Tibet is said to be trained, traveling alone in an English railway carriage! Did you observe, Petrie, if her eyes were oblique at all?"
 
"They did not strike me as being oblique. Why do you ask?"
 
"Because I strongly suspect that we have to do with none other than
Fu-Manchu's daughter! But go on."
 
"By heavens, Smith! You may be right! I had no idea that a Chinese woman could possess such features."
 
"She may not have a Chinese mother; furthermore, there are pretty women in China as well a............