Only this crooning, and the laboured breathing
of Smith and myself, broke that impressive stillness.
Suddenly the guttural voice began:
"You come at an opportune time, Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith and Dr.
Petrie; at a time when the greatest man in China flatters me with a
visit. In my absence from home, a tremendous honour has been conferred
upon me, and, in the hour of this supreme honour, dishonour and
calamity have befallen! For my services to China--the New China, the
China of the future--I have been admitted by the Sublime Prince to the
Sacred Order of the White Peacock."
Warming to his discourse, he threw wide his arms, hurling the
chattering marmoset fully five yards along the corridor.
"Oh, god of Cathay!" he cried sibilantly, "in what have I sinned that
this catastrophe has been visited upon my head! Learn, my two dear
friends, that the sacred white peacock, brought to these misty shores
for my undying glory has been lost to me! Death is the penalty of such
a sacrilege; death shall be my lot, since death I deserve."
Covertly Smith nudged me with his elbow. I knew what the nudge was
designed to convey; he would remind me of his words--anent the
childish trifles which sway the life of intellectual China.
Personally, I was amazed. That Fu-Manchu's anger, grief, sorrow and
resignation were real, no one watching him, and hearing his voice,
could doubt. He continued:
"By one deed, and one deed alone, may I win a lighter punishment.
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