Fu-Manchu entertained for me a singular
kind of regard, I had had evidence before. He had formed the erroneous
opinion that I was an advanced scientist who could be of use to him in
his experiments, and I was aware that he cherished a project of
transporting me to some place in China where his principal laboratory
was situated. Respecting the means which he proposed to employ, I was
unlikely to forget that this man, who had penetrated further along
certain byways of science than seemed humanly possible, undoubtedly
was master of a process for producing artificial catalepsy. It was my
lot, then, to be packed in a chest (to all intents and purposes a dead
man for the time being) and dispatched to the interior of China!
What a fool I had been. To think that I had learnt nothing from my
long and dreadful experience of the methods of Dr. Fu-Manchu; to think
that I had come _alone_ in quest of him; that, leaving no trace behind
me, I had deliberately penetrated to his secret abode!
I have said that my wrists were manacled behind me, the manacles being
attached to a chain fastened in the wall. I now contrived, with
extreme difficulty, to reverse the position of my hands; that is to
say, I climbed backward through the loop formed by my fettered arms,
so that instead of the gyves being behind me, they now were in front.
Then I began to examine them, learning, as I had anticipated, that
they fastened with a lock.
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