I sat gazing at the steel bracelets in the
light of the lamp which swung over my head, and it became apparent to
me that I had gained little by my contortion.
A slight noise disturbed these unpleasant reveries. It was nothing
less than the rattling of keys!
For a moment I wondered if I had heard aright, or if the sound
portended the coming of some servant of the Doctor who was locking up
the establishment for the night. The jangling sound was repeated, and
in such a way that I could not suppose it to be accidental. Some one
was deliberately rattling a small bunch of keys in an adjoining room.
And now my heart leapt wildly--then seemed to stand still.
With a low whistling cry a little grey shape shot through the doorway
by which Fu-Manchu had retired, and rolled like a ball of fluff blown
by the wind, completely under the table which bore the weird
scientific appliances of the Chinaman; the advent of the grey object
was accompanied by a further rattling of keys.
My fear left me, and a mighty anxiety took its place. This creature
which now crouched chattering at me from beneath the big table was
Fu-Manchu's marmoset, and in the intervals of its chatterings and
grimacing, it nibbled, speculatively, at the keys upon the ring which
it clutched in its tiny hands. Key after key it sampled in this
manner, evincing a growing dissatisfaction with the uncrackable nature
of its find.
One of those keys might be that of the handcuffs!
I could not believe that the tortures of Tantalus were greater than
were mine at this moment.
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