Dr Nikola Returns

Title: Dr. Nikola Returns Author: Guy Boothby * A Project Gutenberg
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Dr. Nikola Returns Guy Boothby
Introduction
Chapter I.
How I Came To Meet Dr. Nikola
Chapter II.
Nikola's Offer
Chapter III.

Nikola's Scheme
Chapter IV.
We Set Out For Tientsin
Chapter V.
I Rescue A Young Lady
Chapter VI.
On The Road To Pekin
Chapter VII.
A Serious Time
Chapter VIII.
How Prendergast Succeeded
Chapter IX.
The Llamaserai
Chapter X.
An Exciting Night In The Llamaserai
Chapter XI.
En Route To Thibet
Chapter XII.
Through The Mountains

Chapter XIII.
The Monastery
Chapter XIV.
An Ordeal
Chapter XV.
How Nikola Was Installed
Chapter XVI.
A Terrible Experience
Chapter XVII.
Conclusion

INTRODUCTION
My Dear William George Craigie--
I have no doubt as to your surprise at receiving this letter, after so long
and unjustifiable a period of silence, from one whom you must have
come to consider either a dead man or at least a permanent refugee.
When last we met it was on the deck of Tremorden's yacht, in the
harbour of Honolulu. I had been down to Kauai, I remember, and the
day following, you, you lucky dog, were going off to England by the
Royal Mail to be married to the girl of your heart. Since then I have
heard, quite by chance, that you have settled down to a country life, as
if to the manner born; that you take an absorbing interest in
mangel-wurzels, and, while you strike terror into the hearts of poachers
and other rustic evil-doers, have the reputation of making your wife the
very best of husbands. Consequently you are to be envied and

considered one of the happiest of men.
While, however, things have been behaving thus prosperously with you,
I am afraid I cannot truthfully say that they have fared so well with me.
At the termination of our pleasant South Sea cruise, just referred to,
when our party dismembered itself in the Sandwich Islands, I crossed
to Sydney, passed up inside the Barrier Reef to Cooktown, where I
remained three months in order to try my luck upon the Palmer Gold
Fields. This proving unsatisfactory I returned to the coast and
continued my journey north to Thursday Island. From the last-named
little spot I visited New Guinea, gave it my patronage for the better part
of six months, and received in return a bad attack of fever, after
recovering from which I migrated to Borneo, to bring up finally, as you
will suppose, in my beloved China.
Do you remember how in the old days, when we both fold positions of
more or less importance in Hong-Kong, you used to rally me about my
fondness for the Celestial character and my absurd liking for going
fantee into the queerest company and places? How little did I imagine
then to what straits that craze would ultimately conduct me! But we
never know what the future has in store for us, do we? And perhaps it is
as well.
You will observe, my dear Craigie, that it is the record of my visit to
China on this particular occasion that constitutes this book; and you
must also understand that it is because of our long friendship for each
other, and by reason of our queer researches into the occult world
together, that you find your name placed so conspicuously upon the
forefront of it.
A word now as to my present existence and abode. My location I
cannot reveal even to you. And believe me I make this reservation for
the strongest reasons. Suffice it that I own a farm, of close upon five
thousand acres, in a country such as would gladden your heart, if
matrimony and continued well-being have not spoilt your eyes for
richness of soil. It is shut in on all sides by precipitous mountain ranges,
on the western peaks of which at this moment, as I sit in my verandah
writing to you, a quantity of cloud, tinted a rose