The Hand of Fu-Manchu | Page 5

something very pathetic in this breakdown of a physically strong man. Smith laid
his hands upon his shoulders.
"You have passed through a very trying ordeal," he said, "and no man could have done
his duty better; but forces beyond your control have proved too strong for you. I am
Nayland Smith."
The man spun around with a surprising expression of relief upon his pale face.
"So that whatever can be done," continued my friend, "to carry out your master's wishes,
will be done now. Rely upon it. Go into your room and lie down until we call you."
"Thank you, sir, and thank God you are here," said Beeton dazedly, and with one hand
raised to his head he went, obediently, to the smaller bedroom and disappeared within.
"Now, Petrie," rapped Smith, glancing around the littered floor, "since I am empowered
to deal with this matter as I see fit, and since you are a medical man, we can devote the
next half-hour, at any rate, to a strictly confidential inquiry into this most perplexing case.
I propose that you examine the body for any evidences that may assist you determining
the cause of death, whilst I make a few inquiries here."
I nodded, without speaking, and went into the bedroom. It contained not one solitary item
of the dead man's belongings, and in every way bore out Beeton's statement that Sir
Gregory had never inhabited it. I bent over Hale, as he lay fully dressed upon the bed.
Saving the singularity of the symptom which had immediately preceded death--viz., the
paralysis of the muscles of articulation--I should have felt disposed to ascribe his end to
sheer inanition; and a cursory examination brought to light nothing contradictory to that
view. Not being prepared to proceed further in the matter at the moment I was about to
rejoin Smith, whom I could hear rummaging about amongst the litter of the outer room,
when I made a curious discovery.
Lying in a fold of the disordered bed linen were a few petals of some kind of blossom,
three of them still attached to a fragment of slender stalk.
I collected the tiny petals, mechanically, and held them in the palm of my hand studying
them for some moments before the mystery of their presence there became fully
appreciable to me. Then I began to wonder. The petals (which I was disposed to class as
belonging to some species of Curcas or Physic Nut), though bruised, were fresh, and
therefore could not have been in the room for many hours. How had they been introduced,
and by whom? Above all, what could their presence there at that time portend?
"Smith," I called, and walked towards the door carrying the mysterious fragments in my
palm. "Look what I have found upon the bed."
Nayland Smith, who was bending over an open despatch case which he had placed upon

a chair, turned--and his glance fell upon the petals and tiny piece of stem.
I think I have never seen so sudden a change of expression take place in the face of any
man. Even in that imperfect light I saw him blanch. I saw a hard glitter come into his eyes.
He spoke, evenly, but hoarsely:
"Put those things down----there, on the table; anywhere."
I obeyed him without demur; for something in his manner had chilled me with
foreboding.
"You did not break that stalk?"
"No. I found it as you see it."
"Have you smelled the petals?"
I shook my head. Thereupon, having his eyes fixed upon me with the strangest expression
in their gray depths, Nayland Smith said a singular thing.
"Pronounce, slowly, the words Sâkya Mûni,'" he directed.
I stared at him, scarce crediting my senses; but----
"I mean it!" he rapped. "Do as I tell you."
"Sâkya Mûni," I said, in ever increasing wonder.
Smith laughed unmirthfully.
"Go into the bathroom and thoroughly wash your hands," was his next order. "Renew the
water at least three times." As I turned to fulfill his instructions, for I doubted no longer
his deadly earnestness: "Beeton!" he called.
Beeton, very white-faced and shaky, came out from the bedroom as I entered the
bathroom, and whist I proceeded carefully to cleanse my hands I heard Smith
interrogating him.
"Have any flowers been brought into the room today, Beeton?"
"Flowers, sir? Certainly not. Nothing has ever been brought in here but what I have
brought myself."
"You are certain of that?"
"Positive."
"Who brought up the meals, then?"

"If you'll look into my room here, sir, you'll see that I have enough tinned and bottled
stuff to last us for weeks. Sir Gregory sent me out to buy it on the day we arrived. No one
else had left or entered these rooms until you came to-night."