The Yellow Claw | Page 3

return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, [email protected].

The Yellow Claw
by Sax Rohmer

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
THE LADY OF THE CIVET FURS
II MIDNIGHT--AND MR. KING
III INSPECTOR DUNBAR TAKES CHARGE
IV A WINDOW IS OPENED
V DOCTORS DIFFER
VI AT SCOTLAND YARD
VII THE MAN IN THE LIMOUSINE
VIII CABMEN TWO
IX THE MAN IN BLACK
X THE GREAT UNDERSTANDING
XI PRESENTING M. GASTON MAX
XII MR. GIANAPOLIS
XIII THE DRAFT ON PARIS
XIV EAST 18642
XV CAVE OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON
XVI HO-PIN'S CATACOMBS
XVII KAN-SUH CONCESSIONS
XVIII THE WORLD ABOVE
XIX THE LIVING DEAD
XX ABRAHAM LEVINSKY BUTTS IN
XXI THE STUDIO IN SOHO
XXII M. MAX MOUNTS CAGLIOSTRO'S STAIRCASE
XXIII RAID IN THE RUE ST.-CLAUDE
XXIV OPIUM
XXV FATE'S SHUTTLECOCK
XXVI "OUR LADY OF THE POPPIES"
XXVII GROVE OF A MILLION APES
XXVIII THE OPIUM AGENT
XXIX M. MAX OF LONDON AND M. MAX OF PARIS
XXX MAHARA
XXXI MUSK AND ROSES
XXXII BLUE BLINDS
XXXIII LOGIC VS. INTUITION
XXXIV M. MAX REPORTS PROGRESS
XXXV TRACKER TRACKED
XXXVI IN DUNBAR'S ROOM
XXXVII THE WHISTLE
XXXVIII THE SECRET TRAPS
XXXIX THE LABYRINTH
XL DAWN AT THE NORE
XLI WESTMINSTER--MIDNIGHT

THE YELLOW CLAW

I
THE LADY OF THE CIVET FURS
Henry Leroux wrote busily on. The light of the table-lamp, softened and enriched by its mosaic shade, gave an appearance of added opulence to the already handsome appointments of the room. The little table-clock ticked merrily from half-past eleven to a quarter to twelve.
Into the cozy, bookish atmosphere of the novelist's study penetrated the muffled chime of Big Ben; it chimed the three- quarters. But, with his mind centered upon his work, Leroux wrote on ceaselessly.
An odd figure of a man was this popular novelist, with patchy and untidy hair which lessened the otherwise striking contour of his brow. A neglected and unpicturesque figure, in a baggy, neutral- colored dressing-gown; a figure more fitted to a garret than to this spacious, luxurious workroom, with the soft light playing upon rank after rank of rare and costly editions, deepening the tones in the Persian carpet, making red morocco more red, purifying the vellum and regilding the gold of the choice bindings, caressing lovingly the busts and statuettes surmounting the book-shelves, and twinkling upon the scantily-covered crown of Henry Leroux. The door bell rang.
Leroux, heedless of external matters, pursued his work. But the door bell rang again and continued to ring.
"Soames! Soames!" Leroux raised his voice irascibly, continuing to write the while. "Where the devil are you! Can't you hear the door bell?"
Soames did not reveal himself; and to the ringing of the bell was added the unmistakable rattling of a letter-box.
"Soames!" Leroux put down his pen and stood up. "Damn it! he's out! I have no memory!"
He retied the girdle of his dressing-gown, which had become unfastened, and opened the study door. Opposite, across the entrance lobby, was the outer door; and in the light from the lobby lamp he perceived two laughing eyes peering in under the upraised flap of the letter-box. The ringing ceased.
"Are you VERY angry with me for interrupting you?" cried a girl's voice.
"My dear Miss Cumberly!" said Leroux without irritation; "on the contrary--er--I am delighted to see you--or rather to hear you. There is nobody at home, you know." . . .
"I DO know," replied the girl firmly, "and I know something else, also. Father assures me that you simply STARVE yourself when Mrs. Leroux is away! So I have brought down an omelette!"
"Omelette!" muttered Leroux, advancing toward the door; "you have-- er--brought an omelette! I understand--yes; you have brought an omelette? Er--that is very good of you."
He hesitated when about to open the outer door, raising his hands to his dishevelled hair and unshaven chin. The flap of the letter- box dropped; and the girl outside could be heard stifling her laughter.
"You must think me--er--very rude," began Leroux; "I mean--not to open the door. But" . . .
"I quite understand," concluded the voice of the unseen one. "You are a most untidy object! And I shall tell Mira DIRECTLY she returns that she has no right to leave you alone like this! Now I am going to hurry back upstairs; so you may appear safely. Don't let the omelette get cold. Good night!"
"No, certainly I shall not!" cried Leroux. "So good of you--I--er-- do like omelette. . . . Good night!"
Calmly he returned to his writing-table, where, in the pursuit of the elusive character whose exploits he was chronicling and who had brought him fame and wealth, he forgot in the same moment Helen Cumberly and the omelette.
The table-clock ticked merrily on; SCRATCH--SCRATCH--SPLUTTER-- SCRATCH--went Henry Leroux's pen; for this up-to-date litterateur, essayist by inclination, creator of "Martin Zeda, Criminal Scientist" by popular clamor, was yet