The Classic Mystery Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle [5705]
"I thank God that I have never seen him since, for his dreadful face haunted my dreams for long afterwards. But I have learned of him, and I know that next to Fo-Hi he is the most dangerous being in the known world. He has invented horrible things--poisons and instruments, which I cannot describe because I have never seen them; but I have seen ... some of their effects."
She paused, overcome with the horror of her memories.
"What is the name of this other man?" asked Stuart eagerly. Miska glanced at him rapidly.
"Oh, do not ask me questions, please!" she pleaded. "I will tell you all I can, all I dare; what I do not tell you I cannot tell you--and this is one of the things I dare not tell. He is a Chinese scientist and, I have heard, the greatest genius in the whole world, but I can say no more--yet."
"Is he still alive--this man?"
"I do not know that. If he is alive, he is in China--at some secret palace in the province of Ho-Nan, which is the headquarters of what is called the 'Sublime Order.' I have never been there, but there are Europeans there, as well as Orientals."
"What! in the company of these fiends!"
"It is useless to ask me--oh! indeed, I would tell you if I could, but I cannot! Let me go on from the time when I saw Fo-Hi in Cairo. He told me that I was a member of an organization dating back to remote antiquity which was destined to rule all the races of mankind--the Celestial age he called their coming triumph. Something which they had lacked in order to achieve success had been supplied by the dreadful man who had entered the room and expressed his approval of me.
"For many years they had been at work in Europe, secretly, as well as in the East. I understood that they had acquired a quantity of valuable information of some kind by means of a system of opium-houses situated in the principal capitals of the world and directed by Fo-Hi and a number of Chinese assistants. Fo-Hi had remained in China most of the time, but had paid occasional visits to Europe. The other man--the monster with the black skull cap--had been responsible for the conduct of the European enterprises."
"Throughout this interview," interrupted Stuart, forgetful of the fact that Miska had warned him of the futility of asking questions, "and during others which you must have had with Fo-Hi, did you never obtain a glimpse of his face?"
"Never! No one has ever seen his face! I know that his eyes are a brilliant and unnatural yellow colour, but otherwise I should not know him if I saw him unveiled, to-morrow. Except," she added, "by a sense of loathing which his presence inspires in me. But I must hurry. If you interrupt me, I shall not have time.
"From that day in Cairo--oh! how can I tell you! I began the life of an adventuress! I do not deny it. I came here to confess it to you. I went to New York, to London, to Paris, to Petrograd; I went all over the world. I had beautiful dresses, jewels, admiration--all that women live for! And in the midst of it all mine was the life of the cloister; no nun could be more secluded!
"I see the question in your eyes--why did I do it? Why did I lure men into the clutches of Fo-Hi? For this is what I did; and when I have failed, I have been punished."
Stuart shrank from her.
"You confess," he said hoarsely, "that you knowing lured men to _death?"_
"Ah, no!" she whispered, looking about her fearfully--"never! never! I swear it--never!"
"Then"--he stared at her blankly--"I do not understand you!"
"I dare not make it clearer--now: I dare not--dare not! But _believe_ me! Oh, please, please," she pleaded, her soft voice dropping to a whisper--"believe me! If you know what I risked to tell you so much, you would be more merciful. A horror which cannot be described"--again she shuddered--"will fall upon me if _he_ ever suspects! You think me young and full of life, with all the world before me. You do not know. I am, literally, _already dead!_ Oh! I have followed a strange career. I have danced in a Paris theatre and I have sold flowers in Rome; I have had