CHAPTER XXIWHO WAS DOCTOR FENG?
I fanciedthat I heard my name spoken. My ears were strained—
“Rex! Rex! Listen; can’t you hear?” I seemed to hear faintly afar off.
The voice sounded unusual, like a child’s, weak and high-pitched. Surely I was in a dream.
“Rex! Rex! Listen! Can’t you hear?” the voice continued. It seemed like the shrill voice of a tiny girl.
I listened stupidly: in my lethargy I had not the power to reply.
For a long time I listened, in a sort of delirium, I suppose, but did not hear the voice repeated.
Suddenly, how long afterwards I cannot tell, I distinctly saw Doctor Feng’s face grinning into mine. Upon his white-bearded countenance was a look of exultant triumph. His eyes danced with glee. The sight angered and horrified me. I closed my eyes to shut out the features that seemed to me sinister and mysterious.
A strange sense of oppression, of being deprivedof air and of my body being benumbed, overcame me. I could not stir a muscle. In my ears there sounded a strange singing like the song of a thousand birds. At the same time I experienced considerable difficulty in moving, for I seemed to be enveloped in something which, weighing upon my limbs, kept them powerless, as though I were still manacled.
I remember that both my wrists pained me very badly, where the rope had cut into them so cruelly. Then, like a flash, came back a hideous memory of those moments of horror and those darting red tongues of flame. The terror of those moments when I faced a horrible death I now lived over again. I lay appalled.
I must have shrieked in my befogged agony, and in shouting I again opened my eyes.
An eager face peered into mine; it was that of a woman in a white linen head-dress—a hospital nurse evidently. She uttered some words that I did not comprehend. I tried to grasp them, but my hearing was so dull that I only heard high-pitched sounds.
No wonder! After a few moments of blank bewilderment I realized that from head to foot I was swathed in oil-soaked cotton wool. There were small openings for my eyes and another small aperture lower which enabled me to breathe.
Now memory surged back upon me in full floodand again the horror of those dreadful moments at Heathermoor Gardens fell upon me.
I recollected everything in detail. But I was alive—alive! after passing through the valley of the shadow of death, through the flames that had licked my face!
But where was Thelma?
I tried to ask. But the calm-faced nurse only shook her head. Was it that she could not understand my muffled words; or was it that Thelma was dead?
Once more I implored her to explain, but she again shook her head, placing her fore-finger upon her lips to enjoin silence.
Then she put some medicine to my lips, and speaking soothingly, compelled me to swallow it.
I lay there stretched upon the bed, my wondering eyes seeing only the whitewashed ceiling of the narrow room. The atmosphere seemed heavily laden with some disinfectant and I noticed, with idle curiosity, how very closely the nurse watched over me.
I believed it to be about mid-day. But my bewildered brain was obsessed by thoughts of those two devilish plotters—Feng and Humphreys—who had been my friends amid the Alpine snows and had later conspired to kill me.
The full purport of what had actually happened I could not understand: I remembered nothing afterthe flash of flame and the noise of the opening door. Closing my eyes I racked my brain in useless conjecture. Why should the hateful old doctor, of all men, have shot that triumphant glance at me, while I lay there inert and helpless?
After that I must have lapsed into unconsciousness. The injuries I had suffered, coupled with the awful mental agony I had undergone, had brought about, as I learned afterwards, complete loss of memory and many weeks elapsed before I was able to understand what was going on around me.
My awakening to consciousness was a curious experience.
I was utterly unaware of anything that was passing until suddenly, I heard, as from a vast distance, a thin voice calling my name:—
“Rex! Rex! Rex Yelverton!” It came again. Then I seemed suddenly to wake up. There was a blaze of sunlight round me. And there before me, radiant and beautiful in a flimsy white summer gown, stood Thelma, her face positively shining with happiness and tears of joy running down her beautiful face.
I held my breath, scarcely believing I could be awake. Was it a vision? Memory rushed back to me. Again I saw Thelma, limp and helpless, in that hateful room at Hampstead. Was I alive? Hadshe indeed escaped the awful fate that had threatened her.
There she stood against a background of high feathery palms. Beyond her was a sapphire, sunlit sea, while around were orange trees heavily laden with fruit and a wealth of climbing geraniums and crimson rambler roses.
As my brain slowly cleared I looked around. To my surprise I found myself seated in a low cane lounge-chair upon a well-kept lawn—seemingly a hotel-garden. Not far away some people were strenuously playing tennis; others were seated beneath great orange and emerald colored umbrellas, taking tea.
“Thelma!” I gasped, my burning eyes staring and bewildered.
“Rex! Thank God! At last!At last you know me!” she said, springing forward and grasping both my hands. “You’ve been very ill, my dear, devoted friend.”
I stared at her and saw that she was very pale and worn. But the soft hands that I held were real!
So surprised, so utterly perplexed was I, that I could hardly find my tongue. But after a few moments of silence, the chords of by unbalanced brain, at first unable fully to realize my whereabouts, were touched.
I heard her speak. “Youdoknow me now, Rex—youdo, don’t you?” she demanded in tense eagerness.
“Yes,” I replied.
“And you can really recollect?” she asked, softly, bending over me.
“Everything,” was my answer, as I sat there like one dreaming. But, indeed, at that moment, I doubted the reality of it all, for the evil faces of both Feng and Humphreys overshadowed that fair scene of feathery palms and tranquil sea.
“Ah! The doctors were right after all!” she cried joyously. “They advised us to bring you here—to Cannes.”
“What? Am I in Cannes?” I asked astounded.
“Yes,” she said, “This is The Beau Site Hotel. Do you feel well enough to know what has happened?”
I nodded—weakly, I am afraid. I felt well enough physically, but shaken and overwrought.
“Can I have some tea?” I asked limply.
Thelma burst out laughing. “Now, I’m sure you are better,” she bubbled. “Wait a moment and I will have it sent out.”
She disappeared into the hotel and in a few moments a waiter appeared with tea things. He glanced at me and bowed. “I’m glad monsieur is better,” he said simply.
How good that tea tasted! It was glorious to bealive again and I ate and drank with good appetite. I felt better every moment: it was clear I was well on the way to recovery.
“And now, Thelma,” I asked when we had finished. “Tell me what happened. I remember nothing after the fire. Have I been ill long?”
“You must be prepared for a surprise, Rex,” she said gently. “Do you know—of course you cannot—that that was five months ago?”
“Five months!” I echoed stupidly. “Have I been ill all that time?”
“You have been very ill indeed, Rex, and for a time we had very little hope that you would ever recover. You got over the burns fairly quickly in the Hampstead Hospital but your memory gave way. But don’t worry now, the doctors all said you would probably recover yourself quite suddenly and be absolutely yourself again. But they could not say how long it would be and it has been weary waiting.”
“How long have I been here?” I asked.
“About a month. Doctor Feng will be here soon: he will be delighted.”
“Doctor Feng!” I flared out. “Why should he be pleased? Perhaps Humphreys will be pleased too. He was a great friend of Feng’s.”
“Humphreys is dead,” Thelma said gently. “I can’t tell you the full story yet—you are not well enough—but he was traced from the house in Hampsteadto some rooms he had in secret in Earl’s Court Road and he shot himself there when the detectives went to arrest him. Now be quiet and don’t bother your head about things. Everything is all right and you shall learn all from Doctor Feng. You can recognize me now and you will soon be yourself.”
“But, Thelma,” I cried, “how did you escape? Were you hurt?”
“Now, don’t trouble about me,” she said lightly. “You will see Doctor Feng soon.”
“I don’t want to see him,” I said snappishly. “He was a friend of Humphreys’ and I believe was in league with him.”
Thelma looked at me, a soft light in her eyes. “No,” she said simply. “You are making a great mistake. You never had a better friend, nor Humphreys a more deadly enemy than Doctor Feng.”
I sat up in amazement. Feng my friend! Had I distrusted the old doctor without reason?
“Here he is!” cried Thelma joyously and I looked up to see Doctor Feng, in a gray summer suit and white felt hat striding briskly across the lawn towards us.
A glance at me was sufficient to tell him the good news; there was no need for Thelma’s excited outburst. The old doctor silently held out his hand, his seamed face alight with obvious pleasure.
I took it in silence and wrung it hard. The scales had fallen from my eyes and I felt thoroughly ashamed of my lack of faith. I had ignored my real friend and had put my trust in the scoundrel who had planned, happily in vain, to send Thelma and myself to a horrible death. At that moment my confidence in my knowledge of men, on which I had been apt to pride myself in bygone days, sank to zero.
Feng was the first to break the silence.
“By jove, Yelverton,” he said, “I’m glad to see you all right again. You’ve had an infernally narrow squeak of it. And it was all my fault. I ought to have been more wary.”
“Your fault!” I stammered. “How?”
“Well, your narrow escape from being burned to death with Thelma, was due in part to me. Owing to my belief in my own foresight I made a big error of judgment.”
“How? I don’t understand. All I know is that Thelma and I were entrapped by your friend Humphreys in that house in Heathermoor Gardens. A most diabolical plot was laid for us both. What happened?”
“Then you recollect it all—eh? Well, that’s an excellent sign,” he said. “You both escaped death by a hair’s breath. The damnable plot was well devised and the plotters never dreamed for an instant that it could fail. Every precaution had been taken,even to the cutting of the wires of the fire-alarm outside Hampstead Station! Yes, you can both thank Providence that you are alive today. But, do rest, my dear fellow,” he added. “You must not tax your brains too quickly. In an hour’s time I’ll tell you more. Till then, I’ll leave you both together. But remember, your conversation must not concern the affair in the least. I forbid it, Thelma! Please recollect that,” he added very seriously.
“Very well,” she said. “We’ll go for a stroll down to the Casino and back,” and I rose and accompanied her.
Thelma chatted as we strolled along. But in obedience to Doctor Feng she would not refer to what had passed. For my own part I felt utterly mystified. Where was Stanley Audley? Why was Feng my friend and Humphreys’ enemy? What was Thelma doing here away from her husband? How had we been saved? These and a hundred other puzzling questions darted through my mind, and I fear my attempts at conversation were poor and spiritless.
But one thing she told me roused my keen interest.
Day after day, she said, she had sat by my side, many times every day, softly calling my name. Doctor Feng was responsible. He had an idea—perhaps because he knew my love for Thelma—thather voice might be the means of rousing me from my stupor. And, thank God, the experiment had succeeded, though Thelma confessed she had almost given up hope after many weary weeks. At last, after hundreds of failures, her call had reached my subconscious mind, the dormant cells of memory had suddenly awakened, my unbalanced mind once again returned to its normal state.
As I looked into her great grey eyes, I saw how filled she was with anxiety concerning me. I gazed at her in silence. The suffering she had undergone seemed to have had no power to mar her great personal beauty. Though her face was colorless it was calm, and her eyes were full of sadness.
One subject alone was uppermost in both our hearts, but old Feng had forbidden us to mention it. Therefore as we strolled along together through the gay streets of Cannes with its well-dressed merry-making throngs, our conversation was but a stilted one.
To me that passing hour seemed a year. Soon I was to learn the truth so long hidden—the secret of the great mystery was to be solved, for I saw from Doctor Feng’s manner that he knew the truth, and would at last disclose it.
When at last the hour passed and we returned to the Beau Site, Thelma took me up in the lift to a comfortable private suite where, in the sitting-room,Feng was standing before the window which gave a wide view of the Mediterranean, calm in the amber glow of late afternoon.
“Let us sit down,” he said, and I noticed how much more marked his slight American accent had become. “What I have to tell you, Yelverton, will take some little time. It will surprise you too, for it is a remarkable and complicated story—an amazing hotchpotch of love, hate, avarice, and a callous, cruel cunning perfectly devilish. I may as well begin at the beginning.”
I took an easy chair and the old man went on with his strange history.
“First of all,” he said, “it is necessary to go back to the days when Thelma’s father was alive and on the China station. You will remember I told you he was able to render a very great service to Sung-tchun, who was one of the leaders of the Thu-tseng. Exactly what that service was we shall never know—the secret would involve too many men who are still alive.
“But whatever it was, it was very important—very much more than a mere matter of organizing the escape of Sung-tchun from Siberia. That, of course, was important, but, after all, it was only a matter of one man’s life. There must have been something far greater, of which we shall probably never learn.
“Do you remember my once saying to you that the arm of the Thu-tseng was long?”
I nodded. I remembered perfectly the old chap’s grave look as he spoke the words. I had little suspected their tremendous import.
“Well,” Feng continued, “you and Thelma have to thank the Crystal Claw for the fact that you are alive today. Had I not been at Mürren when it arrived, had I not know its significance, the devilish plot planned by Humphreys must have succeeded.
“I did not know when I arrived at Mürren any of the facts that soon after came into my possession. That I should have been there was one of the wonderful instances of the working of Providence.
“The arrival of the Crystal Claw fairly staggered me. Never before has it been bestowed upon a European. I knew at once that around Mrs. Audley some tremendous story must hang. I am not unknown in the Thu-tseng and I determined to get at the truth. What I learned in reply to my cables both surprised and alarmed me. It showed me that Mrs. Audley was in terrible danger. It put me at once on my guard with reference to Hartley Humphreys. From that time forward he was under almost incessant supervision.
“Now here are the essential facts. Sung-tchun was an extremely wealthy man—how wealthy no one exactly knew. He made a very remarkable will, inwhich he left the whole of his vast fortune to Miss Thelma Shaylor.”
Thelma started violently. “Left a fortune to me!” she burst out. “Why I never heard a word about it.”
“No,” said Feng, “there was a proviso in the will that except for some grave reason, of which the trustees were to be the judges, you were not to be told until you reached the age of twenty-one. Sung-tchun was anxious that you should not be exposed to the advances of mere fortune-hunters until you were old enough to have had a reasonable experience of the world.
“Now if the will had contained nothing else there would have been no difficulty: you would have been perfectly safe. Unfortunately Sung-tchun added a codicil which was, as events proved, to bring you into terrible peril.
“That codicil provided that if you died childless the vast bulk of Sung-tchun’s wealth should devolve upon a Chinese named Chi-ho who was living in New York. Now here is a crucial fact. Chi-ho was hopelessly in the power of Hartley Humphreys.
“Humphreys learned of the provisions of Sung-tchun’s will. He had lived in China; he knew the country well and he was very wealthy. By the treachery of an official of the Thu-tseng he learned of that fatal codicil. It was an amazing instance ofleakage of information for which the history of the Thu-tseng knows no parallel and the offender has expiated his crime by the forfeit of his life.
“Chi-ho probably never realized the vastness of the sum to which he would be entitled if Thelma died childless. Humphreys, no doubt, only told him part of the truth. Chi-ho, in consideration of getting his freedom from Humphreys made over to the latter, in strictly legal form, all his interests under the will of Sung-tchun. That document was found among Humphreys’ papers after his death, of which Thelma has already told you.
“Very soon after that document was signed Chi-ho died—stabbed to death in what was said to be a tong feud in the Chinatown district of New York. I cannot say with certainty that the whole thing was arranged by Hartley Humphreys but Chi-ho’s death was very convenient to him.
“Now you have this interesting position: only Thelma’s life stood between Hartley Humphreys and the Sung-tchun fortune.
“All these facts came to me by cable—in code, of course, from Canton. I did not think it necessary or desirable to tell you and of course I had no permission to reveal the fact that Thelma was a great heiress. But I was keenly on the watch. My Canton correspondent warned me very specifically to beware of Hartley Humphreys, whose secret recordin China—outwardly he was of the highest respectability—was appalling. And the Thu-tseng knew all there was to know about him.
“That will explain to you, Yelverton, Humphreys’ alarm when he saw the Crystal Claw. He knew it might mean anything—for instance that Thelma was being watched over and guarded by the agents of the most powerful secret society in the world. If that were the case, he knew, a single false step would mean his certain ruin—perhaps even his death.”
“You didn’t seem much concerned about his alarm when I told you,” I interrupted.
“No,” said the doctor with a smile, “it wasn’t necessary. I should not have been surprised if the sight of the Crystal Claw had frightened him off his scheme. But his avarice was evidently so unbounded that he was willing to run any risk for the sake of money.
“Now comes a curious part of the story that I think Mrs. Audley had better tell herself.” He turned to Thelma. “Please tell Mr. Yelverton about your marriage,” he said.
“Well,” said Thelma, hesitatingly. “I was introduced to Stanley Audley at a dance at Harrogate. He was an electrical engineer and was apparently also possessed of considerable means. We met frequently. Twice I had tea at his rooms in London and one day at the Savoy he introduced me toHarold Ruthen who, I understood, was a newly formed acquaintance of his.
“Mother rather liked Stanley, who always spoke enthusiastically of his firm, Messrs. Gordon & Austin, the great electrical supply company, and of his eagerness for advancement. When we became engaged mother raised no objection, for he was so keen and enthusiastic in everything. One day he motored me down to a place called ‘Crowmarsh,’ near Wallingford, where I found he possessed a fine old-world house, where we were to live when we married. I was charmed with it and we both spent a glorious day there. Three weeks later we were, as you know, quietly married at St. James’ church in Piccadilly, and went at once out to Switzerland for our honeymoon, where we met you both.
“Then one morning Stanley received a telegram. When he read it he became both confused and alarmed. He did not show me the message, but told me that it was imperative that he should return to London at once. I now recollect that we were in the hall of the Kürhaus when the concierge handed him the message, and seated in his invalid chair, near the big stove on the right, was old Mr. Humphreys, whom I did not then know, but who was no doubt watching us intently.”
“He had followed you to Mürren with a very definite object,” Feng went on. “He must have beenwatching you for some months beforehand, and I have no doubt your sudden marriage was a severe blow to his plans.
“I had serious difficulty in making friends with him. Of course he knew I was a Chinese and I really believe that he suspected at first that I was an agent of the Thu-tseng. It was only when he found that I had been at Mürren some time before Thelma and Audley arrived—and therefore, he thought, could not be specially interested in them—that I succeeded in getting inside his guard. Of course, by posing as his friend, I was able much more easily to keep track of his movements.
“Do you remember your escape from the avalanche?”
“Rather!” said Thelma and I simultaneously.
“Perhaps you will be surprised to learn that that avalanche was not the unaided work of Nature,” said the doctor. “You did not notice a man some hundreds of feet above you?”
“No,” I said, “but what do you mean?”
“It’s a very easy thing to start an avalanche,” said Feng with a smile. “Therewasa man above you that day and the avalanchewasstarted deliberately. Your guide John found out the truth afterwards. But the would-be assassin—I have no doubt he was in the pay of Humphreys—was never traced and the matter was hushed up. It would not have done tolet Humphreys know that the truth was suspected. As a matter of fact I did suspect it and implored John to investigate.
“But with regard to Stanley Audley I confess I was completely misled. When he received that telegram recalling him to London I believed that the story he had told you about his profession as electrical engineer, was a true one. Only when it was proved to be without foundation did I see that I, like yourself, had been cleverly bamboozled. Until then I had believed Audley to be what he represented himself to be. I never dreamed of the truth. Hartley Humphreys, a crook to his finger tips, possessed a master-mind, obsessed by criminality, and having no idea of my actual purpose he acted with such amazing cunning and forethought that he must be placed among the list of the master-criminals of the world.”
“Of course I had no suspicion,” said Thelma. “I didn’t even know that I was an heiress.”
“And I was fool enough to think that Humphreys was my friend and you were my enemy, Doctor,” I said with some shame as I thought of how completely I had been deceived.
“Well,” laughed Feng, “that’s all over now. But I’m glad I was able to deceive you because it helped me to deceive Humphreys. He was quite aware of your feeling towards me. You are fairly transparent,Yelverton, if you don’t mind my saying so!”
“The position was very extraordinary. Humphreys got Audley out of the way—I will explain that later—and that, he thought, would leave Thelma unprotected. But he never expected your interest in the bride. You became a very unwelcome bit of grit in a very well-oiled machine. You were constantly with Thelma, she was never left alone for a moment—and you were in the way.”
And the shrewd old man smiled mysteriously.