I had hoped to head him off, but came upon no sign of him. An all-night tramcar passed at the moment that I reached the high-road, and as I ran around behind it I saw that my windows were lighted and that there was a light in the hall. My key was yet in the lock when my housekeeper opened the door. "There's a gentleman just come, doctor," she began. I thrust past her and raced up the stairs to my study. Standing by the writing-table was a tall thin man, his gaunt face brown as a coffee-berry and his steely grey eyes fixed upon me. My heart gave a great leap--and seemed to stand still. It was Nayland Smith! "Smith!" I cried. "Smith, old man, by God, I'm glad to see you!" He wrung my hand hard, looking at me with his searching eyes; but there was little enough of gladness in his face. He was altogether greyer than when last I had seen him--greyer and sterner. "Where is Eltham?" I asked. Smith started back as though I had struck him. "Eltham!" he whispered--"_Eltham_! is Eltham here?" "I left him ten minutes ago on the common." Smith dashed his right fist into the palm of his left hand, and his eyes gleamed almost wildly. "My God, Petrie!" he said, "am I fated _always_ to come too late?" My dreadful fears in that instant were confirmed. I seemed to feel my legs totter beneath me. "Smith, you don't mean--" "I do, Petrie!" His voice sounded very far away. "Fu-Manchu is here; and Eltham, God help him ... is his first victim!" CHAPTER II ELTHAM VANISHES Smith went racing down the stairs like a man possessed. Heavy with such a foreboding of calamity as I had not known for two years, I followed him--along the hall and out into the road. The very peace and beauty of the night in some way increased my mental agitation. The sky was lighted almost tropically with such a blaze of stars as I could not recall to have seen since, my futile search concluded, I had left Egypt. The glory of the moonlight yellowed the lamps speckled across the expanse of the common. The night was as still as night can ever be in London. The dimming pulse of a cab or car alone disturbed the quietude. With a quick glance to right and left, Smith ran across on to the common, and, leaving the door wide open behind me, I followed. The path which Eltham had pursued terminated almost opposite to my house. One's gaze might follow it, white and empty, for several hundred yards past the pond, and farther, until it became overshadowed and was lost amid a clump of trees. I came up with Smith, and side by side we ran on, whilst pantingly I told my tale. "It was a trick to get you away from him!" cried Smith. "They meant no doubt to make some attempt at your house, but, as he came out with you, an alternative plan--" Abreast of the pond, my companion slowed down, and finally stopped. "Where did you last see Eltham?" he asked, rapidly. I took his arm, turning him slightly to the right, and pointed across the moon-bathed common.