My head throbbed madly; my brain seemed to be clogged--inert; and though my first, feeble movement was followed by the rattle of a chain, some moments more elapsed ere I realized that the chain was fastened to a steel collar--that the steel collar was clasped about my neck. I moaned weakly. "Smith!" I muttered, "Where are you? Smith!" On to my knees I struggled, and the pain on the top of my skull grew all but insupportable. It was coming back to me now; how Nayland Smith and I had started for the hotel to warn Graham Guthrie; how, as we passed up the steps from the Embankment and into Essex Street, we saw the big motor standing before the door of one of the offices. I could recall coming up level with the car--a modern limousine; but my mind retained no impression of our having passed it--only a vague memory of a rush of footsteps--a blow. Then, my vision of the hall of dragons, and now this real awakening to a worse reality. Groping in the darkness, my hands touched a body that lay close beside me. My fingers sought and found the throat, sought and found the steel collar about it. "Smith," I groaned; and I shook the still form. "Smith, old man--speak to me! Smith!" Could he be dead? Was this the end of his gallant fight with Dr. Fu-Manchu and the murder group? If so, what did the future hold for me--what had I to face? He stirred beneath my trembling hands. "Thank God!" I muttered, and I cannot deny that my joy was tainted with selfishness. For, waking in that impenetrable darkness, and yet obsessed with the dream I had dreamed, I had known what fear meant, at the realization that alone, chained, I must face the dreadful Chinese doctor in the flesh. Smith began incoherent mutterings. "Sand-bagged! . . . Look out, Petrie! . . . He has us at last! . . . Oh, Heavens!" . . . He struggled on to his knees, clutching at my hand. "All right, old man," I said. "We are both alive! So let's be thankful." A moment's silence, a groan, then: "Petrie, I have dragged you into this. God forgive me--" "Dry up, Smith," I said slowly. "I'm not a child. There is no question of being dragged into the matter. I'm here; and if I can be of any use, I'm glad I am here!" He grasped my hand. "There were two Chinese, in European clothes--lord, how my head throbs!--in that office door. They sand-bagged us, Petrie--think of it!--in broad daylight, within hail of the Strand! We were rushed into the car--and it was all over, before--" His voice grew faint. "God! they gave me an awful knock!" "Why have we been spared, Smith? Do you think he is saving us for--" "Don't, Petrie! If you had been in China, if you had seen what I have seen--"