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The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu | Sax Rohmer | |
Chapter XI |
Page 1 of 7 |
ALTHOUGH we avoided all unnecessary delay, it was close upon midnight when our cab swung round into a darkly shadowed avenue, at the farther end of which, as seen through a tunnel, the moonlight glittered upon the windows of Rowan House, Sir Lionel Barton's home. Stepping out before the porch of the long, squat building, I saw that it was banked in, as Smith had said, by trees and shrubs. The facade showed mantled in the strange exotic creeper which he had mentioned, and the air was pungent with an odor of decaying vegetation, with which mingled the heavy perfume of the little nocturnal red flowers which bloomed luxuriantly upon the creeper. The place looked a veritable wilderness, and when we were admitted to the hall by Inspector Weymouth I saw that the interior was in keeping with the exterior, for the hall was constructed from the model of some apartment in an Assyrian temple, and the squat columns, the low seats, the hangings, all were eloquent of neglect, being thickly dust-coated. The musty smell, too, was almost as pronounced here as outside, beneath the trees. To a library, whose contents overflowed in many literary torrents upon the floor, the detective conducted us. "Good heavens!" I cried, "what's that?" Something leaped from the top of the bookcase, ambled silently across the littered carpet, and passed from the library like a golden streak. I stood looking after it with startled eyes. Inspector Weymouth laughed dryly. "It's a young puma, or a civet-cat, or something, Doctor," he said. "This house is full of surprises--and mysteries." His voice was not quite steady, I thought, and he carefully closed the door ere proceeding further. |
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The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu Sax Rohmer |
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