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my friend. But I had feared the plea, for I did not know
how to meet it. How could I give her up, perhaps to stand her trial
for murder? And now I fell silent, and she saw why I was
silent.
    "I may deserve no mercy; I may be even as bad as you think; but
what have YOU to do with the police? It is not your work to hound a
woman to death. Could you ever look another woman in the eyes-one
that you loved, and know that she trusted you-if you had done such
a thing? Ah, I have no friend in all the world, or I should not be
here. Do not be my enemy, my judge, and make me worse than I am; be
my friend, and save me-from HIM." The tremulous lips were close to
mine, her breath fanned my cheek. "Have mercy on me."
    At that moment I honestly would have given half of my worldly
possessions to have been spared the decision which I knew I must
come to. After all, what proof had I that she was a willing
accomplice of Dr. Fu-Manchu? Furthermore, she was an Oriental, and
her code must necessarily be different from mine. Irreconcilable as
the thing may be with Western ideas, Nayland Smith had really told
me that he believed the girl to be a slave. Then there remained
that other reason why I loathed the idea of becoming her captor. It
was almost tantamount to betrayal! Must I soil my hands with such
work?
    Thus-I suppose-her seductive beauty argued against my sense of
right. The jeweled fingers grasped my shoulders nervously, and her
slim body quivered against mine as she watched me, with all her
soul in her eyes, in an abandonment of pleading despair. Then I
remembered the fate of the man in whose room we stood.
    "You lured Cadby to his death," I said, and shook her off.
    "No, no!" she cried wildly, clutching at me. "No, I swear by the
holy name I did not! I did not! I watched him, spied upon him-yes!
But, listen: it was because he would not be warned that he met his
death. I could not save him! Ah, I am not so bad as that. I will
tell you. I have taken his notebook and torn out the last pages and
burnt them. Look! in the grate. The book was too big to steal away.
I came twice and could not find it. There, will you let me go?"
    "If you will tell me where and how to seize Dr.
Fu-Manchu-yes."
    Her hands dropped and she took a backward step. A new terror was
to be read in her face.
    "I dare not! I dare not!"
    "Then you would-if you dared?"
    She was watching me intently.
    "Not if YOU would go to find him," she said.
    And, with all that I thought her to be, the stern servant of
justice that I would have had myself, I felt the hot blood leap to
my cheek at all which the words implied. She grasped my arm.
    "Could you hide me from him if I came to you, and told you all I
know?"
    "The authorities-"
    "Ah!" Her expression changed. "They can put me on the rack if
they choose, but never one word would I speak-never one little
word."
    She threw up her head scornfully. Then the proud glance softened
again.
    "But I will speak for you."
    Closer she came, and closer, until she could whisper in my
ear.
    "Hide me from your police, from HIM, from everybody, and I will
no longer be his slave."
    My heart was beating with painful rapidity. I had not counted on
this warring with a woman; moreover, it was harder than I could
have dreamt of. For some time I had been aware that by the charm of
her personality and the art of her pleading she had brought me down
from my judgment seat-had made it all but impossible for me to give
her up to justice. Now, I was disarmed-but in a quandary. What
should I do? What COULD I do? I turned away from her and walked to
the hearth, in which some paper ash lay and yet emitted a faint
smell.
    Not more than ten seconds elapsed, I am confident, from the time
that I stepped across the room until I glanced back. But she had
gone!
    As I leapt to the door the key turned gently from the
outside.
    "Ma 'alesh!" came her soft whisper; "but I am afraid to trust
you-yet. Be comforted, for there is one near who would have killed
you had I wished it.