He was becoming excited, shooting out his jaw in the truculent manner
I knew, and snapping his fingers to emphasize his words; a man
composed of the oddest complexities that ever dwelt beneath a clerical
frock.

"He may have got back to China, Doctor!" he cried, and his eyes had
the fighting glint in them. "Could you rest in peace if you thought
that he lived? Should you not fear for your life every time that a
night-call took you out alone? Why, man alive, it is only two years
since he was here among us, since we were searching every shadow for
those awful green eyes! What became of his band of assassins--his
stranglers, his dacoits, his damnable poisons and insects and what-not
--the army of creatures--"

He paused, taking a drink.

"You--" he hesitated diffidently--"searched in Egypt with Nayland
Smith, did you not?"

I nodded.

"Contradict me if I am wrong," he continued; "but my impression is that
you were searching for the girl--the girl--Karamaneh, I think she was
called?"

"Yes," I replied shortly; "but we could find no trace--no trace."

"You--er--were interested?"

"More than I knew," I replied, "until I realized that I had--lost