Sax Rohmer

The Hand of Fu-Manchu Sax Rohmer

Book Excerpt: ...tol. That's what cost him his life, sir. He's had no peace, day or night, since he got it...."We were inside the room again now, Smith bearing the coffer in his arms, and still the man ran on: "He's never slept for more than an hour at a time, that I know of, for weeks past. Since the day we came here he hasn't spoken to another living soul, and he's lain there on the floor at night with his head on that brass box, and sat watching over it all day.""'Beeton!' he'd cry out, perhaps in the middle of the night--'Beeton-- do you hear that damned woman!' But although I'd begun to think I could hear something, I believe it was the constant strain working on my nerves and nothing else at all."Then he was always listening out for some one he called 'the man with the limp.' Five and six times a night he'd have me up to listen with him. 'There he goes, Beeton!' he'd whisper, crouching with his ear pressed flat to the door. 'Do you hear him dragging himself along?'"God knows how I'...