Emperor Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer

the Burma frontier, and if my Chinese is shaky, my Burmese is sound.” He glanced at his watch. “Jenkins is late. Feeling hungry?”
    “No.” Tony shook his head. “After my first bath for weeks in a civilized bathroom, a change of clothes and a drink, I feel delightfully relaxed.”
    “Good for you. Jenkins has another guest who is probably reveling in a warm bath, too, after a long journey; Jeanie Cameron-Gordon. Her father, an old friend of mine, is the world-famous medical entomologist, Dr. Cameron-Gordon. His big work on sleeping sickness and the tsetse fly is the textbook for all students of tropical medicine. Ran a medical mission. But more later.”
    “Whatever brings his daughter here?” Tony wanted to know.
    Before Nayland Smith could reply, the stout, smiling, and capable resident Chinese housekeeper, whom Tony had met already, came in. She was known simply as Mrs. Wing. She bowed.
    “Miss Cameron-Gordon,” she said, in her quaint English, “is dressed, and asks if she should join you, or if you are in a business conference.”
    Nayland Smith smiled broadly. “The conference is over, Mrs. Wing. Please ask Miss Jeanie to join us.”
    Mrs. Wing bowed again, went out, and a moment later Miss Cameron-Gordon came in, her face shaded by a wide-brimmed hat. She wore a tailored suit of cream shantung which perfectly fit her beautiful figure.
    For an interval that couldn’t be measured in terms of time, Tony stood rigid. Then he sprang forward.
    Miss Jeanie Cameron-Gordon found herself locked in his arms.
    “Moon Flower! Moon Flower!”
    “I had an idea,” Nayland Smith said dryly, “that you two might be acquainted.”
    * * *
    Ray Jenkins joined them for lunch. A thin Chinese-yellow man with large, wiry hands, gaunt features, and a marked Cockney accent, he had a humorous eye and a markedly self-confident manner. Moon Flower was reserved and embarrassed, avoiding Tony’s looks of admiration. He felt he was the cause of this and cursed the impulse which had prompted him to betray their intimacy. He didn’t attempt to deny that he was in love with her, but gave a carefully edited account of their meeting and how he had formed a deep affection for his native helper.
    “I never saw Jeanie in her other kit,” Jenkins said nasally. He called one and all by their first names. “But, looking at her now, Tony, I should say you were nuts not to know she wasn’t Chinese.”
    “But I am,” Moon Flower told him, “on my mother’s side.”
    Ray Jenkins regarded her for a long time, then, “God’s truth,” he remarked. “Your mother must have been a stunner.”
    Nayland Smith threw some light upon what had happened at Lao Tse-Mung’s. He had arrived there several hours before Tony, intending to proceed with speed to Chungking as soon as Tony showed up. He found the mandarin in an unhappy frame of mind. The daughter of his old friend, Dr. Cameron-Gordon, who had been staying at his house, had disappeared. He suspected that she had gone in search of information about her father, contrary to his, Lao Tse-Mung’s advice. He had used all the facilities at his disposal, but with no result.
    “I’ll leave it to Moon Flower, as you call Jeanie, to tell you the whole story, McKay,” Sir Denis said, with one of his impish grins. “She will tell it better than I can.”
    Moon Flower gave him a reproachful, but half-playful glance.
    “I was staggered,” he went on. “I had heard in Hong Kong that her father died in a fire which destroyed the medical mission building. But I supposed that Jeanie was still in England. I was discussing the problem of Jeanie’s disappearance with Tse-Mung when his secretary ran in and announced, ‘The Master is here!’
    “Fast action was called for. I made my way back toward the entrance gate. From behind a bank of rhododendrons I had the pleasure of seeing my old friend Dr. Fu-Manchu, wearing what looked like a Prussian uniform, striding up to the house. A big Nubian, whom I