Fire-Tongue
By Sax Rohmer
“Hello, is that you, Mason?” he said. “Have the racer meet me halfway along Pall Mall at seven o’clock.”
Never for a moment did he relax his vigilance. Observing every precaution when he left The Chancery Agency, he spent the intervening time at one of his clubs, from which, having made an early dinner, he set off for Pall Mall at ten minutes to seven. A rakish-looking grey car resembling a giant torpedo was approaching slowly from the direction of Buckingham Palace. The driver pulled up as Paul Harley stepped into the road. Following a brief conversation, Harley set out westward, performing a detour before heading south for Lower Claybury, a little town with which he was only slightly acquainted. No evidence of espionage could he detect, but the note of danger spoke intimately to his inner consciousness so that when the metropolis was left behind, he found himself in the hilly Surrey countryside; more than once, he pulled up, sitting silently for a while and listening intently. He failed, always, to detect any sign of pursuit.
The night was tropically brilliant, hot, and still, but save the distant murmur of the city and ordinary comings and goings along the country roads, nothing could account for his growing anxiety, of which he became conscious.
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Sax Rohmer
Arthur Henry “Sarsfield” Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Fu Manchu.
Biography.
Born in Birmingham to working-class Irish parents William Ward (c. 1850–1932), a clerk, and Margaret Mary (née Furey; c. 1850–1901), Arthur Ward initially pursued a career as a civil servant before concentrating on writing full-time. He was a poet, songwriter, and comedy sketch writer for music hall performers before creating the Sax Rohmer persona and pursuing a career in fiction writing.
Like his contemporaries Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen, Rohmer claimed membership in one of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn factions. Rohmer also claimed ties to the Rosicrucians, but the validity of his claims has been questioned. His doctor and family friend, Dr R. Watson Councell, may have been his only legitimate connection to such organisations.
His first published work was issued in 1903 when the short story “The Mysterious Mummy” was sold to Pearson’s Weekly. Rohmer’s main literary influences are Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and M. P. Shiel. He gradually transitioned from writing for music hall performers to concentrating on short stories and serials for magazine publication. In 1909, he married Rose Elizabeth Knox.
He published his first book, Pause! Anonymously in 1910.
In 1934, Sax Rohmer moved into a newly refurbished house, Little Gatton, on Gatton Road, Reigate, Surrey, where he lived until 1946.
He died after succumbing to Asian flu in 1959.
Other work
Rohmer became a friend of escapologist Harry Houdini, who wrote to him praising Rohmer’s The Romance of Sorcery. Rohmer based his mystery-solving magician character Bazarada on Houdini.
The Orchard of Tears is an odd book in the context of Sax Rohmer’s other work. There are no Oriental villains or exotic locations; there are gentle rabbits and lambs in pastoral settings and a great deal of philosophical musing. As much as he enjoyed Fu Manchu — and the notoriety and income the character provided — Rohmer had other interests and a markedly severe side. The book’s dedication signifies the departure from his expected subject matter: “To the slaves of the pomegranate, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, who drink at the fountain of life, this chalice is offered as a loving cup”.
In The Quest of the Sacred Slipper (1919) terror comes to Britain when a self-centered archaeologist unearths one of Islam’s holiest relics—the sacred slipper of the prophet Mohammed. Until it is returned to its rightful people, the implacable Hassan of Aleppo vows his reign of death and destruction shall not cease. Behind these inhuman outrages is a secret group of fanatics. Not even the best men of Scotland Yard seem able to apprehend them.
Tales of Chinatown (1922) is a collection of 10 short stories published in hardcover by Cassell in 1922 and Doubleday, Page and Company in 1922. All of the stories first appeared in magazine format. This collection includes a story considered one of his best and has also been anthologised many times; “Tcheriapin”. The story “The Hand of the Mandarin Quong” was rewritten for this book; first published as “Hand of the White Sheikh”, Rohmer changed the setting to a Chinatown background and published it as “The Mystery of the Shriveled Hand”; the title was then changed again for this collection.
Sax Rohmer
