midnight
`` At last , Petrie , I think we have Fu-Manchu -- in his own trap ! '' `` Dash it all , Petrie ! '' cried Smith , `` this is most annoying ! '' The bell was ringing furiously , although midnight was long past . Whom could my late visitor be ? Almost certainly this ringing portended an urgent case . In other words , I was not fated to take part in what I anticipated would prove to be the closing scene of the Fu-Manchu drama .