Episode 6: The Fungi Cellars
Fu Manchu's unwilling slave, Karamenah, visits Wayland Smith and his sidekick
Dr Petrie to beg them to rescue her younger brother, Aziz, from Fu Manchu's
clutches. In return she promises to help them catch the master criminal.
Although Smith is suspicious, he agrees to help. Karamenah tells the men to meet
her at the docks later that evening and Smith arranges for Inspector Weymouth
and a group of policemen to assist them.
Fu Manchu, meanwhile, is at work in his laboratory creating a breed of mutant
funghi...
That evening, Smith, Petrie and Weymouth assemble at the docks, along with a
contingent of policeman. Karamenah takes the three men into Fu Manchu's lair and
watches anxiously as Petrie rouses Aziz from a drugged sleep. She insists that
Aziz be taken to safety before she reveals the whereabouts of Fu Manchu.
Karamenah leads the men to the sleeping Fu Manchu. She warns them not to
enter his room, but tantalised by the prospect of at last having their quarry
within reach, the men fail to heed her warning. They rush into the room and fall
through a trapdoor. Fu Manchu wakes up and realises that Karamenah has betrayed
him.
In the cellar beneath the room, Fu Manchu's henchmen tie up Smith, Petrie and
Weymouth. Fu Manchu brings down the struggling Karamenah. When Weymouth's men
attempt to rescue the prisoners, a glass partition comes down, trapping the
policeman with Fu Manchu's poisonous mushrooms. The bound captives are forced to
watch the police struggle frantically as the funghi omit poisonous spores.
As police reinforcements begin to arrive, Fu Manchu makes his escape by
river. The captives are loaded onto his motorboat and he tells them that is
rigged to explode once he has made his getaway. As Fu Manchu attempts to kill
Karamenah, Weymouth manages to escape his bonds. He and Fu Manchu struggle and
both men fall overboard. One of Fu Manchu's henchmen rescues the crime lord but
Weymouth is left to drown.
Having rescued the trapped officers, the police reinforcements pursue the
boat carrying Smith, Petrie and Karamenah. They manage to rescue them just
before the boat explodes. Smith and Petrie gaze at the smouldering wreckage and
wonder what has happened to Fu Manchu and Inspector Weymouth. Fu Manchu has
escaped downriver, but Weymouth struggles safely ashore.