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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of Chinatown, by Sax Rohmer
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tales of Chinatown
+
+Author: Sax Rohmer
+
+Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5697]
+Posting Date: June 11, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF CHINATOWN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Alan Johns
+
+
+
+
+
+TALES OF CHINATOWN
+
+By Sax Rohmer
+
+1916
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     THE DAUGHTER OF HUANG CHOW
+     KERRY'S KID
+     THE PIGTAIL OF HI WING HO
+     THE HOUSE OF GOLDEN JOSS
+     THE MAN WITH THE SHAVEN SKULL
+     THE WHITE HAT
+     TCHERIAPIN
+     THE DANCE OF THE VEILS
+     THE HAND OF THE MANDARIN QUONG
+     THE KEY OF THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DAUGHTER OF HUANG CHOW
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+"DIAMOND FRED"
+
+
+
+In the saloon bar of a public-house, situated only a few hundred yards
+from the official frontier of Chinatown, two men sat at a small table
+in a corner, engaged in earnest conversation. They afforded a sharp
+contrast. One was a thick-set and rather ruffianly looking fellow, not
+too cleanly in either person or clothing, and, amongst other evidences
+that at one time he had known the prize ring, possessing a badly broken
+nose. His companion was dressed with that spruceness which belongs to
+the successful East End Jew; he was cleanly shaven, of slight build, and
+alert in manner and address.
+
+Having ordered and paid for two whiskies and sodas, the Jew, raising
+his glass, nodded to his companion and took a drink. The glitter of
+a magnificent diamond which he wore seemed to attract the other's
+attention almost hypnotically.
+
+"Cheerio, Freddy!" said the thick-set man. "Any news?"
+
+"Nothing much," returned the one addressed as Freddy, setting his glass
+upon the table and selecting a cigarette from a packet which he carried
+in his pocket.
+
+"I'm not so sure," growled the other, watching him suspiciously. "You've
+been lying low for a long time, and it's not like you to slack off
+except when there's something big in sight."
+
+"Hm!" said his companion, lighting his cigarette. "What do you mean
+exactly?"
+
+Jim Poland--for such was the big man's name--growled and spat
+reflectively into a spittoon.
+
+"I've had my eye on you, Freddy," he replied; "I've had my eye on you!"
+
+"Oh, have you?" murmured the other. "But tell me what you mean!"
+
+Beneath his suave manner lay a threat, and, indeed, Freddy Cohen, known
+to his associates as "Diamond Fred," was in many ways a formidable
+personality. He had brought to his chosen profession of crook a
+first-rate American training, together with all that mental agility and
+cleverness which belong to his race, and was at once an object of envy
+and admiration amongst the fraternity which keeps Scotland Yard busy.
+
+Jim Poland, physically a more dangerous character, was not in the same
+class with him; but he was not without brains of a sort, and Cohen,
+although smiling agreeably, waited with some anxiety for his reply.
+
+"I mean," growled Poland, "that you're not wasting your time with Lala
+Huang for nothing."
+
+"Perhaps not," returned Cohen lightly. "She's a pretty girl; but what
+business is it of yours?"
+
+"None at all. I ain't interested in 'er good looks; neither are you."
+
+Cohen shrugged and raised his glass again.
+
+"Come on," growled Poland, leaning across the table. "I know, and I'm in
+on it. D'ye hear me? I'm in on it. These are hard times, and we've got
+to stick together."
+
+"Oh," said Cohen, "that's the game, is it?"
+
+"That's the game right enough. You won't go wrong if you bring me in,
+even at fifty-fifty, because maybe I know things about old Huang that
+you don't know."
+
+The Jew's expression changed subtly, and beneath his drooping lids he
+glanced aside at the speaker. Then:
+
+"It's no promise," he said, "but what do you know?"
+
+Poland bent farther over the table.
+
+"Chinatown's being watched again. I heard this morning that Red Kerry
+was down here."
+
+Cohen laughed.
+
+"Red Kerry!" he echoed. "Red Kerry means nothing in my young life, Jim."
+
+"Don't 'e?" returned Jim, snarling viciously. "The way he cleaned up
+that dope crowd awhile back seemed to show he was no jug, didn't it?"
+
+The Jew made a facial gesture as if to dismiss the subject.
+
+"All right," continued Poland. "Think that way if you like. But the
+patrols have been doubled. I suppose you know that? And it's a cert
+there are special men on duty, ever since the death of that Chink."
+
+Cohen shifted uneasily, glancing about him in a furtive fashion.
+
+"See what I mean?" continued the other. "Chinatown ain't healthy just
+now."
+
+He finished his whisky at a draught, and, standing up, lurched heavily
+across to the counter. He returned with two more glasses. Then,
+reseating himself and bending forward again:
+
+"There's one thing I reckon you don't know," he whispered in Cohen's
+ear. "I saw that Chink talking to Lala Huang only a week before the time
+he was hauled out of Limehouse Reach. I'm wondering, Diamond, if, with
+all your cleverness, you may not go the same way."
+
+"Don't try to pull the creep stuff on me, Jim," said Cohen uneasily.
+"What are you driving at, anyway?"
+
+"Well," replied Poland, sipping his whisky reflectively, "how did that
+Chink get into the river?"
+
+"How the devil do I know?"
+
+"And what killed him? It wasn't drowning, although he was all swelled
+up."
+
+"See here, old pal," said Cohen. "I know 'Frisco better than you know
+Limehouse. Let me tell you that this little old Chinatown of yours is
+pie to me. You're trying to get me figuring on Chinese death traps,
+secret poisons, and all that junk. Boy, you're wasting your poetry.
+Even if you did see the Chink with Lala, and I doubt it--Oh, don't
+get excited, I'm speaking plain--there's no connection that I can see
+between the death of said Chink and old Huang Chow."
+
+"Ain't there?" growled Poland huskily. He grasped the other's wrist as
+in a vise and bent forward so that his battered face was close to the
+pale countenance of the Jew. "I've been covering old Huang for months
+and months. Now I'm going to tell you something. Since the death of that
+Chink Red Kerry's been covering him, too."
+
+"See here!" Cohen withdrew his arm from the other's grasp angrily. "You
+can't freeze me out of this claim with bogey stuff. You're listed, my
+lad, and you know it. Chief Inspector Kerry is your pet nightmare.
+But if he walked in here right now I could ask him to have a drink. I
+wouldn't but I could. You've got the wrong angle, Jim. Lala likes me
+fine, and although she doesn't say much, what she does say is straight.
+I'll ask her to-night about the Chink."
+
+"Then you'll be a damned fool."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"I say you'll be a damned fool. I'm warning you, Freddy. There are
+Chinks and Chinks. All the boys know old Huang Chow has got a regular
+gold mine buried somewhere under the floor. But all the boys don't know
+what I know, and it seems that you don't either."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+Jim Poland bent forward more urgently, again seizing Cohen's wrist, and:
+
+"Huang Chow is a mighty big bug amongst the Chinese," he whispered,
+glancing cautiously about him. "He's hellish clever and rotten with
+money. A man like that wants handling. I'm not telling you what I know.
+But call it fifty-fifty and maybe you'll come out alive."
+
+The brow of Diamond Fred displayed beads of perspiration, and with
+a blue silk handkerchief which he carried in his breast pocket he
+delicately dried his forehead.
+
+"You're an old hand at this stuff, Jim," he muttered. "It amounts to
+this, I suppose; that if I don't agree you'll queer my game?"
+
+Jim Poland's brow lowered and he clenched his fists formidably. Then:
+
+"Listen," he said in his hoarse voice. "It ain't your claim any more
+than mine. You've covered it different, that's all. Yours was always the
+petticoat lay. Mine's slower but safer. Is anyone else in with you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then we'll double up. Now I'll tell you something. I was backing out."
+
+"What? You were going to quit?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because the thing's too dead easy, and a thing like that always looks
+like hell to me."
+
+Freddy Cohen finished his glass of whisky.
+
+"Wait while I get some more drinks," he said.
+
+In this way, then, at about the hour of ten on a stuffy autumn night, in
+the crowded bar of that Wapping public-house, these two made a
+compact; and of its outcome and of the next appearance of Cohen, the
+Jewish-American cracksman, within the ken of man, I shall now proceed to
+tell.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE END OF COHEN
+
+
+
+"I've been expecting this," said Chief Inspector Kerry. He tilted his
+bowler hat farther forward over his brow and contemplated the ghastly
+exhibit which lay upon the slab of the mortuary. Two other police
+officers--one in uniform--were present, and they treated the celebrated
+Chief Inspector with the deference which he had not only earned but had
+always demanded from his subordinates.
+
+Earmarked for important promotion, he was an interesting figure as
+he stood there in the gloomy, ill-lighted place, his pose that of an
+athlete about to perform a long jump, or perhaps, as it might have
+appeared to some, that of a dancing-master about to demonstrate a new
+step.
+
+His close-cropped hair was brilliantly red, and so was his short, wiry,
+aggressive moustache. He was ruddy of complexion, and he looked out
+unblinkingly upon the world with a pair of steel-blue eyes. Neat he
+was to spruceness, and while of no more than medium height he had the
+shoulders of an acrobat.
+
+The detective who stood beside him, by name John Durham, had one trait
+in common with his celebrated superior. This was a quick keenness, a
+sort of alert vitality, which showed in his eyes, and indeed in every
+line of his thin, clean-shaven face. Kerry had picked him out as the
+most promising junior in his department.
+
+"Give me the particulars," said the Chief Inspector. "It isn't robbery.
+He's wearing a diamond ring worth two hundred pounds."
+
+His diction was rapid and terse--so rapid as to create the impression
+that he bit off the ends of the longer words. He turned his fierce blue
+eyes upon the uniformed officer who stood at the end of the slab.
+
+"They are very few, Chief Inspector," was the reply. "He was hauled
+out by the river police shortly after midnight, at the lower end of
+Limehouse Reach. He was alive then--they heard his cry--but he died
+while they were hauling him into the boat."
+
+"Any statement?" rapped Kerry.
+
+"He was past it, Chief Inspector. According to the report of the officer
+in charge, he mumbled something which sounded like: 'It has bitten me,'
+just before he became unconscious."
+
+"'It has bitten me,'" murmured Kerry. "The divisional surgeon has seen
+him?"
+
+"Yes, Chief Inspector. And in his opinion the man did not die from
+drowning, but from some form of virulent poisoning."
+
+"Poisoning?"
+
+"That's the idea. There will be a further examination, of course. Either
+a hypodermic injection or a bite."
+
+"A bite?" said Kerry. "The bite of what?"
+
+"That I cannot say, Chief Inspector. A venomous reptile, I suppose."
+
+Kerry stared down critically at the swollen face of the victim, and then
+glanced sharply aside at Durham.
+
+"Accounts for his appearance, I suppose," he murmured.
+
+"Yes," said Durham quietly. "He hadn't been in the water long enough to
+look like that." He turned to the local officer. "Is there any theory as
+to the point at which he went in?"
+
+"Well, an arrest has been made."
+
+"By whom? of whom?" rapped Kerry.
+
+"Two constables patrolling the Chinatown area arrested a man for
+suspicious loitering. He turned out to be a well-known criminal--Jim
+Poland, with a whole list of convictions against him. They're holding
+him at Limehouse Station, and the theory is that he was operating
+with------" He nodded in the direction of the body.
+
+"Then who's the smart with the swollen face?" inquired Kerry. "He's a
+new one on me."
+
+"Yes, but he's been identified by one of the K Division men. He is an
+American crook with a clean slate, so far as this side is concerned.
+Cohen is his name. And the idea seems to be that he went in at some
+point between where he was found by the river police and the point at
+which Jim Poland was arrested."
+
+Kerry snapped his teeth together audibly, and:
+
+"I'm open to learn," he said, "that the house of Huang Chow is within
+that area."
+
+"It is."
+
+"I thought so. He died the same way the Chinaman died awhile ago,"
+snapped Kerry savagely.
+
+"It looks very queer." He glanced aside at the local officer. "Cover him
+up," he ordered, and, turning, he walked briskly out of the mortuary,
+followed by Detective Durham.
+
+Although dawn was not far off, this was the darkest hour of the night,
+so that even the sounds of dockland were muted and the riverside slept
+as deeply as the great port of London ever sleeps. Vague murmurings
+there were and distant clankings, with the hum of machinery which is
+never still.
+
+Few of London's millions were awake at that hour, yet Scotland Yard
+was awake in the person of the fierce-eyed Chief Inspector and his
+subordinate. Perhaps those who lightly criticize the Metropolitan Force
+might have learned a new respect for the tireless vigilance which keeps
+London clean and wholesome, had they witnessed this scene on the borders
+of Limehouse, as Kerry, stepping into a waiting taxi-cab accompanied by
+Durham, proceeded to Limehouse Police Station in that still hour when
+the City slept.
+
+The arrival of Kerry created something of a stir amongst the officials
+on duty. His reputation in these days was at least as great as that of
+the most garrulous Labour member.
+
+The prisoner was in cells, but the Chief Inspector elected to interview
+him in the office; and accordingly, while the officer in charge sat at
+an extremely tidy writing-table, tapping the blotting-pad with a pencil,
+and Detective John Durham stood beside him, Kerry paced up and down the
+little room, deep in reflection, until the door opened and the prisoner
+was brought in.
+
+One swift glance the Chief Inspector gave at the battle-scarred face,
+and recognized instantly that this was a badly frightened man. Crossing
+to the table he took up a typewritten slip which lay there, and:
+
+"Your name is James Poland?" he said. "Four convictions; one, robbery
+with violence."
+
+Jim Poland nodded sullenly.
+
+"You were arrested at the corner of Pekin Street about midnight. What
+were you doing there?"
+
+"Taking a walk."
+
+"I'll say it again," rapped Kerry, fixing his fierce eyes upon the man's
+face. "What were you doing there?"
+
+"I've told you."
+
+"And I tell you you're a liar. Where did you leave the man Cohen?"
+
+Poland blinked his small eyes, cleared his throat, and looked down at
+the floor uneasily. Then:
+
+"Who's Cohen?" he grunted.
+
+"You mean, who was Cohen?" cried Kerry.
+
+The shot went home. The man clenched his fists and looked about the room
+from face to face.
+
+"You don't tell me------" he began huskily.
+
+"I've told you," said Kerry. "He's on the slab. Spit out the truth;
+it'll be good for your health."
+
+The man hesitated, then looked up, his eyes half closed and a cunning
+expression upon his face.
+
+"Make out your own case," he said. "You've got nothing against me."
+
+Kerry snapped his teeth together viciously.
+
+"I've told you what happened to your pal," he warned. "If you're a wise
+man you'll come in on our side, before the same thing happens to you."
+
+"I don't know what you're talking about," growled Poland.
+
+Kerry nodded to the constable at the doorway.
+
+"Take him back," he ordered.
+
+Jim Poland being returned to his cell, Kerry, as the door closed behind
+the prisoner and his guard, stared across at Durham where he stood
+beside the table.
+
+"An old hand," he said. "But there's another way." He glanced at the
+officer in charge. "Hold him till the morning. He'll prove useful."
+
+From his waistcoat pocket he took out a slip of chewing gum, unwrapped
+it, and placed the mint-flavoured wafer between his large white teeth.
+He bit upon it savagely, settled his hat upon his head, and, turning,
+walked toward the door. In the doorway he paused.
+
+"Come with me, Durham," he said. "I am leaving the conduct of the case
+entirely in your hands from now onward."
+
+Detective Durham looked surprised and not a little anxious.
+
+"I am doing so for two reasons," continued the Chief Inspector. "These
+two reasons I shall now explain."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE SECRET TREASURE-HOUSE
+
+
+
+Unlike its sister colony in New York, there are no show places in
+Limehouse. The visitor sees nothing but mean streets and dark doorways.
+The superficial inquirer comes away convinced that the romance of the
+Asiatic district has no existence outside the imaginations of writers
+of fiction. Yet here lies a secret quarter, as secret and as strange,
+in its smaller way, as its parent in China which is called the Purple
+Forbidden City.
+
+On a morning when mist lay over the Thames reaches, softening the
+harshness of the dock buildings and lending an air of mystery to the
+vessels stealing out upon the tide, a man walked briskly along Limehouse
+Causeway, looking about him inquiringly, as one unfamiliar with the
+neighbourhood. Presently he seemed to recognize a turning to the right,
+and he pursued this for a time, now walking more slowly.
+
+A European woman, holding a half-caste baby in her arms, stood in an
+open doorway, watching him uninterestedly. Otherwise, except for one
+neatly dressed young Chinaman, who passed him about halfway along the
+street, there was nothing which could have told the visitor that he
+had crossed the borderline dividing West from East and was now in an
+Oriental town.
+
+A very narrow alleyway between two dingy houses proved to be the spot
+for which he was looking; and, having stared about him for a while, he
+entered this alleyway. At the farther end it was crossed T-fashion, by
+another alley, the only object of interest being an iron post at the
+crossing, and the scenery being made up entirely of hideous brick walls.
+
+About halfway along on the left, set in one of these walls, were strong
+wooden gates, apparently those of a warehouse. Beside them was a door
+approached by two very dirty steps. There was a bell-push near the door,
+but upon neither of these entrances was there any plate to indicate the
+name of the proprietor of the establishment.
+
+From his pocket-book the visitor extracted a card, consulted something
+written upon it, and then pressed the bell.
+
+It was very quiet in this dingy little court. No sound of the busy
+thoroughfares penetrated here; and although the passage forming the
+top of the "T" practically marked the river bank, only dimly could one
+discern the sounds which belong to a seaport.
+
+Presently the door was opened by a Chinese boy who wore the ordinary
+native working dress, and who regarded the man upon the step with
+oblique, tired-looking eyes.
+
+"Mr. Huang Chow?" asked the caller.
+
+The boy nodded.
+
+"You wantchee him see?"
+
+"If he is at home."
+
+The boy glanced at the card, which the visitor still held between finger
+and thumb, and extended his hand silently. The card was surrendered. It
+was that of an antique dealer of Dover Street, Piccadilly, and written
+upon the back was the following: "Mr. Hampden would like to do business
+with you." The signature of the dealer followed.
+
+The boy turned and passed along a dim and perfectly unfurnished passage
+which the opening of the door had revealed, while Mr. Hampden stood upon
+the step and lighted a cigarette.
+
+In less than a minute the boy returned and beckoned to him to come in.
+As he did so, and the door was closed, he almost stumbled, so dark was
+the passage.
+
+Presently, guided by the boy, he found himself in a very business-like
+little office, where a girl sat at an American desk, looking up at him
+inquiringly.
+
+She was of a dark and arresting type. Without being pretty in the
+European sense, there was something appealing in her fine, dark eyes,
+and she possessed the inviting smile which is the heritage of Eastern
+women. Her dress was not unlike that of any other business girl, except
+that the neck of her blouse was cut very low, a fashion affected by many
+Eurasians, and she wore a gaily coloured sash, and large and very costly
+pearl ear-rings. As Mr. Hampden paused in the doorway:
+
+"Good morning," said the girl, glancing down at the card which lay upon
+the desk before her. "You come from Mr. Isaacs, eh?"
+
+She looked at him with a caressing glance from beneath half-lowered
+lashes, but missed no detail of his appearance. She did not quite like
+his moustache, and thought that he would have looked better cleanshaven.
+Nevertheless, he was a well-set-up fellow, and her manner evidenced
+approval.
+
+"Yes," he replied, smiling genially. "I have a small commission to
+execute, and I am told that you can help me."
+
+The girl paused for a moment, and then:
+
+"Yes, very likely," she said, speaking good English but with an odd
+intonation. "It is not jade? We have very little jade."
+
+"No, no. I wanted an enamelled casket."
+
+"What kind?"
+
+"Cloisonne."
+
+"Cloisonne? Yes, we have several."
+
+She pressed a bell, and, glancing up at the boy who had stood throughout
+the interview at the visitor's elbow, addressed him rapidly in Chinese.
+He nodded his head and led the way through a second doorway. Closing
+this, he opened a third and ushered Mr. Hampden into a room which nearly
+caused the latter to gasp with astonishment.
+
+One who had blundered from Whitechapel into the Khan Khalil, who had
+been transported upon a magic carpet from a tube station to the Taj
+Mahal, or dropped suddenly upon Lebanon hills to find himself looking
+down upon the pearly domes and jewelled gardens of Damascus, could not
+well have been more surprised. This great treasure-house of old Huang
+Chow was one of Chinatown's secrets--a secret shared only by those whose
+commercial interests were identical with the interests of Huang Chow.
+
+The place was artificially lighted by lamps which themselves were
+beautiful objects of art, and which swung from the massive beams of
+the ceiling. The floor of the warehouse, which was partly of stone, was
+covered with thick matting, and spread upon it were rugs and carpets
+of Karadagh, Kermanshah, Sultan-abad, and Khorassan, with lesser-known
+loomings of almost equal beauty. Skins of rare beasts overlay the
+divans. Furniture of ivory, of ebony and lemonwood, preciously inlaid,
+gave to the place an air of cunning confusion. There were tall cabinets,
+there were caskets and chests of exquisite lacquer and enamel, loot
+of an emperor's palace; robes heavy with gold; slippers studded with
+jewels; strange carven ivories; glittering weapons; pots, jars, and
+bowls, as delicate and as fragile as the petals of a lily.
+
+Last, but not least, sitting cross-legged upon a low couch, was old
+Huang Chow, smoking a great curved pipe, and peering half blindly across
+the place through large horn-rimmed spectacles. This couch was set
+immediately beside a wide ascending staircase, richly carpeted, and
+on the other side of the staircase, in a corresponding recess, upon a
+gilded trestle carved to represent the four claws of a dragon, rested
+perhaps the strangest exhibit of that strange collection--a Chinese
+coffin of exquisite workmanship.
+
+The boy retired, and Mr. Hampden found himself alone with Huang Chow. No
+word had been exchanged between master and servant, but:
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Hampden," said the Chinaman in a high, thin voice.
+"Please be seated. It is from Mr. Isaacs you come?"
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+PERSONAL REPORT OF DETECTIVE JOHN DURHAM TO CHIEF INSPECTOR KERRY,
+OFFICER IN CHARGE OF LIMEHOUSE INQUIRY
+
+
+
+Dear Chief Inspector,--Following your instructions I returned and
+interviewed the prisoner Poland in his cell. I took the line which
+you had suggested, pointing out to him that he had nothing to gain and
+everything to lose by keeping silent.
+
+"Answer my questions," I said, "and you can walk straight out.
+Otherwise, you'll be up before the magistrate, and on your record alone
+it will mean a holiday which you probably don't want."
+
+He was very truculent, but I got him in a good humour at last, and he
+admitted that he had been cooperating with the dead man, Cohen, in an
+attempt to burgle the house of Huang Chow. His reluctance to go into
+details seemed to be due rather to fear of Huang Chow than to fear of
+the law, and I presently gathered that he regarded Huang as responsible
+for the death not only of Cohen, but also of the Chinaman who was
+hauled out of the river about three weeks ago, as you well remember. The
+post-mortem showed that he had died of some kind of poisoning, and when
+we saw Cohen in the mortuary, his swollen appearance struck me as being
+very similar to that of the Chinaman. (See my report dated 31st ultimo.)
+
+He finally agreed to talk if I would promise that he should not be
+charged and that his name should never be mentioned to anyone in
+connection with what he might tell me. I promised him that outside the
+ordinary official routine I would respect his request, and he told me
+some very curious things, which no doubt have a bearing on the case.
+
+For instance, he had discovered--I don't know in what way--that the dead
+Chinaman, whose name was Pi Lung, had been in negotiation with Huang
+Chow for some sort of job in his warehouse. Poland had seen the man
+talking to Huang's daughter, at the end of the alley which leads to the
+place. He seemed to attach extraordinary importance to this fact. At
+last:
+
+"I'll tell you what it is," he said. "That Chink was a stranger to
+Limehouse; I can swear to it. He was a gent of his hands; I reckon
+they've got 'em in China as well as here. He went out for the old boy's
+money-box, and finished like Cohen finished."
+
+"Make your meaning clearer," I said.
+
+"My meaning's this: Old Huang Chow is the biggest dealer in stolen and
+smuggled valuables from overseas we've got in London. He's something
+else as well; he's a big swell in China. But here's the point. He's
+got business with buyers all over London, and they have to pay cash--no
+checks. He doesn't bank it: I've proved that. He's got it in gold, or
+diamonds, or something, being wise to present conditions, hidden there
+in the house. Pi Lung was after his hoard. He didn't get it. Cohen and
+me was after it. Where's Cohen?"
+
+I agreed that it looked very suspicious, and presently:
+
+"When I went in with Cohen," continued Poland, "I knew one thing
+he didn't know--a short cut into the warehouse. He's been playing
+pretty-like with Lala, old Huang's daughter, and it's my belief that
+he knew where the store was hidden; but he never told me. We knew there
+were special men on duty, and we'd arranged that I was to give a signal
+when the patrol had passed. Cohen all the time had planned to double on
+me. While I was watching down on the Causeway end he climbed up and got
+in through the skylight I'd shown him. When I got there he was missing,
+but the skylight was open. I started off after him."
+
+Then Poland clutched me, and his fright was very real.
+
+"I heard a shriek like nothing I ever heard in my life. I saw a light
+shine through the trap, and then I heard a sort of moaning. Last, I
+heard a bang, and the light went out. I staggered down the passage half
+silly, started to run, and ran straight into the arms of two coppers."
+
+This evidence I thought was conclusive, and in accordance with your
+instructions I proceeded to Mr. Isaacs in Dover Street. He didn't seem
+too pleased at my suggestion, but when I pointed out to him that one
+good turn deserved another, he agreed to give me an introduction to
+Huang Chow.
+
+I adopted a very simple disguise, just altering my complexion and
+sticking on a moustache with spirit gum, hair by hair, and trimming it
+down military fashion. Everything ran smoothly, and I seemed to make a
+fairly favourable impression upon Lala Huang, the Chinaman's daughter,
+who evidently interviews prospective customers before they are admitted
+to the warehouse.
+
+She is a Eurasian and extremely good looking. But when I found myself
+in the room where old Huang keeps his treasures, I really thought I was
+dreaming. It's a collection that must be worth thousands. He showed me
+snuff-bottles, cut out of gems, and with a little opening no bigger than
+the hole in a pipe-stem, but with wonderful paintings done inside the
+bottles. He'd got a model of a pagoda made out of human teeth, and a big
+golden rug woven from the hair of Circassian slave girls. Excuse this,
+Chief Inspector; I know it is what you call the romantic stuff; but I
+think it would have impressed you if you had seen it.
+
+Anyway, I bought a little enamelled box, in accordance with Mr. Isaacs's
+instructions, although whether I succeeded in convincing Huang Chow that
+I knew anything about the matter is more than doubtful. He got up from
+a sort of throne he sits on, and led the way up a broad staircase to a
+private room above.
+
+"Of course, you have brought the cash, Mr. Hampden?" he said.
+
+He speaks quite faultless English. He walked up three steps to a sort of
+raised writing-table in this upstairs room, and I counted out the
+money to him. When he sat at the table he faced toward the room, and I
+couldn't help thinking that, in his horn-rimmed spectacles, he looked
+like some old magistrate. He explained that he would pack the purchase
+for me, but that I must personally take it away. And:
+
+"You understand," said he, "that you bought it from a gentleman who had
+purchased it abroad."
+
+I said I quite understood. He bowed me out very politely, and presently
+I found myself back in the office with Lala Huang.
+
+She seemed quite disposed to talk, and I chatted with her while the box
+was being packed for me to take away. I knew I must make good use of my
+time, but you have never given me a job I liked less. I mean, there
+is something very appealing about her, and I hated to think that I was
+playing a double game. However, without actually agreeing to see me
+again, she told me enough to enable me to meet her "accidentally," if I
+wanted to. Therefore, I am going to look out for her this evening, and
+probably take her to a picture palace, or somewhere where we can have a
+quiet talk. She seems to be fancy free, and for some reason I feel sorry
+for the girl. I don't altogether like the job, but I hope to justify
+your faith in me, Chief.
+
+I will prepare my official report this evening when I return.
+
+Yours obediently,--JOHN DURHAM.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+LALA HUANG
+
+
+
+"No," said Lala Huang, "I don't like London--not this part of London."
+
+"Where would you rather be?" asked Durham. "In China?"
+
+Dusk had dropped its merciful curtain over Limehouse, and as the two
+paced slowly along West India Dock Road it seemed to the detective that
+a sort of glamour had crept into the scene.
+
+He was a clever man within his limitations, and cultured up to a point;
+but he was not philosopher enough to know that he viewed the purlieus
+of Limehouse through a haze of Oriental mystery conjured up by the
+conversation of his companion. Temple bells there were in the clangour
+of the road cars. The smoke-stacks had a semblance of pagodas. Burma she
+had conjured up before him, and China, and the soft islands where she
+had first seen the light. For as well as a streak of European, there
+was Kanaka blood in Lala, which lent her an appeal quite new to Durham,
+insidious and therefore dangerous.
+
+"Not China," she replied. "Somehow I don't think I shall ever see China
+again. But my father is rich, and it is dreadful to think that we live
+here when there are so many more beautiful places to live in."
+
+"Then why does he stay?" asked Durham with curiosity.
+
+"For money, always for money," answered Lala, shrugging her shoulders.
+"Yet if it is not to bring happiness, what good is it?"
+
+"What good indeed?" murmured Durham.
+
+"There is no fun for me," said the girl pathetically. "Sometimes someone
+nice comes to do business, but mostly they are Jews, Jews, always Jews,
+and------" Again she shrugged eloquently.
+
+Durham perceived the very opening for which he had been seeking..
+
+"You evidently don't like Jews," he said endeavouring to speak lightly.
+
+"No," murmured the girl, "I don't think I do. Some are nice, though. I
+think it is the same with every kind of people--there are good and bad."
+
+"Were you ever in America?" asked Durham.
+
+"No."
+
+"I was just thinking," he explained, "that I have known several American
+Jews who were quite good fellows."
+
+"Yes?" said Lala, looking up at him naively, "I met one not long ago. He
+was not nice at all."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Durham, startled by this admission, which he had not
+anticipated. "One of your father's customers?"
+
+"Yes, a man named Cohen."
+
+"Cohen?"
+
+"A funny little chap," continued the girl. "He tried to make love
+to me." She lowered her lashes roguishly. "I knew all along he was
+pretending. He was a thief, I think. I was afraid of him."
+
+Durham did some rapid thinking, then:
+
+"Did you say his name was Cohen?" he asked.
+
+"That was the name he gave."
+
+"A man named Cohen, an American, was found dead in the river quite
+recently."
+
+Lala stopped dead and clutched his arm.
+
+"How do you know?" she demanded.
+
+"There was a paragraph in this morning's paper."
+
+She hesitated, then:
+
+"Did it describe him?" she asked.
+
+"No," replied Durham, "I don't think it did in detail. At least, the
+only part of the description which I remember is that he wore a large
+and valuable diamond on his left hand."
+
+"Oh!" whispered Lala.
+
+She released her grip of Durham's arm and went on.
+
+"What?" he asked. "Did you think it was someone you knew?"
+
+"I did know him," she replied simply. "The man who was found drowned. It
+is the same. I am sure now, because of the diamond ring. What paper did
+you read it in? I want to read it myself."
+
+"I'm afraid I can't remember. It was probably the Daily Mail."
+
+"Had he been drowned?"
+
+"I presume so--yes," replied Durham guardedly.
+
+Lala Huang was silent for some time while they paced on through the
+dusk. Then:
+
+"How strange!" she said in a low voice.
+
+"I am sorry I mentioned it," declared Durham. "But how was I to know it
+was your friend?"
+
+"He was no friend of mine," returned the girl sharply. "I hated him. But
+it is strange nevertheless. I am sure he intended to rob my father."
+
+"And is that why you think it strange?"
+
+"Yes," she said, but her voice was almost inaudible.
+
+They were come now to the narrow street communicating with the courtway
+in which the great treasure-house of Huang Chow was situated, and Lala
+stopped at the corner.
+
+"It was nice of you to walk along with me," she said. "Do you live in
+Limehouse?"
+
+"No," replied Durham, "I don't. As a matter of fact, I came down here
+to-night in the hope of seeing you again."
+
+"Did you?"
+
+The girl glanced up at him doubtfully, and his distaste for the task set
+him by his superior increased with the passing of every moment. He was
+a man of some imagination, a great reader, and ambitious professionally.
+He appreciated the fact that Chief Inspector Kerry looked for great
+things from him, but for this type of work he had little inclination.
+
+There was too much chivalry in his make-up to enable him to play upon a
+woman's sentiments, even in the interests of justice. By whatever means
+the man Cohen had met his death, and whether or no the Chinaman Pi Lung
+had died by the same hand, Lala Huang was innocent of any complicity in
+these matters, he was perfectly well assured.
+
+Doubts were to come later when he was away from her, when he had had
+leisure to consider that she might regard him in the light of a third
+potential rifler of her father's treasure-house. But at the moment,
+looking down into her dark eyes, he reproached himself and wondered
+where his true duty lay.
+
+"It is so gray and dull and sordid here," said the girl, looking down
+the darkened street. "There is no one much to talk to."
+
+"But you have your business interests to keep you employed during the
+day, after all."
+
+"I hate it all. I hate it all."
+
+"But you seem to have perfect freedom?"
+
+"Yes. My mother, you see, was not Chinese."
+
+"But you wish to leave Limehouse?"
+
+"I do. I do. Just now it is not so bad, but in the winter how I tire of
+the gray skies, the endless drizzling rain. Oh!" She shrank back into
+the shadow of a doorway, clutching at Durham's arm. "Don't let Ah Fu see
+me."
+
+"Ah Fu? Who is Ah Fu?" asked Durham, also drawing back as a furtive
+figure went slinking down the opposite side of the street.
+
+"My father's servant. He let you in this morning."
+
+"And why must he not see you?"
+
+"I don't trust him. I think he tells my father things."
+
+"What is it that he carries in his hand?"
+
+"A birdcage, I expect."
+
+"A birdcage?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+He caught the gleam of her eyes as she looked up at him out of the
+shadow.
+
+"Is he, then, a bird-fancier?"
+
+"No, no, I can't explain because I don't understand myself. But Ah Fu
+goes to a place in Shadwell regularly and buys young birds, always very
+young ones and very little ones."
+
+"For what or for whom?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Have you an aviary in your house?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Do you mean that they disappear, these purchases of Ah Fu's?"
+
+"I often see him carrying a cage of young birds, but we have no birds in
+the house."
+
+"How perfectly extraordinary!" muttered Durham.
+
+"I distrust Ah Fu," whispered the girl. "I am glad he did not see me
+with you."
+
+"Young birds," murmured Durham absently. "What kind of young birds? Any
+particular breed?"
+
+"No; canaries, linnets--all sorts. Isn't it funny?" The girl laughed in
+a childish way. "And now I think Ah Fu will have gone in, so I must say
+good night."
+
+But when presently Detective Durham found himself walking back along
+West India Dock Road, his mind's eye was set upon the slinking figure of
+a Chinaman carrying a birdcage.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A HINT OF INCENSE
+
+
+
+One Chinaman more or less does not make any very great difference to
+the authorities responsible for maintaining law and order in Limehouse.
+Asiatic settlers are at liberty to follow their national propensities,
+and to knife one another within reason. This is wisdom. Such recreations
+are allowed, if not encouraged, by all wise rulers of Eastern peoples.
+
+"Found drowned," too, is a verdict which has covered many a dark mystery
+of old Thames, but "Found in the river, death having been due to the
+action of some poison unknown," is a finding which even in the case of a
+Chinaman is calculated to stimulate the jaded official mind.
+
+New Scotland Yard had given Durham a roving commission, and had been
+justified in the fact that the second victim, and this time not a
+Chinaman, had been found under almost identical conditions. The link
+with the establishment of Huang Chow was incomplete, and Durham fully
+recognized that it was up to him to make it sound and incontestable.
+
+Jim Poland was not the only man in the East End who knew that the dead
+Chinaman had been in negotiation with Huang Chow. Kerry knew it, and had
+passed the information on to Durham.
+
+Some mystery surrounded the life of the old dealer, who was said to be
+a mandarin of high rank, but his exact association with the deaths first
+of the Chinaman Pi Lung, and second of Cohen, remained to be proved.
+Certain critics have declared the Metropolitan detective service to be
+obsolete and inefficient. Kerry, as a potential superintendent, resented
+these criticisms, and in his protege Durham, perceived a member of the
+new generation who was likely in time to produce results calculated to
+remove this stigma.
+
+Durham recognized that a greater responsibility rested upon his
+shoulders than the actual importance of the case might have indicated;
+and now, proceeding warily along the deserted streets, he found his
+brain to be extraordinarily active and his imagination very much alive.
+
+There is a night life in Limehouse, as he had learned, but it is a mole
+life, a subterranean life, of which no sign appears above ground after a
+certain hour. Nevertheless, as he entered the area which harbours those
+strange, hidden resorts the rumour of which has served to create the
+glamour of Chinatown, he found himself to be thinking of the great
+influence said to be wielded by Huang Chow, and wondering if unseen
+spies watched his movements.
+
+Lala was Oriental, and now, alone in the night, distrust leapt into
+being within him. He had been attracted by her and had pitied her.
+He told himself now that this was because of her dark beauty and the
+essentially feminine appeal which she made. She was perhaps a vampire
+of the most dangerous sort, one who lured men to strange deaths for some
+sinister object beyond reach of a Western imagination.
+
+He found himself doubting the success of those tactics upon which,
+earlier in the day, he had congratulated himself. Perhaps beneath the
+guise of Hampden, who bought antique furniture on commission, those
+cunning old eyes beneath the horn-rimmed spectacles had perceived the
+detective hidden, or at least had marked subterfuge.
+
+While he could not count Lala a conquest--for he had not even
+attempted to make love to her--the ease with which he had developed the
+acquaintance now, afforded matter for suspicion.
+
+At the entrance to the court communicating with the establishment of
+Huang Chow he paused, looking cautiously about him. The men on the
+Limehouse beats had been warned of the investigation afoot tonight, and
+there was a plain-clothes man on point duty at no great distance away,
+although carefully hidden, so that Durham had quite failed to detect his
+presence.
+
+Durham wore rough clothes and rubber-soled shoes; and now, as he entered
+the court, he was thinking of the official report of the police sergeant
+who, not so many hours before, had paid a visit to the house of Huang
+Chow in order to question him respecting his knowledge of the dead man
+Cohen, and to learn when last he had seen him.
+
+Old Huang, who had received his caller in the large room upstairs, the
+room which boasted the presence of the writing-dais, had exhibited no
+trace of confusion, assuring the sergeant that he had not seen the
+man Cohen for several days. Cohen had come to him with an American
+introduction, which he, Huang, believed to be forged, and had wanted him
+to undertake a shady agency, respecting the details of which he remained
+peculiarly reticent. In short, nothing had been gained by this official
+interrogation, and Huang blandly denied any knowledge of an attempted
+burglary of his establishment.
+
+"What have I to lose?" he had asked the inquirer. "A lot of old lumber
+which I have accumulated during many years, and a reputation for being
+wealthy, due to my lonely habits and to the ignorance of those who live
+around me."
+
+Durham, mentally reviewing the words of the report, reconstructed the
+scene in his mind; and now, having come to the end of the lane where
+the iron post rested, he stood staring up at a place in the ancient wall
+where several bricks had decayed, and where it was possible, according
+to the statement of the man Poland, to climb up on to a piece of sloping
+roof, and thence gain the skylight through which Cohen had obtained
+admittance on the night of his death.
+
+He made sure that his automatic pistol was in his pocket, questioned the
+dull sounds of the riverside for a moment, looking about him anxiously,
+and then, using the leaning post as a stepping-stone, he succeeded in
+wedging his foot into a crevice in the wall. By the exercise of some
+agility he scrambled up to the top, and presently found himself lying
+upon a sloping roof.
+
+The skylight remained well out of reach, but his rubber-soled shoes
+enabled him to creep up the slates until he could grasp the framework
+with his hands. Presently he found himself perched upon the trap which,
+if his information could be relied upon, possessed no fastener, or
+one so faulty that the trap could be raised by means of a brad-awl.
+He carried one in his pocket, and, screwing it into the framework, he
+lifted it cautiously, making very little noise.
+
+The trap opened, and up to his nostrils there stole a queer, indefinable
+odour, partly that which belongs to old Oriental furniture and stuffs,
+but having mingled with it a hint of incense and of something else not
+so easily named. He recognized the smell of that strange store-room,
+which, as Mr. Hampden, he had recently visited.
+
+For one moment he thought he could detect the distant note of a bell.
+But, listening, he heard nothing, and was reassured.
+
+He rested the trap back against the frame, and shone the ray of an
+electric torch down into the darkness beneath him. The light fell upon
+the top of a low carven table, dragon-legged and gilded. Upon it rested
+the model pagoda constructed of human teeth, and there was something in
+this discovery which made Durham feel inclined to shudder. However, the
+impulse was only a passing one.
+
+He measured the distance with his eye. The little table stood beside a
+deep divan, and he saw that with care it would be possible to drop upon
+this divan without making much noise. He calculated its exact position
+before replacing the torch in his pocket, and then, resting back against
+one side of the frame, he clutched the other with his hands. He wriggled
+gradually down until further purchase became impossible. He then let
+himself drop, and swung for a moment by his hands before releasing his
+hold.
+
+He fell, as he had calculated, upon the divan. It creaked ominously.
+Catching his foot in the cushions, he stumbled and lay forward for a
+moment upon his face, listening intently.
+
+The room was very hot but nothing stirred.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE SCUFFLING SOUND
+
+
+
+Detective Durham, as he lay there inhaling the peculiar perfume of the
+place, recognized that he had put himself outside the pale of official
+protection, and was become technically a burglar.
+
+He wondered if Chief Inspector Kerry would have approved; but he had
+outlined this plan of investigation for himself, and knew well that,
+if it were crowned by success, the end would be regarded as having
+justified the means. On the other hand, in the event of detention he
+must personally bear the consequences of such irregular behaviour. He
+knew well, however, that his celebrated superior had achieved promotion
+by methods at least as irregular; and he knew that if he could but
+obtain evidence to account for the death of the man Cohen, and of the
+Chinaman Pi Lung, who had preceded him by the same mysterious path, the
+way of his obtaining it would not be too closely questioned.
+
+He was an ambitious man, and consequently one who took big chances.
+Nothing disturbed the silence; he sat upon the divan and again pressed
+the button of his torch, shining it all about the low-beamed apartment
+and peering curiously into the weird shadows of the place. He calculated
+he was now in the position which Cohen had occupied during the last
+moments of his life, and a sense of the uncanny touched him coldly.
+
+As he thought of the unnatural screams spoken of by Poland, some strange
+instinct prompted him to curl up his feet upon the divan again, as
+though a secret menace crawled upon the floor amid its many rugs and
+carpets.
+
+He must now endeavour to reconstruct the plan upon which the American
+cracksman had operated. Poland had a persistent belief that Cohen had
+known where the fabled hoard of Huang Chow was concealed.
+
+Durham began a deliberate inspection of the place. He thought it
+unlikely that a wily old Chinaman, assuming that he possessed hidden
+wealth, would keep it in so accessible a spot as this. It was far more
+probable that he had a fireproof safe in the room upstairs, perhaps
+built into the wall. Yet, according to Poland's account, it was in this
+room and not in any other that death came to Diamond Fred.
+
+The wall-hangings first engaged Durham's attention. He moved them aside
+systematically, one after another, seeking for any hiding-place, but
+failing to find one. The door communicating with the outer office he
+found to be locked, but he did not believe for a moment that the office
+would be worthy of inspection.
+
+There were cases containing jewelled weapons and cups and goblets inlaid
+with precious stones, but none of these seemed to have been tampered
+with, and all were locked, as was the big cabinet filled with snuff
+bottles.
+
+Many of the larger pieces about the place contained drawers and
+cupboards, and these he systematically opened one after another, without
+making any discovery of note. Some of the cupboards contained broken
+pieces of crockery, and more or less damaged curios of one kind and
+another, but none of them gave him the clue for which he was seeking.
+
+He examined the couch upon which Huang Chow had been seated when first
+he had met him, but although he searched it scientifically he was
+rewarded by no discovery.
+
+A very fusty and unpleasant smell was more noticeable at this point than
+elsewhere in the room, and he found himself staring speculatively up
+the wide, carpeted stairs. Next he turned his attention to the lacquered
+coffin which occupied the corresponding recess to that filled by the
+couch. It was an extraordinarily ornate piece of lacquer work and
+probably of great value.
+
+The lid appeared to be screwed on, and Durham stood staring at the
+thing, half revolted and half fascinated. He failed to discover any
+means of opening it, however, and when he tried to move it bodily found
+it very heavy. He came to the conclusion that all the portable valuables
+were contained in locked cases or cabinets, and out of this discovery
+grew an idea.
+
+The case containing the snuff bottles stood too close to the wall to
+enable him to test his new theory, but a square case near the office
+door, in which were five of six small but almost priceless pieces of
+porcelain, afforded the very evidence for which he was looking.
+
+Thin electric flex descended from somewhere inside the case down one
+of the legs of the pedestal, and through a neatly drilled hole in the
+floor, evidently placed there to accommodate it.
+
+"Burglar alarm!" he muttered.
+
+The opening of this case, and doubtless of any of the others, would
+set alarm bells ringing. This was not an unimportant discovery, but it
+brought him very little nearer to a solution of the chief problem which
+engaged his mind. Assuming that Cohen had opened one of the cases and
+had alarmed old Huang Chow, what steps had the latter taken to deal with
+the intruder which had resulted in so ghastly a death? And how had he
+disposed of the body?
+
+As Durham stood there musing and looking down through the plate-glass at
+the delicate porcelain beneath, a faint sound intruded itself upon the
+stillness. It gave him another idea. Part of the floor was stone-paved,
+but part was wood.
+
+Upon a portion of the latter, where no carpet rested, Durham dropped
+flat, pressing his ear to the floor.
+
+A faint swishing and trickling sound was perceptible from some place
+beneath.
+
+"Ah!" he murmured.
+
+Remembering that the premises almost overhung the Thames, he divined
+that the cellars were flooded at high tide, or that there was some kind
+of drain or cutting running underneath the house.
+
+He stood up again, listening intently for any sound within the building.
+He thought he had detected something, and now, as he stood there alert,
+he heard it again--a faint scuffling, which might have been occasioned
+by rats or even mice, but which, in some subtle and very unpleasant way,
+did not suggest the movements of these familiar rodents.
+
+Even as he perceived it, it ceased, leaving him wondering, and
+uncomfortably conscious of a sudden dread of his surroundings. He
+wondered in what part of this mysterious house Lala resided, and
+recognizing that his departure must leave traces, he determined to
+prosecute his inquiries as far as possible, since another opportunity
+might not arise.
+
+He was baffled but still hopeful. Something there was in the smell of
+the place which threatened to unnerve him; or perhaps in its silence,
+which remained quite unbroken save when, by acute listening, one
+detected the dripping of water.
+
+That unexplained scuffling sound, too, which he had failed to trace
+or identify, lingered in his memory insistently, and for some reason
+contained the elements of fear.
+
+He crossed the room and began softly to mount the stair. It creaked only
+slightly, and the door at the top proved to be ajar. He peeped in, to
+find the place empty. It was a typical Chinese apartment, containing
+very little furniture, the raised desk being the most noticeable item,
+except for a small shrine which faced it on the other side of the room.
+
+He mounted the steps to the desk and inspected a number of loose papers
+which lay upon it. Without exception they were written in Chinese.
+A sort of large, dull white blotting-pad lay upon the table, but its
+surface was smooth and glossy.
+
+Over it was suspended what looked like a lampshade, but on inspection it
+proved to contain no lamp, but to communicate, by a sort of funnel, with
+the ceiling above.
+
+At this contrivance Durham stared long and curiously, but without coming
+to any conclusion respecting its purpose. He might have investigated
+further, but he became aware of a dull and regular sound in the room
+behind him.
+
+He turned in a flash, staring in the direction of two curtains draped
+before what he supposed to be a door.
+
+On tiptoe he crossed and gently drew the curtains aside.
+
+He looked into a small, cell-like room, lighted by one window, where
+upon a low bed Huang Chow lay sleeping peacefully!
+
+Durham almost held his breath; then, withdrawing as quietly as he had
+approached, he descended the stair. At the foot his attention was again
+arrested by the faint scuffling sound. It ceased as suddenly as it
+had begun, leaving him wondering and conscious anew of a chill of
+apprehension.
+
+He had already made his plans for departure, but knew that they must
+leave evidence, when discovered, of his visit.
+
+A large and solid table stood near the divan, and he moved this
+immediately under the trap. Upon it he laid a leopard-skin to deaden
+any noise he might make, and then upon the leopard-skin he set a massive
+chair: he replaced his torch in his pocket and drew himself up on to the
+roof again. Reclosing the trap by means of the awl which he had screwed
+into it, he removed the awl and placed it in his pocket.
+
+Then, sliding gently down the sloping roof, he dropped back into the
+deserted court.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+A CAGE OF BIRDS
+
+
+
+"No," said Lala, "we have never had robbers in the house." She looked up
+at Durham naively. "You are not a thief, are you?" she asked.
+
+"No, I assure you I am not," he answered, and felt himself flushing to
+the roots of his hair.
+
+They were seated in a teashop patronized by the workers of the district;
+and as Durham, his elbows resting on the marble-topped table, looked
+into the dark eyes of his companion, he told himself again that whatever
+might be the secrets of old Huang Chow, his daughter did not share them.
+
+The Chinaman had made no report to the authorities, although the piled
+up furniture beneath the skylight must have afforded conclusive evidence
+that a burglarious entry had been made into the premises.
+
+"I should feel very nervous," Durham declared, "with all those valuables
+in the house."
+
+"I feel nervous about my father," the girl answered in a low voice. "His
+room opens out of the warehouse, but mine is shut away in another part
+of the building. And Ah Fu sleeps behind the office."
+
+"Were you not afraid when you suspected that Cohen was a burglar? You
+told me yourself that you did suspect him."
+
+"Yes, I spoke to my father about it."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"Oh"--she shrugged her shoulders--"he just smiled and told me not to
+worry."
+
+"And that was the last you heard about the matter?"
+
+"Yes, until you told me he was dead."
+
+Again he questioned the dark eyes and again was baffled. He felt
+tempted, and not for the first time, to throw up the case. After all, it
+rested upon very slender data--the mysterious death of a Chinaman
+whose history was unknown and the story of a crook whose word was worth
+nothing.
+
+Finally he asked himself, as he had asked himself before, what did it
+matter? If old Huang Chow had disposed of these people in some strange
+manner, they had sought to rob him. The morality of the case was
+complicated and obscure, and more and more he was falling under the
+spell of Lala's dark eyes.
+
+But always it was his professional pride which came to the rescue.
+Murder had been done, whether justifiably or otherwise, and to him had
+been entrusted the discovery of the murderer. It seemed that failure
+was to be his lot, for if Lala knew anything she was a most consummate
+actress, and if she did not, his last hope of information was gone.
+
+He would have liked nothing better than to be rid of the affair,
+provided he could throw up the case with a clear conscience. But when
+presently he parted from the attractive Eurasian, and watched her slim
+figure as, turning, she waved her hand and disappeared round a corner,
+he knew that rest was not for him.
+
+He had discovered the emporium of a Shadwell live-stock dealer with whom
+Ah Fu had a standing order for newly fledged birds of all descriptions.
+Purchases apparently were always made after dusk, and Ah Fu with his
+birdcage was due that evening.
+
+A scheme having suggested itself to Durham, he now proceeded to put it
+into execution, so that when dusk came, and Ah Fu, carrying an empty
+birdcage, set out from the house of Huang Chow, a very dirty-looking
+loafer passed the corner of the street at about the time that the
+Chinaman came slinking out.
+
+Durham had mentally calculated that Ah Fu would be gone about half an
+hour upon his mysterious errand, but the Chinaman travelled faster than
+he had calculated.
+
+Just as he was about to climb up once more on to the sloping roof,
+he heard the pattering footsteps returning to the courtyard, although
+rather less than twenty minutes had elapsed since the man had set out.
+
+Durham darted round the corner and waited until he heard the door
+closed; then, returning, he scrambled up on to the roof, creeping
+forward until he was lying looking down through the skylight into the
+darkened room below.
+
+For ten minutes or more he waited, until he began to feel cramped and
+uncomfortable. Then that happened which he had hoped and anticipated
+would happen. The place beneath became illuminated, not fully, by means
+of the hanging lamps, but dimly so that distorted shadows were cast
+about the floor. Someone had entered carrying a lantern.
+
+Durham's view-point limited his area of vision, but presently, as the
+light came nearer and nearer, he discerned Ah Fu, carrying a lantern
+in one hand and a birdcage in the other. He could hear nothing, for the
+trap fitted well and the glass was thick. Moreover, it was very dirty.
+He was afraid, however, to attempt to clean a space.
+
+Ah Fu apparently had set the lantern upon a table, and into the radius
+of its light there presently moved a stooping figure. Durham recognized
+Huang Chow, and felt his heart beats increasing in rapidity.
+
+Clutching the framework of the trap with his hands, he moved his head
+cautiously, so that presently he was enabled to see the two Chinamen.
+They were standing beside the lacquered coffin upon its dragon-legged
+pedestal. Durham stifled an exclamation.
+
+One end of the ornate sarcophagus had been opened in some way!
+
+Now, to the watcher's unbounded astonishment, Ah Fu placed the birdcage
+in the opening, and apparently reclosed the trap in the end of the
+coffin. He made other manipulations with his bony yellow fingers, which
+Durham failed to comprehend. Finally the birdcage was withdrawn again,
+and as it was passed before the light of the lantern he saw that it was
+empty, whereas previously it had contained a number of tiny birds all
+huddled up together!
+
+The light gleamed upon the spectacles of Huang Chow. Watching him,
+Durham saw him take out from a hidden drawer in the pedestal a long,
+slender key, insert it in a lock concealed by the ornate carving,
+and then slightly raise the lid which had so recently defied his own
+efforts.
+
+He raised it only a few inches, and then, taking up the lantern, peered
+into the interior of the coffin, at the same time waving his hand
+in dismissal to Ah Fu. For a while he stood there, peering into the
+interior, and then, lowering the lid again, he relocked this gruesome
+receptacle and, lantern in hand, began to mount the stair.
+
+Durham inhaled deeply. He realized that during the last few seconds he
+had been holding his breath. Now, as he began to creep back down the
+slope, he discovered that his hands were shaking.
+
+He dropped down into the court again, and for several minutes leaned
+against the wall, endeavouring to reason out an explanation of what he
+had seen, and in a measure to regain his composure.
+
+There was a horror underlying it all which he was half afraid to face.
+But the real clue to the mystery still eluded him.
+
+Whether what he had witnessed were some kind of obscene ceremony,
+or whether an explanation more vile must be sought, he remained
+undetermined. He must repeat his exploit, if possible, and once more
+gain access to the room which contained the lacquer coffin.
+
+But the adventure was very distasteful. He recollected the smell of the
+place, and the memory brought with it a sense of nausea. He thought of
+Lala Huang, and his ideas became grotesque and chaotic. Yet the solution
+of the mystery lay at last within his grasp, and to the zest of the
+investigator everything else became subjugated.
+
+He walked slowly away, silent in his rubber-soled shoes.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE PICTURE ON THE PAD
+
+
+
+Lala Huang lay listening to the vague sounds which disturbed the silence
+of the night. Presently her thoughts made her sigh wearily. During the
+lifetime of her mother, who had died while Lala was yet a little girl,
+life had been different and so much brighter.
+
+She imagined that in the mingled sounds of dock and river which came to
+her she could hear the roar of surf upon a golden beach. The stuffy
+air of Limehouse took on the hot fragrance of a tropic island, and she
+sighed again, but this time rapturously, for in spirit she was a child
+once more, lulled by the voice of the great Pacific.
+
+Young as she was, the death of her mother had been a blow from which it
+had taken her several years to recover. Then had commenced those
+long travels with her father, from port to port, from ocean to ocean,
+sometimes settling awhile, but ever moving onward, onward.
+
+He had had her educated after a fashion, and his love for her she did
+not doubt. But her mother's blood spoke more strongly than that part of
+her which was Chinese, and there was softness and a delicious languor in
+her nature which her father did not seem to understand, and of which he
+did not appear to approve.
+
+She knew that he was wealthy. She knew that his ways were not straight
+ways, although that part of his business to which he had admitted her as
+an assistant, and an able one, was legitimate enough, or so it seemed.
+
+Consignments of goods arrived at strange hours of the night at
+the establishment in Limehouse, and from this side of her father's
+transactions she was barred. The big double doors opening on the little
+courtyard would be opened by Ah Fu, and packing cases of varying sizes
+be taken in. Sometimes the sounds of these activities would reach her in
+her room in a distant part of the house; but only in the morning would
+she recognize their significance, when in the warehouse she would
+discover that some new and choice pieces had arrived.
+
+She wondered with what object her father accumulated wealth, and hoped,
+against the promptings of her common sense, that he designed to return
+East, there to seek a retirement amidst the familiar and the beautiful
+things of the Orient which belonged to Lala's dream of heaven.
+
+Stories about her father often reached her ears. She knew that he
+had held high rank in China before she had been born; but that he had
+sacrificed his rights in some way had always been her theory. She had
+been too young to understand the stories which her mother had told her
+sometimes; but that there were traits in the character of Huang Chow
+which it was not good for his daughter to know she appreciated and
+accepted as a secret sorrow.
+
+He allowed her all the freedom to which her education entitled her. Her
+life was that of a European and not of an Oriental woman. She loved him
+in a way, but also feared him. She feared the dark and cruel side of his
+character, of which, at various periods during their life together, she
+had had terrifying glimpses.
+
+She had decided that cruelty was his vice. In what way he gratified
+it she had never learned, nor did she desire to do so. There were
+periodical visits from the police, but she had learned long ago that her
+father was too clever to place himself within reach of the law.
+
+However crooked one part of his business methods might be, his dealings
+with his clients were straight enough, so that no one had any object in
+betraying him; and the legality or otherwise of his foreign relations
+evidently afforded no case against him upon which the authorities could
+act, or upon which they cared to act.
+
+In America it had been graft which had protected him. She had learned
+this accidentally, but never knew whether he bought his immunity in the
+same way in London.
+
+Some of the rumours which reached her were terrifying. Latterly she had
+met many strange glances in her comings and goings about Limehouse. This
+peculiar atmosphere had always preceded the break-up of every home which
+they had shared. She divined the fact that in some way Huang Chow
+had outstayed his welcome in Chinatown, London. Where their next
+resting-place would be she could not imagine, but she prayed that it
+might be in some more sunny clime.
+
+She found herself to be thinking over much of John Hampden. His bona
+fides were not above suspicion, but she could scarcely expect to meet a
+really white man in such an environment.
+
+Lala would have liked to think that he was white, but could not force
+herself to do so. She would have liked to think that he sought her
+company because she appealed to him personally; but she had detected
+the fact that another motive underlay his attentions. She wondered if he
+could be another of those moths drawn by the light of that fabled wealth
+of her father.
+
+It was curious, she reflected, that Huang Chow never checked--indeed,
+openly countenanced--her friendship with the many chance acquaintances
+she had made, even when her own instincts told her that the men were
+crooked; so that, knowing the acumen of her father, she was well aware
+that he must know it too.
+
+Several of these pseudo lovers of hers had died. It was a point which
+often occurred to her mind, but upon which she did not care to dwell
+even now. But John Hampden--John Hampden was different. He was not
+wholly sincere. She sighed wearily. But nevertheless he was not like
+some of the others.
+
+She started up in bed, seized with a sudden dreadful idea. He was a
+detective!
+
+She understood now why she had found so much that was white in him,
+but so much that was false. His presence seemed to be very near her.
+Something caressing in his voice echoed in her mind. She found herself
+to be listening to the muted sounds of Limehouse and of the waterway
+which flowed so close beside her.
+
+That old longing for the home of her childhood returned tenfold, and
+tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She was falling in love with
+this man whose object was her father's ruin. A cold terror clutched
+at her heart. Even now, while their friendship was so new, so strange,
+there was a query, a stark, terrifying query, to stand up before her.
+
+If put to the test, which would she choose?
+
+She was unable to face that issue, and dropped back upon her pillow,
+stifling a sob.
+
+Yes, he was a detective. In some way her father had at last attracted
+the serious attention of the law. Rumours of this were flying round
+Chinatown, to which she had not been entirely deaf. She thought of a
+hundred questions, a hundred silences, and grew more and more convinced
+of the truth.
+
+What did he mean to do? Before her a ghostly company uprose--the shadows
+of some she had known with designs upon her father. John Hampden's
+design was different. But might he not join that mysterious company?
+
+Now again she suddenly sprang upright, this time because of a definite
+sound which had reached her ears from within the house: a very faint,
+bell-like tinkling which ceased almost immediately. She had heard it one
+night before, and quite recently; indeed, on the night before she had
+met John Hampden. Cohen--Cohen, the Jew, had died that night!
+
+She sprang lightly on to the floor, found her slippers, and threw a silk
+kimono over her nightrobe. She tiptoed cautiously to the door and opened
+it.
+
+It was at this very moment that old Huang Chow, asleep in his cell-like
+apartment, was aroused by the tinkling of a bell set immediately above
+his head. He awoke instantly, raised his hand and stopped the bell.
+His expression, could anyone have been present to see it, was a thing
+unpleasant to behold. Triumph was in it, and cunning cruelty.
+
+His long yellow fingers reached out for his hornrimmed spectacles
+which lay upon a little table beside him. Adjusting them, he pulled the
+curtains aside and shuffled silently across the large room.
+
+Mounting the steps to the raised writing-table, he rested his elbows
+upon it, and peered down at that curious blotting-pad which had so
+provoked the curiosity of Durham. Could Durham have seen it now the
+mystery must have been solved. It was an ingenious camera obscura
+apparatus, and dimly depicted upon its surface appeared a reproduction
+of part of the storehouse beneath! The part of it which was visible
+was that touched by the light of an electric torch, carried by a man
+crossing the floor in the direction of the lacquered coffin upon the
+gilded pedestal!
+
+Old Huang Chow chuckled silently, and his yellow fingers clutched the
+table edge as he moved to peer more closely into the picture.
+
+"Poor fool!" he whispered in Chinese. "Poor fool!"
+
+It was the man who had come with the introduction from Mr. Isaacs--a new
+impostor who sought to rob him, who sought to obtain information from
+his daughter, who had examined his premises last night, and had even
+penetrated upstairs, so that he, old Huang Chow, had been compelled to
+disconnect the apparatus and to feign sleep under the scrutiny of the
+intruder.
+
+To-night it would be otherwise. To-night it would be otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE LACQUERED COFFIN
+
+
+
+Durham gently raised the trap in the roof of Huang Chow's
+treasure-house. He was prepared for snares and pitfalls. No sane man, on
+the evidence which he, Durham, had been compelled to leave behind, would
+have neglected to fasten the skylight which so obviously afforded a
+means of entrance into his premises.
+
+Therefore, he was expected to return. The devilish mechanism was set
+ready to receive him. But the artist within him demanded that he should
+unmask the mystery with his own hands.
+
+Moreover, he doubted that an official visit, even now, would yield any
+results. Old Huang Chow was too cunning for that. If he was to learn how
+the man Cohen had died, he must follow the same path to the bitter end.
+But there were men on duty round the house, and he believed that he had
+placed them so secretly as to deceive even this master of cunning with
+whom he was dealing.
+
+He repeated his exploit, dropping with a dull thud upon the cushioned
+divan. Then, having lain there listening awhile, he pressed the button
+of his torch, and, standing up, crept across the room in the direction
+of the stairway.
+
+Here he paused awhile, listening intently. The image of Lala Huang arose
+before his mind's eye reproachfully, but he crushed the reproach, and
+advanced until he stood beside the lacquered coffin.
+
+He remembered where the key was hidden, and, stooping, he fumbled for a
+while and then found it. He was acutely conscious of an unnameable fear.
+He felt that he was watched, and yet was unwilling to believe it. The
+musty and unpleasant smell which he had noticed before became extremely
+perceptible.
+
+He quietly sought for the hidden lock, and, presently finding it,
+inserted the key, then paused awhile. He rested his torch upon the
+cushions of the divan where the light shone directly upon the coffin.
+Then, having his automatic in his left hand, he turned the key.
+
+He had expected now to be able to raise the lid as he had seen Huang
+Chow do; but the result was far more surprising.
+
+The lid, together with a second framework of fine netting, flew open
+with a resounding bang; and from the interior of the coffin uprose a
+most abominable stench.
+
+Durham started back a step, and as he did so witnessed a sight which
+turned him sick with horror.
+
+Out on to the edge of the coffin leapt the most gigantic spider which
+he had ever seen in his life! It had a body as big as a man's fist, jet
+black, with hairy legs like the legs of a crab and a span of a foot or
+more!
+
+A moment it poised there, while he swayed, sick with horror. Then,
+unhesitatingly, it leapt for his face!
+
+He groaned and fired, missed the horror, but diverted its leap, so that
+it fell with a sickening thud a yard behind him. He turned, staggering
+back towards the stair, and aware that a light had shone out from
+somewhere.
+
+A door had been opened only a few yards from where he stood, and there,
+framed in the opening, was Lala Huang, her eyes wide with terror and her
+gaze set upon him across the room.
+
+"You!" she whispered. "You!"
+
+"Go back!" he cried hoarsely. "Go back! Close the door. You don't
+understand--close the door!"
+
+Her gaze set wildly upon him, Lala staggered forward; stopped dead;
+looked down at her bare ankle, and then, seeing the thing which had
+fastened upon her, uttered a piercing shriek which rang throughout the
+place.
+
+At which moment the floor slid away beneath Durham, and he found himself
+falling--falling--and then battling for life in evil-smelling water,
+amidst absolute darkness.
+
+Police whistles were skirling around the house of Huang Chow. As the
+hidden men came running into the court:
+
+"You heard the shot?" cried the sergeant in charge. "I warned him not to
+go alone. Don't waste time on the door. One man stay on duty there; the
+rest of you follow me."
+
+In a few moments, led by the sergeant, the party came dropping heavily
+through the skylight into the treasure-house of Huang Chow, in which
+every lamp was now alight. A trap was open near the foot of the stairs,
+and from beneath it muffled cries proceeded. In this direction the
+sergeant headed. Craning over the trap:
+
+"Hallo, Mr. Durham!" he called. "Mr. Durham!"
+
+"Get a rope and a ladder," came a faint cry from below. "I can just
+touch bottom with my feet and keep my head above water, but the tide's
+coming in. Look to the girl, though, first. Look to the girl!"
+
+The sergeant turned to where, stretched upon a tiger skin before a
+half-open door, Lala Huang lay, scantily clothed and white as death.
+
+Upon one of her bare ankles was a discoloured mark.
+
+As the sergeant and another of the men stooped over her a moaning sound
+drew their attention to the stair, and there, bent and tottering slowly
+down, was old Huang Chow, his eyes peering through the owl-like glasses
+vacantly across the room to where his daughter lay.
+
+"My God!" whispered the sergeant, upon one knee beside her. He looked
+blankly into the face of the other man. "She's dead!"
+
+Two plain-clothes men were busy knotting together tapestries and pieces
+of rare stuff with which to draw Durham out of the pit; but at these old
+Huang Chow looked not at all, but gropingly crossed the room, as if he
+saw imperfectly, or could not believe what he saw. At last he reached
+the side of the dead girl, stooped, touched her, laid a trembling yellow
+hand over her heart, and then stood up again, looking from face to face.
+
+Ignoring the mingled activities about him, he crossed to the open coffin
+and began to fumble amongst the putrefying mass of bones and webbing
+which lay therein. Out from this he presently drew an iron coffer.
+
+Carrying it across the room he opened the lid. It was full almost to
+the top with uncut gems of every variety--diamonds, rubies, sapphires,
+emeralds, topaz, amethysts, flashing greenly, redly, whitely. In
+handfuls he grasped them and sprinkled them upon the body of the dead
+girl.
+
+"For you," he crooned brokenly in Chinese. "They were all for you!"
+
+The extemporized rope had just been lowered to Durham, when:
+
+"My God!" cried the sergeant, looking over Huang Chow's shoulder.
+"What's that?"
+
+He had seen the giant spider, the horror from Surinam, which the
+Chinaman had reared and fed to guard his treasure and to gratify his
+lust for the strange and cruel. The insect, like everything else in
+that house, was unusual, almost unique. It was one of the Black Soldier
+spiders, by some regarded as a native myth, but actually existing in
+Surinam and parts of Brazil. A member of the family, Mygale, its sting
+was more quickly and certainly fatal than that of a rattle-snake. Its
+instinct was fearlessly to attack any creature, great or small, which
+disturbed it in its dark hiding-place.
+
+Now, with feverish, horrible rapidity it was racing up the tapestries on
+the other side of the room.
+
+"Merciful God!" groaned the sergeant.
+
+Snatching a revolver from his pocket he fired shot after shot. The third
+hit the thing but did not kill it. It dropped back upon the floor and
+began to crawl toward the coffin. The sergeant ran across and at close
+quarters shot it again.
+
+Red blood oozed out from the hideous black body and began to form a deep
+stain upon the carpet.
+
+When Durham, drenched but unhurt, was hauled back into the
+treasure-house, he did not speak, but, scrambling into the room
+stood--pallid--staring dully at old Huang Chow.
+
+Huang Chow, upon his knees beside his daughter, was engaged in
+sprinkling priceless jewels over her still body, and murmuring in
+Chinese:
+
+"For you, for you, Lala. They were all for you."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+KERRY'S KID
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+RED KERRY ON DUTY
+
+
+
+Chief Inspector Kerry came down from the top of a motor-bus and stood on
+the sidewalk for a while gazing to right and left along Piccadilly.
+The night was humid and misty, now threatening fog and now rain. Many
+travellers were abroad at this Christmas season, the pleasure seekers
+easily to be distinguished from those whom business had detained in
+town, and who hurried toward their various firesides. The theatres
+were disgorging their audiences. Streams of lighted cars bore parties
+supperward; less pretentious taxicabs formed links in the chain.
+
+From the little huddled crowd of more economical theatre-goers who
+waited at the stopping place of the motor-buses, Kerry detached himself,
+walking slowly along westward and staring reflectively about him.
+Opposite the corner of Bond Street he stood still, swinging his malacca
+cane and gazing fixedly along this narrow bazaar street of the
+Baghdad of the West. His trim, athletic figure was muffled in a big,
+double-breasted, woolly overcoat, the collar turned up about his ears.
+His neat bowler hat was tilted forward so as to shade the fierce blue
+eyes. Indeed, in that imperfect light, little of the Chief Inspector's
+countenance was visible except his large, gleaming white teeth, which he
+constantly revealed in the act of industriously chewing mint gum.
+
+He smiled as he chewed. Duty had called him out into the mist, and for
+once he had obeyed reluctantly. That very afternoon had seen the return
+of Dan Kerry, junior, home from school for the Christmas vacation, and
+Dan was the apple of his father's eye.
+
+Mrs. Kerry had reserved her dour Scottish comments upon the boy's school
+report for a more seemly occasion than the first day of his holidays;
+but Kerry had made no attempt to conceal his jubilation--almost immoral,
+his wife had declared it to be--respecting the lad's athletic record.
+His work on the junior left wing had gained the commendation of a
+celebrated international; and Kerry, who had interviewed the gymnasium
+instructor, had learned that Dan Junior bade fair to become an amateur
+boxer of distinction.
+
+"He is faster on his feet than any boy I ever handled," the expert had
+declared. "He hasn't got the weight behind it yet, of course, but he's
+developing a left that's going to make history. I'm of opinion that
+there isn't a boy in the seniors can take him on, and I'll say that he's
+a credit to you."
+
+Those words had fallen more sweetly upon the ears of Chief Inspector
+Kerry than any encomium of the boy's learning could have done. On the
+purely scholastic side his report was not a good one, admittedly. "But,"
+murmured Kerry aloud, "he's going to be a man."
+
+He remembered that he had promised, despite the lateness of the hour, to
+telephone the lad directly he had received a certain report, and to tell
+him whether he might wait up for his return or whether he must turn in.
+Kerry, stamping his small, neatly shod feet upon the pavement, smiled
+agreeably. He was thinking of the telephone which recently he had had
+installed in his house in Brixton. His wife had demanded this as a
+Christmas box, pointing out how many uneasy hours she would be spared by
+the installation. Kerry had consented cheerfully enough, for was he not
+shortly to be promoted to the exalted post of a superintendent of the
+Criminal Investigation Department?
+
+These reflections were cheering and warming; and, waiting until a gap
+occurred in the stream of cabs and cars, he crossed Piccadilly and
+proceeded along Bond Street, swinging his shoulders in a manner which
+would have enabled any constable in the force to recognize "Red Kerry"
+at a hundred yards.
+
+The fierce eyes scrutinized the occupants of all the lighted cars. At
+pedestrians also he stared curiously, and at another smaller group of
+travellers waiting for the buses on the left-hand side of the street he
+looked hard and long. He pursued his way, acknowledged the salutation
+of a porter who stood outside the entrance to the Embassy Club, and
+proceeded, glancing about him right and left and with some evident and
+definite purpose.
+
+A constable standing at the corner of Conduit Street touched his helmet
+as Kerry passed and the light of an arc-lamp revealed the fierce red
+face. The Chief Inspector stopped, turned, and:
+
+"What the devil's the idea?" he demanded.
+
+He snapped out the words in such fashion that the unfortunate constable
+almost believed he could see sparks in the misty air.
+
+"I'm sorry, sir, but recognizing you suddenly like, I----"
+
+"You did?" the fierce voice interrupted. "How long in the force?"
+
+"Six months, sir."
+
+"Never salute an officer in plain clothes."
+
+"I know, sir."
+
+"Then why did you do it?"
+
+"I told you, sir."
+
+"Then tell me again."
+
+"I forgot."
+
+"You're paid to remember; bear it in mind."
+
+Kerry tucked his malacca under his arm and walked on, leaving the
+unfortunate policeman literally stupefied by his first encounter with
+the celebrated Chief Inspector.
+
+Presently another line of cars proclaimed the entrance to a club, and
+just before reaching the first of these Kerry paused. A man stood in a
+shadowy doorway, and:
+
+"Good evening, Chief Inspector," he said quietly.
+
+"Good evening, Durham. Anything to report?"
+
+"Yes. Lou Chada is here again."
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"Lady Rourke."
+
+Kerry stepped to the edge of the pavement and spat out a piece of
+chewing-gum. From his overcoat pocket he drew a fresh piece, tore off
+the pink wrapping and placed the gum between his teeth. Then:
+
+"How long?" he demanded.
+
+"Came to dinner. They are dancing."
+
+"H'm!" The Chief Inspector ranged himself beside the other detective in
+the shadow of the doorway. "Something's brewing, Durham," he said. "I
+think I shall wait."
+
+His subordinate stared curiously but made no reply. He was not wholly
+in his chief's confidence. He merely knew that the name of Lou Chada
+to Kerry was like a red rag to a bull. The handsome, cultured young
+Eurasian, fresh from a distinguished university career and pampered by a
+certain section of smart society, did not conform to Detective Sergeant
+Durham's idea of a suspect. He knew that Lou was the son of Zani Chada,
+and he knew that Zani Chada was one of the wealthiest men in Limehouse.
+But Lou had an expensive flat in George Street; Lou was courted by
+society butterflies, and in what way he could be connected with the case
+known as "the Limehouse inquiry," Durham could not imagine.
+
+That the open indiscretion of Lady "Pat" Rourke might lead to trouble
+with her husband, was conceivable enough; but this was rather a matter
+for underhand private inquiry than for the attention of the Criminal
+Investigation Department of New Scotland Yard.
+
+So mused Durham, standing cold and uncomfortable in the shadowy doorway,
+and dreaming of a certain cosy fireside, a pair of carpet slippers and a
+glass of hot toddy which awaited him. Suddenly:
+
+"Great flames! Look!" he cried.
+
+Kerry's fingers closed, steely, upon Durham's wrist. A porter was
+urgently moving the parked cars farther along the street to enable one,
+a French coupe, to draw up before the club entrance.
+
+Two men came out, supporting between them a woman who seemed to be ill;
+a slender, blonde woman whose pretty face was pale and whose wide-open
+blue eyes stared strangely straight before her. The taller of her
+escorts, while continuing to support her, solicitously wrapped her fur
+cloak about her bare shoulders; the other, the manager of the club,
+stepped forward and opened the door of the car.
+
+"Lady Rourke!" whispered Durham.
+
+"With Lou Chada!" rapped Kerry. "Run for a cab. Brisk. Don't waste a
+second."
+
+Some little conversation ensued between manager and patron, then the
+tall, handsome Eurasian, waving his hand protestingly, removed his hat
+and stepped into the coupe beside Lady Rourke. It immediately moved away
+in the direction of Piccadilly.
+
+One glimpse Kerry had of the pretty, fair head lying limply back against
+the cushions. The manager of the club was staring after the car.
+
+Kerry stepped out from his hiding place. Durham had disappeared, and
+there was no cab in sight, but immediately beyond the illuminated
+entrance stood a Rolls-Royce which had been fifth in the rank of parked
+cars before the adjustment had been made to enable the coupe to reach
+the door. Kerry ran across, and:
+
+"Whose car, my lad?" he demanded of the chauffeur.
+
+The latter, resenting the curt tone of the inquiry, looked the speaker
+up and down, and:
+
+"Captain. Egerton's," he replied slowly. "But what business may it be of
+yours?"
+
+"I'm Chief Inspector Kerry, of New Scotland Yard," came the rapid reply.
+"I want to follow the car that has just left."
+
+"What about running?" demanded the man insolently.
+
+Kerry shot out a small, muscular hand and grasped the speaker's wrist.
+
+"I'll say one thing to you," he rapped. "I'm a police officer, and I
+demand your help. Refuse it, and you'll wake up in Vine Street."
+
+The Chief Inspector was on the step now, bending forward so that his
+fierce red face was but an inch removed from that of the startled
+chauffeur. The quelling force of his ferocious personality achieved its
+purpose, as it rarely failed to do.
+
+"I'm getting in," added the Chief Inspector, jumping back on to the
+pavement. "Lose that French bus, and I'll charge you with resisting and
+obstructing an officer of the law in the execution of his duty. Start."
+
+Kerry leaped in and banged the door--and the Rolls-Royce started.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+AT MALAY JACK'S
+
+
+
+When Kerry left Bond Street the mistiness of the night was developing
+into definite fog. It varied in different districts. Thus, St. Paul's
+Churchyard had been clear of it at a time when it had lain impenetrably
+in Trafalgar Square. When, an hour and a half after setting out in the
+commandeered Rolls-Royce, Kerry groped blindly along Limehouse Causeway,
+it was through a yellow murk that he made his way--a vapour which could
+not only be seen, smelled and felt, but tasted.
+
+He was in one of his most violent humours. He found some slight solace
+in the reflection that the impudent chauffeur, from whom he had parted
+in West India Dock Road, must experience great difficulty in finding his
+way back to the West End.
+
+"Damn the fog!" he muttered, coughing irritably.
+
+It had tricked him, this floating murk of London; for, while he had been
+enabled to keep the coupe in view right to the fringe of dockland, here,
+as if bred by old London's river, the fog had lain impenetrably.
+
+Chief Inspector Kerry was a man who took many risks, but because of this
+cursed fog he had no definite evidence that Chada's car had gone to a
+certain house. Right of search he had not, and so temporarily he was
+baffled.
+
+Now the nearest telephone was his objective, and presently, where a blue
+light dimly pierced the mist, he paused, pushed open a swing door, and
+stepped into a long, narrow passage. He descended three stairs, and
+entered a room laden with a sickly perfume compounded of stale beer and
+spirits; of greasy humanity--European, Asiastic, and African; of cheap
+tobacco and cheaper scents; and, vaguely, of opium.
+
+It was fairly well lighted, but the fog had penetrated here, veiling
+some of the harshness of its rough appointments. An unsavoury den was
+Malay Jack's, where flotsam of the river might be found. Yellow men
+there were, and black men and brown men. But all the women present were
+white.
+
+Fan-tan was in progress at one of the tables, the four players being
+apparently the only strictly sober people in the room. A woman
+was laughing raucously as Kerry entered, and many coarse-voiced
+conversations were in progress; but as he pulled the rough curtain walls
+aside and walked into the room, a hush, highly complimentary to the
+Chief Inspector's reputation, fell upon the assembly. Only the woman's
+raucous laughter continued, rising, a hideous solo, above a sort of
+murmur, composed of the words "Red Kerry!" spoken in many tones.
+
+Kerry ignored the sensation which his entrance had created, and crossed
+the room to a small counter, behind which a dusky man was standing,
+coatless and shirt sleeves rolled up. He had the skin of a Malay but
+the features of a stage Irishman of the old school. And, indeed, had he
+known his own pedigree, which is a knowledge beyond the ken of any man,
+partly Irish he might have found himself indeed to be.
+
+This was Malay Jack, the proprietor of one of the roughest houses in
+Limehouse. His expression, while propitiatory, was not friendly, but:
+
+"Don't get hot and bothered," snapped Kerry viciously. "I want to use
+your telephone, that's all."
+
+"Oh," said the other, unable to conceal his relief, "that's easy. Come
+in."
+
+He raised a flap in the counter, and Kerry, passing through, entered
+a little room behind the bar. Here a telephone stood upon a dirty,
+littered table, and, taking it up:
+
+"City four hundred," called the Chief Inspector curtly. A moment later:
+"Hallo! Yes," he said. "Chief Inspector Kerry speaking. Put me through
+to my department, please."
+
+He stood for a while waiting, receiver in hand, and smiled grimly to
+note that the uproar in the room beyond had been resumed. Evidently
+Malay Jack had given the "all clear" signal. Then:
+
+"Chief Inspector Kerry speaking," he said again. "Has Detective Sergeant
+Durham reported?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply, "half an hour ago. He's standing-by at Limehouse
+Station. He followed you in a taxi, but lost you on the way owing to the
+fog."
+
+"I don't wonder," said Kerry. "His loss is not so great as mine.
+Anything else?"
+
+"Nothing else."
+
+"Good. I'll speak to Limehouse. Good-bye."
+
+He replaced the receiver and paused for a moment, reflecting. Extracting
+a piece of tasteless gum from between his teeth, he deposited it in
+the grate, where a sickly fire burned; then, tearing the wrapper from
+a fresh slip, he resumed his chewing and stood looking about him
+with unseeing eyes. Fierce they were as ever, but introspective in
+expression.
+
+Famous for his swift decisions, for once in a way he found himself in
+doubt. Malay Jack had keen ears, and there were those in the place who
+had every reason to be interested in the movements of a member of the
+Criminal Investigation Department, especially of one who had earned the
+right to be dreaded by the rats of Limehouse. London's peculiar climate
+fought against him, but he determined to make no more telephone calls
+but to proceed to Limehouse police station.
+
+He stepped swiftly into the bar, and, as he had anticipated, nearly
+upset the proprietor, who was standing listening by the half-open door.
+Kerry smiled fiercely into the ugly face, lifted the flap, and walked
+down the room, through the aisle between the scattered tables, where the
+air was heavy with strange perfumes, touched now with the bite of London
+fog, and where slanting eyes and straight eyes, sober eyes and drunken
+eyes, regarded him furtively. Something of a second hush there was, but
+one not so complete as the first.
+
+Kerry pulled the curtain aside, mounted the stair, walked along the
+passage and out through the swing door into the yellow gloom of the
+Causeway. Ten slow steps he had taken when he detected a sound of
+pursuit. Like a flash he turned, clenching his fists. Then:
+
+"Inspector!" whispered a husky voice.
+
+"Yes! Who are you? What do you want?"
+
+A dim form loomed up through the fog.
+
+"My name is Peters, sir. Inspector Preston knows me."
+
+Kerry had paused immediately under a street lamp, and now he looked into
+the pinched, lean face of the speaker, and:
+
+"I've heard of you," he snapped. "Got some information for me?"
+
+"I think so; but walk on."
+
+Chief Inspector Kerry hesitated. Peters belonged to a class which
+Kerry despised with all the force of his straightforward character. A
+professional informer has his uses from the police point of view; and
+while evidence of this kind often figured in reports made to the Chief
+Inspector, he personally avoided contact with such persons, as he
+instinctively and daintily avoided contact with personal dirt. But now,
+something so big was at stake that his hesitation was only momentary.
+
+A vision of the pale face of Lady Rourke, of the golden head leaning
+weakly back upon the cushions of the coupe, as he had glimpsed it in
+Bond Street, rose before his mind's eye as if conjured up out of the
+fog. Peters shuffled along beside him, and:
+
+"Young Chada's done himself in to-night," continued the husky voice. "He
+brought a swell girl to the old man's house an hour ago. I was hanging
+about there, thinking I might get some information. I think she was
+doped."
+
+"Why?" snapped Kerry.
+
+"Well, I was standing over on the other side of the street. Lou Chada
+opened the door with a key; and when the light shone out I saw him carry
+her in."
+
+"Carry her in?"
+
+"Yes. She was in evening dress, with a swell cloak."
+
+"The car?"
+
+"He came out again and drove it around to the garage at the back."
+
+"Why didn't you report this at once?"
+
+"I was on my way to do it when I saw you coming out of Malay Jack's."
+
+The man's voice shook nervously, and:
+
+"What are you scared about?" asked Kerry savagely. "Got anything else to
+tell me?"
+
+"No, no," muttered Peters. "Only I've got an idea he saw me."
+
+"Who saw you?"
+
+"Lou Chada."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"Well, only--don't leave me till we get to the station."
+
+Kerry blew down his nose contemptuously, then stopped suddenly.
+
+"Stand still," he ordered. "I want to listen."
+
+Silent, they stood in a place of darkness, untouched by any lamplight.
+Not a sound reached them through the curtain of fog. Asiatic mystery
+wrapped them about, but Kerry experienced only contempt for the
+cowardice of his companion, and:
+
+"You need come no farther," he said coldly. "Good night."
+
+"But------" began the man.
+
+"Good night," repeated Kerry.
+
+He walked on briskly, tapping the pavement with his malacca. The
+sneaking figure of the informer was swallowed up in the fog. But not
+a dozen paces had the Chief Inspector gone when he was arrested by a
+frenzied scream, rising, hollowly, in a dreadful, muffled crescendo.
+Words reached him.
+
+"My God, he's stabbed me!"
+
+Then came a sort of babbling, which died into a moan.
+
+"Hell!" muttered Kerry, "the poor devil was right!"
+
+He turned and began to run back, fumbling in his pocket for his electric
+torch. Almost in the same moment that he found it he stumbled upon
+Peters, who lay half in the road and half upon the sidewalk.
+
+Kerry pressed the button, and met the glance of upturned, glazing eyes.
+Even as he dropped upon his knee beside the dying man, Peters swept his
+arm around in a convulsive movement, having the fingers crooked, coughed
+horribly, and rolled upon his face.
+
+Switching off the light of the torch, Kerry clenched his jaws in a tense
+effort of listening, literally holding his breath. But no sound reached
+him through the muffling fog. A moment he hesitated, well knowing his
+danger, then viciously snapping on the light again, he quested in the
+blood-stained mud all about the body of the murdered man.
+
+"Ah!"
+
+It was an exclamation of triumph.
+
+One corner hideously stained, for it had lain half under Peters's
+shoulder, Kerry gingerly lifted between finger and thumb a handkerchief
+of fine white silk, such as is carried in the breast pocket of an
+evening coat.
+
+It bore an ornate monogram worked in gold, and representing the letters
+"L. C." Oddly enough, it was the corner that bore the monogram which was
+also bloodstained.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE ROOM OF THE GOLDEN BUDDHA
+
+
+
+It was a moot point whether Lady Pat Rourke merited condemnation or
+pity. She possessed that type of blonde beauty which seems to be a
+lodestone for mankind in general. Her husband was wealthy, twelve
+years her senior, and, far from watching over her with jealous care--an
+attitude which often characterizes such unions--he, on the contrary,
+permitted her a dangerous freedom, believing that she would appreciate
+without abusing it.
+
+Her friendship with Lou Chada had first opened his eyes to the perils
+which beset the road of least resistance. Sir Noel Rourke was an
+Anglo-Indian, and his prejudice against the Eurasian was one not lightly
+to be surmounted. Not all the polish which English culture had given to
+this child of a mixed union could blind Sir Noel to the yellow streak.
+Courted though Chada was by some of the best people, Sir Noel remained
+cold.
+
+The long, magnetic eyes, the handsome, clear-cut features, above all,
+that slow and alluring smile, appealed to the husband of the wilful
+Pat rather as evidences of Oriental, half-effeminate devilry than as
+passports to decent society. Oxford had veneered him, but scratch the
+veneer and one found the sandal-wood of the East, perfumed, seductive,
+appealing, but something to be shunned as brittle and untrustworthy.
+
+Yet he hesitated, seeking to be true to his convictions. Knowing what he
+knew already, and what he suspected, it is certain that, could he have
+viewed Lou Chada through the eyes of Chief Inspector Kerry, the affair
+must have terminated otherwise. But Sir Noel did not know what Kerry
+knew. And the pleasure-seeking Lady Rourke, with her hair of spun gold
+and her provoking smile, found Lou Chada dangerously fascinating; almost
+she was infatuated--she who had known so much admiration.
+
+Of those joys for which thousands of her plainer sisters yearn and
+starve to the end of their days she had experienced a surfeit. Always
+she sought for novelty, for new adventures. She was confident of
+herself, but yet--and here lay the delicious thrill--not wholly
+confident. Many times she had promised to visit the house of Lou Chada's
+father--a mystery palace cunningly painted, a perfumed page from the
+Arabian poets dropped amid the interesting squalor of Limehouse.
+
+Perhaps she had never intended to go. Who knows? But on the night when
+she came within the ken of Chief Inspector Kerry, Lou Chada had urged
+her to do so in his poetically passionate fashion, and, wanting to go,
+she had asked herself: "Am I strong enough? Dare I?"
+
+They had dined, danced, and she had smoked one of the scented cigarettes
+which he alone seemed to be able to procure, and which, on their arrival
+from the East, were contained in queer little polished wooden boxes.
+
+Then had come an unfamiliar nausea and dizziness, an uncomfortable
+recognition of the fact that she was making a fool of herself, and
+finally a semi-darkness through which familiar faces loomed up and
+were quickly lost again. There was the soft, musical voice of Lou Chada
+reassuring her, a sense of chill, of helplessness, and then for a while
+an interval which afterward she found herself unable to bridge.
+
+Knowledge of verity came at last, and Lady Pat raised herself from the
+divan upon which she had been lying, and, her slender hands clutching
+the cushions, stared about her with eyes which ever grew wider.
+
+She was in a long, rather lofty room, which was lighted by three silver
+lanterns swung from the ceiling. The place, without containing much
+furniture, was a riot of garish, barbaric colour. There were deep divans
+cushioned in amber and blood-red. Upon the floor lay Persian carpets
+and skins of beasts. Cunning niches there were, half concealing and half
+revealing long-necked Chinese jars; and odd little carven tables bore
+strangely fashioned vessels of silver. There was a cabinet of ebony
+inlaid with jade, there were black tapestries figured with dragons of
+green and gold. Curtains she saw of peacock-blue; and in a tall, narrow
+recess, dominating the room, squatted a great golden Buddha.
+
+The atmosphere was laden with a strange perfume.
+
+But, above all, this room was silent, most oppressively silent.
+
+Lady Pat started to her feet. The whole perfumed place seemed to be
+swimming around her. Reclosing her eyes, she fought down her weakness.
+The truth, the truth respecting Lou Chada and herself, had uprisen
+starkly before her. By her own folly--and she could find no
+tiny excuse--she had placed herself in the power of a man whom,
+instinctively, deep within her soul, she had always known to be utterly
+unscrupulous.
+
+How cleverly he had concealed the wild animal which dwelt beneath
+that suave, polished exterior! Yet how ill he had concealed it! For
+intuitively she had always recognized its presence, but had deliberately
+closed her eyes, finding a joy in the secret knowledge of danger. Now at
+last he had discarded pretense.
+
+The cigarette which he had offered her at the club had been drugged. She
+was in Limehouse, at the mercy of a man in whose veins ran the blood of
+ancestors to whom women had been chattels. Too well she recognized that
+his passion must have driven him insane, as he must know at what cost
+he took such liberties with one who could not lightly be so treated. But
+these reflections afforded poor consolation. It was not of the penalties
+that Lou Chada must suffer for this infringement of Western codes, but
+of the price that she must pay for her folly, of which Pat was thinking.
+
+There was a nauseating taste upon her palate. She remembered having
+noticed it faintly while she was smoking the cigarette; indeed, she had
+commented upon it at the time.
+
+"The dirty yellow blackguard!" she said aloud, and clenched her hands.
+
+She merely echoed what many a man had said before her. She wondered at
+herself, and in doing so but wondered at the mystery of womanhood.
+
+Clarity was returning. The room no longer swam around her. She crossed
+in the direction of a garish curtain, which instinctively she divined to
+mask a door. Dragging it aside, she tried the handle, but the door was
+locked. A second door she found, and this also proved to be locked.
+
+There was one tall window, also covered by ornate draperies, but it
+was shuttered, and the shutters had locks. Another small window she
+discovered, glazed with amber glass, but set so high in the wall as to
+be inaccessible.
+
+Dread assailed her, and dropping on to one of the divans, she hid her
+face in her hands.
+
+"My God!" she whispered. "My God! Give me strength--give me courage."
+
+For a long time she remained there, listening for any sound which should
+disperse the silence. She thought of her husband, of the sweet security
+of her home, of the things which she had forfeited because of this mad
+quest of adventure. And presently a key grated in a lock.
+
+Lady Pat started to her feet with a wild, swift action which must have
+reminded a beholder of a startled gazelle. The drapery masking the door
+which she had first investigated was drawn aside. A man entered and
+dropped the curtain behind him.
+
+Exactly what she had expected she could not have defined, but the
+presence of this perfect stranger was a complete surprise. The man,
+who wore embroidered slippers and a sort of long blue robe, stood there
+regarding her with an expression which, even in her frantic condition,
+she found to be puzzling. He had long, untidy gray hair brushed back
+from his low brow; eyes strangely like the eyes of Lou Chada, except
+that they were more heavy-lidded; but his skin was as yellow as a
+guinea, and his gaunt, cleanshaven face was the face of an Oriental.
+
+The slender hands, too, which he held clasped before him, were yellow,
+and possessed a curiously arresting quality. Pat imagined them clasped
+about her white throat, and her very soul seemed to shrink from the man
+who stood there looking at her with those long, magnetic, inscrutable
+eyes.
+
+She wondered why she was surprised, and suddenly realized that it was
+because of the expression in his eyes, for it was an expression of cold
+anger. Then the intruder spoke.
+
+"Who are you?" he demanded, speaking with an accent which was unfamiliar
+to her, but in a voice which was not unlike the voice of Lou Chada. "Who
+brought you here?"
+
+This was so wholly unexpected that for a moment she found herself unable
+to reply, but finally:
+
+"How dare you!" she cried, her native courage reasserting itself. "I
+have been drugged and brought to this place. You shall pay for it. How
+dare you!"
+
+"Ah!" The long, dark eyes regarded her unmovingly. "But who are you?"
+
+"I am Lady Rourke. Open the door. You shall bitterly regret this
+outrage."
+
+"You are Lady Rourke?" the man repeated. "Before you speak of regrets,
+answer the question which I have asked: Who brought you here?"
+
+"Lou Chada."
+
+"Ah!" There was no alteration of pose, no change of expression, but
+slightly the intonation had varied.
+
+"I don't know who you are, but I demand to be released from this place
+instantly."
+
+The man standing before the curtained door slightly inclined his head.
+
+"You shall be released," he replied, "but not instantly. I will see the
+one who brought you here. He may not be entirely to blame. Before you
+leave we shall understand one another."
+
+Tone and glance were coldly angry. Then, before the frightened woman
+could say another word, the man in the blue robe robe withdrew, the
+curtain was dropped again, and she heard the grating of a key in the
+lock. She ran to the door, beating upon it with her clenched hands.
+
+"Let me go!" she cried, half hysterically. "Let me go! You shall pay for
+this! Oh, you shall pay for this!"
+
+No one answered, and, turning, she leaned back against the curtain,
+breathing heavily and fighting for composure, for strength.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+ZANI CHADA, THE EURASIAN
+
+
+
+"I can't help thinking, Chief Inspector," said the officer in charge at
+Limehouse Station, "that you take unnecessary risks."
+
+"Can't you?" said Kerry, tilting his bowler farther forward and staring
+truculently at the speaker.
+
+"No, I can't. Since you cleaned up the dope gang down here you've been
+a marked man. These murders in the Chinatown area, of which this one
+to-night makes the third, have got some kind of big influence behind
+them. Yet you wander about in the fog without even a gun in your
+pocket."
+
+"I don't believe in guns," rapped Kerry. "My bare hands are good enough
+for any yellow smart in this area. And if they give out I can kick like
+a mule."
+
+The other laughed, shaking his head.
+
+"It's silly, all the same," he persisted. "The man who did the job out
+there in the fog to-night might have knifed you or shot you long before
+you could have got here."
+
+"He might," snapped Kerry, "but he didn't."
+
+Yet, remembering his wife, who would be waiting for him in the cosy
+sitting-room he knew a sudden pang. Perhaps he did take unnecessary
+chances. Others had said so. Hard upon the thought came the memory of
+his boy, and of the telephone message which the episodes of the night
+had prevented him from sending.
+
+He remembered, too, something which his fearless nature had prompted him
+to forget: he remembered how, just as he had arisen from beside the body
+of the murdered man, oblique eyes had regarded him swiftly out of the
+fog. He had lashed out with a boxer's instinct, but his knuckles had
+encountered nothing but empty air. No sound had come to tell him that
+the thing had not been an illusion. Only, once again, as he groped his
+way through the shuttered streets of Chinatown and the silence of
+the yellow mist, something had prompted him to turn; and again he had
+detected the glint of oblique eyes, and faintly had discerned the form
+of one who followed him.
+
+Kerry chewed viciously, then:
+
+"I think I'll 'phone the wife," he said abruptly. "She'll be expecting
+me."
+
+Almost before he had finished speaking the 'phone bell rang, and a few
+moments later:
+
+"Someone to speak to you, Chief Inspector," cried the officer in charge.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Kerry, his fierce eyes lighting up. "That will be from
+home."
+
+"I don't think so," was the reply. "But see who it is."
+
+"Hello!" he called.
+
+He was answered by an unfamiliar voice, a voice which had a queer,
+guttural intonation. It was the sort of voice he had learned to loathe.
+
+"Is that Chief Inspector Kerry?"
+
+"Yes," he snapped.
+
+"May I take it that what I have to say will be treated in confidence?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Think again, Chief Inspector," the voice continued. "You are a man
+within sight of the ambition of years, and although you may be unaware
+of the fact, you stand upon the edge of a disaster. I appreciate your
+sense of duty and respect it. But there are times when diplomacy is a
+more potent weapon than force."
+
+Kerry, listening, became aware that the speaker was a man of cultured
+intellect. He wondered greatly, but:
+
+"My time is valuable," he said rapidly. "Come to the point. What do you
+want and who are you?"
+
+"One moment, Chief Inspector. An opportunity to make your fortune
+without interfering with your career has come in your way. You have
+obtained possession of what you believe to be a clue to a murder."
+
+The voice ceased, and Kerry remaining silent, immediately continued:
+
+"Knowing your personal character, I doubt if you have communicated the
+fact of your possessing this evidence to anyone else. I suggest, in your
+own interests, that before doing so you interview me."
+
+Kerry thought rapidly, and then:
+
+"I don't say you're right," he rapped back. "But if I come to see you,
+I shall leave a sealed statement in possession of the officer in charge
+here."
+
+"To this I have no objection," the guttural voice replied, "but I beg of
+you to bring the evidence with you."
+
+"I'm not to be bought," warned Kerry. "Don't think it and don't suggest
+it, or when I get to you I'll break you in half."
+
+His red moustache positively bristled, and he clutched the receiver so
+tightly that it quivered against his ear.
+
+"You mistake me," replied the speaker. "My name is Zani Chada. You know
+where I live. I shall not detain you more than five minutes if you will
+do me the honour of calling upon me."
+
+Kerry chewed furiously for ten momentous seconds, then:
+
+"I'll come!" he said.
+
+He replaced the receiver on the hook, and, walking across to the charge
+desk, took an official form and a pen. On the back of the form he
+scribbled rapidly, watched with curiosity by the officer in charge.
+
+"Give me an envelope," he directed.
+
+An envelope was found and handed to him. He placed the paper in the
+envelope, gummed down the lapel, and addressed it in large, bold writing
+to the Assistant Commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Department,
+who was his chief. Finally:
+
+"I'm going out," he explained.
+
+"After what I've said?"
+
+"After what you've said. I'm going out. If I don't come back or don't
+telephone within the next hour, you will know what to do with this."
+
+The Limehouse official stared perplexedly.
+
+"But meanwhile," he protested, "what steps am I to take about the
+murder? Durham will be back with the body at any moment now, and you say
+you've got a clue to the murderer."
+
+"I have," said Kerry, "but I'm going to get definite evidence. Do
+nothing until you hear from me."
+
+"Very good," answered the other, and Kerry, tucking his malacca cane
+under his arm, strode out into the fog.
+
+His knowledge of the Limehouse area was extensive and peculiar, so that
+twenty minutes later, having made only one mistake in the darkness, he
+was pressing an electric bell set beside a door which alone broke the
+expanse of a long and dreary brick wall, lining a street which neither
+by day nor night would have seemed inviting to the casual visitor.
+
+The door was opened by a Chinaman wearing national dress, revealing
+a small, square lobby, warmly lighted and furnished Orientally. Kerry
+stepped in briskly.
+
+"I want to see Mr. Zani Chada. Tell him I am here. Chief Inspector Kerry
+is my name."
+
+The Chinaman bowed, crossed the lobby, and, drawing some curtains aside,
+walked up four carpeted stairs and disappeared into a short passage
+revealed by the raising of the tapestry. As he did so Kerry stared about
+him curiously.
+
+He had never before entered the mystery house of Zani Chada, nor had he
+personally encountered the Eurasian, reputed to be a millionaire,
+but who chose, for some obscure reason, to make his abode in this old
+rambling building, once a country mansion, which to-day was closely
+invested by dockland and the narrow alleys of Chinatown. It was
+curiously still in the lobby, and, as he determined, curiously Eastern.
+He was conscious of a sense of exhilaration. That Zani Chada controlled
+powerful influences, he knew well. But, reviewing the precautions
+which he had taken, Kerry determined that the trump card was in his
+possession.
+
+The Chinese servant descended the stairs again and intimated that the
+visitor should follow him. Kerry, carrying his hat and cane, mounted the
+stairs, walked along the carpeted passage, and was ushered into a queer,
+low room furnished as a library.
+
+It was lined with shelves containing strange-looking books, none of
+which appeared to be English. Upon the top of the shelves were grotesque
+figures of gods, pieces of Chinese pottery and other Oriental ornaments.
+Arms there were in the room, and rich carpets, carven furniture, and an
+air of luxury peculiarly exotic. Furthermore, he detected a faint smell
+of opium from which fact he divined that Zani Chada was addicted to the
+national vice of China.
+
+Seated before a long narrow table was the notorious Eurasian. The table
+contained a number of strange and unfamiliar objects, as well as a small
+rack of books. An opium pipe rested in a porcelain bowl.
+
+Zani Chada, wearing a blue robe, sat in a cushioned chair, staring
+toward the Chief Inspector. With one slender yellow hand he brushed his
+untidy gray hair. His long magnetic eyes were half closed.
+
+"Good evening, Chief Inspector Kerry," he said. "Won't you be seated?"
+
+"Thanks, I'm not staying. I can hear what you've got to say standing."
+
+The long eyes grew a little more narrow--the only change of expression
+that Zani Chada allowed himself.
+
+"As you wish. I have no occasion to detain you long."
+
+In that queer, perfumed room, with the suggestion of something sinister
+underlying its exotic luxury, arose a kind of astral clash as the
+powerful personality of the Eurasian came in contact with that of Kerry.
+In a sense it was a contest of rapier and battle-axe; an insidious but
+powerful will enlisted against the bulldog force of the Chief Inspector.
+
+Still through half-closed eyes Zani Chada watched his visitor, who
+stood, feet apart and chin thrust forward aggressively, staring with
+wide open, fierce blue eyes at the other.
+
+"I'm going to say one thing," declared Kerry, snapping out the words
+in a manner little short of ferocious. He laid his hat and cane upon a
+chair and took a step in the direction of the narrow, laden table. "Make
+me any kind of offer to buy back the evidence you think I've got, and
+I'll bash your face as flat as a frying-pan."
+
+The yellow hands of Zani Chada clutched the metal knobs which ornamented
+the arms of the chair in which he was seated. The long eyes now
+presented the appearance of being entirely closed; otherwise he remained
+immovable.
+
+Following a short, portentous silence:
+
+"How grossly you misunderstood me, Chief Inspector," Chada replied,
+speaking very softly. "You are shortly to be promoted to a post which no
+one is better fitted to occupy. You enjoy great domestic happiness, and
+you possess a son in whom you repose great hopes. In this respect Chief
+Inspector, I resemble you."
+
+Kerry's nostrils were widely dilated, but he did not speak.
+
+"You see," continued the Eurasian, "I know many things about you.
+Indeed, I have watched your career with interest. Now, to be brief, a
+great scandal may be averted and a woman's reputation preserved if you
+and I, as men of the world, can succeed in understanding one another."
+
+"I don't want to understand you," said Kerry bluntly. "But you've said
+enough already to justify me in blowing this whistle." He drew a police
+whistle from his overcoat pocket. "This house is being watched."
+
+"I am aware of the fact," murmured Zani Chada.
+
+"There are two people in it I want for two different reasons. If you say
+much more there may be three."
+
+Chada raised his hand slowly.
+
+"Put back your whistle, Chief Inspector."
+
+There was a curious restraint in the Eurasian's manner which Kerry
+distrusted, but for which at the time he was at a loss to account. Then
+suddenly he determined that the man was waiting for something, listening
+for some sound. As if to confirm this reasoning, just at that moment a
+sound indeed broke the silence of the room.
+
+Somewhere far away in the distance of the big house a gong was beaten
+three times softly. Kerry's fierce glance searched the face of Zani
+Chada, but it remained mask-like, immovable. Yet that this had been a
+signal of some kind the Chief Inspector did not doubt, and:
+
+"You can't trick me," he said fiercely. "No one can leave this house
+without my knowledge, and because of what happened out there in the fog
+my hands are untied."
+
+He took up his hat and cane from the chair.
+
+"I'm going to search the premises," he declared.
+
+Zani Chada stood up slowly.
+
+"Chief Inspector," he said, "I advise you to do nothing until you have
+consulted your wife."
+
+"Consulted my wife?" snapped Kerry. "What the devil do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that any steps you may take now can only lead to disaster for
+many, and in your own case to great sorrow."
+
+Kerry took a step forward, two steps, then paused. He was considering
+certain words which the Eurasian had spoken. Without fearing the man
+in the physical sense, he was not fool enough to underestimate his
+potentialities for evil and his power to strike darkly.
+
+"Act as you please," added Zani Chada, speaking even more softly. "But
+I have not advised lightly. I will receive you, Chief Inspector, at any
+hour of the night you care to return. By to-morrow, if you wish, you may
+be independent of everybody."
+
+Kerry clenched his fists.
+
+"And great sorrow may be spared to others," concluded the Eurasian.
+
+Kerry's teeth snapped together audibly; then, putting on his hat, he
+turned and walked straight to the door.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+DAN KERRY, JUNIOR
+
+
+
+Dan Kerry, junior, was humorously like his father, except that he was
+larger-boned and promised to grow into a much bigger man. His hair was
+uncompromisingly red, and grew in such irregular fashion that the comb
+was not made which could subdue it. He had the wide-open, fighting blue
+eyes of the Chief Inspector, and when he smiled the presence of two
+broken teeth lent him a very pugilistic appearance.
+
+On his advent at the school of which he was now one of the most popular
+members, he had promptly been christened "Carrots." To this nickname
+young Kerry had always taken exception, and he proceeded to display
+his prejudice on the first day of his arrival with such force and
+determination that the sobriquet had been withdrawn by tacit consent of
+every member of the form who hitherto had favoured it.
+
+"I'll take you all on," the new arrival had declared amidst a silence of
+stupefaction, "starting with you"--pointing to the biggest boy. "If we
+don't finish to-day, I'll begin again to-morrow."
+
+The sheer impudence of the thing had astounded everybody. Young Kerry's
+treatment of his leading persecutor had produced a salutary change of
+opinion. Of such kidney was Daniel Kerry, junior; and when, some hours
+after his father's departure on the night of the murder in the fog, the
+'phone bell rang, it was Dan junior, and not his mother, who answered
+the call.
+
+"Hallo!" said a voice. "Is that Chief Inspector Kerry's house?"
+
+"Yes," replied Dan.
+
+"It has begun to rain in town," the voice continued, "Is that the Chief
+Inspector's son speaking?"
+
+"Yes, I'm Daniel Kerry."
+
+"Well, my boy, you know the way to New Scotland Yard?"
+
+"Rather."
+
+"He says will you bring his overall? Do you know where to find it?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Dan excitedly, delighted to be thus made a party to
+his father's activities.
+
+"Well, get it. Jump on a tram at the Town Hall and bring the overall
+along here. Your mother will not object, will she?"
+
+"Of course not," cried Dan. "I'll tell her. Am I to start now?"
+
+"Yes, right away."
+
+Mrs. Kerry was sewing by the fire in the dining room when her son came
+in with the news, his blue eyes sparkling excitedly. She nodded her head
+slowly.
+
+"Ye'll want ye'r Burberry and ye'r thick boots," she declared, "a
+muffler, too, and ye'r oldest cap. I think it's madness for ye to go out
+on such a night, but----"
+
+"Father said I could," protested the boy.
+
+"He says so, and ye shall go, but I think it madness a' the same."
+
+However, some ten minutes later young Kerry set out, keenly resenting
+the woollen muffler which he had been compelled to wear, and secretly
+determined to remove it before mounting the tram. Across one arm he
+carried the glistening overall which was the Chief Inspector's constant
+companion on wet nights abroad. The fog had turned denser, and ten paces
+from the door of the house took him out of sight of the light streaming
+from the hallway.
+
+Mary Kerry well knew her husband's theories about coddling boys, but
+even so could not entirely reconcile herself to the present expedition.
+However, closing the door, she returned philosophically to her sewing,
+reflecting that little harm could come to Dan after all, for he was
+strong, healthy, and intelligent.
+
+On went the boy through the mist, whistling merrily. Not twenty yards
+from the house a coupe was drawn up, and by the light of one of its
+lamps a man was consulting a piece of paper on which, presumably, an
+address was written; for, as the boy approached, the man turned, his
+collar pulled up about his face, his hat pulled down.
+
+"Hallo!" he called. "Can you please tell me something?"
+
+He spoke with a curious accent, unfamiliar to the boy. "A foreigner of
+some kind," young Kerry determined.
+
+"What is it?" he asked, pausing.
+
+"Will you please read and tell me if I am near this place?" the man
+continued, holding up the paper which he had been scrutinizing.
+
+Dan stepped forward and bent over it. He could not make out the writing,
+and bent yet more, holding it nearer to the lamp. At which moment some
+second person neatly pinioned him from behind, a scarf was whipped about
+his head, and, kicking furiously but otherwise helpless, he felt himself
+lifted and placed inside the car.
+
+The muffler had been thrown in such fashion about his face as to leave
+one eye partly free, and as he was lifted he had a momentary glimpse of
+his captors. With a thrill of real, sickly terror he realized that he
+was in the hands of Chinamen!
+
+Perhaps telepathically this spasm of fear was conveyed to his father,
+for it was at about this time that the latter was interviewing Zani
+Chada, and at about this time that Kerry recognized, underlying the
+other's words, at once an ill-concealed suspense and a threat. Then,
+a few minutes later, had come the three strokes of the gong; and again
+that unreasonable dread had assailed him, perhaps because it signalized
+the capture of his son, news of which had been immediately telephoned to
+Limehouse by Zani Chada's orders.
+
+Certain it is that Kerry left the Eurasian's house in a frame of mind
+which was not familiar to him. He was undecided respecting his next
+move. A deadly menace underlay Chada's words.
+
+"Consult your wife," he kept muttering to himself. When the door was
+opened for him by the Chinese servant, he paused a moment before going
+out into the fog. There were men on duty at the back and at the front of
+the house. Should he risk all and raid the place? That Lady Rourke was
+captive here he no longer doubted. But it was equally certain that no
+further harm would come to her at the hands of her captors, since she
+had been traced there and since Zani Chada was well aware of the fact.
+Of the whereabouts of Lou Chada he could not be certain. If he was in
+the house, they had him.
+
+The door was closed by the Chinaman, and Kerry stood out in the darkness
+of the dismal, brick-walled street, feeling something as nearly akin
+to dejection as was possible in one of his mercurial spirit. Something
+trickled upon the brim of his hat, and, raising his head, Kerry detected
+rain upon his upturned face. He breathed a prayer of thankfulness. This
+would put an end to the fog.
+
+He began to walk along by the high brick wall, but had not proceeded far
+before a muffled figure arose before him and the light of an electric
+torch was shone into his face.
+
+"Oh, it's you, Chief Inspector!" came the voice of the watcher.
+
+"It is," rapped Kerry. "Unless there are tunnels under this old
+rat-hole, I take it the men on duty can cover all the exits?"
+
+"All the main exits," was the reply. "But, as you say, it's a strange
+house, and Zani Chada has a stranger reputation."
+
+"Do nothing until you hear from me."
+
+"Very good, Chief Inspector."
+
+The rain now was definitely conquering the fog, and in half the time
+which had been occupied by the outward journey Kerry was back again in
+Limehouse police station. Unconsciously he had been hastening his pace
+with every stride, urged onward by an unaccountable anxiety, so that
+finally he almost ran into the office and up to the desk where the
+telephone stood.
+
+Lifting it, he called his own number and stood tapping his foot,
+impatiently awaiting the reply. Presently came the voice of the
+operator: "Have they answered yet?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I will ring them again."
+
+Kerry's anxiety became acute, almost unendurable; and when at last,
+after repeated attempts, no reply could be obtained from his home, he
+replaced the receiver and leaned for a moment on the desk, shaken with
+such a storm of apprehension as he had rarely known. He turned to the
+inspector in charge, and:
+
+"Let me have that envelope I left with you," he directed. "And have
+someone 'phone for a taxi; they are to keep on till they get one. Where
+is Sergeant Durham?"
+
+"At the mortuary."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Any developments, Chief Inspector?"
+
+"Yes. But apart from keeping a close watch upon the house of Zani Chada
+you are to do nothing until you hear from me again."
+
+"Very good," said the inspector. "Are you going to wait for Durham's
+report?"
+
+"No. Directly the cab arrives I am going to wait for nothing."
+
+Indeed, he paced up and down the room like a wild beast caged, while
+call after call was sent to neighbouring cab ranks, for a long time
+without result. What did it mean, his wife's failure to answer the
+telephone? It might mean that neither she nor their one servant nor Dan
+was in the house. And if they were not in the house at this hour of the
+night, where could they possibly be? This it might mean, or--something
+worse.
+
+A thousand and one possibilities, hideous, fantastic, appalling, flashed
+through his mind. He was beginning to learn what Zani Chada had meant
+when he had said: "I have followed your career with interest."
+
+At last a taxi was found, and the man instructed over the 'phone to
+proceed immediately to Limehouse station. He seemed so long in coming
+that when at last the cab was heard to pause outside, Kerry could not
+trust himself to speak to the driver, but directed a sergeant to give
+him the address. He entered silently and closed the door.
+
+A steady drizzle of rain was falling. It had already dispersed the fog,
+so that he might hope with luck to be home within the hour. As a matter
+of fact, the man performed the journey in excellent time, but it seemed
+to his passenger that he could have walked quicker, such was the gnawing
+anxiety within him and the fear which prompted him to long for wings.
+
+Instructing the cabman to wait, Kerry unlocked the front door and
+entered. He had noted a light in the dining room window, and entering,
+he found his wife awaiting him there. She rose as he entered, with
+horror in her comely face.
+
+"Dan!" she whispered. "Dan! where is ye'r mackintosh?"
+
+"I didn't take it," he replied, endeavouring to tell himself that his
+apprehensions had been groundless. "But how was it that you did not
+answer the telephone?"
+
+"What do ye mean, Dan?" Mary Kerry stared, her eyes growing wider and
+wider. "The boy answered, Dan. He set out wi' ye'r mackintosh full an
+hour and a half since."
+
+"What!"
+
+The truth leaped out at Kerry like an enemy out of ambush.
+
+"Who sent that message?"
+
+"Someone frae the Yard, to tell the boy to bring ye'r mackintosh alone
+at once. Dan! Dan------"
+
+She advanced, hands outstretched, quivering, but Kerry had leaped out
+into the narrow hallway. He raised the telephone receiver, listened for
+a moment, and then jerked it back upon the hook.
+
+"Dead line!" he muttered. "Someone has been at work with a wire-cutter
+outside the house!"
+
+His wife came out to where he stood, and, clenching his teeth very
+grimly, he took her in his arms. She was shaking as if palsied.
+
+"Mary dear," he said, "pray with all your might that I am given strength
+to do my duty."
+
+She looked at him with haggard, tearless eyes.
+
+"Tell me the truth: ha' they got my boy?"
+
+His fingers tightened on her shoulders.
+
+"Don't worry," he said, "and don't ask me to stay to explain. When I
+come back I'll have Dan with me!"
+
+He trusted himself no further, but, clapping his hat on his head, walked
+out to the waiting cab.
+
+"Back to Limehouse police station," he directed rapidly.
+
+"Lor lumme!" muttered the taximan. "Where are you goin' to after that,
+guv'nor? It's a bit off the map."
+
+"I'm going to hell!" rapped Kerry, suddenly thrusting his red face very
+near to that of the speaker. "And you're going to drive me!"
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE KNIGHT ERRANT
+
+
+
+Recognizing the superior strength of his captors, young Kerry soon gave
+up struggling. The thrill of his first real adventure entered into his
+blood. He remembered that he was the son of his father, and he realized,
+being a quick-witted lad, that he was in the grip of enemies of his
+father. The panic which had threatened him when first he had recognized
+that he was in the hands of Chinese, gave place to a cold rage--a
+heritage which in later years was to make him a dangerous man.
+
+He lay quite passively in the grasp of someone who held him fast, and
+learned, by breathing quietly, that the presence of the muffler about
+his nose and mouth did not greatly inconvenience him. There was some
+desultory conversation between the two men in the car, but it
+was carried on in an odd, sibilant language which the boy did not
+understand, but which he divined to be Chinese. He thought how every
+other boy in the school would envy him, and the thought was stimulating,
+nerving. On the very first day of his holidays he was become the central
+figure of a Chinatown drama.
+
+The last traces of fear fled. His position was uncomfortable and his
+limbs were cramped, but he resigned himself, with something almost like
+gladness, and began to look forward to that which lay ahead with a zest
+and a will to be no passive instrument which might have surprised his
+captors could they have read the mind of their captive.
+
+The journey seemed almost interminable, but young Kerry suffered it in
+stoical silence until the car stopped and he was lifted and carried down
+stone steps into some damp, earthy-smelling place. Some distance was
+traversed, and then many flights of stairs were mounted, some bare but
+others carpeted.
+
+Finally he was deposited in a chair, and as he raised his hand to the
+scarf, which toward the end of the journey had been bound more tightly
+about his head so as to prevent him from seeing at all, he heard a door
+closed and locked.
+
+The scarf was quickly removed. And Dan found himself in a low-ceilinged
+attic having a sloping roof and one shuttered window. A shadeless
+electric lamp hung from the ceiling. Excepting the cane-seated chair in
+which he had been deposited and a certain amount of nondescript lumber,
+the attic was unfurnished. Dan rapidly considered what his father would
+have done in the circumstances.
+
+"Make sure that the door is locked," he muttered.
+
+He tried it, and it was locked beyond any shadow of doubt.
+
+"The window."
+
+Shutters covered it, and these were fastened with a padlock.
+
+He considered this padlock attentively; then, drawing from his pocket
+one of those wonderful knives which are really miniature tool-chests, he
+raised from a grove the screw-driver which formed part of its equipment,
+and with neatness and dispatch unscrewed the staple to which the padlock
+was attached!
+
+A moment later he had opened the shutters and was looking out into the
+drizzle of the night.
+
+The room in which he was confined was on the third floor of a dingy,
+brick-built house; a portion of some other building faced him; down
+below was a stone-paved courtyard. To the left stood a high wall, and
+beyond it he obtained a glimpse of other dingy buildings. One lighted
+window was visible--a square window in the opposite building, from which
+amber light shone out.
+
+Somewhere in the street beyond was a standard lamp. He could detect the
+halo which it cast into the misty rain. The glass was very dirty, and
+young Kerry raised the sash, admitting a draught of damp, cold air into
+the room. He craned out, looking about him eagerly.
+
+A rainwater-pipe was within reach of his hand on the right of the window
+and, leaning out still farther, young Kerry saw that it passed beside
+two other, larger, windows on the floor beneath him. Neither of these
+showed any light.
+
+Dizzy heights have no terror for healthy youth. The brackets supporting
+the rain-pipe were a sufficient staircase for the agile Dan, a more
+slippery prisoner than the famous Baron Trenck; and, discarding his
+muffler and his Burberry, he climbed out upon the sill and felt with his
+thick-soled boots for the first of these footholds. Clutching the ledge,
+he lowered himself and felt for the next.
+
+Then came the moment when he must trust all his weight to the pipe.
+Clenching his teeth, he risked it, felt for and found the third angle,
+and then, still clutching the pipe, stood for a moment upon the ledge
+of the window immediately beneath him. He was curious respecting the
+lighted window of the neighbouring house; and, twisting about, he bent,
+peering across--and saw a sight which arrested his progress.
+
+The room within was furnished in a way which made him gasp with
+astonishment. It was like an Eastern picture, he thought. Her golden
+hair dishevelled and her hands alternately clenching and unclenching,
+a woman whom he considered to be most wonderfully dressed was pacing
+wildly up and down, a look of such horror upon her pale face that Dan's
+heart seemed to stop beating for a moment!
+
+Here was real trouble of a sort which appealed to all the chivalry
+in the boy's nature. He considered the window, which was glazed with
+amber-coloured glass, observed that it was sufficiently open to enable
+him to slip the fastening and open it entirely could he but reach it.
+And--yes!--there was a rain-pipe!
+
+Climbing down to the yard, he looked quickly about him, ran across, and
+climbed up to the lighted window. A moment later he had pushed it widely
+open.
+
+He was greeted by a stifled cry, but, cautiously transferring his weight
+from the friendly pipe to the ledge, he got astride of it, one foot in
+the room. Then, by exercise of a monkey-like agility, he wriggled his
+head and shoulders within.
+
+"It's all right," he said softly and reassuringly; "I'm Dan Kerry, son
+of Chief Inspector Kerry. Can I be of any assistance?"
+
+Her hands clasped convulsively together, the woman stood looking up at
+him.
+
+"Oh, thank God!" said the captive. "But what are you going to do? Can
+you get me out?"
+
+"Don't worry," replied Dan confidently. "Father and I can manage it all
+right!"
+
+He performed a singular contortion, as a result of which his other leg
+and foot appeared inside the window. Then, twisting around, he lowered
+himself and dropped triumphantly upon a cushioned divan. At that moment
+he would have faced a cage full of man-eating tigers. The spirit of
+adventure had him in its grip. He stood up, breathing rapidly, his crop
+of red hair more dishevelled than usual.
+
+Then, before he could stir or utter any protest, the golden-haired
+princess whom he had come to rescue stooped, threw her arms around his
+neck, and kissed him.
+
+"You darling, brave boy!" she said. "I think you have saved me from
+madness."
+
+Young Kerry, more flushed than ever, extricated himself, and:
+
+"You're not out of the mess yet," he protested. "The only difference is
+that I'm in it with you!"
+
+"But where is your father?"
+
+"I'm looking for him."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Oh! he's about somewhere," Dan assured her confidently.
+
+"But, but----" She was gazing at him wide-eyed, "Didn't he send you
+here?"
+
+"You bet he didn't," returned young Kerry. "I came here on my own
+accord, and when I go you're coming with me. I can't make out how you
+got here, anyway. Do you know whose house this is?"
+
+"Oh, I do, I do!"
+
+"Whose?"
+
+"It belongs to a man called Chada."
+
+"Chada? Never heard of him. But I mean, what part of London is it in?"
+
+"Whatever do you mean? It is in Limehouse, I believe. I don't
+understand. You came here."
+
+"I didn't," said young Kerry cheerfully; "I was fetched!"
+
+"By your father?"
+
+"Not on your life. By a couple of Chinks! I'll tell you something."
+He raised his twinkling blue eyes. "We are properly up against it. I
+suppose you couldn't climb down a rain-pipe?"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+RETRIBUTION
+
+
+
+It was that dark, still, depressing hour of the night, when all life
+is at its lowest ebb. In the low, strangely perfumed room of books Zani
+Chada sat before his table, his yellow hands clutching the knobs on his
+chair arms, his long, inscrutable eyes staring unseeingly before him.
+
+Came a disturbance and the sound of voices, and Lou Chada, his son,
+stood at the doorway. He still wore his evening clothes, but he no
+longer looked smart. His glossy black hair was dishevelled, and his
+handsome, olive face bore a hunted look. Panic was betoken by twitching
+mouth and fear-bright eyes. He stopped, glaring at his father, and:
+
+"Why are you not gone?" asked the latter sternly. "Do you wish to wreck
+me as well as yourself?"
+
+"The police have posted a man opposite Kwee's house. I cannot get out
+that way."
+
+"There was no one there when the boy was brought in."
+
+"No, but there is now. Father!" He took a step forward. "I'm trapped.
+They sha'n't take me. You won't let them take me?"
+
+Zani Chada stirred not a muscle, but:
+
+"To-night," he said, "your mad passion has brought ruin to both of us.
+For the sake of a golden doll who is not worth the price of the jewels
+she wears, you have placed yourself within reach of the hangman."
+
+"I was mad, I was mad," groaned the other.
+
+"But I, who was sane, am involved in the consequences," retorted his
+father.
+
+"He will be silent at the price of the boy's life."
+
+"He may be," returned Zani Chada. "I hate him, but he is a man. Had you
+escaped, he might have consented to be silent. Once you are arrested,
+nothing would silence him."
+
+"If the case is tried it will ruin Pat's reputation."
+
+"What a pity!" said Zani Chada.
+
+In some distant part of the house a gong was struck three times.
+
+"Go," commanded his father. "Remain at Kwee's house until I send for
+you. Let Ah Fang go to the room above and see that the woman is silent.
+An outcry would ruin our last chance."
+
+Lou Chada raised his hands, brushing the hair back from his wet
+forehead, then, staring haggardly at his father, turned and ran from the
+room.
+
+A minute later Kerry was ushered in by the Chinese servant. The savage
+face was set like a mask. Without removing his hat, he strode across
+to the table and bent down so that fierce, wide-open blue eyes stared
+closely into long, half-closed black ones.
+
+"I've got one thing to say," explained Kerry huskily. "Whatever the
+hangman may do to your slimy son, and whatever happens to the little
+blonde fool he kidnapped, if you've laid a hand on my kid I'll kick you
+to death, if I follow you round the world to do it."
+
+Zani Chada made no reply, but his knuckles gleamed, so tightly did he
+clutch the knobs on the chair arms. Kerry's savagery would have awed
+any man, even though he had supposed it to be the idle threat of a
+passionate man. But Zani Chada knew all men, and he knew this one. When
+Daniel Kerry declared that in given circumstances he would kick Zani
+Chada to death, he did not mean that he would shoot him, strangle him,
+or even beat him with his fists; he meant precisely what he said--that
+he would kick him to death--and Zani Chada knew it.
+
+Thus there were some moments of tense silence during which the savage
+face of the Chief Inspector drew even closer to the gaunt, yellow face
+of the Eurasian. Finally:
+
+"Listen only for one moment," said Zani Chada. His voice had lost
+its guttural intonation. He spoke softly, sibilantly. "I, too, am a
+father------"
+
+"Don't mince words!" shouted Kerry. "You've kidnapped my boy. If I have
+to tear your house down brick by brick I'll find him. And if you've hurt
+one hair of his head--you know what to expect!"
+
+He quivered. The effort of suppression which he had imposed upon himself
+was frightful to witness. Zani Chada, student of men, knew that in
+despite of his own physical strength and of the hidden resources at his
+beck, he stood nearer to primitive retribution than he had ever done.
+Yet:
+
+"I understand," he continued. "But you do not understand. Your boy is
+not in this house. Oh! violence cannot avail! It can only make his loss
+irreparable."
+
+Kerry, nostrils distended, eyes glaring madly, bent over him.
+
+"Your scallywag of a son," he said hoarsely, "has gone one step too far.
+His adventures have twice before ended in murder--and you have covered
+him. This time you can't do it. I'm not to be bought. We've stood for
+the Far East in London long enough. Your cub hangs this time. Get me?
+There'll be no bargaining. The woman's reputation won't stop me. My
+kid's danger won't stop me. But if you try to use him as a lever I'll
+boot you to your stinking yellow paradise and they'll check you in as
+pulp."
+
+"You speak of three deaths," murmured Zani Chada.
+
+Kerry clenched his teeth so tightly that his maxillary muscles protruded
+to an abnormal degree. He thrust his clenched fists into his coat
+pockets.
+
+"We all follow our vocations in life," resumed the Eurasian, "to the
+best of our abilities. But is professional kudos not too dearly bought
+at the price of a loved one lost for ever? A far better bargain
+would be, shall we say, ten thousand pounds, as the price of a silk
+handkerchief------"
+
+Kerry's fierce blue eyes closed for a fraction of a second. Yet, in that
+fraction of a second, he had visualized some of the things which ten
+thousand pounds--a sum he could never hope to possess--would buy. He had
+seen his home, as he would have it--and he had seen Dan there, safe and
+happy at his mother's side. Was he entitled to disregard the happiness
+of his wife, the life of his boy, the honourable name of Sir
+Noel Rourke, because an outcast like Peters had come to a fitting
+end--because a treacherous Malay and a renegade Chinaman had, earlier,
+gone the same way, sped, as he suspected, by the same hand?
+
+"My resources are unusual," added Chada, speaking almost in a whisper.
+"I have cash to this amount in my safe------"
+
+So far he had proceeded when he was interrupted; and the cause of the
+interruption was this:
+
+A few moments earlier another dramatic encounter had taken place in a
+distant part of the house. Kerry Junior, having scientifically tested
+all the possible modes of egress from the room in which Lady Pat was
+confined, had long ago desisted, and had exhausted his ingenuity in
+plans which discussion had proved to be useless. In spite of the novelty
+and the danger of his situation, nature was urging her laws. He was
+growing sleepy. The crowning tragedy had been the discovery that he
+could not regain the small, square window set high in the wall from
+which he had dropped into this luxurious prison. Now, as the two sat
+side by side upon a cushioned divan, the woman's arm about the boy's
+shoulders, they were startled to hear, in the depths of the house, three
+notes of a gong.
+
+Young Kerry's sleepiness departed. He leapt to his feet as though
+electrified.
+
+"What was that?"
+
+There was something horrifying in those gong notes in the stillness of
+the night. Lady Pat's beautiful eyes grew glassy with fear.
+
+"I don't know," replied Dan. "It seemed to come from below."
+
+He ran to the door, drew the curtain aside, and pressed his ear against
+one of the panels, listening intently. As he did so, his attitude grew
+tense, his expression changed, then:
+
+"We're saved!" he cried, turning a radiant face to the woman. "I heard
+my father's voice!"
+
+"Oh, are you sure, are you sure?"
+
+"Absolutely sure!"
+
+He bent to press his ear to the panel again, when a stifled cry from his
+companion brought him swiftly to his feet. The second door in the room
+had opened silently, and a small Chinaman, who carried himself with a
+stoop, had entered, and now, a menacing expression upon his face, was
+quickly approaching the boy.
+
+What he had meant to do for ever remained in doubt, for young Kerry,
+knowing his father to be in the house and seeing an open door before
+him, took matters into his own hands. At the moment that the silent
+Chinaman was about to throw his arms about him, the pride of the junior
+school registered a most surprising left accurately on the point of Ah
+Fang's jaw, following it up by a wilful transgression of Queensberry
+rules in the form of a stomach punch which temporarily decided the
+issue. Then:
+
+"Quick! quick!" he cried breathlessly, grasping Lady Pat's hand. "This
+is where we run!"
+
+In such fashion was Zani Chada interrupted, the interruption taking the
+form of a sudden, shrill outcry:
+
+"Dad! dad! Where are you, dad?"
+
+Kerry spun about as a man galvanized. His face became transfigured.
+
+"This way, Dan!" he cried. "This way, boy!"
+
+Came a clatter of hurrying feet, and into the low, perfumed room
+burst Dan Kerry, junior, tightly clasping the hand of a pale-faced,
+dishevelled woman in evening dress. It was Lady Rourke; and although
+she seemed to be in a nearly fainting condition, Dan dragged her, half
+running, into the room.
+
+Kerry gave one glance at the pair, then, instantly, he turned to face
+Zani Chada. The latter, like a man of stone, sat in his carved chair,
+eyes nearly closed. The Chief Inspector whipped out a whistle and raised
+it to his lips. He blew three blasts upon it.
+
+From one--two--three--four points around the house the signal was
+answered.
+
+Zani Chada fully opened his long, basilisk eyes.
+
+"You win, Chief Inspector," he said. "But much may be done by clever
+counsel. If all fails------"
+
+"Well?" rapped Kerry fiercely, at the same time throwing his arm around
+the boy.
+
+"I may continue to take an interest in your affairs."
+
+A tremendous uproar arose, within and without the house. The police
+were raiding the place. Lady Rourke sank down, slowly, almost at the
+Eurasian's feet.
+
+But Chief Inspector Kerry experienced an unfamiliar chill as his
+uncompromising stare met the cold hatred which blazed out of the black
+eyes, narrowed, now, and serpentine, of Zani Chada.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PIGTAIL OF HI WING HO
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+HOW I OBTAINED IT
+
+
+
+Leaving the dock gates behind me I tramped through the steady drizzle,
+going parallel with the river and making for the Chinese quarter. The
+hour was about half-past eleven on one of those September nights when,
+in such a locality as this, a stifling quality seems to enter the
+atmosphere, rendering it all but unbreathable. A mist floated over
+the river, and it was difficult to say if the rain was still falling,
+indeed, or if the ample moisture upon my garments was traceable only to
+the fog. Sounds were muffled, lights dimmed, and the frequent hooting of
+sirens from the river added another touch of weirdness to the scene.
+
+Even when the peculiar duties of my friend, Paul Harley, called him
+away from England, the lure of this miniature Orient which I had first
+explored under his guidance, often called me from my chambers. In the
+house with the two doors in Wade Street, Limehouse, I would discard the
+armour of respectability, and, dressed in a manner unlikely to provoke
+comment in dockland, would haunt those dreary ways sometimes from
+midnight until close upon dawn. Yet, well as I knew the district and
+the strange and often dangerous creatures lurking in its many burrows, I
+experienced a chill partly physical and partly of apprehension to-night;
+indeed, strange though it may sound, I hastened my footsteps in order
+the sooner to reach the low den for which I was bound--Malay Jack's--a
+spot marked plainly on the crimes-map and which few respectable
+travellers would have regarded as a haven of refuge.
+
+But the chill of the adjacent river, and some quality of utter
+desolation which seemed to emanate from the deserted wharves and
+ramshackle buildings about me, were driving me thither now; for I knew
+that human companionship, of a sort, and a glass of good liquor--from
+a store which the Customs would have been happy to locate--awaited me
+there. I might chance, too, upon Durham or Wessex, of New Scotland Yard,
+both good friends of mine, or even upon the Terror of Chinatown, Chief
+Inspector Kerry, a man for whom I had an esteem which none of his
+ungracious manners could diminish.
+
+I was just about to turn to the right into a narrow and nameless alley,
+lying at right angles to the Thames, when I pulled up sharply, clenching
+my fists and listening.
+
+A confused and continuous sound, not unlike that which might be
+occasioned by several large and savage hounds at close grips, was
+proceeding out of the darkness ahead of me; a worrying, growling, and
+scuffling which presently I identified as human, although in fact it
+was animal enough. A moment I hesitated, then, distinguishing among
+the sounds of conflict an unmistakable, though subdued, cry for help,
+I leaped forward and found myself in the midst of the melee. This was
+taking place in the lee of a high, dilapidated brick wall. A lamp in a
+sort of iron bracket spluttered dimly above on the right, but the
+scene of the conflict lay in densest shadow, so that the figures were
+indistinguishable.
+
+"Help! By Gawd! they're strangling me------"
+
+From almost at my feet the cry arose and was drowned in Chinese
+chattering. But guided by it I now managed to make out that the struggle
+in progress waged between a burly English sailorman and two lithe
+Chinese. The yellow men seemed to have gained the advantage and my
+course was clear.
+
+A straight right on the jaw of the Chinaman who was engaged in
+endeavouring to throttle the victim laid him prone in the dirty roadway.
+His companion, who was holding the wrist of the recumbent man, sprang
+upright as though propelled by a spring. I struck out at him savagely.
+He uttered a shrill scream not unlike that of a stricken hare, and fled
+so rapidly that he seemed to melt in the mist.
+
+"Gawd bless you, mate!" came chokingly from the ground--and the rescued
+man, extricating himself from beneath the body of his stunned assailant,
+rose unsteadily to his feet and lurched toward me.
+
+As I had surmised, he was a sailor, wearing a rough, blue-serge jacket
+and having his greasy trousers thrust into heavy seaboots--by which I
+judged that he was but newly come ashore. He stooped and picked up his
+cap. It was covered in mud, as were the rest of his garments, but he
+brushed it with his sleeve as though it had been but slightly soiled and
+clapped it on his head.
+
+He grasped my hand in a grip of iron, peering into my face, and his
+breath was eloquent.
+
+"I'd had one or two, mate," he confided huskily (the confession was
+unnecessary). "It was them two in the Blue Anchor as did it; if I 'adn't
+'ad them last two, I could 'ave broke up them Chinks with one 'and tied
+behind me."
+
+"That's all right," I said hastily, "but what are we going to do about
+this Chink here?" I added, endeavouring at the same time to extricate my
+hand from the vise-like grip in which he persistently held it. "He hit
+the tiles pretty heavy when he went down."
+
+As if to settle my doubts, the recumbent figure suddenly arose and
+without a word fled into the darkness and was gone like a phantom. My
+new friend made no attempt to follow, but:
+
+"You can't kill a bloody Chink," he confided, still clutching my hand;
+"it ain't 'umanly possible. It's easier to kill a cat. Come along o' me
+and 'ave one; then I'll tell you somethink. I'll put you on somethink, I
+will."
+
+With surprising steadiness of gait, considering the liquid cargo he had
+aboard, the man, releasing my hand and now seizing me firmly by the
+arm, confidently led me by divers narrow ways, which I knew, to a little
+beerhouse frequented by persons of his class.
+
+My own attire was such as to excite no suspicion in these surroundings,
+and although I considered that my acquaintance had imbibed more than
+enough for one night, I let him have his own way in order that I might
+learn the story which he seemed disposed to confide in me. Settled in
+the corner of the beerhouse--which chanced to be nearly empty--with
+portentous pewters before us, the conversation was opened by my new
+friend:
+
+"I've been paid off from the Jupiter--Samuelson's Planet Line," he
+explained. "What I am is a fireman."
+
+"She was from Singapore to London?" I asked.
+
+"She was," he replied, "and it was at Suez it 'appened--at Suez."
+
+I did not interrupt him.
+
+"I was ashore at Suez--we all was, owin' to a 'itch with the canal
+company--a matter of money, I may say. They make yer pay before they'll
+take yer through. Do you know that?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"Suez is a place," he continued, "where they don't sell whisky, only
+poison. Was you ever at Suez?"
+
+Again I nodded, being most anxious to avoid diverting the current of my
+friend's thoughts.
+
+"Well, then," he continued, "you know Greek Jimmy's--and that's where
+I'd been."
+
+I did not know Greek Jimmy's, but I thought it unnecessary to mention
+the fact.
+
+"It was just about this time on a steamin' 'ot night as I come out of
+Jimmy's and started for the ship. I was walkin' along the Waghorn Quay,
+same as I might be walkin' along to-night, all by myself--bit of a
+list to port but nothing much--full o' joy an' happiness, 'appy an'
+free--'appy an' free. Just like you might have noticed to-night, I
+noticed a knot of Chinks scrappin' on the ground all amongst the dust
+right in front of me. I rammed in, windmillin' all round and knocking
+'em down like skittles. Seemed to me there was about ten of 'em, but
+allowin' for Jimmy's whisky, maybe there wasn't more than three. Anyway,
+they all shifted and left me standin' there in the empty street with
+this 'ere in my 'and."
+
+At that, without more ado, he thrust his hand deep into some concealed
+pocket and jerked out a Chinese pigtail, which had been severed,
+apparently some three inches from the scalp, by a clean cut. My
+acquaintance, with somewhat bleared eyes glistening in appreciation of
+his own dramatic skill--for I could not conceal my surprise--dangled it
+before me triumphantly.
+
+"Which of 'em it belong to," he continued, thrusting it into another
+pocket and drumming loudly on the counter for more beer, "I can't say,
+'cos I don't know. But that ain't all."
+
+The tankards being refilled and my friend having sampled the contents of
+his own:
+
+"That ain't all," he continued. "I thought I'd keep it as a sort of
+relic, like. What 'appened? I'll tell you. Amongst the crew there's
+three Chinks--see? We ain't through the canal before one of 'em, a new
+one to me--Li Ping is his name--offers me five bob for the pigtail,
+which he sees me looking at one mornin'. I give him a punch on the nose
+an' 'e don't renew the offer: but that night (we're layin' at Port Said)
+'e tries to pinch it! I dam' near broke his neck, and 'e don't try any
+more. To-night"--he extended his right arm forensically--"a deppitation
+of Chinks waits on me at the dock gates; they explains as from a
+patriotic point of view they feels it to be their dooty to buy that
+pigtail off of me, and they bids a quid, a bar of gold--a Jimmy o'
+Goblin!"
+
+He snapped his fingers contemptuously and emptied his pewter. A sense
+of what was coming began to dawn on me. That the "hold-up" near the
+riverside formed part of the scheme was possible, and, reflecting on
+my rough treatment of the two Chinamen, I chuckled inwardly. Possibly,
+however, the scheme had germinated in my acquaintance's mind merely as
+a result of an otherwise common assault, of a kind not unusual in these
+parts, but, whether elaborate or comparatively simple, that the story
+of the pigtail was a "plant" designed to reach my pocket, seemed a
+reasonable hypothesis.
+
+"I told him to go to China," concluded the object of my suspicion, again
+rapping upon the counter, "and you see what come of it. All I got to say
+is this: If they're so bloody patriotic, I says one thing: I ain't the
+man to stand in their way. You done me a good turn to-night, mate; I'm
+doing you one. 'Ere's the bloody pigtail, 'ere's my empty mug. Fill the
+mug and the pigtail's yours. It's good for a quid at the dock gates any
+day!"
+
+My suspicions vanished; my interest arose to boiling point. I refilled
+my acquaintance's mug, pressed a sovereign upon him (in honesty I must
+confess that he was loath to take it), and departed with the pigtail
+coiled neatly in an inner pocket of my jacket. I entered the house in
+Wade Street by the side door, and half an hour later let myself out by
+the front door, having cast off my dockland disguise.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+HOW I LOST IT
+
+
+
+It was not until the following evening that I found leisure to examine
+my strange acquisition, for affairs of more immediate importance
+engrossed my attention. But at about ten o'clock I seated myself at
+my table, lighted the lamp, and taking out the pigtail from the table
+drawer, placed it on the blotting-pad and began to examine it with the
+greatest curiosity, for few Chinese affect the pigtail nowadays.
+
+I had scarcely commenced my examination, however, when it was
+dramatically interrupted. The door bell commenced to ring jerkily. I
+stood up, and as I did so the ringing ceased and in its place came a
+muffled beating on the door. I hurried into the passage as the bell
+commenced ringing again, and I had almost reached the door when once
+more the ringing ceased; but now I could hear a woman's voice, low but
+agitated:
+
+"Open the door! Oh, for God's sake be quick!"
+
+Completely mystified, and not a little alarmed, I threw open the door,
+and in there staggered a woman heavily veiled, so that I could see
+little of her features, but by the lines of her figure I judged her to
+be young.
+
+Uttering a sort of moan of terror she herself closed the door, and
+stood with her back to it, watching me through the thick veil, while her
+breast rose and fell tumultuously.
+
+"Thank God there was someone at home!" she gasped.
+
+I think I may say with justice that I had never been so surprised in my
+life; every particular of the incident marked it as unique--set it apart
+from the episodes of everyday life.
+
+"Madam," I began doubtfully, "you seem to be much alarmed at something,
+and if I can be of any assistance to you------"
+
+"You have saved my life!" she whispered, and pressed one hand to her
+bosom. "In a moment I will explain."
+
+"Won't you rest a little after your evidently alarming experience?" I
+suggested.
+
+My strange visitor nodded, without speaking, and I conducted her to the
+study which I had just left, and placed the most comfortable arm-chair
+close beside the table so that as I sat I might study this woman who
+so strangely had burst in upon me. I even tilted the shaded lamp,
+artlessly, a trick I had learned from Harley, in order that the light
+might fall upon her face.
+
+She may have detected this device; I know not; but as if in answer to
+its challenge, she raised her gloved hands and unfastened the heavy veil
+which had concealed her features.
+
+Thereupon I found myself looking into a pair of lustrous black eyes
+whose almond shape was that of the Orient; I found myself looking at a
+woman who, since she was evidently a Jewess, was probably no older than
+eighteen or nineteen, but whose beauty was ripely voluptuous, who might
+fittingly have posed for Salome, who, despite her modern fashionable
+garments, at once suggested to my mind the wanton beauty of the daughter
+of Herodias.
+
+I stared at her silently for a time, and presently her full lips parted
+in a slow smile. My ideas were diverted into another channel.
+
+"You have yet to tell me what alarmed you," I said in a low voice, but
+as courteously as possible, "and if I can be of any assistance in the
+matter."
+
+My visitor seemed to recollect her fright--or the necessity for
+simulation. The pupils of her fine eyes seemed to grow larger and
+darker; she pressed her white teeth into her lower lips, and resting her
+hands upon the table leaned toward me.
+
+"I am a stranger to London," she began, now exhibiting a certain
+diffidence, "and to-night I was looking for the chambers of Mr. Raphael
+Philips of Figtree Court."
+
+"This is Figtree Court," I said, "but I know of no Mr. Raphael Philips
+who has chambers here."
+
+The black eyes met mine despairingly.
+
+"But I am positive of the address!" protested my beautiful but strange
+caller--from her left glove she drew out a scrap of paper, "here it is."
+
+I glanced at the fragment, upon which, in a woman's hand the words were
+pencilled: "Mr. Raphael Philips, 36-b Figtree Court, London."
+
+I stared at my visitor, deeply mystified.
+
+"These chambers are 36-b!" I said. "But I am not Raphael Philips, nor
+have I ever heard of him. My name is Malcolm Knox. There is evidently
+some mistake, but"--returning the slip of paper--"pardon me if I remind
+you, I have yet to learn the cause of your alarm."
+
+"I was followed across the court and up the stairs."
+
+"Followed! By whom?"
+
+"By a dreadful-looking man, chattering in some tongue I did not
+understand!"
+
+My amazement was momentarily growing greater.
+
+"What kind of a man?" I demanded rather abruptly.
+
+"A yellow-faced man--remember I could only just distinguish him in the
+darkness on the stairway, and see little more of him than his eyes at
+that, and his ugly gleaming teeth--oh! it was horrible!"
+
+"You astound me," I said; "the thing is utterly incomprehensible." I
+switched off the light of the lamp. "I'll see if there's any sign of him
+in the court below."
+
+"Oh, don't leave me! For heaven's sake don't leave me alone!"
+
+She clutched my arm in the darkness.
+
+"Have no fear; I merely propose to look out from this window."
+
+Suiting the action to the word, I peered down into the court below. It
+was quite deserted. The night was a very dark one, and there were many
+patches of shadow in which a man might have lain concealed.
+
+"I can see no one," I said, speaking as confidently as possible, and
+relighting the lamp, "if I call a cab for you and see you safely into
+it, you will have nothing to fear, I think."
+
+"I have a cab waiting," she replied, and lowering the veil she stood up
+to go.
+
+"Kindly allow me to see you to it. I am sorry you have been subjected to
+this annoyance, especially as you have not attained the object of your
+visit."
+
+"Thank you so much for your kindness; there must be some mistake about
+the address, of course."
+
+She clung to my arm very tightly as we descended the stairs, and often
+glanced back over her shoulder affrightedly, as we crossed the court.
+There was not a sign of anyone about, however, and I could not make
+up my mind whether the story of the yellow man was a delusion or a
+fabrication. I inclined to the latter theory, but the object of such a
+deception was more difficult to determine.
+
+Sure enough, a taxicab was waiting at the entrance to the court; and my
+visitor, having seated herself within, extended her hand to me, and even
+through the thick veil I could detect her brilliant smile.
+
+"Thank you so much, Mr. Knox," she said, "and a thousand apologies. I am
+sincerely sorry to have given you all this trouble."
+
+The cab drove off. For a moment I stood looking after it, in a state of
+dreamy incertitude, then turned and slowly retraced my steps. Reopening
+the door of my chambers with my key, I returned to my study and sat down
+at the table to endeavour to arrange the facts of what I recognized to
+be a really amazing episode. The adventure, trifling though it seemed,
+undoubtedly held some hidden significance that at present was not
+apparent to me. In accordance with the excellent custom of my friend,
+Paul Harley, I prepared to make notes of the occurrence while the facts
+were still fresh in my memory. At the moment that I was about to begin,
+I made an astounding discovery.
+
+Although I had been absent only a few minutes, and had locked my door
+behind me, the pigtail was gone!
+
+I sat quite still, listening intently. The woman's story of the yellow
+man on the stairs suddenly assumed a totally different aspect--a new and
+sinister aspect. Could it be that the pigtail was at the bottom of the
+mystery?--could it be that some murderous Chinaman who had been lurking
+in hiding, waiting his opportunity, had in some way gained access to my
+chambers during that brief absence? If so, was he gone?
+
+From the table drawer I took out a revolver, ascertained that it was
+fully loaded, and turning up light after light as I proceeded, conducted
+a room-to-room search. It was without result; there was absolutely
+nothing to indicate that anyone had surreptitiously entered or departed
+from my chambers.
+
+I returned to the study and sat gazing at the revolver lying on the
+blotting-pad before me. Perhaps my mind worked slowly, but I think that
+fully fifteen minutes must have passed before it dawned on me that the
+explanation not only of the missing pigtail but of the other incidents
+of the night, was simple enough. The yellow man had been a fabrication,
+and my dark-eyed visitor had not been in quest of "Raphael Philips," but
+in quest of the pigtail: and her quest had been successful!
+
+"What a hopeless fool I am!" I cried, and banged my fist down upon the
+table, "there was no yellow man at all--there was-----"
+
+My door bell rang. I sprang nervously to my feet, glanced at the
+revolver on the table--and finally dropped it into my coat pocket ere
+going out and opening the door.
+
+On the landing stood a police constable and an officer in plain clothes.
+
+"Your name is Malcolm Knox?" asked the constable, glancing at a
+note-book which he held in his hand.
+
+"It is," I replied.
+
+"You are required to come at once to Bow Street to identify a woman
+who was found murdered in a taxi-cab in the Strand about eleven o'clock
+to-night."
+
+I suppressed an exclamation of horror; I felt myself turning pale.
+
+"But what has it to do------"
+
+"The driver stated she came from your chambers, for you saw her off, and
+her last words to you were 'Good night, Mr. Knox, I am sincerely sorry
+to have given you all this trouble.' Is that correct, sir?"
+
+The constable, who had read out the information in an official voice,
+now looked at me, as I stood there stupefied.
+
+"It is," I said blankly. "I'll come at once." It would seem that I had
+misjudged my unfortunate visitor: her story of the yellow man on the
+stair had apparently been not a fabrication, but a gruesome fact!
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+HOW I REGAINED IT
+
+
+
+My ghastly duty was performed; I had identified the dreadful thing,
+which less than an hour before had been a strikingly beautiful woman,
+as my mysterious visitor. The police were palpably disappointed at the
+sparsity of my knowledge respecting her. In fact, had it not chanced
+that Detective Sergeant Durham was in the station, I think they would
+have doubted the accuracy of my story.
+
+As a man of some experience in such matters, I fully recognized its
+improbability, but beyond relating the circumstances leading up to my
+possession of the pigtail and the events which had ensued, I could do
+no more in the matter. The weird relic had not been found on the dead
+woman, nor in the cab.
+
+Now the unsavoury business was finished, and I walked along Bow Street,
+racking my mind for the master-key to this mystery in which I was become
+enmeshed. How I longed to rush off to Harley's rooms in Chancery Lane
+and to tell him the whole story! But my friend was a thousand miles
+away--and I had to see the thing out alone.
+
+That the pigtail was some sacred relic stolen from a Chinese temple and
+sought for by its fanatical custodians was a theory which persistently
+intruded itself. But I could find no place in that hypothesis for the
+beautiful Jewess; and that she was intimately concerned I did not doubt.
+A cool survey of the facts rendered it fairly evident that it was she
+and none other who had stolen the pigtail from my rooms. Some third
+party--possibly the "yellow man" of whom she had spoken--had in turn
+stolen it from her, strangling her in the process.
+
+The police theory of the murder (and I was prepared to accept it) was
+that the assassin had been crouching in hiding behind or beside the
+cab--or even within the dark interior. He had leaped in and attacked the
+woman at the moment that the taxi-man had started his engine; if already
+inside, the deed had proven even easier. Then, during some block in the
+traffic, he had slipped out unseen, leaving the body of the victim to be
+discovered when the cab pulled up at the hotel.
+
+I knew of only one place in London where I might hope to obtain useful
+information, and for that place I was making now. It was Malay Jack's,
+whence I had been bound on the previous night when my strange meeting
+with the seaman who then possessed the pigtail had led to a change of
+plan. The scum of the Asiatic population always come at one time or
+another to Jack's, and I hoped by dint of a little patience to achieve
+what the police had now apparently despaired of achieving--the discovery
+of the assassin.
+
+Having called at my chambers to obtain my revolver, I mounted an
+eastward-bound motor-bus. The night, as I have already stated, was
+exceptionally dark. There was no moon, and heavy clouds were spread over
+the sky; so that the deserted East End streets presented a sufficiently
+uninviting aspect, but one with which I was by no means unfamiliar and
+which certainly in no way daunted me.
+
+Changing at Paul Harley's Chinatown base in Wade Street, I turned my
+steps in the same direction as upon the preceding night; but if my
+own will played no part in the matter, then decidedly Providence
+truly guided me. Poetic justice is rare enough in real life, yet I was
+destined to-night to witness swift retribution overtaking a malefactor.
+
+The by-ways which I had trodden were utterly deserted; I was far from
+the lighted high road, and the only signs of human activity that reached
+me came from the adjacent river; therefore, when presently an outcry
+arose from somewhere on my left, for a moment I really believed that my
+imagination was vividly reproducing the episode of the night before!
+
+A furious scuffle--between a European and an Asiatic--was in progress
+not twenty yards away!
+
+Realizing that such was indeed the case, and that I was not the victim
+of hallucination, I advanced slowly in the direction of the sounds,
+but my footsteps reechoed hollowly from wall to wall of the narrow
+passage-way, and my coming brought the conflict to a sudden and dramatic
+termination.
+
+"Thought I wouldn't know yer ugly face, did yer?" yelled a familiar
+voice. "No good squealin'--I got yer! I'd bust you up if I could!"
+(a sound of furious blows and inarticulate chattering) "but it ain't
+'umanly possible to kill a Chink------"
+
+I hurried forward toward the spot where two dim figures were locked in
+deadly conflict.
+
+"Take that to remember me by!" gasped the husky voice as I ran up.
+
+One of the figures collapsed in a heap upon the ground. The other
+made off at a lumbering gait along a second and even narrower passage
+branching at right angles from that in which the scuffle had taken
+place.
+
+The clatter of the heavy sea-boots died away in the distance. I stood
+beside the fallen man, looking keenly about to right and left; for an
+impression was strong upon me that another than I had been witness of
+the scene--that a shadowy form had slunk back furtively at my approach.
+But the night gave up no sound in confirmation of this, and I could
+detect no sign of any lurker.
+
+I stooped over the Chinaman (for a Chinaman it was) who lay at my feet,
+and directed the ray of my pocket-lamp upon his yellow and contorted
+countenance. I suppressed a cry of surprise and horror.
+
+Despite the human impossibility referred to by the missing fireman, this
+particular Chinaman had joined the shades of his ancestors. I think that
+final blow, which had felled him, had brought his shaven skull in
+such violent contact with the wall that he had died of the thundering
+concussion set up.
+
+Kneeling there and looking into his upturned eyes, I became aware that
+my position was not an enviable one, particularly since I felt little
+disposed to set the law on the track of the real culprit. For this
+man who now lay dead at my feet was doubtless one of the pair who had
+attempted the life of the fireman of the Jupiter.
+
+That my seafaring acquaintance had designed to kill the Chinaman I did
+not believe, despite his stormy words: the death had been an accident,
+and (perhaps my morality was over-broad) I considered the assault to
+have been justified.
+
+Now my ideas led me further yet. The dead Chinaman wore a rough blue
+coat, and gingerly, for I found the contact repulsive, I inserted
+my hand into the inside pocket. Immediately my fingers closed upon a
+familiar object--and I stood up, whistling slightly, and dangling in my
+left hand the missing pigtail!
+
+Beyond doubt Justice had guided the seaman's blows. This was the man who
+had murdered my dark-eyed visitor!
+
+I stood perfectly still, directing the little white ray of my flashlight
+upon the pigtail in my hand. I realized that my position, difficult
+before, now was become impossible; the possession of the pigtail
+compromised me hopelessly. What should I do?
+
+"My God!" I said aloud, "what does it all mean?"
+
+"It means," said a gruff voice, "that it was lucky I was following you
+and saw what happened!"
+
+I whirled about, my heart leaping wildly. Detective-Sergeant Durham was
+standing watching me, a grim smile upon his face!
+
+I laughed rather shakily.
+
+"Lucky indeed!" I said. "Thank God you're here. This pigtail is a
+nightmare which threatens to drive me mad!"
+
+The detective advanced and knelt beside the crumpled-up figure on the
+ground. He examined it briefly, and then stood up.
+
+"The fact that he had the missing pigtail in his pocket," he said, "is
+proof enough to my mind that he did the murder."
+
+"And to mine."
+
+"There's another point," he added, "which throws a lot of light on the
+matter. You and Mr. Harley were out of town at the time of the Huang
+Chow case; but the Chief and I outlined it, you remember, one night in
+Mr. Harley's rooms?"
+
+"I remember it perfectly; the giant spider in the coffin------"
+
+"Yes; and a certain Ah Fu, confidential servant of the old man, who used
+to buy the birds the thing fed on. Well, Mr. Knox, Huang Chow was the
+biggest dealer in illicit stuff in all the East End--and this battered
+thing at our feet is--Ah Fu!"
+
+"Huang Chow's servant?"
+
+"Exactly!"
+
+I stared, uncomprehendingly, and:
+
+"In what way does this throw light on the matter?" I asked.
+
+Durham--a very intelligent young officer--smiled significantly.
+
+"I begin to see light!" he declared. "The gentleman who made off just as
+I arrived on the scene probably had a private quarrel with the Chinaman
+and was otherwise not concerned in any way."
+
+"I am disposed to agree with you," I said guardedly.
+
+"Of course, you've no idea of his identity?"
+
+"I'm afraid not."
+
+"We may find him," mused the officer, glancing at me shrewdly, "by
+applying at the offices of the Planet Line, but I rather doubt it. Also
+I rather doubt if we'll look very far. He's saved us a lot of trouble,
+but"--peering about in the shadowy corners which abounded--"didn't I see
+somebody else lurking around here?"
+
+"I'm almost certain there was someone else!" I cried. "In fact, I could
+all but swear to it."
+
+"H'm!" said the detective. "He's not here now. Might I trouble you to
+walk along to Limehouse Police Station for the ambulance? I'd better
+stay here."
+
+I agreed at once, and started off.
+
+Thus a second time my plans were interrupted, for my expedition that
+night ultimately led me to Bow Street, whence, after certain formalities
+had been observed, I departed for my chambers, the mysterious pigtail
+in my pocket. Failing the presence of Durham, the pigtail must have been
+retained as evidence, but:
+
+"We shall know where to find it if it's wanted, Mr. Knox," said the Yard
+man, "and I can trust you to look after your own property."
+
+The clock of St. Paul's was chiming the hour of two when I locked the
+door of my chambers and prepared to turn in. The clangour of the final
+strokes yet vibrated through the night's silence when someone set my own
+door bell loudly ringing.
+
+With an exclamation of annoyance I shot back the bolts and threw open
+the door.
+
+A Chinaman stood outside upon the mat!
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+HOW IT ALL ENDED
+
+
+
+"Me wishee see you," said the apparition, smiling blandly; "me comee
+in?"
+
+"Come in, by all means," I said without enthusiasm, and, switching on
+the light in my study, I admitted the Chinaman and stood facing him
+with an expression upon my face which I doubt not was the reverse of
+agreeable.
+
+My visitor, who wore a slop-shop suit, also wore a wide-brimmed bowler
+hat; now, the set bland smile still upon his yellow face, he removed the
+bowler and pointed significantly to his skull.
+
+His pigtail had been severed some three inches from the root!
+
+"You gotchee my pigtail," he explained; "me callee get it--thank you."
+
+"Thank you," I said grimly. "But I must ask you to establish your claim
+rather more firmly."
+
+"Yessir," agreed the Chinaman.
+
+And thereupon in tolerable pidgin English he unfolded his tale. He
+proclaimed his name to be Hi Wing Ho, and his profession that of a
+sailor, or so I understood him. While ashore at Suez he had become
+embroiled with some drunken seamen: knives had been drawn, and in the
+scuffle by some strange accident his pigtail had been severed. He
+had escaped from the conflict, badly frightened, and had run a great
+distance before he realized his loss. Since Southern Chinamen of his
+particular Tong hold their pigtails in the highest regard, he had
+instituted inquiries as soon as possible, and had presently learned from
+a Chinese member of the crew of the S.S. Jupiter that the precious queue
+had fallen into the hands of a fireman on that vessel. He (Hi Wing Ho)
+had shipped on the first available steamer bound for England, having in
+the meanwhile communicated with his friend on the Jupiter respecting the
+recovery of the pigtail.
+
+"What was the name of your friend on the Jupiter?"
+
+"Him Li Ping--yessir!"--without the least hesitation or hurry.
+
+I nodded. "Go on," I said.
+
+He arrived at the London docks very shortly after the Jupiter. Indeed,
+the crew of the latter vessel had not yet been paid off when Hi Wing
+Ho presented himself at the dock gates. He admitted that, finding the
+fireman so obdurate, he and his friend Li Ping had resorted to violence,
+but he did not seem to recognize me as the person who had frustrated
+their designs. Thus far I found his story credible enough, excepting
+the accidental severing of the pigtail at Suez, but now it became
+wildly improbable, for he would have me believe that Li Ping, or Ah Fu,
+obtaining possession of the pigtail (in what manner Hi Wing Ho protested
+that he knew not) he sought to hold it to ransom, knowing how highly Hi
+Wing Ho valued it.
+
+I glared sternly at the Chinaman, but his impassive countenance served
+him well. That he was lying to me I no longer doubted; for Ah Fu could
+not have hoped to secure such a price as would justify his committing
+murder; furthermore, the presence of the unfortunate Jewess in the case
+was not accounted for by the ingenious narrative of Hi Wing Ho. I was
+standing staring at him and wondering what course to adopt, when yet
+again my restless door-bell clamoured in the silence.
+
+Hi Wing Ho started nervously, exhibiting the first symptoms of alarm
+which I had perceived in him. My mind was made up in an instant. I took
+my revolver from the drawer and covered him.
+
+"Be good enough to open the door, Hi Wing Ho," I said coldly.
+
+He shrank from me, pouring forth voluble protestations.
+
+"Open the door!"
+
+I clenched my left fist and advanced upon him. He scuttled away with his
+odd Chinese gait and threw open the door. Standing before me I saw my
+friend Detective Sergeant Durham, and with him a remarkably tall and
+very large-boned man whose square-jawed face was deeply tanned and whose
+aspect was dourly Scottish.
+
+When the piercing eyes of this stranger rested upon Hi Wing Ho an
+expression which I shall never forget entered into them; an expression
+coldly murderous. As for the Chinaman, he literally crumpled up.
+
+"You rat!" roared the stranger.
+
+Taking one long stride he stooped upon the Chinaman, seized him by the
+back of the neck as a terrier might seize a rat, and lifted him to his
+feet.
+
+"The mystery of the pigtail, Mr. Knox," said the detective, "is solved
+at last."
+
+"Have ye got it?" demanded the Scotsman, turning to me, but without
+releasing his hold upon the neck of Hi Wing Ho.
+
+I took the pigtail from my pocket and dangled it before his eyes.
+
+"Suppose you come into my study," I said, "and explain matters."
+
+We entered the room which had been the scene of so many singular
+happenings. The detective and I seated ourselves, but the Scotsman,
+holding the Chinaman by the neck as though he had been some inanimate
+bundle, stood just within the doorway, one of the most gigantic
+specimens of manhood I had ever set eyes upon.
+
+"You do the talking, sir," he directed the detective; "ye have all the
+facts."
+
+While Durham talked, then, we all listened--excepting the Chinaman, who
+was past taking an intelligent interest in anything, and who, to judge
+from his starting eyes, was being slowly strangled.
+
+"The gentleman," said Durham--"Mr. Nicholson--arrived two days ago from
+the East. He is a buyer for a big firm of diamond merchants, and some
+weeks ago a valuable diamond was stolen from him------"
+
+"By this!" interrupted the Scotsman, shaking the wretched Hi Wing Ho
+terrier fashion.
+
+"By Hi Wing Ho," explained the detective, "whom you see before you. The
+theft was a very ingenious one, and the man succeeded in getting away
+with his haul. He tried to dispose of the diamond to a certain Isaac
+Cohenberg, a Singapore moneylender; but Isaac Cohenberg was the bigger
+crook of the two. Hi Wing Ho only escaped from the establishment of
+Cohenberg by dint of sandbagging the moneylender, and quitted the town
+by a boat which left the same night. On the voyage he was indiscreet
+enough to take the diamond from its hiding-place and surreptitiously to
+examine it. Another member of the Chinese crew, one Li Ping--otherwise
+Ah Fu, the accredited agent of old Huang Chow!--was secretly watching
+our friend, and, knowing that he possessed this valuable jewel, he also
+learned where he kept it hidden. At Suez Ah Fu attacked Hi Wing Ho and
+secured possession of the diamond. It was to secure possession of the
+diamond that Ah Fu had gone out East. I don't doubt it. He employed Hi
+Wing Ho--and Hi Wing Ho tried to double on him!
+
+"We are indebted to you, Mr. Knox, for some of the data upon which
+we have reconstructed the foregoing and also for the next link in the
+narrative. A fireman ashore from the Jupiter intruded upon the scene at
+Suez and deprived Ah Fu of the fruits of his labours. Hi Wing Ho seems
+to have been badly damaged in the scuffle, but Ah Fu, the more wily of
+the two, evidently followed the fireman, and, deserting from his own
+ship, signed on with the Jupiter."
+
+While this story was enlightening in some respects, it was mystifying in
+others. I did not interrupt, however, for Durham immediately resumed:
+
+"The drama was complicated by the presence of a fourth character--the
+daughter of Cohenberg. Realizing that a small fortune had slipped
+through his fingers, the old moneylender dispatched his daughter in
+pursuit of Hi Wing Ho, having learned upon which vessel the latter had
+sailed. He had no difficulty in obtaining this information, for he is in
+touch with all the crooks of the town. Had he known that the diamond had
+been stolen by an agent of Huang Chow, he would no doubt have hesitated.
+Huang Chow has an international reputation.
+
+"However, his daughter--a girl of great personal beauty--relied upon her
+diplomatic gifts to regain possession of the stone, but, poor creature,
+she had not counted with Ah Fu, who was evidently watching your chambers
+(while Hi Wing Ho, it seems, was assiduously shadowing Ah Fu!). How she
+traced the diamond from point to point of its travels we do not know,
+and probably never shall know, but she was undeniably clever and
+unscrupulous. Poor girl! She came to a dreadful end. Mr. Nicholson,
+here, identified her at Bow Street to-night."
+
+Now the whole amazing truth burst upon me.
+
+"I understand!" I cried. "This"--and I snatched up the pigtail--
+
+"That my pigtail," moaned Hi Wing Ho feebly.
+
+Mr. Nicholson pitched him unceremoniously into a corner of the room, and
+taking the pigtail in his huge hand, clumsily unfastened it. Out from
+the thick part, some two inches below the point at which it had been cut
+from the Chinaman's head, a great diamond dropped upon the floor!
+
+For perhaps twenty seconds there was perfect silence in my study. No one
+stooped to pick the diamond from the floor--the diamond which now had
+blood upon it. No one, so far as my sense informed me, stirred. But
+when, following those moments of stupefaction, we all looked up--Hi Wing
+Ho, like a phantom, had faded from the room!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HOUSE OF GOLDEN JOSS
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE BLOOD-STAINED IDOL
+
+
+"Stop when we pass the next lamp and give me a light for my pipe."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"No! don't look round," warned my companion. "I think someone is
+following us. And it is always advisable to be on guard in this
+neighbourhood."
+
+We had nearly reached the house in Wade Street, Limehouse, which my
+friend used as a base for East End operations. The night was dark but
+clear, and I thought that presently when dawn came it would bring a
+cold, bright morning. There was no moon, and as we passed the lamp and
+paused we stood in almost total darkness.
+
+Facing in the direction of the Council School I struck a match. It
+revealed my ruffianly looking companion--in whom his nearest friends
+must have failed to recognize Mr. Paul Harley of Chancery Lane.
+
+He was glancing furtively back along the street, and when a moment later
+we moved on, I too, had detected the presence of a figure stumbling
+toward us.
+
+"Don't stop at the door," whispered Harley, for our follower was only a
+few yards away.
+
+Accordingly we passed the house in which Harley had rooms, and had
+proceeded some fifteen paces farther when the man who was following us
+stumbled in between Harley and myself, clutching an arm of either. I
+scarcely knew what to expect, but was prepared for anything, when:
+
+"Mates!" said a man huskily. "Mates, if you know where I can get a
+drink, take me there!"
+
+Harley laughed shortly. I cannot say if he remained suspicious of the
+newcomer, but for my own part I had determined after one glance at
+the man that he was merely a drunken fireman newly recovered from a
+prolonged debauch.
+
+"Where 'ave yer been, old son?" growled Harley, in that wonderful
+dialect of his which I had so often and so vainly sought to cultivate.
+"You look as though you'd 'ad one too many already."
+
+"I ain't," declared the fireman, who appeared to be in a semi-dazed
+condition. "I ain't 'ad one since ten o'clock last night. It's dope
+wot's got me, not rum."
+
+"Dope!" said Harley sharply; "been 'avin' a pipe, eh?"
+
+"If you've got a corpse-reviver anywhere," continued the man in that
+curious, husky voice, "'ave pity on me, mate. I seen a thing to-night
+wot give me the jim-jams."
+
+"All right, old son," said my friend good-humouredly; "about turn! I've
+got a drop in the bottle, but me an' my mate sails to-morrow, an' it's
+the last."
+
+"Gawd bless yer!" growled the fireman; and the three of us--an odd trio,
+truly--turned about, retracing our steps.
+
+As we approached the street lamp and its light shone upon the haggard
+face of the man walking between us, Harley stopped, and:
+
+"Wot's up with yer eye?" he inquired.
+
+He suddenly tilted the man's head upward and peered closely into one of
+his eyes. I suppressed a gasp of surprise for I instantly recognized the
+fireman of the Jupiter!
+
+"Nothin' up with it, is there?" said the fireman.
+
+"Only a lump o' mud," growled Harley, and with a very dirty handkerchief
+he pretended to remove the imaginary stain, and then, turning to me:
+
+"Open the door, Jim," he directed.
+
+His examination of the man's eyes had evidently satisfied him that our
+acquaintance had really been smoking opium.
+
+We paused immediately outside the house for which we had been bound, and
+as I had the key I opened the door and the three of us stepped into a
+little dark room. Harley closed the door and we stumbled upstairs to a
+low first-floor apartment facing the street. There was nothing in its
+appointments, as revealed in the light of an oil lamp burning on the
+solitary table, to distinguish it from a thousand other such apartments
+which may be leased for a few shillings a week in the neighbourhood.
+That adjoining might have told a different story, for it more closely
+resembled an actor's dressing-room than a seaman's lodging; but the door
+of this sanctum was kept scrupulously locked.
+
+"Sit down, old son," said my friend heartily, pushing forward an old
+arm-chair. "Fetch out the grog, Jim; there's about enough for three."
+
+I walked to a cupboard, as the fireman sank limply down in the chair,
+and took out a bottle and three glasses. When the man, who, as I could
+now see quite plainly, was suffering from the after effects of opium,
+had eagerly gulped the stiff drink which I handed to him, he looked
+around with dim, glazed eyes, and:
+
+"You've saved my life, mates," he declared. "I've 'ad a 'orrible
+nightmare, I 'ave--a nightmare. See?"
+
+He fixed his eyes on me for a moment, then raised himself from his seat,
+peering narrowly at me across the table.
+
+"I seed you before, mate. Gaw, blimey! if you ain't the bloke wot
+I giv'd the pigtail to! And wot laid out that blasted Chink as was
+scraggin' me! Shake, mate!"
+
+I shook hands with him, Harley eyeing me closely the while, in a
+manner which told me that his quick brain had already supplied the link
+connecting our doped acquaintance with my strange experience during his
+absence. At the same time it occurred to me that my fireman friend
+did not know that Ah Fu was dead, or he would never have broached the
+subject so openly.
+
+"That's so," I said, and wondered if he required further information.
+
+"It's all right, mate. I don't want to 'ear no more about blinking
+pigtails--not all my life I don't," and he sat back heavily in his chair
+and stared at Harley.
+
+"Where have you been?" inquired Harley, as if no interruption had
+occurred, and then began to reload his pipe: "at Malay Jack's or at
+Number Fourteen?"
+
+"Neither of 'em!" cried the fireman, some evidence of animation
+appearing in his face; "I been at Kwen Lung's."
+
+"In Pennyfields?"
+
+"That's 'im, the old bloke with the big joss. I allers goes to see Ma
+Lorenzo when I'm in Port o' London. I've seen 'er for the last time,
+mates."
+
+He banged a big and dirty hand upon the table.
+
+"Last night I see murder done, an' only that I know they wouldn't
+believe me, I'd walk across to Limehouse P'lice Station presently and
+put the splits on 'em, I would."
+
+Harley, who was seated behind the speaker, glanced at me significantly.
+
+"Sure you wasn't dreamin'?" he inquired facetiously.
+
+"Dreamin'!" cried the man. "Dreams don't leave no blood be'ind, do
+they?"
+
+"Blood!" I exclaimed.
+
+"That's wot I said--blood! When I woke up this mornin' there was blood
+all on that grinnin' joss--the blood wot 'ad dripped from 'er shoulders
+when she fell."
+
+"Eh!" said Harley. "Blood on whose shoulders? Wot the 'ell are you
+talkin' about, old son?"
+
+"Ere"--the fireman turned in his chair and grasped Harley by the
+arm--"listen to me, and I'll tell you somethink, I will. I'm goin' in
+the Seahawk in the mornin' see? But if you want to know somethink, I'll
+tell yer. Drunk or sober I bars the blasted p'lice, but if you like
+to tell 'em I'll put you on somethink worth tellin'. Sure the bottle's
+empty, mates?"
+
+I caught Harley's glance and divided the remainder of the whisky evenly
+between the three glasses.
+
+"Good 'ealth," said the fireman, and disposed of his share at a draught.
+"That's bucked me up wonderful."
+
+He lay back in his chair and from a little tobacco-box began to fill a
+short clay pipe.
+
+"Look 'ere, mates, I'm soberin' up, like, after the smoke, an' I can
+see, I can see plain, as nobody'll ever believe me. Nobody ever does,
+worse luck, but 'ere goes. Pass the matches."
+
+He lighted his pipe, and looking about him in a sort of vaguely
+aggressive way:
+
+"Last night," he resumed, "after I was chucked out of the Dock Gates, I
+made up my mind to go and smoke a pipe with old Ma Lorenzo. Round I goes
+to Pennyfields, and she don't seem glad to see me. There's nobody
+there only me. Not like the old days when you 'ad to book your seat in
+advance."
+
+He laughed gruffly.
+
+"She didn't want to let me in at first, said they was watched, that if
+a Chink 'ad an old pipe wot 'ad b'longed to 'is grandfather it was good
+enough to get 'im fined fifty quid. Anyway, me bein' an old friend she
+spread a mat for me and filled me a pipe. I asked after old Kwen Lung,
+but, of course, 'e was out gamblin', as usual; so after old Ma Lorenzo
+'ad made me comfortable an' gone out I 'ad the place to myself, and
+presently I dozed off and forgot all about bloody ship's bunkers an'
+nigger-drivin' Scotchmen."
+
+He paused and looked about him defiantly.
+
+"I dunno 'ow long I slept," he continued, "but some time in the night I
+kind of 'alf woke up."
+
+At that he twisted violently in his chair and glared across at Harley:
+
+"You been a pal to me," he said; "but tell me I was dreamin' again and
+I'll smash yer bloody face!"
+
+He glared for a while, then addressing his narrative more particularly
+to me, he resumed:
+
+"It was a scream wot woke me--a woman's scream. I didn't sit up; I
+couldn't. I never felt like it before. It was the same as bein' buried
+alive, I should think. I could see an' I could 'ear, but I couldn't move
+one muscle in my body. Foller me? An' wot did I see, mates, an' wot did
+I 'ear? I'm goin' to tell yer. I see old Kwen Lung's daughter------"
+
+"I didn't know 'e 'ad one," murmured Harley.
+
+"Then you don't know much!" shouted the fireman. "I knew years ago, but
+'e kept 'er stowed away somewhere up above, an' last night was the first
+time I ever see 'er. It was 'er shriek wot 'ad reached me, reached me
+through the smoke. I don't take much stock in Chink gals in general, but
+this one's mother was no Chink, I'll swear. She was just as pretty as a
+bloomin' ivory doll, an' as little an' as white, and that old swine Kwen
+Lung 'ad tore the dress off of 'er shoulders with a bloody great whip!"
+
+Harley was leaning forward in his seat now, intent upon the man's
+story, and although I could not get rid of the idea that our friend
+was relating the events of a particularly unpleasant opium dream,
+nevertheless I was fascinated by the strange story and by the strange
+manner of its telling.
+
+"I saw the blood drip from 'er bare shoulders, mates," the man continued
+huskily, and with his big dirty hands he strove to illustrate his words.
+"An' that old yellow devil lashed an' lashed until the poor gal was past
+screamin'. She just sunk down on the floor all of a 'cap, moanin' and
+moanin'--Gawd! I can 'ear 'er moanin' now!"
+
+"Meanwhile, 'ere's me with murder in me 'eart lyin' there watchin',
+an' I can't speak, no! I can't even curse the yellow rat, an' I can't
+move--not a 'and, not a foot! Just as she fell there right up against
+the joss an' 'er blood trickled down on 'is gilded feet, old Ma Lorenzo
+comes staggerin' in. I remember all this as clear as print, mates,
+remember it plain, but wot 'appened next ain't so good an' clear.
+Somethink seemed to bust in me 'ead. Only just before I went off, the
+winder--there's only one in the room--was smashed to smithereens an'
+somebody come in through it."
+
+"Are you sure?" said Harley eagerly. "Are you sure?"
+
+That he was intensely absorbed in the story he revealed by a piece of
+bad artistry, very rare in him. He temporarily forgot his dialect. Our
+marine friend, however, was too much taken up with his own story to
+notice the slip, and:
+
+"Dead sure!" he shouted.
+
+He suddenly twisted around in his chair.
+
+"Tell me I was dreamin', mate," he invited, "and if you ain't dreamin'
+in 'arf a tick it won't be because I 'aven't put yer to sleep!"
+
+"I ain't arguin', old son," said Harley soothingly. "Get on with your
+yarn."
+
+"Ho!" said the fireman, mollified, "so long as you ain't. Well, then,
+it's all blotted out after that. Somebody come in at the winder, but 'oo
+it was or wot it was I can't tell yer, not for fifty quid. When I woke
+up, which is about 'arf an hour before you see me, I'm all alone--see?
+There's no sign of Kwen Lung nor the gal nor old Ma Lorenzo nor anybody.
+I sez to meself, wot you keep on sayin'. I sez, 'You're dreamin',
+Bill.'"
+
+"But I don't think you was," declared Harley. "Straight I don't."
+
+"I know I wasn't!" roared the fireman, and banged the table lustily. "I
+see 'er blood on the joss an' on the floor where she lay!"
+
+"This morning?" I interjected.
+
+"This mornin', in the light of the little oil lamp where old Ma Lorenzo
+'ad roasted the pills! It's all still an' quiet an' I feel more dead
+than alive. I'm goin' to give 'er a hail, see? When I sez to myself,
+'Bill,' I sez, 'put out to sea; you're amongst Kaffirs, Bill.' It
+occurred to me as old Kwen Lung might wonder 'ow much I knew. So I beat
+it. But when I got in the open air I felt I'd never make my lodgin's
+without a tonic. That's 'ow I come to meet you, mates.
+
+"Listen--I'm away in the old Seahawk in the mornin', but I'll tell you
+somethink. That yellow bastard killed his daughter last night! Beat 'er
+to death. I see it plain. The sweetest, prettiest bit of ivory as Gawd
+ever put breath into. If 'er body ain't in the river, it's in the 'ouse.
+Drunk or sober, I never could stand the splits, but mates"--he stood
+up, and grasping me by the arm, he drew me across the room where he also
+seized Harley in his muscular grip--"mates," he went on earnestly, "she
+was the sweetest, prettiest little gal as a man ever clapped eyes on.
+One of yer walk into Limehouse Station an' put the koppers wise. I'd
+sleep easier at sea if I knew old Kwen Lung 'ad gone west on a bloody
+rope's end."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+AT KWEN LUNG'S
+
+
+
+For fully ten minutes after the fireman had departed Paul Harley sat
+staring abstractedly in front of him, his cold pipe between his teeth,
+and knowing his moods I intruded no words upon this reverie, until:
+
+"Come on, Knox," he said, standing up suddenly, "I think this matter
+calls for speedy action."
+
+"What! Do you think the man's story was true?"
+
+"I think nothing. I am going to look at Kwen Lung's joss."
+
+Without another word he led the way downstairs and out into the deserted
+street. The first gray halftones of dawn were creeping into the sky,
+so that the outlines of Limehouse loomed like dim silhouettes about
+us. There was abundant evidence in the form of noises, strange and
+discordant, that many workers were busy on dock and riverside, but the
+streets through which our course lay were almost empty. Sometimes a
+furtive shadow would move out of some black gully and fade into a dimly
+seen doorway in a manner peculiarly unpleasant and Asiatic. But we met
+no palpable pedestrian throughout the journey.
+
+Before the door of a house in Pennyfields which closely resembled that
+which we had left in Wade Street, in that it was flatly uninteresting,
+dirty and commonplace, we paused. There was no sign of life about the
+place and no lights showed at any of the windows, which appeared as
+dim cavities--eyeless sockets in the gray face of the building, as dawn
+proclaimed the birth of a new day.
+
+Harley seized the knocker and knocked sharply. There was no response,
+and he repeated the summons, but again without effect. Thereupon, with a
+muttered exclamation, he grasped the knocker a third time and executed a
+veritable tattoo upon the door. When this had proceeded for about half a
+minute or more:
+
+"All right, all right!" came a shaky voice from within. "I'm coming."
+
+Harley released the knocker, and, turning to me:
+
+"Ma Lorenzo," he whispered. "Don't make any mistakes."
+
+Indeed, even as he warned me, heralded by a creaking of bolts and the
+rattling of a chain, the door was opened by a fat, shapeless, half-caste
+woman of indefinite age; in whose dark eyes, now sunken in bloated
+cheeks, in whose full though drooping lips, and even in the whole
+overlaid contour of whose face and figure it was possible to recognize
+the traces of former beauty. This was Ma Lorenzo, who for many years had
+lived at that address with old Kwen Lung, of whom strange stories were
+told in Chinatown.
+
+As Bill Jones, A.B., my friend, Paul Harley, was well known to Ma
+Lorenzo as he was well known to many others in that strange colony which
+clusters round the London docks. I sometimes enjoyed the privilege of
+accompanying my friend on a tour of investigation through the weird
+resorts which abound in that neighbourhood, and, indeed, we had been
+returning from one of these Baghdad nights when our present adventure
+had been thrust upon us. Assuming a wild and boisterous manner which he
+had at command:
+
+"'Urry up, Ma!" said Harley, entering without ceremony; "I want to
+introduce my pal Jim 'ere to old Kwen Lung, and make it all right for
+him before I sail."
+
+Ma Lorenzo, who was half Portuguese, replied in her peculiar accent:
+
+"This no time to come waking me up out of bed!"
+
+But Harley, brushing past her, was already inside the stuffy little
+room, and I hastened to follow.
+
+"Kwen Lung!" shouted my friend loudly. "Where are you? Brought a friend
+to see you."
+
+"Kwen Lung no hab," came the complaining tones of Ma Lorenzo from behind
+us.
+
+It was curious to note how long association with the Chinese had
+resulted in her catching the infection of that pidgin-English which is a
+sort of esperanto in all Asiatic quarters.
+
+"Eh!" cried my friend, pushing open a door on the right of the passage
+and stumbling down three worn steps into a very evil-smelling room.
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Go play fan-tan. Not come back."
+
+Ma Lorenzo, having relocked the street door, had rejoined us, and as I
+followed my friend down into the dim and uninviting apartment she stood
+at the top of the steps, hands on hips, regarding us.
+
+The place, which was quite palpably an opium den, must have disappointed
+anyone familiar with the more ornate houses of Chinese vice in San
+Francisco and elsewhere. The bare floor was not particularly clean, and
+the few decorations which the room boasted were garishly European for
+the most part. A deep divan, evidently used sometimes as a bed, occupied
+one side of the room, and just to the left of the steps reposed the only
+typically Oriental object in the place.
+
+It was a strange thing to see in so sordid a setting; a great gilded
+joss, more than life-size, squatting, hideous, upon a massive pedestal;
+a figure fit for some native temple but strangely out of place in that
+dirty little Limehouse abode.
+
+I had never before visited Kwen Lung's, but the fame of his golden joss
+had reached me, and I know that he had received many offers for it, all
+of which he had rejected. It was whispered that Kwen Lung was rich,
+that he was a great man among the Chinese, and even that some kind of
+religious ceremony periodically took place in his house. Now, as I stood
+staring at the famous idol, I saw something which made me stare harder
+than ever.
+
+The place was lighted by a hanging lamp from which depended bits of
+coloured paper and several gilded silk tassels; but dim as the light was
+it could not conceal those tell-tale stains.
+
+There was blood on the feet of the golden idol!
+
+All this I detected at a glance, but ere I had time to speak:
+
+"You can't tell me that tale, Ma!" cried Harley. "I believe 'e was
+smokin' in 'ere when we knocked."
+
+The woman shrugged her fat shoulders.
+
+"No, hab," she repeated. "You two johnnies clear out. Let me sleep."
+
+But as I turned to her, beneath the nonchalant manner I could detect a
+great uneasiness; and in her dark eyes there was fear. That Harley also
+had seen the bloodstains I was well aware, and I did not doubt that
+furthermore he had noted the fact that the only mat which the room
+boasted had been placed before the joss--doubtless to hide other stains
+upon the boards.
+
+As we stood so I presently became aware of a current of air passing
+across the room in the direction of the open door. It came from a window
+before which a tawdry red curtain had been draped. Either the window
+behind the curtain was wide open, which is alien to Chinese habits,
+or it was shattered. While I was wondering if Harley intended to
+investigate further:
+
+"Come on, Jim!" he cried boisterously, and clapped me on the shoulder;
+"the old fox don't want to be disturbed."
+
+He turned to the woman:
+
+"Tell him when he wakes up, Ma," he said, "that if ever my pal Jim wants
+a pipe he's to 'ave one. Savvy? Jim's square."
+
+"Savvy," replied the woman, and she was wholly unable to conceal her
+relief. "You clear out now, and I tell Kwen Lung when he come in."
+
+"Righto, Ma!" said Harley. "Kiss 'im on both cheeks for me, an' tell 'im
+I'll be 'ome again in a month."
+
+Grasping me by the arm he lurched up the steps, and the two of us
+presently found ourselves out in the street again. In the growing
+light the squalor of the district was more evident than ever, but the
+comparative freshness of the air was welcome after the reek of that room
+in which the golden idol sat leering, with blood at his feet.
+
+"You saw, Harley?" I exclaimed excitedly. "You saw the stains? And I'm
+certain the window was broken!"
+
+Harley nodded shortly.
+
+"Back to Wade Street!" he said. "I allow myself fifteen minutes to shed
+Bill Jones, able seaman, and to become Paul Harley, of Chancery Lane."
+
+As we hurried along:
+
+"What steps shall you take?" I asked.
+
+"First step: search Kwen Lung's house from cellar to roof. Second step:
+entirely dependent upon result of first. The Chinese are subtle, Knox.
+If Kwen Lung has killed his daughter, it may require all the resources
+of Scotland Yard to prove it."
+
+"But------"
+
+"There is no 'but' about it. Chinatown is the one district of London
+which possesses the property of swallowing people up."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+"CAPTAIN DAN"
+
+
+
+Half an hour later, as I sat in the inner room before the great
+dressing-table laboriously removing my disguise--for I was utterly
+incapable of metamorphosing myself like Harley in seven minutes--I
+heard a rapping at the outer door. I glanced nervously at my face in the
+mirror.
+
+Comparatively little of "Jim" had yet been removed, for since time was
+precious to my friend I had acted as his dresser before setting to work
+to remove my own make-up. There were two entrances to the establishment,
+by one of which Paul Harley invariably entered and invariably went out,
+and from the other of which "Bill Jones" was sometimes seen to emerge,
+but never Paul Harley. That my friend had made good his retirement I
+knew, but, nevertheless, if I had to open the door of the outer room it
+must be as "Jim."
+
+Thinking it impolite not to do so, since the one who knocked might be
+aware that we had come in but not gone out again, I hastily readjusted
+that side of my moustache which I had begun to remove, replaced my
+cap and muffler, and carefully locking the door of the dressing-room,
+crossed the outer apartment and opened the door.
+
+It was Harley's custom never to enter or leave these rooms except under
+the mantle of friendly night, but at so early an hour I confess I had
+not expected a visitor. Wondering whom I should find there I opened the
+door.
+
+Standing on the landing was a fellow-lodger who permanently occupied
+the two top rooms of the house. Paul Harley had taken the trouble to
+investigate the man's past, for "Captain Dan," the name by which he was
+known in the saloons and worse resorts which he frequented, was palpably
+a broken-down gentleman; a piece of flotsam caught in the yellow stream.
+Opium had been his downfall. How he lived I never knew, but Harley
+believed he had some small but settled income, sufficient to enable him
+to kill himself in comfort with the black pills.
+
+As he stood there before me in the early morning light, I was aware of
+some subtle change in his appearance. It was fully six months since I
+had seen him last, but in some vague way he looked younger. Haggard
+he was, with an ugly cut showing on his temple, but not so lined as
+I remembered him. Some former man seemed to be struggling through the
+opium-scarred surface. His eyes were brighter, and I noted with surprise
+that he wore decent clothes and was clean shaved.
+
+"Good morning, Jim," he said; "you remember me, don't you?"
+
+As he spoke I observed, too, that his manner had altered. He who had
+consorted with the sweepings af the doss-houses now addressed me as
+a courteous gentleman addresses an inferior--not haughtily or
+patronizingly, but with a note of conscious superiority and self-respect
+wholly unfamiliar. Almost it threw me off my guard, but remembering in
+the nick of time that I was still "Jim":
+
+"Of course I remember you, Cap'n," I said. "Step inside."
+
+"Thanks," he replied, and followed me into the little room.
+
+I placed for him the arm-chair which our friend the fireman had so
+recently occupied, but:
+
+"I won't sit down," he said.
+
+And now I observed that he was evidently in a condition of repressed
+excitement. Perhaps he saw the curiosity in my glance, for he suddenly
+rested both his hands on my shoulders, and:
+
+"Yes, I have given up the dope, Jim," he said---"done with it for ever.
+There's not a soul in this neighbourhood I can trust, yet if ever a man
+wanted a pal, I want one to-day. Now, you're square, my lad. I always
+knew that, in spite of the dope; and if I ask you to do a little thing
+that means a lot to me, I think you will do it. Am I right?"
+
+"If it can be done, I'll do it," said I.
+
+"Then, listen. I'm leaving England in the Patna for Singapore. She sails
+at noon to-morrow, and passengers go on board at ten o'clock. I've got
+my ticket, papers in order, but"--he paused impressively, grasping my
+shoulders hard--"I must get on board to-night."
+
+I stared him in the face.
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+He returned my look with one searching and eager; then:
+
+"If I show you the reason," said he, "and trust you with all my papers,
+will you go down to the dock--it's no great distance--and ask to see
+Marryat, the chief officer? Perhaps you've sailed with him?"
+
+"No," I replied guardedly. "I was never in the Patna."
+
+"Never mind. When you give him a letter which I shall write he will make
+the necessary arrangements for me to occupy my state-room to-night. I
+knew him well," he explained, "in--the old days. Will you do it, Jim?"
+
+"I'll do it with pleasure," I answered.
+
+"Shake!" said Captain Dan.
+
+We shook hands heartily, and:
+
+"Now I'll show you the reason," he added. "Come upstairs."
+
+Turning, he led the way upstairs to his own room, and wondering greatly,
+I followed him in. Never having been in Captain Dan's apartments I
+cannot say whether they, like their occupant, had changed for the
+better. But I found myself in a room surprisingly clean and with a note
+of culture in its appointments which was even more surprising.
+
+On a couch by the window, wrapped in a fur rug, lay the prettiest
+half-caste girl I had ever seen, East or West. Her skin was like cream
+rose petals and her abundant hair was of wonderful lustrous black.
+Perhaps it was her smooth warm colour which suggested the idea, but
+as her cheeks flushed at sight of Captain Dan and the long dark eyes
+lighted up in welcome, I thought of a delicate painting on ivory and I
+wondered more and more what it all could mean.
+
+"I have brought Jim to see you," said Captain Dan. "No, don't trouble to
+move dear."
+
+But even before he had spoken I had seen the girl wince with pain as she
+had endeavoured to sit up to greet us. She lay on her side in a rather
+constrained attitude, but although her sudden movement had brought tears
+to her eyes she smiled bravely and extended a tiny ivory hand to me.
+
+"This is my wife, Jim!" said Captain Dan.
+
+I could find no words at all, but merely stood there looking very
+awkward and feeling almost awed by the indescribable expression of trust
+in the eyes of the little Eurasian, as with her tiny fingers hidden in
+her husband's clasp she lay looking up at him.
+
+"Now you know, Jim," said he, "why we must get aboard the Patna
+to-night. My wife is really too ill to travel; in fact, I shall have
+to carry her down to the cab, and such a proceeding in daylight would
+attract an enormous crowd in this neighbourhood!"
+
+"Give me the letters and the papers," I answered. "I will start now."
+
+His wife disengaged her hand and extended it to me.
+
+"Thank you," she said, in a queer little silver-bell voice; "you are
+good. I shall always love you."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE SECRET OF MA LORENZO
+
+
+
+It must have been about eleven o'clock that night when Paul Harley rang
+me up. Since we had parted in the early morning I had had no word from
+him, and I was all anxiety to tell him of the quaint little romance
+which unknown to us had had its setting in the room above.
+
+In accordance with my promise I had seen the chief officer of the Patna;
+and from the start of surprise which he gave on opening "Captain Dan's"
+letter, I judged that Mr. Marryat and the man who for so long had sunk
+to the lowest rung of the ladder had been close friends in those "old
+days." At any rate, he had proceeded to make the necessary arrangements
+without a moment's delay, and the couple were to go on board the Patna
+at nine o'clock.
+
+It was with a sense of having done at least one good deed that I finally
+quitted our Limehouse base and returned to my rooms. Now, at eleven
+o'clock at night:
+
+"Can you come round to Chancery Lane at once?" said Harley. "I want you
+to run down to Pennyfields with me."
+
+"Some development in the Kwen Lung business?"
+
+"Hardly a development, but I'm not satisfied, Knox. I hate to be
+beaten."
+
+Twenty minutes later I was sitting in Harley's study, watching him
+restlessly promenading up and down before the fire.
+
+"The police searched Kwen Lung's place from foundation to tiles," he
+said. "I was there myself. Old Kwen Lung conveniently kept out of the
+way--still playing fan-tan, no doubt! But Ma Lorenzo was in evidence.
+She blandly declared that Kwen Lung never had a daughter! And in the
+absence of our friend the fireman, who sailed in the Seahawk, and whose
+evidence, by the way, is legally valueless--what could we do? They could
+find nobody in the neighbourhood prepared to state that Kwen Lung had
+a daughter or that Kwen Lung had no daughter. There are all sorts of
+fables about the old fox, but the facts about him are harder to get at."
+
+"But," I explained, "the bloodstains on the joss!"
+
+"Ma Lorenzo stumbled and fell there on the previous night, striking her
+skull against the foot of the figure."
+
+"What nonsense!" I cried. "We should have seen the wound last night."
+
+"We might have done," said Harley musingly; "I don't know when she
+inflicted it on herself; but I did see it this morning."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Oh, the gash is there all right, partly covered by her hair."
+
+He stood still, staring at me oddly.
+
+"One meets with cases of singular devotion in unexpected quarters
+sometimes," he said.
+
+"You mean that the woman inflicted the wound upon herself in
+order------"
+
+"To save old Kwen Lung--exactly! It's marvellous."
+
+"Good heavens!" I exclaimed. "And the window?"
+
+"Oh! it was broken right enough--by two drunken sailormen fighting in
+the court outside! Sash and everything smashed to splinters."
+
+He began irritably to pace the carpet again.
+
+"It must have been a devil of a fight!" he added savagely.
+
+"Meanwhile," said I, "where is old Kwen Lung hiding?"
+
+"But more particularly," cried Harley, "where has he hidden the poor
+victim? Come along, Knox! I'm going down there for a final look round."
+
+"Of course the premises are being watched?"
+
+"Of course--and also, of course, I shall be the laughing stock of
+Scotland Yard if nothing results."
+
+It was close on midnight when once more I found myself in Pennyfields.
+Carried away by Harley's irritable excitement I had quite forgotten the
+romance of Captain Dan; and when, having exchanged greetings with the
+detective on duty hard by the house of Kwen Lung, we presently found
+ourselves in the presence of Ma Lorenzo, I scarcely knew for a moment if
+I were "Jim" or my proper self.
+
+"Is Kwen Lung in?" asked Harley sternly.
+
+The woman shook her head.
+
+"No," she replied; "he sometimes stop away a whole week."
+
+"Does he?" jerked Harley. "Come in, Knox; we'll take another look
+round."
+
+A moment later I found myself again in the room of the golden joss.
+The red curtain had been removed from before the shattered window,
+but otherwise the place looked exactly as it had looked before. The
+atmosphere was much less stale, however, but there was something
+repellent about the great gilded idol smiling eternally from his
+pedestal beside the door.
+
+I stared into the leering face, and it was the face of one who knew and
+who might have said: "Yes! this and other things equally strange have I
+beheld in many lands as well as England. Much I could tell. Many things
+grim and terrible, and some few joyous; for behold! I smile but am
+silent."
+
+For a while Harley stared abstractedly at the bloodstains on the
+pedestal of the joss and upon the floor beneath from which the matting
+had been pulled back. Suddenly he turned to Ma Lorenzo:
+
+"Where have you hidden the body?" he demanded.
+
+Watching her, I thought I saw the woman flinch, but there was enough
+of the Oriental in her composition to save her from self-betrayal. She
+shook her head slowly, watching Harley through half-closed eyes.
+
+"Nobody hab," she replied.
+
+And I thought for once that her lapse into pidgin had been deliberate
+and not accidental.
+
+When finally we quitted the house of the missing Kwen Lung, and when,
+Harley having curtly acknowledged "good night" from the detective on
+duty, we came out into Limehouse Causeway.
+
+"You have not overlooked the possibility, Harley," I said, "that this
+woman's explanation may be true, and that the fireman of the Seahawk may
+have been entertaining us with an account of a weird dream?"
+
+"No!" snapped Harley--"neither will Scotland Yard overlook it."
+
+He was in a particularly impossible mood, for he so rarely made mistakes
+that to be detected in one invariably brought out those petulant traits
+of character which may have been due in some measure to long residence
+in the East. Recognizing that he would rather be alone I parted from
+him at the corner of Chancery Lane and returned to my own chambers.
+Furthermore, I was very tired, for it was close upon two o'clock, and on
+turning in I very promptly went to sleep, nor did I awaken until late in
+the morning.
+
+For some odd reason, but possibly because the fact had occurred to me
+just as I was retiring, I remembered at the moment of waking that I had
+not told Harley about the romantic wedding of Captain Dan. As I had left
+my friend in very ill humour I thought that this would be a good excuse
+for an early call, and just before eleven o'clock I walked into his
+office. Innes, his invaluable secretary, showed me into the study at the
+back.
+
+"Hallo, Knox," said Harley, looking up from a little silver Buddha which
+he was examining, "have you come to ask for news of the Kwen Lung case?"
+
+"No," I replied. "Is there any?"
+
+Harley shook his head.
+
+"It seems like fate," he declared, "that this thing should have been
+sent to me this morning." He indicated the silver Buddha. "A present
+from a friend who knows my weakness for Chinese ornaments," he explained
+grimly. "It reminds me of that damned joss of Kwen Lung's!"
+
+I took up the little image and examined it with interest. It was most
+beautifully fashioned in the patient Oriental way, and there was a
+little hinged door in the back which fitted so perfectly that when
+closed it was quite impossible to detect its presence. I glanced at
+Harley.
+
+"I suppose you didn't find a jewel inside?" I said lightly.
+
+"No," he replied; "there was nothing inside."
+
+But even as he uttered the words his whole expression changed, and so
+suddenly as to startle me. He sprang up from the table, and:
+
+"Have you an hour to spare, Knox?" he cried excitedly.
+
+"I can spare an hour, but what for?"
+
+"For Kwen Lung!"
+
+Four minutes later we were speeding in the direction of Limehouse, and
+not a word of explanation to account for this sudden journey could I
+extract from my friend. Therefore I beguiled the time by telling him of
+my adventure with Captain Dan.
+
+Harley listened to the story in unbroken silence, but at its termination
+he brought his hand down sharply on my knee.
+
+"I have been almost perfectly blind, Knox," he said; "but not quite so
+perfectly blind as you!"
+
+I stared at him in amazement, but he merely laughed and offered no
+explanation of his words.
+
+Presently, then, I found myself yet again in the familiar room of the
+golden joss. Ma Lorenzo, in whom some hidden anxiety seemed to have
+increased since I had last seen her, stood at the top of the stairs
+watching us. Upon what idea my friend was operating and what he intended
+to do I could not imagine; but without a word to the woman he crossed
+the room and grasping the great golden idol with both arms he dragged it
+forward across the floor!
+
+As he did so there was a stifled shriek, and Ma Lorenzo, stumbling down
+the steps, threw herself on her knees before Harley! Raising imploring
+hands:
+
+"No, no!" she moaned. "Not until I tell you--I tell you everything
+first!"
+
+"To begin with, tell me how to open this thing," he said sternly.
+
+Momentarily she hesitated, and did not rise from her knees, but:
+
+"Do you hear me?" he cried.
+
+The woman rose unsteadily and walking slowly round the joss manipulated
+some hidden fastening, whereupon the entire back of the thing opened
+like a door! From what was within she shudderingly averted her face,
+but Harley, stepping back against the wall, stopped and peered into the
+cavity.
+
+"Good God!" he muttered. "Come and look, Knox."
+
+Prepared by his manner for some gruesome spectacle, I obeyed--and from
+that which I saw I recoiled in horror.
+
+"Harley," I whispered, "Harley! who is it?"
+
+The spectacle had truly sickened me. Crouched within the narrow space
+enclosed by the figure of the idol was the body of an old and wrinkled
+Chinaman! His knees were drawn up to his chin, and his head so
+compressed upon them that little of his features could be seen.
+
+"It is Kwen Lung!" murmured Ma Lorenzo, standing with clasped hands and
+wild eyes over by the window. "Kwen Lung--and I am glad he is dead!"
+
+Such a note of hatred came into her voice as I had never heard in the
+voice of any woman.
+
+"He is vile, a demon, a mocking cruel demon! Long, long years ago I
+would have killed him, but always I was afraid. I tell you everything,
+everything. This is how he comes to be dead. The little one"--again
+her voice changed and a note of almost grotesque tenderness came into
+it--"the lotus-flower, that is his own daughter's child, flesh of
+his flesh, he keeps a prisoner as the women of China are kept, up
+there"--she raised one fat finger aloft--"up above. He does not know
+that someone comes to see her--someone who used to come to smoke but who
+gave it up because he had looked into the dear one's eye. He does not
+know that she goes with me to see her man. Ah! we think he does not
+know! I--I arrange it all. A week ago they were married. Tuesday night,
+when Kwen Lung die, I plan for her to steal away for ever, for ever."
+
+Tears now were running down the woman's fat cheeks, and her voice
+quivered emotionally.
+
+"For me it is the end, but for her it is the beginning of life. All
+right! I don't matter a damn! She is young and beautiful. Ah, God! so
+beautiful! A drunken pig comes here and finds his way in, so I give him
+the smoke and presently he sleeps, but it makes delay, and I don't know
+how soon Kwen Lung, that yellow demon, will wake. For he is like the
+bats who sleep all day and wake at night.
+
+"At last the sailor pig sleeps and I call softly to my dear little one
+that the time has come. I have gone out into the street, locking
+the door behind me, to see if her man is waiting, and I hear her
+shrieks--her shrieks! I hurry back. My hands tremble so much that I can
+scarcely unlock the door. At last I enter, and I see and I know--that
+yellow devil has learned all and has been playing with us like cat and
+mouse! He is lashing her, with a great whip! Lashing her--that tiny,
+sweet flower. Ah!"
+
+She choked in her utterance, and turning to the gilded joss which
+contained the dead Chinaman she shook her clenched hands at it, and the
+expression on her face I can never forget. Then:
+
+"As I shriek curses at him, crash goes the window--and I see her husband
+spring into the room! The tender one had fallen, there at the foot
+of the joss, and Kwen Lung, his teeth gleaming--like a rat--like a
+devil--turns to meet him. So he is when her man strike him, once. Just
+once, here." She rested her hand upon her heart. "And he falls--and
+he coughs. He lie still. For him it is finished. That devil heart has
+ceased to beat. Ah!"
+
+She threw up her hands, and:
+
+"That is all. I tell you no more."
+
+"One thing more," said Harley sternly; "the name of the man who killed
+Kwen Lung?"
+
+At that Ma Lorenzo slowly raised her head and folded her arms across her
+bosom. There was something one could never forget in the expression of
+her fat face.
+
+"Not if you burn me alive!" she answered in a low voice. "No one ever
+knows that--from me."
+
+She sank on to the divan and buried her face in her hands. Her fat
+shoulders shook grotesquely; and Harley stood perfectly still staring
+across at her for fully a minute. I could hear voices in the street
+outside and the hum of traffic in Limehouse Causeway.
+
+Then my friend did a singular thing. Walking over to the gilded joss
+he reclosed the opening and not without a great effort pushed the great
+idol back against the wall.
+
+"There are times, Knox," he said, staring at me oddly, "when I'm glad
+that I am not an official agent of the law."
+
+While I watched him dumfounded he walked across to the woman and touched
+her on the shoulder. She raised her tear-stained face.
+
+"All right," she whispered. "I am ready."
+
+"Get ready as soon as you like," said he tersely.
+
+"I'll have the man removed who is watching the house, and you can reckon
+on forty-eight hours to make yourself scarce."
+
+With never another word he seized me by the arm and hurried me out
+of the place! Ten paces along the street a shabby-looking fellow was
+standing, leaning against a pillar. Harley stopped, and:
+
+"Even the greatest men make mistakes sometimes, Hewitt," he remarked.
+"I'm throwing up the case; probably Inspector Wessex will do the same.
+Good morning."
+
+On towards the Causeway he led me--for not a word was I capable of
+uttering; and just before we reached that artery of Chinatown, from
+down-river came the deep, sustained note of a steamer's siren, the
+warning of some big liner leaving dock.
+
+"That will be the Patna," said Harley. "She sails at twelve o'clock, I
+think you said?"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MAN WITH THE SHAVEN SKULL
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE
+
+
+
+"Pull that light lower," ordered Inspector Wessex. "There you are, Mr.
+Harley; what do you make of it?"
+
+Paul Harley and I bent gingerly over the ghastly exhibit to which
+the C.I.D. official had drawn our attention, and to view which we had
+journeyed from Chancery Lane to Wapping.
+
+This was the body of a man dressed solely in ragged shirt and trousers.
+But the remarkable feature of his appearance lay in the fact that every
+scrap of hair from chin, lip, eyebrows and skull had been shaved off!
+
+There was another facial disfigurement, peculiarly and horribly Eastern,
+which my pen may not describe.
+
+"Impossible to identify!" murmured Harley. "Yes, you were right,
+Inspector; this is a victim of Oriental deviltry. Look here, too!"
+
+He indicated three small wounds, one situated on the left shoulder and
+the others on the forearm of the dead man.
+
+"The divisional surgeon cannot account for them," replied Wessex. "They
+are quite superficial, and he thinks they may be due to the fact that
+the body got entangled with something in the river."
+
+"They are due to the fact that the man had a birthmark on his shoulder
+and something--probably a name or some device--tattooed on his arm,"
+said Harley quietly. "Some few years ago, I met with a similar case in
+the neighbourhood of Stambul. A woman," he added, significantly.
+
+Detective-Inspector Wessex listened to my companion with respect, for
+apart from his established reputation as a private inquiry-agent which
+had made his name familiar in nearly every capital of the civilized
+world, Paul Harley's work in Constantinople during the six months
+preceding war with Turkey had merited higher reward than it had ever
+received. Had his recommendations been adopted the course of history
+must have been materially changed.
+
+"You think it's a Chinatown case, then, Mr. Harley?"
+
+"Possibly," was the guarded answer.
+
+Paul Harley nodded to the constable in charge, and the ghastly figure
+was promptly covered up again. My friend stood staring vacantly at
+Wessex, and presently:
+
+"The chief actor, I think, will prove to be not Chinese," he said,
+turned, and walked out.
+
+"If there's any development," remarked Wessex as the three of us entered
+Harley's car, which stood at the door, "I will, of course, report
+to you, Mr. Harley. But in the absence of any clue or mark of
+identification, I fear the verdict will be, 'Body of a man unknown,'
+etc., which has marked the finish of a good many in this cheerful
+quarter of London."
+
+"Quite so," said Harley, absently. "It presents extraordinary features,
+though, and may not end as you suppose. However--where do you want me to
+drop you, Wessex, at the Yard?"
+
+"Oh no," answered Wessex. "I made a special visit to Wapping just to
+get your opinion on the shaven man. I'm really going down to Deepbrow to
+look into that new disappearance case; the daughter of the gamekeeper.
+You'll have read of it?"
+
+"I have," said Harley shortly.
+
+Indeed, readers of the daily press were growing tired of seeing on the
+contents bills: "Another girl missing." The circumstance (which might
+have been no more than coincidence) that three girls had disappeared
+within the last eight weeks leaving no trace behind, had stimulated the
+professional scribes to link the cases, although no visible link had
+been found, and to enliven a somewhat dull journalistic season with
+theories about "a new Mormon menace."
+
+The vanishing of this fourth girl had inspired them to some startling
+headlines, and the case had interested me personally for the reason that
+I was acquainted with Sir Howard Hepwell, one of whose gamekeepers was
+the stepfather of the missing Molly Clayton. Moreover, it was hinted
+that she had gone away in the company of Captain Ronald Vane, at that
+time a guest of Sir Howard's at the Manor.
+
+In fact, Sir Howard had 'phoned to ask me if I could induce Harley to
+run down, but my friend had expressed himself as disinterested in a
+common case of elopement. Now, as Wessex spoke, I glanced aside at
+Harley, wondering if the fact that so celebrated a member of the C.I.D.
+as Detective-Inspector Wessex had been put in charge would induce him to
+change his mind.
+
+We were traversing a particularly noisy and unsavoury section of the
+Commercial Road, and although I could see that Wessex was anxious to
+impart particulars of the case to Harley, so loud was the din that I
+recognized the impossibility of conversing, and therefore:
+
+"Have you time to call at my rooms, Wessex?" I asked.
+
+"Well," he replied, "I have three-quarters of an hour."
+
+"You can do it in the car," said Harley suddenly. "I have been asked
+to look into this case myself, and before I definitely decline I should
+like to hear your version of the matter."
+
+Accordingly, we three presently gathered in my chambers, and Wessex,
+with one eye on the clock, outlined the few facts at that time in his
+possession respecting the missing girl.
+
+Two days before the news of the disappearance had been published
+broadcast under such headings as I have already indicated, a significant
+scene had been enacted in the gamekeeper's cottage.
+
+Molly Clayton, a girl whose remarkable beauty had made her a central
+figure in numerous scandalous stories, for such is the charity of rural
+neighbours, was detected by her stepfather, about eight in the evening,
+slipping out of the cottage.
+
+"Where be ye goin', hussy?" he demanded, grasping her promptly by the
+arm.
+
+"For a walk!" she replied defiantly.
+
+"A walk wi' that fine soger from t' Manor!" roared Bramber furiously.
+"You'll be sorry yet, you barefaced gadabout! Must I tell you again that
+t' man's a villain?"
+
+The girl wrenched her arm from Bramber's grasp, and blazed defiance from
+her beautiful eyes.
+
+"He knows how to respect a woman--what you don't!" she retorted hotly.
+
+"So I don't respect you, my angel?" shouted her stepfather. "Then you
+know what you can do! The door's open and there's few'll miss you!"
+
+Snatching her hat, the girl, very white, made to go out. Whereat the
+gamekeeper, a brutal man with small love for Molly, and maddened by her
+taking him at his word, seized her suddenly by her abundant fair hair
+and hauled her back into the room.
+
+A violent scene followed, at the end of which Molly fainted and Bramber
+came out and locked the door.
+
+When he came back about half-past nine the girl was missing. She did not
+reappear that night, and the police were advised in the morning. Their
+most significant discovery was this:
+
+Captain Ronald Vane, on the night of Molly's disappearance, had left
+the Manor House, after dining alone with his host, Sir Howard Hepwell,
+saying that he proposed to take a stroll as far as the Deep Wood.
+
+He never returned!
+
+From the moment that Gamekeeper Bramber left his cottage, and the moment
+when Sir Howard Hepwell parted from his guest after dinner, the world to
+which these two people, Molly Clayton and Captain Vane, were known, knew
+them no more!
+
+I was about to say that they were never seen again. But to me has fallen
+the task of relating how and where Paul Harley and I met with Captain
+Vane and Molly Clayton.
+
+At the end of the Inspector's account:
+
+"H'm," said Harley, glancing under his thick brows in my direction,
+"could you spare the time, Knox?"
+
+"To go to Deepbrow?" I asked with interest.
+
+"Yes; we have ten minutes to catch the train."
+
+"I'll come," said I. "Sir Howard will be delighted to see you, Harley."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE CLUE OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS
+
+
+
+"What do you make of it, Inspector?" asked my friend.
+Detective-Inspector Wessex smiled, and scratched his chin.
+
+"There was no need for me to come down!" he replied. "And certainly no
+need for you, Mr. Harley!"
+
+Harley bowed, smiling, at the implied compliment.
+
+"It's a common or garden elopement!" continued the detective. "Vane's
+reputation is absolutely rotten, and the girl was clearly infatuated. He
+must have cared a good bit, too. He'll be cashiered, as sure as a gun!"
+
+Leaving Sir Howard at the Manor, we had joined Inspector Wessex at a
+spot where the baronet's preserves bordered a narrow lane. Here the
+ground was soft, and the detective drew Harley's attention to a number
+of footprints by a stile.
+
+"I've got evidence that he was seen here with the girl on other
+occasions. Now, Mr. Harley, I'll ask you to look over these footprints."
+
+Harley dropped to his knees and made a brief but close examination of
+the ground round about. One particularly clear imprint of a pointed toe
+he noticed especially; and Wessex, diving into the pocket of his light
+overcoat, produced a patent-leather shoe, such as is used for evening
+wear.
+
+"He had a spare pair in his bag," he explained nonchalantly, "and his
+man did not prove incorruptible!"
+
+Harley took the shoe and placed it in the impression. It fitted
+perfectly!
+
+"This is Molly Clayton, I take it?" he said, indicating the prints of a
+woman's foot.
+
+"Yes," assented Wessex. "You'll notice that they stood for some little
+time and then walked off, very close together."
+
+Harley nodded absently.
+
+"We lose them along here," continued Wessex, leading up the lane; "but
+at the corner by the big haystack they join up with the tracks of a
+motor-car! I ask for nothing clearer! There was rain that afternoon, but
+there's been none since."
+
+"What does the Captain's man think?"
+
+"The same as I do! He's not surprised at any madness on Vane's part,
+with a pretty woman in the case!"
+
+"The girl left nothing behind--no note?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Traced the car?"
+
+"No. It must have been hired or borrowed from a long distance off."
+
+Where the tracks of the tires were visible we stopped, and Harley made a
+careful examination of the marks.
+
+"Seems to have had a struggle with her," he said, dryly.
+
+"Very likely!" agreed Wessex, without interest.
+
+Harley crawled about on the ground for some time, to the great detriment
+of his Harris tweeds, but finally arose, a curious expression on his
+face--which, however, the detective evidently failed to observe.
+
+We returned to the Manor House where Sir Howard was awaiting us, his
+good-humoured red face more red than usual; and in the library, with
+its sporting prints and its works for the most part dealing with riding,
+hunting, racing, and golf (except for a sprinkling of Nat Gould's novels
+and some examples of the older workmanship of Whyte-Melville), we were
+presently comfortably ensconced. On a side table were placed a generous
+supply of liquid refreshments, cigars and cigarettes; so that we made
+ourselves quite comfortable, and Sir Howard restrained his indignation,
+until each had a glass before him and all were smoking.
+
+"Now," he began, "what have you got to report, gentlemen? You,
+Inspector," he pointed with his cigar toward Wessex, "have seen Vane's
+man and all of you have been down to look at these damned tracks. I only
+want to hear one thing; that you expect to trace the disgraceful couple.
+I'll see to it"--his voice rose almost to a shout--"that Vane is kicked
+out of the service, and as to that shameless brat of Bramber's, I wish
+her no worse than the blackguard's company!"
+
+"One moment, Sir Howard, one moment," said Harley quietly; "there are
+always two sides to a case."
+
+"What do you mean, Mr. Harley? There's only one side that interests
+me--the outrage inflicted upon my hospitality by this dirty guest of
+mine. For the girl I don't give twopence; she was bound to come to a bad
+end."
+
+"Well," said Harley, "before we pronounce the final verdict upon either
+of them I should like to interview Bramber. Perhaps," he added, turning
+to Wessex, "it would be as well if Mr. Knox and I went alone. The
+presence of an official detective sometimes awes this class of witness."
+
+"Quite right, quite right!" agreed Sir Howard, waving his cigar
+vigorously. "Go and see Bramber, Mr. Harley; tell him that no blame
+attaches to himself whatever; also, tell him with my compliments that
+his stepdaughter is------"
+
+"Quite so, quite so," interrupted Harley, endeavouring to hide a smile.
+"I understand your feelings, Sir Howard, but again I ask you to reserve
+your verdict until all the facts are before us."
+
+As a result, Harley and I presently set out for the gamekeeper's
+cottage, and as the man had been warned that we should visit him, he was
+on the porch smoking his pipe. A big, dark, ugly fellow he proved to be,
+of a very forbidding cast of countenance. Having introduced ourselves:
+
+"I always knowed she'd come to a bad end!" declared Gamekeeper Bramber,
+almost echoing Sir Howard's words. "One o' these gentlemen o' hers was
+sure to be the finish of her!"
+
+"She had other admirers--before Captain Vane?"
+
+"Aye! the hussy! There was a black-faced villain not six months since!
+He got t' vain cat to go to London an' have her photograph done in a
+dress any decent woman would 'a' blushed to look at! Like one o' these
+Venuses up at t' Manor! Good riddance! She took after her mother!"
+
+The violent old ruffian was awkward to examine, but Harley persevered.
+
+"This previous admirer caused her to be photographed in that way, did
+he? Have you a copy?"
+
+"No!" blazed Bramber. "What I found I burnt! He ran off, like I told her
+he would--an' her cryin' her eyes out! But the pretty soger dried her
+tears quick enough!"
+
+"Do you know this man's name?"
+
+"No. A foreigner, he was."
+
+"Where were the photographs done--in London, you say?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"Do you know by what photographer?"
+
+"I don't! An' I don't care! Piccadilly they had on 'em, which was good
+enough for me."
+
+"Have you her picture?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Did she receive a letter on the day of her disappearance?"
+
+"Maybe."
+
+"Good day!" said Harley. "And let me add that the atmosphere of her home
+was hardly conducive to ideal conduct!"
+
+Leaving Bramber to digest this rebuke, we came out of the cottage. Dusk
+was falling now, and by the time that we regained the Manor the place
+was lighted up. Inspector Wessex was waiting for us in the library, and:
+
+"Well?" he said, smiling slightly as we entered.
+
+"Nothing much," replied Harley dryly, "except that I don't wonder at the
+girl's leaving such a home."
+
+"What's that! What!" roared a big voice, and Sir Howard came into the
+room. "I tell you, Bramber only had one fault as a stepfather; he wasn't
+heavy-handed enough. A bad lot, sir, a bad lot!"
+
+"Well, sir," said Inspector Wessex, looking from one to another,
+"personally, beyond the usual inquiries at railway stations, etc.,
+I cannot see that we can do much here. Don't you agree with me, Mr.
+Harley?"
+
+Harley nodded.
+
+"Quite," he replied. "There is a late train to town which I think we
+could catch if we started at once."
+
+"Eh?" roared Sir Howard; "you're not going back to-night? Your rooms are
+ready for you, damn it!"
+
+"I quite appreciate the kindness, Sir Howard," replied Harley; "but I
+have urgent business to attend to in London. Believe me, my departure is
+unavoidable."
+
+The blue eyes of the baronet gleamed with the simple cunning of his
+kind.
+
+"You've got something up your sleeve," he roared. "I know you have, I
+know you have!"
+
+Inspector Wessex looked at me significantly, but I could only shrug my
+shoulders in reply; for in these moods Harley was as inscrutable as the
+Sphinx.
+
+However, he had his way, and Sir Howard hurriedly putting a car in
+commission, we raced for the local station and just succeeded in picking
+up the express at Claybury.
+
+Wessex was rather silent throughout the journey, often glancing in my
+friend's direction, but Harley made no further reference to the case
+beyond outlining the interview with Bramber, until, as we were parting
+at the London terminus, Wessex to report to Scotland Yard and I to go to
+Harley's rooms:
+
+"How long do you think it will take you to find that photographer,
+Wessex?" he asked. "Piccadilly is a sufficient clue."
+
+"Well," replied the Inspector, "nothing can be done to-night, of course,
+but I should think by mid-day tomorrow the matter should be settled."
+
+"Right," said Harley shortly. "May I ask you to report the result to me,
+Wessex?"
+
+"I will report without fail."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+ALI OF CAIRO
+
+
+
+It was not until the evening of the following day that Harley rang me
+up, and:
+
+"I want you to come round at once," he said urgently. "The Deepbrow case
+is developing along lines which I confess I had anticipated, but which
+are dramatic nevertheless."
+
+Knowing that Harley did not lightly make such an assertion, I put aside
+the work upon which I was engaged and hurried around to Chancery Lane.
+I found my friend, pipe in mouth, walking up and down his smoke-laden
+study in a state which I knew to betoken suppressed excitement, and:
+
+"Did Wessex find your photographer?" I asked on entering.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "A first-class man, as I had anticipated. As I had
+further anticipated he did a number of copies of the picture for the
+foreign gentleman--about fifty, in fact!"
+
+"Fifty!"
+
+"Yes! Does the significance of that fact strike you?" asked Harley, a
+queer smile stealing across his tanned, clean-shaven face.
+
+"It is an extraordinary thing for even an ardent admirer to have so many
+reproductions done of the same picture!"
+
+"It is! I will show you now what I found trodden into one of the
+footprints where the struggle took place beside the car."
+
+Harley produced a piece of thick silk twine.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"It is a link, Knox--a link to seek which I really went down to
+Deepbrow." He stared at me quizzically, but my answering look must have
+been a blank one. "It is part of the tassel of one of those red cloth
+caps commonly called in England, a fez!"
+
+He continued to stare at me and I to stare at the piece of silk; then:
+
+"What is the next move?" I demanded. "Your new clue rather bewilders
+me."
+
+"The next move," he said, "is to retire to the adjoining room and make
+ourselves look as much like a couple of Oriental commercial travellers
+as our correctly British appearance will allow!"
+
+"What!" I cried.
+
+"That's it!" laughed Harley. "I have a perpetual tan, and I think I can
+give you a temporary one which I keep in a bottle for the purpose."
+
+Twenty minutes later, then, having quitted Harley's chambers by a back
+way opening into one of those old-world courts which abound in this part
+of the metropolis, two quietly attired Eastern gentlemen got into a
+cab at the corner of Chancery Lane and proceeded in the direction of
+Limehouse.
+
+There are haunts in many parts of London whose very existence is
+unsuspected by all but the few; haunts unvisited by the tourist and
+even unknown to the copy-hunting pressman. Into a quiet thoroughfare not
+three minutes' walk from the busy life of West India Dock Road, Harley
+led the way. Before a door sandwiched in between the entrance to a Greek
+tobacconist's establishment and a boarded shop-front, he paused and
+turned to me.
+
+"Whatever you see or hear," he cautioned, "express no surprise. Above
+all, show no curiosity."
+
+He rang the bell beside the door, and almost immediately it was opened
+by a Negress, grossly and repellently ugly.
+
+Harley pattered something in what sounded like Arabic, whereat the
+Negress displayed the utmost servility, ushering us into an ill-lighted
+passage with every evidence of respect. Following this passage to its
+termination, an inner door was opened, and a burst of discordant music
+greeted us, together with a wave of tobacco smoke. We entered.
+
+Despite my friend's particular injunctions to the contrary I gave a
+start of amazement.
+
+We stood in the doorway of a fairly large apartment having a divan round
+three of its sides. This divan was occupied by ten or a dozen men of
+mixed nationalities--Arabs, Greeks, lascars, and others. They smoked
+cigarettes for the most part and sipped Mokha from little cups. A girl
+was performing a wriggling dance upon the square carpet occupying the
+centre of the floor, accompanied by a Nubian boy who twanged upon a
+guitar, and by most of the assembled company, who clapped their hands to
+the music or droned a low, tuneless dirge.
+
+Shortly after our entrance the performance terminated, and the girl
+retired through a curtained doorway at the farther end of the room.
+Our presence being now observed, suspicious glances were cast in our
+direction, and a very aged man, who sat smoking a narghli near the door
+by which the girl had made her exit, gravely waved towards us the amber
+mouthpiece which he held in his hand.
+
+Harley walked straight across to him, I close at his heels. The light of
+a lamp which hung close by fell fully upon my friend's face; and, rising
+from his seat, the old man greeted him with the dignified and graceful
+salutation of the East. At his request we seated ourselves beside him,
+and, while we all three smoked excellent Turkish cigarettes, Harley and
+he conversed in a low tone. Suddenly, at some remark of my friend's,
+our strange host rose to his feet, an angry frown contracting his heavy
+eyebrows.
+
+Silence fell upon the company.
+
+In a loud and peremptory voice he called out something in Arabic.
+
+Instantly I detected a fellow near the entrance door, and whom I had not
+hitherto observed, slipping furtively into the shadow, with a view, as
+I thought, to secret departure. He seemed to be deformed in some way
+and had the most evil, pock-marked face I had ever beheld in my life.
+Angrily, the majestic old man recalled him. Whereupon, with a sort of
+animal snarl quite indescribable, the fellow plucked out a knife! Two
+men who had been on the point of seizing him fell back, and:
+
+"Hold him!" shouted Harley, springing forward--"hold him! It's Ali of
+Cairo!"
+
+But Harley was too late. Turning, the strange and formidable-looking
+Oriental ran like the wind! Ere hand could be raised to stay him he was
+through the doorway!
+
+"That settles it," said Harley grimly, as once more I found myself in a
+cab beside him. "I was right; but he'll forestall us!"
+
+"Who will forestall us?" I asked in bewilderment.
+
+"The biggest villain in Europe, Asia, or Africa!" cried my companion.
+"I have wasted precious time to-day. I might have known." He drummed
+irritably upon his knees. "The place we have just left is a sort of
+club, you understand, Knox, and Hakim is the proprietor or host as well
+as being an old gentleman of importance and authority in the Moslem
+world. I told him of my suspicions--which step I should have taken
+earlier--and they were instantly confirmed. My man was there--recognized
+me--and bolted! He'll forestall us."
+
+"But my dear fellow," I said patiently--"who is this man, and what has
+he to do with the Deepbrow case?"
+
+"He is the blackest scoundrel breathing!" answered Harley bitterly. "As
+to what he has to do with the case--why did he bolt? At any rate, I know
+where to find him now--and we may not be too late after all."
+
+"But who and what is this man?"
+
+"He is Ali of Cairo! As to what he is--you will soon learn."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER
+
+
+
+On quitting the singular Oriental club, Harley had first raced off to
+a public telephone, where he had spoken for some time--as I now
+divined--to Scotland Yard. For when we presently arrived at the
+headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, I was surprised to find
+Inspector Wessex awaiting us. Leaning out of the cab window:
+
+"Yes?" called Harley excitedly. "Was I right?"
+
+"You were, Mr. Harley," answered Wessex, who seemed to be no less
+excited than my companion. "I got the man's reply an hour ago."
+
+"I knew it!" said Harley shortly. "Get in, Wessex; we haven't a minute
+to waste."
+
+The Inspector joined us in the cab, having first given instructions to
+the chauffeur. As we set out once more:
+
+"You have had very little time to make the necessary arrangements,"
+continued my friend.
+
+"Time enough," replied Wessex. "They will not be expecting us."
+
+"I'm not so sure of it. One of the biggest villains in the civilized
+world recognized me three minutes before I called you up and then made
+good his escape. However, there is at least a fighting chance."
+
+Little more was said from that moment until the end of the drive, both
+my companions seeming to be consumed by an intense eagerness to reach
+our destination. At last the cab drew up in a deserted street. I had
+rather lost my bearings; but I knew that we were once more somewhere in
+the Chinatown area, and:
+
+"Follow us until we get into the house," Harley said to Inspector
+Wessex, "and wait out of sight. If you hear me blow this whistle, bring
+up the men you have posted--as quick as you like! But make it your
+particular business to see that no one gets out!"
+
+Into a pitch-dark yard we turned, and I felt a shudder of apprehension
+upon observing that it was the entrance to a wharf. Dully gleaming in
+the moonlight, the Thames, that grave of many a ghastly secret, flowed
+beneath us. Emerging from the shadow of the archway, we paused before a
+door in the wall on our left.
+
+At that moment something gleamed through the air, whizzed past my ear,
+and fell with a metallic jingle on the stones!
+
+Instinctively we both looked up.
+
+At an unlighted window on the first floor I caught a fleeting glimpse of
+a dark face.
+
+"You were right!" I said. "Ali of Cairo has forestalled us!"
+
+Harley stooped and picked up a knife with a broad and very curious
+blade. He slipped it into his pocket, nonchalantly.
+
+"All evidence!" he said. "Keep in the shadow and bend down. I am going
+to stand on your shoulders and get into that window!"
+
+Wondering at his daring, I nevertheless obeyed; and Harley succeeded,
+although not without difficulty, in achieving his purpose. A moment
+after he had disappeared in the blackness of the room above.
+
+"Stand clear, Knox!" I heard.
+
+Two of the cushion seats sometimes called "poof-ottomans" were thrown
+down, and:
+
+"Up you come!" called Harley. "I'll grasp your hands if you can reach."
+
+It proved no easy task, but I finally managed to scramble up beside my
+friend--to find myself in a dark and stuffy little room.
+
+"This way!" said Harley rapidly--"upstairs."
+
+He led the way without more ado, but it was with serious misgivings that
+I stumbled up a darkened stair in the rear of my greatly daring friend.
+
+A pistol cracked in the darkness--and my fez was no longer on my head!
+
+Harley's repeater answered, and we stumbled through a heavily curtained
+door into a heated room, the air of which was laden with some Eastern
+perfume. In the dim light from a silken-shaded lantern a figure showed,
+momentarily, darting across the place before us.
+
+Again Harley's pistol spoke, but, as it seemed, ineffectively.
+
+I had little enough opportunity to survey my surroundings; yet even in
+those brief, breathless moments I saw enough of the place wherein we
+stood to make me doubt the evidence of my senses! Outside, I knew, lay
+a dingy wharf, amid a maze of mean streets; here was an opulently
+furnished apartment with a strong Oriental note in the decorations!
+
+Snatching an electric torch from his pocket, Harley leaped through
+a doorway draped with rich Persian tapestry, and I came close on his
+heels. Outside was darkness. A strong draught met us; and, passing along
+a carpeted corridor, we never halted until we came to a room filled with
+the weirdest odds and ends, apparently collected from every quarter of
+the globe.
+
+Crack!
+
+A bullet flattened itself on the wall behind us!
+
+"Good job he can't shoot straight!" rapped Harley.
+
+The ray of the torch suddenly picked out the head and shoulders of a man
+who was descending through a trap in the floor! Ere we had time to shoot
+he was gone! I saw his brown fingers relax their hold--and a bundle
+which he had evidently hoped to take with him was left lying upon the
+floor.
+
+Together we ran to the trap and looked down.
+
+Slowly moving tidal water flowed darkly beneath us! For twenty
+breathless seconds we watched--but nothing showed upon the surface.
+
+"I hope his swimming is no better than his shooting," I said.
+
+"It can avail him little," replied Harley grimly; "a river-police boat
+is waiting for anyone who tries to escape from that side of the house.
+We are by no means alone in this affair, Knox. But, firstly, what
+have we here!" He took up the bundle which the fugitive had deserted.
+"Something incriminating when Ali of Cairo dared not stay to face it
+out! He would never have deserted this place in the ordinary way. That
+fellow who was such a bad shot was left behind, when the news of our
+approach reached here, to make a desperate attempt to remove some piece
+of evidence! I'll swear to it. But we were too soon for him!"
+
+All the time he was busily removing the pieces of sacking and scraps of
+Oriental stuff with which the bundle was fastened; and finally he
+drew out a dress-suit, together with the linen, collar, shoes, and
+underwear--a complete outfit, in fact--and on top of the whole was a
+soft gray felt hat!
+
+Eagerly Harley searched the garments for some name of a maker by which
+their owner might be identified. Presently, inside the lining of the
+breast pocket, where such a mark is usually found, he discovered the
+label of a well-known West End firm.
+
+"The police can confirm it, Knox!" he said, looking up, his face
+slightly flushed with triumph; "but I, personally, have no doubt!"
+
+"You may have no doubt, Harley," I retorted, "but I am full of doubt!
+What is the significance of this discovery to which you seem to attach
+so much importance?"
+
+"At the moment," replied my friend, "never mind; I still have
+hopes--although they have grown somewhat slender--of making a much more
+important discovery."
+
+"Why not permit the police to aid in the search?"
+
+"The police are more useful in their present occupation," he replied.
+"We are dealing with the most cunning knave produced by East or West,
+and I don't mean to let him slip through my fingers if he is in this
+house! Nevertheless, Knox, I am submitting you to rather an appalling
+risk, I know; for our man is desperate, and if he is still in the place
+will prove as dangerous as a cornered rat."
+
+"But the man who dropped through the trap?"
+
+"The man who dropped through the trap," said Harley, "was not Ali of
+Cairo--and it is Ali of Cairo for whom I am looking!"
+
+"The hunchback we saw to-night?"
+
+Harley nodded, and having listened intently for a few moments, proceeded
+again to search the singular apartments of the abode. In each was
+evidence of Oriental occupancy; indeed, some of the rooms possessed a
+sort of Arabian Nights atmosphere. But no living creature was to be seen
+or heard anywhere. It was while the two of us, having examined every
+inch of wall, I should think, in the building, were standing staring
+rather blankly at each other in the room with the lighted lantern, that
+I saw Harley's expression change.
+
+"Why," he muttered, "is this one room illuminated--and all the others in
+darkness?"
+
+Even then the significance of this circumstance was not apparent to me.
+But Harley stared critically at an electric switch which was placed on
+the immediate right of the door and then up at the silk-shaded lantern
+which lighted the room. Crossing, he raised and lowered the switch
+rapidly, but the lamp continued to burn uninterruptedly!
+
+"Ah!" he said--"a good trick!"
+
+Grasping the wooden block to which the switch was attached, he turned it
+bodily--and I saw that it was a masked knob; for in the next moment he
+had pulled open the narrow section of wall--which proved to be nothing
+less than a cunningly fitted door!
+
+A small, dimly lighted apartment was revealed, the Oriental note still
+predominant in its appointments, which, however, were few, and which I
+scarcely paused to note. For lying upon a mattress in this place was a
+pretty, fair-haired girl!
+
+She lay on her side, having one white arm thrown out and resting limply
+on the floor, and she seemed to be in a semi-conscious condition, for
+although her fine eyes were widely opened, they had a glassy, witless
+look, and she was evidently unaware of our presence.
+
+"Look at her pupils," rapped Harley. "They have drugged her with bhang!
+Poor, pretty fool!"
+
+"Good God!" I cried. "Who is this, Harley?"
+
+"Molly Clayton!" he answered. "Thank heaven we have saved one victim
+from Ali of Cairo."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE HAREM AGENCY
+
+
+
+Owing to the instrumentality of Paul Harley, the public never learned
+that the awful riverside murder called by the Press in reference to
+the victim's shaven skull "the barber atrocity" had any relation to the
+Deepbrow case. It was physically impossible to identify the victim, and
+Harley had his own reasons for concealing the truth. The house on the
+wharf with its choice Oriental furniture was seized by the police;
+but, strange to relate, no arrest was made in connection with this most
+gruesome outrage. The man who dropped through the trap had been wounded
+by one of Harley's shots, and he sank for the last time under the very
+eyes of the crew of the police cutter.
+
+It was at a late hour on the night of this concluding tragedy that I
+learned the amazing truth underlying the case. Wessex was still at work
+in the East End upon the hundred and one formalities which attached to
+his office, and Harley and I sat in the study of my friend's chambers in
+Chancery Lane.
+
+"You see," Harley was explaining. "I got my first clue down at Deepbrow.
+The tracks leading to the motor-car. They showed--to anyone not hampered
+by a preconceived opinion--that the girl and Vane had not gone on
+together (since the man's footprints proved him to have been running),
+but that she had gone first and that he had run after her! Arguments:
+(a) He heard the approach of the car; or (b) he heard her call for help.
+In fact, it almost immediately became evident to me that someone else
+had met her at the end of the lane; probably someone who expected her,
+and whom she was going to meet when she, accidentally, encountered Vane!
+The captain was not attired for an elopement, and, more significant
+still, he said he should stroll to the Deep Wood, and that was where he
+did stroll to; for it borders the road at this point!
+
+"I had privately ascertained, from the postman, that Molly Clayton
+actually received a letter on that morning! This resolved my last doubt.
+She was not going to meet Vane on the night of her disappearance.
+
+"Then whom?"
+
+"The old love! He who some months earlier had had over fifty seductive
+pictures of this undoubtedly pretty girl prepared for a purpose of his
+own!"
+
+"Vane interfered?"
+
+"When the girl saw that they meant to take her away, she no doubt made
+a fuss! He ran to the rescue! They had not reckoned on his being there,
+but these are clever villains, who leave no clues--except for one who
+has met them on their own ground!"
+
+"On their own ground! What do you mean, Harley? Who are these people?"
+
+"Well--where do you suppose those fifty photographs went?"
+
+"I cannot conjecture!"
+
+"Then I will tell you. The turmoil in the East has put wealth and power
+into unscrupulous hands. But even before the war there were marts,
+Knox--open marts--at which a Negro girl might be purchased for some 30
+pounds, and a Circassian for anything from 250 pounds to 500 pounds! Ah!
+You stare! But I assure you it was so. Here is the point, though: there
+were, and still are, private dealers! Those photographs were circulated
+among the nouveaux riches of the East! They were employed in the same
+way that any other merchant employs a catalogue. They reached the hands
+of many an opulent and abandoned 'profiteer' of Damascus, Stambul--where
+you will. Molly's picture would be one of many. Remember that hundreds
+of pretty girls disappear from their homes--taking the whole of the
+world--every year. Clearly, English beauty is popular at the moment!
+And," he added bitterly, "the arch-villain has escaped!"
+
+"Ali of Cairo!" I cried. "Then Ali of Cairo------"
+
+"Is the biggest slave-dealer in the East!"
+
+"Good God! Harley--at last I understand!"
+
+"I was slow enough to understand it myself, Knox. But once the theory
+presented itself I asked Wessex to get into immediate touch with the
+valet he had already interviewed at Deepbrow. It was the result of his
+inquiry to which he referred when we met him at Scotland Yard to-night.
+Captain Vane had a large mole on his shoulder and a girl's name,
+together with a small device, tattooed on his forearm--a freak of his
+Sandhurst days------"
+
+"Then 'the man with the shaven skull'------"
+
+"Is Captain Ronald Vane! May he rest in peace. But I never shall until
+the crook-back dealer in humanity has met his just deserts."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE HAT
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+MAJOR JACK RAGSTAFF
+
+
+
+"Hallo! Innes," said Paul Harley as his secretary entered. "Someone is
+making a devil of a row outside."
+
+"This is the offender, Mr. Harley," said Innes, and handed my friend a
+visiting card.
+
+Glancing at the card, Harley read aloud:
+
+"Major J. E. P. Ragstaff, Cavalry Club."
+
+Meanwhile a loud harsh voice, which would have been audible in a full
+gale, was roaring in the lobby.
+
+"Nonsense!" I could hear the Major shouting. "Balderdash! There's more
+fuss than if I had asked for an interview with the Prime Minister.
+Piffle! Balderdash!"
+
+Innes's smile developed into a laugh, in which Harley joined, then:
+
+"Admit the Major," he said.
+
+Into the study where Harley and I had been seated quietly smoking, there
+presently strode a very choleric Anglo-Indian. He wore a horsy check
+suit and white spats, and his tie closely resembled a stock. In his
+hand he carried a heavy malacca cane, gloves, and one of those tall,
+light-gray hats commonly termed white. He was below medium height, slim
+and wiry; his gait and the shape of his legs, his build, all proclaimed
+the dragoon. His complexion was purple, and the large white teeth
+visible beneath a bristling gray moustache added to the natural ferocity
+of his appearance. Standing just within the doorway:
+
+"Mr. Paul Harley?" he shouted.
+
+It was apparently an inquiry, but it sounded like a reprimand.
+
+My friend, standing before the fireplace, his hands in his pockets and
+his pipe in his mouth, nodded brusquely.
+
+"I am Paul Harley," he said. "Won't you sit down?"
+
+Major Ragstaff, glancing angrily at Innes as the latter left the study,
+tossed his stick and gloves on to a settee, and drawing up a chair
+seated himself stiffly upon it as though he were in a saddle. He stared
+straight at Harley, and:
+
+"You are not the sort of person I expected, sir," he declared. "May
+I ask if it is your custom to keep clients dancin' on the mat and all
+that--on the blasted mat, sir?"
+
+Harley suppressed a smile, and I hastily reached for my cigarette-case
+which I had placed upon the mantelshelf.
+
+"I am always naturally pleased to see clients, Major Ragstaff," said
+Harley, "but a certain amount of routine is necessary even in civilian
+life. You had not advised me of your visit, and it is contrary to my
+custom to discuss business after five o'clock."
+
+As Harley spoke the Major glared at him continuously, and then:
+
+"I've seen you in India!" he roared; "damme! I've seen you in
+India!--and, yes! in Turkey! Ha! I've got you now sir!" He sprang to his
+feet. "You're the Harley who was in Constantinople in 1912."
+
+"Quite true."
+
+"Then I've come to the wrong shop."
+
+"That remains to be seen, Major."
+
+"But I was told you were a private detective, and all that."
+
+"So I am," said Harley quietly. "In 1912 the Foreign Office was my
+client. I am now at the service of anyone who cares to employ me."
+
+"Hell!" said the Major.
+
+He seemed to be temporarily stricken speechless by the discovery that
+a man who had acted for the British Government should be capable of
+stooping to the work of a private inquiry agent. Staring all about
+the room with a sort of naive wonderment, he drew out a big silk
+handkerchief and loudly blew his nose, all the time eyeing Harley
+questioningly. Replacing his handkerchief he directed his regard upon
+me, and:
+
+"This is my friend, Mr. Knox," said Harley; "you may state your case
+before him without hesitation, unless------"
+
+I rose to depart, but:
+
+"Sit down, Mr. Knox! Sit down, sir!" shouted the Major. "I have no dirty
+linen to wash, no skeletons in the cupboard or piffle of that kind. I
+simply want something explained which I am too thick-headed--too damned
+thick-headed, sir--to explain myself."
+
+He resumed his seat, and taking out his wallet extracted from it a small
+newspaper cutting which he offered to Harley.
+
+"Read that, Mr. Harley," he directed. "Read it aloud."
+
+Harley read as follows:
+
+"Before Mr. Smith, at Marlborough Street Police Court, John Edward
+Bampton was charged with assaulting a well-known clubman in Bond Street
+on Wednesday evening. It was proved by the constable who made the
+arrest that robbery had not been the motive of the assault, and Bampton
+confessed that he bore no grudge against the assailed man, indeed, that
+he had never seen him before. He pleaded intoxication, and the police
+surgeon testified that although not actually intoxicated, his breath
+had smelled strongly of liquor at the time of his arrest. Bampton's
+employers testified to a hitherto blameless character, and as the charge
+was not pressed the man was dismissed with a caution."
+
+Having read the paragraph, Harley glanced at the Major with a puzzled
+expression.
+
+"The point of this quite escapes me," he confessed.
+
+"Is that so?" said Major Ragstaff. "Is that so, sir? Perhaps you will be
+good enough to read this."
+
+From his wallet he took a second newspaper cutting, smaller than the
+first, and gummed to a sheet of club notepaper. Harley took it and read
+as follows:
+
+"Mr. De Lana, a well-known member of the Stock Exchange, who met with a
+serious accident recently, is still in a precarious condition."
+
+The puzzled look on Harley's face grew more acute, and the Major watched
+him with an expression which I can only describe as one of fierce
+enjoyment.
+
+"You're thinkin' I'm a damned old fool, ain't you?" he shouted suddenly.
+
+"Scarcely that," said Harley, smiling slightly, "but the significance of
+these paragraphs is not apparent, I must confess. The man Bampton would
+not appear to be an interesting character, and since no great damage has
+been done, his drunken frolic hardly comes within my sphere. Of Mr. De
+Lana, of the Stock Exchange, I never heard, unless he happens to be a
+member of the firm of De Lana and Day?"
+
+"He's not a member of that firm, sir," shouted the Major. "He was, up to
+six o'clock this evenin'."
+
+"What do you mean exactly?" inquired Harley, and the tone of his voice
+suggested that he was beginning to entertain doubts of the Major's
+sanity or sobriety; then:
+
+"He's dead!" declared the latter. "Dead as the Begum of Bangalore! He
+died at six o'clock. I've just spoken to his widow on the telephone."
+
+I suppose I must have been staring very hard at the speaker, and
+certainly Harley was doing so, for suddenly directing his fierce gaze
+toward me:
+
+"You're completely treed, sir, and so's your friend!" shouted Major
+Ragstaff.
+
+"I confess it," replied Harley quietly; "and since my time is of some
+little value I would suggest, without disrespect, that you explain the
+connection, if any, between yourself, the drunken Bampton, and Mr. De
+Lana, of the Stock Exchange, who died, you inform us, at six o'clock
+this evening as the result, presumably, of injuries received in an
+accident."
+
+"That's what I'm here for!" cried Major Ragstaff. "In the first place,
+then, I am the party, although I saw to it that my name was kept out of
+print, whom the drunken lunatic assaulted."
+
+Harley, pipe in hand, stared at the speaker perplexedly.
+
+"Understand me," continued the Major, "I am the person--I, Jack
+Ragstaff--he assaulted. I was walkin' down from my quarters in Maddox
+Street on my way to dine at the club, same as I do every night o' my
+life, when this flamin' idiot sprang upon me, grabbed my hat"--he took
+up his white hat to illustrate what had occurred--"not this one, but one
+like it--pitched it on the ground and jumped on it!"
+
+Harley was quite unable to conceal his smiles as the excited old
+soldier dropped his conspicuous head-gear on the floor and indulged in a
+vigorous pantomime designed to illustrate his statement.
+
+"Most extraordinary," said Harley. "What did you do?"
+
+"What did I do?" roared the Major. "I gave him a crack on the head with
+my cane, and I said things to him which couldn't be repeated in court.
+I punched him, and likewise hoofed him, but the hat was completely done
+in. Damn crowd collected, hearin' me swearin' and bellowin'. Police and
+all that; names an' addresses and all that balderdash. Man lugged away
+to guard-room and me turnin' up at the club with no hat. Damn ridiculous
+spectacle at my time of life."
+
+"Quite so," said Harley soothingly; "I appreciate your annoyance, but I
+am utterly at a loss to understand why you have come here, and what all
+this has to do with Mr. De Lana, of the Stock Exchange."
+
+"He fell out of the window!" shouted the Major.
+
+"Fell out of a window?"
+
+"Out of a window, sir, a second floor window ten yards up a side street!
+Pitched on his skull--marvel he wasn't killed outright!"
+
+A faint expression of interest began to creep into Harley's glance, and:
+
+"I understand you to mean, Major Ragstaff," he said deliberately, "that
+while your struggle with the drunken man was in progress Mr. De Lana
+fell out of a neighbouring window into the street?"
+
+"Right!" shouted the Major. "Right, sir!"
+
+"Do you know this Mr. De Lana?"
+
+"Never heard of him in my life until the accident occurred. Seems to
+me the poor devil leaned out to see the fun and overbalanced. Felt
+responsible, only natural, and made inquiries. He died at six o'clock
+this evenin', sir."
+
+"H'm," said Harley reflectively. "I still fail to see where I come in.
+From what window did he fall?"
+
+"Window above a sort of teashop, called Cafe Dame--damn silly name.
+Place on a corner. Don't know name of side street."
+
+"H'm. You don't think he was pushed out, for instance?"
+
+"Certainly not!" shouted the Major; "he just fell out, but the point is,
+he's dead!"
+
+"My dear sir," said Harley patiently, "I don't dispute that point; but
+what on earth do you want of me?"
+
+"I don't know what I want!" roared the Major, beginning to walk up and
+down the room, "but I know I ain't satisfied, not easy in my mind, sir.
+I wake up of a night hearin' the poor devil's yell as he crashed on the
+pavement. That's all wrong. I've heard hundreds of death-yells, but"--he
+took up his malacca cane and beat it loudly on the table--"I haven't
+woke up of a night dreamin' I heard 'em again."
+
+"In a word, you suspect foul play?"
+
+"I don't suspect anything!" cried the other excitedly, "but someone
+mentioned your name to me at the club--said you could see through
+concrete, and all that--and here I am. There's something wrong,
+radically wrong. Find out what it is and send the bill to me. Then
+perhaps I'll be able to sleep in peace."
+
+He paused, and again taking out the large silk handkerchief blew his
+nose loudly. Harley glanced at me in rather an odd way, and then:
+
+"There will be no bill, Major Ragstaff," he said; "but if I can see any
+possible line of inquiry I will pursue it and report the result to you."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+A CURIOUS OUTRAGE
+
+
+
+"What do you make of it, Harley?" I asked. Paul Harley returned a work
+of reference to its shelf and stood staring absently across the study.
+
+"Our late visitor's history does not help us much," he replied. "A
+somewhat distinguished army career, and so forth, and his only daughter,
+Sybil Margaret, married the fifth Marquis of Ireton. She is, therefore,
+the noted society beauty, the Marchioness of Ireton. Does this suggest
+anything to your mind?"
+
+"Nothing whatever," I said blankly.
+
+"Nor to mine," murmured Harley.
+
+The telephone bell rang.
+
+"Hallo!" called Harley. "Yes. That you, Wessex? Have you got the
+address? Good. No, I shall remember it. Many thanks. Good-bye."
+
+He turned to me.
+
+"I suggest, Knox," he said, "that we make our call and then proceed to
+dinner as arranged."
+
+Since I was always glad of an opportunity of studying my friend's
+methods I immediately agreed, and ere long, leaving the lights of the
+two big hotels behind, our cab was gliding down the long slope which
+leads to Waterloo Station. Thence through crowded, slummish high-roads
+we made our way via Lambeth to that dismal thoroughfare, Westminster
+Bridge Road, with its forbidding, often windowless, houses, and its
+peculiar air of desolation.
+
+The house for which we were bound was situated at no great distance from
+Kensington Park, and telling the cabman to wait, Harley and I walked
+up a narrow, paved path, mounted a flight of steps, and rang the bell
+beside a somewhat time-worn door, above which was an old-fashioned
+fanlight dimly illuminated from within.
+
+A considerable interval elapsed before the door was opened by a
+marvellously untidy servant girl who had apparently been interrupted in
+the act of black-leading her face. Partly opening the door, she stared
+at us agape, pushing back wisps of hair from her eyes and with every
+movement daubing more of some mysterious black substance upon her
+countenance.
+
+"Is Mr. Bampton in?" asked Harley.
+
+"Yus, just come in. I'm cookin' his supper."
+
+"Tell him that two friends of his have called on rather important
+business."
+
+"All right," said the black-faced one. "What name is it?"
+
+"No name. Just say two friends of his."
+
+Treating us to a long, vacant stare and leaving us standing on the step,
+the maid (in whose hand I perceived a greasy fork) shuffled along the
+passage and began to mount the stairs. An unmistakable odour of frying
+sausages now reached my nostrils. Harley glanced at me quizzically,
+but said nothing until the Cinderella came stumbling downstairs again.
+Without returning to where we stood:
+
+"Go up," she directed. "Second floor, front. Shut the door, one of yer."
+
+She disappeared into gloomy depths below as Harley and I, closing the
+door behind us, proceeded to avail ourselves of the invitation. There
+was very little light on the staircase, but we managed to find our way
+to a poorly furnished bed-sitting-room where a small table was spread
+for a meal. Beside the table, in a chintz-covered arm-chair, a thick-set
+young man was seated smoking a cigarette and having a copy of the Daily
+Telegraph upon his knees.
+
+He was a very typical lower middle-class, nothing-in-particular young
+man, but there was a certain truculence indicated by his square jaw,
+and that sort of self-possession which sometimes accompanies physical
+strength was evidenced in his manner as, tossing the paper aside, he
+stood up.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Bampton," said Harley genially. "I take it"--pointing
+to the newspaper--"that you are looking for a new job?"
+
+Bampton stared, a suspicion of anger in his eyes, then, meeting the
+amused glance of my friend, he broke into a smile very pleasing and
+humorous. He was a fresh-coloured young fellow with hair inclined to
+redness, and smiling he looked very boyish indeed.
+
+"I have no idea who you are," he said, speaking with a faint
+north-country accent, "but you evidently know who I am and what has
+happened to me."
+
+"Got the boot?" asked Harley confidentially.
+
+Bampton, tossing the end of his cigarette into the grate, nodded grimly.
+
+"You haven't told me your name," he said, "but I think I can tell you
+your business." He ceased smiling. "Now look here, I don't want any more
+publicity. If you think you are going to make a funny newspaper story
+out of me change your mind as quick as you like. I'll never get another
+job in London as it is. If you drag me any further into the limelight
+I'll never get another job in England."
+
+"My dear fellow," replied Harley soothingly, at the same time extending
+his cigarette-case, "you misapprehend the object of my call. I am not a
+reporter."
+
+"What!" said Bampton, pausing in the act of taking a cigarette, "then
+what the devil are you?"
+
+"My name is Paul Harley, and I am a criminal investigator."
+
+He spoke the words deliberately, having his eyes fixed upon the other's
+face; but although Bampton was palpably startled there was no trace of
+fear in his straightforward glance. He took a cigarette from the case,
+and:
+
+"Thanks, Mr. Harley," he said. "I cannot imagine what business has
+brought you here."
+
+"I have come to ask you two questions," was the reply. "Number one: Who
+paid you to smash Major Ragstaff's white hat? Number two: How much did
+he pay you?"
+
+To these questions I listened in amazement, and my amazement was
+evidently shared by Bampton. He had been in the act of lighting his
+cigarette, but he allowed the match to burn down nearly to his fingers
+and then dropped it with a muttered exclamation in the fire. Finally:
+
+"I don't know how you found out," he said, "but you evidently know
+the truth. Provided you assure me that you are not out to make a
+silly-season newspaper story, I'll tell you all I know."
+
+Harley laid his card on the table, and:
+
+"Unless the ends of justice demand it," he said, "I give you my word
+that anything you care to say will go no further. You may speak freely
+before my friend, Mr. Knox. Simply tell me in as few words as possible
+what led you to court arrest in that manner."
+
+"Right," replied Bampton, "I will." He half closed his eyes,
+reflectively. "I was having tea in the Lyons' cafe, to which I always
+go, last Monday afternoon about four o'clock, when a man sat down facing
+me and got into conversation."
+
+"Describe him!"
+
+"He was a man rather above medium height. I should say about my own
+build; dark, going gray. He had a neat moustache and a short beard, and
+the look of a man who had travelled a lot. His skin was very tanned,
+almost as deeply as yours, Mr. Harley. Not at all the sort of chap
+that goes in there as a rule. After a while he made an extraordinary
+proposal. At first I thought he was joking, then when I grasped the idea
+that he was serious I concluded he was mad. He asked me how much a year
+I earned, and I told him Peters and Peters paid me 150 pounds. He said:
+'I'll give you a year's salary to knock a man's hat off!'"
+
+As Bampton spoke the words he glanced at us with twinkling eyes, but
+although for my own part I was merely amused, Harley's expression had
+grown very stern.
+
+"Of course, I laughed," continued Bampton, "but when the man drew out
+a fat wallet and counted ten five-pound notes on the table I began to
+think seriously about his proposal. Even supposing he was cracked, it
+was absolutely money for nothing.
+
+"'Of course,' he said, 'you'll lose your job and you may be arrested,
+but you'll say that you had been out with a few friends and were a
+little excited, also that you never could stand white hats. Stick to
+that story and the balance of a hundred pounds will reach you on the
+following morning.'
+
+"I asked him for further particulars, and I asked him why he had picked
+me for the job. He replied that he had been looking for some time for
+the right man; a man who was strong enough physically to accomplish the
+thing, and someone"--Bampton's eyes twinkled again--"with a dash of the
+devil in him, but at the same time a man who could be relied upon to
+stick to his guns and not to give the game away.
+
+"You asked me to be brief, and I'll try to be. The man in the white hat
+was described to me, and the exact time and place of the meeting. I just
+had to grab his white hat, smash it, and face the music. I agreed. I
+don't deny that I had a couple of stiff drinks before I set out, but the
+memory of that fifty pounds locked up here in my room and the further
+hundred promised, bucked me up wonderfully. It was impossible to mistake
+my man; I could see him coming toward me as I waited just outside a sort
+of little restaurant called the Cafe Dame. As arranged, I bumped into
+him, grabbed his hat and jumped on it."
+
+He paused, raising his hand to his head reminiscently.
+
+"My man was a bit of a scrapper," he continued, "and he played hell.
+I've never heard such language in my life, and the way he laid about me
+with his cane is something I am not likely to forget in a hurry. A crowd
+gathered, naturally, and (also naturally) I was 'pinched.' That didn't
+matter much. I got off lightly; and although I've been dismissed by
+Peters and Peters, twenty crisp fivers are locked in my trunk there,
+with the ten which I received in the City."
+
+Harley checked him, and:
+
+"May I see the envelope in which they arrived?" he asked.
+
+"Sorry," replied Bampton, "but I burned it. I thought it was playing the
+game to do so. It wouldn't have helped you much, though," he added;
+"It was an ordinary common envelope, posted in the City, address
+typewritten, and not a line enclosed."
+
+"Registered?"
+
+"No."
+
+Bampton stood looking at us with a curious expression on his face, and
+suddenly:
+
+"There's one point," he said, "on which my conscience isn't easy. You
+know about that poor devil who fell out of a window? Well, it would
+never have happened if I hadn't kicked up a row in the street. There's
+no doubt he was leaning out to see what the disturbance was about when
+the accident occurred."
+
+"Did you actually see him fall?" asked Harley.
+
+"No. He fell from a window several yards behind me in the side street,
+but I heard him cry out, and as I was lugged off by the police I heard
+the bell of the ambulance which came to fetch him."
+
+He paused again and stood rubbing his head ruefully.
+
+"H'm," said Harley; "was there anything particularly remarkable about
+this man in the Lyons' cafe?"
+
+Bampton reflected silently for some moments, and then:
+
+"Nothing much," he confessed. "He was evidently a gentleman, wore a blue
+top-coat, a dark tweed suit, and what looked like a regimental tie, but
+I didn't see much of the colours. He was very tanned, as I have said,
+even to the backs of his hands--and oh, yes! there was one point: He had
+a gold-covered tooth."
+
+"Which tooth?"
+
+"I can't remember, except that it was on the left side, and I always
+noticed it when he smiled."
+
+"Did he wear any ring or pin which you would recognize?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Had he any oddity of speech or voice?"
+
+"No. Just a heavy, drawling manner. He spoke like thousands of other
+cultured Englishmen. But wait a minute--yes! There was one other point.
+Now I come to think of it, his eyes very slightly slanted upward."
+
+Harley stared.
+
+"Like a Chinaman's?"
+
+"Oh, nothing so marked as that. But the same sort of formation."
+
+Harley nodded briskly and buttoned up his overcoat.
+
+"Thanks, Mr. Bampton," he said; "we will detain you no longer!"
+
+As we descended the stairs, where the smell of frying sausages had given
+place to that of something burning--probably the sausages:
+
+"I was half inclined to think that Major Ragstaff's ideas were traceable
+to a former touch of the sun," said Harley. "I begin to believe that he
+has put us on the track of a highly unusual crime. I am sorry to delay
+dinner, Knox, but I propose to call at the Cafe Dame."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+A CRIMINAL GENIUS
+
+
+
+On entering the doorway of the Cafe Dame we found ourselves in a
+narrow passage. In front of us was a carpeted stair, and to the right
+a glass-panelled door communicating with a discreetly lighted little
+dining room which seemed to be well patronized. Opening the door Harley
+beckoned to a waiter, and:
+
+"I wish to see the proprietor," he said.
+
+"Mr. Meyer is engaged at the moment, sir," was the reply.
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"In his office upstairs, sir. He will be down in a moment."
+
+The waiter hurried away, and Harley stood glancing up the stairs as if
+in doubt what to do.
+
+"I cannot imagine how such a place can pay," he muttered. "The rent must
+be enormous in this district."
+
+But even before he ceased speaking I became aware of an excited
+conversation which was taking place in some apartment above.
+
+"It's scandalous!" I heard, in a woman's shrill voice. "You have no
+right to keep it! It's not your property, and I'm here to demand that
+you give it up."
+
+A man's voice replied in voluble broken English, but I could only
+distinguish a word here and there. I saw that Harley was interested,
+for catching my questioning glance, he raised his finger to his lips
+enjoining me to be silent.
+
+"Oh, that's the game, is it?" continued the female voice. "Of course you
+know it's blackmail?"
+
+A flow of unintelligible words answered this speech, then:
+
+"I shall come back with someone," cried the invisible woman, "who will
+make you give it up!"
+
+"Knox," whispered Harley in my ear, "when that woman comes down, follow
+her! I'm afraid you will bungle the business, and I would not ask you to
+attempt it if big things were not at stake. Return here; I shall wait."
+
+As a matter of fact, his sudden request had positively astounded me,
+but ere I had time for any reply a door suddenly banged open above and
+a respectable-looking woman, who might have been some kind of upper
+servant, came quickly down the stairs. An expression of intense
+indignation rested upon her face, and without seeming to notice our
+presence she brushed past us and went out into the street.
+
+"Off you go, Knox!" said Harley.
+
+Seeing myself committed to an unpleasant business, I slipped out of the
+doorway and detected the woman five or six yards away hurrying in the
+direction of Piccadilly. I had no difficulty in following her, for
+she was evidently unsuspicious of my presence, and when presently she
+mounted a westward-bound 'bus I did likewise, but while she got inside I
+went on top, and occupied a seat on the near side whence I could observe
+anyone leaving the vehicle.
+
+If I had not known Paul Harley so well I should have counted the whole
+business a ridiculous farce, but recognizing that something underlay
+these seemingly trivial and disconnected episodes, I lighted a cigarette
+and resigned myself to circumstance.
+
+At Hyde Park Corner I saw the woman descending, and when presently she
+walked up Hamilton Place I was not far behind her. At the door of an
+imposing mansion she stopped, and in response to a ring of the bell the
+door was opened by a footman, and the woman hurried in. Evidently she
+was an inmate of the establishment; and conceiving that my duty was done
+when I had noted the number of the house, I retraced my steps to the
+corner; and, hailing a taxicab, returned to the Cafe Dame.
+
+On inquiring of the same waiter whom Harley had accosted whether my
+friend was there:
+
+"I think a gentleman is upstairs with Mr. Meyer," said the man.
+
+"In his office?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+Thereupon I mounted the stairs and before a half-open door paused.
+Harley's voice was audible within, and therefore I knocked and entered.
+
+I discovered Harley standing by an American desk. Beside him in
+a revolving chair which, with the desk, constituted the principal
+furniture of a tiny office, sat a man in a dress-suit which had palpably
+not been made for him. He had a sullen and suspiciously Teutonic cast
+of countenance, and he was engaged in a voluble but hardly intelligible
+speech as I entered.
+
+"Ha, Knox!" said Harley, glancing over his shoulder, "did you manage?"
+
+"Yes," I replied.
+
+Harley nodded shortly and turned again to the man in the chair.
+
+"I am sorry to give you so much trouble, Mr. Meyer," he said, "but I
+should like my friend here to see the room above."
+
+At this moment my attention was attracted by a singular object which lay
+upon the desk amongst a litter of bills and accounts. This was a piece
+of rusty iron bar somewhat less than three feet in length, and which
+once had been painted green.
+
+"You are looking at this tragic fragment, Knox," said Harley, taking up
+the bar. "Of course"--he shrugged his shoulders--"it explains the whole
+unfortunate occurrence. You see there was a flaw in the metal at this
+end, here"--he indicated the spot--"and the other end had evidently worn
+loose in its socket."
+
+"But I don't understand."
+
+"It will all be made clear at the inquest, no doubt. A most unfortunate
+thing for you, Mr. Meyer."
+
+"Most unfortunate," declared the proprietor of the restaurant, extending
+his thick hands pathetically. "Most ruinous to my business."
+
+"We will go upstairs now," said Harley. "You will kindly lead the way,
+Mr. Meyer, and the whole thing will be quite clear to you, Knox."
+
+As the proprietor walked out of the office and upstairs to the second
+floor Harley whispered in my ear:
+
+"Where did she go?"
+
+"No. ---- Hamilton Place," I replied in an undertone.
+
+"Good God!" muttered my friend, and clutched my arm so tightly that I
+winced. "Good God! The master touch, Knox! This crime was the work of a
+genius--of a genius with slightly, very slightly, oblique eyes."
+
+Opening a door on the second landing, Mr. Meyer admitted us to a small
+supper-room. Its furniture consisted of a round dining table, several
+chairs, a couch, and very little else. I observed, however, that the
+furniture, carpet, and a few other appointments were of a character
+much more elegant than those of the public room below. A window which
+overlooked the street was open, so that the plush curtains which had
+been drawn aside moved slightly to and fro in the draught.
+
+"The window of the tragedy, Knox," explained Harley.
+
+He crossed the room.
+
+"If you will stand here beside me you will see the gap in the railing
+caused by the breaking away of the fragment which now lies on Mr.
+Meyer's desk. Some few yards to the left in the street below is where
+the assault took place, of which we have heard, and the unfortunate
+Mr. De Lana, who was dining here alone--an eccentric custom of
+his--naturally ran to the window upon hearing the disturbance and leaned
+out, supporting his weight upon the railing. The rail collapsed, and--we
+know the rest."
+
+"It will ruin me," groaned Meyer; "it will give bad repute to my
+establishment."
+
+"I fear it will," agreed Harley sympathetically, "unless we can manage
+to clear up one or two little difficulties which I have observed.
+For instance"--he tapped the proprietor on the shoulder
+confidentially--"have you any idea, any hazy idea, of the identity of
+the woman who was dining here with Mr. De Lana on Wednesday night?"
+
+The effect of this simple inquiry upon the proprietor was phenomenal.
+His fat yellow face assumed a sort of leaden hue, and his already
+prominent eyes protruded abnormally. He licked his lips.
+
+"I tell you--already I tell you," he muttered, "that Mr. De Lana he
+engage this room every Wednesday and sometimes also Friday, and dine
+here by himself."
+
+"And I tell you," said Harley sweetly, "that you are an inspired liar.
+You smuggled her out by the side entrance after the accident."
+
+"The side entrance?" muttered Meyer. "The side entrance?"
+
+"Exactly; the side entrance. There is something else which I must ask
+you to tell me. Who had engaged this room on Tuesday night, the night
+before the accident?"
+
+The proprietor's expression remained uncomprehending, and:
+
+"A gentleman," he said. "I never see him before."
+
+"Another solitary diner?" suggested Harley.
+
+"Yes, he is alone all the evening waiting for a friend who does not
+arrive."
+
+"Ah," mused Harley--"alone all the evening, was he? And his friend
+disappointed him. May I suggest that he was a dark man? Gray at the
+temples, having a dark beard and moustache, and a very tanned face? His
+eyes slanted slightly upward?"
+
+"Yes! yes!" cried Meyer, and his astonishment was patently unfeigned.
+"It is a friend of yours?"
+
+"A friend of mine, yes," said Harley absently, but his expression was
+very grim. "What time did he finally leave?"
+
+"He waited until after eleven o'clock. The dinner is spoilt. He pays,
+but does not complain."
+
+"No," said Harley musingly, "he had nothing to complain about. One more
+question, my friend. When the lady escaped hurriedly on Wednesday night,
+what was it that she left behind and what price are you trying to extort
+from her for returning it?"
+
+At that the man collapsed entirely.
+
+"Ah, Gott!" he cried, and raised his hand to his clammy forehead. "You
+will ruin me. I am a ruined man. I don't try to extort anything. I run
+an honest business------"
+
+"And one of the most profitable in the world," added Harley, "since the
+days of Thais to our own. Even at Bond Street rentals I assume that a
+house of assignation is a golden enterprise."
+
+"Ah!" groaned Meyer, "I am ruined, so what does it matter? I tell you
+everything. I know Mr. De Lana who engages my room regularly, but I
+don't know who the lady is who meets him here. No! I swear it! But
+always it is the same lady. When he falls I am downstairs in my office,
+and I hear him cry out. The lady comes running from the room and begs of
+me to get her away without being seen and to keep all mention of her out
+of the matter."
+
+"What did she pay you?" asked Harley.
+
+"Pay me?" muttered Meyer, pulled up thus shortly in the midst of his
+statement.
+
+"Pay you. Exactly. Don't argue; answer."
+
+The man delivered himself of a guttural, choking sound, and finally:
+
+"She promised one hundred pounds," he confessed hoarsely.
+
+"But you surely did not accept a mere promise? Out with it. What did she
+give you?"
+
+"A ring," came the confession at last.
+
+"A ring. I see. I will take it with me if you don't mind. And now,
+finally, what was it that she left behind?"
+
+"Ah, Gott!" moaned the man, dropping into a chair and resting his arms
+upon the table. "It is all a great panic, you see. I hurry her out by
+the back stair from this landing and she forgets her bag."
+
+"Her bag? Good."
+
+"Then I clear away the remains of dinner so I can say Mr. De Lana is
+dining alone. It is as much my interest as the lady's."
+
+"Of course! I quite understand. I will trouble you no more, Mr. Meyer,
+except to step into your office and to relieve you of that incriminating
+evidence, the lady's bag and her ring."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE SLANTING EYES
+
+
+
+"Do you understand, Knox?" said Harley as the cab bore us toward
+Hamilton Place. "Do you grasp the details of this cunning scheme?"
+
+"On the contrary," I replied, "I am hopelessly at sea."
+
+Nevertheless, I had forgotten that I was hungry in the excitement which
+now claimed me. For although the thread upon which these seemingly
+disconnected things hung was invisible to me, I recognized that
+Bampton, the city clerk, the bearded stranger who had made so singular
+a proposition to him, the white-hatted major, the dead stockbroker,
+and the mysterious woman whose presence in the case the clear sight of
+Harley had promptly detected, all were linked together by some subtle
+chain. I was convinced, too, that my friend held at least one end of
+that chain in his grip.
+
+"In order to prepare your mind for the interview which I hope to obtain
+this evening," continued Harley, "let me enlighten you upon one or two
+points which may seem obscure. In the first place you recognize that
+anyone leaning out of the window on the second floor would almost
+automatically rest his weight upon the iron bar which was placed there
+for that very purpose, since the ledge is unusually low?"
+
+"Quite," I replied, "and it also follows that if the bar gave way anyone
+thus leaning on it would be pitched into the street."
+
+"Your reasoning is correct."
+
+"But, my dear fellow," said I, "how could such an accident have been
+foreseen?"
+
+"You speak of an accident. This was no accident! One end of the bar
+had been filed completely through, although the file marks had been
+carefully concealed with rust and dirt; and the other end had been
+wrenched out from its socket and then replaced in such a way that anyone
+leaning upon the bar could not fail to be precipitated into the street!"
+
+"Good heavens! Then you mean------"
+
+"I mean, Knox, that the man who occupied the supper room on the night
+before the tragedy--the dark man, tanned and bearded, with slightly
+oblique eyes---spent his time in filing through that bar--in short, in
+preparing a death trap!"
+
+I was almost dumbfounded.
+
+"But, Harley," I said, "assuming that he knew his victim would be the
+next occupant of the room, how could he know------?"
+
+I stopped. Suddenly, as if a curtain had been raised, the details of
+what I now perceived to be a fiendishly cunning murder were revealed to
+me.
+
+"According to his own account, Knox," resumed Harley, "Major Ragstaff
+regularly passed along that street with military punctuality at the same
+hour every night. You may take it for granted that the murderer was well
+aware of this. As a matter of fact, I happen to know that he was. We
+must also take it for granted that the murderer knew of these little
+dinners for two which took place in the private room above the Cafe
+Dame every Wednesday--and sometimes on Friday. Around the figure of the
+methodical major--with his conspicuous white hat as a sort of focus--was
+built up one of the most ingenious schemes of murder with which I have
+ever come in contact. The victim literally killed himself."
+
+"But, Harley, the victim might have ignored the disturbance."
+
+"That is where I first detected the touch of genius, Knox. He recognized
+the voice of one of the combatants--or his companion did. Here we are."
+
+The cab drew up before the house in Hamilton Place. We alighted, and
+Harley pressed the bell. The same footman whom I had seen admit the
+woman opened the door.
+
+"Is Lady Ireton at home?" asked Harley.
+
+As he uttered the name I literally held my breath. We had come to the
+house of Major Ragstaff's daughter, the Marchioness of Ireton, one of
+society's most celebrated and beautiful hostesses!--the wife of a peer
+famed alike as sportsman, soldier, and scholar.
+
+"I believe she is dining at home, sir," said the man. "Shall I inquire?"
+
+"Be good enough to do so," replied Harley, and gave him a card. "Inform
+her that I wish to return to her a handbag which she lost a few days
+ago."
+
+The man ushered us into an anteroom opening off the lofty and rather
+gloomy hall, and as the door closed:
+
+"Harley," I said in a stage whisper, "am I to believe------"
+
+"Can you doubt it?" returned Harley with a grim smile.
+
+A few moments later we were shown into a charmingly intimate little
+boudoir in which Lady Ireton was waiting to receive us. She was a
+strikingly handsome brunette, but to-night her face, which normally,
+I think, possessed rich colouring, was almost pallid, and there was a
+hunted look in her dark eyes which made me wish to be anywhere rather
+than where I found myself. Without preamble she rose and addressed
+Harley:
+
+"I fail to understand your message, sir," she said, and I admired the
+imperious courage with which she faced him. "You say you have recovered
+a handbag which I had lost?"
+
+Harley bowed, and from the pocket of his greatcoat took out a
+silken-tasselled bag.
+
+"The one which you left in the Cafe Dame, Lady Ireton," he replied.
+"Here also I have"--from another pocket he drew out a diamond
+ring--"something which was extorted from you by the fellow Meyer."
+
+Without touching her recovered property, Lady Ireton sank slowly
+down into the chair from which she had arisen, her gaze fixed as if
+hypnotically upon the speaker.
+
+"My friend, Mr. Knox, is aware of all the circumstances," continued
+the latter, "but he is as anxious as I am to terminate this painful
+interview. I surmise that what occurred on Wednesday night was
+this--(correct me if I am wrong): While dining with Mr. De Lana you
+heard sounds of altercation in the street below. May I suggest that you
+recognized one of the voices?"
+
+Lady Ireton, still staring straight before her at Harley, inclined her
+head in assent.
+
+"I heard my father's voice," she said hoarsely.
+
+"Quite so," he continued. "I am aware that Major Ragstaff is your
+father." He turned to me: "Do you recognize the touch of genius at
+last?" Then, again addressing Lady Ireton: "You naturally suggested to
+your companion that he should look out of the window in order to learn
+what was taking place. The next thing you knew was that he had fallen
+into the street below?"
+
+Lady Ireton shuddered and raised her hands to her face.
+
+"It is retribution," she whispered. "I have brought this ruin upon
+myself. But he does not deserve------"
+
+Her voice faded into silence, and:
+
+"You refer to your husband, Lord Ireton?" said Harley.
+
+Lady Ireton nodded, and again recovering power of speech:
+
+"It was to have been our last meeting," she said, looking up at Harley.
+
+She shuddered, and her eyes blazed into sudden fierceness. Then,
+clenching her hands, she looked aside.
+
+"Oh, God, the shame of this hour!" she whispered.
+
+And I would have given much to have been spared the spectacle of this
+proud, erring woman's humiliation. But Paul Harley was scientifically
+remorseless. I could detect no pity in his glance.
+
+"I would give my life willingly to spare my husband the knowledge of
+what has been," said Lady Ireton in a low, monotonous voice. "Three
+times I sent my maid to Meyer to recover my bag, but he demanded a price
+which even I could not pay. Now it is all discovered, and Harry will
+know."
+
+"That, I fear, is unavoidable, Lady Ireton," declared Harley. "May I ask
+where Lord Ireton is at present?"
+
+"He is in Africa after big game."
+
+"H'm," said Harley, "in Africa, and after big game? I can offer you one
+consolation, Lady Ireton. In his own interests Meyer will stick to his
+first assertion that Mr. De Lana was dining alone."
+
+A strange, horribly pathetic look came into the woman's haunted eyes.
+
+"You--you--are not acting for------?" she began.
+
+"I am acting for no one," replied Harley tersely. "Upon my friend's
+discretion you may rely as upon my own."
+
+"Then why should he ever know?" she whispered.
+
+"Why, indeed," murmured Harley, "since he is in Africa?"
+
+As we descended the stair to the hall my friend paused and pointed to a
+life-sized oil painting by London's most fashionable portrait painter.
+It was that of a man in the uniform of a Guards officer, a dark man,
+slightly gray at the temples, his face very tanned as if by exposure to
+the sun.
+
+"Having had no occasion for disguise when the portrait was painted,"
+said Harley, "Lord Ireton appears here without the beard; and as he is
+not represented smiling one cannot see the gold tooth. But the painter,
+if anything, has accentuated the slanting eyes. You see, the fourth
+marquis--the present Lord Ireton's father--married one of the
+world-famous Yen Sun girls, daughters of the mandarin of that name by an
+Irish wife. Hence, the eyes. And hence------"
+
+"But, Harley--it was murder!"
+
+"Not within the meaning of the law, Knox. It was a recrudescence
+of Chinese humour! Lord Ireton is officially in Africa (and he went
+actually after 'big game'). The counsel is not born who could secure
+a conviction. We are somewhat late, but shall therefore have less
+difficulty in finding a table at Prince's."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TCHERIAPIN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE ROSE
+
+
+
+"Examine it closely," said the man in the unusual caped overcoat. "It
+will repay examination."
+
+I held the little object in the palm of my hand, bending forward over
+the marble-topped table and looking down at it with deep curiosity. The
+babel of tongues so characteristic of Malay Jack's, and that mingled
+odour of stale spirits, greasy humanity, tobacco, cheap perfume, and
+opium, which distinguish the establishment faded from my ken. A sense of
+loneliness came to me.
+
+Perhaps I should say that it became complete. I had grown conscious of
+its approach at the very moment that the cadaverous white-haired man had
+addressed me. There was a quality in his steadfast gaze and in his oddly
+pitched deep voice which from the first had wrapped me about--as though
+he were cloaking me in his queer personality and withdrawing me from the
+common plane.
+
+Having stared for some moments at the object in my palm, I touched it
+gingerly; whereupon my acquaintance laughed--a short bass laugh.
+
+"It looks fragile," he said. "But have no fear. It is nearly as hard as
+a diamond."
+
+Thus encouraged, I took the thing up between finger and thumb, and
+held it before my eyes. For long enough I looked at it, and looking, my
+wonder grew. I thought that here was the most wonderful example of the
+lapidary's art which I had ever met with, east or west.
+
+It was a tiny pink rose, no larger than the nail of my little finger.
+Stalk and leaves were there, and golden pollen lay in its delicate
+heart. Each fairy-petal blushed with June fire; the frail leaves were
+exquisitely green. Withal it was as hard and unbendable as a thing of
+steel.
+
+"Allow me," said the masterful voice.
+
+A powerful lens was passed by my acquaintance. I regarded the rose
+through the glass, and thereupon I knew, beyond doubt, that there was
+something phenomenal about the gem--if gem it were. I could plainly
+trace the veins and texture of every petal.
+
+I suppose I looked somewhat startled. Although, baldly stated, the fact
+may not seem calculated to affright, in reality there was something so
+weird about this unnatural bloom that I dropped it on the table. As
+I did so I uttered an exclamation; for in spite of the stranger's
+assurances on the point, I had by no means overcome my idea of the
+thing's fragility.
+
+"Don't be alarmed," he said, meeting my startled gaze. "It would need a
+steam-hammer to do any serious damage."
+
+He replaced the jewel in his pocket, and when I returned the lens to
+him he acknowledged it with a grave inclination of the head. As I
+looked into his sunken eyes, in which I thought lay a sort of sardonic
+merriment, the fantastic idea flashed through my mind that I had fallen
+into the clutches of an expert hypnotist who was amusing himself at my
+expense, that the miniature rose was a mere hallucination produced by
+the same means as the notorious Indian rope trick.
+
+Then, looking around me at the cosmopolitan groups surrounding the many
+tables, and catching snatches of conversations dealing with subjects
+so diverse as the quality of whisky in Singapore, the frail beauty
+of Chinese maidens, and the ways of "bloody greasers," common sense
+reasserted itself.
+
+I looked into the gray face of my acquaintance.
+
+"I cannot believe," I said slowly, "that human ingenuity could
+so closely duplicate the handiwork of nature. Surely the gem is
+unique?--possibly one of those magical talismans of which we read in
+Eastern stories?"
+
+My companion smiled.
+
+"It is not a gem," he replied, "and while in a sense it is a product of
+human ingenuity, it is also the handiwork of nature."
+
+I was badly puzzled, and doubtless revealed the fact, for the stranger
+laughed in his short fashion, and:
+
+"I am not trying to mystify you," he assured me. "But the truth is so
+hard to believe sometimes that in the present case I hesitate to divulge
+it. Did you ever meet Tcheriapin?"
+
+This abrupt change of topic somewhat startled me, but nevertheless:
+
+"I once heard him play," I replied. "Why do you ask the question?"
+
+"For this reason: Tcheriapin possessed the only other example of this
+art which so far as I am aware ever left the laboratory of the inventor.
+He occasionally wore it in his buttonhole."
+
+"It is then a manufactured product of some sort?"
+
+"As I have said, in a sense it is; but"--he drew the tiny exquisite
+ornament from his pocket again and held it up before me--"it is a
+natural bloom."
+
+"What!"
+
+"It is a natural bloom," replied my acquaintance, fixing his penetrating
+gaze upon me. "By a perfectly simple process invented by the cleverest
+chemist of his age it had been reduced to this gem-like state while
+retaining unimpaired every one of its natural beauties, every shade of
+its natural colour. You are incredulous?"
+
+"On the contrary," I replied, "having examined it through a magnifying
+glass I had already assured myself that no human hand had fashioned
+it. You arouse my curiosity intensely. Such a process, with its endless
+possibilities, should be worth a fortune to the inventor."
+
+The stranger nodded grimly and again concealed the rose in his pocket.
+
+"You are right," he said; "and the secret died with the man who
+discovered it--in the great explosion at the Vortex Works in 1917. You
+recall it? The T.N.T. factory? It shook all London, and fragments were
+cast into three counties."
+
+"I recall it perfectly well."
+
+"You remember also the death of Dr. Kreener, the chief chemist? He died
+in an endeavour to save some of the workpeople."
+
+"I remember."
+
+"He was the inventor of the process, but it was never put upon the
+market. He was a singular man, sir; as was once said of him--'A Don Juan
+of science.' Dame Nature gave him her heart unwooed. He trifled with
+science as some men trifle with love, tossing aside with a smile
+discoveries which would have made another famous. This"--tapping his
+breast pocket--"was one of them."
+
+"You astound me. Do I understand you to mean that Dr. Kreener had
+invented a process for reducing any form of plant life to this
+condition?"
+
+"Almost any form," was the guarded reply. "And some forms of animal
+life."
+
+"What!"
+
+"If you like"--the stranger leaned forward and grasped my arm--"I will
+tell you the story of Dr. Kreener's last experiment."
+
+I was now intensely interested. I had not forgotten the heroic death of
+the man concerning whose work this chance acquaintance of mine seemed to
+know so much. And in the cadaverous face of the stranger as he sat there
+regarding me fixedly there was a promise and an allurement. I stood on
+the verge of strange things; so that, looking into the deep-set eyes,
+once again I felt the cloak being drawn about me, and I resigned myself
+willingly to the illusion.
+
+From the moment when he began to speak again until that when I rose and
+followed him from Malay Jack's, as I shall presently relate, I became
+oblivious of my surroundings. I lived and moved through those last
+fevered hours in the lives of Dr. Kreener, Tcheriapin, the violinist,
+and that other tragic figure around whom the story centred. I append:
+
+THE STRANGER'S STORY
+
+I asked you (said the man in the caped coat) if you had ever seen
+Tcheriapin, and you replied that you had once heard him play. Having
+once heard him play you will not have forgotten him. At that time,
+although war still raged, all musical London was asking where he had
+come from and to what nation he belonged. Then when he disappeared it
+was variously reported, you will recall, that he had been shot as a spy
+and that he had escaped from England and was serving with the Austrian
+army. As to his parentage I can enlighten you in a measure. He was a
+Eurasian. His father was an aristocratic Chinaman, and his mother a
+Polish ballet-dancer--that was his parentage; but I would scarcely
+hesitate to affirm that he came from Hell; and I shall presently show
+you that he has certainly returned there.
+
+You remember the strange stories current about him. The cunning ones
+said that he had a clever press agent. This was true enough. One of
+the most prominent agents in London discovered him playing in a Paris
+cabaret. Two months later he was playing at the Queen's Hall, and
+musical London lay at his feet.
+
+He had something of the personality of Paganini, as you remember, except
+that he was a smaller man; long, gaunt, yellowish hands and the face of
+a haggard Mephistopheles. The critics quarrelled about him, as critics
+only quarrel about real genius, and while one school proclaimed that
+Tcheriapin had discovered an entirely new technique, a revolutionary
+system of violin playing, another school was equally positive in
+declaring that he could not play at all, that he was a mountebank, a
+trickster, whose proper place was in a variety theatre.
+
+There were stories, too, that were never published--not only about
+Tcheriapin, but concerning the Strad, upon which he played. If all this
+atmosphere of mystery which surrounded the man had truly been the work
+of a press agent, then the agent must have been as great a genius as
+his client. But I can assure you that the stories concerning Tcheriapin,
+true and absurd alike, were not inspired for business purposes; they
+grew up around him like fungi.
+
+I can see him now, a lean, almost emaciated figure with slow,
+sinuous movements and a trick of glancing sideways with those dark,
+unfathomable, slightly oblique eyes. He could take up his bow in such a
+way as to create an atmosphere of electrical suspense.
+
+He was loathsome, yet fascinating. One's mental attitude toward him was
+one of defence, of being tensely on guard. Then he would play.
+
+You have heard him play, and it is therefore unnecessary for me to
+attempt to describe the effect of that music. The only composition which
+ever bore his name--I refer to "The Black Mass"--affected me on every
+occasion when I heard it, as no other composition has ever done.
+
+Perhaps it was Tcheriapin's playing rather than the music itself which
+reached down into hitherto un-plumbed depths within me and awakened dark
+things which, unsuspected, lay there sleeping. I never heard "The Black
+Mass" played by anyone else; indeed, I am not aware that it was ever
+published. But had it been we should rarely hear it. Like Locke's music
+to "Macbeth" it bears an unpleasant reputation; to include it in any
+concert programme would be to court disaster. An idle superstition,
+perhaps, but there is much naivete in the artistic temperament.
+
+Men detested Tcheriapin, yet when he chose he could win over his
+bitterest enemies. Women followed him as children followed the Pied
+Piper; he courted none, but was courted by all. He would glance aside
+with those black, slanting eyes, shrug in his insolent fashion, and
+turn away. And they would follow. God knows how many of them
+followed--whether through the dens of Limehouse or the more fashionable
+salons of vice in the West End--they followed--perhaps down to Hell. So
+much for Tcheriapin.
+
+At the time when the episode occurred to which I have referred, Dr.
+Kreener occupied a house in Regent's Park, to which, when his duties at
+the munition works allowed, he would sometimes retire at week-ends.
+He was a man of complex personality. I think no one ever knew him
+thoroughly; indeed, I doubt if he knew himself.
+
+He was hail-fellow-well-met with the painters, sculptors, poets, and
+social reformers who have made of Soho a new Mecca. No movement in
+art was so modern that Dr. Kreener was not conversant with it; no
+development in Bolshevism so violent or so secret that Dr. Kreener could
+not speak of it complacently and with inside knowledge.
+
+These were his Bohemian friends, these dreamers and schemers. Of this
+side of his life his scientific colleagues knew little or nothing, but
+in his hours of leisure at Regent's Park it was with these dreamers
+that he loved to surround himself rather than with his brethren of the
+laboratory. I think if Dr. Kreener had not been a great chemist he would
+have been a great painter, or perhaps a politician, or even a poet.
+Triumph was his birthright, and the fruits for which lesser men reached
+out in vain fell ripe into his hands.
+
+The favourite meeting-place for these oddly assorted boon companions
+was the doctor's laboratory, which was divided from the house by a
+moderately large garden. Here on a Sunday evening one might meet the
+very "latest" composer, the sculptor bringing a new "message," or
+the man destined to supplant with the ballet the time-worn operatic
+tradition.
+
+But while some of these would come and go, so that one could never count
+with certainty upon meeting them, there was one who never failed to be
+present when such an informal reception was held. Of him I must speak at
+greater length, for a reason which will shortly appear.
+
+Andrews was the name by which he was known to the circles in which he
+moved. No one, from Sir John Tennier, the fashionable portrait painter,
+to Kruski, of the Russian ballet, disputed Andrews's right to be counted
+one of the elect. Yet it was known, nor did he trouble to hide the fact,
+that Andrews was employed at a large printing works in South London,
+designing advertisements. He was a great, red-bearded, unkempt Scotsman,
+and only once can I remember to have seen him strictly sober; but to
+hear him talk about painters and painting in his thick Caledonian accent
+was to look into the soul of an artist.
+
+He was as sour as an unripe grape-fruit, cynical, embittered, a man
+savagely disappointed with life and the world; and tragedy was written
+all over him. If anyone knew the secret of his wasted life it was Dr.
+Kreener, and Dr. Kreener was a reliquary of so many secrets that this
+one was safe as if the grave had swallowed it.
+
+One Sunday Tcheriapin joined the party. That he would gravitate there
+sooner or later was inevitable, for the laboratory in the garden was
+a Kaaba to which all such spirits made at least one pilgrimage. He had
+just set musical London on fire with his barbaric playing, and already
+those stories to which I have referred were creeping into circulation.
+
+Although Dr. Kreener never expected anything of his guests beyond an
+interchange of ideas, it was a fact that the laboratory contained
+an almost unique collection of pencil and charcoal studies by famous
+artists, done upon the spot; of statuettes in wax, putty, soap and other
+extemporized materials, by the newest sculptors. While often enough
+from the drawing room which opened upon the other end of the garden had
+issued the strains of masterly piano-playing, and it was no uncommon
+thing for little groups to gather in the neighbouring road to listen,
+gratis, to the voice of some great vocalist.
+
+From the first moment of their meeting an intense antagonism sprang up
+between Tcheriapin and Andrews. Neither troubled very much to veil it.
+In Tcheriapin it found expression in covert sneers and sidelong glances,
+while the big, lion-maned Scotsman snorted open contempt of the Eurasian
+violinist. However, what I was about to say was that Tcheriapin on the
+occasion of his first visit brought his violin.
+
+It was there, amid these incongruous surroundings, that I first had my
+spirit tortured by the strains of "The Black Mass."
+
+There were five of us present, including Tcheriapin, and not one of the
+four listeners was unaffected by the music. But the influence which
+it exercised upon Andrews was so extraordinary as almost to reach the
+phenomenal. He literally writhed in his chair, and finally interrupted
+the performance by staggering rather than walking out of the laboratory.
+
+I remember that he upset a jar of acid in his stumbling exit. It flowed
+across the floor almost to the feet of Tcheriapin, and the way in which
+the little black-haired man skipped, squealing, out of the path of the
+corroding fluid was curiously like that of a startled rabbit. Order
+was restored in due course, but we could not induce Tcheriapin to
+play again, nor did Andrews return until the violinist had taken his
+departure. We found him in the dining room, a nearly empty whisky-bottle
+beside him.
+
+"I had to gang awa'," he explained thickly; "he was temptin' me
+to murder him. I should ha' had to do it if I had stayed. Damn his
+hell-music."
+
+Tcheriapin revisited Dr. Kreener on many occasions afterward, although
+for a long time he did not bring his violin again. The doctor had
+prevailed upon Andrews to tolerate the Eurasian's company, and I could
+not help noticing how Tcheriapin skilfully and deliberately goaded the
+Scotsman, seeming to take a fiendish delight in disagreeing with his
+pet theories and in discussing any topic which he had found to be
+distasteful to Andrews.
+
+Chief among these was that sort of irreverent criticism of women in
+which male parties so often indulge. Bitter cynic though he was, women
+were sacred to Andrews. To speak disrespectfully of a woman in his
+presence was like uttering blasphemy in the study of a cardinal.
+Tcheriapin very quickly detected the Scotsman's weakness, and one night
+he launched out into a series of amorous adventures which set Andrews
+writhing as he had writhed under the torture of "The Black Mass."
+
+On this occasion the party was only a small one, comprising myself, Dr.
+Kreener, Andrews and Tcheriapin. I could feel the storm brewing, but was
+powerless to check it. How presently it was to break in tragic violence
+I could not foresee. Fate had not meant that I should foresee it.
+
+Allowing for the free play of an extravagant artistic mind, Tcheriapin's
+career on his own showing had been that of a callous blackguard. I
+began by being disgusted and ended by being fascinated, not by the
+man's scandalous adventures, but by the scarcely human psychology of the
+narrator.
+
+From Warsaw to Budapesth, Shanghai to Paris, and Cairo to London he
+passed, leaving ruin behind him with a smile--airily flicking cigarette
+ash upon the floor to indicate the termination of each "episode."
+
+Andrews watched him in a lowering way which I did not like at all. He
+had ceased to snort his scorn; indeed, for ten minutes or so he had
+uttered no word or sound; but there was something in the pose of his
+ungainly body which strangely suggested that of a great dog preparing
+to spring. Presently the violinist recalled what he termed a "charming
+idyll of Normandy."
+
+"There is one poor fool in the world," he said, shrugging his slight
+shoulders, "who never knew how badly he should hate me. Ha! ha! of him
+I shall tell you. Do you remember, my friends, some few years ago, a
+picture that was published in Paris and London? Everybody bought it;
+everybody said: 'He is a made man, this fellow who can paint so fine.'"
+
+"To what picture do you refer?" asked Dr. Kreener.
+
+"It was called 'A Dream at Dawn.'"
+
+As he spoke the words I saw Andrews start forward, and Dr. Kreener
+exchanged a swift glance with him. But the Scotsman, unseen by the
+vainglorious half-caste, shook his head fiercely.
+
+The picture to which Tcheriapin referred will, of course, be perfectly
+familiar to you. It had phenomenal popularity some eight years ago.
+Nothing was known of the painter--whose name was Colquhoun--and nothing
+has been seen of his work since. The original painting was never sold,
+and after a time this promising new artist was, of course, forgotten.
+
+Presently Tcheriapin continued:
+
+"It is the figure of a slender girl--ah! angels of grace!--what a
+girl!" He kissed his hand rapturously. "She is posed bending gracefully
+forward, and looking down at her own lovely reflection in the water.
+It is a seashore, you remember, and the little ripples play about
+her ankles. The first blush of the dawn robes her white body in a
+transparent mantle of light. Ah! God's mercy! it was as she stood so, in
+a little cove of Normandy, that I saw her!"
+
+He paused, rolling his dark eyes; and I could hear Andrews's heavy
+breathing; then:
+
+"It was the 'new art'--the posing of the model not in a lighted studio,
+but in the scene to be depicted.
+
+"And the fellow who painted her!--the man with the barbarous name! Bah!
+he was big--as big as our Mr. Andrews--and ugly--pooh! uglier than he!
+A moon-face, with cropped skull like a prize-fighter and no soul. But,
+yes, he could paint. 'A Dream at Dawn' was genius--yes, some soul he
+must have had.
+
+"He could paint, dear friends, but he could not love. Him I counted
+as--puff!"
+
+He blew imaginary down into space.
+
+"Her I sought out, and presently found. She told me, in those sweet
+stolen rambles along the shore, when the moonlight made her look like a
+Madonna, that she was his inspiration--his art--his life. And she wept;
+she wept, and I kissed her tears away.
+
+"To please her I waited until 'A Dream at Dawn' was finished. With the
+finish of the picture, finished also his dream of dawn--the moon-faced
+one's."
+
+Tcheriapin laughed, and lighted a fresh cigarette.
+
+"Can you believe that a man could be so stupid? He never knew of
+my existence, this big, red booby. He never knew that I existed
+until--until his 'dream' had fled--with me! In a week we were in Paris,
+that dream-girl and I--in a month we had quarrelled. I always end these
+matters with a quarrel; it makes the complete finish. She struck me in
+the face--and I laughed. She turned and went away. We were tired of one
+another.
+
+"Ah!" Again he airily kissed his hand. "There were others after I had
+gone. I heard for a time. But her memory is like a rose, fresh and fair
+and sweet. I am glad I can remember her so, and not as she afterward
+became. That is the art of love. She killed herself with absinthe, my
+friends. She died in Marseilles in the first year of the great war."
+
+Thus far Tcheriapin had proceeded, and was in the act of airily flicking
+ash upon the floor, when, uttering a sound which I can only describe as
+a roar, Andrews hurled himself upon the smiling violinist.
+
+His great red hands clutching Tcheriapin's throat, the insane Scotsman,
+for insane he was at that moment, forced the other back upon the settee
+from which he had half arisen. In vain I sought to drag him away from
+the writhing body, but I doubt that any man could have relaxed that
+deadly grip. Tcheriapin's eyes protruded hideously and his tongue lolled
+forth from his mouth. One could hear the breath whistling through his
+nostrils as Andrews silently, deliberately, squeezed the life out of
+him.
+
+It all occupied only a few minutes, and then Andrews, slowly opening his
+rigidly crooked fingers, stood panting and looking down at the distorted
+face of the dead man.
+
+For once in his life the Scotsman was sober, and turning to Dr. Kreener:
+
+"I have waited seven long years for this," he said, "and I'll hang wi'
+contentment."
+
+I can never forget the ensuing moments, in which, amid a horrible
+silence broken only by the ticking of a clock and the heavy breathing
+of Colquhoun (so long known to us as Andrews) we stood watching the
+contorted body on the settee.
+
+And as we watched, slowly the rigid limbs began to relax, and Tcheriapin
+slid gently on to the floor, collapsing there with a soft thud, where
+he squatted like some hideous Buddha, resting back against the cushions,
+one spectral yellow hand upraised, the fingers still clutching a big
+gold tassel.
+
+Andrews (for so I always think of him) was seized with a violent fit
+of trembling, and he dropped into the chair, muttering to himself and
+looking down wild-eyed at his twitching fingers. Then he began to laugh,
+high-pitched laughter, in little short peals.
+
+"Here!" cried the doctor sharply. "Drop that!"
+
+Crossing to Andrews, he grasped him by the shoulders and shook him
+roughly.
+
+The laughter ceased, and:
+
+"Send for the police," said Andrews in a queer, shaky voice. "Dinna fear
+but I'm ready. I'm only sorry it happened here."
+
+"You ought to be glad," said Dr. Kreener.
+
+There was a covert meaning in the words--a fact which penetrated even to
+the dulled intelligence of the Scotsman, for he glanced up haggardly at
+his friend.
+
+"You ought to be glad," repeated Dr. Kreener.
+
+Turning, he walked to the laboratory door and locked it. He next lowered
+all the blinds.
+
+"I pray that we have not been observed," he said, "but we must chance
+it."
+
+He mixed a drink for Andrews and himself. His quiet, decisive manner had
+had its effect, and Andrews was now more composed. Indeed, he seemed to
+be in a half-dazed condition; but he persistently kept his back turned
+to the crouching figure propped up against the settee.
+
+"If you think you can follow me," said Dr. Kreener abruptly, "I will
+show you the result of a recent experiment."
+
+Unlocking a cupboard, he took out a tiny figure some two inches long by
+one inch high, mounted upon a polished wooden pedestal. It was that of
+a guinea-pig. The flaky fur gleamed like the finest silk, and one felt
+that the coat of the minute creature would be as floss to the touch;
+whereas in reality it possessed the rigidity of steel. Literally
+one could have done it little damage with a hammer. Its weight was
+extraordinary.
+
+"I am learning new things about this process every day," continued Dr.
+Kreener, placing the little figure upon a table. "For instance, while
+it seems to operate uniformly upon vegetable matter, there are curious
+modifications when one applies it to animal and mineral substances. I
+have now definitely decided that the result of this particular inquiry
+must never be published. You, Colquhoun, I believe, possess an example
+of the process, a tiger lily, I think? I must ask you to return it to
+me. Our late friend, Tcheriapin, wears a pink rose in his coat which I
+have treated in the same way. I am going to take the liberty of removing
+it."
+
+He spoke in the hard, incisive manner which I had heard him use in
+the lecture theatre, and it was evident enough that his design was to
+prepare Andrews for something which he contemplated. Facing the Scotsman
+where he sat hunched up in the big armchair, dully watching the speaker:
+
+"There is one experiment," said Dr. Kreener, speaking very deliberately,
+"which I have never before had a suitable opportunity of attempting. Of
+its result I am personally confident, but science always demands proof."
+
+His voice rang now with a note of repressed excitement. He paused for a
+moment, and then:
+
+"If you were to examine this little specimen very closely," he said,
+and rested his finger upon the tiny figure of the guinea-pig, "you would
+find that in one particular it is imperfect. Although a diamond drill
+would have to be employed to demonstrate the fact, the animal's organs,
+despite their having undergone a chemical change quite new to science,
+are intact, perfect down to the smallest detail. One part of the
+creature's structure alone defied my process. In short, dental enamel is
+impervious to it. This little animal, otherwise as complete as when it
+lived and breathed, has no teeth. I found it necessary to extract them
+before submitting the body to the reductionary process."
+
+He paused.
+
+"Shall I go on?" he asked.
+
+Andrews, to whose mind, I think, no conception of the doctor's project
+had yet penetrated, shuddered, but slowly nodded his head.
+
+Dr. Kreener glanced across the laboratory at the crouching figure of
+Tcheriapin, then, resting his hands upon Andrews's shoulders, he pushed
+him back in the chair and stared into his dull eyes.
+
+"Brace yourself, Colquhoun," he said tersely.
+
+Turning, he crossed to a small mahogany cabinet at the farther end of
+the room. Pulling out a glass tray he judicially selected a pair of
+dental forceps.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+"THE BLACK MASS"
+
+
+
+Thus far the stranger's appalling story had progressed when that
+singular cloak in which hypnotically he had enwrapped me seemed to drop,
+and I found myself clutching the edge of the table and staring into the
+gray face of the speaker.
+
+I became suddenly aware of the babel of voices about me, of the noisome
+smell of Malay Jack's, and of the presence of Jack in person, who was
+inquiring if there were any further orders. I was conscious of nausea.
+
+"Excuse me," I said, rising unsteadily, "but I fear the oppressive
+atmosphere is affecting me."
+
+"If you prefer to go out," said my acquaintance, in that deep voice
+which throughout the dreadful story had rendered me oblivious of my
+surroundings, "I should be much favoured if you would accompany me to a
+spot not five hundred yards from here."
+
+Seeing me hesitate:
+
+"I have a particular reason for asking," he added.
+
+"Very well," I replied, inclining my head, "if you wish it. But
+certainly I must seek the fresh air."
+
+Going up the steps and out through the door above which the blue lantern
+burned, we came to the street, turned to the left, to the left again,
+and soon were threading that maze of narrow ways which complicates the
+map of Pennyfields.
+
+I felt somewhat recovered. Here, in the narrow but familiar highways the
+spell of my singular acquaintance lost much of its potency, and already
+I found myself doubting the story of Dr. Kreener and Tcheriapin. Indeed,
+I began to laugh at myself, conceiving that I had fallen into the hands
+of some comedian who was making sport of me; although why such a person
+should visit Malay Jack's was not apparent.
+
+I was about to give expression to these new and saner ideas when my
+companion paused before a door half hidden in a little alley which
+divided the back of a Chinese restaurant from the tawdry-looking
+establishment of a cigar merchant. He apparently held the key, for
+although I did not actually hear the turning of the lock I saw that he
+had opened the door.
+
+"May I request you to follow me?" came his deep voice out of the
+darkness. "I will show you something which will repay your trouble."
+
+Again the cloak touched me, but it was without entirely resigning myself
+to the compelling influence that I followed my mysterious acquaintance
+up an uncarpeted and nearly dark stair. On the landing above a gas
+lamp was burning, and opening a door immediately facing the stair the
+stranger conducted me into a barely furnished and untidy room.
+
+The atmosphere smelled like that of a pot-house, the odours of stale
+spirits and of tobacco mingling unpleasantly. As my guide removed
+his hat and stood there, a square, gaunt figure in his queer, caped
+overcoat, I secured for the first time a view of his face in profile;
+and found it to be startlingly unfamiliar. Seen thus, my acquaintance
+was another man. I realized that there was something unnatural about the
+long, white hair, the gray face; that the sharp outline of brow, nose,
+and chin was that of a much younger man than I had supposed him to be.
+
+All this came to me in a momentary flash of perception, for immediately
+my attention was riveted upon a figure hunched up on a dilapidated sofa
+on the opposite side of the room. It was that of a big man, bearded and
+very heavily built, but whose face was scarred as by years of suffering,
+and whose eyes confirmed the story indicated by the smell of stale
+spirits with which the air of the room was laden. A nearly empty bottle
+stood on a table at his elbow, a glass beside it, and a pipe lay in a
+saucer full of ashes near the glass.
+
+As we entered, the glazed eyes of the man opened widely and he clutched
+at the table with big red hands, leaning forward and staring horribly.
+
+Save for this derelict figure and some few dirty utensils and scattered
+garments which indicated that the apartment was used both as sleeping
+and living room, there was so little of interest in the place that
+automatically my wandering gaze strayed from the figure on the sofa to
+a large oil painting, unframed, which rested upon the mantelpiece above
+the dirty grate, in which the fire had become extinguished.
+
+I uttered a stifled exclamation. It was "A Dream at Dawn"--evidently the
+original painting!
+
+On the left of it, from a nail in the wall, hung a violin and bow, and
+on the right stood a sort of cylindrical glass case or closed jar, upon
+a wooden base.
+
+From the moment that I perceived the contents of this glass case a sense
+of fantasy claimed me, and I ceased to know where reality ended and
+mirage began.
+
+It contained a tiny and perfect figure of a man. He was arrayed in a
+beautifully fitting dress-suit such as a doll might have worn, and he
+was posed as if in the act of playing a violin, although no violin
+was present. At the elfin black hair and Mephistophelian face of this
+horrible, wonderful image, I stared fascinatedly.
+
+I looked and looked at the dwarfed figure of... Tcheriapin!
+
+All these impressions came to me in the space of a few hectic moments,
+when in upon my mental tumult intruded a husky whisper from the man on
+the sofa.
+
+"Kreener!" he said. "Kreener!"
+
+At the sound of that name, and because of the way in which it was
+pronounced, I felt my blood running cold. The speaker was staring
+straight at my companion.
+
+I clutched at the open door. I felt that there was still some crowning
+horror to come. I wanted to escape from that reeking room, but my
+muscles refused to obey me, and there I stood while:
+
+"Kreener!" repeated the husky voice, and I saw that the speaker was
+rising unsteadily to his feet.
+
+"You have brought him again. Why have you brought him again? He will
+play. He will play me a step nearer to Hell."
+
+"Brace yourself, Colquhoun," said the voice of my companion. "Brace
+yourself."
+
+"Take him awa'!" came in a sudden frenzied shriek. "Take him awa'! He's
+there at your elbow, Kreener, mockin' me, and pointing to that damned
+violin."
+
+"Here!" said the stranger, a high note of command in his voice. "Drop
+that! Sit down at once."
+
+Even as the other obeyed him, the cloaked stranger, stepping to the
+mantelpiece, opened a small box which lay there beside the glass case.
+He turned to me; and I tried to shrink away from him. For I knew--I
+knew--yet I loathed to look upon--what was in the box. Muffled as though
+reaching me through fog, I heard the words:
+
+"A perfect human body...in miniature... every organ intact by means
+of... process... rendered indestructible. Tcheriapin as he was in life
+may be seen by the curious ten thousand years hence. Incomplete... one
+respect... here in this box..."
+
+The spell was broken by a horrifying shriek from the man whom my
+companion had addressed as Colquhoun, and whom I could only suppose
+to be the painter of the celebrated picture which rested upon the
+mantelshelf.
+
+"Take him awa', Kreener! He is reaching for the violin!"
+
+Animation returned to me, and I fell rather than ran down the darkened
+stair. How I opened the street door I know not, but even as I stepped
+out into the squalid alleys of Pennyfields the cloaked figure was beside
+me. A hand was laid upon my shoulder.
+
+"Listen!" commanded a deep voice.
+
+Clearly, with an eerie sweetness, an evil, hellish beauty indescribable,
+the wailing of a Stradivarius violin crept to my ears from the room
+above. Slowly--slowly the music began, and my soul rose up in revolt.
+
+"Listen!" repeated the voice. "Listen! It is 'The Black Mass'!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DANCE OF THE VEILS
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE HOUSE OF THE AGAPOULOS
+
+
+
+Hassan came in and began very deliberately to light the four lamps.
+He muttered to himself and often smiled in the childish manner which
+characterizes some Egyptians. Hassan wore a red cap, and a white robe
+confined at the waist by a red sash. On his brown feet he wore loose
+slippers, also of red. He had good features and made a very picturesque
+figure moving slowly about his work.
+
+As he lighted lamp after lamp and soft illumination crept about the big
+room, because of the heavy shadows created the place seemed to become
+mysteriously enlarged. That it was an Eastern apartment cunningly
+devised to appeal to the Western eye, one familiar with Arab households
+must have seen at once. It was a traditional Oriental interior, a
+stage setting rather than the nondescript and generally uninteresting
+environment of the modern Egyptian at home.
+
+Brightly coloured divans there were and many silken cushions of strange
+pattern and design. The hanging lamps were of perforated brass with
+little coloured glass panels. In carved wooden cabinets stood beautiful
+porcelain jars, trays, and vessels of silver and copper ware. Rich
+carpets were spread about the floor, and the draperies were elegant and
+costly, while two deep windows projecting over the court represented the
+best period of Arab architecture. Their intricate carven woodwork had
+once adorned the palace of a Grand Wazir. Agapoulos had bought them in
+Cairo and had had them fitted to his house in Chinatown. A smaller brass
+lamp of very delicate workmanship was suspended in each of the recesses.
+
+As Hassan, having lighted the four larger lanterns, was proceeding
+leisurely to light the first of the smaller ones, draperies before a
+door at the east end of the room were parted and Agapoulos came in.
+Agapoulos was a short but portly Greek whom the careless observer might
+easily have mistaken for a Jew. He had much of the appearance of a bank
+manager, having the manners of one used to making himself agreeable,
+but also possessing the money-eye and that comprehensive glance which
+belongs to the successful man of commerce.
+
+Standing in the centre of the place he brushed his neat black moustache
+with a plump forefinger. A diamond ring which he wore glittered
+brilliantly in the coloured rays of the lanterns. With his right hand,
+which rested in his trouser pocket, he rattled keys. His glance roved
+about the room appraisingly. Walking to a beautifully carved Arab
+cabinet he rearranged three pieces of Persian copperware which stood
+upon it. He moved several cushions, and taking up a leopard skin which
+lay upon the floor he draped it over an ebony chair which was inlaid
+intricately with ivory.
+
+The drooping eyelids of M. Agapoulos drooped lower, as returning to the
+centre of the room he critically surveyed the effect of these master
+touches. At the moment he resembled a window-dresser, or, rather, one
+of those high-salaried artists who beautify the great establishments of
+Regent Street, the Rue de la Paix, and Ruination Avenue, New York.
+
+Hassan lighted the sixth lamp, muttering smilingly all the time. He was
+about to depart when Agapoulos addressed him in Arabic.
+
+"There will be a party down from the Savoy tonight, Hassan. No one else
+is to come unless I am told. That accursed red policeman, Kerry, has
+been about here of late. Be very careful."
+
+Hassan saluted him gravely and retired through one of the draped
+openings. In his hand he held the taper with which he had lighted the
+lamps. In order that the draperies should not be singed he had to hold
+them widely apart. For it had not occurred to Hassan to extinguish the
+taper. The Egyptian mind is complex in its simplicity.
+
+M. Agapoulos from a gold case extracted a cigarette, and lighting it,
+inhaled the smoke contentedly, looking about him. The window-dresser was
+lost again in the bank manager who has arranged a profitable overdraft.
+Somewhere a bell rang. Hassan, treading silently, reappeared, crossed
+the room, and opening a finely carved door walked along a corridor which
+it had concealed. He still carried the lighted taper.
+
+Presently there entered a man whose well-cut serge suit revealed the
+figure of a soldier. He wore a soft gray felt hat and carried light
+gloves and a cane. His dark face, bronzed by recent exposure to the
+Egyptian sun, was handsome in a saturnine fashion, and a touch of gray
+at the temples tended to enhance his good looks. He carried himself
+in that kind of nonchalant manner which is not only insular but almost
+insolent.
+
+M. Agapoulos bowed extravagantly. As he laid his plump hand upon his
+breast the diamond ring sparkled in a way most opulent and impressive.
+
+"I greet you, Major Grantham," he said. "Behold"--he waved his hand
+glitteringly--"all is prepared."
+
+"Oh, yes," murmured the other, glancing around without interest; "good.
+You are beginning to get straight in your new quarters."
+
+Agapoulos extended the prosperous cigarette-case, and Major Grantham
+took and lighted a superior cigarette.
+
+"How many in the party?" inquired the Greek smilingly.
+
+"Three and myself."
+
+A shadow of a frown appeared upon the face of Agapoulos.
+
+"Only three," he muttered.
+
+Major Grantham laughed.
+
+"You should know me by this time, Agapoulos," he said. "The party is
+small but exclusive, you understand?"
+
+He spoke wearily, as a tired man speaks of distasteful work which he
+must do. There was contempt in his voice; contempt of Agapoulos, and
+contempt of himself.
+
+"Ah!" cried the Greek, brightening; "do I know any of them?"
+
+"Probably. General Sir Francis Payne, Mr. Eddie, and Sir Horace Tipton."
+
+"An Anglo-American party, eh?"
+
+"Quite. Mr. Eddie is the proprietor of the well-known group of American
+hotels justly celebrated for their great height and poisonous cuisine;
+while Sir Horace Tipton alike as sportsman, globe-trotter, and soap
+manufacturer, is characteristically British. Of General Sir Francis
+Payne I need only say that his home services during the war did
+incalculable harm to our prestige throughout the Empire."
+
+He spoke with all the bitterness of a man who has made a failure of
+life. Agapoulos was quite restored to good humour.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, brushing his moustache and rattling his keys;
+"sportsmen, eh?"
+
+Major Grantham dropped into the carven chair upon which the Greek had
+draped the leopard skin. Momentarily the window-dresser leapt into life
+as Agapoulos beheld one of his cunning effects destroyed, but he forced
+a smile when Grantham, shrugging his shoulders, replied:
+
+"If they are fools enough to play--the usual 5 per cent, on the bank's
+takings."
+
+He paused, glancing at some ash upon the tip of his cigarette. Agapoulos
+swiftly produced an ashtray and received the ash on it in the manner of
+a churchwarden collecting half a crown from a pew-holder.
+
+"I think," continued Grantham indifferently, "that it will be the
+dances. Two of them are over fifty."
+
+"Ah!" said Agapoulos thoughtfully; "not, of course, the ordinary
+programme?"
+
+Major Grantham looked up at him with lazy insolence.
+
+"Why ask?" he inquired. "Does Lucullus crave for sausages? Do
+philosophers play marbles?"
+
+He laughed again, noting the rather blank look of Agapoulos.
+
+"You don't know what I'm talking about, do you?" he added. "I mean to
+say that these men have been everywhere and done everything. They have
+drunk wine sweet and sour and have swallowed the dregs. I am bringing
+them. It is enough."
+
+"More than enough," declared the Greek with enthusiasm. He bowed,
+although Grantham was not looking at him. "In the little matter of fees
+I can rely upon your discretion, as always. Is it not said that a good
+dragoman is a desirable husband?"
+
+Major Grantham resettled himself in his chair.
+
+"M. Agapoulos," he said icily, "we have done shady business together for
+years, both in Port Said and in London, and have remained the best of
+friends; two blackguards linked by our common villainy. But if this
+pleasant commercial acquaintance is to continue let there be no
+misunderstanding between us, M. Agapoulos. I may know I'm a dragoman;
+but in future, old friend"--he turned lazy eyes upon the Greek--"for
+your guidance, don't remind me of the fact or I'll wring your neck."
+
+The drooping eyelids of M. Agapoulos flickered significantly, but it was
+with a flourish more grand than usual that he bowed.
+
+"Pardon, pardon," he murmured. "You speak harshly of yourself, but ah,
+you do not mean it. We understand each other, eh?"
+
+"I understand you perfectly," drawled Grantham; "I was merely advising
+you to endeavour to understand me. My party will arrive at nine o'clock,
+Agapoulos, and I am going back to the Savoy shortly to dress. Meanwhile,
+if Hassan would bring me a whisky and soda I should be obliged."
+
+"Of course, of course. He shall do so at once," cried Agapoulos. "I will
+tell him."
+
+Palpably glad to escape, the fat Greek retired, leaving Major Grantham
+lolling there upon the leopard skin, his hat, cane and gloves upon the
+carpet beside him; and a few moments later Hassan the silent glided into
+the extravagant apartment bearing refreshments. Placing his tray upon a
+little coffee-table beside Major Grantham, he departed.
+
+There was a faint smell of perfume in the room, a heavy voluptuous smell
+in which the odour of sandal-wood mingled with the pungency of myrrh. It
+was very silent, so that when Grantham mixed a drink the pleasant chink
+of glass upon glass rang out sharply.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+ZAHARA
+
+
+
+Zahara had overheard the latter part of the conversation from her own
+apartment. Once she had even crept across to the carven screen in order
+that she might peep through into the big, softly lighted room. She
+had interrupted her toilet to do so, and having satisfied herself that
+Grantham was one of the speakers (although she had really known this
+already), she had returned and stared at herself critically in the
+mirror.
+
+Zahara, whose father had been a Frenchman, possessed skin of a subtle
+cream colour very far removed from the warm brown of her Egyptian
+mother, but yet not white. At night it appeared dazzling, for she
+enhanced its smooth, creamy pallor with a wonderful liquid solution
+which came from Paris. It was hard, Zahara had learned, to avoid a
+certain streaky appearance, but much practice had made her an adept.
+
+This portion of her toilet she had already completed and studying her
+own reflection she wondered, as she had always wondered, what Agapoulos
+could see in Safiyeh. Safiyeh was as brown as a berry; quite pretty for
+an Egyptian girl, as Zahara admitted scornfully, but brown--brown. It
+was a great puzzle to Zahara. The mystery of life indeed had puzzled
+little Zahara very much from the moment when she had first begun to
+notice things with those big, surprising blue eyes of hers, right up to
+the present twenty-fourth year of her life. She had an uneasy feeling
+that Safiyeh, who was only sixteen, knew more of this mystery than she
+did. Once, shortly after the Egyptian girl had come to the house of
+Agapoulos, Zahara had playfully placed her round white arm against that
+of the more dusky beauty, and:
+
+"Look!" she had exclaimed. "I am cream and you are coffee."
+
+"It is true," the other had admitted in her practical, serious way, "but
+some men do not like cream. All men like coffee."
+
+Zahara rested her elbows upon the table and surveyed the reflection
+of her perfect shoulders with disapproval. She had been taught at her
+mother's knee that men did not understand women, and she, who had been
+born and reared in that quarter of Cairo where there is no day but one
+long night, had lived to learn the truth of the lesson. Yet she was not
+surprised that this was so; for Zahara did not understand herself. Her
+desires were so simple and so seemingly natural, yet it would appear
+that they were contrary to the established order of things.
+
+She was proud to think that she was French, although someone had told
+her that the French, though brave, were mercenary. Zahara admired the
+French for being brave, and thought it very sensible that they should
+be mercenary. For there was nothing that Zahara wanted of the world
+that money could not obtain (or so she believed), and she knew no higher
+philosophy than the quest of happiness. Because others did not seem to
+share this philosophy she often wondered if she could be unusual. She
+had come to the conclusion that she was ignorant. If only Harry Grantham
+would talk to her she felt sure he could teach her so much.
+
+There were so many things that puzzled her. She knew that at twenty-four
+she was young for a French girl, although as an Egyptian she would
+have been considered old. She had been taught that gold was the key to
+happiness and that man was the ogre from whom this key must be wheedled.
+A ready pupil, Zahara had early acquired the art of attracting, and now
+at twenty-four she was a past mistress of the Great Craft, and as her
+mirror told her, more beautiful than she had ever been.
+
+Therefore, what did Agapoulos see in Safiyeh?
+
+It was a problem which made Zahara's head ache. She could not understand
+why as her power of winning men increased her power to hold them
+diminished. Safiyeh was a mere inexperienced child--yet Agapoulos
+had brought her to the house, and Zahara, wise in woman's lore, had
+recognized the familiar change of manner.
+
+It was a great problem, the age-old problem which doubtless set the
+first silver thread among Phryne's red-gold locks and which now brought
+a little perplexed wrinkle between Zahara's delicately pencilled brows.
+
+It had not always been so. In those early days in Cairo there had been
+an American boy. Zahara had never forgotten. Her beauty had bewildered
+him. He had wanted to take her to New York; and oh! how she had wanted
+to go. But her mother, who was then alive, had held other views, and he
+had gone alone. Heavens! How old she felt. How many had come and gone
+since that Egyptian winter, but now, although admiration was fatally
+easy to win how few were so sincere as that fresh-faced boy from beyond
+the Atlantic.
+
+Zahara, staring into the mirror, observed that there was not a wrinkle
+upon her face, not a flaw upon her perfect skin. Nor in this was she
+blinded by vanity. Nature, indeed, had cast her in a rare mould, and
+from her unusual hair, which was like dull gold, to her slender ankles
+and tiny feet, she was one of the most perfectly fashioned human beings
+who ever added to the beauty of the world.
+
+Yet Agapoulos preferred Safiyeh. Zahara could hear him coming to her
+room even as she sat there, chin in hands, staring at her own bewitching
+reflection. Presently she would slip out and speak to Harry Grantham.
+Twice she had read in his eyes that sort of interest which she knew so
+well how to detect. She liked him very much, but because of a sense of
+loyalty to Agapoulos (a sentiment purely Egyptian which she longed to
+crush) Zahara had never so much as glanced at Grantham in the Right Way.
+She was glad, though, that he had not gone, and she hoped that Agapoulos
+would not detain her long.
+
+As a matter of fact, the Greek's manner was even more cold than usual.
+He rested his hand upon her shoulder for a moment, and meeting her
+glance reflected in the mirror:
+
+"There will be a lot of money here to-night," he said. "Make the best
+of your opportunities. Chinatown is foggy, yes--but it pays better than
+Port Said."
+
+He ran fat fingers carelessly through her hair, the big diamond
+glittering effectively in the wavy gold, then turned and went out.
+Sitting listening intently, Zahara could hear him talking in a subdued
+voice to Safiyeh, and could detect the Egyptian's low-spoken replies.
+
+*****
+
+Grantham looked up with a start. A new and subtle perfume had added
+itself to that with which the air of the room was already laden. He
+found Zahara standing beside him.
+
+His glance travelled upward from a pair of absurdly tiny brocaded
+shoes past slender white ankles to the embroidered edge of a wonderful
+mandarin robe decorated with the figures of peacocks; upward again to
+a little bejewelled hand which held the robe confined about the slender
+figure of Zahara, and upward to where, sideways upon a bare shoulder
+peeping impudently out from Chinese embroidery, rested the half-mocking
+and half-serious face of the girl.
+
+"Hallo!" he said, smiling, "I didn't hear you come in."
+
+"I walk very soft," explained Zahara, "because I am not supposed to be
+here."
+
+She looked at him quizzically. "I don't see you for a long time," she
+added, and in the tone of her voice there was a caress. "I saw you more
+often in Port Said than here."
+
+"No," replied Grantham, "I have been giving Agapoulos a rest. Besides,
+there has been nobody worth while at any of the hotels or clubs during
+the last fortnight."
+
+"Somebody worth while coming to-night?" asked Zahara with professional
+interest.
+
+At the very moment that she uttered the words she recognized her error,
+for she saw Grantham's expression change. Yet to her strange soul there
+was a challenge in his coldness and the joy of contest in the task of
+melting the ice of this English reserve.
+
+"Lots of money," he said bitterly; "we shall all do well to-night."
+
+Zahara did not reply for a moment. She wished to close this line of
+conversation which inadvertently she had opened up. So that, presently:
+
+"You look very lonely and bored," she said softly.
+
+As a matter of fact, it was she who was bored of the life she led in
+Limehouse--in chilly, misty Limehouse--and who had grown so very lonely
+since Safiyeh had come. In the dark gray eyes looking up at her she read
+recognition of her secret. Here was a man possessing that rare masculine
+attribute, intuition. Zahara knew a fear that was half delightful. Fear
+because she might fail in either of two ways and delight because the
+contest was equal.
+
+"Yes," he replied slowly, "my looks tell the truth. How did you know?"
+
+Zahara observed that his curiosity had not yet become actual interest.
+She toyed with the silken tassel on her robe, tying and untying it with
+quick nervous fingers and resting the while against the side of the
+carved chair.
+
+"Perhaps because I am so lonely myself," she said. "I matter to no one.
+What I do, where I go, if I live or die. It is all----"
+
+She spread her small hands eloquently and shrugged so that another white
+shoulder escaped from the Chinese wrapping. Thereupon Zahara demurely
+drew her robe about her with a naive air of modesty which nine out of
+ten beholding must have supposed to be affected.
+
+In reality it was a perfectly natural, instinctive movement. To Zahara
+her own beauty was a commonplace to be displayed or concealed as
+circumstances might dictate. In a certain sense, which few could
+appreciate, this half-caste dancing girl and daughter of El Wasr was
+as innocent as a baby. It was one of the things which men did not
+understand. She thought that if Harry Grantham asked her to go away
+with him it would be nice to go. Suddenly she realized how deep was her
+loathing of this Limehouse and of the people she met there, who were all
+alike.
+
+He sat looking at her for some time, and then: "Perhaps you are wrong,"
+he said. "There may be some who could understand."
+
+And because he had answered her thoughts rather than her words, the fear
+within Zahara grew greater than the joy of the contest.
+
+Awhile longer she stayed, seeking for a chink in the armour. But she
+failed to kindle the light in his eyes which--unless she had deluded
+herself--she had seen there in the past; and because she failed and
+could detect no note of tenderness in his impersonal curiosity:
+
+"You are lonely because you are so English, so cold," she exclaimed,
+drawing her robe about her and glancing sideways toward the door by
+which Agapoulos might be expected to enter. "You are bored, yes. Of
+course. You look on at life. It is not exciting, that game--except for
+the players."
+
+Never once had she looked at him in the Right Way; for to have done so
+and to have evoked only that amused yet compassionate smile would have
+meant hatred, and Zahara had been taught that such hatred was fatal
+because it was a confession of defeat.
+
+"I shall see you again to-night, shall I not?" he said as she turned
+away.
+
+"Oh, yes, I shall be--on show. I hope you will approve."
+
+She tossed her head like a petulant child, turned, and with never
+another glance in his direction, walked from the room. She was very
+graceful, he thought.
+
+Yet it was not entirely of this strange half-caste, whose beauty was
+provoking, although he resolutely repelled her tentative advances, that
+Grantham was thinking. In that last gesture when she had scornfully
+tossed her head in turning aside, had lain a bitter memory. Grantham
+stood for a moment watching the swaying draperies. Then, dropping the
+end of his cigarette into a little brass ash-tray, he took up his hat,
+gloves, and cane from the floor, and walked toward the doorway through
+which he had entered.
+
+A bell rang somewhere, and Grantham paused. A close observer might have
+been puzzled by his expression. Evidently changing his mind, he crossed
+the room, opened the door and went out, leaving the house of Agapoulos
+by a side entrance. Crossing the little courtyard below he hurried in
+the direction of the main street, seeming to doubt the shadows which
+dusk was painting in the narrow ways.
+
+Many men who know Chinatown distrust its shadows, but the furtive fear
+of which Grantham had become aware was due not to anticipation but to
+memory--to a memory conjured up by that gesture of Zahara's.
+
+There were few people in London or elsewhere who knew the history of
+this scallywag Englishman. That he had held the King's commission at
+some time was generally assumed to be the fact, but that his real
+name was not Grantham equally was taken for granted. His continuing,
+nevertheless, to style himself "Major" was sufficient evidence to those
+interested that Grantham lived by his wits; and from the fact that he
+lived well and dressed well one might have deduced that his wits were
+bright if his morals were turbid.
+
+Now, the gesture of a woman piqued had called up the deathless past.
+Hurrying through nearly empty squalid streets, he found himself longing
+to pronounce a name, to hear it spoken that he might linger over its
+bitter sweetness. To this longing he presently succumbed, and:
+
+"Inez," he whispered, and again more loudly, "Inez."
+
+Such a wave of lonely wretchedness and remorse swept up about his heart
+that he was almost overwhelmed by it, yet he resigned himself to
+its ruthless cruelty with a sort of savage joy. The shadowed ways of
+Limehouse ceased to exist for him, and in spirit he stood once more in
+a queer, climbing, sunbathed street of Gibraltar looking out across that
+blue ribbon of the Straits to where the African coast lay hidden in the
+haze.
+
+"I never knew," he said aloud. And one meeting this man who hurried
+along and muttered to himself must have supposed him to be mad. "I never
+knew. Oh, God! if I had only known."
+
+But he was one of those to whom knowledge comes as a bitter aftermath.
+When his regiment had received orders to move from the Rock, and he had
+informed Inez of his departure, she had turned aside, just as Zahara had
+done; scornfully and in silence. Because of his disbelief in her he
+had guarded his heart against this beautiful Spanish girl who (as he
+realized too late) had brought him the only real happiness he had ever
+known. Often she had told him of her brother, Miguel, who would kill
+her--would kill them both--if he so much as suspected their meetings; of
+her affianced husband, absent in Tunis, whose jealousy knew no bounds.
+
+He had pretended to believe, had even wanted to believe; but the
+witchery of the girl's presence removed, he had laughed--at himself and
+at Inez. She was playing the Great Game, skilfully, exquisitely. When
+he was gone--there would soon be someone else. Yet he had never told her
+that he doubted. He had promised many things--and had left her.
+
+She died by her own hand on the night of his departure.
+
+Now, as a wandering taxi came into view: "Inez!" he moaned--"I never
+knew."
+
+That brother whom he had counted a myth had succeeded in getting on
+board the transport. Before Grantham's inner vision the whole dreadful
+scene now was reenacted: the struggle in the stateroom; he even seemed
+to hear the sound of the shot, to see the Spaniard, drenched with blood
+from a wound in his forehead, to hear his cry:
+
+"I cannot see! I cannot see! Mother of Mercy! I have lost my sight!"
+
+It had broken Grantham. The scandal was hushed up, but retirement was
+inevitable. He knew, too, that the light had gone out of the world for
+him as it had gone for Miguel da Mura.
+
+It is sometimes thus that a scallywag is made.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE STAR OF EGYPT
+
+
+
+As Grantham went out by the side door, Hassan, soft of foot, appeared.
+Crossing to the main door he opened it and walked down the narrow
+corridor beyond. Presently came the tap, tap, tap of a stick and a sound
+of muttered conversation in some place below.
+
+Hassan reentered and went in through the curtained doorway to summon
+Agapoulos. Agapoulos was dressing and would not be disturbed. Hassan
+went back to those who waited, but ere long returned again chattering
+volubly to himself. Going behind the carven screen he rapped upon the
+door of Zahara's room, and she directed him to come in. To Zahara,
+Hassan was no more than a piece of furniture, and she thought as little
+of his intruding while she was in the midst of her toilet as another
+woman would have thought of the entrance of a maid.
+
+"Two men," reported Hassan, "who won't go away until they see somebody."
+
+"Whom do they want to see?" she inquired indifferently, adjusting the
+line of her eyebrow with an artistically pointed pencil.
+
+"They say whoever belongs here."
+
+Zahara invariably spoke either French or English to natives, and if
+Hassan had addressed her in Arabic she would not have replied, although
+she spoke that language better than she spoke any other.
+
+"What are they like? Not--police?"
+
+"Foreign," replied Hassan vaguely.
+
+"English--American?"
+
+"No, not American or English. Very black hair, dark skin."
+
+Zahara, a student of men, became aware of a mild interest. These swarthy
+visitors should prove an agreeable antidote to the poisonous calm of
+Harry Grantham. She was trying with all the strength of her strange,
+stifled soul not to think of Grantham, and she was incapable of
+recognizing the fact that she could think of nothing else and had
+thought of little else for a long time past. Even now it was because of
+him that she determined to interview the foreign visitors. The mystery
+of her emotions puzzled her more than ever.
+
+She descended to a small, barely furnished room on the ground floor,
+close beside the door opening upon the street. It was lighted by one
+hanging lamp. On the divan which constituted the principal item
+of furniture a small man, slenderly built, was sitting. He wore a
+broad-brimmed hat, so broad of brim that it threw the whole of the upper
+part of his face into shadow. It was impossible to see his eyes. Beside
+him rested a heavy walking-stick.
+
+As Zahara entered, a wonderful, gaily coloured figure, this man did not
+move in the slightest, but sat, chin on breast, his small, muscular,
+brown hands resting on his knees. His companion, however, a person of
+more massive build, elegantly dressed and handsome in a swarthy fashion,
+bowed gravely and removed his hat. Zahara liked his eyes, which were
+dark and very bold looking.
+
+"M. Agapoulos is engaged," she said, speaking in French. "What is it you
+wish to know?"
+
+The man regarded her fixedly, and:
+
+"Senorita," he replied, "I will be frank with you."
+
+Save for his use of the word "senorita" he also spoke in French. Zahara
+drew her robe more closely about her and adopted her most stately
+manner.
+
+"My name," continued the other, "does not matter, but my business is to
+look into the affairs of other people, you understand?"
+
+Zahara, who understood from this that the man was some kind of inquiry
+agent, opened her blue eyes very widely and at the same time shook her
+head.
+
+"No," she protested; "what do you mean?"
+
+"A certain gentleman came here a short time ago, came into this
+house and must be here now. Don't be afraid. He has done nothing very
+dreadful," he added reassuringly.
+
+Zahara retreated a step, and a little wrinkle of disapproval appeared
+between her pencilled brows. She no longer liked the man's eyes, she
+decided. They were deceitful eyes. His companion had taken up the heavy
+stick and was restlessly tapping the floor.
+
+"There is no one here," said Zahara calmly, "except the people who live
+in the house."
+
+"He is here, he is here," muttered the man seated on the divan.
+
+The tapping of his stick had grown more rapid, but as he had spoken in
+Spanish, Zahara, who was ignorant of that language, had no idea what he
+had said.
+
+"My friend," continued the Spaniard, bowing slightly in the direction
+of the slender man who so persistently kept his broad-brimmed hat on his
+head, "chanced to hear the voice of this gentleman as he spoke to your
+porter on entering the door. And although the door was closed too soon
+for us actually to see him, we are convinced that he is the person we
+seek."
+
+"I think you are mistaken," said Zahara coolly. "But what do you want
+him for?"
+
+As she uttered the words she realized that even the memory of Grantham
+was sufficient to cause her to betray herself. She had betrayed her
+interest to the man himself, and now she had betrayed it to this
+dark-faced stranger whose manner was so mysterious. The Spaniard
+recognized the fact, and, unlike Grantham, acted upon it promptly.
+
+"He has taken away the wife of another, Senorita," he said simply, and
+watched her as he spoke the lie.
+
+She listened in silence, wide-eyed. Her lower lip twitched, and she bit
+it fiercely.
+
+"He went first to Port Said and then came to London with this woman,"
+continued the Spaniard remorselessly. "We come from her husband to ask
+her to return. Yes, he will forgive her--or he offers her freedom."
+
+Rapidly but comprehensively the speaker's bold glance travelled over
+Zahara, from her golden head to her tiny embroidered shoes.
+
+"If you can help us in this matter it will be worth fifty English pounds
+to you," he concluded.
+
+Zahara was breathing rapidly. The fatal hatred which she had sought to
+stifle gained a new vitality. Another woman--another woman actually
+here in London! So there was someone upon whom he did not look in that
+half-amused and half-compassionate manner. How she hated him! How she
+hated the woman to whom he had but a moment ago returned!
+
+"Then he will marry this other one?" she said suddenly.
+
+"Oh, no. Already he neglects her. We think she will go back."
+
+Zahara experienced a swift change of sentiment. She seemed to be
+compounded of two separate persons, one of whom laughed cruelly at the
+folly of the other.
+
+"What is the name of this man you think your friend has recognized?" she
+asked.
+
+The big stick was rapping furiously during this colloquy.
+
+"We are both sure, Senorita. His name is Major Spalding."
+
+That Spalding and Grantham were neighbouring towns in Lincolnshire
+Zahara did not know, but:
+
+"No one of that name comes here," she replied.
+
+"The one you heard and--who has gone--is not called by that name." She
+spoke with forced calm. It was Grantham they sought! "But what happens
+if I show you this one who is not called Spalding?"
+
+"No matter! Point him out to me," answered the Spaniard eagerly--and his
+dark eyes seemed to be on fire--"point him out to me and fifty pounds of
+English money is yours!"
+
+"Let me see."
+
+He drew out a wallet and held up a number of notes.
+
+"Fifty," he said, in a subdued voice, "when you point him out."
+
+For a long moment Zahara hesitated, then:
+
+"Sixty," she corrected him--"now! Then I will do it to-night--if you
+tell what happens."
+
+Exhibiting a sort of eager impatience the man displayed a bunch of
+official-looking documents.
+
+"I give him these," he explained, "and my work is done."
+
+"H'm," said Zahara. "He must not know that it is I who have shown him
+to you. To-night he will be here at nine o'clock, and I shall dance. You
+understand?"
+
+"Then," said the Spaniard eagerly, "this is what you will do."
+
+And speaking close to her ear he rapidly outlined a plan; but presently
+she interrupted him.
+
+"Pooh! It is Spanish, the rose. I dance the dances of Egypt."
+
+"But to-night," he persisted, "it will not matter."
+
+Awhile longer they talked, the rapping of the stick upon the tiled floor
+growing ever faster and faster. But finally:
+
+"I will tell Hassan that you are to be admitted," said Zahara, and she
+held out her hand for the notes.
+
+When, presently, the visitors departed, she learned that the smaller
+man was blind; for his companion led him out of the room and out of
+the house. She stood awhile listening to the tap, tap, tap of the heavy
+stick receding along the street. What she did not hear, and could not
+have understood had she heard, since it was uttered in Spanish, was the
+cry of exultant hatred which came from the lips of the taller man:
+
+"At last, Miguel! at last! Though blind, you have found him! You have
+not failed. I shall not fail!"
+
+*****
+
+Zahara peeped through the carved screen at the assembled company. They
+were smoking and drinking and seemed to be in high good humour. Safiyeh
+had danced and they had applauded the performance, but had complained
+to M. Agapoulos that they had seen scores of such dances and dancers.
+Safiyeh, who had very little English, had not understood this, and
+because presently she was to play upon the a'ood while Zahara danced the
+Dance of the Veils, Zahara had avoided informing her of the verdict of
+the company.
+
+Now as she peeped through the lattice in the screen she could see
+the Greek haggling with Grantham and a tall gray-haired man whom she
+supposed to be Sir Horace Tipton. They were debating the additional fees
+to be paid if Zahara, the Star of Egypt, was to present the secret
+and wonderful dance of which all men had heard but which only a true
+daughter of the ancient tribe of the Ghawazi could perform.
+
+Sometimes Zahara was proud of her descent from a dancing-girl of Kenneh.
+This was always at night, when a sort of barbaric excitement possessed
+her which came from the blood of her mother. Then, a new light entered
+her eyes and they seemed to grow long and languid and dark, so that no
+one would have suspected that in daylight they were blue.
+
+A wild pagan abandon claimed her, and she seemed to hear the wailing of
+reed instruments and the throb of the ancient drums which were played of
+old before the kings of Egypt. Safiyeh was not a true dancing girl,
+and because she knew none of those fine frenzies, she danced without
+inspiration, like a brown puppet moved by strings. But she could play
+upon an a'ood much better than Zahara, and therefore must not be upset
+until she had played for the Dance of the Veils.
+
+Seeing that the bargain was all but concluded, Zahara stole back to
+her room. Her lightly clad body gleamed like that of some statue become
+animate.
+
+Her cheeks flushed as she took up the veils, of which she alone knew the
+symbolic meaning; the white veil, the purple veil: each had its story to
+tell her; and the veil of burning scarlet. In a corner of the big room
+on a divan near the door she had seen the Spaniard, a handsome, swarthy
+figure in his well-fitting dress clothes, and now, opening a drawer, she
+glanced at the little pile of notes which represented her share of the
+bargain. There were fifty. She had told Agapoulos that a distinguished
+foreigner with an introduction from someone she knew had paid ten pounds
+to be present. And because she had given Agapoulos the ten pounds,
+Agapoulos had agreed to admit the visitor.
+
+She could hear the Greek approaching now, but she was thinking of
+Grantham whom she had last seen in laughing conversation with the tall,
+gray-haired man. His laughter had appeared forced. Doubtless he grew
+weary of the woman he had brought to London.
+
+"Dance to-night with all the devil that is in you, my beautiful," said
+Agapoulos, hurrying into the room.
+
+Zahara turned aside, toying with the veils.
+
+"They are rich, eh?" she said indifferently.
+
+She was thinking of the fifty pounds which she had earned so easily; and
+after all (how strangely her mind wandered) perhaps he was really tired
+of the woman. The Spaniard had said so.
+
+"Very rich," murmured Agapoulos complacently.
+
+He brushed his moustache and rattled keys in his pocket. In his dress
+clothes he looked like the manager of a prosperous picture palace.
+"Safryeh!" he called.
+
+When presently the music commenced, the players concealed behind the
+tall screen, an expectant hush fell upon the wine-flushed company.
+Hassan, who played the darabukkeh, could modulate its throbbing so
+wonderfully.
+
+Zahara entered the room, enveloped from shoulders to ankles in a
+flame-coloured cloak. Between her lips she held a red rose.
+
+"By God, what a beauty!" said a husky voice.
+
+Zahara did not know which of the party had spoken, but she was conscious
+of the fact that by virtue of the strange witchcraft which became hers
+on such nights she held them all spell-bound. They were her slaves.
+
+Slowly she walked across the apartment while the throbbing of the Arab
+drum grew softer and softer, producing a weird effect of space and
+distance. All eyes were fixed upon her, and meeting Grantham's gaze she
+saw at last the Light there which she knew. This sudden knowledge of
+triumph almost unnerved her, and the rose which she had taken from
+between her lips trembled in her white fingers. Two of the petals fell
+upon the carpet, which was cream-coloured from the looms of Ispahan.
+Like blood spots the petals lay upon the cream surface.
+
+Zahara swung sharply about. Agapoulos, seated alone in the chair over
+which he had draped the leopard skin, was busily brushing his moustache
+and glancing sideways toward the screen which concealed Safryeh. Zahara
+tilted her head on to her shoulder and cast a languorous glance into the
+shadows masking the watchful Spaniard.
+
+She could see his eyes gleaming like those of a wild beast. An icy
+finger seemed to touch her heart. He had lied to her! She knew it,
+suddenly, intuitively. Well, she would see. She also had guile.
+
+With a little scornful laugh Zahara tossed the rose on to the knees--of
+Agapoulos.
+
+The sound of three revolver shots fired in quick succession rang out
+above the throbbing music. Agapoulos clutched at his shirt front with
+both hands, uttered a stifled scream and tried to stand up. He coughed,
+and glaring straight in front of him fell forward across a little coffee
+table laden with champagne bottles and glasses.
+
+Coincident with the crash made by his falling body came the loud bang of
+a door. The Spaniard had gone.
+
+"By God, sir! It's murder, it's murder!" cried the same husky voice
+which had commented upon the beauty of Zahara.
+
+There was a mingling, purposeless movement. Someone ran to the door--to
+find that it was locked from the outside. Mr. Eddie, now recognizable by
+his accent, came toward the prone man, dazed, horrified, and grown very
+white. Zahara, a beautiful, tragic figure, in her flaming cloak, stood
+looking down at the dead man. Safiyeh was peeping round from behind
+the screen, her face a brown mask of terror. Hassan, holding his drum,
+appeared behind her, staring stupidly. To the smell of cigar smoke and
+perfume a new and acrid odour was added.
+
+Vaguely the truth was stealing in upon the mind of the dancing-girl that
+she had been made party to a plot to murder Grantham. She had saved his
+life. He belonged to her now. She could hear him speaking, although
+for some reason she could not see him. A haze had come, blotting out
+everything but the still, ungainly figure which lay so near her upon
+the carpet, one clutching, fat hand, upon which a diamond glittered,
+outstretched so that it nearly touched her bare white feet.
+
+"We must get out this way! The side door to the courtyard! None of us
+can afford to be mixed up in an affair of this sort."
+
+There was more confused movement and a buzz of excited
+voices--meaningless, chaotic. Zahara could feel the draught from the
+newly opened door. A thin stream of blood was stealing across the
+carpet. It had almost reached the fallen rose petals, which it strangely
+resembled in colour under the light of the lanterns.
+
+As though dispersed by the draught, the haze lifted, and Zahara saw
+Grantham standing by the open doorway through which he had ushered out
+the other visitors.
+
+Wide-eyed and piteous she met his glance. She had seen that night the
+Look in his eyes. She had saved his life, and there was much, so
+much, that she wanted to tell him. A thousand yearnings, inexplicable,
+hitherto unknown, deep mysteries of her soul, looked out of those great
+eyes.
+
+"Don't think," he said tensely, "that I was deceived. I saw the trick
+with the rose! You are as guilty as your villainous lover! Murderess!"
+
+He went out and closed the door. The flame-coloured cloak slowly slipped
+from Zahara's shoulders, and the veils, like falling petals, began to
+drop gently one by one upon the blood-stained carpet.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HAND OF THE MANDARIN QUONG
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE SHADOW ON THE CURTAIN
+
+
+
+"Singapore is by no means herself again," declared Jennings, looking
+about the lounge of the Hotel de l'Europe. "Don't you agree, Knox?"
+
+Burton fixed his lazy stare upon the speaker.
+
+"Don't blame poor old Singapore," he said. "There is no spot in this
+battered world that I have succeeded in discovering which is not changed
+for the worse."
+
+Dr. Matheson flicked ash from his cigar and smiled in that peculiarly
+happy manner which characterizes a certain American type and which lent
+a boyish charm to his personality.
+
+"You are a pair of pessimists," he pronounced. "For some reason best
+known to themselves Jennings and Knox have decided upon a Busman's
+Holiday. Very well. Why grumble?"
+
+"You are quite right, Doctor," Jennings admitted. "When I was on service
+here in the Straits Settlements I declared heaven knows how often that
+the country would never see me again once I was demobbed. Yet here you
+see I am; Burton belongs here; but here's Knox, and we are all as fed up
+as we can be!"
+
+"Yes," said Burton slowly. "I may be a bit tired of Singapore. It's a
+queer thing, though, that you fellows have drifted back here again. The
+call of the East is no fable. It's a call that one hears for ever."
+
+The conversation drifted into another channel, and all sorts of topics
+were discussed, from racing to the latest feminine fashions, from
+ballroom dances to the merits and demerits of coalition government. Then
+suddenly:
+
+"What became of Adderley?" asked Jennings.
+
+There were several men in the party who had been cronies of ours during
+the time that we were stationed in Singapore, and at Jennings's words
+a sort of hush seemed to fall on those who had known Adderley. I cannot
+say if Jennings noticed this, but it was perfectly evident to me that
+Dr. Matheson had perceived it, for he glanced swiftly across in my
+direction in an oddly significant way.
+
+"I don't know," replied Burton, who was an engineer. "He was rather an
+unsavoury sort of character in some ways, but I heard that he came to a
+sticky end."
+
+"What do you mean?" I asked with curiosity, for I myself had often
+wondered what had become of Adderley.
+
+"Well, he was reported to his C. O., or something, wasn't he, just
+before the time for his demobilization? I don't know the particulars; I
+thought perhaps you did, as he was in your regiment."
+
+"I have heard nothing whatever about it," I replied.
+
+"You mean Sidney Adderley, the man who was so indecently rich?" someone
+interjected. "Had a place at Katong, and was always talking about his
+father's millions?"
+
+"That's the fellow."
+
+"Yes," said Jennings, "there was some scandal, I know, but it was after
+my time here."
+
+"Something about an old mandarin out Johore Bahru way, was it not?"
+asked Burton. "The last thing I heard about Adderley was that he had
+disappeared."
+
+"Nobody would have cared much if he had," declared Jennings. "I know
+of several who would have been jolly glad. There was a lot of the brute
+about Adderley, apart from the fact that he had more money than was good
+for him. His culture was a veneer. It was his check-book that spoke all
+the time."
+
+"Everybody would have forgiven Adderley his vulgarity," said Dr.
+Matheson, quietly, "if the man's heart had been in the right place."
+
+"Surely an instance of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,"
+someone murmured.
+
+Burton gazed rather hard at the last speaker.
+
+"So far as I am aware," he said, "the poor devil is dead, so go easy."
+
+"Are you sure he is dead?" asked Dr. Matheson, glancing at Burton in
+that quizzical, amused way of his.
+
+"No, I am not sure; I am merely speaking from hearsay. And now I come
+to think of it, the information was rather vague. But I gathered that he
+had vanished, at any rate, and remembering certain earlier episodes in
+his career, I was led to suppose that this vanishing meant------"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders significantly.
+
+"You mean the old mandarin?" suggested Dr. Matheson.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was there really anything in that story, or was it suggested by the
+unpleasant reputation of Adderley?" Jennings asked.
+
+"I can settle any doubts upon that point," said I; whereupon I
+immediately became a focus of general attention.
+
+"What! were you ever at that place of Adderley's at Katong?" asked
+Jennings with intense curiosity.
+
+I nodded, lighting a fresh cigarette in a manner that may have been
+unduly leisurely.
+
+"Did you see her?"
+
+Again I nodded.
+
+"Really!"
+
+"I must have been peculiarly favoured, but certainly I had that
+pleasure."
+
+"You speak of seeing her," said one of the party, now entering the
+conversation for the first time. "To whom do you refer?"
+
+"Well," replied Burton, "it's really a sort of fairy tale--unless
+Knox"--glacing across in my direction--"can confirm it. But there was a
+story current during the latter part of Adderley's stay in Singapore to
+the effect that he had made the acquaintance of the wife, or some member
+of the household, of an old gentleman out Johore Bahru way--sort of
+mandarin or big pot among the Chinks."
+
+"It was rumoured that he had bolted with her," added another speaker.
+
+"I think it was more than a rumour."
+
+"Why do you say so?"
+
+"Well, representations were made to the authorities, I know for an
+absolute certainty, and I have an idea that Adderley was kicked out of
+the Service as a consequence of the scandal which resulted."
+
+"How is it one never heard of this?"
+
+"Money speaks, my dear fellow," cried Burton, "even when it is possessed
+by such a peculiar outsider as Adderley. The thing was hushed up. It was
+a very nasty business. But Knox was telling us that he had actually seen
+the lady. Please carry on, Knox, for I must admit that I am intensely
+curious."
+
+"I can only say that I saw her on one occasion."
+
+"With Adderley?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At his place at Katong."
+
+"I even thought his place at that resort was something of a myth,"
+declared Jennings. "He never asked me to go there, but, then, I took
+that as a compliment. Pardon the apparent innuendo, Knox," he added,
+laughing. "But you say you actually visited the establishment?"
+
+"Yes," I replied slowly, "I met him here in this very hotel one evening
+in the winter of '15, after the natives' attempt to mutiny. He had been
+drinking rather heavily, a fact which he was quite unable to disguise.
+He was never by any means a real friend of mine; in fact, I doubt that
+he had a true friend in the world. Anyhow, I could see that he was
+lonely, and as I chanced to be at a loose end I accepted an invitation
+to go over to what he termed his 'little place at Katong.'
+
+"His little place proved to be a veritable palace. The man privately, or
+rather, secretly, to be exact, kept up a sort of pagan state. He had any
+number of servants. Of course he became practically a millionaire after
+the death of his father, as you will remember; and given more congenial
+company, I must confess that I might have spent a most enjoyable evening
+there.
+
+"Adderley insisted upon priming me with champagne, and after a while I
+may as well admit that I lost something of my former reserve, and began
+in a fashion to feel that I was having a fairly good time. By the way,
+my host was not quite frankly drunk. He got into that objectionable and
+dangerous mood which some of you will recall, and I could see by the
+light in his eyes that there was mischief brewing, although at the time
+I did not know its nature.
+
+"I should explain that we were amusing ourselves in a room which was
+nearly as large as the lounge of this hotel, and furnished in a somewhat
+similar manner. There were carved pillars and stained glass domes,
+a little fountain, and all those other peculiarities of an Eastern
+household.
+
+"Presently, Adderley gave an order to one of his servants, and glanced
+at me with that sort of mocking, dare-devil look in his eyes which I
+loathed, which everybody loathed who ever met the man. Of course I had
+no idea what all this portended, but I was very shortly to learn.
+
+"While he was still looking at me, but stealing side-glances at a
+doorway before which was draped a most wonderful curtain of a sort of
+flamingo colour, this curtain was suddenly pulled aside, and a girl came
+in.
+
+"Of course, you must remember that at the time of which I am speaking
+the scandal respecting the mandarin had not yet come to light.
+Consequently I had no idea who the girl could be. I saw she was a
+Eurasian. But of her striking beauty there could be no doubt whatever.
+She was dressed in magnificent robes, and she literally glittered with
+jewels. She even wore jewels upon the toes of her little bare feet. But
+the first thing that struck me at the moment of her appearance was that
+her presence there was contrary to her wishes and inclinations. I have
+never seen a similar expression in any woman's eyes. She looked at
+Adderley as though she would gladly have slain him!
+
+"Seeing this look, his mocking smile in which there was something
+of triumph--of the joy of possession--turned to a scowl of positive
+brutality. He clenched his fists in a way that set me bristling. He
+advanced toward the girl--and although the width of the room divided
+them, she recoiled--and the significance of expression and gesture was
+unmistakable. Adderley paused.
+
+"'So you have made up your mind to dance after all?' he shouted.
+
+"The look in the girl's dark eyes was pitiful, and she turned to me with
+a glance of dumb entreaty.
+
+"'No, no!' she cried. 'No, no! Why do you bring me here?'
+
+"'Dance!' roared Adderley. 'Dance! That's what I want you to do.'
+
+"Rebellion leapt again to the wonderful eyes, and she started back with
+a perfectly splendid gesture of defiance. At that my brutal and drunken
+host leapt in her direction. I was on my feet now, but before I could
+act the girl said a thing which checked him, sobered him, which pulled
+him up short, as though he had encountered a stone wall.
+
+"'Ah, God!' she said. (She was speaking, of course, in her native
+tongue.) 'His hand! His hand! Look! His hand!'
+
+"To me her words were meaningless, naturally, but following the
+direction of her positively agonized glance I saw that she was watching
+what seemed to me to be the shadow of someone moving behind the
+flame-like curtain which produced an effect not unlike that of a huge,
+outstretched hand, the fingers crooked, claw-fashion.
+
+"'Knox, Knox!' whispered Adderley, grasping me by the shoulder.
+
+"He pointed with a quivering finger toward this indistinct shadow upon
+the curtain, and:
+
+"'Do you see it--do you see it?' he said huskily. 'It is his hand--it is
+his hand!'
+
+"Of the pair, I think, the man was the more frightened. But the girl,
+uttering a frightful shriek, ran out of the room as though pursued by
+a demon. As she did so whoever had been moving behind the curtain
+evidently went away. The shadow disappeared, and Adderley, still staring
+as if hypnotized at the spot where it had been, continued to hold my
+shoulder as in a vise. Then, sinking down upon a heap of cushions beside
+me, he loudly and shakily ordered more champagne.
+
+"Utterly mystified by the incident, I finally left him in a state of
+stupor, and returned to my quarters, wondering whether I had dreamed
+half of the episode or the whole of it, whether he did really possess
+that wonderful palace, or whether he had borrowed it to impress me."
+
+I ceased speaking, and my story was received in absolute silence, until:
+
+"And that is all you know?" said Burton.
+
+"Absolutely all. I had to leave about that time, you remember, and
+afterward went to France."
+
+"Yes, I remember. It was while you were away that the scandal arose
+respecting the mandarin. Extraordinary story, Knox. I should like to
+know what it all meant, and what the end of it was."
+
+Dr. Matheson broke his long silence.
+
+"Although I am afraid I cannot enlighten you respecting the end of the
+story," he said quietly, "perhaps I can carry it a step further."
+
+"Really, Doctor? What do you know about the matter?"
+
+"I accidentally became implicated as follows," replied the American: "I
+was, as you know, doing voluntary surgical work near Singapore at the
+time, and one evening, presumably about the same period of which Knox is
+speaking, I was returning from the hospital at Katong, at which I acted
+sometimes as anaesthetist, to my quarters in Singapore; just drifting
+along, leisurely by the edge of the gardens admiring the beauty of the
+mangroves and the deceitful peace of the Eastern night.
+
+"The hour was fairly late and not a soul was about. Nothing
+disturbed the silence except those vague sibilant sounds which are
+so characteristic of the country. Presently, as I rambled on with my
+thoughts wandering back to the dim ages, I literally fell over a man who
+lay in the road.
+
+"I was naturally startled, but I carried an electric pocket torch, and
+by its light I discovered that the person over whom I had fallen was a
+dignified-looking Chinaman, somewhat past middle age. His clothes, which
+were of good quality, were covered with dirt and blood, and he bore all
+the appearance of having recently been engaged in a very tough struggle.
+His face was notable only for its possession of an unusually long
+jet-black moustache. He had swooned from loss of blood."
+
+"Why, was he wounded?" exclaimed Jennings.
+
+"His hand had been nearly severed from his wrist!"
+
+"Merciful heavens!"
+
+"I realized the impossibility of carrying him so far as the hospital,
+and accordingly I extemporized a rough tourniquet and left him under
+a palm tree by the road until I obtained assistance. Later, at the
+hospital, following a consultation, we found it necessary to amputate."
+
+"I should say he objected fiercely?"
+
+"He was past objecting to anything, otherwise I have no doubt he would
+have objected furiously. The index finger of the injured hand had one of
+those preternaturally long nails, protected by an engraved golden case.
+However, at least I gave him a chance of life. He was under my care for
+some time, but I doubt if ever he was properly grateful. He had an iron
+constitution, though, and I finally allowed him to depart. One queer
+stipulation he had made--that the severed hand, with its golden
+nail-case, should be given to him when he left hospital. And this
+bargain I faithfully carried out."
+
+"Most extraordinary," I said. "Did you ever learn the identity of the
+old gentleman?"
+
+"He was very reticent, but I made a number of inquiries, and finally
+learned with absolute certainty, I think, that he was the Mandarin Quong
+Mi Su from Johore Bahru, a person of great repute among the Chinese
+there, and rather a big man in China. He was known locally as the
+Mandarin Quong."
+
+"Did you learn anything respecting how he had come by his injury,
+Doctor?"
+
+Matheson smiled in his quiet fashion, and selected a fresh cigar with
+great deliberation. Then:
+
+"I suppose it is scarcely a case of betraying a professional secret,"
+he said, "but during the time that my patient was recovering from the
+effects of the anaesthetic he unconsciously gave me several clues to
+the nature of the episode. Putting two and two together I gathered that
+someone, although the name of this person never once passed the lips of
+the mandarin, had abducted his favourite wife."
+
+"Good heavens! truly amazing," I exclaimed.
+
+"Is it not? How small a place the world is. My old mandarin had traced
+the abductor and presumably the girl to some house which I gathered
+to be in the neighbourhood of Katong. In an attempt to force an
+entrance--doubtless with the amiable purpose of slaying them both--he
+had been detected by the prime object of his hatred. In hurriedly
+descending from a window he had been attacked by some weapon, possibly
+a sword, and had only made good his escape in the condition in which I
+found him. How far he had proceeded I cannot say, but I should imagine
+that the house to which he had been was no great distance from the spot
+where I found him."
+
+"Comment is really superfluous," remarked Burton. "He was looking for
+Adderley."
+
+"I agree," said Jennings.
+
+"And," I added, "it was evidently after this episode that I had the
+privilege of visiting that interesting establishment."
+
+There was a short interval of silence; then:
+
+"You probably retain no very clear impression of the shadow which you
+saw," said Dr. Matheson, with great deliberation. "At the time perhaps
+you had less occasion particularly to study it. But are you satisfied
+that it was really caused by someone moving behind the curtain?"
+
+I considered his question for a few moments.
+
+"I am not," I confessed. "Your story, Doctor, makes me wonder whether it
+may not have been due to something else."
+
+"What else can it have been due to?" exclaimed Jennings
+contemptuously--"unless to the champagne?"
+
+"I won't quote Shakespeare," said Dr. Matheson, smiling in his odd way.
+"The famous lines, though appropriate, are somewhat overworked. But I
+will quote Kipling: 'East is East, and West is West.'"
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE LADY OF KATONG
+
+
+
+Fully six months had elapsed, and on returning from Singapore I had
+forgotten all about Adderley and the unsavoury stories connected with
+his reputation. Then, one evening as I was strolling aimlessly along
+St. James's Street, wondering how I was going to kill time--for almost
+everyone I knew was out of town, including Paul Harley, and London can
+be infinitely more lonely under such conditions than any desert--I saw a
+thick-set figure approaching along the other side of the street.
+
+The swing of the shoulders, the aggressive turn of the head, were
+vaguely familiar, and while I was searching my memory and endeavouring
+to obtain a view of the man's face, he stared across in my direction.
+
+It was Adderley.
+
+He looked even more debauched than I remembered him, for whereas in
+Singapore he had had a tanned skin, now he looked unhealthily pallid and
+blotchy. He raised his hand, and:
+
+"Knox!" he cried, and ran across to greet me.
+
+His boisterous manner and a sort of coarse geniality which he possessed
+had made him popular with a certain set in former days, but I, who
+knew that this geniality was forced, and assumed to conceal a sort of
+appalling animalism, had never been deceived by it. Most people found
+Adderley out sooner or later, but I had detected the man's true nature
+from the very beginning. His eyes alone were danger signals for any
+amateur psychologist. However, I greeted him civilly enough:
+
+"Bless my soul, you are looking as fit as a fiddle!" he cried. "Where
+have you been, and what have you been doing since I saw you last?"
+
+"Nothing much," I replied, "beyond trying to settle down in a reformed
+world."
+
+"Reformed world!" echoed Adderley. "More like a ruined world it has
+seemed to me."
+
+He laughed loudly. That he had already explored several bottles was
+palpable.
+
+We were silent for a while, mentally weighing one another up, as it
+were. Then:
+
+"Are you living in town?" asked Adderley.
+
+"I am staying at the Carlton at the moment," I replied. "My chambers are
+in the hands of the decorators. It's awkward. Interferes with my work."
+
+"Work!" cried Adderley. "Work! It's a nasty word, Knox. Are you doing
+anything now?"
+
+"Nothing, until eight o'clock, when I have an appointment."
+
+"Come along to my place," he suggested, "and have a cup of tea, or a
+whisky and soda if you prefer it."
+
+Probably I should have refused, but even as he spoke I was mentally
+translated to the lounge of the Hotel de l'Europe, and prompted by a
+very human curiosity I determined to accept his invitation. I wondered
+if Fate had thrown an opportunity in my way of learning the end of the
+peculiar story which had been related on that occasion.
+
+I accompanied Adderley to his chambers, which were within a stone's
+throw of the spot where I had met him. That this gift for making himself
+unpopular with all and sundry, high and low, had not deserted him, was
+illustrated by the attitude of the liftman as we entered the hall of the
+chambers. He was barely civil to Adderley and even regarded myself with
+marked disfavour.
+
+We were admitted by Adderley's man, whom I had not seen before, but who
+was some kind of foreigner, I think a Portuguese. It was characteristic
+of Adderley. No Englishman would ever serve him for long, and there
+had been more than one man in his old Company who had openly avowed his
+intention of dealing with Adderley on the first available occasion.
+
+His chambers were ornately furnished; indeed, the room in which we sat
+more closely resembled a scene from an Oscar Asche production than a
+normal man's study. There was something unreal about it all. I have
+since thought that this unreality extended to the person of the man
+himself. Grossly material, he yet possessed an aura of mystery, mystery
+of an unsavoury sort. There was something furtive, secretive, about
+Adderley's entire mode of life.
+
+I had never felt at ease in his company, and now as I sat staring
+wonderingly at the strange and costly ornaments with which the room was
+overladen I bethought me of the object of my visit. How I should have
+brought the conversation back to our Singapore days I know not, but a
+suitable opening was presently offered by Adderley himself.
+
+"Do you ever see any of the old gang?" he inquired.
+
+"I was in Singapore about six months ago," I replied, "and I met some of
+them again."
+
+"What! Had they drifted back to the East after all?"
+
+"Two or three of them were taking what Dr. Matheson described as a
+Busman's Holiday."
+
+At mention of Dr. Matheson's name Adderley visibly started.
+
+"So you know Matheson," he murmured. "I didn't know you had ever met
+him."
+
+Plainly to hide his confusion he stood up, and crossing the room drew
+my attention to a rather fine silver bowl of early Persian ware. He was
+displaying its peculiar virtues and showing a certain acquaintance with
+his subject when he was interrupted. A door opened suddenly and a girl
+came in. Adderley put down the bowl and turned rapidly as I rose from my
+seat.
+
+It was the lady of Katong!
+
+I recognized her at once, although she wore a very up-to-date gown.
+While it did not suit her dark good looks so well as the native dress
+which she had worn at Singapore, yet it could not conceal the fact that
+in a barbaric way she was a very beautiful woman. On finding a visitor
+in the room she became covered with confusion.
+
+"Oh," she said, speaking in Hindustani. "Why did you not tell me there
+was someone here?"
+
+Adderley's reply was characteristically brutal.
+
+"Get out," he said. "You fool."
+
+I turned to go, for I was conscious of an intense desire to attack my
+host. But:
+
+"Don't go, Knox, don't go!" he cried. "I am sorry, I am damned sorry,
+I------"
+
+He paused, and looked at me in a queer sort of appealing way. The girl,
+her big eyes widely open, retreated again to the door, with curious
+lithe steps, characteristically Oriental. The door regained, she paused
+for a moment and extended one small hand in Adderley's direction.
+
+"I hate you," she said slowly, "hate you! Hate you!"
+
+She went out, quietly closing the door behind her. Adderley turned to me
+with an embarrassed laugh.
+
+"I know you think I am a brute and an outsider," he said, "and perhaps I
+am. Everybody says I am, so I suppose there must be something in it.
+But if ever a man paid for his mistakes I have paid for mine, Knox. Good
+God, I haven't a friend in the world."
+
+"You probably don't deserve one," I retorted.
+
+"I know I don't, and that's the tragedy of it," he replied. "You may
+not believe it, Knox; I don't expect anybody to believe me; but for more
+than a year I have been walking on the edge of Hell. Do you know where I
+have been since I saw you last?"
+
+I shook my head in answer.
+
+"I have been half round the world, Knox, trying to find peace."
+
+"You don't know where to look for it," I said.
+
+"If only you knew," he whispered. "If only you knew," and sank down upon
+the settee, ruffling his hair with his hands and looking the picture of
+haggard misery. Seeing that I was still set upon departure:
+
+"Hold on a bit, Knox," he implored. "Don't go yet. There is something I
+want to ask you, something very important."
+
+He crossed to a sideboard and mixed himself a stiff whisky-and-soda. He
+asked me to join him, but I refused.
+
+"Won't you sit down again?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"You came to my place at Katong once," he began abruptly. "I was damned
+drunk, I admit it. But something happened, do you remember?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"This is what I want to ask you: Did you, or did you not, see that
+shadow?"
+
+I stared him hard in the face.
+
+"I remember the episode to which you refer," I replied. "I certainly saw
+a shadow."
+
+"But what sort of shadow?"
+
+"To me it seemed an indefinite, shapeless thing, as though caused by
+someone moving behind the curtain."
+
+"It didn't look to you like--the shadow of a hand?"
+
+"It might have been, but I could not be positive."
+
+Adderley groaned.
+
+"Knox," he said, "money is a curse. It has been a curse to me. If I have
+had my fun, God knows I have paid for it."
+
+"Your idea of fun is probably a peculiar one," I said dryly.
+
+Let me confess that I was only suffering the man's society because of
+an intense curiosity which now possessed me on learning that the lady of
+Katong was still in Adderley's company.
+
+Whether my repugnance for his society would have enabled me to remain
+any longer I cannot say. But as if Fate had deliberately planned that I
+should become a witness of the concluding phases of this secret drama,
+we were now interrupted a second time, and again in a dramatic fashion.
+
+Adderley's nondescript valet came in with letters and a rather large
+brown paper parcel sealed and fastened with great care.
+
+As the man went out:
+
+"Surely that is from Singapore," muttered Adderley, taking up the
+parcel.
+
+He seemed to become temporarily oblivious of my presence, and his face
+grew even more haggard as he studied the writing upon the wrapper.
+With unsteady fingers he untied it, and I lingered, watching curiously.
+Presently out from the wrappings he took a very beautiful casket of
+ebony and ivory, cunningly carved and standing upon four claw-like ivory
+legs.
+
+"What the devil's this?" he muttered.
+
+He opened the box, which was lined with sandal-wood, and thereupon
+started back with a great cry, recoiling from the casket as though
+it had contained an adder. My former sentiments forgotten, I stepped
+forward and peered into the interior. Then I, in turn, recoiled.
+
+In the box lay a shrivelled yellow hand--with long tapering and
+well-manicured nails--neatly severed at the wrist!
+
+The nail of the index finger was enclosed in a tiny, delicately
+fashioned case of gold, upon which were engraved a number of Chinese
+characters.
+
+Adderley sank down again upon the settee.
+
+"My God!" he whispered, "his hand! His hand! He has sent me his hand!"
+
+He began laughing. Whereupon, since I could see that the man was
+practically hysterical because of his mysterious fears:
+
+"Stop that," I said sharply. "Pull yourself together, Adderley. What the
+deuce is the matter with you?"
+
+"Take it away!" he moaned, "take it away. Take the accursed thing away!"
+
+"I admit it is an unpleasant gift to send to anybody," I said, "but
+probably you know more about it than I do."
+
+"Take it away," he repeated. "Take it away, for God's sake, take it
+away, Knox!"
+
+He was quite beyond reason, and therefore:
+
+"Very well," I said, and wrapped the casket in the brown paper in which
+it had come. "What do you want me to do with it?"
+
+"Throw it in the river," he answered. "Burn it. Do anything you like
+with it, but take it out of my sight!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE GOLD-CASED NAIL
+
+
+
+As I descended to the street the liftman regarded me in a curious and
+rather significant way. Finally, just as I was about to step out into
+the hall:
+
+"Excuse me, sir," he said, having evidently decided that I was a fit
+person to converse with, "but are you a friend of Mr. Adderley's?"
+
+"Why do you ask?"
+
+"Well, sir, I hope you will excuse me, but at times I have thought the
+gentleman was just a little bit queer, like."
+
+"You mean insane?" I asked sharply.
+
+"Well, sir, I don't know, but he is always asking me if I can see
+shadows and things in the lift, and sometimes when he comes in late of a
+night he absolutely gives me the cold shivers, he does."
+
+I lingered, the box under my arm, reluctant to obtain confidences from a
+servant, but at the same time keenly interested. Thus encouraged:
+
+"Then there's that lady friend of his who is always coming here," the
+man continued. "She's haunted by shadows, too." He paused, watching me
+narrowly.
+
+"There's nothing better in this world than a clean conscience, sir," he
+concluded.
+
+*****
+
+Having returned to my room at the hotel, I set down the mysterious
+parcel, surveying it with much disfavour. That it contained the hand of
+the Mandarin Quong I could not doubt, the hand which had been amputated
+by Dr. Matheson. Its appearance in that dramatic fashion confirmed
+Matheson's idea that the mandarin's injury had been received at the
+hands of Adderley. What did all this portend, unless that the Mandarin
+Quong was dead? And if he were dead why was Adderley more afraid of him
+dead than he had been of him living?
+
+I thought of the haunting shadow, I thought of the night at Katong, and
+I thought of Dr. Matheson's words when he had told us of his discovery
+of the Chinaman lying in the road that night outside Singapore.
+
+I felt strangely disinclined to touch the relic, and it was only after
+some moments' hesitation that I undid the wrappings and raised the lid
+of the casket. Dusk was very near and I had not yet lighted the lamps;
+therefore at first I doubted the evidence of my senses. But having
+lighted up and peered long and anxiously into the sandal-wood lining of
+the casket I could doubt no longer.
+
+The casket was empty!
+
+It was like a conjuring trick. That the hand had been in the box when
+I had taken it up from Adderley's table I could have sworn before any
+jury. When and by whom it had been removed was a puzzle beyond my powers
+of unravelling. I stepped toward the telephone--and then remembered that
+Paul Harley was out of London. Vaguely wondering if Adderley had played
+me a particularly gruesome practical joke, I put the box on a sideboard
+and again contemplated the telephone doubtfully far a moment. It was in
+my mind to ring him up. Finally, taking all things into consideration,
+I determined that I would have nothing further to do with the man's
+unsavoury and mysterious affairs.
+
+It was in vain, however, that I endeavoured to dismiss the matter from
+my mind; and throughout the evening, which I spent at a theatre with
+some American friends, I found myself constantly thinking of Adderley
+and the ivory casket, of the mandarin of Johore Bahru, and of the
+mystery of the shrivelled yellow hand.
+
+I had been back in my room about half an hour, I suppose, and it was
+long past midnight, when I was startled by a ringing of my telephone
+bell. I took up the receiver, and:
+
+"Knox! Knox!" came a choking cry.
+
+"Yes, who is speaking?"
+
+"It is I, Adderley. For God's sake come round to my place at once!"
+
+His words were scarcely intelligible. Undoubtedly he was in the grip of
+intense emotion.
+
+"What do you mean? What is the matter?"
+
+"It is here, Knox, it is here! It is knocking on the door! Knocking!
+Knocking!"
+
+"You have been drinking," I said sternly. "Where is your man?"
+
+"The cur has bolted. He bolted the moment he heard that damned knocking.
+I am all alone; I have no one else to appeal to." There came a choking
+sound, then: "My God, Knox, it is getting in! I can see... the shadow on
+the blind..."
+
+Convinced that Adderley's secret fears had driven him mad, I
+nevertheless felt called upon to attend to his urgent call, and without
+a moment's delay I hurried around to St. James's Street. The liftman was
+not on duty, the lower hall was in darkness, but I raced up the stairs
+and found to my astonishment that Adderley's door was wide open.
+
+"Adderley!" I cried. "Adderley!"
+
+There was no reply, and without further ceremony I entered and searched
+the chambers. They were empty. Deeply mystified, I was about to go out
+again when there came a ring at the door-bell. I walked to the door and
+a policeman was standing upon the landing.
+
+"Good evening, sir," he said, and then paused, staring at me curiously.
+
+"Good evening, constable," I replied.
+
+"You are not the gentleman who ran out awhile ago," he said, a note of
+suspicion coming into his voice.
+
+I handed him my card and explained what had occurred, then:
+
+"It must have been Mr. Adderley I saw," muttered the constable.
+
+"You saw--when?"
+
+"Just before you arrived, sir. He came racing out into St. James's
+Street and dashed off like a madman."
+
+"In which direction was he going?"
+
+"Toward Pall Mall."
+
+*****
+
+The neighbourhood was practically deserted at that hour. But from
+the guard on duty before the palace we obtained our first evidence
+of Adderley's movements. He had raced by some five minutes before,
+frantically looking back over his shoulder and behaving like a man
+flying for his life. No one else had seen him. No one else ever did see
+him alive. At two o'clock there was no news, but I had informed Scotland
+Yard and official inquiries had been set afoot.
+
+Nothing further came to light that night, but as all readers of the
+daily press will remember, Adderley's body was taken out of the pond in
+St. James's Park on the following day. Death was due to drowning, but
+his throat was greatly discoloured as though it had been clutched in a
+fierce grip.
+
+It was I who identified the body, and as many people will know, in spite
+of the closest inquiries, the mystery of Adderley's death has not been
+properly cleared up to this day. The identity of the lady who visited
+him at his chambers was never discovered. She completely disappeared.
+
+The ebony and ivory casket lies on my table at this present moment,
+visible evidence of an invisible menace from which Adderley had fled
+around the world.
+
+Doubtless the truth will never be known now. A significant discovery,
+however, was made some days after the recovery of Adderley's body.
+
+From the bottom of the pond in St. James's Park a patient Scotland
+Yard official brought up the gold nail-case with its mysterious
+engravings--and it contained, torn at the root, the incredibly long
+finger-nail of the Mandarin Quong!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE KEY OF THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE KEEPER OF THE KEY
+
+
+
+The note of a silver bell quivered musically through the scented air of
+the ante-room. Madame de Medici stirred slightly upon the divan with its
+many silken cushions, turning her head toward the closed door with the
+languorous, almost insolent, indifference which one perceives in the
+movements of a tigress. Below, in the lobby, where the pillars of
+Mokattam alabaster upheld the painted roof, the little yellow man from
+Pekin shivered slightly, although the air was warm for Limehouse, and
+always turned his mysterious eyes toward a corner of the great staircase
+which was visible from where he sat, coiled up, a lonely figure in the
+mushrabiyeh chair. Madame blew a wreath of smoke from her lips, and,
+through half-closed eyes, watched it ascend, unbroken, toward the canopy
+of cloth-of-gold which masked the ceiling. A Madonna by Leonardo da
+Vinci faced her across the apartment, the painted figure seeming to
+watch the living one upon the divan. Madame smiled into the eyes of the
+Madonna. Surely even the great Leonardo must have failed to reproduce
+that smile--the great Leonardo whose supreme art has captured the smile
+of Mona Lisa. Madame had the smile of Cleopatra, which, it is said, made
+Caesar mad, though in repose the beauty of Egypt's queen left him
+cold. A robe of Kashmiri silk, fine with a phantom fineness, draped her
+exquisite shape as the art of Cellini draped the classic figures which
+he wrought in gold and silver; it seemed incorporate with her beauty.
+
+A second wreath of smoke curled upward to the canopy, and Madame watched
+this one also through the veil of her curved black lashes, as the
+Eastern woman watches the world through her veil. Those eyes were
+notable even in so lovely a setting, for they were of a hue rarely seen
+in human eyes, being like the eyes of a tigress; yet they could seem
+voluptuously soft, twin pools of liquid amber, in whose depths a man
+might lose his soul.
+
+Again the silver bell sounded in the ante-room, and, below, the little
+yellow man shivered sympathetically. Again Madame stirred with that high
+disdain that so became her, who had the eyes of a tigress. Her carmine
+lips possessed the antique curve which we are told distinguished the
+lips of the Comtesse de Cagliostro; her cheeks had the freshness of
+flowers, and her hair the blackness of ebony, enhancing the miracle of
+her skin, which had the whiteness of ivory--not of African ivory, but
+of that fossil ivory which has lain for untold ages beneath the snows of
+Siberia.
+
+She dropped the cigarette from her tapered fingers into a little silver
+bowl upon a table at her side, then lightly touched the bell which
+stood there also. Its soft note answered to the bell in the ante-room; a
+white-robed Chinese servant silently descended the great staircase,
+his soft red slippers sinking into the rich pile of the carpet; and the
+little yellow man from the great temple in Pekin followed him back up
+the stairway and was ushered into the presence of Madame de Medici.
+
+The servant closed the door silently and the little yellow man, fixing
+his eyes upon the beautiful woman before him, fell upon his knees and
+bowed his forehead to the carpet.
+
+Madame's lovely lips curved again in the disdainful smile, and she
+extended one bare ivory arm toward the visitor who knelt as a suppliant
+at her feet.
+
+"Rise, my friend!" she said, in purest Chinese, which fell from her lips
+with the music of a crystal spring. "How may I serve you?"
+
+The yellow man rose and advanced a step nearer to the divan, but the
+strange beauty of Madame had spoken straight to his Eastern heart, had
+awakened his soul to a new life. His glance travelled over the vision
+before him, from the little Persian slipper that peeped below the
+drapery of Kashmir silk to the small classic head with its crown of ebon
+locks; yet he dared not meet the glance of the amber eyes.
+
+"Sit here beside me," directed Madame, and she slightly changed her
+position with that languorous and lithe grace suggestive of a creature
+of the jungle.
+
+Breathing rapidly betwixt the importance of his mission and a new,
+intoxicating emotion which had come upon him at the moment of entering
+the perfumed room, the yellow man obeyed, but always with glance averted
+from the taunting face of Madame. A golden incense-burner stood upon the
+floor, over between the high, draped windows, and a faint pencil from
+its dying fires stole grayly upward. Upon the scented smoke the Buddhist
+priest fixed his eyes, and began, with a rapidity that grew as he
+proceeded, to pour out his tale. Seated beside him, one round arm
+resting upon the cushions so as almost to touch him, Madame listened,
+watching the averted yellow face, and always smiling--smiling.
+
+The tale was done at last; the incense-burner was cold, and breathlessly
+the Buddhist clutched his knees with lean, clawish fingers and swayed to
+and fro, striving to conquer the emotions that whirled and fought within
+him. Selecting another cigarette from the box beside her, and lighting
+it deliberately, Madame de Medici spoke.
+
+"My friend of old," she said, and of the language of China she made
+strange music, "you come to me from your home in the secret city,
+because you know that I can serve you. It is enough."
+
+She touched the bell upon the table, and the white-robed servant
+reentered, and, bowing low, held open the door. The little yellow man,
+first kneeling upon the carpet before the divan as before an altar,
+hurried from the apartment. As the door was reclosed, and Madame found
+herself alone again, she laughed lightly, as Calypso laughed when
+Ulysses' ship appeared off the shores of her isle.
+
+God fashions few such women. It is well.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TIGER LADY
+
+
+
+"By heavens, Annesley!" whispered Rene Deacon, "what eyes that woman
+has!" His companion, following the direction of Deacon's glance, nodded
+rather grimly.
+
+"The eyes of a Circe, or at times the eyes of a tigress."
+
+"She is magnificent!" murmured Deacon rapturously. "I have never seen so
+beautiful a woman."
+
+His glance followed the tall figure as it passed into a smaller salon on
+the left; nor was he alone in his regard. Fashionable society was
+well represented in the gallery--where a collection of pictures by a
+celebrated artist was being shown; and prior to the entrance of the lady
+in the strangely fashioned tiger-skin cloak, the somewhat extraordinary
+works of art had engaged the interest even of the most fickle, but,
+from the moment the tiger-lady made her appearance, even the most daring
+canvases were forgotten.
+
+"She wears tiger-skin shoes!" whispered one.
+
+"She is like a design for a poster!" laughed another.
+
+"I have never seen anything so flashy in my life," was the acrid comment
+of a third.
+
+"What a dazzlingly beautiful woman!" remarked another--this one a man.
+While:
+
+"Who is she?" arose upon all sides.
+
+Judging from the isolation of the barbaric figure, it would seem that
+society did not know the tiger-lady, but Deacon, seizing his companion
+by the arm and almost dragging him into the small salon which the lady
+had entered, turned in the doorway and looked into Annesley's eyes.
+Annesley palpably sought to evade the glance.
+
+"You know everybody," whispered Deacon. "You must be acquainted with
+her."
+
+A great number of people were now thronging into the room, not so
+much because of the pictures it contained, but rather out of curiosity
+respecting the beautiful unknown. Annesley tried to withdraw; his
+uneasiness grew momentarily greater.
+
+"I scarcely know her well enough," he protested, "to present you.
+Moreover------"
+
+"But she's smiling at you!" interrupted Deacon eagerly.
+
+His handsome but rather weak face was flushed; he was, as an old clubman
+had recently said of him, "so very young." He lacked the restraint usual
+in cultured Englishmen, and had the frankly passionate manner which one
+associates with the South. His uncle, Colonel Deacon, a mordant wit,
+would say apologetically:
+
+"Reggie" (Deacon's father) "married a Gascon woman. She was delightfully
+pretty. Poor Reggie!"
+
+Certainly Rene was impetuous to an embarrassing degree, nor lightly to
+be thwarted. Boldly meeting the glance of the woman of the amber eyes,
+he pushed Annesley forward, not troubling to disguise his anxiety to be
+presented to the tiger-lady. She turned her head languidly, with that
+wild-animal grace of hers, and unsmiling now, regarded Annesley.
+
+"So you forget me so soon, Mr. Annesley," she murmured, "or is it that
+you play the good shepherd?"
+
+"My dear Madame," said Annesley, recovering with an effort his wonted
+sang-froid, "I was merely endeavouring to calm the rhapsodies of
+my friend, who seemed disposed to throw himself at your feet in
+knight-errant fashion."
+
+"He is a very handsome boy," murmured Madame; and as the great eyes
+were turned upon Deacon the carmine lips curved again in the Cleopatrian
+smile.
+
+She was indeed wonderful, for while she spoke as the woman of the world
+to the boy, there was nothing maternal in her patronage, and her eyes
+were twin flambeaux, luring--luring, and her sweet voice was a siren's
+song.
+
+"May I beg leave to present my friend, Mr. Rene Deacon, Madame de
+Medici?" said Annesley; and as the two exchanged glances--the boy's
+a glance of undisguised passionate admiration, the woman's a glance
+unfathomable--he slightly shrugged his shoulders and stood aside.
+
+There were others in the salon, who, perceiving that the unknown beauty
+was acquainted with Annesley, began to move from canvas to canvas toward
+that end of the room where the trio stood. But Madame did not appear
+anxious to make new acquaintances.
+
+"I have seen quite enough of this very entertaining exhibition," she
+said languidly, toying with a great unset emerald which swung by a thin
+gold chain about her neck. "Might I entreat you to take pity upon a very
+lonely woman and return with me to tea?"
+
+Annesley seemed on the point of refusing, when:
+
+"I have acquired a reputed Leonardo," continued Madame, "and I wish you
+to see it."
+
+There was something so like a command in the words that Deacon stared at
+his companion in frank surprise. The latter avoided his glance, and:
+
+"Come!" said Madame de Medici.
+
+As of old the great Catherine of her name might have withdrawn with her
+suite, so now the lady of the tiger skins withdrew from the gallery, the
+two men following obediently, and one of them at least a happy courtier.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+TWIN POOLS OF AMBER
+
+
+
+The white-robed Chinese servant entered and placed fresh perfume upon
+the burning charcoal of the silver incense-burner. As the scented smoke
+began to rise he withdrew, and a second servant entered, who facially,
+in dress, in figure and bearing, was a duplicate of the first. This
+one carried a large tray upon which was set an exquisite porcelain
+tea-service. He placed the tray upon a low table beside the divan, and
+in turn withdrew.
+
+Deacon, seated in a great ebony chair, smoked rapidly and
+nervously--looking about the strangely appointed room with its huge
+picture of the Madonna, its jade Buddha surmounting a gilded Burmese
+cabinet, its Persian canopy and Egyptian divan, at the thousand and
+one costly curiosities which it displayed, at this mingling of East and
+West, of Christianity and paganism, with a growing wonder.
+
+To one of his blood there was delight, intoxication, in that room; but
+something of apprehension, too, now grew up within him.
+
+Madame de Medici entered. The garish motor-coat was discarded now, and
+her supple figure was seen to best advantage in one of those dark
+silken gowns which she affected, and which had a seeming of the
+ultra-fashionable because they defied fashion. She held in her hand an
+orchid, its structure that of an odontoglossum, but of a delicate green
+colour heavily splashed with scarlet--a weird and unnatural-looking
+bloom.
+
+Just within the doorway she paused, as Deacon leaped up, and looked at
+him through the veil of the curved lashes.
+
+"For you," she said, twirling the blossom between her fingers and
+gliding toward him with her tigerish step.
+
+He spoke no word, but, face flushed, sought to look into her eyes as
+she pinned the orchid in the button-hole of his coat. Her hands were
+flawless in shape and colouring, being beautiful as the sculptured hands
+preserved in the works of Phidias.
+
+The slight draught occasioned by the opening of the door caused the
+smoke from the incense-burner to be wafted toward the centre of the
+room. Like a blue-gray phantom it coiled about the two standing there
+upon a red and gold Bedouin rug, and the heavy perfume, or the close
+proximity of this singularly lovely woman, wrought upon the high-strung
+sensibilities of Deacon to such an extent that he was conscious of a
+growing faintness.
+
+"Ah! You are not well!" exclaimed Madame with deep concern. "It is the
+perfume which that foolish Ah Li has lighted. He forgets that we are in
+England."
+
+"Not at all," protested Deacon faintly, and conscious that he was making
+a fool of himself. "I think I have perhaps been overdoing it rather of
+late. Forgive me if I sit down."
+
+He sank on the cushioned divan, his heart beating furiously, while
+Madame touched the little bell, whereupon one of the servants entered.
+
+She spoke in Chinese, pointing to the incense-burner.
+
+Ah Li bowed and removed the censer. As the door softly reclosed:
+
+"You are better?" she whispered, sweetly solicitous, and, seating
+herself beside Deacon, she laid her hand lightly upon his arm.
+
+"Quite," he replied hoarsely; "please do not worry about me. I am
+wondering what has become of Annesley."
+
+"Ah, the poor man!" exclaimed Madame, with a silver laugh, and began to
+busy herself with the teacups. "He remembered, as he was looking at my
+new Leonardo, an appointment which he had quite forgotten."
+
+"I can understand his forgetting anything under the circumstances."
+
+Madame de Medici raised a tiny cup and bent slightly toward him. He
+felt that he was losing control of himself, and, averting his eyes, he
+stooped and smelled the orchid in his buttonhole. Then, accepting the
+cup, he was about to utter some light commonplace when the faintness
+returned overwhelmingly, and, hurriedly replacing the cup upon the
+tray, he fell back among the cushions. The stifling perfume of the place
+seemed to be choking him.
+
+"Ah, poor boy! You are really not at all well. How sorry I am!"
+
+The sweet tones reached him as from a great distance; but as one dying
+in the desert turns his face toward the distant oasis, Deacon turned
+weakly to the speaker. She placed one fair arm behind his head,
+pillowing him, and with a peacock fan which had lain amid the cushions
+fanned his face. The strange scene became wholly unreal to him; he
+thought himself some dying barbaric chief.
+
+"Rest there," murmured the sweet voice.
+
+The great eyes, unveiled now by the black lashes, were two twin lakes of
+fairest amber. They seemed to merge together, so that he stood upon
+the brink of an unfathomable amber pool--which swallowed him up--which
+swallowed him up.
+
+He awoke to an instantaneous consciousness of the fact that he had been
+guilty of inexcusably bad form. He could not account for his faintness,
+and reclining there amid the silken cushions, with Madame de Medici
+watching him anxiously, he felt a hot flush stealing over his face.
+
+"What is the matter with me!" he exclaimed, and sprang to his feet. "I
+feel quite well now."
+
+She watched him, smiling, but did not speak. He was a "very young man"
+again, and badly embarrassed. He glanced at his wrist-watch.
+
+"Gracious heavens!" he cried, and noted that the tea-tray had been
+removed, "there must be something radically wrong with my health. It is
+nearly seven o'clock!"
+
+The note of the silver bell sounded in the ante-room.
+
+"Can you forgive me?" he said.
+
+But Madame, rising to her feet, leaned lightly upon his shoulder, toying
+with the petals of the orchid in his buttonhole.
+
+"I think it was the perfume which that foolish Ah Li lighted," she
+whispered, looking intently into his eyes, "and it is you who have to
+forgive me. But you will, I know!" The silver bell rang again. "When
+you have come to see me again--many, many times, you will grow to love
+it--because I love it."
+
+She touched the bell upon the table, and Ah Li entered silently. When
+Madame de Medici held out her hand to him Deacon raised the white
+fingers to his lips and kissed them rapturously; then he turned, the
+Gascon within him uppermost again, and ran from the room.
+
+A purple curtain was drawn across the lobby, screening the caller newly
+arrived from the one so hurriedly departing.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE LIVING BUDDHA
+
+
+
+It was past midnight when Colonel Deacon returned to the house. Rene was
+waiting for him, pacing up and down the big library. Their relationship
+was curious, as subsisting between ward and guardian, for these two,
+despite the disparity of their ages, had few secrets from one another.
+Rene burned to pour out his story of the wonderful Madame de Medici, of
+the secret house in Chinatown with its deceptively mean exterior and
+its gorgeous interior, to the shrewd and worldly elder man. That was his
+way. But Fate had an oddly bitter moment in store for him.
+
+"Hallo, boy!" cried the Colonel, looking into the library; "glad
+you're home. I might not see you in the morning, and I want to tell you
+about--er--a lady who will be coming here in the afternoon."
+
+The words died upon Rene's lips unspoken, and he stared blankly at the
+Colonel.
+
+"I thought I knew all there was to know about pictures, antiques, and
+all that sort of lumber," continued Colonel Deacon in his rapid and
+off-hand manner. "Thought there weren't many men in London could teach
+me anything; certainly never suspected a woman could. But I've met one,
+boy! Gad! What a splendid creature! You know there isn't much in the
+world I haven't seen--north, south, east and west. I know all the
+advertised beauties of Europe and Asia--stage, opera, and ballet, and
+all the rest of them. But this one--Gad!"
+
+He dropped into an arm-chair, clapping both his hands upon his knees.
+Rene stood at the farther end of the library, in the shadow, watching
+him.
+
+"She's coming here to-morrow, boy--coming here. Gad! you dog! You'll
+fall in love with her the moment you see her--sure to, sure to! I did,
+and I'm three times your age!"
+
+"Who is this lady, sir?" asked Rene, very quietly.
+
+"God knows, boy! Everybody's mad to meet her, but nobody knows who she
+is. But wait till you see her. Lady Dascot seems to be acquainted with
+her, but you will see when they come to-morrow--see for yourself. Gad,
+boy!... what did you say?"
+
+"I did not speak."
+
+"Thought you did. Have a whisky-and-soda?"
+
+"No, thank you, sir--good night."
+
+"Good night, boy!" cried the Colonel. "Good night. Don't forget to be
+in to-morrow afternoon or you'll miss meeting the loveliest woman in
+London, and the most brilliant."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"Eh? She calls herself Madame de Medici. She's a mystery, but what a
+splendid creature!"
+
+Rene Deacon walked slowly upstairs, entered his bedroom, and for fully
+an hour sat in the darkness, thinking--thinking.
+
+"Am I going mad?" he murmured. "Or is this witch driving all London
+mad?"
+
+He strove to recover something of the glamour which had mastered him
+when in the presence of Madame de Medici, but failed. Yet he knew that,
+once near her again, it would all return. His reflections were bitter,
+and when at last wearily he undressed and went to bed it was to toss
+restlessly far into the small hours ere sleep came to soothe his
+troubled mind.
+
+But his sleep was disturbed: a series of dreadfully realistic dreams
+danced through his brain. First he seemed to be standing upon a high
+mountain peak with eternal snows stretched all about him. He looked
+down, past the snow line, past the fir woods, into the depths of a
+lovely lake, far down in the valley below. It was a lake of liquid
+amber, and as he looked it seemed to become two lakes, and they were
+like two great eyes looking up at him and summoning him to leap. He
+thought that he leaped, a prodigious leap, far out into space; then
+fell--fell--fell. When he splashed into the amber deeps they became
+churned up in a milky foam, and this closed about him with a strangle
+grip. But it was no longer foam, but the clinging arms of Madame de
+Medici!...
+
+Then he stood upon a fragile bridge of bamboo spanning a raging torrent.
+Right and left of the torrent below were jungles in which moved tigerish
+shapes. Upon the farther side of the bridge Madame de Medici, clad in
+a single garment of flame-coloured silk, beckoned to him. He sought to
+cross the bridge, but it collapsed, and he fell near the edge of the
+torrent. Below were the raging waters, and ever nearing him the tigerish
+shapes, which now Madame was calling to as to a pack of hounds. They
+were about to devour him, when------
+
+He was crouching upon a ledge, high above a street which seemed to be
+vaguely familiar. He could not see very well, because of a silk mask
+tied upon his face, and the eyeholes of which were badly cut. From the
+ledge he stepped to another, perilously. He gained it, and crouching
+there, where there was scarce foothold for a cat, he managed fully to
+raise a window which already was raised some six inches. Then softly and
+silently--for he was bare-footed--he entered the room.
+
+Someone slept in a bed facing the window by which he had entered, and
+upon a table at the side of the sleeper lay a purse, a bunch of keys, an
+electric torch, and a Service revolver. Gliding to the table Rene took
+the keys and the electric torch, unlocked the door of the room, and
+crept down a thickly carpeted stair to a room below. The door of this
+also he opened with one of the keys in the bunch, and by the light of
+the torch found his way through a quantity of antique furniture and
+piled up curiosities to a safe set in the farther wall.
+
+He seemed, in his dream, to be familiar with the lock combination, and,
+selecting the correct key from the bunch, he soon had the safe open.
+The shelves within were laden principally with antique jewellery,
+statuettes, medals, scarabs; and a number of little leather-covered
+boxes were there also. One of these he abstracted, relocked the safe,
+and stepped out of the room, locking the door behind him. Up the stairs
+he mounted to the bedroom wherein he had left the sleeper. Having
+entered, he locked the door from within, placed the keys and the torch
+upon the table, and crept out again upon the dizzy ledge.
+
+Poised there, high above the thoroughfare below, a great nausea attacked
+him. Glancing to the right, in the direction of the window through which
+he had come, he perceived Madame de Medici leaning out and beckoning to
+him. Her arm gleamed whitely in the faint light. A new courage came to
+him. He succeeded, crouched there upon the narrow ledge, in relowering
+the window, and leaving it in the state in which he had found it, he
+stood up and essayed that sickly stride to the adjoining ledge. He
+accomplished it, knelt, and crept back into the room from which he had
+started....
+
+The head of an ivory image of Buddha loomed up out of the utter
+darkness, growing and growing until it seemed like a great mountain. He
+could not believe that there was so much ivory in the world, and he felt
+it with his fingers, wonderingly. As he did so it began to shrink, and
+shrink, and shrink, and shrink, until it was no larger than a seated
+human figure. Then beneath his trembling hands it became animate; it
+moved, extended ivory arms, and wrapped them about his neck. Its lips
+became carmine--perfumed; they bent to him... and he was looking into
+the bewitching face of Madame de Medici!
+
+He awoke, gasping for air and bathed in cold perspiration. The dawn was
+just breaking over London and stealing grayly from object to object in
+his bedroom.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE IVORY GOD
+
+
+
+The great car, with its fittings of gold and ivory, drew up at the door
+of Colonel Deacon's house. The interior was ablaze with tiger lilies,
+and out from their midst stepped the fairest of them all--Madame de
+Medici, and swept queenly up the steps upon the arm of the cavalierly
+soldier.
+
+All connoisseurs esteemed it a privilege to view the Deacon collection,
+and this afternoon there was a goodly gathering. Chairs and little white
+tables were dotted about the lawn in shady spots, and the majority of
+the company were already assembled; but when, in a wonderful golden
+robe, Madame de Medici glided across the lawn, the babel ceased abruptly
+as if by magic. She pulled off one glove and began twirling a great
+emerald between her slim fingers. It was suspended from a thin gold
+chain. Presently, descrying Annesley seated at a table with Lady Dascot,
+she raised the jewel languidly and peered through it at the two.
+
+"Why!" exclaimed Rene Deacon, who stood close beside her, "that was a
+trick of Nero's!"
+
+Madame laughed musically.
+
+"One might take a worse model," she said softly; "at least he enjoyed
+life."
+
+Colonel Deacon, who listened to her every word as to the utterance of a
+Cumaean oracle, laughed with extraordinary approbation.
+
+There was scarce a woman present who regarded Madame with a friendly
+eye, nor a man who did not aspire to become her devoted slave. She
+brought an atmosphere of unreality with her, dominating old and young
+alike by virtue of her splendid pagan beauty. The lawn, with its very
+modern appointments, became as some garden of the Golden House, a
+pleasure ground of an emperor.
+
+But later, when the company entered the house, and Colonel Deacon sought
+to monopolize the society of Madame, an unhealthy spirit of jealousy
+arose between Rene and his guardian. It was strange, grotesque, horrible
+almost. Annesley watched from afar, and there was something very like
+anger in his glance.
+
+"And this," said the Colonel presently, taking up an exquisitely carved
+ivory Buddha, "has a strange history. In some way a legend has grown up
+around it--it is of very great age--to the effect that it must always
+cause its owner to lose his most cherished possession."
+
+"I wonder," said the silvern voice, "that you, who possess so many
+beautiful things, should consent to have so ill-omened a curiosity in
+your house."
+
+"I do not fear the evil charm of this little ivory image," said Colonel
+Deacon, "although its history goes far to bear out the truth of the
+legend. Its last possessor lost his most cherished possession a month
+after the Buddha came into his hands. He fell down his own stairs--and
+lost his life!"
+
+Madame de Medici languidly surveyed the figure through the upraised
+emerald.
+
+"Really!" she murmured. "And the one from whom he procured it?"
+
+"A Hindu usurer of Simla," replied the Colonel. "His daughter stole it
+from her father together with many other things, and took them to her
+lover, with whom she fled!"
+
+Madame de Medici seemed to be slightly interested.
+
+"I should love to possess so weird a thing," she said softly.
+
+"It is yours!" exclaimed the Colonel, and placed it in her hands.
+
+"Oh, but really," she protested.
+
+"But really I insist--in order that you may not forget your first visit
+to my house!"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"How very kind you are, Colonel Deacon," she said, "to a rival
+collector!"
+
+"Now that the menace is removed," said Colonel Deacon with laboured
+humour, "I will show you my most treasured possession."
+
+"So! I am greatly interested."
+
+"Not even this rascal Rene," said the Colonel, stopping before a safe
+set in the wall, "has seen what I am about to show you!"
+
+Rene started slightly and watched with intense interest the unlocking of
+the safe.
+
+"If I am not superstitious about the ivory Buddha," continued the
+Colonel, "I must plead guilty in the case of the Key of the Temple of
+Heaven!"
+
+"The Key of the Temple of Heaven!" murmured a lady standing immediately
+behind Madame de Medici. "And what is the Key of the Temple of Heaven?"
+
+The Colonel, having unlocked the safe, straightened himself, and while
+everyone was waiting to see what he had to show, began to speak again
+pompously:
+
+"The Temple of Heaven stands in the outer or Chinese City of Pekin, and
+is fabulously wealthy. No European, I can swear, had ever entered its
+secret chambers until last year. One of its most famous treasures was
+this Key. It was used only to open the special entrance reserved for the
+Emperor when he came to worship after his succession to the throne--that
+was, of course, before China became a Republic. The Key is studded
+almost all over with precious stones. Last year a certain naval
+man--I'll not mention his name--discovered the secret of its
+hiding-place. How he came by that knowledge does not matter at present.
+One very dark night he crept up to the temple. He found the Keeper of
+the Key--a Buddhist priest--to be sleeping, and he succeeded, therefore,
+in gaining access and becoming possessed of the Key."
+
+A chorus of excited exclamations greeted this dramatic point of the
+story.
+
+"The object of this outrage," continued the Colonel, "for an outrage
+I cannot deny it to have been, was not a romantic one. The poor chap
+wanted money, and he thought he could sell the Key to one of the native
+jewellers. But he was mistaken. He got back safely, and secretly offered
+it in various directions. No one would touch the thing; moreover,
+although of great value, the stones were very far from flawless, and
+not really worth the risks which he had run to secure them. Don't
+misunderstand me; the Key would fetch a big sum, but not a fortune."
+
+"Yes?" said Madame de Medici, smiling, for the Colonel paused.
+
+"He packed it up and addressed it to me, together with a letter. The
+price that he asked was quite a moderate one, and when the Key arrived
+in England I dispatched a check immediately. It never reached him."
+
+"Why?" cried many whom this strange story had profoundly interested.
+
+"He was found dead at the back of the native cantonments, with a knife
+in his heart!"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Lady Dascot. "How positively ghastly! I don't think I
+want to see the dreadful thing!"
+
+"Really!" murmured Madame de Medici, turning languidly to the speaker.
+"I do."
+
+The Colonel stooped and reached into the safe. Then he began to take
+out object after object, box after box. Finally, he straightened himself
+again, and all saw that his face was oddly blanched.
+
+"It's gone!" he whispered hoarsely. "The Key of the Temple of Heaven has
+been stolen!"
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+MADAME SMILES
+
+
+
+Rene entered his bedroom, locked the door, and seated himself on the
+bed; then he lowered his head into his hands and clutched at his hair
+distractedly. Since, on his uncle's own showing, no one knew that the
+Key of the Temple of Heaven had been in the safe, since, excepting
+himself (Rene) and the Colonel, no one else knew the lock combination,
+how the Key had been stolen was a mystery which defied conjecture. No
+one but the Colonel had approached within several yards of the safe at
+the time it was opened; so that clearly the theft had been committed
+prior to that time.
+
+Now Rene sought to recall the details of a strange dream which he had
+dreamed immediately before awakening on the previous night; but he
+sought in vain. His memory could supply only blurred images. There had
+been a safe in his dream, and he--was it he or another?--had unlocked
+it. Also there had been an enormous ivory Buddha.... Yet, stay! it had
+not been enormous; it had been...
+
+He groaned at his own impotency to recall the circumstances of that
+mysterious, perhaps prophetic dream; then in despair he gave it up, and
+stooping to a little secretaire, unlocked it with the idea of sending a
+note round to Annesley's chambers. As he did so he uttered a loud cry.
+
+Lying in one of the pigeon-holes was a long piece of black silk,
+apparently torn from the lining of an opera hat. In it two holes were
+cut as if it were intended to be used as a mask. Beside it lay a little
+leather-covered box. He snatched it out and opened it. It was empty!
+
+"Am I going mad?" he groaned. "Or------"
+
+"You are wanted on the 'phone, sir."
+
+It was the butler who had interrupted him. Rene descended to the
+telephone, dazedly, but, recognizing the voice of Annesley, roused
+himself.
+
+"I'm leaving town to-night, Deacon," said Annesley, "for--well, many
+reasons. But before I go I must give you a warning, though I rely on
+you never to mention my name in the matter. Avoid the woman who calls
+herself Madame de Medici; she'll break you. She's an adventuress, and
+has a dangerous acquaintance with Eastern cults, and... I can't explain
+properly...."
+
+"Annesley! the Key!"
+
+"It's the theft of the Key that has prompted me to speak, Deacon. Madame
+has some sort of power--hypnotic power. She employed it on me once, to
+my cost! Paul Harley, of Chancery Lane, can tell you more about her.
+The house she's living in temporarily used to belong to a notorious
+Eurasian, Zani Chada. To make a clean breast of it I daren't thwart her
+openly; but I felt it up to me to tell you that she possesses the secret
+of post-hypnotic suggestion. I may be wrong, but I think you stole that
+Key!"
+
+"I!"
+
+"She hypnotized you at some time, and, by means of this uncanny power of
+hers, ordered you to steal the Key of the Temple of Heaven in such and
+such a fashion at a certain hour in the night..."
+
+"I had a strange seizure while I was at her house...."
+
+"Exactly! During that time you were receiving your hypnotic orders. You
+would remember nothing of them until the time to execute them--which
+would probably be during sleep. In a state of artificial somnambulism,
+and under the direction of Madame's will, you became a burglar!"
+
+As Madame de Medici's car drove off from the house of Colonel Deacon,
+and Madame seated herself in the cushioned corner, up from amid the furs
+upon the floor, where, dog-like, he had lain concealed, rose the little
+yellow man from the Temple of Heaven. He extended eager hands toward
+her, kneeling there, and spoke:
+
+"Quick! quick!" he breathed. "You have it? The Key of the Temple."
+
+Madame held in her hand an ivory Buddha. Inverting it she unscrewed the
+pedestal, and out from the hollow inside the image dropped a gleaming
+Key.
+
+"Ah!" breathed the yellow man, and would have clutched it; but Madame
+disdainfully raised her right hand which held the treasure, and with her
+left hand thrust down the clutching yellow fingers.
+
+She dropped the Key between her white skin and the bodice of her gown,
+tossing the ivory figure contemptuously amid the fur.
+
+"Ah!" repeated the yellow man in a different tone, and his eyes gleamed
+with the flame of fanaticism. He slowly uprose, a sinister figure, and
+with distended fingers prepared to seize Madame by the throat. His eyes
+were bloodshot, his nostrils were dilated, and his teeth were exposed
+like the fangs of a wolf.
+
+But she pulled off her glove and stretched out her bare white hand to
+him as a queen to a subject; she raised the long curved lashes, and the
+great amber eyes looked into the angry bloodshot eyes.
+
+The little yellow man began to breathe more and more rapidly; soon he
+was panting like one in a fight to the death who is all but conquered.
+At last he dropped on his knees amid the fur... and the curling lashes
+were lowered again over the blazing amber eyes that had conquered.
+
+Madame de Medici lowered her beautiful white hand, and the little yellow
+man seized it in both his own and showered rapturous kisses upon it.
+
+Madame smiled slightly.
+
+"Poor little yellow man!" she murmured in sibilant Chinese, "you shall
+never return to the Temple of Heaven!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of Chinatown, by Sax Rohmer
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