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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of Chinatown, by Sax Rohmer
+#7 in our series by Sax Rohmer
+
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Tales of Chinatown
+
+Author: Sax Rohmer
+
+Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5697]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 9, 2002]
+[Date last updated: August 5, 2005]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE 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
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF CHINATOWN ***
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