I turned away from her and walked to the hearth, in which some paper ash lay and yet emitted a faint smell.
Not more than ten seconds elapsed, I am confident, from the time that I stepped across the room until I glanced back.
But she had gone!
As I leapt to the door the key turned gently from the outside.
"Ma 'alesh!" came her soft whisper; "but I am afraid to trust you—yet.
Be comforted, for there is one near who would have killed you had I wished it.
Remember, I will come to you whenever you will take me and hide me."
Light footsteps pattered down the stairs.
I heard a stifled cry from Mrs. Dolan as the mysterious visitor ran past her.
The front door opened and closed.
CHAPTER V
"Shen-Yan's is a dope-shop in one of the burrows off the old Ratcliff Highway," said Inspector Weymouth.
"'Singapore Charlie's,' they call it.
It's a center for some of the Chinese societies, I believe, but all sorts of opium-smokers use it.
There have never been any complaints that I know of.
I don't understand this."
We stood in his room at New Scotland Yard, bending over a sheet of foolscap upon which were arranged some burned fragments from poor Cadby's grate, for so hurriedly had the girl done her work that combustion had not been complete.
"What do we make of this?" said Smith. "'… Hunchback … lascar went up … unlike others … not return … till Shen-Yan' (there is no doubt about the name, I think) 'turned me out … booming sound … lascar in … mortuary I could ident … not for days, or suspici … Tuesday night in a different make … snatch … pigtail…'"
"The pigtail again!" rapped Weymouth.
"She evidently burned the torn-out pages all together," continued Smith.
"They lay flat, and this was in the middle.
I see the hand of retributive justice in that, Inspector.
Now we have a reference to a hunchback, and what follows amounts to this: A lascar (amongst several other persons) went up somewhere—presumably upstairs—at Shen-Yan's, and did not come down again.
Cadby, who was there disguised, noted a booming sound.
Later, he identified the lascar in some mortuary.
We have no means of fixing the date of this visit to Shen-Yan's, but I feel inclined to put down the 'lascar' as the dacoit who was murdered by Fu-Manchu!
It is sheer supposition, however.
But that Cadby meant to pay another visit to the place in a different 'make-up' or disguise, is evident, and that the Tuesday night proposed was last night is a reasonable deduction.
The reference to a pigtail is principally interesting because of what was found on Cadby's body."
Inspector Weymouth nodded affirmatively, and Smith glanced at his watch.
"Exactly ten-twenty-three," he said.
"I will trouble you, Inspector, for the freedom of your fancy wardrobe.
There is time to spend an hour in the company of Shen-Yan's opium friends."
Weymouth raised his eyebrows.
"It might be risky.
What about an official visit?"
Nayland Smith laughed.
"Worse than useless!
By your own showing, the place is open to inspection.
No; guile against guile!
We are dealing with a Chinaman, with the incarnate essence of Eastern subtlety, with the most stupendous genius that the modern Orient has produced."
"I don't believe in disguises," said Weymouth, with a certain truculence.
"It's mostly played out, that game, and generally leads to failure.
Still, if you're determined, sir, there's an end of it.
Foster will make your face up.
What disguise do you propose to adopt?"
"A sort of Dago seaman, I think; something like poor Cadby.
I can rely on my knowledge of the brutes, if I am sure of my disguise."
"You are forgetting me, Smith," I said.
He turned to me quickly.