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.
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