"
"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.
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