"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.
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