"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.
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