"
Going up the steps and out through the door above which the blue
lantern burned, we came to the street, turned to the left, to the
left again, and soon were threading that maze of narrow ways
which complicates the map of Pennyfields.
I felt somewhat recovered. Here, in the narrow but familiar
highways the spell of my singular acquaintance lost much of its
potency, and already I found myself doubting the story of Dr.
Kreener and Tcheriapin. Indeed, I began to laugh at myself,
conceiving that I had fallen into the hands of some comedian who
was making sport of me; although why such a person should visit
Malay Jack's was not apparent.
I was about to give expression to these new and saner ideas when
my companion paused before a door half hidden in a little alley
which divided the back of a Chinese restaurant from the tawdry-
looking establishment of a cigar merchant. He apparently held
the key, for although I did not actually hear the turning of the
lock I saw that he had opened the door.
"May I request you to follow me?" came his deep voice out of the
darkness. "I will show you something which will repay your
trouble."
Again the cloak touched me, but it was without entirely resigning
myself to the compelling influence that I followed my mysterious
acquaintance up an uncarpeted and nearly dark stair.
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