A furious
hatred of the one-eyed Chinaman around whom he was convinced the
mystery centred had grown up within his mind. At that hour he would
gladly have resigned his post and sacrificed his pension to know that
Sin Sin Wa was under lock and key. His outlook was official, and
accordingly peculiar. He regarded the murder of Sir Lucien Pyne and
the flight or abduction of Mrs. Monte Irvin as mere minor incidents in
a case wherein Sin Sin Wa figured as the chief culprit. Nothing had
acted so powerfully to bring about this conviction in the mind of the
Chief Inspector as the inexplicable disappearance of the Chinaman
under circumstances which had apparently precluded such a possibility.
A whimpering cry came to Kerry's ears; and because beneath the mask of
ferocity which he wore a humane man was concealed: "Flames!" he
snapped; "perhaps I've broken the poor little devil's leg."
Shaking a cascade of water from the brim of his neat bowler, he set
off through the murk towards the spot from whence the cries of the
spaniel seemed to proceed. A few paces brought him to the door of a
dirty little shop. In a window close beside it appeared the legend:
SAM TUK
BARBER.
The spaniel crouched by the door whining and scratching, and as Kerry
came up it raised its beady black eyes to him with a look which, while
it was not unfearful, held an unmistakable appeal.
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