Seton Pasha, passing from point to point, and nowhere receiving news
of Kerry, began to experience a certain anxiety respecting the safety
of the intrepid Chief Inspector. His mind filled with troubled
conjectures, he passed the house formerly occupied by the one-eyed
Chinaman--where he found Detective-Sergeant Coombes on duty and very
much on the alert--and followed the bank of the Thames in the
direction of Limehouse Basin. The narrow, ill-lighted street was quite
deserted. Bad weather and the presence of many police had driven the
Asiatic inhabitants indoors. But from the river and the docks arose
the incessant din of industry. Whistles shrieked and machinery
clanked, and sometimes remotely came the sound of human voices.
Musing upon the sordid mystery which seems to underlie the whole of
this dingy quarter, Seton pursued his way, crossing inlets and
circling around basins dimly divined, turning to the right into a lane
flanked by high eyeless walls, and again to the left, finally to
emerge nearly opposite a dilapidated gateway giving access to a small
wharf.
All unconsciously, he was traversing the same route as that recently
pursued by the fugitive Sin Sin Wa; but now he paused, staring at the
empty wharf.
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