In the eyes of Mrs. Sin Kerry had read menace, and for all their dark
beauty they had reminded him of the eyes of a cornered rat. Beneath
the contemptuous nonchalance which she flaunted he read terror and
remorse, and a foreboding of doom--panic ill repressed, which made her
dangerous as any beast at bay. The attitude of the Chinaman was more
puzzling. He seemed to bear the Chief Inspector no personal animosity,
and indeed, in his glittering eye, Kerry had detected a sort of
mysterious light of understanding which was almost mirthful, but which
bore no relation to Sin Sin Wa's perpetual smile. Kerry's respect for
the one-eyed Chinaman had increased rather than diminished upon closer
acquaintance. Underlying his urbanity he failed to trace any symptom
of apprehension. This Sin Sin Wa, accomplice of a murderess self-
confessed, evident head of a drug syndicate which had led to the
establishment of a Home office inquiry--this badly "wanted" man, whose
last hiding-place, whose keep, was closely invested by the agents of
the law, was the same Sin Sin Wa who had smilingly extended his
wrists, inviting the manacles, when Kerry had first made his
acquaintance under circumstances legally very different.
Sometimes Kerry could hear him singing his weird crooning song, and
twice Mrs.
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