Stuart fully
recognized that the Commissioner had accorded him an opportunity to
establish his reputation--or to wreck it.
Yet, upon closer consideration, it became apparent that it was to Fate
and not to the Commissioner that he was indebted. Strictly speaking,
his association with the matter dated from the night of his meeting
with the mysterious cabman in West India Dock Road. Or had the
curtain first been lifted upon this occult drama that evening, five
years ago, as the setting sun reddened the waters of the Imperial
Canal and a veiled figure passed him on the Wu-Men Bridge?
"Shut your eyes tightly, master--the Scorpion is coming!"
He seemed to hear the boy's words now, as he passed along the
Embankment; he seemed to see again the tall figure. And suddenly he
stopped, stood still and stared with unseeing eyes across the muddy
waters of the Thames. He was thinking of the cowled man who had stood
behind the curtains in his study--of that figure so wildly bizarre
that even now he could scarcely believe that he had ever actually seen
it. He walked on.
Automatically his reflections led him to Mlle. Dorian, and he
remembered that even as he paced along there beside the river the
wonderful mechanism of New Scotland Yard was in motion, its many
tentacles seeking--seeking tirelessly--for the girl, whose dark eyes
haunted his sleeping and waking hours. _He_ was responsible, and if
she were arrested _he_ would be called upon to identify her.
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