Part III
AT THE HOUSE OF AH-FANG-FU
CHAPTER I
THE BRAIN-THIEVES
The Assistant Commissioner lighted a cigarette. "It would appear,
then," he said, "that whilst some minor difficulties have been smoothed
away, we remain face to face with the major problem: who is
'The Scorpion' and to what end are his activities directed?"
Gaston Max shrugged his shoulders and smiled at Dr. Stuart.
"Let us see," he suggested, "what we really know about this 'Scorpion'.
Let us make a brief survey of our position in the matter. Let us take
first what we have learned of him--if it is a 'him' with whom we have
to deal--from the strange experiences of Dr. Stuart. Without attaching
too much importance to that episode five years ago on the Wu-Men
Bridge; perhaps he is not. We will talk about this one again presently.
"We come to the arrival on the scene of Zara el-Khala, also called
Mlle. Dorian. She comes because of what _I_ have told to the scarred
man from Paris, she comes to obtain that dangerous information which
is to be sent to Scotland Yard, she comes, in a word, from 'The
Scorpion.' We have two links binding the poor one 'Le Balafre' to
'The Scorpion': (1) his intimacy with Miguel and those others with
whom 'Scorpion' communicated by telephone; (2) his possession of the
golden ornament which lies there upon the table and which I took
from his pocket. What can we gather from the statement made to Dr.
Stuart by Mlle.
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