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Page 16
He examined the couch upon which Huang Chow had been seated when
first he had met him, but although he searched it scientifically
he was rewarded by no discovery.
A very fusty and unpleasant smell was more noticeable at this
point than elsewhere in the room, and he found himself staring
speculatively up the wide, carpeted stairs. Next he turned his
attention to the lacquered coffin which occupied the
corresponding recess to that filled by the couch. It was an
extraordinarily ornate piece of lacquer work and probably of
great value.
The lid appeared to be screwed on, and Durham stood staring at
the thing, half revolted and half fascinated. He failed to
discover any means of opening it, however, and when he tried to
move it bodily found it very heavy. He came to the conclusion
that all the portable valuables were contained in locked cases or
cabinets, and out of this discovery grew an idea.
The case containing the snuff bottles stood too close to the wall
to enable him to test his new theory, but a square case near the
office door, in which were five of six small but almost priceless
pieces of porcelain, afforded the very evidence for which he was
looking.
Thin electric flex descended from somewhere inside the case down
one of the legs of the pedestal, and through a neatly drilled
hole in the floor, evidently placed there to accommodate it.
"Burglar alarm!" he muttered.
The opening of this case, and doubtless of any of the others,
would set alarm bells ringing. This was not an unimportant
discovery, but it brought him very little nearer to a solution of
the chief problem which engaged his mind. Assuming that Cohen
had opened one of the cases and had alarmed old Huang Chow, what
steps had the latter taken to deal with the intruder which had
resulted in so ghastly a death? And how had he disposed of the
body?
As Durham stood there musing and looking down through the plate-
glass at the delicate porcelain beneath, a faint sound intruded
itself upon the stillness. It gave him another idea. Part of
the floor was stone-paved, but part was wood.
Upon a portion of the latter, where no carpet rested, Durham
dropped flat, pressing his ear to the floor.
A faint swishing and trickling sound was perceptible from some
place beneath.
"Ah!" he murmured.
Remembering that the premises almost overhung the Thames, he
divined that the cellars were flooded at high tide, or that there
was some kind of drain or cutting running underneath the house.
He stood up again, listening intently for any sound within the
building. He thought he had detected something, and now, as he
stood there alert, he heard it again--a faint scuffling, which
might have been occasioned by rats or even mice, but which, in
some subtle and very unpleasant way, did not suggest the
movements of these familiar rodents.
Even as he perceived it, it ceased, leaving him wondering, and
uncomfortably conscious of a sudden dread of his surroundings.
He wondered in what part of this mysterious house Lala resided,
and recognizing that his departure must leave traces, he
determined to prosecute his inquiries as far as possible, since
another opportunity might not arise.
He was baffled but still hopeful. Something there was in the
smell of the place which threatened to unnerve him; or perhaps in
its silence, which remained quite unbroken save when, by acute
listening, one detected the dripping of water.
That unexplained scuffling sound, too, which he had failed to
trace or identify, lingered in his memory insistently, and for
some reason contained the elements of fear.
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