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Page 22
To-night it would be otherwise. To-night it would be otherwise.
X
THE LACQUERED COFFIN
Durham gently raised the trap in the roof of Huang Chow's
treasure-house. He was prepared for snares and pitfalls. No
sane man, on the evidence which he, Durham, had been compelled to
leave behind, would have neglected to fasten the skylight which
so obviously afforded a means of entrance into his premises.
Therefore, he was expected to return. The devilish mechanism was
set ready to receive him. But the artist within him demanded
that he should unmask the mystery with his own hands.
Moreover, he doubted that an official visit, even now, would
yield any results. Old Huang Chow was too cunning for that. If
he was to learn how the man Cohen had died, he must follow the
same path to the bitter end. But there were men on duty round
the house, and he believed that he had placed them so secretly as
to deceive even this master of cunning with whom he was dealing.
He repeated his exploit, dropping with a dull thud upon the
cushioned divan. Then, having lain there listening awhile, he
pressed the button of his torch, and, standing up, crept across
the room in the direction of the stairway.
Here he paused awhile, listening intently. The image of Lala
Huang arose before his mind's eye reproachfully, but he crushed
the reproach, and advanced until he stood beside the lacquered
coffin.
He remembered where the key was hidden, and, stooping, he fumbled
for a while and then found it. He was acutely conscious of an
unnameable fear. He felt that he was watched, and yet was
unwilling to believe it. The musty and unpleasant smell which he
had noticed before became extremely perceptible.
He quietly sought for the hidden lock, and, presently finding it,
inserted the key, then paused awhile. He rested his torch upon
the cushions of the divan where the light shone directly upon the
coffin. Then, having his automatic in his left hand, he turned
the key.
He had expected now to be able to raise the lid as he had seen
Huang Chow do; but the result was far more surprising.
The lid, together with a second framework of fine netting, flew
open with a resounding bang; and from the interior of the coffin
uprose a most abominable stench.
Durham started back a step, and as he did so witnessed a sight
which turned him sick with horror.
Out on to the edge of the coffin leapt the most gigantic spider
which he had ever seen in his life! It had a body as big as a
man's fist, jet black, with hairy legs like the legs of a crab
and a span of a foot or more!
A moment it poised there, while he swayed, sick with horror.
Then, unhesitatingly, it leapt for his face!
He groaned and fired, missed the horror, but diverted its leap,
so that it fell with a sickening thud a yard behind him. He
turned, staggering back towards the stair, and aware that a light
had shone out from somewhere.
A door had been opened only a few yards from where he stood, and
there, framed in the opening, was Lala Huang, her eyes wide with
terror and her gaze set upon him across the room.
"You!" she whispered. "You!"
"Go back!" he cried hoarsely. "Go back! Close the door. You
don't understand--close the door!"
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