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Page 6
Kerry snapped his teeth together viciously.
"I've told you what happened to your pal," he warned. "If you're
a wise man you'll come in on our side, before the same thing
happens to you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," growled Poland.
Kerry nodded to the constable at the doorway.
"Take him back," he ordered.
Jim Poland being returned to his cell, Kerry, as the door closed
behind the prisoner and his guard, stared across at Durham where
he stood beside the table.
"An old hand," he said. "But there's another way." He glanced at
the officer in charge. "Hold him till the morning. He'll prove
useful."
From his waistcoat pocket he took out a slip of chewing gum,
unwrapped it, and placed the mint-flavoured wafer between his
large white teeth. He bit upon it savagely, settled his hat upon
his head, and, turning, walked toward the door. In the doorway
he paused.
"Come with me, Durham," he said. "I am leaving the conduct of
the case entirely in your hands from now onward."
Detective Durham looked surprised and not a little anxious.
"I am doing so for two reasons," continued the Chief Inspector.
"These two reasons I shall now explain."
III
THE SECRET TREASURE-HOUSE
Unlike its sister colony in New York, there are no show places in
Limehouse. The visitor sees nothing but mean streets and dark
doorways. The superficial inquirer comes away convinced that the
romance of the Asiatic district has no existence outside the
imaginations of writers of fiction. Yet here lies a secret
quarter, as secret and as strange, in its smaller way, as its
parent in China which is called the Purple Forbidden City.
On a morning when mist lay over the Thames reaches, softening the
harshness of the dock buildings and lending an air of mystery to
the vessels stealing out upon the tide, a man walked briskly
along Limehouse Causeway, looking about him inquiringly, as one
unfamiliar with the neighbourhood. Presently he seemed to
recognize a turning to the right, and he pursued this for a time,
now walking more slowly.
A European woman, holding a half-caste baby in her arms, stood in
an open doorway, watching him uninterestedly. Otherwise, except
for one neatly dressed young Chinaman, who passed him about
halfway along the street, there was nothing which could have told
the visitor that he had crossed the borderline dividing West from
East and was now in an Oriental town.
A very narrow alleyway between two dingy houses proved to be the
spot for which he was looking; and, having stared about him for a
while, he entered this alleyway. At the farther end it was
crossed T-fashion, by another alley, the only object of interest
being an iron post at the crossing, and the scenery being made up
entirely of hideous brick walls.
About halfway along on the left, set in one of these walls, were
strong wooden gates, apparently those of a warehouse. Beside
them was a door approached by two very dirty steps. There was a
bell-push near the door, but upon neither of these entrances was
there any plate to indicate the name of the proprietor of the
establishment.
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