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Page 16
"The address is No.--Cold Harbor Lane," he reported.
"I shall not be able to come along, but you can't
miss it; it's close by the Brixton Police Station.
There's no family, fortunately; he was quite alone in the world.
His case-book isn't in the American desk, which you'll find in
his sitting-room; it's in the cupboard in the corner--top shelf.
Here are his keys, all intact. I think this is the cupboard key."
Smith nodded.
"Come on, Petrie," he said. "We haven't a second to waste."
Our cab was waiting, and in a few seconds we were speeding along Wapping
High Street. We had gone no more than a few hundred yards, I think,
when Smith suddenly slapped his open hand down on his knee.
"That pigtail!" he cried. "I have left it behind!
We must have it, Petrie! Stop! Stop!"
The cab was pulled up, and Smith alighted.
"Don't wait for me," he directed hurriedly. "Here, take Weymouth's card.
Remember where he said the book was? It's all we want. Come straight
on to Scotland Yard and meet me there."
"But Smith," I protested, "a few minutes can make no difference!"
"Can't it!" he snapped. "Do you suppose Fu-Manchu is going to leave
evidence like that lying about? It's a thousand to one he has it already,
but there is just a bare chance."
It was a new aspect of the situation and one that afforded
no room for comment; and so lost in thought did I become
that the cab was outside the house for which I was bound ere
I realized that we had quitted the purlieus of Wapping.
Yet I had had leisure to review the whole troop of events which had
crowded my life since the return of Nayland Smith from Burma.
Mentally, I had looked again upon the dead Sir Crichton Davey,
and with Smith had waited in the dark for the dreadful thing
that had killed him. Now, with those remorseless memories
jostling in my mind, I was entering the house of Fu-Manchu's
last victim, and the shadow of that giant evil seemed to be
upon it like a palpable cloud.
Cadby's old landlady greeted me with a queer mixture of fear
and embarrassment in her manner.
"I am Dr. Petrie," I said, "and I regret that I bring bad news
respecting Mr. Cadby."
"Oh, sir!" she cried. "Don't tell me that anything has happened to him!"
And divining something of the mission on which I was come,
for such sad duty often falls to the lot of the medical man:
"Oh, the poor, brave lad!"
Indeed, I respected the dead man's memory more than ever from that hour,
since the sorrow of the worthy old soul was quite pathetic, and spoke
eloquently for the unhappy cause of it.
"There was a terrible wailing at the back of the house last night,
Doctor, and I heard it again to-night, a second before you knocked.
Poor lad! It was the same when his mother died."
At the moment I paid little attention to her words, for such
beliefs are common, unfortunately; but when she was sufficiently
composed I went on to explain what I thought necessary.
And now the old lady's embarrassment took precedence of her sorrow,
and presently the truth came out:
"There's a--young lady--in his rooms, sir."
I started. This might mean little or might mean much.
"She came and waited for him last night, Doctor--from ten until half-past--
and this morning again. She came the third time about an hour ago,
and has been upstairs since."
"Do you know her, Mrs. Dolan?"
Mrs. Dolan grew embarrassed again.
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