The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu. Sax Rohmer

given us the slip, Doctor," said Inspector Weymouth, as a

      fire-engine came swinging round the corner of the narrow lane. "So has

      Mr. Singapore Charlie--and, I'm afraid, somebody else. We've got six

      or eight all-sorts, some awake and some asleep, but I suppose we shall

      have to let 'em go again. Mr. Smith tells me that the girl was

      disguised as a Chinaman. I expect that's why she managed to slip away."

      I recalled how I had been dragged from the pit by the false queue, how

      the strange discovery which had brought death to poor Cadby had brought

      life to me, and I seemed to remember, too, that Smith had dropped it as

      he threw his arm about me on the ladder. Her mask the girl might have

      retained, but her wig, I felt certain, had been dropped into the water.

      It was later that night, when the brigade still were playing upon the

      blackened shell of what had been Shen-Yan's opium-shop, and Smith and I

      were speeding away in a cab from the scene of God knows how many

      crimes, that I had an idea.

      "Smith," I said, "did you bring the pigtail with you that was found on

      Cadby?"

      "Yes. I had hoped to meet the owner."

      "Have you got it now?"

      "No. I met the owner."

      I thrust my hands deep into the pockets of the big pea-jacket lent to

      me by Inspector Ryman, leaning back in my corner.

      "We shall never really excel at this business," continued Nayland

      Smith. "We are far too sentimental. I knew what it meant to us,

      Petrie, what it meant to the world, but I hadn't the heart. I owed her

      your life--I had to square the account."