Adventure, June 1911 — page 174: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

360 I FOUND him with one of his men upon the porch roof busily engaged in making photographs of the bloody hand-print upon the window-sill of the green room. “Ts it not a curious fact, Mr. Morgan,”’ he remarked, as he reached the foot of the short ladder he had used to ascend to the roof, “that although Li Min had not only the motive for the murder, namely the securing of the Emerald Buddha, but also the oppor- tunity, and while the hand-print which I have been photographing is small and deli- cate, like that of a woman or of Li Min, yet I can see no possible way in which the windows and doors of that room could have been bolted after the crime was committed, neither Major Temple or yourself having any reason to do it were Li Min the guilty person. I have been prepared to believe all along that Li Min was on this roof at or near daybreak yesterday morning and I do not mind telling you I have discovered certain evidence which had before escaped me. Yet how could he have entered that room, mur- dered Mr. Ashton, secured the jewel, climbed out of the window and shut and bolted it behind him on the inside is beyond my comprehension!” “Have you searched the attic above the room?” I asked. “Thoroughly,” he replied. ‘‘The lath and plaster of the ceiling are absolutely un- broken. ‘The four walls offer equal impossi- bilities.’’ : “Then it would seem that we have ex- hausted all possible clews,” I observed. I did not think it worth while to take him into my confidence regarding Li Min, or the perfumed soap; and the brass-headed poker which I had placed in the drawer in my room I had for the moment completely for- gotten. ‘So it seems,” he remarked thoughtfully. “This is by long odds the strangest case I have ever worked on.’ As we rounded the corner of the house we suddenly saw Li Min dart out of the main entrance, closely pursued by the officer to whom I had entrusted my luggage. The Chinaman carried in his hand my Gladstone bag and was running with incredible swift- ness toward the road. Before I had time to make a move, McQuade darted forward and intercepted him, knocking from his hand with lightning-like quickness a long knife which he drew from his blouse. The two of Adventure them tumbled over upon the turf, McQuade rising first with my satchel in his hand. He looked at it, and seeing my name uponit, handed it to me with a grim smile. ‘You must have a valuable kit here, sir,’ he said, ‘for else this fellow has taken leave of his senses!” He nodded to his assistant, who promptly stepped forward and snapped a pair of handcuffs upon the sullen looking Oriental. “The whole outfit isn’t worth five pounds,” I said, laughing, and picked up the satchel. As I did so the catch came open and my small collection of flannel shirts, toilet arti- cles, sketching materials, and so forth, tum- bled upon the grass. McQuade joined in my laugh and assisted me in replacing my effects. ‘Nothing much here, sir,” he said, but I did not fail to notice that he ob- served each article closely as we repacked the satchel. a WE DROVE to town in the high fae, cart, and after depositing the China- man at the jail, took a hurried lunch at the Half Moon and left for London . on the early afternoon express, arriving at. Waterloo Station about dusk. I gave Mc- Quade the address of my lodgings and studio in Tottenham Court Road, and I - left him with the understanding that if anything significant developed he would call upon me if I could assist him in any way. It was past eight when I arrived at my studio. I must have been unusually tired, for I dozed in my chair, ahd was not aroused until after eleven, when I heard a loud knock at the studio door. I sprang up, somewhat confused, and opening the door found under it a note from McQuade, requesting me to meet him at once at Num- ber 30 Kingsgate Street. I threw on a warm coat and soft. hat and summoned a cab. The driver looked a bit surprised at the address, and asked me to repeat it. I rejoiced in the hope that the examina- tion of the two Exeter Chinamen had re- sulted in the discovery of both the missing jewel and the murderer, and thought with pleasure of the happy tidings I should bring to Muriel. It was while occupied in these dreams that I felt my cab draw up along- side the curb, just as the hour of midnight was striking from old St. Paul’s. The house was an old one, and its exterior was gloomy and forbidding. The whole atmosphere of the place was depressing in COmmiclbooks (©