Page:Bat Wing 1921.djvu/203

Rh “I can guess,” I replied.

“Of course you can. You have visited the place. I came out immediately beside a little hut, Knox, which stands at the end of the garden of the Guest House. Ahead of me, visible through a tangle of bushes in the neglected garden, a lamp was burning. I crept cautiously forward, and presently obtained a view of the interior of a kitchen. Just as I arrived at this point of vantage the lamp was extinguished, but not before I had had a glimpse of the only occupant of the room—the man who had extinguished the lamp.”

“Who was it?” I asked, in a low voice.

“It was a Chinaman.”

“Ah Tsong!” I cried.

“Doubtless.”

“Good heavens, Harley, do you think”

“I don’t know what to think, Knox. A possible explanation is that the household had been aroused by the sound of the shot, and that Ah Tsong had been directed to go out and see if he could learn what had happened. At any rate, I waited no longer, but returned by the same route. If our portly friend from Market Hilton had possessed the eyes of an Auguste Dupin, he could not have failed to note that my dress boots were caked with light yellow clay; which also, by the way, besmears my trousers.”

He stooped and examined the garments as he spoke.

“A number of thorns are also present,” he continued. “In short, from the point of view of an investigation, I am a most provoking object.”

He sighed wearily, and stared out of the window in the direction of the Tudor garden. There was a slight chilliness in the air, which, or perhaps a sudden memory