Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/290

280 study and sat thinking for a while. Then something prompted me to take out the stick from the safe. I did so, and sat at my table gazing at it and wondering what the mystery might be to which it was the key. That it was not what Dr. Nikola had described it I felt certain.

"At the end of half an hour I put it in my pocket, intending to take it upstairs to show my wife, locked the safe again, and went up to my dressing-room. When I had narrated the interview and shown the stick, I placed it in the drawer of the looking-glass and went to bed.

"Next morning about three o'clock I was awakened by the sound of some one knocking violently at my door. I jumped out of bed and inquired who it might be. To my intense surprise, the answer was 'Police.' I therefore donned some attire and went out, to find a sergeant of police on the landing waiting for me.

"'What is the matter?' I cried.

"'Burglar!' was his answer. 'We've got him downstairs. Caught him in the act.'

"I followed the officer down to the study. What a scene was there! The safe had been forced and its contents lay scattered in every direction. One drawer of my writing-table was also open, and in a corner, handcuffed and guarded by a stalwart constable, stood a Chinaman.

"Well, to make a long story short, the man was tried, and, after denying all knowledge of Nikola—who by the way could not be found, or any stick—was convicted and sentenced to five years' hard labour. For a month I heard no more about the curio. Then a letter arrived from an English solicitor in Shanghai demanding from me, on behalf of a Chinaman residing in that place, a little wooden stick covered with Chinese