The Yellow Claw by Sax Rohmer (i like reading books TXT) ๐
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- Author: Sax Rohmer
Read book online ยซThe Yellow Claw by Sax Rohmer (i like reading books TXT) ๐ยป. Author - Sax Rohmer
โIt's all right, doctor,โ said the inspector; โand we shan't detain you a moment.โ He glanced over his shoulder. โMr. Hilton, M. R. C. S.โ he said, indicating the dark manโโDr. Cumberly and Miss Cumberly.โ
The divisional surgeon bowed to Helen and eagerly grasped the hand of the celebrated physician.
โI am fortunate in being able to ask your opinion,โ he began....
Dr. Cumberly nodded shortly, and with upraised hand, cut him short.
โI shall willingly give you any assistance in my power,โ he said; โbut my daughter has voluntarily committed herself to a rather painful ordeal, and I am anxious to get it over.โ
He stooped and raised the fur from the ghastly face.
Helen, her hand resting upon her father's shoulder, ventured one rapid glance and then looked away, shuddering slightly. Dr. Cumberly replaced the coat and gazed anxiously at his daughter. But Helen, with admirable courage, having closed her eyes for a moment, reopened them, and smiled at her father's anxiety. She was pale, but perfectly composed.
โWell, Miss Cumberly?โ inquired the inspector, eagerly; whilst all in the room watched this slim girl in her charming deshabille, this dainty figure so utterly out of place in that scene of morbid crime.
She raised her gray eyes to the detective.
โI still believe that I have seen the face, somewhere, before. But I shall have to reflect a whileโI meet so many folks, you know, in a casual wayโbefore I can commit myself to any statement.โ
In the leonine eyes looking into hers gleamed the light of admiration and approval. The canny Scotsman admired this girl for her beauty, as a matter of course, for her courage, because courage was a quality standing high in his estimation, but, above all, for her admirable discretion.
โVery proper, Miss Cumberly,โ he said; โvery proper and wise on your part. I don't wish to hurry you in any way, butโโhe hesitated, glancing at the man in plain clothes, who had now resumed a careful perusal of a newspaperโโbut her name doesn't happen to be Vernonโโ
โVernon!โ cried the girl, her eyes lighting up at sound of the name. โMrs. Vernon! it is! it is! She was pointed out to me at the last Arts Ballโwhere she appeared in a most monstrous Chinese costumeโโ
โChinese?โ inquired Dunbar, producing the bulky notebook.
โYes. Oh! poor, poor soul!โ
โYou know nothing further about her, Miss Cumberly?โ
โNothing, Inspector. She was merely pointed out to me as one of the strangest figures in the hall. Her husband, I understand, is an art expertโโ
โHe WAS!โ said Dunbar, closing the book sharply. โHe died this afternoon; and a paragraph announcing his death appears in the newspaper which we found in the victim's fur coat!โ
โBut howโโ
โIt was the only paragraph on the half-page folded outwards which was in any sense PERSONAL. I am greatly indebted to you, Miss Cumberly; every hour wasted on a case like this means a fresh plait in the rope around the neck of the wrong man!โ
Helen Cumberly grew slowly quite pallid.
โGood night,โ she said; and bowing to the detective and to the surgeon, she prepared to depart.
Mr. Hilton touched Dr. Cumberly's arm, as he, too, was about to retire.
โMay I hope,โ he whispered, โthat you will return and give me the benefit of your opinion in making out my report?โ
Dr. Cumberly glanced at his daughter; and seeing her to be perfectly composed:โโFor the moment, I have formed no opinion, Mr. Hilton,โ he said, quietly, โnot having had an opportunity to conduct a proper examination.โ
Hilton bent and whispered, confidentially, in the other's ear:โ
โShe was drugged!โ
The innuendo underlying the words struck Dr. Cumberly forcibly, and he started back with his brows drawn together in a frown.
โDo you mean that she was addicted to the use of drugs?โ he asked, sharply; โor that the drugging took place to-night.โ
โThe drugging DID take place to-night!โ whispered the other. โAn injection was made in the left shoulder with a hypodermic syringe; the mark is quite fresh.โ
Dr. Cumberly glared at his fellow practitioner, angrily.
โAre there no other marks of injection?โ he asked.
โOn the left forearm, yes. Obviously self-administered. Oh, I don't deny the habit! But my point is this: the injection in the shoulder was NOT self-administered.โ
โCome, Helen,โ said Cumberly, taking his daughter's arm; for she had drawn near, during the colloquyโโyou must get to bed.โ
His face was very stern when he turned again to Mr. Hilton.
โI shall return in a few minutes,โ he said, and escorted his daughter from the room.
VI AT SCOTLAND YARD
Matters of vital importance to some people whom already we have met, and to others whom thus far we have not met, were transacted in a lofty and rather bleak looking room at Scotland Yard between the hours of nine and ten A. M.; that is, later in the morning of the fateful day whose advent we have heard acclaimed from the Tower of Westminster.
The room, which was lighted by a large French window opening upon a balcony, commanded an excellent view of the Thames Embankment. The floor was polished to a degree of brightness, almost painful. The distempered walls, save for a severe and solitary etching of a former Commissioner, were nude in all their unloveliness. A heavy deal table (upon which rested a blotting-pad, a pewter ink-pot, several newspapers and two pens) together with three deal chairs, built rather as monuments of durability than as examples of art, constituted the only furniture, if we except an electric lamp with a green glass shade, above the table.
This was the room of Detective-Inspector Dunbar; and Detective-Inspector Dunbar, at the hour of our entrance, will be found seated in the chair, placed behind the table, his elbows resting upon the blotting-pad.
At ten minutes past nine, exactly, the door opened, and a thick-set, florid man, buttoned up in a fawn colored raincoat and wearing a bowler hat of obsolete build, entered. He possessed a black mustache, a breezy, bustling manner, and humorous blue eyes; furthermore, when he took off his
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