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anticipated. β€œOne of your father's customers?”

β€œYes, a man named Cohen.”

β€œCohen?”

β€œA funny little chap,” continued the girl. β€œHe tried to make love to me.” She lowered her lashes roguishly. β€œI knew all along he was pretending. He was a thief, I think. I was afraid of him.”

Durham did some rapid thinking, then:

β€œDid you say his name was Cohen?” he asked.

β€œThat was the name he gave.”

β€œA man named Cohen, an American, was found dead in the river quite recently.”

Lala stopped dead and clutched his arm.

β€œHow do you know?” she demanded.

β€œThere was a paragraph in this morning's paper.”

She hesitated, then:

β€œDid it describe him?” she asked.

β€œNo,” replied Durham, β€œI don't think it did in detail. At least, the only part of the description which I remember is that he wore a large and valuable diamond on his left hand.”

β€œOh!” whispered Lala.

She released her grip of Durham's arm and went on.

β€œWhat?” he asked. β€œDid you think it was someone you knew?”

β€œI did know him,” she replied simply. β€œThe man who was found drowned. It is the same. I am sure now, because of the diamond ring. What paper did you read it in? I want to read it myself.”

β€œI'm afraid I can't remember. It was probably the Daily Mail.”

β€œHad he been drowned?”

β€œI presume soβ€”yes,” replied Durham guardedly.

Lala Huang was silent for some time while they paced on through the dusk. Then:

β€œHow strange!” she said in a low voice.

β€œI am sorry I mentioned it,” declared Durham. β€œBut how was I to know it was your friend?”

β€œHe was no friend of mine,” returned the girl sharply. β€œI hated him. But it is strange nevertheless. I am sure he intended to rob my father.”

β€œAnd is that why you think it strange?”

β€œYes,” she said, but her voice was almost inaudible.

They were come now to the narrow street communicating with the courtway in which the great treasure-house of Huang Chow was situated, and Lala stopped at the corner.

β€œIt was nice of you to walk along with me,” she said. β€œDo you live in Limehouse?”

β€œNo,” replied Durham, β€œI don't. As a matter of fact, I came down here to-night in the hope of seeing you again.”

β€œDid you?”

The girl glanced up at him doubtfully, and his distaste for the task set him by his superior increased with the passing of every moment. He was a man of some imagination, a great reader, and ambitious professionally. He appreciated the fact that Chief Inspector Kerry looked for great things from him, but for this type of work he had little inclination.

There was too much chivalry in his make-up to enable him to play upon a woman's sentiments, even in the interests of justice. By whatever means the man Cohen had met his death, and whether or no the Chinaman Pi Lung had died by the same hand, Lala Huang was innocent of any complicity in these matters, he was perfectly well assured.

Doubts were to come later when he was away from her, when he had had leisure to consider that she might regard him in the light of a third potential rifler of her father's treasure-house. But at the moment, looking down into her dark eyes, he reproached himself and wondered where his true duty lay.

β€œIt is so gray and dull and sordid here,” said the girl, looking down the darkened street. β€œThere is no one much to talk to.”

β€œBut you have your business interests to keep you employed during the day, after all.”

β€œI hate it all. I hate it all.”

β€œBut you seem to have perfect freedom?”

β€œYes. My mother, you see, was not Chinese.”

β€œBut you wish to leave Limehouse?”

β€œI do. I do. Just now it is not so bad, but in the winter how I tire of the gray skies, the endless drizzling rain. Oh!” She shrank back into the shadow of a doorway, clutching at Durham's arm. β€œDon't let Ah Fu see me.”

β€œAh Fu? Who is Ah Fu?” asked Durham, also drawing back as a furtive figure went slinking down the opposite side of the street.

β€œMy father's servant. He let you in this morning.”

β€œAnd why must he not see you?”

β€œI don't trust him. I think he tells my father things.”

β€œWhat is it that he carries in his hand?”

β€œA birdcage, I expect.”

β€œA birdcage?”

β€œYes!”

He caught the gleam of her eyes as she looked up at him out of the shadow.

β€œIs he, then, a bird-fancier?”

β€œNo, no, I can't explain because I don't understand myself. But Ah Fu goes to a place in Shadwell regularly and buys young birds, always very young ones and very little ones.”

β€œFor what or for whom?”

β€œI don't know.”

β€œHave you an aviary in your house?”

β€œNo.”

β€œDo you mean that they disappear, these purchases of Ah Fu's?”

β€œI often see him carrying a cage of young birds, but we have no birds in the house.”

β€œHow perfectly extraordinary!” muttered Durham.

β€œI distrust Ah Fu,” whispered the girl. β€œI am glad he did not see me with you.”

β€œYoung birds,” murmured Durham absently. β€œWhat kind of young birds? Any particular breed?”

β€œNo; canaries, linnetsβ€”all sorts. Isn't it funny?” The girl laughed in a childish way. β€œAnd now I think Ah Fu will have gone in, so I must say good night.”

But when presently Detective Durham found himself walking back along West India Dock Road, his mind's eye was set upon the slinking figure of a Chinaman carrying a birdcage.

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