redit you with such a fund of picturesque
imagery. Would you know him again?"

"I can't be certain. All Japs are very much alike, to my thinking, but if
I heard him talk I would be almost sure. Why do you ask?"

"Because I have been looking up a little information with reference to the
Ko-Katana and its uses. Now, Okasaki is the name of a Japanese town.
Family names almost invariably have a topographical foundation, referring
to some village, river, street, or mountain, and there may be thousands of
Okasakis. Then, again, it was the custom some years ago for a man to be
called one name at birth, another when he came of age, a third when he
obtained some official position, and so on. For instance, you would be
called Spring when you were born, Summer when you were twenty-one, Autumn
when you became a policeman, and Winter when you reached your present
rank."

"Oh, Christopher!" cried the detective. "And if I were made Chief
Inspector?"

"Then your title would be 'Top Dog' or something of the sort."

Mr. Winter assimilated the foregoing information with a profound
thankfulness that we in England do these things differently.

"Why are you so interested in Mr. Okasaki?" he inquired.

"I will answer your question by another. Why was he so interested in the
Ko-Katana?"

"That is hardly what I told you, Mr. Brett. He professed to be interested
in the crime itself. But now I come to think of it, he did ask me to let
him see the thing."

"And did you?"

"Yes; I wanted all the information I could get."

"My position exactly. Let us go to Scotland Yard."

The famous Black Museum has so often been the subject of articles in the
public press that no detailed description is needed here. It contains, in
glass cases, or hanging on the walls, a weird collection of articles
famous in the annals of crime. It is not open to the public, and Brett,
who had not seen the place before, examined its relics with much
curiosity.

The detective exhibited a pardonable pride in some of them, but his
companion damped his enthusiasm by saying:

"This is a depressing sight."

"In what way?"

"British rogues are evidently of low intelligence in the average. A
bludgeon and a halter make up their history."

"There's more than that in a good many cases."

"Ah, I forgot the handcuffs."

"Well, here is the Ko-Katana," said Winter shortly.

The barrister took the fateful weapon, not more deadly than a paper-knife
in appearance, and s