Wa went to bed an hour ago."

"Any visitors?"

"No."

"Has he been out?"

"No."

"Got the ladder?"

"Yes."

"All quiet in the neighborhood?"

"All quiet."

"Good."

The street in which this conversation took place was one running roughly
parallel with that in which the house of Sin Sin Wa was situated. A
detailed search of the Chinaman's premises had failed to bring to light
any scrap of evidence to show that opium had ever been smoked there. Of
the door described by Mollie Gretna, and said to communicate with the
adjoining establishment, not a trace could be found. But the fact that
such a door had existed did not rest solely upon Mollie's testimony.
From one of the "beat-ups" interviewed that day, Kerry had succeeded in
extracting confirmatory evidence.

Inquiries conducted in the neighborhood of Poplar had brought to light
the fact that four of the houses in this particular street, including
that occupied by Sin Sin Wa and that adjoining it, belonged to a certain
Mr. Jacobs, said to reside abroad. Mr. Jacob's rents were collected
by an estate agent, and sent to an address in San Francisco. For some
reason not evident to this man of business, Mr. Jacobs demanded a rental
for the house next to Sin Sin Wa's, which was out of all proportion to
the value of the property. Hence it had remained vacant for a number of
years. The windows were broken and boarded up, as was the door.

Kerry realized that the circumstance of the landlord of "The House of
a Hundred Raptures" being named Jacobs, and the lessee of the Cubanis
Cigarette Company's premises in old Bond Street being named Isaacs,
might be no more than a coincidence. Nevertheless it was odd. He
had determined to explore the place without unduly advertising his
intentions.

Two modes of entrance presented themselves. There was a trap on the
roof, but in order to reach it access would have to be obtained to one
of the other houses in the row, which also possessed a roof-trap; or
there were four windows overlooking a little back yard, two upstairs and
two down.

By means of a short ladder which Coombes had brought for the purpose
Kerry climbed on to the wall and dropped into the yard.

"The jemmy!" he said softly.

Coombes, also mounting, dropped the required implement. Kerry caught it
deftly, and in a very few minutes had wrenched away the rough planking
nailed over one of the lower windows, without making very much noise.

"Shall I come down?" in