ing o' a sma' dog," declared his wife; "and I thought 'twas a
portent, an' the great fear came o'er me again. But as I prayed 'twas
unfolder to me that the portent was no' for yersel' but for her--the
puir weak hairt ye ha' tee save."

She ceased speaking and the strange fey light left her eyes. She dropped
upon her knees beside Kerry, bending her head and throwing her arms
about him. He glanced down at her tenderly and laid his hands upon her
shoulders; but he was preoccupied, and the next moment, his jaws moving
mechanically, he was staring straight before him.

"A dog," he muttered, "a dog!"

Mary Kerry did not move; until, a light of understanding coming into
Kerry's fierce eyes, he slowly raised her and stood upright himself.

"I have it!" he said. "Mary, the case is won! Twenty men have spent the
night and early morning beating the river bank so that the very rats
have been driven from their holes. Twenty men have failed where a dog
would have succeeded. Mary, I must be off."

"Ye're no goin' out again, Dan. Ye're weary tee death."

"I must, my dear, and it's you who send me."

"But, Dan, where are ye goin'?"

Kerry grabbed his hat and cane from the sideboard upon which they lay,
and:

"I'm going for the dog!" he rapped.

Weary as he was and travel-stained, for once neglectful of that neatness
upon which he prided himself, he set out, hope reborn in his heart. His
assertion that the very rats had been driven from their holes was scarce
an exaggeration. A search-party of twenty men, hastily mustered and
conducted by Kerry and Seton Pasha, had explored every house, every
shop, every wharf, and, as Kerry believed, every cellar adjoining the
bank, between Limehouse Basin and the dock gates. Where access had been
denied them or where no one had resided they had never hesitated to
force an entrance. But no trace had they found of those whom they
sought.

For the first time within Kerry's memory, or, indeed, within the
memory of any member of the Criminal Investigation Department,
Detective-Sergeant Coombes had ceased to smile when the appalling truth
was revealed to him that Sin Sin Wa had vanished--that Sin Sin Wa had
mysteriously joined that invisible company which included Kazmah,
Mrs. Sin and Mrs. Monte Irvin. Not a word of reprimand did the Chief
Inspector utter, but his eyes seemed to emit sparks. Hands plunged
deeply in his pockets he had turned away, and not even Seton Pasha had
dared to speak to h