k towards the spot from whence the cries of the spaniel
seemed to proceed. A few paces brought him to the door of a dirty little
shop. In a window close beside it appeared the legend:

SAM TUK
BARBER.

The spaniel crouched by the door whining and scratching, and as Kerry
came up it raised its beady black eyes to him with a look which, while
it was not unfearful, held an unmistakable appeal. Kerry stood watching
the dog for a moment, and as he watched he became conscious of an
exhilarated pulse.

He tried the door and found it to be open. Thereupon he entered a dirty
little shop, which he remembered to have searched in person in the grey
dawn of the day which now was entering upon a premature dusk. The dog
ran in past him, crossed the gloomy shop, and raced down into a tiny
coal cellar, which likewise had been submitted during the early hours
of the morning to careful scrutiny under the directions of the Chief
Inspector.

A Chinese boy, who had been the only occupant of the place on that
occasion and who had given his name as Ah Fung, was surprised by the
sudden entrance of man and dog in the act of spreading coal dust with
his fingers upon a portion of the paved floor. He came to his feet with
a leap and confronted Kerry. The spaniel began to scratch feverishly
upon the spot where the coal dust had been artificially spread. Kerry's
eyes gleamed like steel. He shot out his hand and grasped the Chinaman
by his long hair. "Open that trap," he said, "or I'll break you in
half!"

Ah Fung's oblique eyes regarded him with an expression difficult to
analyze, but partly it was murder. He made no attempt to obey the order.
Meanwhile the dog, whining and scratching furiously, had exposed the
greater part of a stone slab somewhat larger than those adjoining it,
and having a large crack or fissure in one end.

"For the last time," said Kerry, drawing the man's head back so that his
breath began to whistle through his nostrils, "open that trap."

As he spoke he released Ah Fung, and Ah Fung made one wild leap towards
the stairs. Kerry's fist caught him behind the ear as he sprang, and
he went down like a dead man upon a small heap of coal which filled the
angle of the cellar.

Breathing rapidly and having his teeth so tightly clenched that his
maxillary muscles protruded lumpishly, Kerry stood looking at the fallen
man. But Ah Fung did not move. The dog had ceased to scratch, and
now stood uttering short staccato b