ises were misleading
and his imagination was on fire.

That almost superstitious respect for the powers of Sin Sin Wa, which
had led Chief Inspector Kerry to look upon the Chinaman as a being
more than humanly endowed, began to take possession of Seton Pasha. He
regretted having entered the place so overtly, he regretted having shown
a light. Keen eyes, vigilant, regarded him. It was perhaps a delusion,
bred of the mournful night sounds, the gloom, and the uncanny
resourcefulness, already proven, of the Kazmah group. But it operated
powerfully.

Theories, wild, improbable, flocked to his mind. The great dope cache
lay beneath his feet--and there must be some hidden entrance to it which
had escaped the attention of the search-party. This in itself was not
improbable, since they had devoted no more time to this building than to
any other in the vicinity. That wild cry in the night which had struck
so mournful a chill to the hearts of the watchers on the river had
seemed to come out of the void of the blackness, had given but slight
clue to the location of the place of captivity. Indeed, they could only
surmise that it had been uttered by the missing woman. Yet in their
hearts neither had doubted it.

He determined to cause the place to be searched again, as secretly as
possible; he determined to set so close a guard over it and over its
approaches that none could enter or leave unobserved.

Yet Kismet, in whose omnipotence he more than half believed, had
ordained otherwise; for man is merely an instrument in the hand of Fate.

CHAPTER XL

COIL OF THE PIGTAIL

The inner room was in darkness and the fume-laden air almost
unbreathable. A dull and regular moaning sound proceeded from the corner
where the bed was situated, but of the contents of the place and of
its other occupant or occupants Kerry had no more than a hazy idea. His
imagination supplied those details which he had failed to observe. Mrs.
Monte Irvin, in a dying condition, lay upon the bed, and someone or some
thing crouched on the divan behind Kerry as he lay stretched upon the
matting-covered floor. His wrists, tied behind him, gave him great pain;
and since his ankles were also fastened and the end of the rope drawn
taut and attached to that binding his wrists, he was rendered absolutely
helpless. For one of his fiery temperament this physical impotence was
maddening, and because his own handkerchief had been tied tightly
around his head so as to