g addressed by someone
outside it.

"Yes, sir," he replied.

Said opened the yellow door upon the right of the room, and Soames
followed him into another of the matting-lined corridors, this one
running right and left and parallel with the wall of the apartment which
he had just quitted. Six doors opened out of this corridor; four of
them upon the side opposite to that by which he had entered, and one at
either end.

These doors were not readily to be detected; and the wall, at first
glance, presented an unbroken appearance. But from experience, he had
learned that where the strips of bamboo which overlay the straw matting
formed a rectangular panel, there was a door, and by the light of the
electric lamp hung in the center of the corridor, he counted six of
these.

Said, selecting a key from a bunch which he carried, opened one of the
doors, held it ajar for Soames to enter, and permitted it to reclose
behind him.

Soames entered nervously. He found himself in a room identical in size
with his own private apartment; a bathroom, etc., opened out of it in
one corner after the same fashion. But there similarity ended.

The bed in this apartment was constructed more on the lines of a modern
steamer bunk; that is, it was surrounded by a rail, and was raised no
more than a foot from the floor. The latter was covered with a rich
carpet, worked in many colors, and the wall was hung with such paper
as Soames had never seen hitherto in his life. The scheme of this mural
decoration was distinctly Chinese, and consisted in an intricate design
of human and animal figures, bewilderingly mingled; its coloring was
brilliant, and the scheme extended, unbroken, over the entire ceiling.
Cushions, most fancifully embroidered, were strewn about the floor, and
the bed coverlet was a piece of heavy Chinese tapestry. A lamp, shaded
with silk of a dull purple, swung in the center of the apartment, and
an ebony table, inlaid with ivory, stood on one side of the bed; on the
other was a cushioned armchair figured with the eternal, chaotic Chinese
design, and being littered, at the moment, with the garments of the man
in the bed. The air of the room was disgusting, unbreathable; it caught
Soames by the throat and sickened him. It was laden with some kind of
fumes, entirely unfamiliar to his nostrils. A dainty Chinese tea-service
stood upon the ebony table.

For fully thirty seconds Soames, with his back to the door, gazed at the
man in t