ter had
sailed. He had no difficulty in obtaining this information, for he is in
touch with all the crooks of the town. Had he known that the diamond had
been stolen by an agent of Huang Chow, he would no doubt have hesitated.
Huang Chow has an international reputation.

"However, his daughter--a girl of great personal beauty--relied upon her
diplomatic gifts to regain possession of the stone, but, poor creature,
she had not counted with Ah Fu, who was evidently watching your chambers
(while Hi Wing Ho, it seems, was assiduously shadowing Ah Fu!). How she
traced the diamond from point to point of its travels we do not know,
and probably never shall know, but she was undeniably clever and
unscrupulous. Poor girl! She came to a dreadful end. Mr. Nicholson,
here, identified her at Bow Street to-night."

Now the whole amazing truth burst upon me.

"I understand!" I cried. "This"--and I snatched up the pigtail--

"That my pigtail," moaned Hi Wing Ho feebly.

Mr. Nicholson pitched him unceremoniously into a corner of the room, and
taking the pigtail in his huge hand, clumsily unfastened it. Out from
the thick part, some two inches below the point at which it had been cut
from the Chinaman's head, a great diamond dropped upon the floor!

For perhaps twenty seconds there was perfect silence in my study. No one
stooped to pick the diamond from the floor--the diamond which now had
blood upon it. No one, so far as my sense informed me, stirred. But
when, following those moments of stupefaction, we all looked up--Hi Wing
Ho, like a phantom, had faded from the room!

THE HOUSE OF GOLDEN JOSS

I

THE BLOOD-STAINED IDOL

"Stop when we pass the next lamp and give me a light for my pipe."

"Why?"

"No! don't look round," warned my companion. "I think someone is
following us. And it is always advisable to be on guard in this
neighbourhood."

We had nearly reached the house in Wade Street, Limehouse, which my
friend used as a base for East End operations. The night was dark but
clear, and I thought that presently when dawn came it would bring a
cold, bright morning. There was no moon, and as we passed the lamp and
paused we stood in almost total darkness.

Facing in the direction of the Council School I struck a match. It
revealed my ruffianly looking companion--in whom his nearest friends
must have failed to recognize Mr. Paul Harley of Chancery Lane.

He was glancing furtively back along the street