mongst the young Britishers who were exiled in Shanghai.

The next cutting was also in English and ran:

"A sad fatality occurred this morning, a young Chinese girl, O Ling,
the sister of Inspector Ling Chu, of the Native Police, being found
in a dying condition in the yard at the back of Ho Hans's tea-rooms.
The girl had been employed at the shop as a dancer, much against her
brother's wishes, and figured in a very unpleasant affair reported
in these columns last week. It is believed that the tragic act was
one of those 'save-face' suicides which are all too common amongst
native women."

Tarling whistled, a soft, long, understanding whistle.

The Little Daffodil! And the sister of Ling Chu! He knew something of the
Chinese, something of their uncanny patience, something of their
unforgiving nature. This dead man had put an insult not only upon the
little dancing girl, but upon the whole of her family. In China disgrace
to one is a disgrace to all and she, realising the shame that the
notoriety had brought upon her brother, had taken what to her, as a
Chinese girl, had been the only way out.

But what was the shame? Tarling searched through the native papers and
found several flowery accounts, not any two agreed save on one point,
that an Englishman, and a tourist, had made public love to the girl, no
very great injury from the standpoint of the Westerner, a Chinaman had
interfered and there had been a "rough house."

Tarling read the cuttings through from beginning to end, then carefully
replaced them in the paper package and put them away in the little
lacquer box at the bottom of the trunk. As carefully he returned all the
clothes he had removed, relocked the lid and pushed it under the iron
bedstead. Swiftly he reviewed all the circumstances. Ling Chu had seen
Thornton Lyne and had planned his vengeance. To extract Tarling's
revolver was an easy matter--but why, if he had murdered Lyne, would
he have left the incriminating weapon behind? That was not like Ling
Chu--that was the act of a novice.

But how had he lured Thornton Lyne to the flat? And how did he know--a
thought struck him.

Three nights before the murder, Ling Chu, discussing the interview which
had taken place at Lyne's Stores, had very correctly diagnosed the
situation. Ling Chu knew that Thornton Lyne was in love with the girl and
desired her, and it would not be remarkable if he had utilised his
knowl