g of his hands.

"The Little Daffodil was very dear to me," he said. "Soon I think she
would have married and have had children, and her name would have been
blessed after the fashion of our people; for did not the Great Master
say: 'What is more worshipful than the mother of children?' And when she
died, master, my heart was empty, for there was no other love in my life.
And then the Ho Sing murder was committed, and I went into the interior
to search for Lu Fang, and that helped me to forget. I had forgotten till
I saw him again. Then the old sorrow grew large in my soul, and I went
out----"

"To kill him," said Tarling quietly.

"To kill him," repeated the man.

"Tell me all," said Tarling, drawing a long breath.

"It was the night you went to the little girl," said Ling Chu (Tarling
knew that he spoke of Odette Rider). "I had made up my mind to go out,
but I could not find an excuse because, master, you have given me orders
that I must not leave this place whilst you are out. So I asked if I
might go with you to the house of many houses."

"To the flat?" nodded Tarling. "Yes, go on."

"I had taken your quick-quick pistol and had loaded it and put it in my
overcoat pocket. You told me to trail you, but when I had seen you on
your way I left you and went to the big shop."

"To the big shop?" said Tarling in surprise. "But Lyne did not live in
his stores!"

"So I discovered," said Ling Chu simply. "I thought in such a large house
he would have built himself a beautiful room. In China many masters live
in their shops. So I went to the big store to search it."

"Did you get in?" asked Tarling in surprise, and again Ling Chu smiled.

"That was very easy," he said. "The master knows how well I climb, and
there were long iron pipes leading to the roof. Up one of these I
climbed. Two sides of the shop are on big streets. One side is on a
smaller street, and the fourth side is in a very small-piece street with
few lights. It was up this side that I went. On the roof were many doors,
and to such a man as me there was no difficulty."

"Go on," said Tarling again.

"I came down from floor to floor, always in darkness, but each floor I
searched carefully, but found nothing but great bundles and packing-cases
and long bars----"

"Counters," corrected Tarling.

"Yes," nodded Ling Chu, "they are called counters. And then at last I
came to the floor where I had seen The Man." He paused. "First I went to
the great r