or
Temple's Chinese servant, whose sudden disappearance earlier in the
morning had caused so much excitement. The Chinaman looked at us with a
blandly innocent face and, nodding pleasantly, bade us good morning. I
stopped the cart and ordered Jones to get down and accompany him back to
the house, and on no account to let him out of his sight. As we drove on
I explained all the circumstances of the case in detail to Sergeant
McQuade, and informed him of my reason for placing Jones as guard over
the Chinaman. No sooner had I done so than the Sergeant, in some
excitement, requested me to return with him to Exeter at once. I did not
inquire into his reasons for this step, but turned my horse's head once
more toward the town, the Sergeant meanwhile plying me with questions,
many of which I regretted my inability to answer to his satisfaction.
They related principally to the exact time at which the murder had
occurred, and how soon the disappearance of Li Min had been discovered.
I decided at once that the detective had concluded that Li Min had
committed the murder and had then hurried off to Exeter to place the
emerald Buddha in the hands of some of his countrymen in the town, and
was now proceeding leisurely back with some plausible story and a
carefully arranged alibi to explain his absence from the house. I
mentioned my conclusions to the Sergeant and saw from his reply that my
assumption was correct. "I hope we are not too late," he exclaimed as he
suggested my urging the horse to greater speed. "It is absolutely
necessary that we prevent any Chinaman from leaving the town until this
matter is cleared up. I'm afraid however, that they have a good start
of us. There is a train to London at eight, and, if our man got away on
that, it will be no easy matter to reach him."

"Of course you can telegraph ahead," I ventured.

"Of course." The detective smiled. "But the train is not an express, and
there are a dozen stations within fifty miles of here where anyone could
leave the train before I can get word along the line." He looked at his
watch. "It is now ten minutes of nine. I am sorry that you did not
notify the police at once." I made no reply, not wishing to prejudice
the detective against Major Temple by explaining my desire to do this
very thing and the latter's disinclination to have it done. We had
reached police headquarters by this time, and the Sergeant disappeared
within for perhaps five minutes, then quickly re