"

Stuart turned his eyes. On the platform at the head of the stairs a
Hindu was standing!

"Chunda Lal!" whispered Max. "Prepare for--anything!"

"Chunda Lal descended slowly. Ah-Fang-Fu continued to play Patience.
The Hindu stood behind him and began to speak in a voice of subdued
fervour and with soft Hindu modulations.

"Why do you allow them, strangers, coming here to-night!"

Ah-Fang-Fu continued complacently to arrange the cards.

"S'pose hab gotchee pidgin allee samee Chunda Lal hab got? Fo-Hi no
catchee buy bled and cheese for Ah-Fang-Fu. He"--nodding casually in
the direction of Bill Bean--"plitty soon all blissful."

"Be very careful, Ah-Fang-Fu," said Chunda Lal tensely. He lowered
his voice. "Do you forget so soon what happen last week?"

"No sabby."

"Some one comes here--we do not know how close he comes; perhaps he
comes in--and he is of the _police."_

Ah-Fang-Fu shuffled uneasily in his chair.

"No police chop for Pidgin!" he muttered. "Same feller tumble in
liver?"

"He is killed--yes; but suppose they find the writing he has made!
Suppose he has written that it is _here_ people meet together?"

"Makee chit tell my name? Muchee hard luck! Number one police chop."

"You say Fo-Hi not buying you bread and cheese. Perhaps it is Fo-Hi
that save you from hanging!"

Ah-Fang-Fu hugged himself.

_"Yak pozee!"_ (Very good) he muttered.

Chunda Lal raised his finger.

"Be very careful, Ah-Fang-Fu!"

"Allee time velly careful."

"But admit no more of them to come in, these strangers."

_"Tchee, tchee!_ Velly ploper. Sometime big feller come in if Pidgin
palaber or not. Pidgin never lude to big feller."

"Your life may depend on it," said Chunda Lal impressively. "How many
are here?"

Ah-Fang-Fu turned at last from his cards, pointing in three
directions, and, finally, at Gaston Max.

"Four?" said the Hindu--"how can it be?"

He peered from bunk to bunk, muttering something--a name apparently--
after scrutinizing each. When his gaze rested upon Max he started,
stared hard, and meeting the gaze of the one visible eye, made the
strange sign.

Max repeated it; and Chunda Lal turned again to the Chinaman. "Because
of that drunken pig," he said, pointing at Bill Bean--"we must wait.
See to it that he is the last."

He walked slowly up the stairs, opened the door at the top and
disappeared.

CHAPTER VIII

THE GREEN-EYED JOSS

Sinister silence reclaimed the house of Ah-F