"

"You didn't miss your spring at me!" retort Stuart ruefully.

"No," agreed Sowerby. "I didn't mean to miss a second time!"

"What's all this row," came a gruff voice.

"Ah! Inspector Dunbar!" said Max.

Dunbar walked up the path, followed by a number of men. At first he
did not observe Stuart, and:

"You'll be waking all the neighborhood," he said. "It's the next big
house, Sowerby, the one we thought, surrounded by the brick wall.
There's no doubt, I think ... Why!"

He had seen Stuart, and he sprang forward with outstretched hand.

"Thank God!" he cried, disregarding his own counsel about creating a
disturbance. "This is fine! Eh, man! but I'm glad to see you!"

"And _I_ am glad to be here!" Stuart assured him.

They shook hands warmly.

"You have read my statement, of course?" asked Stuart.

"I have," replied the Inspector, and gave him a swift glance of the
tawny eyes. "And considering that you've nearly been strangled, I'll
forgive you! But I wish we'd known about this house----"

"Ah! Inspector," interrupted Gaston Max, "but you have never seen
Zara el-Khala! I have seen her--and _I_ forgive him, also!"

Stuart continued rapidly:

"We have little time to waste. There are only three people in the
house, so far as I am aware: Miska--known to you, M. Max, as Zara
el-Khala--the Hindu, Chunda Lal, and--Fo-Hi----"

"Ah!" cried Max--"'The Scorpion.' Chunda Lal, for some obscure personal
reason, not entirely unconnected with Miska, enabled me to make my
escape in order that I might lead you to the house. Therefore we may
look upon Chunda Lal, as well as Miska, in the light of an
accomplice----"

_"Eh, bien!_ a spy in the camp! This is where we see how fatal to the
success of any enterprise, criminal or otherwise, is the presence of
a pretty woman! Proceed, my friend!"

"There are three entrances to the apartment in which Fo-Hi apparently
spends the greater part of his time. Two of these I know, although I
am unaware where one of them leads to. But the third, of which he
alone holds the key, communicates with a tunnel leading to the river
bank, where a motorboat is concealed."

"Ah, that motor-boat!" cried Max. "He travels at night, you
understand----"

"Always, I am told."

"Yes, always. Therefore, once he is out on the river, he is moderately
secure between the first lock and the Nore! When a police patrol is
near he can shut off his engine and lie under the bank. Last night he
crept away f