od on the islet in the centre of the pond, and, as I perceived
him, he walked down into the shallow water and waded across to me!

"Good heavens!" I began.

One of his rare laughs interrupted me.

"You must think me mad this morning, Petrie!" he said. "But I have
made several discoveries. Do you know what that islet in the pond
really is?"

"Merely an islet, I suppose."

"Nothing of the kind; it is a burial mound, Petrie! It marks the site
of one of the Plague Pits where victims were buried during the Great
Plague of London. You will observe that although you have seen it
every morning for some years, it remains for a British Commissioner
lately resident in Burma to acquaint you with its history!
Hullo!"--the laughter was gone from his eyes, and they were steely
hard again--"what the blazes have we here?"

He picked up the net. "What! A bird-trap!"

"Exactly!" I said.

Smith turned his searching gaze upon me. "Where did you find it,
Petrie?"

"I did not exactly find it," I replied; and I related to him the
circumstances of my meeting with Karamaneh.

He directed that cold stare upon me throughout the narrative, and
when, with some embarrassment, I had told him of the girl's escape--

"Petrie," he said succinctly, "you are an imbecile!"

I flushed with anger, for not even from Nayland Smith, whom I esteemed
above all other men, could I accept such words uttered as he had
uttered them. We glared at one another.

"Karamaneh," he continued coldly, "is a beautiful toy, I grant you;
but so is a cobra. Neither is suitable for playful purposes."

"Smith!" I cried hotly, "drop that! Adopt another tone or I cannot
listen to you!"

"You _must_ listen," he said, squaring his lean jaw truculently. "You
are playing, not only with a pretty girl who is the favourite of a
Chinese Nero, but with _my life_! And I object, Petrie, on purely
personal grounds!"

I felt my anger oozing from me; for this was strictly just. I had
nothing to say and Smith continued:

"You _know_ that she is utterly false, yet a glance or two from those
dark eyes of hers can make a fool of you! A woman made a fool of me
once, but I learned my lesson; you have failed to learn yours. If you
are determined to go to pieces on the rock that broke up Adam, do so!
But don't involve me in the wreck, Petrie, for that might mean a
yellow emperor of the world, and you know it!"

"Your words are unnecessarily brutal, Smith," I said, feeling very
crest