She stared upward at the low, dirty
ceiling.

"Why do you come to me with your stories of desperation?" continued the
mocking voice. "You have insisted upon seeing me. I am here."

Rita managed to move her head so that she could see more of the room.

On a divan at the other end of the place, propped up by a number of
garish cushions, Rita beheld Mrs. Sin. The long bamboo pipe had fallen
from her listless fingers. Her face wore an expression of mystic
rapture, like that characterizing the features of some Chinese
Buddhas....

In the other corner of the divan, contemplating her from under heavy
brows, sat Kazmah....

CHAPTER XXXVI. SAM TUK MOVES

Chinatown was being watched as Chinatown had never been watched before,
even during the most stringent enforcement of the Defence of the Realm
Act. K Division was on its mettle, and Scotland Yard had sent to aid
Chief Inspector Kerry every man that could be spared to the task. The
River Police, too, were aflame with zeal; for every officer in the
service whose work lay east of London Bridge had appropriated to himself
the stigma implied by the creation of Lord Wrexborough's commission.

"Corners" in foodstuffs, metals, and other indispensable commodities are
appreciated by every man, because every man knows such things to
exist; but a corner in drugs was something which the East End police
authorities found very difficult to grasp. They could not free their
minds of the traditional idea that every second Chinaman in the Causeway
was a small importer. They were seeking a hundred lesser stores instead
of one greater one. Not all Seton's quiet explanations nor Kerry's
savage language could wean the higher local officials from their
ancient beliefs. They failed to conceive the idea of a wealthy syndicate
conducted by an educated Chinaman and backed, covered, and protected by
a crooked gentleman and accomplished man of affairs.

Perhaps they knew and perhaps they knew not, that during the period
ruled by D.O.R.A. as much as L25 was paid by habitues for one pipe of
chandu. The power of gold is often badly estimated by an official whose
horizon is marked by a pension. This is mere lack of imagination, and no
more reflects discredit upon a man than lack of hair on his crown or of
color in his cheeks. Nevertheless, it may prove very annoying.

Towards the close of an afternoon which symbolized the worst that
London's particular climate can do in the matter of drizzling rai