ny, or someone had given him knock-out drops. The
Oriental waterfronts were rank with the stuff.

But that Chink, Ah Cum! O'Higgins chuckled as he passed into the
hall and rested his hand on the newel-post of the staircase. He'd
have some fun with that Chinaman before the morning was out.

O'Higgins mounted the stairs, his step extraordinarily light for
one so heavy. In the upper hall he paused to listen. There was
absolute quiet. Boldly he turned the knob of a certain door and
entered. The mock astonishment of his face immediately became
genuine.

The brilliant sunshine poured through the window, effecting an
oblong block of mote-swimming light. In the midst of this light
stood a young woman. To O'Higgins--for all his sordid business he
was not insensible to beauty--to O'Higgins she appeared to have
entered the room with the light. Above her head was an aura of
white fire. The sunshine broke across each shoulder, one lance
striking the yellow face of a Chinaman, queueless and dressed in
European clothes, the other lance falling squarely upon the face of
the man he had journeyed thirteen thousand miles to find. He
recognized the face instantly.

There came to O'Higgins the discouraging knowledge that upon the
heels of a wonderful chase--blindman's buff in the dark--would come
a stretch of dull inaction. He would have to sit down here in
Canton and wait, perhaps for weeks. Certainly he could not move now
other than to announce the fact that he had found his man.

"I beg pardon," he said. "Got the rooms mixed."

The young woman laid a finger on her lips, cautioning O'Higgins to
silence. The detective backed out slowly and closed the door
without sound.

Outside in the hall he paused and thoughtfully stroked his smooth
blue chin. As he understood it, folks saw in two or three days all
there was to see of Canton. After the sights he would have to
twiddle his thumbs until the joints cracked. All at once he saw a
way out of the threatening doldrums. Some trustworthy Chinaman to
watch, for a small bribe, while he, James Boyle O'Higgins, enjoyed
himself in Hong-Kong, seeing the spring races, the boxing matches,
and hobnobbing with Yankee sailors. Canton was something like a
blind alley; unless you were native, you couldn't get anywhere
except by returning to Hong-Kong and starting afresh.

Satisfied that he had solved his difficulty, he proceeded to his
room. At nine-thirty he climbed into the chair and signified to