a quick keenness, a
sort of alert vitality, which showed in his eyes, and indeed in every
line of his thin, clean-shaven face. Kerry had picked him out as the
most promising junior in his department.

"Give me the particulars," said the Chief Inspector. "It isn't robbery.
He's wearing a diamond ring worth two hundred pounds."

His diction was rapid and terse--so rapid as to create the impression
that he bit off the ends of the longer words. He turned his fierce blue
eyes upon the uniformed officer who stood at the end of the slab.

"They are very few, Chief Inspector," was the reply. "He was hauled
out by the river police shortly after midnight, at the lower end of
Limehouse Reach. He was alive then--they heard his cry--but he died
while they were hauling him into the boat."

"Any statement?" rapped Kerry.

"He was past it, Chief Inspector. According to the report of the officer
in charge, he mumbled something which sounded like: 'It has bitten me,'
just before he became unconscious."

"'It has bitten me,'" murmured Kerry. "The divisional surgeon has seen
him?"

"Yes, Chief Inspector. And in his opinion the man did not die from
drowning, but from some form of virulent poisoning."

"Poisoning?"

"That's the idea. There will be a further examination, of course. Either
a hypodermic injection or a bite."

"A bite?" said Kerry. "The bite of what?"

"That I cannot say, Chief Inspector. A venomous reptile, I suppose."

Kerry stared down critically at the swollen face of the victim, and then
glanced sharply aside at Durham.

"Accounts for his appearance, I suppose," he murmured.

"Yes," said Durham quietly. "He hadn't been in the water long enough to
look like that." He turned to the local officer. "Is there any theory as
to the point at which he went in?"

"Well, an arrest has been made."

"By whom? of whom?" rapped Kerry.

"Two constables patrolling the Chinatown area arrested a man for
suspicious loitering. He turned out to be a well-known criminal--Jim
Poland, with a whole list of convictions against him. They're holding
him at Limehouse Station, and the theory is that he was operating
with------" He nodded in the direction of the body.

"Then who's the smart with the swollen face?" inquired Kerry. "He's a
new one on me."

"Yes, but he's been identified by one of the K Division men. He is an
American crook with a clean slate, so far as this side is concerned.
Cohen is his name. And the idea seems t