fler which he had been compelled to wear, and secretly
determined to remove it before mounting the tram. Across one arm he
carried the glistening overall which was the Chief Inspector's constant
companion on wet nights abroad. The fog had turned denser, and ten paces
from the door of the house took him out of sight of the light streaming
from the hallway.

Mary Kerry well knew her husband's theories about coddling boys, but
even so could not entirely reconcile herself to the present expedition.
However, closing the door, she returned philosophically to her sewing,
reflecting that little harm could come to Dan after all, for he was
strong, healthy, and intelligent.

On went the boy through the mist, whistling merrily. Not twenty yards
from the house a coupe was drawn up, and by the light of one of its
lamps a man was consulting a piece of paper on which, presumably, an
address was written; for, as the boy approached, the man turned, his
collar pulled up about his face, his hat pulled down.

"Hallo!" he called. "Can you please tell me something?"

He spoke with a curious accent, unfamiliar to the boy. "A foreigner of
some kind," young Kerry determined.

"What is it?" he asked, pausing.

"Will you please read and tell me if I am near this place?" the man
continued, holding up the paper which he had been scrutinizing.

Dan stepped forward and bent over it. He could not make out the writing,
and bent yet more, holding it nearer to the lamp. At which moment some
second person neatly pinioned him from behind, a scarf was whipped about
his head, and, kicking furiously but otherwise helpless, he felt himself
lifted and placed inside the car.

The muffler had been thrown in such fashion about his face as to leave
one eye partly free, and as he was lifted he had a momentary glimpse of
his captors. With a thrill of real, sickly terror he realized that he
was in the hands of Chinamen!

Perhaps telepathically this spasm of fear was conveyed to his father,
for it was at about this time that the latter was interviewing Zani
Chada, and at about this time that Kerry recognized, underlying the
other's words, at once an ill-concealed suspense and a threat. Then,
a few minutes later, had come the three strokes of the gong; and again
that unreasonable dread had assailed him, perhaps because it signalized
the capture of his son, news of which had been immediately telephoned to
Limehouse by Zani Chada's orders.

Certain it is that