wering look must have
been a blank one. "It is part of the tassel of one of those red cloth
caps commonly called in England, a fez!"

He continued to stare at me and I to stare at the piece of silk; then:

"What is the next move?" I demanded. "Your new clue rather bewilders
me."

"The next move," he said, "is to retire to the adjoining room and make
ourselves look as much like a couple of Oriental commercial travellers
as our correctly British appearance will allow!"

"What!" I cried.

"That's it!" laughed Harley. "I have a perpetual tan, and I think I can
give you a temporary one which I keep in a bottle for the purpose."

Twenty minutes later, then, having quitted Harley's chambers by a back
way opening into one of those old-world courts which abound in this part
of the metropolis, two quietly attired Eastern gentlemen got into a
cab at the corner of Chancery Lane and proceeded in the direction of
Limehouse.

There are haunts in many parts of London whose very existence is
unsuspected by all but the few; haunts unvisited by the tourist and
even unknown to the copy-hunting pressman. Into a quiet thoroughfare not
three minutes' walk from the busy life of West India Dock Road, Harley
led the way. Before a door sandwiched in between the entrance to a Greek
tobacconist's establishment and a boarded shop-front, he paused and
turned to me.

"Whatever you see or hear," he cautioned, "express no surprise. Above
all, show no curiosity."

He rang the bell beside the door, and almost immediately it was opened
by a Negress, grossly and repellently ugly.

Harley pattered something in what sounded like Arabic, whereat the
Negress displayed the utmost servility, ushering us into an ill-lighted
passage with every evidence of respect. Following this passage to its
termination, an inner door was opened, and a burst of discordant music
greeted us, together with a wave of tobacco smoke. We entered.

Despite my friend's particular injunctions to the contrary I gave a
start of amazement.

We stood in the doorway of a fairly large apartment having a divan round
three of its sides. This divan was occupied by ten or a dozen men of
mixed nationalities--Arabs, Greeks, lascars, and others. They smoked
cigarettes for the most part and sipped Mokha from little cups. A girl
was performing a wriggling dance upon the square carpet occupying the
centre of the floor, accompanied by a Nubian boy who twanged upon a
guitar, and by most of t