f betraying a professional secret,"
he said, "but during the time that my patient was recovering from the
effects of the anaesthetic he unconsciously gave me several clues to
the nature of the episode. Putting two and two together I gathered that
someone, although the name of this person never once passed the lips of
the mandarin, had abducted his favourite wife."

"Good heavens! truly amazing," I exclaimed.

"Is it not? How small a place the world is. My old mandarin had traced
the abductor and presumably the girl to some house which I gathered
to be in the neighbourhood of Katong. In an attempt to force an
entrance--doubtless with the amiable purpose of slaying them both--he
had been detected by the prime object of his hatred. In hurriedly
descending from a window he had been attacked by some weapon, possibly
a sword, and had only made good his escape in the condition in which I
found him. How far he had proceeded I cannot say, but I should imagine
that the house to which he had been was no great distance from the spot
where I found him."

"Comment is really superfluous," remarked Burton. "He was looking for
Adderley."

"I agree," said Jennings.

"And," I added, "it was evidently after this episode that I had the
privilege of visiting that interesting establishment."

There was a short interval of silence; then:

"You probably retain no very clear impression of the shadow which you
saw," said Dr. Matheson, with great deliberation. "At the time perhaps
you had less occasion particularly to study it. But are you satisfied
that it was really caused by someone moving behind the curtain?"

I considered his question for a few moments.

"I am not," I confessed. "Your story, Doctor, makes me wonder whether it
may not have been due to something else."

"What else can it have been due to?" exclaimed Jennings
contemptuously--"unless to the champagne?"

"I won't quote Shakespeare," said Dr. Matheson, smiling in his odd way.
"The famous lines, though appropriate, are somewhat overworked. But I
will quote Kipling: 'East is East, and West is West.'"

II

THE LADY OF KATONG

Fully six months had elapsed, and on returning from Singapore I had
forgotten all about Adderley and the unsavoury stories connected with
his reputation. Then, one evening as I was strolling aimlessly along
St. James's Street, wondering how I was going to kill time--for almost
everyone I knew was out of town, including Paul Harley, and