s and rubber-soled shoes; and now, as he entered
the court, he was thinking of the official report of the police sergeant
who, not so many hours before, had paid a visit to the house of Huang
Chow in order to question him respecting his knowledge of the dead man
Cohen, and to learn when last he had seen him.

Old Huang, who had received his caller in the large room upstairs, the
room which boasted the presence of the writing-dais, had exhibited no
trace of confusion, assuring the sergeant that he had not seen the
man Cohen for several days. Cohen had come to him with an American
introduction, which he, Huang, believed to be forged, and had wanted him
to undertake a shady agency, respecting the details of which he remained
peculiarly reticent. In short, nothing had been gained by this official
interrogation, and Huang blandly denied any knowledge of an attempted
burglary of his establishment.

"What have I to lose?" he had asked the inquirer. "A lot of old lumber
which I have accumulated during many years, and a reputation for being
wealthy, due to my lonely habits and to the ignorance of those who live
around me."

Durham, mentally reviewing the words of the report, reconstructed the
scene in his mind; and now, having come to the end of the lane where
the iron post rested, he stood staring up at a place in the ancient wall
where several bricks had decayed, and where it was possible, according
to the statement of the man Poland, to climb up on to a piece of sloping
roof, and thence gain the skylight through which Cohen had obtained
admittance on the night of his death.

He made sure that his automatic pistol was in his pocket, questioned the
dull sounds of the riverside for a moment, looking about him anxiously,
and then, using the leaning post as a stepping-stone, he succeeded in
wedging his foot into a crevice in the wall. By the exercise of some
agility he scrambled up to the top, and presently found himself lying
upon a sloping roof.

The skylight remained well out of reach, but his rubber-soled shoes
enabled him to creep up the slates until he could grasp the framework
with his hands. Presently he found himself perched upon the trap which,
if his information could be relied upon, possessed no fastener, or
one so faulty that the trap could be raised by means of a brad-awl.
He carried one in his pocket, and, screwing it into the framework, he
lifted it cautiously, making very little noise.

The trap opened, and