yellow
hand over her heart, and then stood up again, looking from face to face.

Ignoring the mingled activities about him, he crossed to the open coffin
and began to fumble amongst the putrefying mass of bones and webbing
which lay therein. Out from this he presently drew an iron coffer.

Carrying it across the room he opened the lid. It was full almost to
the top with uncut gems of every variety--diamonds, rubies, sapphires,
emeralds, topaz, amethysts, flashing greenly, redly, whitely. In
handfuls he grasped them and sprinkled them upon the body of the dead
girl.

"For you," he crooned brokenly in Chinese. "They were all for you!"

The extemporized rope had just been lowered to Durham, when:

"My God!" cried the sergeant, looking over Huang Chow's shoulder.
"What's that?"

He had seen the giant spider, the horror from Surinam, which the
Chinaman had reared and fed to guard his treasure and to gratify his
lust for the strange and cruel. The insect, like everything else in
that house, was unusual, almost unique. It was one of the Black Soldier
spiders, by some regarded as a native myth, but actually existing in
Surinam and parts of Brazil. A member of the family, Mygale, its sting
was more quickly and certainly fatal than that of a rattle-snake. Its
instinct was fearlessly to attack any creature, great or small, which
disturbed it in its dark hiding-place.

Now, with feverish, horrible rapidity it was racing up the tapestries on
the other side of the room.

"Merciful God!" groaned the sergeant.

Snatching a revolver from his pocket he fired shot after shot. The third
hit the thing but did not kill it. It dropped back upon the floor and
began to crawl toward the coffin. The sergeant ran across and at close
quarters shot it again.

Red blood oozed out from the hideous black body and began to form a deep
stain upon the carpet.

When Durham, drenched but unhurt, was hauled back into the
treasure-house, he did not speak, but, scrambling into the room
stood--pallid--staring dully at old Huang Chow.

Huang Chow, upon his knees beside his daughter, was engaged in
sprinkling priceless jewels over her still body, and murmuring in
Chinese:

"For you, for you, Lala. They were all for you."

KERRY'S KID

I

RED KERRY ON DUTY

Chief Inspector Kerry came down from the top of a motor-bus and stood on
the sidewalk for a while gazing to right and left along Piccadilly.
The night was humid