ndly, but:

"Don't get hot and bothered," snapped Kerry viciously. "I want to use
your telephone, that's all."

"Oh," said the other, unable to conceal his relief, "that's easy. Come
in."

He raised a flap in the counter, and Kerry, passing through, entered
a little room behind the bar. Here a telephone stood upon a dirty,
littered table, and, taking it up:

"City four hundred," called the Chief Inspector curtly. A moment later:
"Hallo! Yes," he said. "Chief Inspector Kerry speaking. Put me through
to my department, please."

He stood for a while waiting, receiver in hand, and smiled grimly to
note that the uproar in the room beyond had been resumed. Evidently
Malay Jack had given the "all clear" signal. Then:

"Chief Inspector Kerry speaking," he said again. "Has Detective Sergeant
Durham reported?"

"Yes," was the reply, "half an hour ago. He's standing-by at Limehouse
Station. He followed you in a taxi, but lost you on the way owing to the
fog."

"I don't wonder," said Kerry. "His loss is not so great as mine.
Anything else?"

"Nothing else."

"Good. I'll speak to Limehouse. Good-bye."

He replaced the receiver and paused for a moment, reflecting. Extracting
a piece of tasteless gum from between his teeth, he deposited it in
the grate, where a sickly fire burned; then, tearing the wrapper from
a fresh slip, he resumed his chewing and stood looking about him
with unseeing eyes. Fierce they were as ever, but introspective in
expression.

Famous for his swift decisions, for once in a way he found himself in
doubt. Malay Jack had keen ears, and there were those in the place who
had every reason to be interested in the movements of a member of the
Criminal Investigation Department, especially of one who had earned the
right to be dreaded by the rats of Limehouse. London's peculiar climate
fought against him, but he determined to make no more telephone calls
but to proceed to Limehouse police station.

He stepped swiftly into the bar, and, as he had anticipated, nearly
upset the proprietor, who was standing listening by the half-open door.
Kerry smiled fiercely into the ugly face, lifted the flap, and walked
down the room, through the aisle between the scattered tables, where the
air was heavy with strange perfumes, touched now with the bite of London
fog, and where slanting eyes and straight eyes, sober eyes and drunken
eyes, regarded him furtively. Something of a second hush there was, but
one not so c