hich had so often betrayed to him the convicted
wrongdoer--looked in vain.

"A dangerous man," he thought.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye to see what impression the man
had made upon Ling Chu. To the ordinary eye Ling Chu remained an
impassive observer. But Tarling saw that faint curl of lip, an almost
imperceptible twitch of the nostrils, which invariably showed on the face
of his attendant when he "smelt" a criminal.

"Mr. Tarling is a detective," repeated Lyne. "He is a gentleman I heard
about when I was in China--you know I was in China for three months, when
I made my tour round the world?" he asked Tarling.

Tarling nodded.

"Oh yes, I know," he said. "You stayed at the Bund Hotel. You spent
a great deal of time in the native quarter, and you had rather an
unpleasant experience as the result of making an experiment in opium
smoking."

Lyne's face went red, and then he laughed.

"You know more about me than I know about you, Tarling," he said, with a
note of asperity in his voice, and turned again to his subordinate.

"I have reason to believe that there has been money stolen in this
business by one of my cashiers," he said.

"Impossible, sir!" said the shocked Mr. Milburgh. "Wholly impossible! Who
could have done it? And how clever of you to have found it out, sir! I
always say that you see what we old ones overlook even though it's right
under our noses!"

Mr. Lyne smiled complacently.

"It will interest you to know, Mr. Tarling," he said, "that I myself have
some knowledge of and acquaintance with the criminal classes. In fact,
there is one unfortunate protege of mine whom I have tried very hard to
reform for the past four years, who is coming out of prison in a couple
of days. I took up this work," he said modestly, "because I feel it is
the duty of us who are in a more fortunate position, to help those who
have not had a chance in the cruel competition of the world."

Tarling was not impressed.

"Do you know the person who has been robbing you?" he asked.

"I have reason to believe it is a girl whom I have summarily dismissed
to-night, and whom I wish you to watch."

The detective nodded.

"This is rather a primitive business," he said with the first faint hint
of a smile he had shown. "Haven't you your own shop detective who could
take that job in hand? Petty larceny is hardly in my line. I understood
that this was bigger work----"

He stopped, because it was obviously impossib