a big field.' I must narrow down the possibilities or I will but waste his time.'
Orloff was not satisfied. 'But what about Chu San Fu?'
'The Oriental has ceased to be a problem. Now we know what he is after or soon will. Basil Selkirk is the stumbling block.'
Events proved Holmes wrong on both counts.
18
The Taking and the Rescue
191
The following morning, I had some medical calls to make. Again, Holmes had risen in advance of me or possibly he had never gone to bed. His manner never indicated whether he had slept or not. But somebody, and I suspected Billy, had been busy. Holmes was seated in his chair adjacent to the fireplace deep in a book and the desk had a number of unfamiliar volumes scattered on it, several open.
'What have we here?' I said, indicating the books.
'Research, Watson.' Holmes's irritated and frustrated manner had disappeared. He was hot on the scent again and the fact delighted him. 'Works by such experts on diamonds as Jean Baptiste Tavernier and our own Edwin Streeter. Benvenuto Cellini wrote some interesting comments on diamonds. Some scholarly work on social life by Capefigue and Brantome are also revealing.'
'Good heavens!' I said with a rueful smile. 'We are most often knee-deep in your criminal files and now we are inundated by books on diamonds.'
'A momentary inconvenience, Watson.'
'Have you discovered anything?'
'As yet, no. But I will. Once one knows what one looks for, the job becomes easier. Of course, we do have a last resort.' I gazed at Holmes blankly, so he continued. 'A cablegram from Berlin informs me that our client, Vasil D'Anglas, will be in London in two days. Surely you realize, ol' fellow, that he knows the secret that was concealed in the Golden Bird.'
'Why not just ask him, Holmes?'
'Will he give a truthful answer?' The sleuth laid his book aside. 'Besides, he is a client.
Before I could think of a suitable retort to this, Holmes shifted subjects again.
'You know, this whole matter does present a most inventive idea. A diamond of great value is concealed. Not in some object which might be mislaid or lost. No indeed, but in an object of considerable worth itself. The greater treasure is secreted within the lesser. I cannot recall of a similar situation. Fascinating!'
Following my breakfast, I left Holmes pouring over aged books and descended to Baker Street to hail a hansom. There was one conveniently available and I stepped within it and was about to give the driver a Mayfair address. That is the last thing I remembered for a considerable period of time. . . .
When I awoke, I was lying on a pallet and someone was shaking my shoulders, forcing me back to consciousness. When my eyes became accustomed to the dim light, I was surprised at the gentleness of the hands that drew me erect and to my feet and half-supported me as a wave of nausea caused me to sag. The man was mountainous, with arms like the hawsers on a sea-going liner. His head was shaven and looked lost on a bull neck that tapered into the shoulders of a gorilla. His hamlike hands steadied me and he stood patiently till my brain stopped spinning. After a moment, he said, in a soft voice: 'You come.'
I had little choice in the matter.
There was the smell of earth and a musty odor that suggested the presence of the river, though the air was good and not damp. I was guided out of the small cubicle where I had evidently slept off some kind of narcotic that had rendered me instantly unconscious and helpless. There was a smarting in my eyes, but the nausea disappeared. I could not fathom what kind of drug had been used upon me.
We were in a narrow corridor with a dirt floor that slanted downward. There were doors on both sides at regular intervals marked with Chinese characters in a garish red paint. We came to a corner and a massive hand on my shoulder guided me to the left. I noted that I could have turned to the right as well. Wherever I was, and I suspected Limehouse, it was a labyrinth for the passageway split again before we came to a flight of rickety stairs. At the top, we passed through a curtain and into a sizeable room fitted with wooden benches and lit with gas jets. My guide extinguished the candle he had been carrying and unlocked a door on the far side of the room, gesturing for me to pass through it. The smell of incense assaulted my nostrils and I almost gagged, but the moment passed.
I was in a small room, its walls covered by tapestries. There were numerous candles and I noted the illuminating flame of each was motionless, like those in a church. It had a hypnotic effect and I jerked my head to dispell the sleepy passivity induced. My guide crossed the room and drew aside a tapestry exposing a heavily inlaid wood paneling. He scratched against it and the door behind us swung shut. I could hear its lock click. The huge Chinaman slid the wood panel to one side and indicated that I was to enter, so I did.
I was in another room of unknown size. Tapestries hung from ceiling to floor everywhere. Whether there were walls behind them or not was impossible to say. I heard the panel close behind me. I stood ten feet from a sizeable table that was elaborately carved. It could have been rosewood and it was oiled and polished to a subdued sheen. Behind it in a high-backed chair sat a Chinaman. His Oriental robe fit tightly around his neck and tended to slenderize his body. His face was a round yellow mask dominated by shrewd, slanting eyes. His head was domed and festooned with a few wisps of hair and from his chin hung two thin strands of white hair quite separated in the manner of some Chinese I had seen. While his white hair gave him a rather benevolent look, he did not seem of great age, though I would have been hard-pressed to guess his years. His fingers were long and the nails were of unusual length. One hand was gently stroking a small-headed animal with a pointed muzzle, short legs, and a long, nervous tail. It was regarding me with bright, inquisitive eyes. I looked at the small beast with familiarity. ___.
'A very nice specimen. Herpestes, of course. His coat is in excellent condition.'
The Chinaman was surprised. 'You recognize a mongoose? But then, you were in service in India.'
'I had that honor.'
'Please be seated, Doctor Watson,' he said, indicating a chair, placed lower than his and so arranged that the light in the room was centered on it. When one is associated for so long with a detective, one becomes conscious of these things. Also India, while not the Orient, makes one aware of the difference between East and West.'
'I prefer to stand, a request which I am sure Chu San Fu would not deny a guest in his establishment.'
The Chinaman was forced to look upward at me, a fact that nettled him though his impassive face gave no indication.
'I am sorry that you have been inconvenienced, Doctor Watson.'
He was prepared to continue in the same vein but one cannot let that sort of thing go by. It is not the way the Empire survived.
'You are not sorry, at all. In fact you're not the least interested in me. My abduction by your hirelings was for the sole purpose of supplying a tool to be used against Mr. Sherlock Holmes. You may find a sticky wicket there.'
My interruption and, indeed, entire manner was vexing to the man and he bit his lips in annoyance, regretting the act immediately. I shifted my position a bit to one side, forcing him to look in a new direction and, since I had moved nearer to his desk, he had to look upward even more. Chu San Fu continued to stroke his mongoose, but I noted that his other hand was near a small gong on his desk. A quick flick of his really absurd fingernails would sound an alert to the giant on the other side of the wooden panel or other henchmen lurking behind the tapestries. I shook my head slightly.
'Really, sir, I am considerably disappointed.'
His eyes widened, indicating that I still had him off balance. 'You are disappointed in being here, of course, but ...'
'Piffle!' I said, quickly. 'I might just as well have been coshed by a ruffian or bagged, which is an expedience of the American underworld. In any case, here I stand and no doubt you have an emissary even now contacting Holmes with dire threats regarding my safety. 'Tis kidnaping, no more than that, a device of the criminally minded.'
