What should he do?--What should he do? In the silence:
"No good stopping any longer," came the whispered voice of the shorter
detective; "I have had a good look around the house, and there is nobody
here."...
Soames literally held his breath.
"We'll get along down to the Dock Gate," was the almost inaudible reply;
"I am meeting Stringer there at nine o'clock."
Walking softly, the Scotland Yard men passed out of the theater.
XIX
THE LIVING DEAD
The night held yet another adventure in store for Soames. His encounter
with the two Scotland Yard men had finally expelled all thoughts of
pleasure from his mind. The upper world, the free world, was beset with
pitfalls; he realized that for the present, at any rate, there could be
no security for him, save in the catacombs of Ho-Pin. He came out of
the music-hall and stood for a moment just outside the foyer, glancing
fearfully up and down the rain-swept street. Then, resuming the drenched
raincoat which he had taken off in the theater, and turning up its
collar about his ears, he set out to return to the garage adjoining the
warehouse of Kan-Suh Concessions.
He had fully another hour of leave if he cared to avail himself of
it, but, whilst every pedestrian assumed, in his eyes, the form of a
detective, whilst every dark corner seemed to conceal an ambush, whilst
every passing instant he anticipated feeling a heavy hand upon his
shoulder, and almost heard the words:--"Luke Soames, I arrest you".
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