He arrived at the London docks very shortly after the Jupiter. Indeed,
the crew of the latter vessel had not yet been paid off when Hi Wing
Ho presented himself at the dock gates. He admitted that, finding the
fireman so obdurate, he and his friend Li Ping had resorted to violence,
but he did not seem to recognize me as the person who had frustrated
their designs. Thus far I found his story credible enough, excepting
the accidental severing of the pigtail at Suez, but now it became
wildly improbable, for he would have me believe that Li Ping, or Ah Fu,
obtaining possession of the pigtail (in what manner Hi Wing Ho protested
that he knew not) he sought to hold it to ransom, knowing how highly Hi
Wing Ho valued it.
I glared sternly at the Chinaman, but his impassive countenance served
him well. That he was lying to me I no longer doubted; for Ah Fu could
not have hoped to secure such a price as would justify his committing
murder; furthermore, the presence of the unfortunate Jewess in the case
was not accounted for by the ingenious narrative of Hi Wing Ho. I was
standing staring at him and wondering what course to adopt, when yet
again my restless door-bell clamoured in the silence.
Hi Wing Ho started nervously, exhibiting the first symptoms of alarm
which I had perceived in him. My mind was made up in an instant. I took
my revolver from the drawer and covered him.
“Be good enough to open the door, Hi Wing Ho,” I said coldly.
He shrank from me, pouring forth voluble protestations.
“Open the door!”
I clenched my left fist and advanced upon him. He scuttled away with his
odd Chinese gait and threw open the door. Standing before me I saw my
friend Detective Sergeant Durham, and with him a remarkably tall and
very large-boned man whose square-jawed face was deeply tanned and whose
aspect was dourly Scottish.
When the piercing eyes of this stranger rested upon Hi Wing Ho an
expression which I shall never forget entered into them; an expression
coldly murderous. As for the Chinaman, he literally crumpled up.
“You rat!” roared the stranger.
Taking one long stride he stooped upon the Chinaman, seized him by the
back of the neck as a terrier might seize a rat, and lifted him to his
feet.
“The mystery of the pigtail, Mr. Knox,” said the detective, “is solved
at last.”
“Have ye got it?” demanded the Scotsman, turning to me, but without
releasing his hold upon the neck of Hi Wing Ho.