Never-Fail Blake

nd dropped it into his side pocket, with his hand on the butt. Then with his left h

of an egg-shell of a cup, and after putting down the cup she would carefully massage her lips with the point of her little

d ankles were also bare, except for the matting sandals into which her toes were thrust. On one thin arm glimmered an extraordinarily heavy bracelet of gold. Her skin, which was very white, was further albificate

ittle as she stared at the intruder. Her rouged lips were tinted a carmine so bright that they looked like a wound across her white face. That gash of color became almost clown-like as it crescented upward with its wayward mirth. Her eyebrows were heavily penciled and the lids of the eyes elon

oddly exotic intonation, as she spoke. Her teeth were small and white; they reminded Blake of rice,

e to begin. She made him think of a painted marionette,

who 's on the man h

me, with monkey-like agility, and showed herself to be much tal

s man called Binha

lake's sagacious response

at do yo

he money

ace grew serious; th

h money

t I want to

edge of her divan. It was low and wide

find Binhart!" was

acknowled

ow you wh

urbed response. The blue-pa

housand pounds, in Engli

step or two

told you to give me?" he demand

she calmly suggested, wrigglin

peak. His inarticulate g

t to pull the strap of her bodice up over her white shoulder-blad

child's. Blake remembered tha

ired. He looked about for some place to

u," answered the woman, squatt

e and try," Blake

will be done from the dark. I could

ork with me in this," declared Bl

rugged a whi

ked. She put the question wi

he authorities had on Ottenheim, the ex-forger who enjoyed his parole only on condition that he remain a stool-pigeon of the high seas. He p

shing out of it the truth he sought, the truth he must in some way obtain. The woman still squatted on the div

as quietly withdrawn again. Blake dropped his right hand to his coat pocket and moved further along the w

I take back to Otte

n she showed her rice-like

g-lipped moroseness. Her venality, he began to see, was merely the ins

cream and gold. She was thrusting one arm into it when a figure drifted into the room from the matting-hung doorway on Bl

ack of unknown syllables, growing more and more excited as the dialogue continued. Her thin face darkened and changed, her white arms gyrated, the fires of anger burned in the baby-like eyes. She seemed expostulating, arguing, denouncing, and each wordy sally was met by an

it. Blake studied him with calm and patient eyes. That huge-limbed detective in his day had "pounded" too many Christ

, shook it out, and for one brief moment stood thoughtfully

ention to the actual words that she was calling out. But as he stood ther

again. Yet the words seemed foolish, for all the time as she uttered the

of English!" And then, and then only, it dawned on Blake that every word the woman was uttering was intended for

now you 're listening. But remember what I say, reme

g on him, threatening him, expostulating with him, but all in pantomime. There was som

, to put you aboard Binhart's boat. But the three of them will cut your throat, cut your throat, and then drop you overboard. He 's to get so much

impassive yellow face, he was still absorbing the shock of his news, when the outer door opened and a second Chinaman stepped in

e effect on any one in the room except the woman. She sudden

out the impassive trio. "You never heard me pea

er figures, dwarfing them by his great bulk, as assured of his

ptly won its own respect. "What 're you talking about, you two?" He turned

hey went on with their exotic cackle, as though he was no longer in their midst. They did not

, that he realized what was happening. He was not familiar with the wrist movement by which the smallest bod

te man!" she repeated in a shriller note as the Chinaman, bendin

icicle, a shaft of cutting steel ground incredibly thin, so thin, in fact, that

the arm that held the steel icicle. He was too late for that, but his fingers closed on the braided queue. By means of t

nd figure with a second steel icicle was sidling up to him. He swung viciously out and brought the tea-tray down on the hand that held this knife, crippling the fingers and sending the steel spinning across the room. Then with his free hand he tu

kes with the heavy papier-maché tea-tray, keeping their steel, by those fierce sweeps, away from his body. One Chinaman he sent sprawling, leaving him huddled and motionless against the orange-covered divan. Th

anting for breath, overcome by that momentary indifference wherein a winded athlete permits without protest an adversary to gain his momentary advantage. Then will triumphed over the weakness of the body. But before Blake could get to the woman's side he

ellow that covered the woman's body flamed into sudden scarlet. It was only as the figure with the expostulating yellow face sank to the ground, crumpling up on itself as it fell, that Blake comprehended. That quick sweep of scarlet, effacing the azure and lemon,

put. His body was moist with sweat. His asthmatic throat seemed stifling his lungs. A faint nausea crept through

ighting for breath when he saw the woman stoop and wi

ver her shoulders, for in the struggle her body had been bared almost to the waist. Blake saw the

manded, as he looked stolidl

the eviscerated body at her feet with on

Binhart!" persist

d, folding the loose folds of

ck, "Quick! Come quick!" Then she ran back, slipped the b

sure, but he thought he heard her giggle, hysterically, in the darkness. They were groping their way along a narrow pas

stairway, as steep and dark as a cistern. Blake, at the top, could smell opium smoke, and once or twice he thought he

giving it, when he felt a hand caress his side. He felt it move upward, exploringly. At

e crouching form in front of him, caught at a writhing shoulder, and tightening his grip, sent the body catapulting down the stairw

second descent, and then another to the left. They came to still another door, which they locked behind them. Then they scrambled up a ladder, and he cou

coolness, for the sense of deliverance whi

the slant of the uneven roof. He was weak for want of br

f your shoes," she warned him. "Yo

ambling across the broken sloping roofs, as quick and agile as a cat, dropping over ledges, climbing up barriers and across coping tiles. Where she w

harbor and the mild crescent of the outer bay. They could see the white wheeling fin

ing tiles against which he leaned, regaining his breath. She squat

t there breathing audibly through the

eemed something reassuring, something authoritative and comf

then shifted her position on the copi

-you can just make it out, up high, see. And those lights are the Boundary Gate. And this sweep of lights below here is the

I se

rt 's inside

kno

now

Blake, staring at the

buyer for a tea house, and calls himself Bradl

thin body. The coolness of the night air had already chil

u going to d

et Binhart," was

little childlike m

and on his arm. She was silent for a moment, b

rth of his resolution. It came to him only as an accidental after-thought that he had met an unknown woman

you do?"

d the careles

lothes somewhere. Then I 'll have a sampan take me out

hing the window of the Luiz C

rt Arthur, I suppose. There 's a

y?" Blake put the ques

the careless c

d his fingers along what he accepted as a tightly packed coin-belt. He was relieved to think that he wou

looked down at his side. "Crawl down this next roof to th

he adjoining roof, steeper even than the one on which they had stood. She bent low over

ite man," sh

e worked his way cautiously and po

. He was debating with himself just how he was to get in through that lodging-house window and what his final move would be for the round up of his enemy. He had made use of too many "molls" in his time to waste useless thought o