“me wishee see you,” said the apparition, smiling blandly; “me comee in?”
“come in, by all means,” i said without enthusiasm, and, switching on the light in my study, i admitted the chinaman and stood facing him with an expression upon my face which i doubt not was the reverse of agreeable.
my visitor, who wore a slop-shop suit, also wore a wide-brimmed bowler hat; now, the set bland smile still upon his yellow face, he removed the bowler and pointed significantly to his skull.
his pigtail had been severed some three inches from the root!
“you gotchee my pigtail,” he explained; “me callee get it—thank you.”
“thank you,” i said grimly. “but i must ask you to establish your claim rather more firmly.”
“yessir,” agreed the chinaman.
and thereupon in tolerable pidgin english he unfolded his tale. he proclaimed his name to be hi wing ho, and his profession that of a sailor, or so i understood him. while ashore at suez he had become embroiled with some drunken seamen: knives had been drawn, and in the scuffle by some strange accident his pigtail had been severed. he had escaped from the conflict, badly frightened, and had run a great distance before he realized his loss. since southern chinamen of his particular tong hold their pigtails in the highest regard, he had instituted inquiries as soon as possible, and had presently learned from a chinese member of the crew of the s.s. jupiter that the precious queue had fallen into the hands of a fireman on that vessel. he (hi wing ho) had shipped on the first available steamer bound for england, having in the meanwhile communicated with his friend on the jupiter respecting the recovery of the pigtail.
“what was the name of your friend on the jupiter?”
“him li ping—yessir!”—without the least hesitation or hurry.
i nodded. “go on,” i said.
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.
i took the pigtail from my pocket and dangled it before his eyes.
“suppose you come into my study,” i said, “and explain matters.”
we entered the room which had been the scene of so many singular happenings. the detective and i seated ourselves, but the scotsman, holding the chinaman by the neck as though he had been some inanimate bundle, stood just within the doorway, one of the most gigantic specimens of manhood i had ever set eyes upon.
“you do the talking, sir,” he directed the detective; “ye have all the facts.”
while durham talked, then, we all listened—excepting the chinaman, who was past taking an intelligent interest in anything, and who, to judge from his starting eyes, was being slowly strangled.
“the gentleman,” said durham—“mr. nicholson—arrived two days ago from the east. he is a buyer for a big firm of diamond merchants, and some weeks ago a valuable diamond was stolen from him———”
“by this!” interrupted the scotsman, shaking the wretched hi wing ho terrier fashion.
“by hi wing ho,” explained the detective, “whom you see before you. the theft was a very ingenious one, and the man succeeded in getting away with his haul. he tried to dispose of the diamond to a certain isaac cohenberg, a singapore moneylender; but isaac cohenberg was the bigger crook of the two. hi wing ho only escaped from the establishment of cohenberg by dint of sandbagging the moneylender, and quitted the town by a boat which left the same night. on the voyage he was indiscreet enough to take the diamond from its hiding-place and surreptitiously to examine it. another member of the chinese crew, one li ping—otherwise ah fu, the accredited agent of old huang chow!—was secretly watching our friend, and, knowing that he possessed this valuable jewel, he also learned where he kept it hidden. at suez ah fu attacked hi wing ho and secured possession of the diamond. it was to secure possession of the diamond that ah fu had gone out east. i don't doubt it. he employed hi wing ho—and hi wing ho tried to double on him!
“we are indebted to you, mr. knox, for some of the data upon which we have reconstructed the foregoing and also for the next link in the narrative. a fireman ashore from the jupiter intruded upon the scene at suez and deprived ah fu of the fruits of his labours. hi wing ho seems to have been badly damaged in the scuffle, but ah fu, the more wily of the two, evidently followed the fireman, and, deserting from his own ship, signed on with the jupiter.”
while this story was enlightening in some respects, it was mystifying in others. i did not interrupt, however, for durham immediately resumed:
“the drama was complicated by the presence of a fourth character—the daughter of cohenberg. realizing that a small fortune had slipped through his fingers, the old moneylender dispatched his daughter in pursuit of hi wing ho, having learned upon which vessel the latter had sailed. he had no difficulty in obtaining this information, for he is in touch with all the crooks of the town. had he known that the diamond had been stolen by an agent of huang chow, he would no doubt have hesitated. huang chow has an international reputation.
“however, his daughter—a girl of great personal beauty—relied upon her diplomatic gifts to regain possession of the stone, but, poor creature, she had not counted with ah fu, who was evidently watching your chambers (while hi wing ho, it seems, was assiduously shadowing ah fu!). how she traced the diamond from point to point of its travels we do not know, and probably never shall know, but she was undeniably clever and unscrupulous. poor girl! she came to a dreadful end. mr. nicholson, here, identified her at bow street to-night.”
now the whole amazing truth burst upon me.
“i understand!” i cried. “this”—and i snatched up the pigtail—
“that my pigtail,” moaned hi wing ho feebly.
mr. nicholson pitched him unceremoniously into a corner of the room, and taking the pigtail in his huge hand, clumsily unfastened it. out from the thick part, some two inches below the point at which it had been cut from the chinaman's head, a great diamond dropped upon the floor!
for perhaps twenty seconds there was perfect silence in my study. no one stooped to pick the diamond from the floor—the diamond which now had blood upon it. no one, so far as my sense informed me, stirred. but when, following those moments of stupefaction, we all looked up—hi wing ho, like a phantom, had faded from the room!
