Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Stanford University, SUL Books in the Public Domain) SECRET SERVICE. THE BRADYS' CHINESE CLEW. OR, The Secret Dens of Pell Street BY A New-York Detective. AUGUST 19th 1910. No 604. 5 Cents. FRANK TOUSEY PUBLISHER 24 UNION SQUARE. NEW-YORK. SECRET SERVICE OLD AND YOUNG KING BRADY, DETECTIVES _Issued Weekly--By Subscription $2.50 per year. Entered as Second Class Matter at the New York, N. Y., Post Office, March 1, 1899. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1910, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D.C., by Frank Tousey, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York._ [Illustration: Old King Brady and Alice, peering in between the curtains, saw enough. Harry had got himself into a bad fix. There he lay on the floor with three Chinamen bending over him. One held a box, another a long glass vial. What were they about?] CHAPTER I. CAUGHT IN A TRAP. Late in the evening on August 12th, 19--, one of the heaviest thunder storms known in many years broke over the city of New York. The storm was accompanied by a terrific gale; trees were blown down, sign boards wrecked, houses were unroofed, sewers overflooded, and there was a general shake-up all along the line. Of course, lives were lost here and there, especially on the rivers. It taxed the memory even of the oldest inhabitant to recall such another storm. During the height of the gale two gentlemen sat in the famous Tuxedo restaurant, that delight of chop suey fiends and slumming parties, on Pell street, Chinatown, indulging in a late supper, Chinese style. One was an elderly man of striking appearance and peculiar dress. He wore a long blue coat with brass buttons, an old-fashioned stock and stand-up collar, while hanging to a peg above his head was a big white felt hat with an unusually broad brim. His companion was a bright looking young fellow in his twenties. The two men were none other than the world-famous detectives, the Bradys of the Brady Detective Bureau, Union Square, New York. "Heavens, how it rains, governor," remarked Young King Brady as there was an extra loud splash against the window near which they sat. "An awful storm, indeed," remarked the old detective. "It wouldn't surprise me if after all Mr. Butler did not come." "He spoke in his letter of being quite feeble." "Yes, and yet he gave his age at only sixty-five." "Some men wear better than others." "Decidedly so. We can only wait and see. I hate to disappoint Alice. There is no telling what difference it may make to her." A deafening thunderclap interrupted the conversation. Evidently the Bradys had come to Pell street for a purpose. The storm continued to rage.