"Carter!" cried Smith, turning to the detective, "open that door to no one--no one. Explain who I am--" "But if it is the inspector--?" "I said, open the door to _no one_!" snapped Smith. "Burke, stand exactly where you are! Carter, you can speak to whoever knocks through the letter-box. Petrie, don't move for your life! It may be here, in the hall way!..." CHAPTER IX THE CLIMBER Our search of the house of Abel Slattin ceased only with the coming of the dawn and yielded nothing but disappointment. Failure followed upon failure; for, in the grey light of the morning, our own quest concluded, Inspector Weymouth returned to report that the girl, Karamaneh, had thrown him off the scent. Again he stood before me, the big, burly friend of old and dreadful days: a little greyer above the temples, which I set down for a record of former horrors; but deliberate, stoical, thorough, as ever. His blue eyes melted in the old generous way as he saw me, and he gripped my hand in greeting. "Once again," he said, "your dark-eyed friend has been too clever for me, doctor. But the track, as far as I could follow, leads to the old spot. In fact"--he turned to Smith, who, grim-faced and haggard, looked thoroughly ill in that grey light--"I believe Fu-Manchu's lair is somewhere near the former opium-den of Shen-Yan--'Singapore Charlie'!" Smith nodded. "We will turn our attention in that direction," he replied, "at a very early date." Inspector Weymouth looked down at the body of Abel Slattin. "How was it done?" he asked softly. "Clumsily for Fu-Manchu," I replied. "A snake was introduced into the house by some means--" "By Karamaneh!" rapped Smith. "Very possibly by Karamaneh," I continued firmly. "The thing has escaped us." "My own idea," said Smith, "is that it was concealed about his clothing. When he fell by the open door it glided out of the house. We must have the garden searched thoroughly by daylight." "_He_"--Weymouth glanced at that which lay upon the floor--"must be moved; but otherwise we can leave the place untouched, clear out the servants, and lock the house up!" "I have already given orders to that effect," answered Smith. He spoke wearily and with a note of conscious defeat in his voice. "Nothing has been disturbed"--he swept his arm around comprehensively--"papers and so forth you can examine at leisure." Presently we quitted that house upon which the fateful Chinaman had set his seal, as the suburb was awakening to a new day. The clank of milk-cans was my final impression of the avenue to which a dreadful minister of death had come at the bidding of the death lord. We left Inspector Weymouth in charge and returned to my rooms, scarcely exchanging a word upon the way.