"This place, as you see for yourself, is an opium den, and these gentlemen," indicating the Chinamen on the mattresses, the two men at the foot of the stairs, and his companion, "are sailors. Opium smoking is forbidden among sailors in the employ of English vessels, and we thought when you came in that you were an officer from one of the vessels, who had managed to find out the den, and had come here to make yourself unpleasant. That is why I sent those men to guard the door and the stairs. If you had been what we thought you--well, I'm afraid you'd have been rather roughly handled. We don't intend to allow ships' officers, or anyone else, to come here interfering with our pleasures or with our takings, for, of course, we don't run the den out of charity. Now that I know it's all right, I'll just have a word with my friends on the stairs, and tell them that they needn't stand on guard any more. They'll be glad to get away, for they are thirsty rascals both, and were just off for a drink when you came in." Taking his companion by the arm, he walked out upon the landing, where all four of them began whispering together. Scarcely were they out of the room when, from the mattress where the two Chinamen lay, a single word, uttered softly, warningly, stealthily, almost in a whisper, under the breath, reached my ear. It was my own Christian name, spoken in unmistakable English: "Max!" CHAPTER III. THE LUCIFER THAT SAVED MY LIFE. Surprised, not to say startled, I certainly was, and all the more so for the reason that I recognised the voice of the speaker. It was that of my long time friend and at one time colleague, Robert Grant, the detective. When I turned round--not suddenly or abruptly, for I feared to attract the attention, possibly the suspicion, of the four men still whispering on the landing--the two Chinamen were still sucking nonchalantly at their flute-shaped opium pipes, and still eyeing me, as I have already said, as pigs, lying on a muck-heap in the sunshine, eye a terrier who has entered their domain. Stretching my arms, I affected to yawn, as if tired of waiting the result of the conference outside. Then, hands deep in my trousers pockets, I slouched leisurely across the room and bent over the Chinamen's mattress, as if to examine the picture of the Crucifixion which was plastered on the wall above. The nearer of the two Chinamen made a great pretence of puffing noisily at his pipe, as if trying hard to prevent it from going out, but between each puff came a volley of whispered words in soft staccato: "Make pretence to be friendly with them--disarm suspicion--but get away--if they'll let you--go to police station--say it's me--arrest the lot. Look out--they're coming--go away!" The "they" were the leader and the other man.