"He is killed--yes; but suppose they find the writing he has made! Suppose he has written that it is _here_ people meet together?" "Makee chit tell my name? Muchee hard luck! Number one police chop." "You say Fo-Hi not buying you bread and cheese. Perhaps it is Fo-Hi that save you from hanging!" Ah-Fang-Fu hugged himself. _"Yak pozee!"_ (Very good) he muttered. Chunda Lal raised his finger. "Be very careful, Ah-Fang-Fu!" "Allee time velly careful." "But admit no more of them to come in, these strangers." _"Tchee, tchee!_ Velly ploper. Sometime big feller come in if Pidgin palaber or not. Pidgin never lude to big feller." "Your life may depend on it," said Chunda Lal impressively. "How many are here?" Ah-Fang-Fu turned at last from his cards, pointing in three directions, and, finally, at Gaston Max. "Four?" said the Hindu--"how can it be?" He peered from bunk to bunk, muttering something--a name apparently-- after scrutinizing each. When his gaze rested upon Max he started, stared hard, and meeting the gaze of the one visible eye, made the strange sign. Max repeated it; and Chunda Lal turned again to the Chinaman. "Because of that drunken pig," he said, pointing at Bill Bean--"we must wait. See to it that he is the last." He walked slowly up the stairs, opened the door at the top and disappeared. CHAPTER VIII THE GREEN-EYED JOSS Sinister silence reclaimed the house of Ah-Fang-Fu. And Ah-Fang-Fu resumed his solitary game. _"He_ recognised 'Le Belafre'" whispered Max--"and was surprised to see him! So there are three of the gang here! Did you particularly observe in which bunks they lay, doctor. _Ssh!"_ A voice from a bunk had commenced to sing monotonously. _"Peyala peah,"_ it sang, weird above the murmured accompaniment of the other dreaming smokers and the _wash-wash_ of the tide--_"To myn-na-peah-Phir Kysee ko kyah ..."_ "He is speaking from an opium-trance," said Stuart softly. "A native song: 'If a cup of wine is drunk, and I have drunk it, what of that?'" _"Mon Dieu!_ it is uncanny!" whispered Max. _"Brr!_ do you hear those rats? I am wondering in what order we shall be admitted to the 'Scorpion's' presence, or if we shall see him together." "He may come in here." "All the better." "Gimme 'nother pipe, Pidgin," drawled a very drowsy voice from Bill Bean's corner. Ah-Fang-Fu left his eternal arranging and rearranging of the cards and crossed the room. He took the opium-pipe from the fireman's limp fingers and returning to the box, refilled and lighted it. Max and Stuart watched him in silence until he had handed the second pipe to the man and returned to his chair. "We must be very careful," said Stuart. "We do not know which are real smokers and which are not." Again there was a weird interruption. A Chinaman lying in one of the bunks began to chant in a monotonous far-away voice: _"Chong-liou-chouay Om mani padme hum."_