THE TOMB OF TS’IN BY EDGAR WALLACE Author of “Sanders of the River,” “Bones,” “The People of the River,” etc., etc. WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED LONDON, MELBOURNE AND TORONTO 1918 [Illustration: “They both stopped whilst he examined the ornament.”] CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION I.--CAPTAIN TED TALHAM II.--THE MAN IN THE DRAWER III.--INTRODUCES MR. SOO IV.--THE AMULET OF JADE V.--MR. SOO MAKES A DISCOVERY VI.--A CRIME OF TILLIZINNI VII.--AN AFTERNOON CALL VIII.--THE CELESTIAL WAY IX.--THE ABDUCTION X.--THE ROOMS BY THE CANAL XI.--CAPTAIN TALHAM’S PROGRESS XII.--THE MESSAGE OF THE DEAD XIII.--CAPTAIN TALHAM PROPOSES XIV.--AND RECEIVES HIS ANSWER XV.--SOO WHO CAME BACK XVI.--IN THE CITY OF HOO-SIN XVII.--THE TOMB LOCATED XVIII.--IN THE CAVERN OF THE DEAD XIX.--THE YAMEN OF T’SI SOO XX.--SOO “SAVES FACE” THE TOMB OF TS’IN The Just Crimes of Tillizinni. INTRODUCTION. Had Tillizinni written this story of the tomb of Ts’in Hwang Ti (the King of Ts’in who became Emperor literally) from the notes he had upon the case, it might have made a greater and a better book. You would have pardoned such extravagance of style as he displayed in his extraordinary narrative, remembering that he is of Italian birth and that English is too full of pitfalls to the foreigner for his liking. For of truth, though Tillizinni speaks and writes the three Arabics, Moorish (which I think is the purest), Turkish, and Russian, with considerable fluency, and though he knows at least seven dialects in the Chinese tongue, and can converse in most of the modern languages, yet English, with its bland and inviting simplicity, is a tongue which more than any other baffles and overawes him. They say of Nicholo Tillizinni, his predecessor in the chair of Anthropology at Florence, and the benefactor and more than father, whose name Tillizinni bears, that he spoke all languages save Welsh; but I have reason for believing that he never completely mastered the niceties of our tongue. Particularly did Tillizinni wish to write clearly in this story which I now tell (by his favour and at his request), for it is a story like none other I have ever heard or read. It concerns the tomb of the Great Emperor--the first Emperor of the Chinese, who died two centuries before the birth of Christ; it concerns that extraordinary genius and adventurer, Captain Ted Talham--surely the most talkative man in the world; it concerns, too, that remarkable woman, Yvonne Yale, and last but not least, The Society of Joyful Intention--the most bloodthirsty organisation the world has known. It concerns Tillizinni also, for Scotland Yard placed him on his mettle, set him a challenging task, which threatened at one time to bring ruin to the greatest detective in Europe. That it likewise brought him within an ace of losing his life, I should not think it worth while mentioning at this stage, but for the fact that scoffers might suppose that he held life dearer than fame.