Doubtless (Kerry mused savagely) the appointments of the opium-house had been smuggled into that magically hidden cache which now concealed the conjurer Sin Sin Wa as well as the other members of the Kazmah company.  How any man of flesh and blood could have escaped from a six-roomed house surrounded by detectives surpassed Kerry’s powers of imagination.  How any apartment large enough to contain a mouse, much less half a dozen human beings, could exist anywhere within the area covered by the search-party he failed to understand, nor was he prepared to admit it humanly possible.

Kerry chartered a taxicab by Brixton Town Hall and directed the man to drive to Prince’s Gate.  To the curious glances of certain of his neighbors who had never before seen the Chief Inspector otherwise than a model of cleanliness and spruceness he was indifferent.  But the manner in which the taxi-driver looked him up and down penetrated through the veil of abstraction which hitherto had rendered Kerry impervious to all external impressions, and: 

“Give me another look like that, my lad,” he snapped furiously, “and I’ll bash your head through your blasted wind-screen.”

A ready retort trembled upon the cabman’s tongue, but a glance into the savage blue eyes reduced him to fearful silence.  Kerry entered the cab and banged the door; and the man drove off positively trembling with indignation.

Deep in reflection the Chief Inspector was driven westward through the early morning traffic.  Fine rain was falling, and the streets presented that curiously drab appearance which only London streets can present in all its dreary perfection.  Workers bound Cityward fought for places inside trams and buses.  A hundred human comedies and tragedies were to be witnessed upon the highways; but to all of them Kerry was blind as he was deaf to the din of workaday Babylon.  In spirit he was roaming the bank of old Father Thames where the river sweeps eastward below Limehouse Causeway—­wonder-stricken before the magic of the one-eyed wizard who could at will efface himself as an artist rubs out a drawing, who could camouflage a drug warehouse so successfully that human skill, however closely addressed to the task, failed utterly to detect its whereabouts.  Above the discord of the busy streets he heard again and again that cry in the night which had come from a hapless prisoner whom they were powerless to succor.  He beat his cane upon the floor of the cab and swore savagely and loudly.  The intimidated cabman, believing these demonstrations designed to urge him to a greater speed, performed feats of driving calculated to jeopardize his license.  But still the savage passenger stamped and cursed, so that the cabby began to believe that a madman was seated behind him.

At the corner of Kennington Oval Kerry was effectually aroused to the realities.  A little runabout car passed his cab, coming from a southerly direction.  Proceeding at a rapid speed it was lost in the traffic ahead.  Unconsciously Kerry had glanced at the occupants and had recognized Margaret Halley and Seton Pasha.  The old spirit of rivalry between himself and the man from Whitehall leapt up hotly within Kerry’s breast.