“One day I happened to be telling them of a curious incident that occurred on my way home.  I had travelled to England on one of Holt’s big China boats, not liking the crowd and bustle of the regular passenger-lines.  Now, one afternoon, when we had been at sea a couple of days, I took a book down to my berth, intending to have a quiet read till tea-time.  Soon, however, I dropped off into a doze, and must have remained asleep for over an hour.  I awoke suddenly, and as I opened my eyes, I perceived that the door of the state-room was half-open, and a well-dressed Chinaman, in native costume, was looking in at me.  He closed the door immediately, and I remained for a few moments paralyzed by the start that he had given me.  Then I leaped from my bunk, opened the door, and looked out.  But the alley-way was empty.  The Chinaman had vanished as if by magic.

“This little occurrence made me quite nervous for a day or two, which was very foolish of me; but my nerves were all on edge—­and I am afraid they are still.”

“Yes,” said Thorndyke.  “There was nothing mysterious about the affair.  These boats carry a Chinese crew, and the man you saw was probably a Serang, or whatever they call the gang-captains on these vessels.  Or he may have been a native passenger who had strayed into the wrong part of the ship.”

“Exactly,” agreed our client.  “But to return to Raggerton.  He listened with quite extraordinary interest as I was telling this story, and when I had finished he looked very queerly at my cousin.

“‘A deuced odd thing, this, Calverley,’ said he.  ’Of course, it may be only a coincidence, but it really does look as if there was something, after all, in that—­’

“‘Shut up, Raggerton,’ said my cousin.  ‘We don’t want any of that rot.’

“’What is he talking about?” I asked.

“’Oh, it’s only a rotten, silly yarn that he has picked up somewhere.  You’re not to tell him, Raggerton.’

“‘I don’t see why I am not to be told,’ I said, rather sulkily.  ’I’m not a baby.’

“‘No,’ said Alfred, ‘but you’re an invalid.  You don’t want any horrors.’

“In effect, he refused to go into the matter any further, and I was left on tenter-hooks of curiosity.

“However, the very next day I got Raggerton alone in the smoking-room, and had a little talk with him.  He had just dropped a hundred pounds on a double event that hadn’t come off, and I expected to find him pliable.  Nor was I disappointed, for, when we had negotiated a little loan, he was entirely at my service, and willing to tell me everything, on my promising not to give him away to Alfred.

“‘Now, you understand,’ he said, ’that this yarn about your pearl is nothing but a damn silly fable that’s been going the round in Marseilles.  I don’t know where it came from, or what sort of demented rotter invented it; I had it from a Johnnie in the Mediterranean Squadron, and you can have a copy of his letter if you want it.’