Hendrik Van Eeden is one of Lockhart's contacts who he thought he could trust. He was wrong. Van Eeden is secretly the same person as Ah Ling, an extremely dangerous criminal who is the leader of The Seven Blessings, one of the deadly Chinese Triads. Van Eeden is dealing in illegal opium, attacking ships carrying the drug, stealing it, sinking the ships, mixing the opium with low quality opium, then re-selling it. He enters into an agreement with Selby to use the Selby and Lockhart company to add legitimacy to the opium he trades. When Lockhart gets wind of this he tries to interfere, and Van Eeden has him killed.
In this story, Van Eeden sails to London to tie up all the loose ends. He has Selby killed, and presumably is the man behind Bedwell's murder. He then kidnaps Sally and gives her the choice of death, or coming with him. She shoots him with the pistol in her bag and runs away. His body is never found, but he is presumed dead at the end of the story. Although Mrs. Holland is actually the main antagonist of the story, Van Eeden is much more dangerous.
