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In here every night, didn't she? Peo
ple say she lived alone, but of course
she had company when she wanted
it What's your idea, Mac?"
McManus looked out of the win
dow and drummed on the bar with
the blade of his oyster knife.
As I was eating in silence, thinking
of Wah-Wo and the dead girl, Caith
ness of the Consolidated Press came
in looking cold and ill, and we hastily
made room for him at our table.
"You're sick," said Lynde sharply,
"you ought to be in bed."
"I'm all right," said Caithness,
glancing at us with his large dark
eyes. "Mac, get me something hot."
' I turned again to the chops, scarce
ly listening to the voices beside me,
for I was thinking again of the dead
girl.
I had no doubt that Wah-Wo had
killed her. Again and again I had
seen his eyes fastened upon her as
she sat chatting with us, here at this
very table. The motive was clear to
me. I had spoken of this to the others
but they laughed at me. The District
Attorney took no stock in it, either.
How could anybody but a China
man, crazed with jealousy and opium,
harm the child? For she was a mere
child, this pallid victim whose soul
had mounted to the Judgment seat
from the filth of New York's China
town. I
Palel slim, childish, she had never
haunted Chinese resorts nor, to my
knowledge, had she ever touched
needle to fame. She had shunned
the women of the quarter. I seldom
saw her speak to any man except the
reporters and newspaper artists-who
came to McManus' for a midnight
chop or rarebit.
Her acquaintance with us had been
open and guileless. She chatted with
us about our business, discussed the
latest police shake-up or the newest
Tammany scandal, and glided away
into the street again followed by her
dog.
Her dog!
, A great hulking brute, with sombre
eyes and low hanging jowl a crea
ture silent, unmoved except when
she bent her pale face to his ear and
whispered. Then and then only he
would rise; shuffling from the saw
dust' and stalk after her into the
night
He never paid the slightest atten
tion to us. Calls, caresses, threats,
left him unmoved.
"What is. it you whisper into his
ear, Lil?" we often asked, but she
would only smile and answer:
"His name."
And so, as none of us knew his
name, we called him simply,, "her
dog."
It had been two months now since
Lil was found on her bed with a bullet
in her heart and the dog lying stolidly
across one bare little foot And after
we had clubbed together and buried
her, we were kinder to her dog.
Every night he came gravely into
McManus' to lie down just as he had
done when Lil sat there chatting with
us.
At first McManus was afraid that
the dog would "hoodoo the placej"
but he left the silent brute undisturb
ed, and, after a while, began to grow
fond of it
As I sat thinking of all these things,
I heard the iron door creak on its
hinges. McManus stood up saying:
"Here he comes, gents!"
Her dog entered.
Lyrife held out his hand as ' the
brute passed, and Penlow flungr a
-bone on the floor. The dog noticed
neither the caress nor the bone, but
lay down under the bar and stretched
his great limbs across the floor, sigh
ing heavily.
"There is one thing certain," said
Lynde, looking at the dog. "The man
who killed the girl was in the habit of
visiting her and that dog knew
him."
"I also believe the murderer was
known to the dog," said Penlow.
"The murderer," said Caithness,
"was her lover."
"It is strange," said L "that none '
