“I do not know the foreign ways,” said Yo Len Fo, “but if your Excellency will deign to stay a few hours in this hovel—”
“My Excellency will not deign to stay in any hovel or palace,” said Wellington. “Where is Yeh Ling?”
“I will send for him at once,” said the old man eagerly.
“Leave him,” replied Mr. Brown with a fine gesture and began to search his pockets. To his surprise, all his money, which was not much, was intact.
“How much do I owe you?” he asked.
Yo Len Fo nodded, thereby meaning “nothing.”
“Running a philanthropic hop joint?” asked the other sarcastically.
“It has all been paid by the excellent Yeh Ling,” answered the man.
Brown grunted.
“I suppose that old devil Trasmere is behind this,” he said in English, and seeing that the man did not comprehend him, he pushed his way past Yo Len Fo and went down the uncarpeted stairs into the street. He felt terribly weak, but his heart was light. Hesitating at the end of a narrow passage, he turned to the left, otherwise he could not have failed to have run into the arms of Inspector Carver who had made a call that morning upon the proprietor of the Golden Roof.