"I can only tell you this," said Major Tidman, "I had a cold last night and stopped in my room. But I heard that Tung-yu was down the stairs, and, as I knew him in Canton, I went to have a look for him. He was a pleasant companion in Canton."
"Did you tell him about the fan and your adventure?"
"No, Ainsleigh, and I was annoyed that you should have let slip that I had such an adventure, I don't want to be mixed up in the matter. Tung-yu is nice enough, but if he has to do with the fan he is quite capable of turning nasty and making things unpleasant for me. But I mentioned about his advertisement, and how I came to know of it through you. He confessed that Lo-Keong had lost the fan and wished it back again, as it had to do with some family business. The finding of it was referred to the god Kwang-ho, and the priest of the god, said that two men were to search for the fan."
"Hwei and Tung-yu."
"Yes. They were to search on alternate days. If Hwei found it he was to kill the person from whom he got it. If it was Tung-yu's day he was to give the fortunate person five thousand pounds."
"And whose day was it on the night of the crime?"
"Hwei's," said the Major, "that was why Tung-yu could not buy the fan when Miss Wharf offered it to him."
[CHAPTER XII]
At the Inquest
When Mr. Orlando Rodgers of the C.I.D. rolled into the Superintendent's office the next day to relate what he had heard, he was not so glib as usual. After sleeping on the extraordinary tale he had heard from Major Tidman, and considering the fragments imparted by Clarence Burgh, and young Ainsleigh, he came to look on the matter as something to do with the Arabian Nights. The fan which the deceased lady had carried at the ball was certainly gone, and the whole of these marvellous matters connected with China, hung on the fan. But Miss Wharf may have been murdered for some other reason, and Rodgers was half inclined, when looking into the case in the cold searching morning light, to abandon the fan theory. But he delayed doing this until he had consulted with Superintendent Young, who looked after the Marport police.