"What do you mean by the secret rooms?"
"What I do say, Mr. Jarman," replied Mrs. Burl, with several nods, and an air of mystery. "The opium shop was near the river, and respectable to look at outside, being painted and kept clean. But the rooms--which I cleaned--were almost under the river, and furnished like Buckingham Palace. Balkis used to boast that if the police ever found out her rooms they would never leave them alive."
"Did she mean to murder them?"
"Ah, that's just what I don't know. She's a terrible woman, and has all kinds of ideas--very wicked ideas, though I must say that she is respectable for the most part. All she wanted was to make money, and she made it quicker out of the gambling rooms than in any other way. The piles of gold and notes I've seen there, sir, you wouldn't believe. And the Chinamen played an evil game called Fan-tan--"
"I know it," said Eustace, who had been in Canton.
"Then you know a wicked thing, Mr. Jarman, begging your pardon. But I had a quarrel with Balkis, as she would not give me money to dress Tilly, and I threatened to leave. Balkis said that I could go, and then like a fool, knowing the terrible woman she was, I said I'd tell the police about the secret rooms, and the gambling."
"That was indeed foolish, Mrs. Burl."
"Ah, it was, sir, and soon I found it. Balkis, when I was asleep, took Tilly--who was then a child--from my side, and hid her away."
"In effect, she kidnapped her?"
"Yes, Mr. Jarman, she did; and when I woke fair distracted, she said I would never see my child again until she made her money out of the gambling. When she shut them up and returned to America--"