Neeland was in excellent humour. He had not the slightest inclination to sleep. He sat on the side of his bed, smoking, the olive-wood box lying open beside him, and its curious contents revealed.

But now, as he carefully examined the papers, photographs, and drawings, he began to take the affair a little more seriously. And the possibility of further trouble raised his already high spirits and caused that little drop of Irish blood to sing agreeably in his veins.

Dipping into Herr Wilner’s diary added a fillip to the increasing fascination that was possessing him.

“Well, I’m damned,” he thought, “if it doesn’t really look as though the plans of these Turkish forts might be important! I’m not very much astonished that the Kaiser and the Sultan desire to keep for themselves the secrets of these fortifications. They really belong to them, too. They were drawn and planned by a German.” He shrugged. “A rotten alliance!” he muttered, and picked up the bronze Chinese figure to examine it.

“So you’re the Yellow Devil I’ve heard about!” he said. “Well, you certainly are a pippin!”

Inspecting him with careless curiosity, he turned the bronze over and over between his hands, noticing a slight rattling sound that seemed to come from within but discovering no reason for it. And, as he curiously 184 considered the scowling demon, he hummed an old song of his father’s under his breath:

“Wan balmy day in May
Th’ ould Nick come to the dure;
Sez I ‘The divil’s to pay,
An’ the debt comes harrd on the poor!’
His eyes they shone like fire
An’ he gave a horrid groan;
Sez I to me sister Suke,
‘Suke!!!!
Tell him I ain’t at home!’

“He stood forninst the dure,
His wings were wings of a bat,
An’ he raised his voice to a roar,
An’ the tail of him switched like a cat,
‘O wirra the day!’ sez I,
‘Ochone I’ll no more roam!’
Sez I to me brother Luke,
‘Luke!!!!
Tell him I ain’t at home!’”

As he laid the bronze figure away and closed, locked and strapped the olive-wood box, an odd sensation crept over him as though somebody were overlooking what he was doing. Of course it could not be true, but so sudden and so vivid was the impression that he rose, opened the door, and glanced into the private washroom—even poked under the bed and the opposite sofa; and of course discovered that only a living skeleton could lie concealed in such spaces.

His courage, except moral courage, had never been particularly tested. He was naturally quite fearless, even carelessly so, and whether it was the courage of ignorance or a constitutional inability to be afraid never bothered his mind because he never thought about it. 185

Now, amused at his unusual fit of caution, he stretched himself out on his bed, still dressed, debating in his mind whether he should undress and try to sleep, or whether it were really worth while before he boarded the steamer.