CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I | Mid Silent Snows | [ 9] |
| II | A Temporary Bride | [ 26] |
| III | The Deadly Foehn | [ 44] |
| IV | Whispers of Women | [ 59] |
| V | Establishes Some Curious Facts | [ 74] |
| VI | The Ham-Bone Club | [ 88] |
| VII | In the Web | [ 97] |
| VIII | Doctor Feng’s View | [ 107] |
| IX | Crooked Paths | [ 119] |
| X | In Room Number Eighteen | [ 131] |
| XI | Love vs. Honor | [ 143] |
| XII | Strange Suspicions | [ 158] |
| XIII | Spume of the Storm | [ 171] |
| XIV | In the Night | [ 191] |
| XV | More Disclosures | [ 204] |
| XVI | Growing Suspicions | [ 218] |
| XVII | Plot and Counter-plot | [ 231] |
| XVIII | Missing | [ 244] |
| XIX | At Heathermore Gardens | [ 254] |
| XX | The Child’s Air-Ball | [ 267] |
| XXI | Who Was Doctor Feng? | [ 278] |
| XXII | The Secret Disclosed | [ 298] |
THE CRYSTAL CLAW
THE CRYSTAL CLAW
CHAPTER I
MID SILENT SNOWS
“Yes, an extremely pretty girl,” remarked old Dr. Feng, bending towards me and speaking softly across the table-à-deux at which we were dining at the Kürhaus hotel at Mürren, high-up in the snow-clad Alps. “A honeymooning couple, no doubt,” he went on—“nice place this for a honeymoon!” and the white-haired old Chinese who—most unusual in one of his race, had a long white beard—smiled as he poured out a tiny glass of white curaçao, the only form of alcohol I ever saw him indulge in.
I glanced across in the direction he indicated and saw seated in a corner, a pretty dark-haired grey-eyed girl of twenty. She wore a flame-colored dance-frock, and was laughing happily as she chatted with a good-looking young man, perhaps six years or so her senior. The young fellow was smart and distinguished-looking and the girl was very handsome, with irregular features, and singularly expressive eyes, but hers was a nervous, restless physiognomy that rather chilled one at first sight. The expression in both their faces told the truth quite clearly. They were, indeed, newly wed, and they had that evening arrived on the funicular railway from Lauterbrunnen, in the valley below, by the service which had left Victoria station the previous afternoon.
“Yes, a very handsome pair,” I agreed. “I wonder who they are?”
“Don’t inquire. When you marry, Yelverton, you won’t like people to be inquisitive. All newly-married people are super-sensitive, you know,” declared my companion.
Dr. Feng Tsu’tong, despite his seventy years, did not look a day more than sixty. Much above the common height for a Chinese he possessed features of the type which seldom show many signs of advancing age. Erect and virile he carried himself like a much younger man and of his activity and endurance I had had ample proof, for, in our frequent long tramps and ski expeditions across the snow, he had shown me more than once that his muscles were equal to my own, despite the great disparity in our ages.