service in the house by the waterside, and they knew

nothing whatever of his private affairs.

By the next day I had, except for a slight headache,

completely recovered from the effects of Poirot's gas

bomb. We went down together to Chinatown and

searched the house from which I had been rescued. The

premises consisted of two ramshackle houses joined

together by an underground passage. The ground floors

and the upper stories of each were unfurnished and

deserted, the broken windows covered by decaying shutters. Japp had already been prying about in the cellars,

and had discovered the secret of the entrance to the subterranean chamber where I had spent such an unpleasant

half-hour. Closer investigation confirmed the impression that it had made on me the night before. The

silks on the walls and divan and the carpets on the floors were of exquisite workmanship. Although I know very

little about Chinese art, I could appreciate that every article in the room was perfect of its kind.

With the aid of Japp and some of his men we conducted

a most thorough search of the apartment. I had

cherished high hopes that we would find documents of

importance. A list, perhaps, of some of the more important agents of the Big Four, or cipher notes of some of

their plans, but we discovered nothing of the kind. The

only papers we found in the whole place were the notes

which the Chinaman had consulted whilst he was dictating the letter to Poirot. These consisted of a very

complete record of each of our careers, and estimate of

our characters, and suggestions about the weaknesses

through which we might best be attacked.

Poirot was most childishly delighted with this discovery. Personally I could not see that it was of any

value whatever, especially as whoever compiled the

notes was ludicrously mistaken in some of his opinions.

I pointed this out to my friend when we were back in our rooms.

"My dear Poirot," I said, "you know now what the enemy thinks of us. He appears to have a grossly exaggerated idea of your brain power, and to have absurdly

underrated mine, but I do not see how we are better off

for knowing this."

Poirot chuckled in rather an offensive way.

"You do not see, Hastings, no? But surely now we

can prepare ourselves for some of their methods of attack now that we are warned of some of our faults. For

instance my friend, we know that you should think

before you act. Again, if you meet a red-haired young

woman in trouble you should eye her--what you say-askance, is it not?" Their notes had contained some absurd references to

my supposed impulsiveness, and had suggested that I

was susceptible to the charms of young women with hair

of a certain shade. I thought Poirot's reference to be in the worst of taste, but fortunately I was able to counter him.

"And what about you?" I demanded. "Are you going to try to cure your 'overweening vanity?' Your