"We wantee you catchee Chineemans all togeller--muchee wantee!" Then he smiled blandly, and his tongue rolled over his lips as though some fruit or sweetmeat had left a pleasant taste there.
"Then, if your surprise was so successful, what caused the fire ?" said Winter, affecting a magnificent disregard of the plain facts.
Li Chang, for once, permitted his immobile features to show some semblance of anxious uncertainty.
"That," he said, "is a mystery which can, perhaps, never be solved.

But it saves your Government much trouble." In those few words he expressed quite clearly the line he adhered to throughout a long cross-examination.

Neither Winter nor the commissioner could shake him.

The fire was an accident--the outcome of an extraordinary chance.

He knew nothing whatsoever of its origin.
After a protracted debate in private between the two heads of the Criminal Investigation Department, the names and addresses of the prisoners were recorded and they were set at liberty.
Before Li Chang went away Furneaux demanded the return of the three ivory skulls, which were promptly handed over.
"One word in your ear," murmured the detective, _sotto voce_.