The Monticellonian., 1915-07-08
SIXTEENTH EPISODE
THE CRYPTIC RING.

Kennedy had been engaged TOT some time in the only work outside of the Dodge case which he had consented to take for weeks.
 Our old friend Dr. Leslie. the coro- ner, had appealed to him to solve a very ticklish point in Tong murder case which had set all Chinatown agog It was, indeed a very bewilder- ing case. A Chinaman named u Chang, leader of the Chang Wah Tong. had been poisoned, but so far no one had been able to determine what poi son it was or even to prove that there had been a poison, except for the fact that the man was dead, and Kennedy had taken the thing up in a great measure because of the sudden turn in the Dodge case which had brought us into such close contact with the Chinese.
 had been watching Kennedy with interest, for the Tong wars always make picturesque newspaper stories, when a knock at the door announced the arrival of Dr. Leslie, anxious for some result.
 Have you been able to find out any thing yet?" he greeted Kennedy eag erly as Craig looked up from his mi croscope.
 Kennedy turned and nodded. Your dead man was murdered by means of aconite, of which. you know, the active principle is the deadly alkaloid aconi- tine"
 
 There are several treatments for aconite poisoning" ruminated Ken nedy. q would say that one of the latest and best is digitalin given hypo- dermically" He took down a bottle of digitalin from cabinet, adding, 'only it was too late in this case"
 
 Just what the relations were be tween Long Sin and the Chong Wah Tong I have never been able to deter mine exactly. But one thing was cer- tain: Long Sin on his arrival in New York had offended the Tong, and now that his master, Wu Fang, was here the offence was even greater, for the criminal society brooked no rival.
 In the dark recesses of poorly fur nished cellar, serving as the Tong headquarters, the new leader and sew eral of his most trusted followers were now plotting revenge. Long Sin, they believed, was responsible for the mur- der, and, with truly Oriental guile. they had obtained a hold over Wu Fang's secretary.
 Their plan decided on, the China men left the headquarters and made their way separately uptown. They rejoined one another in the shelter of a rather poor house, before which was board fence, in the vicinity of a fashionable apartment house. A mo- ment's conference followed, and then the secretary glided away.
 
 Wu had taken another apartment uptown in one of the large apartment houses near a parkway.
 There Long Sin was now engaged in making all possible provisions for the safety of his master. Anyone who had happened to glance up at the roof of the tall apartment building might have seen Long Sins figure sill houetted against the sky on the top of the mansard roof near a fagpole.
 He had just finished fastening to the flagpole a stout rope which stretched taut across an areaway some twenty or thirty feet wide to the next build ing, where it was fastened to chim- ney. Again and again he tested 1t, and finally with a nod of satisfaction descended from the roof and went to the apartment of Wu.
 There, alone, he paused for few minutes to gaze in wonder at the cryp- tic ring which had been the net result so far of his efforts to find the mil lions which Bennett. as the Glutching Hand, had hidden. He wore it, strange ly enough, over his index finger and as he examined 1t he shook his head in doubt.
 Neither he nor his master had yet been able to fathom the significance of the ring
 Long Sin thought that he was unob- served But outside, looking through the keyhole, was Wus secretary, who had stolen in on the mission which had been set for him at the Tong headquarters.
 Long Sin went over to a desk and opened a secret box in which Wu had placed several packages of money -~~~.~~~~-~~~-~~~-~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~-o~~-~--~~~~~~o-