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Holmes and Gilligan departed
together and I as
sumed
that my friend was leading the cracksman to the
upper
story, where there was access to the roof of
221B.
Gilligan had a pronounced preference for roof
tops.
How he intended to vacate our residence and
reach
the adjacent building I had not the faintest idea
but
I had no doubt that he would accomplish this feat,
and
with ease. Holmes had many times mentioned that
the
mark of the expert was the ability to make the diffi
cult
seem commonplace and, considering some of his
own
amazing solutions to baffling problems, I was cer
tainly
ready to agree with him.

In but a short time, Holmes
returned with a satisfied
air.

"It is said that one is
judged by one's associates,
which
makes me the most fortunate of men. To secure an aide who will follow
instructions implicitly is one
thing
and not an easy one. But to secure a Gilligan who
can
think on the spot and adapt himself to a changing
scene,
that is a treasure indeed."

Through my mind flashed a series
of incidents when
I
had blundered on a wrong trail, and my face must
have
expressed this painful recollection or possibly
Holmes
divined the memories that his comment would
awaken.

"Come now, good fellow, we
all make our contribu
tions
in our particular style and where would I have
been
on many occasions without your invaluable presence?"
Sentiment was rare for the sleuth and I could see
him
erase it promptly. "To prove my point," he contin
ued,
"do you have readily available that piece of heavy
ordnance
you carry on occasion?"

"I can secure it in a trice,"
I stammered, quickly,
glad
to be of some use.

"Do so by all means and check
its load. I shall cau
tion
Mrs. Hudson and Billy not to answer the door be
low
without alerting us first. Some caution from here on
in
will not be amiss."

When we retired for the night, I
had the feeling that our cozy domicile was in a state of seige, a
most unusual situation indeed.

14

The
Removal of the Bird

147

The following morning there was no
trace of the
Chinaman
on the street outside. Holmes, with his
breakfast
coffee at hand, wrote a cable to the Trans-
Continental
Insurance Company advising them to settle
the
claim of Amos Gridley, and composed another to
Vasil
D'Anglas in Berlin intimating that the Bird might
be
in his possession shortly.

This last communique piqued my
interest, of course.

"Then you really expect Basil
Selkirk to place the
statue
in your hands."

"How I wish I had a direct
answer for you, Watson. He said he would and there was no reason for
him to
make an idle
promise. Unless it was a ploy to gain time.
But
time for what? Selkirk spent a great deal of money
securing
the Bird for the sheer joy of foiling his rival,
Chu
San Fu. Why relinquish his prize at the moment of triumph? Wait!"
Holmes said, suddenly.

Whatever idea had come to his
mind, it was sufficiently promising to cause him to spring from
his chair
at the
breakfast table and begin to pace our sitting room
nervously.

"It ties in," he
muttered, after four or five circuits of the immediate area. His thin
face dominated by the fa
mous
hawklike nose centered on me and there was a
realization
in his piercing eyes. "Let us backtrack, good
fellow.
We were decoyed from London to Berlin and upon arrival were under the
surveillance of at least two
Chinese.
They stayed with us as far as Serbia and then
disappeared.
Upon our return to London and during
our
excursion to St. Aubrey, there was no sign of them.
Then
last night we were again under the observation of
a
tool of Chun San Fu. Why, it is all becoming as plain
as
a pike staff. The Oriental divined that Amos Gridley
was
the man who secured the Golden Bird from Dow
son.
He did not realize that the wood-worker was but
an
emissary and assumed that if he could find him, he
would
find the statue. Knowing we were also on the trail of the Bird, he
lured us from London at the time
that
he closed in on Gridley." An added thought fur
rowed
Holmes's brow and he resumed his pacing for a
moment
before continuing.

"Why his hatchet men should
follow us on the Orient Express is puzzling. My theory grows thin
there. However, of a sudden, we are of interest to Chu again
even
though he has
disposed of Gridley without retrieving the
Bird
and has certainly realized that Basil Selkirk is the man who has
thwarted him."

Another thoughtful silence allowed
me to try and col
lect
my thoughts. "Dear me, Holmes, I am more confused than
ever."

"As well you might be. But
consider Selkirk, the
master
chessman who uses men as pawns and countries as bishops. Selkirk
realizes that Chu's attention will be
attracted
to him. In his guarded enclave this might
cause
him scant concern, but still, he does not underestimate Chu.
Fortuitously, a splendid catspaw drops into
his
lap. Something to divert the Oriental crime tsar
away
from him."

"A catspaw?"

"That we are both looking at,
my good Watson. We
are
the catspaw. Basil Selkirk lets it be known that we
shall
be in possession of the Golden Bird, which ex
plains
the Chinaman's renewed interest in our move
ments."

Holmes crossed to the window with
his quick stride.

"No watcher in evidence,
which tells us nothing.

Chu's spies may have secured a
less conspicuous van
tage
point than a dark doorway. But here come, not
one,
but two carriages and it seems as though they will
stop
outside." Turning to me with that bright, almost
small-boy
look of triumph, he repeated a favorite
phrase
of his: "It had to be."

It was. Joining Holmes at his
observation point I watched two closed carriages come to a stop at
the curbing adjacent to our door. There seemed to be a
number
of burly men in the vehicles, but only one
emerged
from the lead one. It was the heavily built Sam
Merton.
There was a box in his hand and he gave the
street
a rapid glance up and down before proceeding to
the
entrance to 221B, with that insolent grace fre
quently
evident in the very powerful. I had last seen the professional boxer
in Selkirk's castle. A known intimate of Count Negretto Sylvius,
Dowson's right-hand man, I
was
not surprised to see the puglilist on this mission once
Holmes
had explained what was in the wind.

Since our dwelling had been placed
on the alert the
night
previous, Holmes signaled to Billy, the page boy,
from
our landing. A sudden thought caused me to dash
upstairs
to my room and when I returned with the reas
suring
weight of a revolver in my dressing-gown pocket,
Merton
had already been shown up. The fighter was
standing,
somewhat awkwardly, beside the desk on
which
he had deposited the box in his keeping.

"There, Guv," he was
saying to Holmes, "is the
bloody
box what I was tol' to give ya. No one tol' me
what's
in it but the big man said you would know."

"Let us say I have an idea,"
responded Holmes, laconically. "Sam, I had hopes for you
but you're back to your old tricks, I see."

Rather than take umbrage, Merton
nervously shifted
from
one foot to the other. Belatedly, he removed his
cap
and, for all the world, resembled a nervous student
brought
before the headmaster.

"We all gotta live, Mr.
'Olmes. Me speed ain't wot it
was,
ya know, but I can still drop 'em if I can get to
'em,"
he added, with a flash of pride. "You spotted me
down
at Selkirk's in St. Aubrey. You knew I was back
on
the shady side."

"I knew that you again became
involved with Count Sylvius over three months ago," said Holmes,
sternly. "I
don't
know what to do about you, Sam."

"Don't worry Mr. Holmes.
Maybe it ain't as bad you
think."
Nervously, he made his way to the door.

"You take care of yourself,
Mr. 'Olmes."

With that he was gone. It had been
an unusual ex
change,
but I knew that ever since the Crown Diamond
Affair,
the bruiser with the slab-sided face had been in
complete
awe of Holmes.

My friend erased the disappointed
expression from
his
face and turned his thoughts from the wayward
fighter
to matters at hand. Crossing to the box, his thin
and
dexterous fingers released the twine encircling it.

"Let us view the prize,
Watson, but with dispatch. As our American cousins might say—we
have a hot potato
here."

With the lid off, he extracted the
statue from the box and placed it on the desk top, stepping back to
view the object which had left a trail of violence and death behind
it.

To my untrained eye, it appeared
identical to the
Bird
we had seen in Dowson's office at the Nonpareil Club. It was of a
peculiar whitish gold and glistened in
the
morning sunlight that suffused the room. Its face
was
as fierce as a falcon in flight and the legs of the
legendary
creature seemed capable of grasping a minia
ture
world. The workmanship was exquisite and I had
never
seen anything quite like it before. But then, how
often
does one see a roc?

Holmes gave the object a rapid
inspection with his
pocket
glass and seemed satisfied.

"It appears genuine, Watson,
though I'd like to have
an
art expert verify my opinion. But time is pressing."

"You feel Chu will attempt to
take it away from us?"

"He ordered an assault on the
Dowson gang in their own back yard, you might say. Our lodgings
should
hold no
terror for him. However, he must plan the
method
of separating us from the object and while the
wily
Oriental is so occupied, we shall take action."