The Lost Mine

      LAID down my bankbook with a sigh.

      “It is a curious thing,” I observed,“but my overdraft never seems to grow any less.”

      "And it perturbs you not? Me, if I had an overdraft, never should I close my eyes all night,” declared Poirot.

      “You deal in comfortable balances, I suppose!” I retorted “Four hundred and forty-four pounds”our and fourpence,” said Poirot with some complacency. "A neat figure,is it not?”

      ‘It must be tact on the part of your bank manager. He is evidently acquainted with your passion for symmetrical details. What about investing, say three hundred of it, in the Porcupine oil fields? Their prospectus, which is advertised in the papers today, says that they will pay one hundred percent in dividends next year."

      “Not for me/” said Poirot, shaking his head. t” like not the sensational. For me the safe, the prudent investment一les rentes, the consols, the—how do you call it?—the conversion.”

      “Have you never made a speculatI have investment?”

      “Nof mon amiy” replied Poirot severely. have not. And the only shares I own which have not what you call the gilded edge are fourteen thousand shares in the Burma Mines, Ltd."

      Poirot paused with an air of waiting to be encouraged to go on. “Yes?” I prompted

      “And for them I paid no cash—no, they were the reward of the exercise of my little gray cells. You would like to hear the story? Yes?” “Of course I would.”

      "These mines are situated in the interior of Burma about two hundred miles inland from Rangoon. They were discovered by the Chinese in the fifteenth century and worked down to the time of the Mohammedan Rebellion, being finally abandoned in the year I868. The Chinese extracted the rich lead-silver ore from the upper part of the ore body, smelting it for the silver alone, and leaving large quantities of rich lead-bearing slag. This, of course, was soon discovered when prospecting work was carried out in Burma, but owing to the fact that the old workings had become full of loose filling and water, all attempts to find the source of the ore proved fruitless. Many parties were sent out by syndicates, and they dug over a large area, but this rich prize still eluded them. But a representatI have of one of the syndicates got on the track of a Chinese family who were supposed to have still kept a record of the situation of the mine. The present head of the family was one Wu Ling.”

      “What a fascinating page of commercial romance!” I exclaimed.

      “s it not? Ah, mon ami9 one can have romance without goldenhaired girls of matchless beauty—no, I am wrong； it is auburn hair that so excites you always. You remember—”

      “Go on with the story,” I said hastily,

      “Eh bxeriy my friend, this Wu Ling was approached. He was an estimable merchant, much respected in the province where he live. He admited at once that he owned the documents in question, and was perfectly prepared to negotiate for this sale, but he objected to dealing with any other than principals. Finally it was arranged that he should journey to England and meet the directors of an important company.

      "Wu Ling made the journey to England in the S.S. Assunta, and the Assunta duly docked at Southampton on a cold, foggy morning in November. One of the directors, Mr. Pearson, went down to Southampton to meet the boat, but owing to the fog, the train down was very much delayed, and by the time he arrived, Wu Ling had disembarked and left by special train for London. Mr. Pearson returned to town somewhat annoyed, as he had no idea where the Chinaman proposed to stay. Later in the day, however, the offices of the company were rung up on the telephone. Wu Ling was staying at the Russell Square Hotel. He was feeling somewhat unwell after the voyage, but declared himself perfectly able to attend the board meeting on the following day.

      “he meeting of the board took place at eleven o'clock. When halfpast eleven came, and Wu Ling had not put in an appearance, the secretary rang up the Russell Hotel. In answer to his inquiries, he was told that the Chinaman had gone out with a friend about halfpast ten. It seemed clear that he had started out with the intention of coming to the meeting, but the morning wore away, and he did not appear. It was, of course, possible that he had lost his way, being unacquainted with London, but at a late hour that night, he had not returned to the hotel. Thoroughly alarmed now, Mr. Pearson put matters in the hands of the police. On the following day, there was still no trace of the missing man, but towards evening of the day after that again, a body was found in the Thames which proved to be thatof the ill-fated Chinaman. Neither on the body, nor in the luggage at the hotel, was there any trace of the papers relating to the mine.

      “At this juncture, mon ami, I was brought into the afFair. Mr. Pearson called upon me. While profoundly shocked by the death of Wu Ling, his chief anxiety was to recover the papers which were the object of the Chinaman's visit to England. The main anxiety of the police, of course, would be to track down the murderer—the recovery of the papers would be a secondary consideration. What he wanted me to do was to cooperate with the police while acting in the interests of the company.

      “I consented readily enough. It was clear that there were two fields of search open to me. On the one hand, I might look among the employees of the company who knew of the Chinaman's coming； on the other, among the passengers on the boat who might have been acquainted with his mission. I started with the second, as being a narrower field of search. In this I coincided with Inspector Miller, who was in charge of the case_a man altogether different to our friend Japp, conceited, ill-mannered and quite insufferable. Together we interviewed the officers of the ship. They had little to tell us. Wu Ling had kept much to himself on the voyage. He had been intimate with but two of the other passengers~one a broken-down European named Dyer who appeared to bear a somewhat unsavory reputation, the other a young bank clerk named Charles Lester, who was returning from Hong Kong. We were lucky enough to obtain snapshots of both these men. At the moment there seemed little doubt that if either of the two was implicated, Dyer was the man. He was