The Golden Scorpion | Page 6

the
tobacco jar. "I came to see if you could give me a tip on a matter that has cropped up."
"Something in my line?" asked Stuart, a keen professional look coming momentarily into
his eyes.
"It's supposed to be a poison case, although I can't see it myself," answered the
detective--to whom Keppel Stuart's unusual knowledge of poisons had been of service in
the past; "but if what I suspect is true, it's a very big case all the same."
Laying down his pipe, which he had filled but not lighted, Inspector Dunbar pulled out
from the inside pocket of his tweed coat a bulging note-book and extracted therefrom
some small object wrapped up in tissue paper. Unwrapping this object, he laid it upon the

table.
"Tell me what that is, doctor," he said, "and I shall be obliged."
Stuart peered closely at that which lay before him. It was a piece of curiously shaped gold,
cunningly engraved in a most unusual way. Rather less than an inch in length, it formed a
crescent made up of six oval segments joined one to another, the sixth terminating in a
curled point. The first and largest segment ended jaggedly where it had evidently been
snapped off from the rest of the ornament--if the thing had formed part of an ornament.
Stuart looked up, frowning in a puzzled way.
"It is a most curious fragment of jewellery--possibly of Indian origin," he said.
Inspector Dunbar lighted his pipe and tossed the match-end into the fire. "But what does
it represent?" he asked.
"Oh, as to that--I said a curious fragment advisedly, because I cannot imagine any
woman wearing such a beastly thing. It is the tail of a scorpion."
"Ah!" cried Dunbar, the tawny eyes glittering with excitement. "The tail of a scorpion! I
thought so! And Sowerby would have it that it represented the stem of a Cactus or Prickly
Pear!"
"Not so bad a guess," replied Stuart. "There are resemblances--not in the originals but in
such a miniature reproduction as this. He was wrong, however. May I ask where you
obtained the fragment?"
"I'm here to tell you, doctor, for now that I know it's a scorpion's tail I know that I'm out
of my depth as well. You've travelled in the East and lived in the East--two very different
things. Now, while you were out there, in India, China, Burma, and so on, did you ever
come across a religion or a cult that worshipped scorpions?"
Stuart frowned thoughtfully, rubbing his chin with the mouthpiece of his pipe. Dunbar
watched him expectantly.
"Help yourself to whiskey-and-soda, Inspector," said Stuart absently. "You'll find
everything on the side-table yonder. I'm thinking."
Inspector Dunbar nodded, stood up and crossed the room, where he busied himself with
syphon and decanter. Presently he returned, carrying two full glasses, one of which he set
before Stuart. "What's the answer, doctor?" he asked.
"The answer is no. I am not acquainted with any sect of scorpion-worshippers, Inspector.
But I once met with a curious experience at Su-Chow in China, which I have never been
able to explain, but which may interest you. It wanted but a few minutes to sunset, and I
was anxious to get back to my quarters before dusk fell. Therefore I hurried up my boy,
who was drawing the rickshaw, telling him to cross the Canal by the Wu-men Bridge. He
ran fleetly in that direction, and we were actually come to the steep acclivity of the bridge,

when suddenly the boy dropped the shafts and fell down on his knees, hiding his face in
his hands.
"'Shut your eyes tightly, master!' he whispered. 'The Scorpion is coming!'
"I stared down at him in amazement, as was natural, and not a little angrily; for his
sudden action had almost pitched me on my head. But there he crouched, immovable, and
staring up the slope I say that it was entirely deserted except for one strange figure at that
moment crossing the crown of the bridge and approaching. It was the figure of a tall and
dignified Chinaman, or of one who wore the dress of a Chinaman. For the extra-ordinary
thing about the stranger's appearance was this; he also wore a thick green veil!"
"Covering his face?"
"So as to cover his face completely. I was staring at him in wonder, when the boy,
seeming to divine the other's approach, whispered, 'Turn your head away! Turn your head
away!"
"He was referring to the man with the veil?"
"Undoubtedly. Of course I did nothing of the kind, but it was impossible to discern the
stranger's features through the thick gauze, although he passed quite close to me. He had
not proceeded another three paces, I should think, before my boy had snatched up the