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had made
him the leading cracksman of his day, until he had
abandoned the paths of the lawless because of his association with
Sherlock Holmes. One felt that Gilligan had
seen so much in his colorful career that no surprises remained.
    Of course, questions bombarded my
poor befuddled brain,
but fortunately I managed to preserve my silence as the quickest
means of learning what had been going on.
    Puffing furiously on his pipe,
Holmes finally broke the
silence.
    "Your deus-ex-machina appearance was
most fortunate for Doctor Watson and myself, Gilligan. Our thanks."
    The former safecracker gestured
aimlessly with one of
his abnormally long and thin arms, as though rescues from
rooftops were a daily occurrence.
    "I knew you was on the
lookout for me, Mr. 'Olmes. When
Billy told me you was investigatin' the Nonpareil Club,
I figgered there moight be a little excitement so ol'
Slim sneaked up on the locale—-sorta. I was a little leery,
you see, because of that Barker fella."
    "He contacted you?"
asked Holmes.
    "By post. Kinda caught me off
guard 'cause I didn't really
know the cove."
    "He's dead," stated
Holmes flatly.
    A nod was Gilligan's response. He
passed a sealed envelope
to Holmes.
    "Some light is coming to dark
places," said the sleuth.
"Barker sent you a letter for delivery here. He also
left a communique for me in his lodging. Let me hazard
a guess that when I consider this letter in connection with the
one already received, the true message that
Barker intended will be revealed."
    Gilligan's brow was furrowed. "But
why would 'e given a
message to me iffen I never even knew 'im?"
    "Strangely enough, Watson
here is the answer to that. Barker was one of his devoted readers.
The letter he left me
was full of references to those cases that Watson has recorded
for the reading public. Obviously, the late in vestigator
from Surrey knew of our close association, Gilligan."
    He showed good sense there, I
thought, for Slim Gil ligan
was one of the staunchest of Holmes's allies. The safecracker's
head was now nodding in understanding.
    "I will study this communique
later," continued Holmes.
"For now other vistas beckon. Have you ever heard of an object
called the Golden Bird?"
    The name meant nothing to Gilligan
and he indicated as
much.
    "It is an ancient art object,
a statue of solid gold."
    Gilligan's lips pursed in a silent
whistle. "Iffen some thing
like that was 'round, I should 'ave 'eard of it."
    "It is but recently in
England," said Holmes. "That is not
just a rumor, for Watson and I saw the object to night.
Let us try another tack, Slim. Has there been any unusual
robbery or incident lately that comes to your mind?"
    "Well, sir, always there's
somebody tryin' to take somefing from some other bloke. But wiv most
of the stuff wot's 'appened, I could make a fair guess as to 'oo is
involved."
    "As could I," said
Holmes. "So let us consider a mi nor
incident, something with an unusual twist but seemingly
unimportant."
    Gilligan's eyes narrowed in
thought. "There was that Chinaman off the Asian
Star."
    "Chinaman?" I said,
instinctively. "We were knee- deep
in Orientals tonight."
    Holmes's questioning eyes remained
glued to Gilli gan.
    "This 'ere Chinee got 'isself
knifed. Nothin' unusual about
that. Them 'eathens gamble for fair and they got Tongs
and feuds wot we don't know nuffin' abaht. The reason the story comes
to moind is that there was a fuss abaht
'is belongin's after 'e got 'isself killed. Seems 'e 'ad
this 'ere idol. 'E was a common seaman on the Asian
Star and 'is
fo'c'sle mates' remember it right enough.
But the bloomin' thing disappeared. Couple o' slant
eyes turned up claimin' the seaman was a relative and
the idol belonged to their family. Well, one Chinee looks pretty much
like another. Maybe these blokes was 'is
relatives 'n' maybe they wa'n't."
    "Was it by chance an image of
Buddha?" questioned Holmes, his eyes alight with excitement.
    "That's the nyme, Mr. 'Olmes.
You 'eard abaht it, eh?"
    "No," admitted