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"Drop us somewhere handy, then," replied Smith, "and lie close in, with your ears wide open. We may have to run for it, so don't go far away." From the tone of his voice I knew that the night mystery of the Thames had claimed at least one other victim. "Dead slow," came Ryman's order. "We'll put in to the Stone Stairs."
The light drew nearer. "Launch, 'hoy!" They had seen us! Fu-Manchu's guttural voice spoke shortly and our screw began to revolve again; we leaped ahead into the bank of darkness. Faint grew the light of the police launch and was gone. But I heard Ryman's voice shouting. "Full speed!" came faintly through the darkness. "Port! Port!"
I had been wondering that very day when I went into Ryman's and saw him there. When the tumult of my disillusioning was past, my mind grew clearer. I discerned that the scope of my quest for emotion must be narrowed. That abandonment of ones self to life, that merging of ones soul in bright waters, so often suggested in Pater's writing, were a counsel impossible for to-day.
Also I remember how, one morning soon after, I went into Ryman's to order some foolish engraving for my room, and there saw, peering into a portfolio, a small, thick, rock-faced man, whose top-hat and gloves of bright dog-skin struck one of the many discords in that little city of learning or laughter. The serried bristles of his moustachio made for him a false-military air.
But how many of you ever yet went into that temple of St. John, knowing what to look for; or spent as much time in the Campo Santo of Pisa, as you do in Mr. Ryman's shop on a rainy day? But it is in the classical Greek manner instead of the Byzantine Greek manner. You have to learn the difference between these.
"I have sent the boy to Ryman's room at the station," he said. "The divisional surgeon will look after him until you arrive, Dr. Petrie. All is ready now. The launch is just off the wharf and every side of the place under observation. Where's our man?" He drew a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and raised his eyebrows interrogatively.
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