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Slowly Chan walked back to the station house. What did this mean? Evidently when Robert Fyfe announced his address to the detective, he was also proclaiming it to the battered Mr. Smith. And Smith desired to see the actor at once, on urgent business.

Charlie was getting into his flivver when the Chief came down the steps of Halekaua Hale.

“Thought you’d gone home, Charlie,” he said.

“I was for a moment delayed,” Chan explained.

His superior came up eagerly. “Anything new?”

“I remain just where I always have been,” the detective sighed.

“You're not really as much in the dark on this case as you say you are?” asked the Chief anxiously.

Chan nodded. “The man who sits in a well, sees little of the sky.”

“Well, climb out, Charlie, climb out.”

“I am planning swift ascent,” the detective answered, and starting his engine, sped off at last in the direction of his house on Punchbowl Hill.