MYSTERY NO. I

SHIN SHIRA APPEARS


It was very remarkable how I first came to make his acquaintance at all.
Shin Shira I mean. I had been sitting at my desk, writing, for quite a
long time, when suddenly I heard, as I thought, a noise in another part
of the room. I turned my head hastily and looked towards the door, but
it was fast closed and there was apparently nobody in the room but
myself.

"Strange!" I murmured, looking about to try and discover what had caused
the sound, and then my eyes lighted, to my great surprise, upon a pair
of bright yellow morocco shoes with very long, pointed toes, standing on
the floor in front of a favourite little squat chair of mine which I
call "the Toad."

I gazed at the yellow shoes in amazement, for they certainly did not
belong to me, and they had decidedly not been there a short time before,
for I had been sitting in the chair myself.

I had just got up to examine them, when, to my utter astonishment, I saw
a pair of yellow stockings appearing above them; an instant later, a
little yellow body; and finally, the quaintest little head that I have
ever seen, surmounted by a yellow turban, in the front of which a large
jewel sparkled and shone.

It was not the turban, however, but the face beneath it which claimed my