There Long Sin was now engaged in making all possible provisions
for the safety of his master. Any one who had been walking along
the boulevard and had happened to glance up at the roof of the
tall apartment building might have seen Long Sin's figure
silhouetted against the sky on the top of the mansard roof near a
flagpole.

He had just finished fastening to the flagpole a stout rope which
stretched taut across an areaway some twenty or thirty feet wide
to the next building, where it was fastened to a chimney. Again
and again he tested it, and finally with a nod of satisfaction
descended from the roof and went to the apartment of Wu.

There, alone, he paused for a few minutes to gaze in wonder at the
cryptic ring which had been the net result so far of his efforts
to find the millions which Bennett, as the Clutching Hand, had
hidden. He wore it, strangely enough, over his index finger, and
as he examined it he shook his head in doubt.

Neither he nor his master had yet been able to fathom the
significance of the ring.

Long Sin thought that he was unobserved. But outside, looking
through the keyhole, was Wu's secretary, who had stolen in on the
mission which had been set for him at the Tong headquarters.

Long Sin went over to a desk and opened a secret box in which Wu
had placed several packages of money with which to bribe those
whom he wished to get into his power. It was Long Sin's mission to