Spurred by this prospect the head of the River Police set his men to search every possible haunt from a village three miles above Bane Kow to the lust houses below the Concessions, Having started the task, he went to visit some of the principal theatres, entering in each case from behind the stage and surveying the audience, Arrived at the Ta-wa-tai, his eye fell on & Szechuanese who had recently been in prison for robbery. This man was busy watching the Play when the head of police sat down beside him and asked him how ho was getting on. Conversation was rather dificult, till the! head of police asked how much the Szechuanese would take to tell all he knew ubout the piracy. Terms were' arranged and before long the police were on the track of the leader of the gang, and the arrest different hotels practised a sort of "family, coach" at short intervals. They brought plenty of money with them and established quite'a reputation for reckless gam-dung and debauchery. On the morning of the piracy, as now appears, the whole party gave up their rooms in the hotels and on the next day each section took rooms in a different hotel from the one it had left. Though the number arrested is 23, i that nine of the Szechuanese are still at large as scme of those arrested are only associates of the members of the: band in their gambling before the racy. So far only two of these friends of the pirates have man-axed to get free from the grip of the Taw.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.