The Yellow Snake, or The Black Tenth

Book excerpt: 'The Yellow Snake', also known as 'The Black Tenth', is a thriller novel by Edgar Wallace. The story begins at a house in Siangtan, owned by Joe Bray's. Joe was unique even in China, to which so many unusual personalities have drifted since the days of Marco Polo. The house was of stone and had been designed by one Pinto Huello, a drunken Portuguese architect, who had left Portugal in circumstances discreditable to himself, and had drifted via Canton and Wuchau to this immense and untidy town. The general theory is that Pinto drew his plans after a night of delirium in a paradise of smoke, and had amended them in remorse. The change of plans came when the building was half erected, so that the portion of 'Northward' which had so strong a resemblance to the porcelain tower, stood for Pinto in his unregenerate mood, and all that had any likeness to a riverside go-down fairly represented the erratic Portuguese in the period of reaction.