{"product_id":"2940013743694","title":"The Flying Squad","description":"Lady's Stairs was a crazy wooden house overlooking and overhanging the\u003cbr\u003ecreek between canal and river. You saw it from the lock that marked the\u003cbr\u003eplace where canal ended and the broad, muddy estuary began, a sagging\u003cbr\u003ebarn of a place, supported on huge wooden piles, with a dingy facade\u003cbr\u003ewhich had once been painted white, and then not painted again. It was\u003cbr\u003estreaked and blurred by nature to strange neutral shades that would have\u003cbr\u003erendered it invisible but for the fact that it was wedged between a high\u003cbr\u003ewarehouse on the one side and the barrel-roof of an ironworks on the\u003cbr\u003eother. Beneath the main rooms the creek ran, rising to within a few feet\u003cbr\u003eof Li Yoseph's sitting-room in flood-time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLady's Stairs, whence it took its name, has vanished. Once this dark and\u003cbr\u003eoily waste had been a pleasant backwater to the Thames, and there was\u003cbr\u003estill evidence of its one-time pastoral character. Stock Gardens was a\u003cbr\u003eslum that ran parallel with the canal; Lavender Lane and Lordhouse Road\u003cbr\u003ewere no less unsavoury; and where the tenements raised their ugly heads,\u003cbr\u003eand the squeals of playing children sounded night and day, was still\u003cbr\u003ecalled The Meadows.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLi Yoseph used to sit in his little room and watch the colliers tie up\u003cbr\u003eat Brands Wharf at high tide, and see the barges towed slowly towards\u003cbr\u003ethe lock. He found cause for satisfaction that, by craning his neck\u003cbr\u003ethrough the window, he could also see the big Dutch steamers that went\u003cbr\u003edown Thames River to the sea.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe police had nothing against Li Yoseph. They knew him to be a fence\u003cbr\u003eand a smuggler, but they had no positive evidence, and did not expect to\u003cbr\u003efind more on this fatal visit of theirs than they had upon previous\u003cbr\u003evisits.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll the neighbourhood thought Li was rich, and knew for certain that he\u003cbr\u003ewas mad.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe had a habit of holding lengthy conversations with invisible friends.\u003cbr\u003eAs he shuffled through the streets, a strange-looking creature with his\u003cbr\u003ebig yellow face as hairless as a child's, yet wrinkled and creased into\u003cbr\u003ea thousand criss-crossing lines, he would be talking and gesticulating\u003cbr\u003eand smiling dreadfully to his unseen companions. Mostly he spoke in a\u003cbr\u003eforeign language which was believed to be German, but was in fact\u003cbr\u003eRussian. He confessed to an acquaintance with fairies--good fairies and\u003cbr\u003ebad; he saw and conversed with dead men, who told him the strangest\u003cbr\u003etales of unknown worlds. And he was a seer, for he foresaw the future\u003cbr\u003esurprisingly.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079660716272,"sku":"2940013743694","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013743694_p0.jpg?v=1763589672","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013743694","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}