able
by his messenger.

His host intervened and explained after a few questions that the
occasion was serious. Prothero, it seemed, had been gambling.

"No," said Benham. "He is shameless. Let him do what he can."

The messenger was still reluctant to go.

And scarcely had he gone before misgivings seized Benham.

"Where IS your friend?" asked the mandarin.

"I don't know," said Benham.

"But they will keep him! They may do all sorts of things when they find
he is lying to them."

"Lying to them?"

"About your help."

"Stop that man," cried Benham suddenly realizing his mistake. But
when the servants went to stop the messenger their intentions were
misunderstood, and the man dashed through the open gate of the garden
and made off down the winding road.

"Stop him!" cried Benham, and started in pursuit, suddenly afraid for
Prothero.

The Chinese are a people of great curiosity, and a small pebble
sometimes starts an avalanche....

White pieced together his conception of the circles of disturbance that
spread out from Benham's pursuit of Prothero's flying messenger.

For weeks and months the great town had been uneasy in all its ways
because of the insurgent spirits from the south and the disorder from
the north, because of endless rumours and incessant intrigue. The stupid
manoeuvres of one European "power" against another, the tactlessness of
missionaries, the growing Chinese disposition to meet violence and force
with violence and force, had fermented and brewed the possibility of an
outbreak. The sudden resolve of Benham to get at once to Prothero was
like the firing of a mine. This tall, pale-faced, incomprehensible
stranger charging through the narrow streets that led to the
pleasure-boats in the south river seemed to many a blue-clad citizen
like the White Peril embodied. Behind him came the attendants of
the rich man up the hill; but they surely were traitors to help this
stranger.

Before Benham could at all realize what was happening he found his way
to the river-boat on which he supposed Prothero to be detained, barred
by a vigorous street fight. Explanations were impossible; he joined in
the fight.

For three days that fight developed round the mystery of Prothero's
disappearance.

It was a complicated struggle into which the local foreign traders
on the river-front and a detachment of modern drilled troops from the
up-river barracks were presently drawn. It was a struggle that was neve