is impossible to know for
certain without opening every cartridge, and at a crisis like this, that
would be an impossibility. You must do as I do, and trust that your
powder will prove what it pretends to be."

"Very well, sir," returned Frobisher, bowing. "It does not seem a very
satisfactory state of affairs; but I shall do my best, I assure you."

"I am certain of it," returned Wong-lih. "And now, one last word.
Sorry as I am to have to acknowledge it, there are traitors everywhere
about us, so trust no one but yourself and your admiral. News must have
been conveyed to Japan by one of my countrymen to have enabled her fleet
to know when the transports sailed, and where to meet them. That man,
whoever he is, has Japanese gold in his pocket, and the blood of a
thousand of his countrymen on his head."

Drake and Frobisher exchanged glances involuntarily. The same suspicion
had evidently crossed the mind of each simultaneously.

"Do you suspect anyone in particular, sir?" enquired Frobisher. "If so,
perhaps you will kindly warn me in which direction to exercise the most
care."

"I am sorry to say that I do suspect someone most strongly," was
Wong-lih's reply, after a somewhat lengthy pause. "But, unfortunately,
he is so highly placed that even I dare not mention his name. If the
man so much as guessed that I suspected his treachery, I should be
assassinated within twenty-four hours; so, for my country's sake, I must
refrain from telling you something I would give a good deal to be able
to do."

"Someone very highly placed?" repeated Frobisher, drawing his chair a
little closer to Wong-lih's, and lowering his voice. "Should I be very
wide of the mark in guessing him to be a prince of the blood royal?"

Wong-lih turned pale, and glanced uneasily round him. "You would be, on
the contrary, very near the truth, if my suspicions are correct," he
replied. "That man has played many a scurvy trick in his time; but his
other delinquencies are light compared with treachery to his country;
and I fear to breathe his name in connection with so horrible a crime.
But tell me, how came you to suspect also? Have you any grounds?"

"None," replied Frobisher. "But I have met the man twice, and on each
occasion he has impressed me most unfavourably. I suppose one should
take no notice of intuitions; but he certainly looks a thorough
scoundrel, to my mind. I shall watch him as carefully as I can."

"Do," said the ad