received from China from one of their former
agents. The report seems to have been sent to him for safety, but the
sender of it, of whose probity, by the by, the American Ambassador
pledges himself, appears to have been sent to China by you."

"Jesson!" Nigel exclaimed. "I have heard of this already, sir, from a
friend in the American Embassy."

"The dispatch," Mr. Mervin Brown went on, "is in some respects a little
vague, but it is, on the other hand, I frankly admit, disturbing. It
gives specific details as to definite military preparations on the part
of China and Russia, associated, presumably, with a third Power whose
name you will forgive my not mentioning. These preparations appear to
have been brought almost to completion in the strictest secrecy, but the
headquarters of the whole thing, very much to my surprise, I must
confess, seems to be in southern China."

"In that case," Nigel pointed out, "if you will permit me to make a
suggestion, sir, you have a very simple course open to you."

"Well?"

"Send for Prince Shan."

"Prince Shan," the Prime Minister replied, with knitted brows, "is not
over in this country officially. He has begged to be excused from
accepting or returning any diplomatic courtesies."

"Nevertheless," Nigel persisted, "I should send for Prince Shan. If it
had not been," he went on slowly, "for the complete abolition of our
secret service system, you would probably have been informed before now
that Prince Shan has been having continual conferences in this country
with one of the most dangerous men who ever set foot on these
shores--Oscar Immelan."

"Immelan has no official position in this country," the Prime Minister
objected.

"A fact which makes him none the less dangerous," Nigel insisted. "He is
one of those free lances of diplomacy who have sprung up during the last
ten or fifteen years, the product of that spurious wave of altruism
which is responsible for the League of Nations. Immelan was one of the
first to see how his country might benefit by the new regime. It is he
who has been pulling the strings in Russia and China, and, I fear,
another country."

"What I want to arrive at," Mr. Mervin Brown said, a little impatiently,
"is something definite."

"Let me put it my own way," Nigel begged. "A very large section of our
present-day politicians--you, if I may say so, amongst them, Mr. Mervin
Brown--have believed this country safe against any military dangers,
because