erhaps a little more deeply than you, and I do not believe in
conquests. For the restoration to China of such lands as belong
geographically and rightly to the Chinese Empire, I have my own plans.
You, it seems to me, would make a cat's-paw of all Asia to gratify your
hatred of England."

"A cat's-paw!" Immelan gasped. "Australia, New Zealand and India for
Japan, new lands for her teeming population; Thibet for you, all
Manchuria, and the control of the Siberian Railway!"

"These are dazzling propositions," Prince Shan admitted, "and yet--what
about the other side of the Pacific?"

"America would be powerless," Immelan insisted.

"So you said before, in 1917," was the dry reminder. "I did not come
here, however, to talk world politics with you. Those things for the
moment are finished. I came in answer to your summons."

Immelan raised himself a little in the bed.

"You meant what you said?" he demanded, with hoarse anxiety. "There was
no poison? Swear that?"

Prince Shan moved towards the door. His backward glance was coldly
contemptuous.

"What I said, I meant," he replied. "Extract such comfort from it as you
may."

He left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Immelan stared
after him, hollow-eyed and anxious. Already the cold fears were seizing
upon him once more.

Prince Shan rejoined Nigel, and the two men drove off to Downing Street.
The former was silent for the first few minutes. Then he turned slightly
towards his companion.

"The man Immelan is a coward," he declared. "It is he whom I have just
visited."

Nigel shrugged his shoulders.

"So many men are brave enough in a fight," he remarked, "who lose their
nerve on a sick bed."

"Bravery in battle," Prince Shan pronounced, "is the lowest form of
courage. The blood is stirred by the excitement of slaughter as by
alcohol. With Immelan I shall have no more dealings."

"Speaking politically as well as personally?" Nigel enquired.

The other smiled.

"I think I might go so far as to agree," he acquiesced, "but in a sense,
there are conditions. You shall hear what they are. I will speak before
you to the Prime Minister. See, up above is the sign of my departure."

Out of a little bank of white, fleecy clouds which hung down, here and
there, from the blue sky, came the _Black Dragon_, her engines purring
softly, her movements slow and graceful. Both men watched her for a
moment in silence.

"At six o'clock to-morrow morning I start