real plutocrats in New York have been sold memberships in
that instrument of propaganda by the wily sons of Nippon. The Japan
Society is supposed to be a vehicle for establishing friendlier
commercial and social relations between the United States and Japan.
The society gives wonderful banquets and yammers away about the
Brotherhood of Man and sends out pro-Japanese propaganda. Really, it's
a wonderful institution, Miss Parker. The millionaire white men of New
York finance the society, and the Japs run it. It was some shrewd
Japanese member of the Japan Society who sent you to Okada on this
land-deal, was it not, Mr. Parker?"

"You're too good a guesser for comfort," the latter parried. "I'm
going to write some letters. I'm motoring in to El Toro this
afternoon, and I'll want to mail them."

"'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof'," Don Miguel assured him
lightly. "Whenever you feel the urge for further information about
yourself and your Japanese friends, I am at your service. I expect to
prove to you in about three lessons that you have unwittingly permitted
yourself to develop into a very poor citizen, even if you did load up
with Liberty Bonds and deliver four-minute speeches during all of the
loan drives."

"Oh, I'm as good as the average American, despite what you say,"
retorted the banker, good-naturedly, as he left them.

The master of Palomar gazed after the retreating figure of his guest.
In his glance there was curiosity, pain, and resignation. He continued
to stare at the door through which Parker had disappeared, until roused
from his reverie by Kay's voice.

"The average American doesn't impress you greatly, does he, Don Mike?"

"Oh, I'm not one of that supercilious breed of Americans which toadies
to an alleged European culture by finding fault with his own people,"
he hastened to assure her. "What distresses me is the knowledge that
we are a very moral nation, that we have never subjugated weaker
peoples, that we have never coveted our neighbor's goods, that we can
outthink and outwork and outgame and outinvent every nation under
heaven, and yet haven't brains enough to do our own thinking in
world-affairs. It is discouraging to contemplate the smug complacency,
whether it be due to ignorance or apathy, which permits aliens to
reside in our midst and set up agencies for our destruction and their
benefit. If I-- Why, you're in riding-costume, aren't you?"

"You will never be po