Free Chronicles of the Secret Service by Alexander Wilson Page A

notion that could hardly have succeeded. When they gathered from her story that a young American was in deadly danger, they had broken in. Carter noticed the girl standing by the door, went to her, and took her hand.
    ‘It was fine of you to think of helping me,’ he acknowledged. ‘I’m terribly sorry I had to shoot Yumasaki, but—’
    ‘I am very glad,’ she interrupted surprisingly.
    ‘You’re glad?’ he echoed in amazement. ‘But I thought you loved him.’
    ‘I hate him!’
    She said this so vehemently that Sir Leonard heard, and turned to regard her curiously.
    ‘Thereby seems to hang a tale,’ he commented. ‘Come and sit down,’ he invited her. She approached him shyly; accepted theseat he indicated. He turned back to the still groaning Japanese who had been too much concerned with his own troubles to listen to the conversation going on round him. ‘I’m afraid I can’t let your injury put me off, Yumasaki,’ he pronounced sternly. ‘If you expect any consideration from me you must confess everything – and now. You know who I am?’
    The spy raised pain-stricken eyes to his.
    ‘Yes, Your Excellency,’ he groaned. ‘You are the governor.’
    ‘The governor?’ cried the China Doll in tones in which awe blended equally with surprise.
    ‘Yes,’ smiled Carter. ‘Didn’t you know?’
    She shook her head, and was about to rise out of respect but he stayed her.
    ‘Then – then who are you, sir?’ she asked.
    ‘I am his very inadequate secretary,’ he answered; then, addressing Sir Leonard: ‘There is no need for you to question Yumasaki, sir. I have made him confess.’
    ‘Everything?’
    ‘The whole woicks,’ Carter assured him with a grin.
    Sir Leonard smiled.
    ‘I think you can dispense with the disguise now,’ he remarked.
    ‘Thank the Lord for that.’
    The young man promptly removed the rubber pads which had so altered the shape of his face. The China Doll watched the transformation with amazement, and gasped audibly.
    ‘I regret your American sailor friend has gone for good, Joy,’ he remarked in his normal attractive voice. ‘Except for my hair, which is dyed, you see me as myself.’
    ‘Then everything – your desire to know me – was for thepurpose of trapping Yumasaki and the other Japanese espionage agents?’
    He nodded.
    ‘I’m terribly sorry to have had to deceive you,’ he apologised, ‘but please believe that it has been a very sincere pleasure to have made your acquaintance.’
    ‘I understand,’ she murmured. ‘There is no necessity to explain, please. But, had I been aware of this before, I could have been of great assistance to you. I know so much.’
    ‘You are not a Japanese agent yourself, are you?’
    She smiled, and shook her head. Sir Leonard interrupted the conversation to demand from Carter a recital of all he had learnt. Greater activity than ever prevailed on the part of the police as soon as Wallace was acquainted with the facts. Ransome sent for reinforcements. The dancing saloons, with which Yumasaki had been in any way connected, were raided, and searched from their roofs to cellars; the managers (or acting proprietors) and all employees were arrested, and removed to the cells of the Central Police Station. A good many of these were afterwards, of course, released, when it was ascertained that they had no connection with the Japanese spy system. The secret room at the Canton was a cleverly-constructed apartment which, when opened, proved a veritable gold mine of information. It contained not only the Japanese plans for espionage activities in Hong Kong, but proved to be a clearing house for the information gained by the agents throughout China. Japan’s activities in Hong Kong would henceforth be completely crushed. Further, she would receive a bad setback throughout the Far East, for not only had secret codebooks, orders, and plans come to light, but also alist of agents operating in China Proper. When the China Doll heard of these