Little by little his friend was making him see their calling through younger eyes. He was himself an old newspaper man. All news to him was merchandise to sell to the highest bidder. To highly color it, to make it more readable, was part of the game. No idea of being a traitor to his country or a spy had ever entered his even, methodical, sober thoughts until this youngster had sowed the insidious seeds. Was he really harming his country? He had never thought of it in that light. Every country was advancing in military and naval development and he had been put at the head of the Tokyo office of a newspaper syndicate whose avowed purpose was to collect all manner of news affecting the armaments and also the political relations between countries. If he thought that this syndicate had for its aim to strain the relations to the breaking point of two naturally friendly countries, one of which he still considered his own, why then he would quit, and go back to a minor position on a big New York paper which he knew would always be open for him. He had not always been shown the effusions of Randall. His work was to systematically arrange the information received so that Impey and Randall could use it. He picked up George’s manuscript and let his eyes wander slowly over the scrawl. “It seems peculiarly paradoxical that a cruiser of the United States navy, commanded by an officer who until recently was at the head of the Bureau of Naval Intelligence, should be sent to Japan just at the time when the American battle-ship fleet having sailed for the Orient _via_ the south of Africa, has arrived in Manila Bay. And is it less of a paradox that one of her officers is the inventor of a torpedo which is rumored to have the greatest range of any yet tried in any navy? Again another officer is known to be an experienced aeronaut, having been until recently the instructor with naval flying machines at Washington. If one will take the roster of officers and give it a close scrutiny he doubtless will discover that every method of prying into the naval preparedness of Japan for war is represented by an expert.” Wells looked up from his reading and there was a flash of fire in his steel-gray eyes. “George is a darned hypocrite. He had the nerve to write this, and then preach to me about our dishonorable trade. “I wonder how much of this is true. Impey doubtless furnished him with the data.” He seized the sheets, and read on while the clock ticked the seconds slowly away. Finally he finished, put the copy into an envelope, and struggled into his coat. “This must be in the ‘Shimbunshi’s’ office this afternoon if it is to make the sensation intended,” he muttered grimly to himself as he pulled his slouch hat over his thick hair. “I’ll make sure and take it myself,” he ended decidedly as he shoved the letter into his inside overcoat pocket and buttoned it tight before he issued forth into the street.