She pointed to herself and said: “_Maza an Ma Gong._” He repeated the name after her, and pointed to the scroll she had written. She was pronouncing and pointing out each word when she was suddenly crowded out as before by the appearance of P’an-ku and his attendants. The rotund and imperious P’an-ku read the message on the placard, then turned to the old man who stood beside him and smiled. Ted thought there was a trace of a sneer in his smile. He ordered the old fellow to write his reply, then turned and stalked majestically out of the range of vision. The old man held his message aloft for a few moments as if fully aware that it was being recorded. Then he let his arm fall to his side, and the disc became blank. After supplying Dr. Fang with a set of photo-records of the messages, and dispatching another to Dr. Wu, Ted and Roger went to the private office of the former for a conference. “It seems to me,” said Ted, after he had his briar going, “that there’s something putrid in Denmark. Did you notice the expression of horror on the faces of the girl and the graybearded man when they read our messages?” “Queer, wasn’t it?” replied Roger. “Must have been something in that message that was quite a shock to them. Wonder what it could have been.” “That’s precisely what I’ve been wondering—and it has led to a rather unpleasant thought. I wouldn’t mention it to anyone in the world but you—not at present, anyhow—but it looks to me as if Dr. Wu may have double crossed us.” “How?” “By writing a message of his own in the place of the one we asked him to translate for us.” “But what message of his own could he possibly have written?” “That,” said Ted, “is what I propose to try to find out just as soon as I possibly can. Just before we came up here I sent Bevans to Peiping in the 800. He has orders to bring Professor Ederson back with him. We can bank on the professor to shoot square, and it’s quite possible that he can check up on Wu’s message. At any rate, he’s probably the best versed white man in the world on the ancient writings of China and Tibet. Has made a life-time study of them, I’m told.” “What about the learned Manchu, Dr. Fang?” “I think he was bluffing. If there’s mischief afoot, you can safely bet he’s in on it, and knows how to play his part. He’s not so ignorant as he pretends to be. Did you notice the expression on the face of the man in the golden armor? He smiled when he read our message, but the smile was half a sneer.” “It was a mean smile, all right,” agreed Roger. “More like the snarl of an animal than the smile of a human being.” “I’d rather have a person frown at me than smile that way,” said Ted. Shortly after midnight a radiogram from Professor Fowler of the Yerkes Observatory arrived. He stated that he had seen five flashes on the moon, coming from the region of the lunar crater, Stadius. In the wee, small hours of the morning, Chicago was shaken by a terrific detonation.