She could not stay longer at the Imperial, which had become a sort of civilian war headquarters. All was war in its corridors. In the _Minimasacuma-cho_ of the _Shiba_ district, she took a small house, establishing herself in the native style, but she could not escape the agony. Japan was burning with war-lust from end to end; whetted of tooth, talon-fingered, blood-mad. Her fighting force, one of the most formidable masses that ever formed on the planet’s curve, was landing in Korea and Liaotung. What meant the battle of the Yalu to her; the tragedy of the _Petropavlovsk_, sunk off the tip of the fortress with Makaroff, the great Verestchagin, and five hundred officers and men? Not a distant calamity of foreign powers, but _Tyrone_--_Shubar Khan_--_Cardinegh_--_madness_--_treachery_. What meant the constant tension of Tokyo, singing in her ears like wires stretched tight--like the high-pitched, blood-hungry song of insects in the night? It meant the work of her own blood, her own accursed heritage.... She was called to the Imperial often for the mails, but she avoided the Englishmen there, and admitted none to the little house in Shiba. Always, when there were white men about, she fancied a whispering behind her; as, indeed, there was--the whispers that are incited by the passing of an exquisite woman. In the early days following her father’s death, Noreen was besieged by men who appeared suddenly, quietly--men unknown in Japan--who demanded with seeming authority all the documents in her father’s effects which pertained to the treachery in India. These were agents of the great British secret service--men of mystery to all save those who threatened England’s inner wall. Noreen gave all that they asked, convinced them of her sincerity. They impressed upon her the needs of utter secrecy, and assured her that the name of Routledge was being purified to the farthest ends of the service. It was intimated, however, that this would require much time; as, indeed, it had to fix the crime upon him. These men worked but little with cables and mails.