"Listen! If you have a friend upon whom you rely, who you have known for years, and who has never lied to you, then you unhesitatingly believe him, do you not?" "Most assuredly." "It is precisely the same with me. I believe that the movement of the joss sticks in my case is controlled by the spirit of my dead father. He never lied to me living. Why should he do so now that he has dropped the body and is living in the world of spirits?" "It is too deep for me. It would seem, though, that you must be a spiritualist." Ah Lung shrugged his shoulders. "I know very little about your American spiritualists," he replied, "but we will not continue the subject. I am ready." "Where do we go?" "We will talk of that outside." "Am I made up to suit you?" "Yes, yes. As I look at you I fail to see how any one could see through your disguise." They passed out of the joss house and walked down Jackson street hill. "One thing," said Harry. "You must pretend to talk to me with your fingers deaf and dumb fashion when we come into the presence of others." "Oh, I can actually do it," replied Wun Lung. "I have a sister who is deaf and dumb. We were able to put her through the deaf and dumb school. She knows only English. I am the only one who can talk to her. But I suppose you cannot do the deaf and dumb finger speech?" "Indeed I can," replied Harry, with his fingers. "Then let us begin now," responded Ah Lung in the same fashion, "for we are liable to be seen by some one whom we may meet in the House of the Seven Delights." "And what may that be?" "A sort of club. A secret society. But I must say no more. You promised not to press me, you know." "All right. I am in your hands, but I just want to ask have you spoken of the princess to any of the members of this club?" "Why yes, to one or two whom I can trust." Harry shook his head. "I am afraid you are the author of your own troubles, then, Mr. Lung," he said. "I shouldn't wonder. It is a matter I should not have spoken about to any one. I see it now." They turned up China alley at last, entering the long building into which Alice had been taken on the night of her capture. Harry now traveled over the same ground. They ascended one flight, entered that elevator, and Ah Lung let them down to the long corridor under ground. Harry wondered at the many doors. "What new organization am I up against?" he asked himself. But of Ah Lung he asked no questions, feeling that he was in the man's hands for better or for worse. "Now I don't know whether anything is going to come out of this or not," Lung said with his fingers. "I am expecting to meet a certain party on business. I shall bring the conversation around to the princess. The man is supposed to be my friend. If he has betrayed me I want to know it. At all events, it is my only chance of giving you a clew on which to start your search." "Right," said Harry. "Lead on." Lung stopped before a door, on which he knocked three times.