"Or what?" asked Tidman seeing Rupert hesitating. For answer Ainsleigh took a pocket-book from the lower ledge of the table and produced therefrom a slip of printed paper. "I cut that out of 'The Daily Telegraph,'" said he handing it to the Major, "what do you make of it?" Tidman mounted a gold pince-nez and read aloud, as follows:-- "The jade fan of Mandarin Lo-Keong, with the four and half beads and the yellow cord. Wealth and long life to the holder, who gives it to Hwei, but death and the doom of the god Kwang-ho to that one who refuses. Address Kan-su at the Joss-house of the Five Thousand Blessings, 43 Perry Street, Whitechapel." "A mixture of the Far East and the Near West, isn't it?" asked Rupert, when the Major laid down the slip and stared. "Lo-Keong," said Tidman searching his memory, "wasn't that the man your father knew?" "The same. That is why I cut out the slip, and why I asked you to see me. You remember my father's expedition to China?" "Of course. He went there twenty years ago when you were five years of age. I was home at the time--it was just before I went to fight in that Janjalla Republic war in South America. I wanted your father to come with me and see if he couldn't make money: but he was bent on China." "Well," said Rupert, "I understood he knew of a gold-mine there." "Yes, on the Hwei River," Major Tidman snatched the slip of print and read the lines again, "and here's the name, Hwei--that's strange." "But what's stranger still," said Rupert, bending forward, "is, that I looked up some papers of my father and learn that the Hwei River is in the Kan-su province." "Address Kan-su," murmured Tidman staring harder than ever. "Yes. It seems as though this had something to do with your father." "It _must_ have something to do with him," insisted Rupert, "my father found that gold-mine near the Hwei River in the Kan-su province, and Lo-Keong was the Boxer leader who protected my father from the enmity of the Chinese. I believe he sent my father's papers to England--at least so Dr. Forge says." "Forge," cried Tidman rising, "quite so. He was with your father. Why not see him, and ask questions." "I'll do so. Perhaps he may tell me something about this fan." "What if he does?" "I might find it." "And if you do?" asked the Major, his eyes protruding. Rupert sprang to his feet and took up the slip. "Wealth and long life to the holder who gives it to Hwei," he read: then replaced the slip in his pocket-book, "why shouldn't I find that fan and get enough money to pay off Miss Wharf and others and keep Royabay." "But it's such a mad idea?"