the tell-tale summons would eventually go to the right quarter. And
when the summons came Blake would be waiting for it.




VI

It was by wireless that Blake made what efforts he could to confirm his
suspicions that Binhart had not dropped off at any port of call between
San Francisco and Hong Kong. In due time the reply came back to
"Bishop MacKishnie," on board the westbound _Empress of China_ that the
Reverend Caleb Simpson had safely landed from the _Manchuria_ at Hong
Kong, and was about to leave for the mission field in the interior.

The so-called bishop, sitting in the wireless-room of the _Empress of
China_, with a lacerated black cigar between his teeth, received this
much relayed message with mixed feelings. He proceeded to send out
three Secret Service code-despatches to Shanghai, Amoy and Hong Kong,
which, being picked up by a German cruiser, were worried over and
argued over and finally referred back to an intelligence bureau for
explanation.

But at Yokohama, Blake hurried ashore in a sampan, met an agent who
seemed to be awaiting him, and caught a train for Kobe. He hurried on,
indifferent to the beauties of the country through which he wound,
unimpressed by the oddities of the civilization with which he found
himself confronted. His mind, intent on one thing, seemed unable to
react to the stimuli of side-issues. From Kobe he caught a _Toyo Kisen
Kaisha_ steamer for Nagasaki and Shanghai. This steamer, he found, lay