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board?”
    “Some time last night,” she answered.
    Wiping his face, he began anxiously to forage in the locker. His own few pots and pans were there. He had jettisoned everything incriminating when he realized they were coming to arrest him. He found a considerable sum of money, mostly in small currency, and there were cigarettes and a carton of canned meat, soup, and other edibles. He also discovered some sea toast, rice, fresh fruit, soap, shaving kit, matches, a bottle of lime juice, and a bottle of Scotch. And, last of all, a .38 and a box of shells.
    Then, resoaping his chin, he went on shaving again. “You came on board at Chia-Ting?”
    “Yes. Please don’t throw me off. I don’t know what I shall do if you won’t let me stay.”
    At Chia-Ting. The ways of these people were strange and tortuous. Did they know more than he supposed? Was this little stowaway a spy? Perhaps it was a plot to learn where he was going, to identify his associates.
    He finished shaving. The girl, her hands clasped, waited with pleading eyes.
    “What’s your name?”
    “Yueh Hua. I can cook, and fish, and manage a boat. I won’t be any trouble.”
    Yueh Hua meant “Moon Flower.” This poor little waif hardly looked the part.
    “Where did you come from?”
    “A small village ten miles from Chia-Ting. It is called Su-Chien.”
    “And what were you doing in Chia-Ting?”
    “Running away from my stepfather.” She spoke eagerly. “He had sold me to Fuen Chang, a horrible old man who would have beaten me. It is his only pleasure, beating girls.”
    “You had friends in Chia-Ting, I suppose?”
    “Yes.” Yueh Hua nodded. “My sister. But she had gone. There was nothing to do but try to get to my aunt. It is a long way.”
    Tony sponged his face, washed the shaving brush, and began, very thoughtfully, to clean the razor blade. If this girl was an agent of the Master she certainly knew her piece.
    “Where does your aunt live?”
    “In Lung Chang.”
    “Where is Lung Chang?”
    “On the Lu Ho.”
    This startled him. He was far from sure of his route to the Lu Ho.
    “Do you know the way to Lung Chang?”
    “Of course!” There was a flash of white teeth in the grimy face. “I used to go there in my father’s boat. I mean, my real father.”
    “I see.” He replaced the razor in its box. “What I don’t understand is why you came onto my boat and fell asleep.”
    “I was tired and frightened. I had walked a long way. People were beginning to notice me—to follow me. I came on your boat to hide, I don’t remember falling asleep. Are you angry with me?”

CHAPTER FOUR

    S ome hours before this conversation took place, a less amiable conversation had been held in the office of the governor of the prison. Dr. Fu-Manchu sat behind the desk. The old governor and Colonel Soong stood before him.
    “I fear, Colonel Soong, that we have here some serious breach of discipline. There would seem to be traitors among your men.” He spoke softly, but there was menace in every syllable.
    Colonel Soong’s voice was unsteady when he replied. “I assure you, Most High, it is not so. This man’s escape was magic.”
    The narrowed green eyes were turned in the old governor’s direction.
    “Who had charge of the keys?”
    “The head jailer, Highness.”
    “Where are they now?”
    “In their usual place where he put them after having relocked the prisoner in his cell after his interview with Highness.”
    “Were they ever left unprotected?”
    “Never. The head jailer and another were in the room up to the very moment that Highness ordered the prisoner to be brought here again.”
    “Unless both men are lying, duplicate keys were smuggled into the prisoner’s cell. And what of the main gate?”
    Colonel Soong broke in. “The main gate was found locked, Most High. The man on guard reports that no one passed, that the gate was never opened.”
    Dr. Fu-Manchu took a pinch of snuff from a small silver box before him. “I shall