e of the
two Japanese would corroborate his.

Cunningham's eyelids flickered. There was a bottle of chloroform on
the desk. The promoter had recently suffered pleurisy pains and had
been advised by his doctor to hold a little of the drug against the
place where they caught him most sharply. Shibo snatched up the
bottle, drenched a handkerchief with some of its contents, and dropped
the handkerchief over the wounded man's face.

A drawer was open within reach of Cunningham's hand. In it lay an
automatic pistol The two men were about to hurry away. Shibo turned at
the door. To his dismay he saw that the handkerchief had slipped from
Cunningham's face and the man was looking at him. He had recovered
consciousness.

Cunningham's eyes condemned him to death. In their steely depths there
was a gleam of triumph. He was about to call for help. Shibo knew
what that meant. He and Horikawa were in a strange land. They would
be sent to prison, an example made of them because they were
foreigners. Automatically, without an instant of delay, he acted to
protect himself.

Two strides took him back to Cunningham. He reached across his body
for the automatic and sent a bullet into the brain of the man bound to
the chair.

Horikawa, to judge by his confession, was thunderstruck. He was an
amiable little fellow who never had stepped outside the law. Now he
was caught in the horrible meshes of a murder. He went to pieces and
began to sob. Shibo stopped him sharply.

Then they heard some one coming. It was too late to get away by the
door. They slipped through the window to the fire escape and from it
to the window of the adjoining apartment. Horikawa, still sick with
fear, stumbled against the rail as he clambered over it and cut his
face badly.

Shibo volunteered to go downstairs and get him some sticking plaster.
On the way down Shibo had met the younger James Cunningham as he came
out of the elevator. Returning with first-aid supplies a few minutes
later, he saw Jack and Phyllis.

It was easy to read between the lines that Shibo's will had dominated
Horikawa. He had been afraid that his companion's wounded face would
lead to his arrest. If so, he knew it would be followed by a
confession. He forced Horikawa to hide in the vacant apartment till
the wound should heal. Meanwhile he fed him and brought him newspapers.

There were battles of will between the two. Horikawa was terribly
frightened when h