jump on him at
sight like a hawk droppin' on a chicken?"

"You know him, Buck?" cried Jack. "You know his name?"

"Know him all right," replied Buck. "But what under the sun is he
doing this distance from home? What brings Saya Chone in Brindisi? The
last time I set eyes on him he was coming into Mogok with a little bag
of rubies to sell to U Saw, the chap they call the Ruby King."

"He comes from Burmah, where you have been?"

"Sure thing," said Buck, nodding his head. "He's a half-caste. Says
his father was a British officer, and prides himself on talking Number
One English."

"He talked English as easily as we do," said Jack, "but with an odd
click of the tongue."

"That's the native strain in him," returned Buck. "But where did you
run up against him and hear his English?"

Jack told his story quickly, and Risley listened with a knitted brow
of attention.

"Say, there's business at the back o' this," murmured Buck, "but where
it fits in beats me at the moment. We don't know enough, Jack, to be
sure which way we're moving."

"We do not, Buck, you are quite right," replied the lad, "and we'll
make a bee-line for London and see the firm for whom father was
working."

"Let's go and see what tar-brush was talking to the interpreter
about," suggested Buck, and they went at once and found the man, who
had returned to his post on the platform. The interpreter readily told
them that the half-caste had offered him a liberal sum in order to
learn what Jack was doing, and what route he intended to follow on
leaving Brindisi, but the man declared that he had made no answer,
had, indeed, been unable to reply to the questions before Jack was on
the scene and making his rush.

"Is it worth while to stop here and put the police on the search for
this fellow, I wonder?" said Jack, as he and his companion returned to
the hotel.

"I doubt it," returned Buck. "There are such numbers of foreigners of
all kinds passing through the port that the police can't keep track of
them all. Besides, it would take time, and if there's some queer game
in the wind, we've lost a good deal now. If you could learn, Jack, how
matters stand between the Professor and the firm that sent him out to
Burmah, it might give you a line to go on. At present we're snuffin'
the wind and pickin' up no scent."

"You're right, Buck, we'll get the baggage together at once."

Again Jack rushed across Italy, France, and the Channel, never pausing
for o