either of them about the diamonds. Perhaps he should have done so,
and yet he felt a strange reticence in the matter.

He was to meet Hanada at eight o'clock. Hanada had never told him why
they were pursuing the Russian; why he could not be killed in Siberia;
why he must not be killed or arrested if seen now, until he, Hanada,
said the word. He had not told why he thought that the Secret Service
men had committed a blunder in offering a reward for the Russian's
capture.

As Johnny thought of it he wondered if he were a fool for sticking to
this affair into which he had been so blindly led. He had not shown
himself to his old boss or to Mazie. To them he was dead. He had looked
up the official record that very morning and had seen that he was
reported "Missing in Vladivostok; probably dead."

Should he stick to the Russian's trail, a course which might lead to
his death, or should he take the diamonds to a customs office and turn
them in as smuggled goods, then tell Hanada he was off the hunt, was
going back to his old job and Mazie? That would be a very easy thing to
do; and to stick was fearfully hard. Yet the words of his long time
friend, "Get that man, or it will be worse for your country and mine,"
still rang in his ears. Was it his patriotic duty to stick?

And if he decided to go on with it, should he go to Hanada and ask for a
showdown, all cards on the table; or should he trust him to reveal the
facts in the case little by little or all at once, as seemed wise to
him? Well, he should see.

Then, for a half hour, Johnny gave himself over to the wild, boyish
reveries which the city air and the lights flickering on the water
awakened. At the end of that half hour he put on his hat and went out.
He was to meet Hanada on the Wells street bridge. Where the Japanese was
staying he did not know, but that it was with some fellow countrymen he
did not doubt. Cio-Cio-San was staying with friends, students at the
University. It had been arranged that the three of them should meet at
odd times and various places to discuss matters relating to their
dangerous mission. In this way they hoped to throw members of the band
of Radicals off their tracks.

Their conversation that night came to little. Hanada had found no trace
of the Russian, nor had he come into contact with any other important
Radicals since reaching Chicago. Johnny's report was quite as brief.
Hanada showed no inclination to reveal more regarding the matte