well as now;
and that, meanwhile, before he acted hastily, it might be well to hear
whether the fellow had anything to say. Perhaps this was an official
come to set him at liberty, or perhaps--Well, he would wait a little, at
all events, and see what developments ensued.

Having locked the door and pocketed the key, the visitor picked up the
lantern and advanced into the room, holding the light high and glancing
keenly round until his eyes fell upon Frobisher, whereupon he gave a
short grunt of satisfaction and hung the lantern on a convenient peg.

By the additional light thus afforded, the Englishman was able to
examine his visitor more closely, and to estimate his chances of success
if things came to a rough-and-tumble fight for possession of the key.

The stranger was tall, almost as tall as Frobisher himself, but not
nearly so heavily built, and appeared to be about fifty-five to sixty
years of age, so that the young Englishman did not anticipate any
serious difficulty in mastering him. He was very richly dressed in
garments of fine silk, elaborately decorated with embroidery, and wore
round his neck a heavy gold chain, the centre of which was studded with
a single enormous ruby. As a head-covering he wore a round Chinese cap,
which was ornamented by a single magnificent peacock's feather, fastened
to the cap by a brooch of solid gold set with another huge ruby.

The man's whole appearance was indeed imposing and magnificent in the
extreme, and Frobisher instantly guessed that he was in the presence of
a very important official indeed. This man, he told himself, could
surely not be a Korean. No Korean ever attained to such a commanding
stature, no Korean had ever been known to display so haughty a bearing,
so dominant a personality; and as his eyes slowly travelled from the
details of the man's costume to his face, the prisoner recognised that
his visitor was indeed not a Korean, but a Chinaman, and a Chinaman of
the highest grade, too--without doubt, a mandarin. There was no
mistaking the thin, ascetic, high-bred face, the prominent cheek-bones,
the almond-shaped eyes; and the long but scanty moustache scarcely
concealed a strong, resolute-looking mouth, the lips of which were,
however, rather too thin, lending an expression of cruelty and
relentlessness of purpose which was anything but reassuring to the
prisoner.

For a few moments the two men stood gazing at one another, each taking
the other's measu