incipal who hired them is safe, over in China, but he didn't gain _his_
point,--and that's the main thing! As for the letters, I concluded that,
after all, my ideas as to how to keep them safely were out of date, and
they have long since been forwarded to Washington, in care of Barnes, and
are now in the hands of my country's representative there. I shall not
concern myself any further about their security."

He put his hands in his pocket and drew out the little bronze casket.
Then he went on,--

"This little box has had some strange adventures in its day, but nothing
stranger than the one it has just passed through. It has, however,
something else in it, that I thought might be of interest to you, and so
I have brought it along and will explain about it." He opened the box in
the same way as Eileen had done and revealed to their curious gaze the
fragile old bits of paper they had seen on that eventful night. He took
them out, fingered them thoughtfully, and handed one to each of the four
young folks.

"There is a strange little adventure connected with these that perhaps
you may be interested to hear," he continued. "It happened when I was
passing through the city of Peking, some years ago, during their
revolution. There was a good deal of lawlessness rife at the time, and
bands of natives were running about, pillaging and looting anything they
thought it safe to tamper with. One day, in one of the open places of the
city, I happened along just in time to see ten or a dozen lawless natives
pulling from its pedestal a great bronze idol, hideous as they make 'em,
that had stood there probably for uncounted centuries. When they got it
to the ground, they found it to be hollow inside, as most of the really
ancient ones are, and filled with all manner of articles representing the
sacrifices that had been made to it, through the ages, and placed inside
it by their priests. These articles included everything from real jewels
of undoubted value to papier-mache imitations of food--a device the
Chinese often use in sacrificing to the idols.

"Of course, the mob made an immediate grab for the jewels, but it had
begun to make my blood boil to see them making off with so much unlawful
booty. So, almost without thinking, I snatched out my revolver, placed
myself in front of the pile, and shouted to them that I would shoot the
first one who laid a finger on the stuff. And in the same breath I sent
Geoffrey hurrying to find some o