guess the age of a Japanese, and for that matter,
Orme had more than once been told that the Japanese had begun to impress
very young soldiers long before the battle of Mukden.

While making these observations, Orme had drawn his hat lower over his
eyes. He hoped to escape recognition, for this opportunity to track Maku
to his destination was not to be missed. He also placed himself in such a
position on the platform that his own face was partly concealed by the
cross-bars which protected the windows at the end of the car.

In his favor was the fact that Maku would not expect to see him.
Doubtless the Japanese was more concerned with his aching head than with
any suspicion of pursuit, though his somewhat indeterminate profile, as
visible to Orme, gave no indication of any feeling at all. So Orme stood
where he could watch without seeming to watch, and puzzled over the
problem of following Maku from the car without attracting attention.

The refusal of the other Japanese to accept the girl's offer of money for
the papers had given Orme a new idea of the importance of the quest. Maku
and his friend must be Japanese government agents--just as Poritol and
Alcatrante were unquestionably acting for their government. This, at
least, was the most probable explanation that entered Orme's mind. The
syndicate, then,--or concession, or whatever it was--must be of genuine
international significance.

Though Orme continued to smother his curious questionings as to the
meaning of the secret, he could not ignore his general surmises. To put
his confidence in the girl--to act for her and for her alone--that was
enough for him; but it added to his happiness to think that she might be
leading him into an affair which was greater than any mere tangle of
private interests. He knew too, that, upon the mesh of private interests,
public interests are usually woven. The activity of a Russian syndicate
in Korea had been the more or less direct cause of the Russo-Japanese
War; the activity of rival American syndicates in Venezuela had been, but
a few years before, productive of serious international complications. In
the present instance, both South Americans and Japanese were interested.
But Orme knew in his soul that there could be nothing unworthy in any
action in which the girl took part. She would not only do nothing
unworthy; she would understand the situation clearly enough to know
whether the course which offered itself to her was worth