le.

"The whole affair is a very simple one," he said. "A member of my
household was assassinated last night. It was probably a plot against my
own life. Those things are more common with us, perhaps, than over
here."

"Jolly country, China, I should think," one of the younger members of
the group remarked. "You can buy a man's conscience there for
ninepence."

Prince Shan looked across at the speaker gravely.

"The market value here," he observed, "seems a little higher, but the
supply greater."

"_Touche_!" Karschoff laughed. "There is another point of view, too. The
further east you go, the less value life has. Westwards, it becomes an
absolute craze to preserve and coddle it, to drag it out to its
furthermost span. The American millionaire, for example, has a resident
physician attached to his household and is likely to spend the aftermath
of his life in a semi-drugged and comatose condition. And in the East,
who cares? If not to-day--to-morrow! Inevitability, which is the
nightmare of the West, is the philosophy of the East. By the by,
Prince," he added, "have you any theory as to last night's attempt?"

"That is just the question," Prince Shan replied, "which two very
intelligent gentlemen from Scotland Yard asked me this morning. Theory?
Why should I have a theory?"

"The attempt was without a doubt directed against you," Karschoff
observed. "Do you imagine that it was personal or political?"

"How can I tell?" the Prince rejoined carelessly. "Why should any one
desire my death? These things are riddles. Ah! Here comes my friend
Immelan!" he went on. "Immelan, help us in this discussion. You are not
one of those who place the gift of life above all other things in the
world!"

"My own or another's?" Immelan asked, with blunt cynicism.

"I trust," was the bland reply, "that you are, as I have always esteemed
you, an altruist."

"And why?"

Prince Shan shrugged his shoulders. He was a very agreeable figure in
the centre of the little group of men, the hands which held his malacca
cane behind his back, the smile which parted his lips benign yet
cryptic.

"Because," he explained, "it is a great thing to have more regard for
the lives of others than for one's own, and there are times," he added,
"when it is certainly one's own life which is in the more precarious
state."

There was a little dispersal of the crowd, a chorus of congratulations
and farewells. Immelan and Prince Shan were left alone. T