among some who find significance in anything and everything. Why should Japatiese officers be leaving their country just now? Wasit ona political mission Would closer examination disclose a cipher telegraph code tattooed on their backs, and State documents concealed on their person? Were they going over to the United States, or elsewhere, in connection.with the construction and transport of the five submarine boats, which, it was rumoured, were being built in America for the Japanese Government? And was there any significance in-the fact that a certain titled Britis political agent of marked ability, well-known in the Indian Empire, should, one evening, in the smoking-room, have produced a pack of Japanese cards and joined a table at which several Japanese gentlemen wore seated, who, before they quite realised what they were doing, apparently, were merrily initiating the aforementioned Knight into the mys-tories of the Japanese card game, called what sounded like Hannafooda (the flower game); while a Commander in the British Navy and a distinguished officer in the British Army were soon induced to fake a hand in the game, which was Kept up until late hour on that and several other evenings Who knows what important political information was exchanged on those coceasions—what secrets were revealed, what schemes concocted Some of the Japanese spoke English fluently, and with one of them I had long and interesting conversations on things in general,.and some things in particular. What seemed to affect him and his compatriots considerably was the way in which the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.
