"When Mr.Theydon regains his speech he will tell us how he came to suspect that an attempt would be made to kidnap you today.

In my own case, intervention was the outcome of sheer and simple logical deduction.

You see, I represent the Criminal Investigation Department--or Scotland Yard, as it is familiarly described--and I have reason to believe that your father is, and has been for some time, the object of unpleasant attentions by a political society in China, whose members are nothing more nor less than criminal fanatics.

Probably this is the first you have heard of the matter, Miss Forbes.

Your father would wish, no doubt, to keep any such disquieting knowledge from you and your mother.