The Tomahawk., 1915-12-23

l
1t is the old story of the fox, the goose
and the bag of oats.
| On this account I have always
| strongly urged the abandonment OF
the Philippines, which will one day
prove bitter establishment to the
United States.
Now / realized the ramidcations OF
The conspiracy. 1t was for this pur-
pose that the war syndicate, which
! was seeking to embroil England and
| America on behalf of Germany, had
taken up the latest Japanese loan at
| four per cent, instead of the five which
the imperial government had had to
pay for it's last issue. The scheme
was as clear as daylight.
"You understand the situation, no
doubt" said Sir Arthur, who had been
watching my face closely. be-.
ENTIRELY, your excellency," I an
swered. ut is necessary for us to OBJ
tain that document before the count
can present it,
eyes, which means before shutdown,
when, since Mutsuhito's death can be
concealed no longer, Yoshihito will be
| notified Of his accession to the throne.
| The document will undoubtedly be pre-
scented to the American minister at
the palace, the count occupying the
suite Of the minister in waiting
| there"
It may be strange that the heir to
| the throne could have been kept two
of fot
strange to one ignorant of Japanese
court ceremony; but not to one aware
that the emperor as a divine being,
may not be touched, or even seen, by
| the members of his own family, ex-
| cept at his demand.
I could picture the dead monarch
| behind the drawn screens in the death
chambers the doctor, fearfully per-
forming the last medical rites; and
the imperial family, waiting in ante
| chambers for their gods permission
| to bid him farewell before his trans
lation to the celestial spheres.
my information continued Sir
Arthur, comes from the Chinese min
lister, who vouches for it's accuracy
| AS you know, he is warm friend or
| America, and he has methods of his
| own for making such discoveries. The
| Chinese spy system is greatly in ad-
| vance of the Japanese. Yet l am
! little uneasy for fear Of some subtle
trick having been laid for me, and
am anxious to obtain your advice, on
| account Of your acquaintance with the
inner affairs of Japanese court life.
His excellency's reference to my at
tache days, when it. was said, l be-
| lieve, that I was the only European
acquainted with the ramifications OF
political intrigue in what was still
called the Hermit kingdom, touched
me. Sir Arthur had good memory,
when he chose to give it play. Still,
those we're the early days of Meiji, as
the new era is called, and things are
different now.
'In brief" continued the ambassa-
dor, "the Chinese minister asks me to
place myself in the hands of Doctor
Fong, the third court physician. Did
you ever hear of him?'
Hear of Fong? A shadowy figure
suddenly leaped into my mind, per-
fectly outlined. I remembered Doctor
Fong perfectly.
An accomplished Chinese scholar,
he had been employed years before in
the medical department of the Japa-
nese legation in Picking. What his du-
ties had been is immaterial; but he
was onnected-falsely, believe, with
the mysterious death of the predeces-
sor of the late empress dowager. Tsi-
An, the first wife of the penultimate
emperor of the extinct dynasty.
Fong had been put on trial for muir
der, had been acquitted and had later
become head of the department of
tropical medicine at the University of
Osaka. The government subsequently
removed him from his post, and he
had lived a lonely and embittered life,
blaming the cause of his downfall
upon Count Okuma. The knowledge
of this made me believe that Fong
would prove of genuine service to us.
knew that the late emperor's mys-
terious disease had been a form OF
beriberi, malignant, chronic kind Pc
culiar to the Island of Hondo, and l
surmised that Doctor Fong's knowl-
edge of tropical diseases had brought
him back to favor as one Of the i'm
perial attendants. / communicated all
these facts to Sir Arthur.
Then will you accompany me to
the palace at once?" he asked me.
Each of the ambassadors has suite
set apart for him there; and We can
interview our man unmolested."
I assented at once, and, a few min
utes later, we were bowling through
the streets in one Of the embassy
rickshas. A run of thirty minutes
brought us to the palace grounds, and
shortly afterward we were in the am
har acicfircr Of fxuA