WHEREIN THEYDON SUFFERS FROM FAINT HEART Furneaux, with that phenomenally clear mind of his, had perceived and expressed in one trenchant sentence the outstanding and almost unique feature of the tragic mystery which centered around the death of Edith Lester.

Theydon's connection with either international finance or the rebirth of China was remote as that of the man in the moon.

Yet he had been pitchforked by fate into an active and, indeed, dominating influence over those phases of both undertakings which were peculiar to London.
Theydon mused on this element in an unprecedented situation as he sat in the taxicab which bore him swiftly to Innesmore Mansions.

Another quite abnormal condition was the ignorance of London with regard to the fierce struggle now being waged in its midst.
On the one hand, a few Oriental fanatics--most of whom were probably less swayed by racial enthusiasm than by good payment for services rendered--were carrying out the orders of a master criminal with a sublime indifference to the laws framed by the "foreign devils" whom they despised; on the other were ranged the three members of the Forbes family and Theydon himself, supported by the forces of the Crown, it was true, but singularly isolated from the knowledge and sympathy of their fellow-citizens.
Miss Beale hardly counted.

The servants in Fortescue Square shared with Bates and his wife a sort of territorial interest in the fight.