THE WRECK OF THE _SIRDAR_ Lady Tozer adjusted her gold-rimmed eye-glasses with an air of dignified aggressiveness.

She had lived too many years in the Far East.
In Hong Kong she was known as the "Mandarin." Her powers of merciless inquisition suggested torments long drawn out.

The commander of the _Sirdar_, homeward bound from Shanghai, knew that he was about to be stretched on the rack when he took his seat at the saloon table.
"Is it true, captain, that we are running into a typhoon ?" demanded her ladyship.
"From whom did you learn that, Lady Tozer ?" Captain Ross was wary, though somewhat surprised.
"From Miss Deane.

I understood her a moment ago to say that you had told her." "I ?" "Didn't you?
Some one told me this morning.

I couldn't have guessed it, could I ?" Miss Iris Deane's large blue eyes surveyed him with innocent indifference to strict accuracy.