Drawing a long breath, he let forth a piercing scream that rose and fell like the wail of a fire siren.  At the same time he jabbed fiercely with his right.  The man collapsed, but at that instant a third man struck Johnny on the head and, all but unconscious, he reeled and fell to the ground.

Faintly as in a dream, he heard guttural murmurs.  He felt the buttons give as his coat was torn open.  Then there came the ringing report of a shot from the distance.

“Da bolice!” came in a guttural mutter.

* * * * *

The reason Hanada would not meet Johnny on this particular night was that he had a pressing engagement with other persons.  Just at seven o’clock he might have been seen emerging from an obscure street.  He hailed a taxi-cab and getting in, drove due north across the river and straight on until, with a sharp turn to the right, he drove two blocks toward the lake, only to turn again to the right and cross the river again.  He had gone south several blocks when suddenly signaling the driver to stop, he handed him a five-dollar bill and darted into the welcoming portals of a vast hotel.

The next moment he was crossing marble floors to enter a heavily carpeted parlor.  This, too, he crossed.  Then the walls of the room seemed to swallow him up.

In a small, dimly lighted anteroom his coat and hat were taken by a servant.  He then stepped into a room where a round table was spread with spotless linen and rare silver.  There were five chairs ranged around the table.  Hanada frowned as he counted them.

“It seems,” he murmured, “that the man who attends to the serving does not know that Hanada dines with the Big Five to-night.  Ah well!  There is time enough and room enough.  We shall dine together; never fear.”

He stepped back in the shadow of the heavy curtains and waited expectantly.

“The Big Five,” he murmured.  “Some of America’s richest, surely Chicago’s greatest millionaires.  And Hanada dines with them.  They will listen to him, too.  They will hang on his word.  The Big Five will listen.  And if they say ‘Yes,’ if they do—­” He drew in his breath sharply.  “If they do we will set the world afire with a great, new thing.  They have the money, which is power, and I have the knowledge, which is greater power.”

There was a sound outside the door.  A servant entered and, bowing deferentially, moved toward the table.  He deftly rearranged the chairs and the silver.  When he left, there were six places set.  Hanada smiled.

Had one been permitted to look in upon the diners in this simply appointed room of one of America’s great hotels that night, he might have wondered at the manner in which five of Chicago’s great men hung upon the words of one little Japanese, who, now and then as he spoke, as if to indicate the vastness and grandeur of his theme, spread his hands forth in a broad gesture.