They were now two to one, but that one was a man.  However, there was no call for effort on her part.  Like a tigress the Japanese girl, Cio-Cio-San, sprang at the man of her own country.

“You traitor!” she gasped.  “You have betrayed me, your fellow-countryman, and murdered my friend!” and she drove her dagger into his breast to the hilt.

Mazie closed her eyes and sat down dizzily.  When she dared look up, she saw the man sprawled on the floor, and the girl crouching beside him, like a wild beast beside her kill.

Seeming to feel Mazie’s eyes upon her, Cio-Cio-San turned and smiled strangely, as she said: 

“He is dead!”

CHAPTER XX

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER

The Russian had told the truth when he said the friends of Mazie and Cio-Cio-San were on the bridge.  Johnny and Hanada had rushed from the room and had been standing there straining their eyes for a trace of that strange light beneath the water, when the first shot rang out.  But the Russian had not counted on the extraordinary speed with which Johnny could drop to earth.

Before the second shot could be fired, Johnny was flat on the surface of the bridge, quite out of range.  Hanada had not fared so well.  The first shot had been aimed at him and had found its mark.  He lay all crumpled up, groaning in mortal agony.

“Get you?” Johnny whispered.

“Yes,” the boy groaned, “but you—­you get that man.”

There came the tramp of feet on the bridge.  The police had heard the shots.  The long finger of light from the police boat again felt its way back and forth through the darkness.

“D’ you shoot?” demanded the first policeman to arrive.

“No!  No!  They didn’t do it,” a second man interrupted before Johnny could reply.  “It came from the river.  I saw the flash.  Devils of the river’s deep!  What kind of a fight is this, anyway?”

“I seen it!  I seen it!” It was Jerry the Rat who now broke into the gathering throng.  “I seen it; a German sub.”

“A submarine!” echoed a half dozen policemen at once.

“I think he is right,” said Johnny.  “You better drag the river.”

“Hello!” exclaimed one of the officers.  “If this ain’t the same two guys we’ve been looking for?  Johnny Thompson and the Jap.”

“You are right,” said Johnny disgustedly, “but for once use a little reason.  There are world crooks down there in the river and they have some helpless woman there as hostage.  Perhaps by this time they may be killing her.  I’ll keep.  I can’t get away; not for good.  I’m known the country over, beside your charge against me is false, idiotic.”

“Yes, yes,” it was Hanada’s hoarse whisper.  “Take me to a hospital.  I’ll tell all and you will know he was not in it at all.  Let him help you.  And—­and, for God’s sake, get that man.”

He sank back unconscious.