“Nearly seven years ago,” he said, “I made a very large sum of money by amalgamating certain shipping interests at a favorable moment.  Thus, as it happened, I had at command practically unlimited resources when I was asked to finance the cause of reform in China.  The wretched lot of the Chinese Nation had always appealed to my sympathies.  Some hundreds of millions of the most industrious and peace-loving people in the world have been exploited for centuries by a predatory caste.  Given a chance to expand, freed from the shackles of the Manchus, the Chinese, in my opinion, contain the elements which go to form a great race.  But the Manchus held them in bondage, body and soul, and, so powerful is self-interest, there has never been an Emperor or statesman who strove to elevate the masses who was not mercilessly assassinated as soon as he allowed his intent to become known.  The only path to freedom lay through revolution, and I had reason to believe that the ruling faction could be overthrown by a well-organized and properly financed movement without the appalling bloodshed which often accompanies such dynastic changes.  At any rate, I entered the conspiracy, heart and soul.  But I met with two difficulties at the outset.  I could not exercise efficient financial control in London, and I could neither go and live in the Far East nor transact my business through ordinary banking channels.  So I had to find a substitute, and my choice fell on a rising young barrister named Arthur Lester, whom I had known since he was a boy who had married the daughter of an old friend.  He had a taste for adventure, and was alive to the magnificent career which lay before one who helped materially in the rebirth of China.  In a word, he went to Shanghai as my agent, and the outcome of his work there is the present Chinese constitution.  Of course, as holds good in all human affairs, events did not follow the precise track mapped out for them.  But, on the whole, he and I were satisfied.  China is awake at last.  The giant has stirred, and, if his first uncertain steps have deviated from the open road of reform, he will never again sink into the torpor of the past centuries.  Manchu arrogance and domination, at any rate, are shadows of the past, but unhappily, the conquerors who have been so effectually thrust aside have now embarked on a secret campaign of vengeance and reaction.  A society which calls itself the ’Young Manchus’ is inspired by one principle, and one only, and that is ‘death to the reformers.’  I don’t suppose you gentlemen follow closely the trend of affairs in China, but you must have read of the assassinations of prominent men reported occasionally in the newspapers.”

Furneaux clicked his tongue so loudly that Forbes stopped speaking and looked at him, thinking, apparently, that the little detective meant to say something.  He did, but it was Theydon whom he addressed.

“I’d give a week’s pay if Winter was here now, and I could see those big eyes of his bulging out of his head,” he cackled.