"Who got careless and dropped $10,000,000 on an ocean floor?" asked
Jimmie.
CHAPTER II
A CONFLICT OF AUTHORITY
The Captain gazed at Jimmie for a moment without answering. Then he parted his thin lips and uttered the old, familiar word:
"Fawncy!"
"The Cutaria went down as the result of a collision?" Ned hastened to ask, observing that Jimmie was growing flushed and angry.
"Yes," was the reply, "and it is asserted in the diplomatic circles of foreign governments that she was rammed by the orders of a power alleged to be friendly to our Government, and that our department of state does not dare remonstrate and ask for reparation for the reason that an investigation would reveal the fact that the $10,000,000 in gold which was lost was not really, as alleged, on its way from the sub-treasury in New York to the treasurer of the Chinese Empire."
"But why should Uncle Sam be sending money over there?" asked Ned.
"It is asserted that the money was sent at the command of men high in influence in Washington who understood that it was to be seized while in transit, after reaching Chinese soil, and used to assist the radical fomentation now going on in China."
"An indirect way, a sly and underhand way, of assisting the revolutionary party in China to get control of the government, eh?" asked Ned.