Fog rolls off the Channel as a liner grounds near the Goodwins, and a baffling series of break-ins points to one prize hidden in the captain’s safe. When an envoy is found strangled in his locked study and a second corpse turns up in a smashed bureau drawer, the trail leads to a cryptic bracelet engraved with directions to an ancient imperial burial. A relentless secret society wants it at any cost. An outsider criminologist and a battle-hardened wanderer follow clues from docks and drawing rooms to banks, lairs, and back-room clubs, uncovering forgeries, betrayals, and a conspiracy that stretches from London to the China Seas. Mechanical traps, false identities, and sudden gunfire mark a chase that tightens with each page—until the last cipher yields the place no intruder should find. Part detective puzzle, part high-speed thriller, this 1918 adventure captures the fever of a world enthralled by hidden treasure and the perils that protect it.