At MacWhite's request, Colonel Hillandale, also known as the Ragtime Kid, arrives to assess the political and social situation in Sarkhan. He wanders the city of Haidho playing the Sarkhanese national anthem on his harmonica. He engages the locals by asking them to hum the tune so he can learn it better, and they respond with kindness and laughter. Hillandale observes the vast number of palm reading and astrology shops in town. As a man who holds a diploma from the Chungking School of Occult Science, he deduces that the Sarkhanese revere the occult and astrology. Hillandale is invited to a dinner to be held the next day by his old friend Don Phillippe, the Philippines Ambassador. Hillandale studies dossiers on the guest list.
Don Phillippe's dinner parties are.....
