Although they appeared to have been blown up along with the Japanese ship in the eighth chapter of the Universal serial Adventures of Smilin' Jack, chapter nine reveals that Jack (Tom Brown) and Captain Wing (Keye Luke) managed to abandon ship seconds before the explosion and are quickly picked up by their friends. Safely in Honolulu, Jack is assigned as bodyguard to Mah Ling (Cyril Delevanti), the Mandon envoy, until the treaty is ready to be signed. Still impersonating an American reporter, Fraulein Von Teufel (Rose Hobart) contacts a local jeweler, Johan Blenker (David Hoffman), and assigns him to substitute Mah Ling with a double -- preferably a dead one. Using code language in front of Janet (Marjorie Lord), Blenker alludes to the fact that a certain Han Po may fit the bill. But the Fraulein's devilish plan backfires when the eminent emissary's faithful servant Wu Tan (Philip Ahn) rejects the notion that Han Po (also Delevanti) is Mah Ling and when Janet remembers Blenker mentioning a Han Po, Jack realizes that the Mandon leader has been abducted. In hot pursuit of Blenker and his victim, Jack and his friends are derailed by a trick bridge and crash into a deep ravine.
by Hans J. Wollstein
synopsis