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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11469 ***
+
+Boy Scouts on Motorcycles
+
+Or
+
+With The Flying Squadron
+
+By G. HARVEY RALPHSON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BOY SCOUTS IN A STRANGE LAND
+
+
+"Fine country, this--to get out of!"
+
+"What's the difficulty, kid?"
+
+Jimmie McGraw, the first speaker, turned back to the interior of the
+apartment in which he stood with a look of intense disgust on freckled
+face.
+
+"Oh, nothin' much," he replied, wrinkling his nose comically, "only
+Broadway an' the Bowery are too far away from this town to ever amount
+to anythin'.  Say, how would you fellers like a chair in front of the
+grate in the little old Black Bear Patrol clubroom, in the village of N.
+Y.?  What?"
+
+The three boys lying, half covered with empty burlap bags, on the bare
+earth at the back of the apartment chuckled softly as Jimmie's face
+brightened at the small picture he drew verbally, of the luxurious Boy
+Scout clubroom in the City of New York.
+
+"New York is a barren island as compared with this place," one of the
+boys, Jack Bosworth by name, declared.  "Just think of the odor of the
+Orient all around us!"
+
+Jimmie wrinkled his nose in disdain and turned back to the window out of
+which he had been looking.  The other boys, Ned Nestor, of the Wolf
+Patrol, and Jack Bosworth and Frank Shaw, of the Black Bear Patrol, all
+of New York, pulled their coarse covering closer under their chins and
+grinned at the impatient Jimmie, who was of the Wolf Patrol, and who was
+just then on guard.
+
+It wasn't much of a window that the boy looked out of, just an irregular
+hole in a bare wall, innocent alike of sash and glass.  Away to the east
+rolled the restless waters of the Gulf of Pechili, which is little more
+than a round bay swinging west from the mystical Yellow Sea.
+
+To the south ran the swift current of the Peiho river, on the opposite
+bank of which lay the twin of Taku, Chinese town where Jimmie stood
+guard. Tungku, as the twin village is named, looked every bit as forlorn
+and disreputable as Taku, where the boys had waited four days for
+important information which had been promised by the Secret Service
+department at Washington.
+
+The gulf of Pechili and the Peiho river glistened under the October sun,
+which seemed to bring little warmth to the atmosphere.  Junks of all
+sizes and kinds were moving slowly through the waves, and farther out
+larger vessels lay at anchor, as if holding surveillance over the mouth
+of the stream which led to Tientsin, that famous city of the great
+Chinese nation.
+
+"Look at it!  Just look at it!"
+
+Jimmie pointed out of the opening, his hand swinging about to include
+the river and the gulf, the slowly moving boats and the picturesque
+streets.
+
+"'Tis a heathen land!" the boy went on.  "They wear their shirts outside
+of their trousers an' do their trucking on their shoulders.  Say, Ned,"
+he added, "why can't we cut it out?  I'm sick of it!"
+
+"Cut it out?" laughed Jack Bosworth, "why, kid, we've just got to the
+land of promise!"
+
+"Most all promise!" replied Jimmie.  "We've got nothin' but promises
+since we've been here.  Where's that Secret Service feller that was
+goin' to set the pace for us?"
+
+"Perhaps he's lost in the jungle," laughed Frank Shaw.  "He certainly
+ought to have been here three days ago.  What about it, Gulf of Pechili
+and the Peiho river Ned?" he added, turning to a youth who lay at his
+side, almost shivering in spite of his shaggy burlap covering.
+
+Ned Nestor yawned and threw aside his alleged protection from the
+growing chill of the October day.  The boys, fresh from a submarine in
+which they had searched an ocean floor for important documents as well
+as millions of dollars in gold, had arrived at Taku five days before
+this autumn afternoon.
+
+After concluding the mission on the submarine, Ned had been invited to
+undertake a difficult errand to Peking, in the interest of the United
+States Secret Service.  Even after landing at Taku, he had confessed to
+his chums his utter ignorance of the work he was to do.
+
+He had been requested by the Secret Service man who had engaged him for
+the duty to wait for instructions at the old house on the water front
+which, in company with Frank, Jack, and Jimmie, he now occupied.  The
+house was old and dilapidated, seemingly having been unoccupied for
+years, so the lads were really "camping out" there.
+
+Their provisions were brought to them regularly by a Chinaman who did
+not seem to understand a word of English, and, as the boys knowledge of
+the Chinese tongue was exceedingly limited, no information had been
+gained from him.  The Secret Service man had not appeared, and Ned was
+becoming uneasy, especially as the curiosity of his neighbors was
+becoming annoying.
+
+"I guess this is a stall," Jimmie grumbled, as Ned arose and stood at
+his side.  "You know how the Moores, father an' son, tried to get us on
+the submarine?  Well, I'll bet they've got loose, an' that we're bein'
+kept here until they can do us up proper without attractin' the
+attention of the European population."
+
+Ned laughed at the boy's fears.  He had no doubt that the man who had
+promised to meet him there had been delayed in some unaccountable
+manner, and that the information he was awaiting would be supplied
+before another day had passed.
+
+"Anyway," Jimmie insisted, "I don't like the looks of things hereabouts!
+There's always some pigtailed Chink watchin' this house from the street.
+I woke up last night an' saw a snaky-eyed Celestial peering in at this
+window.  I guess they've got rid of the man we are waitin' for."
+
+"If we only knew exactly what we were to do in Peking," Frank said,
+approaching the little group by the window, "we might jog along and
+report to the American legation.  I'm like Jimmie.  I don't fancy this
+long wait here--not a little bit!"
+
+"As I have told you before," Ned replied, "I don't know the first thing
+about the work cut out for us by the United States Secret Service
+people. There was some talk about following a brace of conspirators to
+Peking, the conspirators who tried to discredit the United States in the
+matter of the gold shipment but that was only incidental, and I was
+ordered to come here and await instructions.  So I'm going to wait--
+until the moon drops out of the sky, if necessary."
+
+"Oh, we'll stick around!" Frank put in.  "Don't think, for a minute,
+that any of us thought of quitting the game.  Still, I'd just like to
+know how much longer we have to remain here, and just what we are to do
+when we get to Peking, if we ever do."
+
+"Of course we'll stick!" Jimmie exclaimed.  "All I'm kickin' on is the
+delay.  We might have remained on board the submarine, where we had cozy
+quarters an' somethin' to eat besides this Chink stuff."
+
+"Whenever you want to bump Jimmie good and plenty," laughed Jack, "all
+you need to do is to tamper with his rations.  What's the matter with
+this rice, kid, and this meat pie?" he added, as the man who had served
+their food since their occupancy of the old house approached with a
+large, covered basket on his arm.
+
+Jimmie wrinkled his freckled nose again and laid a hand on his stomach,
+as if in sympathy with that organ for the unutterable Chinese
+concoctions it had been called upon to assimilate of late.
+
+"Rat pie!" he said, in a tone of disgust.
+
+"I'll bet a dollar to a rap on the nose that it's rat pie!  I can hear
+the rats squeal nights when I'm tryin' to sleep an' can't."
+
+"Say, Chink," Jack said, seizing the Chinaman by the shoulder and facing
+him about so that a good look into his slanty eyes might be had, "what
+do you know about this chuck?"
+
+"No chuck!  Pie!"
+
+"Of course it's pie!" answered Jack.  "It would be pie if it was made of
+old shoes, if it had a crust on.  What I want to know is, where did you
+catch him, and who pays you to bring it to us, and who pays him to pay
+you to feed it to us?  Where does he live, and is he black, white, or
+red? Come on, old top.  You know a lot if you could only think of it."
+
+The Chinaman, an evil-looking old fellow with a long cicatrice across
+his left cheekbone, shook his head and regarded his questioner craftily.
+
+"No spik English!" he said.
+
+"You spoke it then," Jack retorted.  "I'll bet a pan of pickles that you
+know what we were saying when you came in here."
+
+"Let him alone," Frank advised.  "That head of his is solid bone.  He
+would think his foot hurt if he had the toothache."
+
+"What a filthy, yellow, toothless, wicked old devil it is!" Jack went
+on. "Some day when he comes here with that basket of rats I'm going to
+cut his pigtail off close behind his ears."
+
+"I think he's the foulest old geezer I've ever met," Frank went on.  "If
+I had a dog with a mug like that I'd hire him out to the man who
+manufactures nightmares."
+
+The Chinaman stood looking stupidly about for a minute before placing
+his basket on the floor, then dropped it with a jar which rattled the
+few dishes within and scuffled out of the door.  Jimmie followed to see
+that he did not loiter around the house listening, and came back with a
+mischievous grin on his face.
+
+Long before the appearance of the Chinaman the boys had planned to use
+such uncomplimentary language in his presence as would be likely to
+excite his anger, if he understood what was being said.  They did not
+believe he was as ignorant of the English language as he pretended to
+be.
+
+"Well," Jimmie asked, of Ned, "did he tumble?  What did you see?"
+
+"I saw as evil a look as ever burned out of a  human eye," Ned replied.
+"Looked to me like he would enjoy feeding Jack and Frank to the rats."
+
+"Then he understood, all right?"
+
+"Of course he did," Jack, answered.  "I could see that with one eye.
+He's been coming here with his grub for four days, and picking up a word
+here and there every time.  We ought to have had sense enough to have
+been on guard against such treachery."
+
+"What's the answer now?" asked Jimmie, turning to Ned.
+
+"I'm afraid we're in a bad predicament," Ned replied.  "This shows me
+new light.  The messenger we are expecting should have been here long
+ago, and I'm now sure that we've just got to do something.  I'm getting
+afraid to eat the food they bring us, and I lie awake at night,
+listening for hostile footsteps."
+
+"That sounds a little more like Manhattan!" Jack cried.  "Sounds like
+action!  We're off in a heathen land, surrounded by enemies, and not
+likely to get anything like a fighting chance, but I'm for doing
+something right now.  I'm not going to lie still here and be poisoned,
+like a rat in a sewer!"
+
+"I'm for going on to Peking," Frank said.  "We can report to the
+American ambassador there, and, at least, get something to eat besides
+rat pie and something better than a bare floor to sleep on.  If we only
+had the Black Bear, the motor boat we cruised with on the Columbia
+river, we wouldn't be long on the way."
+
+"Huh!" Jimmie observed, taking out a minute memorandum book, "it is
+seventy miles by the river from Taku to Tientsin, and only twenty-seven
+by the road."
+
+"And how far to Peking by the road?" asked Jack.
+
+"It is seventy-nine Miles from Tientsin to Peking," was the reply, "and
+the roads ought to be good."
+
+"That's more than can be said of the natives!" Jack said.
+
+"The allied armies marched over the road to Peking in 1900," Frank
+explained, "and I rather think the inhabitants of strip of country have
+a wholesome respect for foreigners.  With our high-power motorcycles,
+ought to make Peking before daylight, if we start right after dark."
+
+"And don't run across any cutthroats on the way," added Jimmie.
+
+"Let's see," grinned Frank, "we were to have a flying squadron of
+marines with us?  What?  I reckon they're flying so high that they are
+out of sight!"
+
+"Suppose we see if the horses are in good shape," Ned said, going to an
+adjoining apartment.
+
+He made his appearance again in a minute trundling a magnificent
+motorcycle.  It was been built expressly for army use, with a long,
+powerful stroke 10 h. p. motor.  It was as indestructible and as auto
+machine as could well be designed.  With a perfect muffler, automatic
+carburetor and lubrication, it was a machine to cover miles silently and
+with little danger of delay.
+
+The open door behind Ned revealed three machines arranged along the
+wall, and the boys rushed to the examination of them.  In second all
+were in the room, bending over their steel pets.
+
+"Say!" Jimmie cried, presently, "we'll get Peking to-night--not!  This
+machine has been tampered with, and some parts are missing."
+
+"Yes, I reckon the Yellow Peril is on deck!" said Frank.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A DISQUIETING DISCOVERY
+
+
+The four boys regarded each other in silence for a moment.  Jack was the
+first to speak.
+
+"How badly are the machines damaged?" he asked.
+
+"Mine is all right," Jimmie reported, after a careful examination of his
+steel steed, "except that a couple of burrs are missing."
+
+"And mine," Frank hastened to say, "is all right except that the oil
+feed is blocked and the electric battery is shut off--that is, it is so
+arranged that the machine will spark for a short distance and then buck.
+Great doings!"
+
+"And yours, Jack?" asked Ned.
+
+"Just a few burrs gone."
+
+"And mine is o.k.," Ned went on, "except that the carburetor has been
+tampered with.  I think we'll get off for Peking before long."
+
+"How?" demanded Jimmie.  "We can't make burrs out of wood, or patch up
+with rat pie, which seems to be about the only thing we have plenty of.
+I don't suppose we can get repairs in this yellow hole."
+
+Ned took a handbag from under the burlap.  "I am carrying my own repair
+shop with me," he said, taking out a box of burrs and a pair of pincers.
+"I've got all the small parts right here in duplicate, and some of the
+larger ones are in the big suitcase."
+
+"You're a wonder!" Jimmie cried, dancing about his chum and wrinkling
+his nose until it looked like that of a comedian in a motion picture.
+"I wonder if you haven't got a hunk of Washington pie in that keyster!"
+
+The lads fell to work on their machines, and in a very short time all
+were ready for the road.  Then Ned put away his handbag and began an
+examination of the large suitcase, which contained the larger repairs
+for the motorcycles.  It had not been molested.
+
+"There's one thing certain," he said, "and that is that the Chinese who
+are watching us expect us to make a dash for Peking.  They took the
+pains to leave our machines in such shape that their tampering with them
+would not be suspected.  I'd like to know just when this mischief was
+accomplished."
+
+"Yes," Frank observed, "they wanted us to get out of Taku and break down
+on the road to Tientsin.  They would have us at their mercy out there--
+or they figured it out that way."
+
+"The work on the machines must have been done sometime during the day--
+or last night," Ned replied.  "Possibly while we were dozing."
+
+"I don't believe it!" Jimmie insisted.  "I've had me eyes open every
+minute to-day."
+
+"Well," Ned went on, laughing, "we had a high wind yesterday, didn't we?
+A wind that tumbled the dust of the streets in upon us?  Well," pointing
+to a portion of his machine frame which he had been careful not to
+touch, "here is some of the dust which fell upon the motorcycle then.
+The person who did the job brushed a lot of the dust away, so, you see,
+he must have worked since the dust fell."
+
+"Did he brush it all away?" asked Jimmie.
+
+"No," Ned replied, pointing, "here is a brace which he touched with his
+hands but did not wipe off.  In a short time I'll tell you just what
+sort of a chap it was that did the trick."
+
+The boy got his camera out of the suitcase and took a picture of the
+spot on the machine frame where the print of human fingers showed.  The
+motorcycle owned by, or in charge of, Jimmie also showed a similar mark,
+and this, too, was photographed.
+
+This completed, Ned laid the films aside for a time while he made a
+circuit of the old house, walking slowly as if out for chest exercise,
+but really seeing every square inch of the earth's surface where he
+walked.  Once he dropped a pocketknife which he carried in his hand and
+stooped over to pick it up.
+
+The boys thought he was a long time in securing the knife, although it
+was plainly in sight.  When he stood up again and continued his circuit
+of the house there was a strange, inscrutable smile on his face.
+
+"What is it?" asked Jack, the instant Ned entered the house.
+
+"We've been blind and deaf since we have boon here," Ned answered.
+"Hostile influences have been operating all around us.  Now," he
+continued, as Frank opened his lips to ask a question, "we'll see what
+sort of a tale the camera has to tell."
+
+As he looked at the films his face hardened and his eyes snapped.  In a
+moment he put the telltale sheets away.
+
+"European fingerprints," he said, quietly, "and European footprints out
+there.  It is not Chinamen that we have to look out for."
+
+"What the Old Harry--"
+
+Jimmie checked himself as a figure darkened the doorway.  Ned stepped
+forward to greet the newcomer.
+
+The visitor was a youngish man with black hair, growing well down on a
+narrow forehead, small black eyes, a straight-lipped mouth, and hard
+lines about his deep-set eyes.  His manner and carriage was that of a
+man trained to military service.
+
+"You are Mr. Nestor?" he asked, extending his hand as Ned approached
+him. "I have come a long distance to meet you," he added, before Ned
+could answer the question.
+
+"From Washington?" asked Ned.
+
+The visitor nodded; glanced sharply about the apartment, where the
+motorcycles were still lying, and then squatted on one of the burlap
+bags. Jimmie shook his fist behind the newcomer's back.  It was evident
+that the boy did not like his appearance.
+
+"I am Lieutenant Rae, of the Secret Service," he said, in a moment.  "I
+have been delayed on my way here.  You were about to start on without
+your final instructions?" he asked, lifting a pair of eyebrows which
+seemed to make his little black eyes smaller and more inscrutable than
+ever.
+
+Ned looked at the man, now lolling back on the burlap, and for a moment
+made no reply.  Then he lied deliberately--in the interest of Uncle Sam
+and human life, as he afterwards explained!
+
+"No," he said, "we were merely overhauling the machines.  We are in no
+haste to be away."
+
+"I see," grinned the other.  "You are taking life easily?  Well, that is
+not so bad.  However, you are to start on your journey early to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"I shall be ready," Ned replied.  "You have just landed?"
+
+For just a second Lieutenant Rae's eyes sought the ground, then he
+lifted them boldly.  Ned was watching his every movement.
+
+"No," he said, then, "I came in three days ago, but I was obliged to
+await the movements of others before reporting to you."
+
+Jimmie caught Frank by the arm and drew him out of the house.  Out in
+the deserted garden--which was only a yard or two of hard-packed earth--
+he whispered:
+
+"That feller's a liar!"
+
+"What makes you think so?" Frank asked.
+
+"He's no Englishman," Jimmie insisted.  "He's a Jap.  You bet your last
+round iron man that's the truth.  Now, what do you think he's doin'
+here?"
+
+"Well," Frank replied, "I think you are right.  He's not an Englishman.
+The nerve of him to put that up to us!"
+
+"Perhaps he's the gazabo that monkeyed with our machines," suggested
+Jimmie.  "Wish I'd 'a' caught him at it!"
+
+"But Ned says that was an European," Frank said.
+
+"Then they're thick around us," Jimmie went on, "and we're up to our
+necks in trouble.  I wonder what instructions this Rae person will give
+Ned?"
+
+"Suppose we go inside and see," Frank answered.
+
+When the lads reached the interior of the house again Ned and Rae were
+bending over a road map of the country between Taku and Peking.  The
+visitor was indicating a route with his pencil.
+
+"Very well," Ned said, as if fully convinced of the honesty of the
+other, "now about the private orders.  You understand, of course, that I
+know little concerning the work cut out for me."
+
+"You are to receive final instructions at Peking."
+
+Ned smiled, but there was something about the smile which told the boys
+that he was of their way of thinking.
+
+"He's on!" Jimmie whispered in Frank's ear.
+
+"You bet he is," was the reply.
+
+"I'll come here in the morning," the visitor said, looking at his watch,
+"and go out with you.  The chances are that we'll have to make a quick
+run. Machines in good order?" with a glance at the motorcycles lying
+against the wall.
+
+"We haven't as yet looked them over carefully," Ned lied again, "but
+presume they are in good shape.  As a matter of fact," he continued,
+hardly able to suppress a smile as Jimmie looked reprovingly at him, "as
+a matter of fact, we know little about the machines.  This is new
+business for us."
+
+Lieutenant Rae bowed himself out of the door, and the boys gathered in
+an inner room to discuss the situation.
+
+"We may as well face the truth," Ned said, calmly.  "The man who was to
+meet us here has fallen into the hands of our enemies.  We are alone in
+China without instructions and surrounded by foes.  Now, what shall we
+do? We may be able to reach the water front and get off to one of the
+British ships in sight."
+
+"And go back?" demanded Jimmie. "Not for me!  I'm goin' to stay an' see
+this thing out."
+
+"That's me!" Frank said, and Jack echoed his words.
+
+"Well, then," Ned went on, with a smile of satisfaction at the attitude
+of the lads, "if we are going on, we've got to get to Peking without
+delay. I'll tell you what I think.  The conspirators are aware that we
+are trying to run them down.  If they can stop us before we fully
+identify them, their part in the plot against Uncle Sam will never be
+known."  Rest assured, then, that they will stop us if they can."
+
+"Then it's us for the road to-night!" said Jimmie.  "That is fine."
+
+In referring to conspirators, Ned indicated the men who had been
+involved in a plot to get the United States into trouble with a foreign
+government over a shipment of gold to China.  This shipment had gone to
+the bottom of the Pacific.
+
+It had been claimed that the gold shipment, which was marked for the
+Chinese government, had really been intended for the revolutionary
+party, now becoming very strong.  It was now insisted that the
+revolutionists had been posted as to the shipment, and that it was on
+the books for them to seize it the moment it left the protection of the
+American flag.
+
+These claims having been made, and believed, in the state department of
+a foreign government, none too friendly to the government of the United
+States.  A ship had been sent out to watch the transfer of the gold.  At
+least, that was what had been claimed, but this ship, so sent out, had,
+by an "accident," rammed and sunk the treasure boat.  If the Chinese
+government did not get the gold, neither did the leaders of the
+revolutionary party.
+
+It had been claimed at Washington that the whole thing was a plot to
+discredit the United States government in the eyes of the nations of
+Europe, and Ned Nestor and his chums had been sent out to search the
+wreck for papers which would disprove the statements made.  The papers
+had been secured.
+
+The point now was to connect the foreign statesmen who had burned their
+fingers in the plot with the affair.  Ned knew that the papers would
+establish the falsity of the charges, but he wanted to place the blame
+for the whole matter where it belonged.  He wanted to track the man who
+had conferred with known conspirators back to his home.  He wanted to be
+able to point out the treacherous government which had so sought to
+belittle the United States in the eyes of the world.
+
+The boy had no doubt that this was actually the mission upon which he
+had been sent when ordered by the Secret Service department to report at
+Taku and there await instructions before proceeding to Peking.  He did
+not understand why he had been instructed to make the trip to Peking on
+a motorcycle when there were easier ways, but he was quick to obey
+orders. Later on he learned just why this order had been given.
+
+"Yes," Ned replied to Jimmie's remark, "I think we may as well set out
+for Peking to-night.  If we wait until morning, we may not be at liberty
+to start out."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Jack.
+
+"Study it out," smiled Ned, "and you may be able to find an answer."
+
+While the boy was speaking, he bent over and looked keenly at a
+footprint on the earthen floor of the room.  It was not such a print as
+the foot-covering of a Chinese man would leave.  It had been made by the
+long heel of an European shoe.
+
+When Ned looked closer, he saw that the ground was stained a deep red,
+that there were dark crimson spots on the window casing.  Then he saw
+that a struggle must have taken place in the room, for the few things it
+held were in disorder.
+
+"Boys," he said, "perhaps our Secret Service man got here before we
+did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A SHOE AND A SURPRISE
+
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Frank.  "If he had reached the old
+house first, he would have waited here for us, wouldn't he?"
+
+"Look what's here," Ned replied.  "There has been a fight in the room.
+The combatants fought from the inner wall to the window, then a knife
+was used. These stains are by no means fresh, but they tell the story.
+And to think that we've been here all these days and never found them!"
+
+"Well," Frank hastened to say, "we weren't suspicious; and, then, we had
+no occasion to visit this room."
+
+"We should have been on our guard," Ned replied, "but there is no help
+for it now.  This discovery may block our going on to Peking to-night."
+
+"I don't see why," Jack said, in a disappointed tone.
+
+"If the man who was wounded here and carried out of the window," Ned
+replied, "is really the messenger we are waiting for, we ought not to go
+away and leave him in the hands of the enemy.  It may not be the one I
+fear it is, but we ought to find out about that."
+
+"It might have been only natives fighting," urged Jack.
+
+"Of course," Ned insisted, "but we ought not to leave if there is any
+possibility of our friend being in trouble.  Besides, Jack," he went on,
+"a native fight here would hardly be umpired by a man wearing European
+shoes! Here are the tracks, and I found others like them on the ground
+outside not long ago.  We may as well go out now and try to follow
+them."
+
+Accompanied by Jimmie, Ned went out and made a closer examination.  The
+tracks crossed the yard and ended at the street in the rear of the old
+house.
+
+"Now," Ned said, as he stepped out on the beaten course of the unpaved
+street, "we shall have to take chances.  The trail has disappeared, and
+we can only depend on our enemies for guidance."
+
+"That's fine!" said Jimmie.  "We may as well go back!"
+
+Ned pointed to a little group of Chinamen standing not far away, at the
+corner of a street lined with miserable huts.
+
+"We'll walk about here," he said, "and if we get somewhere near any
+point of information to us or danger to the others, I have a notion that
+that nest of Celestials will begin to buzz."
+
+Jimmie laughed and the two passed on, merely looking in the direction of
+the group as they passed it.  They moved on down the street on the
+opposite side.  The Chinamen did not move.
+
+When they turned back, however, on the other side of the thoroughfare
+and stopped, on speculation, for an instant before a hut somewhat larger
+and more dilapidated than the others, a pair of the watchers suddenly
+detached themselves from the group and hastened away in opposite
+directions.  Two more strolled toward the boys.
+
+"What next?" asked Jimmie, in a whisper.
+
+"Seems to me that our halting here indicates that there may be something
+doing in this house," Ned replied.  "Suppose we go in and ask some
+ordinary question?"
+
+"An' get kicked out!" grunted Jimmie.
+
+"That will be all right, so long as they let us out at all," Ned replied
+with a smile.  "I just want to know why our stopping here excited the
+Chinks who were watching us."
+
+As Ned turned toward the house the little fellow caught him by the
+sleeve and held him back.
+
+"You look out," he said, "there's a snake in there, that black-eyed
+snake who claimed to be Lieutenant Rae!  Do you want him to know that we
+are wise to his game?"
+
+Ned turned and started away from the house, but there came a call from
+the structure, and the next instant two men were running out to greet
+him. More by gestures than by words they informed the boys that there
+was a man in the house wished to see them.
+
+In a moment they stood facing the man who had called himself Lieutenant
+Rae.  He advanced to meet them and pointed to chairs as they entered the
+room.
+
+"Out for a walk?" he asked, with a smile.
+
+Ned nodded and Jimmie grinned.
+
+"The owner of this house," Rae went on, "is an old friend of mine.  We
+met first, years ago, in San Francisco.  I'm staying here while in the
+town. By the way, I was about to visit your quarters."
+
+"Come along," Ned said.  "We must be getting back."
+
+Rae left the room, saying that he would bring a raincoat, and Jimmie
+pointed to a rear apartment where an old Chinaman with a long, sinister
+cicatrice on his left cheek was bending over a table.
+
+"That's the Chink who brings our grub," he said.  "What is this Rae
+person doing here?  I don't eat no more grub that Chink brings."
+
+Ned made no reply, for a swinging closet door attracted his attention at
+that moment.  Inside the narrow closet, on the rough floor, lay a pair
+of European shoes.  Ned slipped forward and seized one.  When Rae
+returned it was hidden in a capacious pocket.
+
+"What is it?" whispered Jimmie.
+
+"If I'm not much mistaken," was the reply, "it is the shoe that made the
+tracks we have been following."
+
+"Then this Rae person didn't always enter the old house where we are
+stopping by the front way," commented Jimmie.  "Gee," he added, "I'll
+bet he umpired that fight, and the man the Chinks carried off is in this
+house now."
+
+There was no more opportunity for conversation between the two boys at
+that time, for Rae stood watching them closely, a sneering smile on his
+face. Ned turned toward the door.
+
+"Why venture out in the storm?" asked Rae.  "Surely, there is no need of
+haste.  Your friends will not lose themselves during your absence."
+
+"You were ready to go, a moment ago," Ned said.
+
+"It is the storm," the other observed, with a shrug of the shoulders.
+"It is increasing in violence every moment."
+
+Glancing into the rear room, Ned saw the old Chinaman leave his work and
+pass through a door to the west.  The boy thought he recognized a
+significant signal as the fellow disappeared,
+
+The lads never knew exactly how it all occurred.  They only knew at the
+time that there was a quick rush, a flash of weapons, a desperate
+struggle, then momentary unconsciousness.
+
+They decided afterwards that their enemies had rushed upon them from
+every direction, and that the sneering face of Rae had gloated over
+their capture.
+
+"Don't injure them," Rae ordered, as ropes were knotted about the wrists
+and ankles of the prisoners.  "I'll go out now and see that the two
+Black Bears," with a double sneer in his voice, "are taken into camp in
+short order.  Bad climate, this, for school boys who imitate wild
+animals," he added, with a malicious smile.  "A bad climate."
+
+"You're all right!" Jimmie called out, as Rae paused in the doorway for
+an instant.  "You're all right!  But let me give you a pointer.  You
+keep the Bears and Wolves you get in strong cages!  If they get out,
+they'll eat you up!"
+
+"Oh! I'll pull their fangs!" laughed the other, and then he was gone.
+
+"This China seems to be a nice country," Jimmie said, turning to Ned.
+"Some people would break our crusts in instead of tyin' us up."
+
+"I rather think," Ned replied, "that they have planned to do that a
+little later on.  We ought never to have taken such chances."
+
+"You can't have a chicken pie," grinned Jimmie, "unless some one kills a
+chicken!  No more can you find out what's goin' on by sittin' down in an
+old house an' waitin' for someone to bring you the news in a New York
+newspaper!  We had to keep cases on this chap, didn't we?"
+
+"I think you would talk slang if you were drowning," Ned smiled.
+"Anyway," he added, "we've caused Rae, if that is his name, to show his
+hand.  That is something."
+
+"If we never get away," laughed Jimmie, "we can leave the information to
+our friends in a will!  I wonder if this gazabo will get Frank and
+Jack?"
+
+"Possibly," Ned answered.
+
+"They seem to be puttin' most all the Americans in China out of
+circulation!" said the little fellow.  "Wonder if that old gear-face
+thinks he can guard us an' sleep, too?  Say, you watch your chance, Ned,
+an' I'll roll over and geezle him an' you get out of the house.  Roll
+out, tumble out, any way to get out!  There," with a sigh of
+disappointment, "there's another Chink in the game.  Listen to what they
+are saying!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TWO BLACK BEARS IN TROUBLE
+
+
+Jack and Frank sat long by the window, waiting for Ned and Jimmie to
+return.  The doors of the adjoining rooms were wide open, so they had a
+full view of the lower floor.
+
+There were windows, unglazed like that which looked out on the Gulf of
+Pechili, too, and the lads could see for some distance along the street
+which ran parallel with the one upon which the miserable old structure
+faced.
+
+Presently a mist crept over the sky, and black clouds rolled in from the
+threatening canopy over the gulf.  There was evidently a storm brewing,
+and, besides, the night was coming on.
+
+In spite of the fact that they had a good view all about them, so far as
+the house and its immediate vicinity was concerned, both boys felt that
+almost indescribable sensation which one experiences when being observed
+from behind by keen and magnetic eyes.  They were not exactly afraid,
+but they had premonitions of approaching trouble.
+
+"I wonder what's keeping Ned?" Jack asked.  "Hope he hasn't gotten into
+trouble."
+
+"Oh, he'll look out for that!"
+
+"Of course!  Ned's no slouch!"
+
+While the boys cheered themselves with such remarks as these, the rooms
+grew darker and the black clouds from off the gulf dropped nearer.
+
+"What an ungodly country!" Jack exclaimed.  "I feel as if I were
+surrounded by snakes, and all kinds of reptiles.  How would you like to
+take a New York special, just now?"
+
+"I'm not yet seared of the job we are on," Frank replied, "but I'd like
+a half decent show of getting out alive.  I feel like we were in a hole
+in the ground, with all manner of creeping things about us.  The very
+air seems to be impregnated with treachery and cunning."
+
+"That's the breath of the Orient," smiled Jack, not inclined to continue
+in the vein in which the conversation had started.
+
+"I don't know why the breath of the Orient should differ from the breath
+of the Occident," replied Frank, well pleased at the change of subject.
+"It wouldn't, if the natives of the far East would put bathtubs in their
+houses and garbage cans on the street comers."
+
+"Well, there certainly is an odor about the East," grinned Jack.
+"Perhaps it is the hot weather."
+
+"Hot weather has nothing to do with the sanitary conditions of this part
+of the world," Frank went on.  "Peking is in the latitude of
+Philadelphia, or New York.  You wouldn't think so to hear people talk
+about the Orient back home, but you'll change your mind if you don't get
+out of this before winter sets in."
+
+"Somehow I never associated cold weather with the East," Jack said.
+
+"Why," Frank continued, "this river freezes over about the middle of
+December and they run sledges on the ice until the middle of March.  In
+summer it is often 106 above zero, while in the winter it drops to about
+6 degrees below.  If the natives were half civilized, you might get the
+idea that you were in Ohio, because of the fields of corn."
+
+"We don't know much about China, do we?" mused Jack.
+
+This was Frank's opportunity.  Before reaching the coast he had spent
+many hours studying up on the history of the strange land he was about
+to visit. His father was owner and editor of one of the most powerful
+newspapers in New York City, and the boy had had plenty of inspiration
+for historical research from the time he was old enough to read.  His
+father's library had supplied him with all the facilities necessary to
+the carrying out of his inclination, and his travels with the Boy Scouts
+had brought him into contact with many of the countries whole history he
+had studied so enthusiastically.
+
+Now he saw an opportunity of talking China to Jack, and started in at
+once. Jack listened eagerly, for, while interested in the past of the
+strange land, he was too busy a young man to spend much time in any
+library.  His father was one of the leading corporation lawyers in New
+York, but the boy's inclinations pointed to mining as a future
+profession--when he had investigated the wilds of the world!
+
+"We don't know much about China," Frank began, "because for centuries
+China has shunned what we call civilization.  This is said to be the
+most ancient and populous nation in the world, although it seems to me
+that history goes back farther on the banks of the Nile and the
+Euphrates than on the western shore of the Yellow Sea.
+
+"The authentic history of China goes back 2207 years before the birth of
+Christ, while Egyptian records and the data found along the Euphrates
+and the Tigris point to a much older organization of men into
+communities. However, it is said by some that Fuh-hi founded the Chinese
+empire eight hundred years before the date given, when Yu the Great
+began to make history.
+
+"One reason why the story of China is so short, comparatively, is that
+Ching Wang, the old fellow who caused the Chinese wall to be built to
+keep out the Tartars, ordered all books and records previous to his time
+to be destroyed.  This was to dispose of the stories of wars, in which
+China, before his time, was always engaged.
+
+"China has always been at war with the Mongolians.  In 1300 A.D.,
+Genghis Khan raised a Mongolian army and captured Peking.  Later, one
+Kublai Khan overthrew the Sung dynasty and established a Mongolian
+empire.  The members of the defeated royal family drowned themselves in
+the river at Canton. This Mongolian dynasty lasted until the middle of
+the fourteenth century, when it was overthrown.
+
+"The Chinese governed their own land, then, until 1644, just before
+which time the emperor was murdered by native sons.  Then the Tartars
+got to Peking, in spite of the Great Wall, and established the dynasty
+now on the throne.
+
+"One cause of the growing revolt in China is the fact that the Tartars
+are still in power.  But the Tartars who were warlike enough when China
+lay before them for conquest quieted down as soon as Sun-chi took the
+throne. Peace has been the rule since then.
+
+"It seem strange, but it is true, that China has not progressed, has not
+been given the respect conferred on other nations, because she would
+not, or could not fight.  Talk about peace all you like, but it is the
+fighters that win whether in private or national life.
+
+"China has been kicked about by all the nations of the world, large and
+powerful as she is, because it was understood that she could be insulted
+with impunity.  England put the opium curse on her against only feeble
+resistance.  She has stood for peace, not conquest, and had been treated
+condescendingly, like a big booby of a boy at school who is afraid of
+lads half his size.  The secret organization now forming in this country
+may overthrow the Manchu dynasty, but if it does it will build a Chinese
+republic and not a new Chinese empire.
+
+"It is claimed by some that the United States is favoring this new
+Chinese party of liberty, that the gold recently lost in the Pacific was
+our contribution to the cause--by the roundabout way we have heard so
+much about--and that the Washington government will be the first to
+recognize the new republic.
+
+"I don't know whether all this is true or not, but father says it is,
+and he ought to know.  Anyhow, there will be plenty of fighting before
+the present rulers release their grip on the royal treasury.  It may be
+that our mission here is to find out something more about this new
+movement.
+
+"You see," he added, "if our government is for the new movement, the
+nation which rammed the gold ship, which set the conspirators at work,
+which sent a great statesman, as we believe, to negotiate with the
+conspirators, is against it, and Uncle Sam possibly wants to know what
+power it is that is likely to assist the present Emperor of China in
+holding his job.  If Ned can get the proof he needs to establish what he
+already knows and suspects, he will do a good piece of work."
+
+"I wish he would return," Jack said, with an apprehensive look about the
+room.  'I don't see what is keeping him."
+
+"Here he comes, now!" Frank cried, "or it may be Jimmie," he added,
+"blundering through the window."
+
+Both boys arose and hastened to the door of the room from which the
+sounds of approach had been heard.  The apartment was dark and still,
+save for the whipping of the wind at the open casement.  While the boys
+stood there, expecting every instant to hear the voice of one of their
+chums, rain began to fall, and a sharp zigzag of lightning cut across
+the sky.
+
+By this natural searchlight the lads saw a figure crouching just under
+the window.  The illumination lasted for an instant only, and it was not
+possible for them to see whether the visitor was dressed in native or
+European costume.  His face was not in sight, and only the barest
+outlines of his figure were discernible.
+
+Jack was for rushing forward on a tour of inspection, but Frank took a
+firm grip on his friend's arm and held him back.  He not only prevented
+him springing upon the crouching figure, but drew him away from the open
+door-way, believing that both had been observed by the intruder.
+
+"We ought to get him!" Jack panted, in a whisper.  "We ought to find out
+if he is one of our enemies or only a common thief."
+
+"Much good it would do to capture him!" Frank whispered back.  "We
+couldn't force the truth out of him, and the things they call courts of
+justice here would soon be after us."
+
+"Then what can we do?" demanded Jack.
+
+Frank did not reply, for footsteps, now plainly heard above the sweep of
+the wind and rain, were approaching the room where the boys were
+standing, with automatic revolvers in their hands.
+
+"He's got his nerve!" Jack said.  "Why doesn't he come into the place
+with a brass band?  Shall we sneak out of a window, or remain here and
+find out what he wants?"
+
+"I'm for getting out!"
+
+Frank leaped from the window as he spoke, and in a second Jack came
+piling out on top of him.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Frank whispered.  "Why don't you knock a fellow over?"
+
+"What are you trying to do?" demanded Jack.
+
+"Not a thing," was the reply.  "Say, but we'll get a nice soak if we
+remain here."
+
+"You'll get a nice soak on the coco, if you don't stop pulling me
+around," came back from Jack.
+
+"Then keep your hands off me!" Frank responded.
+
+But in a moment both boys knew that they were not struggling with each
+other.  A brilliant flash of lightning cut the sky, and by its light
+they saw each other lying on the ground under the window, each with a
+couple of men in native costume perched on top.
+
+Jack fired, but the pressure on his back was not lessened.  Instead, he
+felt a snaky hand slip down his arm, seize his fingers and twist the gun
+away.
+
+"Frank!" he called out.  "Frank!  Shoot at the heathens!  I missed, and
+one of them has my gun."
+
+Frank obeyed the suggestion, and three reports were heard.  Jack, though
+not naturally bloodthirsty, was overjoyed at the sound of a groan which
+came from the spot where Frank lay.
+
+"Don't try that again, son!"
+
+"That will be enough!"
+
+Both sentences were spoken in English.  Then the boys were carried
+bodily into the house and sat down against a wall.  Then a lighted
+lantern was brought in, and the prisoners saw six sleepy-looking
+Chinamen grinning at them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A COLLECTION OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+"Well, what do you think of it?"
+
+The voice was that of an Englishman, and the words were spoken in the
+room, but the struggling prisoners could not discover where the person
+who uttered them stood.  It seemed to them that there were only the six
+sleepy-looking Chinamen and themselves in the apartment.
+
+Frank ceased his useless struggling with the rope which held both feet
+and hands in its strong coils, and glanced along the row of stupid
+faces.
+
+"What did you say?" he asked, hoping that the speaker would say
+something more and so locate himself.
+
+"How do you like it?"
+
+That was the same voice, and it was in that room, but, still, there were
+only the six Chinamen and Jack in sight.  Frank looked at his chum with
+a smile on his face.  In that moment he resolved to meet whatever Fate
+might have in store for him with a cheerful heart.  He had little doubt
+that both Ned and Jimmie had been caught in the trap into which Jack and
+himself had fallen.
+
+There was no knowing what the fate of himself and his friends would be,
+but whatever had been planned for them by their enemies, there would be
+no relief in sighs and pleas for pity.  They were alone in the land of
+mystery.  Owing to the necessity for secrecy regarding their movements,
+no one with whom they had been associated in the Secret Service work
+knew of their whereabouts, save only Lieutenant Scott, who had sent them
+on to Taku, and who had failed to keep his promises to them.
+
+And Lieutenant Scott?  Frank believed him dead or in the clutches of the
+conspirators.
+
+Otherwise, he would have kept his appointment at the old house on the
+water front.  The view ahead was not a long one, as the boy considered
+the matter, nor a smooth one, but he decided that nothing was to be
+gained by subserviency.
+
+"I like it!" was Jack's quick reply.  "Who is it that is doing the
+talking?"
+
+"One of the six in front of you," came the answer in English.
+
+Jack cast his eyes quickly along the row of faces, but failed to catch
+the movement of a lip, the twinkle of an eye.
+
+"You're a funny bloke," Jack went on.  "How much will you take for a
+month in vaudeville?"
+
+"He'd make a fine spirit medium," Frank cut in.  "Can you make the talk
+come from behind me?" he added, with a grin.
+
+"Of course I can!"
+
+Although the boys watched closely, there were no signs of motion in any
+one of the six yellow, foxy faces, still the words seemed to come from
+the wall directly back of Jack's head.
+
+"If I had you on the Bowery," Jack continued, "I'd give you a hundred a
+month.  Come on over and get busy in the little old United States!"
+
+"I think I'll wait until the boys bring in the other two wild animals,"
+replied the unknown speaker.  "I rather want to see the finish of you
+Wolves and Black Bears before I see the Bowery again."
+
+"You'll find more wild animals of our stripe on the Bowery than you will
+want to meet," Jack replied, "especially when it is known that you've
+been mixed up with Boy Scouts, to their harm, in China."
+
+"I'll take my chances on that," was the reply.  "You have been very
+successful, you wild beasts, in butting into the business of other
+people, and getting out again uninjured, but it is going to be different
+now. There are two black Bears and two Wolves that I know of who will
+never get back to New York again."
+
+"All right," Frank said.  "We've had fun enough out of the Secret
+Service work we have done to pay for whatever trouble we have now.  Ned
+will be along presently, and then you'll have another think coming."
+
+"Sure, he'll be along directly," was the reply.  "In fact, he's right
+here now!"
+
+But it was not Ned who was pushed, bound hand and foot, into the circle
+of light in the room.  The little fellow came near falling as he was
+thrust forward, but he regained his equilibrium, and turned around to
+face his tormentor.
+
+"You're a cheap skate!" he said.  "If  I had you on Chatham Square I'd
+change your face good and plenty!"
+
+Then he saw that he was speaking to empty air.  There was no one in the
+doorway.  The person who had brought him there and hustled him into the
+room had disappeared.
+
+"Now, what do you know about that?"
+
+Jimmie chuckled as he asked the question of the six silent figures
+ranged along the wall.  As yet his eyes had not fallen on the figures of
+Frank and Jack, farther back in the shadows.
+
+There was, of course, no answer to his question, and the boy leaned
+forward, a grin on his freckled face.
+
+"Say, but you're a bum lot!" he cried.  "Why don't you go back to the
+Pyramids and sleep for another thousand years?  There ain't no
+nourishment in sitting up there like a dime museum, for there's no one
+sellin' tickets at the door."
+
+"Look behind you!"
+
+That was the English voice again, seemingly out of the heavy air, or out
+of the storm outside.  Jimmie turned quickly and saw his chums nicely
+tied up.
+
+In a moment he turned back to the row of six, without even exchanging a
+look with his friends.
+
+"Who's doin' the talkin'," he asked.
+
+Frank and Jack were now too impatient to know what had become of their
+leader to delay longer.  The latter asked:
+
+"Where's Ned?"
+
+"Ask this lineup," Jimmie replied.  "I don't know.  Gee!  If I had a
+face like that man on the end, I'd sell it to the wild man of Borneo,
+its an improvement on anythin' he could get up.  Say, Old Socks!" he
+added, "where is Ned?"
+
+"Packed up, ready for delivery," was the reply.  "Say, how would you
+wild animals like to take a jaunt on your motorcycles to-night?  Nice
+cool night for a ride!  You might reach Poking by morning and report to
+the American ambassador!"
+
+"We'll get there in due time," Frank answered.
+
+"I've drawn the teeth of this collection of wild animals, at all
+events," said the voice.  "No more Wolves and Black Bears will be apt to
+come to China.  Such collections are not popular here."
+
+Jimmie dropped back to where his chums were seated.  Serious as the
+situation was, the boy could not restrain a smile as he threw himself
+down beside Frank.  The storm was still thundering outside, and splashes
+of rain now and then whirled in at the open casement.
+
+The lantern which illuminated the interior of the room showed only a
+round blotch against the darkness.  In this circle sat the six silent
+men, watchful but motionless.
+
+"It might be a scene in a play!" Jimmie exclaimed.
+
+Frank nodded and whispered:
+
+"Did they get Ned, too?"
+
+Jimmie nodded.  His face was grave in an instant.
+
+"Where is he?" Frank whispered.
+
+The little fellow shook his head.  Then the voice which seemed to come
+from nowhere was heard again:
+
+"You'll meet him in due time," it said.
+
+A long silence followed.  The lantern which gave out the light flickered
+in the wind and the beat of the rain increased in violence.  In all the
+adventurous lives of the Boy Scouts nothing so weird, so uncanny, as
+this had ever occurred.
+
+"Well," Jack said, more to break the strange silence than for any other
+purpose, "why don't you say something?"
+
+Then, through the clamor of the storm, came the sharp ring of steel.  It
+sounded to the listening boys like the purring of two swords directed
+against each other by strong hands.
+
+Instantly the light was extinguished, and the shuffling of feet told the
+captives that the watchful six were getting into upright positions.
+
+"Hello, the house!"
+
+The challenging call came from the street outside.
+
+"That's good, honest United States!" Jimmie whispered.  "Shall I risk an
+answer?"
+
+"You'll probably get a knife in your side if you do," Frank answered.
+"The Chinks are still in the room."
+
+"Show a light!"
+
+The voice was nearer than before, and the three boys lifted to their
+feet and moved toward the window, which was just above where they had
+been sitting.  Frank was about to throw himself out into the storm when
+a muscular hand seized him by the arm.
+
+"Nothing doing!" a voice said in his ear.
+
+"If you move again, or try to answer the call, that will be the last of
+one Black Bear.  Remain silent while I talk with your friends."
+
+"Our friends?" repeated Frank.
+
+"Certainly," was the reply--given with a chuckle.  "Your very good
+friends from the American ship in the harbor."
+
+There was torture in the words, in the fierce grip on the arm.  The
+promised assistance had arrived and the boys were powerless to make
+their perilous situation known!
+
+But a hopeful thought came to the brain of the boy as he was dragged
+away from the open window.  It was barely possible that Ned had escaped,
+that he knew of the peril his friends were in, and would arrive before
+the Americans were, by some treacherous falsehood, sent away.
+
+"Nestor!" cried the voice outside.  "Are you there?  Show a light."
+
+There was a rustle in the room, then black silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON
+
+
+"Go around to the front and come in," a voice said--a voice from the
+room where the boys were.  "I've just got here, and am trying to find a
+light."
+
+There was a rattle of arms outside, then the heavy tread of men still
+making some pretense, even in the darkness and the rain, of moving in
+marching order.  The men who had come to the assistance of the Boy
+Scouts were preparing to enter the house.
+
+How would they be received?  This was the question uppermost in the
+minds of all the boys as they waited.
+
+Would they be greeted with treacherous words, or with a murderous
+fusillade of bullets and knives stabbing in the darkness?  It would seem
+that the Chinamen would hardly dare attack an American military squad,
+yet these men were outlaws, and there was no knowing what they might do.
+
+The lads heard the marines, as they supposed the newcomers to be, pass
+around an angle of the old house and stand for an instant talking in the
+doorway to which they had been directed by the voice of the man on the
+inside.  Frank was preparing to set up a cry of warning, let the
+consequences be what they might, when the rattle of arms told him that
+the marines had surrounded the house, and that every door and window was
+guarded!  The men who were guarding the boys evidently knew what was
+taking place, for they released their clutches on the lads and moved
+away.
+
+Next came a struggle at the window, and then a strong electric light
+swept into the room.  Jimmie jumped forward and bumped into Ned, who was
+clambering over the decayed window sill.
+
+There were several shots exchanged on the outside, followed by shouts of
+both rage and pain, then three men in the uniform of the United States
+marine service entered the room.  One of them picked up Ned's
+searchlight, which had fallen to the floor when Jimmie bunted its owner,
+and turned its rays on the mix-up under the window.
+
+There was a flutter of arms and legs, as Frank and Jack, half choking
+with laughter at the manner in which tragedy had so suddenly and
+unexpectedly been changed into comedy, pulled Ned and Jimmie apart.
+Jimmie sat up, wrinkling his nose until one would think it never would
+smooth out again, and gazed at Ned with provoking grin.
+
+"Gee!" he cried.  "I thought I was mixing it with six Chinks!  Wonder
+you wouldn't knock before entering a private room!"
+
+"I did knock," laughed Ned, rising from the floor and taking the
+flashlight.
+
+"Yes, you knocked me down," grunted Jimmie.
+
+The three marines, standing in the middle of the room with amused faces,
+regarded the four boys curiously for a moment and then moved out of
+range of the window.  Also Ned was asked to shut off the light.
+
+"We're not out of it yet," one of them said.  "Our men chased the Yellow
+Faces into a bad part of town, and they are likely to be chased back,
+not by a few, but by a mob!  These Chinks like Americans about as much
+as brook trout love the desert."
+
+"Perhaps I'd better go out an' see what's comin' off," suggested the
+little fellow.
+
+"You'll only get captured again," Jack suggested, provokingly.
+
+"I ain't got nothin' on you in getting tied up with ropes," Jimmie
+retorted.  "You looked like one of these mummy things when the light was
+turned on."
+
+The officer in charge of the marines motioned to Jimmie to remain where
+he was, but the order came too late.  Having been relieved of his bonds
+by Ned's quick fingers, he fairly dived out of the window into the
+darkness.
+
+"Now there'll be trouble catching him again," complained the officer.
+"If he doesn't get a hole bored through him, we'll have to hunt the town
+over to get him out of the Chinks' hands.  Why can't you boys behave
+yourselves?"
+
+"Ruh!" Jack retorted, annoyed at the tone of superiority adopted by the
+officer.  "I guess we've been doing pretty well, thank you!  I reckon
+you fellows must have followed off a cow path!  We've been waiting here
+for you long enough to walk to Peking on our hands!"
+
+"That's the fact!" the officer replied, speaking in a whisper in the
+darkness.  "We were the first ones to fall into the snares set by the
+Chinks.  Only for Ned, we would still be waiting for you in a house
+something like this one, in a distant part of the town.  How the boy
+found us I can't make out, but find us he did."
+
+"What are you going to do about that runaway kid?" asked Frank of Ned.
+"Shall I go get him?"
+
+It was not necessary for Ned to reply to the question, for at that
+moment a figure came tumbling through the window and a voice recognized
+as that of the little fellow cried out:
+
+"Gee!" he said, feeling about in the darkness, "what do you think of my
+ruinnin' into a sea soldier an' getting chucked through the hole the
+carpenter left?"
+
+"If you boy will get ready now," a voice said, "we'll be on, our way
+toward Peking."
+
+"How many of the Chinks did you catch?" asked Ned.
+
+"Not a blooming one," was the disgusted reply.  "They ran away like
+water leaking into the ground."
+
+"If you'd only let me alone," wailed Jimmie,  "I'd have got one.  I want
+to soak the man that tied me up."
+
+The marines, a full dozen of them, now gathered in the old house and all
+made ready for departure.  Directly a motorcycle for every man was
+wheeled up to the door.
+
+"We have been practicing riding while waiting for you," the officer in
+charge explained, "and the fellows think they can go some!"
+
+"It is a wild night for such a ride," Frank suggested.
+
+"Couldn't have been better for our purpose," said the officer.
+
+"Do you know why we are going on motorcycles?" asked Ned.
+
+"I think I do," was the reply.
+
+"Why don't you out with it, then?" asked Jack.
+
+"You'll learn of the reason soon enough!" replied the other.  "Before we
+go to Peking you may understand why you are going with a flying squadron
+of Uncle Sam's men!"
+
+"Who directed you to the house where I found you?" asked Ned.
+
+"A chap who called himself Lieutenant Rae," was the reply.
+
+"Japanese-lookin' chap?" asked Jimmie.
+
+"That's the fellow."
+
+"There's one more question," Ned went on.  "Are all the men you took
+from the ship with you?"
+
+"Every one of my men is here," answered the officer, "but there was a
+fellow, a friend of yours, with us at first who is not with us now.
+Queer chap he was, too!  German, I think, and a master at tangling up
+the United States language.  He came on board the ship, and managed to
+get off with us when we left.  In two days he disappeared."
+
+"That was Hans!" cried Jack.
+
+"Who's Hans?"
+
+"A German Boy Scout we picked up on an island.  A member of the Owl
+Patrol, of Philadelphia, he said.  We left him on the submarine."
+
+"Well, he asked after you boys, and looked disappointed when we did not
+find you, owing to the misleading statements of that fraud, Rae.  He
+left us without a word of explanation, and is probably looking for you.
+Did he know where you were going?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Ned, "I told him we were going to Peking by way of
+Tientsin.  I should not have done that."
+
+"Oh, it can do no harm, and may be for your benefit.  If the lad was not
+killed by the Chinks, he is doubtless on his way to Peking."
+
+"Then you think he knew there was something wrong because we did not
+meet you?" asked Ned.
+
+"Yes; he acted queerly."
+
+"There are evidences of a struggle in this house," Ned went on, "and we
+thought the messenger we were waiting for had been attacked, but it may
+have been Hans after all.  I hope he is not in serious trouble."
+
+"I am the only messenger sent to you," the officer said, "so, as you
+say, it might have been the German who was attacked, though no one knows
+how he ever found this house, or why, when attacked, he didn't make
+himself heard."
+
+The rain was now falling heavily, and it was decided to remain under
+shelter for a time, so the flashlight was brought into use again.
+
+"If your men can keep up with us," Jack said to the officer, "we can get
+to Peking in six hours, so there is no need of hurrying."
+
+"If you get to Peking in six weeks you'll be doing well," laughed the
+officer.
+
+"What do you mean by that? Demanded Ned, who was anxious for a start.
+
+"I can't tell you," was the answer.  "But it was never believed you
+could make a quick jump to the capital city.  There maybe things to do
+on the way there.  That is why you have to escort.  I don't like this
+diplomacy game, but have to obey orders."
+
+"What I want to know," Jimmie broke in, "is how Ned got away.  They had
+him tied up plenty last time I saw him.  And, after he got away, how did
+he happen to blunder into the company of our escort?  China is a land of
+mystery, all right!"
+
+"They didn't watch me closely," Ned replied, modestly, "after they took
+you away, and when I did get out of the house I had only to follow one
+of my captors.  Believing that I was safely tied, my captors talked a
+lot about having the marines waiting in the wrong house while they
+disposed of the Boy Scouts!"
+
+"This man Rae?" asked the officer.  "Was he there with your captors?
+That's one of the men we must take."
+
+"Oh, he is the man that caused us to be taken," Jimmie cut in.  "I'd
+like to break his crust for him.  I'm gettin' sick of bein' tied up in
+every case, like the hero in a Bowery play!"
+
+"Was there a Chink who spoke English like a native?" asked Jack.
+
+"There were two."
+
+"Dressed in native costume?"
+
+"Yes, and looking bored and weary."
+
+"Then they're the men that sat with the others in a grinning row up
+against the wall," Frank exclaimed.  "Do you think they are Chinamen?"
+
+"Disguised Englishmen," Ned replied.
+
+"That's my notion," Frank went on.  "Oh, we'll get this all ironed out
+directly!  If we could find Hans we might start off with a thorough
+understanding of how the game was carried out here."
+
+The rain now slacked a little, and here and there stars showed through
+masses of hurrying clouds.  The boys led their steel horses to the door
+and prepared to mount.
+
+"Plenty of mud," Jack suggested.
+
+In the little pause caused by the marines getting out their machines a
+dull, monotonous sound came to the ears of the party.  It was such a
+sound as the Boy Scouts had heard on the rivers of South America, when
+the advance of their motor-boat was blocked, and hundreds of savages
+were peering out of the thickets.
+
+"What is it?" asked Jack.
+
+"Sounds like the roaring of a mob," answered the officer.  "You
+understand that a word will stir the natives to arms against foreigners.
+As there is no knowing what this fake Lieutenant Rae and the men we
+drove away from this house may have said to the Chinks, we may as well
+be moving.  It may be safer out on the road!"
+
+"I should say so!" exclaimed Jack.  "We can't fight a whole nation, can
+we? Look there!  That was a rocket, and means trouble."
+
+The distant murmur was fast growing into a roar, and rockets were
+flecking the clouds with their green, red, and blue lights.  Shadowy
+figures began to show in the darkness, and a group was seen ahead, in
+the street which led away toward Peking.
+
+"More dangerous than wild beasts!" exclaimed the officer.  "Be careful
+to keep together and in the middle of the road, when we get under way,
+for if one of us gets pulled down there's an end of all things for him!"
+
+"It is too bad we can't stay long enough to find Hans," Ned said.
+
+"If we remain here five minutes longer," the officer replied, "someone
+will have to come and find us.  Are you ready?"
+
+All were ready, and the next moment sixteen motorcycles shot out into
+the street and headed northwest for Tientsin, which city lay in the
+direct path to Peking.  The group in the road ahead parted sullenly as
+the squadron pressed on its outer circle and the company passed through
+without mishap.
+
+That was as wild a ride as any living being ever engaged in.  Nothing
+but the speed of the motorcycles saved the boys, for enemies sprung up
+all along the way.  Some mysterious system of signaling ahead seemed to
+be in vogue there.
+
+The sky cleared presently.  The road was muddy, but the giant machines
+made good progress, especially through little towns, through the doors
+and windows of which curious eyes peered out on the silent company,
+marching, seemingly, to the music of the spark explosions.
+
+After a run of two hours the officer halted and dismounted.
+
+"Now," he said, "we've got a bit of work cut out for us here.  If we
+make it, we may go on in peace.  If we fail, all must keep together and
+take chances on speed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE MIDNIGHT CALL OF AN OWL
+
+
+Ned glanced about keenly as he left his seat on the machine and stood
+awaiting further instructions.  There was little rain in the air now,
+but it was still dark except for the faint reflection of a distant group
+of lights.
+
+"Where are we?" Ned asked.
+
+"Near Tientsin."
+
+"So soon?  Why, I thought we'd be a long time on the way."
+
+"I reckon you don't know how fast we have been traveling," said the
+officer.  "Fear led me to take risks.  I'll admit that."
+
+"I want to look through the city before I leave the country," Ned
+remarked.
+
+"You are standing now where the allied armies encamped in 1900," the
+officer went on.  "You doubtless recall the time the allied armies were
+sent to Peking to rescue the foreign ambassadors during the Boxer
+uprising? That was an exciting time."
+
+"Hardly," laughed Ned, "although I have read much about that march.  I
+must have been about eight years old at the time."
+
+"Well here is where the American brigade encamped on the night before
+the start for Peking was made.  At that time it was believed that the
+foreigners at Peking had all been murdered.  I was here with the boys in
+blue."
+
+"Then you ought to know the road to Peking."
+
+"I certainly do."
+
+"What are we halting here for?"
+
+"There is a dispatch from Washington due you here," was the reply.
+
+"Telegrams in China?"
+
+"Certainly.  Why, kid, this city has over a million of inhabitants, and
+thousands of the residents are foreigners.  Of course they have
+telegraph facilities."
+
+"But how am I to get it to-night?"
+
+To the east lay a great cornfield, to the west a broken common upon
+which were a few houses of the meaner sort.  The corn had been cut and
+was in the shock.  In the houses the lights were out.  But far over the
+poverty-stricken abodes of the poor shone the reflections of the high
+lights of the city.
+
+Tientsin is a squalid Oriental city, its native abodes being of the
+cheapest kind, but the foreign section is well built up and well
+lighted. These were the reflections, glancing down from a gentle slope,
+that the boys saw.
+
+The officer pointed to the north, indicating a low-roofed hut half
+hidden in the corn shocks.
+
+"We are to remain there," he said, "until you receive your instructions
+from Washington."
+
+"But why were they not given me before?" demanded Ned.
+
+"Because the man in charge of this matter for the Secret Service
+department doubted your ability to make the trip to Tientsin.  That is
+the truth of it.  If you had failed back there at Taku, I should have
+taken the message from the office and mailed it, unopened, back to
+Washington.  You have made good, so you get it yourself."
+
+"They never put me to such a test before," grumbled Ned.
+
+The officer turned, gave a short order to his men, and passed his
+machine over to one of them.
+
+"I am going into the city with Mr. Nestor," he said; "see that none of
+these youngsters gets away during my absence."
+
+"I'm goin' to get away right now," Jimmie exclaimed.  "I'm goin' with
+Ned to the city.  I guess I'm not visiting China to live in a cornfield.
+I want to see the wheels go round!"
+
+The officer glanced at Ned questioningly, while the little fellow made a
+face back.
+
+"Let him come along," Ned said.  "He'll come anyway, whether we give him
+permission or not.  How far must we walk?"
+
+"Walk?" repeated Jimmie.  "I'm goin' to take my motorcycle."
+
+"That may be a good idea," admitted the officer.  "I had not thought of
+that."
+
+"We may have to make a run for it, judging from the experiences we had
+at Taku," Ned suggested.
+
+"Nothing of the kind here," the other said.  "You are as safe in this
+city as you would be in New York, under the same conditions, of course.
+You know there are sections of New York which strangers do well to keep
+out of at night."
+
+So, mounting their cycles again, the three set off for the foreign
+section of Tientsin.  At first the streets were very bad, but in time
+they came to smoother running and good time was made.
+
+It was now approaching midnight, but the city, was still awake and
+stirring.  The streets were well filled with pedestrians, and many of
+the small shops were open.
+
+Naturally the three motorcycles, speeding through the streets of the
+ancient city, attracted no little attention.  Here and there little
+groups blocked the way for an instant, but on the whole fair progress
+was made.
+
+Jimmie, by no means as anxious as were his companions, enjoyed every
+moment of the dash.  He was thinking of the stories he would have to
+tell when he returned to the Bowery again!
+
+It is quite possible that the way would have been more difficult for the
+riders only for the uniform of the officer.  Foreigners are not given
+much consideration by the street crowds in China--especially by such
+crowds as enliven the thoroughfares at night--but, since the march of
+the allied armies to Peking, uniforms have been held in great awe.
+
+At last the telegraph office was reached, and Ned was glad to see that
+lights still burned within.  His night ride would at least prove of
+avail. He would receive instructions directly from Washington, and that
+would be more to the purpose than traveling along like a blind mole in
+the earth, receiving his information by bits from underlings in the
+Secret Service.
+
+Besides, the boy was wet and cold, for the night was growing more
+disagreeable every moment, and he would now have an opportunity to warm
+himself by a blaze such as foreigners ordinarily insist on in the cold
+months in China.
+
+The man at the desk bowed courteously as the three entered the office.
+He was evidently a native of China but seemed to have profited by a
+foreign education.
+
+When Ned gave his name and asked for a message, the operator, who
+appeared to be the sole employee there, coolly surveyed him critically
+from head to foot.  Then he turned questioning eyes to the marine.
+
+"It is all right," the officer said.  "This is the person brought here
+by the flying squadron."
+
+"A boy!" cried the operator.  "Only a boy!"
+
+"Aw, cut that out!" cried Jimmie, always ready to resent any seeming
+discourtesy to his chum.
+
+The operator scowled at the little fellow and turned to the officer with
+the remark that he should be obliged to consult with his superior.
+
+"All right," was the officer's reply.  "Only make haste."
+
+The operator entered a back room and presently returned with a boy who
+evidently served as messenger during the daytime.  After receiving
+whispered instructions, the lad passed out of the office, with a furtive
+glance over his shoulder at Jimmie.
+
+Then the operator went back to his desk, while the officer and Ned stood
+waiting.  There was no fire in the outer office, but a wave of warm air
+came from the rear room.
+
+"We have been riding in the rain," the officer said, seeing that they
+were not to be invited into the heated apartment.  "May we go back to
+the fire?"
+
+The operator scowled, but the uniform won the day, and the three were
+ushered into a small room where an American oil stove was sending forth
+a generous heat.  Then the grouchy operator slammed the door and left
+his guests to their own reflections.
+
+"Say," Jimmie whispered, in a moment, "I don't believe that chump is on
+the level!"
+
+"Well," Ned replied, "he's got to give me the dispatch.  He can't get
+out of doing that."
+
+"Perhaps he knows what the message contains," the officer suggested,
+"and is not inclined to deliver it."
+
+"I hardly think he knows what it contains," Ned answered, "for it is
+undoubtedly in cipher."
+
+"And you have the Secret Service code?" asked the officer, amazement
+showing on his face.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, they have a lot of confidence in you, then," said the other.
+
+At the end of half an hour a man said to be the assistant in charge of
+the station entered the room and eyed all three occupants keenly.  His
+glances were met frankly by Ned and the officer, but Jimmie could not
+resist an inclination to wrinkle his nose at him.
+
+"Which is Ned Nestor?" the man asked, addressing the officer.
+
+The marine pointed toward Ned.
+
+"Do you know him to be Ned Nestor?" was the next question, and Ned
+thought he felt a hostile spirit in the tone.
+
+"Certainly I do, else I would not be here with him."
+
+"This is important business of state," suggested the other, "and I have
+to be cautious."
+
+"Your conduct seems more like curiosity than caution," the officer
+declared.  "Have you the message with you?"
+
+"Yes, but I can't deliver it except in the presence of the manager."
+
+"Is it in the code of the Secret Service?" asked Ned.
+
+"It is in some code unknown to me."
+
+"If you don't deliver it in five minutes," declared the officer, "I
+shall call the American consul!"
+
+The official made no reply.
+
+"You can read this code, I suppose?" he asked of Ned.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, I'll communicate with the manager, and if he says it is all right
+I'll give you the message and take your receipt for it.  Will that
+answer?"
+
+"It must, I suppose," replied the officer.
+
+The obdurate official left the room.
+
+"Gee, but it's close in here!" Jimmie declared, in a moment.  "Seems
+like a hop joint in Pell street."
+
+"There is opium in the air," the officer said.  "See if you can find a
+window."
+
+Jimmie found a window opening on a large court and lifted the lower
+sash. Then he called to Ned.
+
+"I don't like the looks of this," he said.  "If they should try to hold
+us here, what?"
+
+"They won't do that."
+
+"Oh, they won't tie us up, I guess," said the little fellow, "but they
+may delay our departure."
+
+"Go on," smiled Ned.
+
+"An' communicate with the ginks that have been chasing us ever since we
+left the submarine," concluded the boy.
+
+"In time, Jimmie," Ned answered, "you may even get into the thinking
+row. I have been wondering ever since we came in here if we were not
+with enemies instead of friends."
+
+"I can soon find out," declared Jimmie.
+
+"Yes?  How, may I ask?"
+
+"I'll rush out into the other room an' try to get to the street.  If
+there's anythin' in the notion we have, they'll turn me back."
+
+"You might try that," smiled Ned, and the officer clapped a hand on the
+boy's shoulder and declared that he was a "brick."
+
+So Jimmie hustled out into the front office.  The listeners heard sharp
+words, and then a slight scuffling of feet.  Then next instant the boy
+was pushed back through the doorway.
+
+"What is the trouble?" asked the marine of the assistant, whose flushed
+face showed in the half-open doorway.
+
+"You'll all have to be identified before you can leave here," was the
+curt reply.  "You have asked for important state dispatches, and we want
+to know what your motive is."
+
+"My motive is to get them," replied Ned, coolly.
+
+"Wait until you prove your right to them," said the other, and the door
+was slammed shut.  Ned stepped back to the window and looked out into
+the court.  The walls were four stories high, and there seemed to be no
+passage out of the box-like place.  The officer suggested that he force
+his way through the outer office and reach the American consul, but Ned
+did not approve of this.  He thought there must be some other way.  Then
+a hint of that other way came from the court in the call of an owl.
+
+"That's a Boy Scout signal, and not a bird!" almost shouted Jimmie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE MESSAGE FROM WASHINGTON
+
+
+"Surely," the marine officer said, in answer to the boy's exclamation,
+"that is a genuine, feathered owl.  No boy could make so perfect an
+imitation."
+
+"It's Dutchy, all right," insisted Jimmie.  "I've heard him make that
+noise before.  Now, how did he ever get to Tientsin, and how did he
+locate us?"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible that it is Hans," Ned said.  "How could he
+make the journey on foot, through a country suspicious of every
+foreigner?  And how comes it that he chanced on this building?"
+
+"Didn't he know that you were expecting instructions from Washington
+while on the way to Peking?" asked the officer.
+
+"I did not know, myself, that I was to receive instructions while on the
+way until I met you," Ned replied.  "If Hans is indeed here, he has
+either blundered into his present position or gained pretty accurate
+information from some one unknown to me."
+
+"If he is here?" repeated Jimmie.  "Of course he is here.  I'm goin' out
+in the court an' give him the call of the pack!"
+
+"What does he mean by that?" asked the officer of Ned.  "Call of the
+pack?"
+
+"The call of the Wolf pack," answered Ned.  "We both belong to the Wolf
+Patrol, of New York."
+
+"And you think Hans, if it is he, will understand?"
+
+"Of course!" scorned Jimmie.
+
+The little fellow was about to step out of the low window to the floor
+of the court when a mist of light appeared at one of the glazed windows
+on the opposite side.  The three watched the illumination with absorbing
+interest for a moment.
+
+"Hans must be up there," Ned, muttered, "although I would almost as soon
+expect to find him up in a balloon."
+
+"I reckon you'll find an owl with wise eyes and feathers up there, if
+you wait," said the officer, with a smile.  "The boy you refer to never
+could have traveled here alone."
+
+"You just wait," advised Jimmie.
+
+Presently the mist of light centered down to three small flames,
+apparently coming from three narrow twists of paper, burning in a row in
+front of a window on the second floor.  Jimmie grasped Ned's arm as the
+three tiny columns of flame showed for an instant and then vanished.
+
+"There!" he said.  "Do you know what that means?"
+
+"It is a warning of danger," Ned muttered.
+
+"Say that again," exclaimed the officer.  "What kind of a game is this?"
+
+"It is a Boy Scout warning," Ned replied.  "In the forest three columns
+of smoke express the warning.  How did this German boy learn all this?"
+he continued, turning to Jimmie.
+
+"Don't you ever think the Philadelphia Boy Scouts are slow!" answered
+the boy.  "Hans has been out in the forest with them, and knows all
+about woods work, an' signs, an' signals.  Give it up, now?"
+
+"Yes," replied the officer, "I give it up.  You boys must have a
+wonderful organization."
+
+"We certainly have," Ned replied.
+
+The three waited for a moment, but no more signals came from the window.
+Instead a heavy footfall sounded outside the door and a man they had not
+seen before stepped into the room.
+
+He was a heavily built man, with broad shoulders, black hair and eyes,
+and a wicked mouth.  His face looked hard and repulsive, like the face
+of a reckless, intolerant, whisky-drinking captain of police in a
+graft-ridden district.  He closed the door with his back as he entered.
+
+"You are Ned Nestor?" he asked of the officer.  The latter pointed
+toward Ned.
+
+"That child!" exclaimed the newcomer.
+
+Jimmie restrained himself with an effort, for he knew that this was no
+time to engage in a quarrel.  He turned his back to the group and looked
+out of the window into the court.
+
+There was now no light at the window from which the warning had been
+given, but there were flickers of uncertain candles at some of the
+others.  The hooting of the owl had undoubtedly attracted the attention
+of the occupants of the building.
+
+As Jimmie looked, however, the sash of the window he was watching was
+pushed up and a tousled head appeared.  Other sashes were pushed up in
+an instant, and pigtailed heads and slanting, evil eyes were in view.
+
+"I guess they're keepin' cases on the kid!" Jimmie thought, as he made
+an almost imperceptible motion toward Hans.  "It would be pretty poor, I
+reckon, if I could get up there," he added, not meaning that it would be
+"pretty poor" at all, but, on the contrary, a very good move indeed.
+
+While the lad watched the window, from which the tousled head had now
+disappeared, some of the other windows closed.  The natives were
+evidently in no mood to lose their sleep because of a foreign-devil
+noise in the middle of the night.
+
+The little fellow was certain that the head he had for a moment seen was
+that of Hans, the Philadelphia Boy Scout who had been so strangely
+encountered during the visit of the submarine to an island off the coast
+of China.  He knew, too, that the German understood that something
+unusual and hostile to his friends was going on below.
+
+He did not stop to consider the means by which Hans had reached the city
+of Tientsin and that particular building.  He accepted it for granted
+that he was there, and wondered just what steps he, the German, would be
+apt, or able, to take in the emergency which threatened the failure of
+the mission to Peking.
+
+Presently the voices of the marine officer, the official who had been
+summoned by the assistant manager, and Ned reached his ears.  The
+officer was clearly in an angry mood and Ned was trying his persuasive
+powers on the newcomer.
+
+"Are you an officer of the telegraph company?" the officer asked, in an
+angry tone.
+
+"I am not," was the equally discourteous rejoinder.  "I am a private
+detective employed, by the manager here.  It is my duty to look after
+just such cases as this."
+
+"Well," Ned said, calmly, "ask any questions you desire and we will
+answer them frankly.  I came to China at the request of the Washington
+government, and am to receive instructions here.  The operator tells me
+that there is a cablegram here for me, but refuses to deliver it on the
+ground that I may be an impostor."
+
+"I think he has you sized up right," grated the detective.
+
+"Then we may as well be going," Ned said, still coolly.  "There is
+nothing for us to do now but try to establish our identity before the
+American consul."
+
+The boy moved toward the door as he spoke, but the brawny detective
+obstructed his passage to the outer room.  Ned drew back with a smile on
+his face.
+
+"You can't leave here just at present," said the detective.  "You will
+remain in custody until morning."
+
+"Why morning?" asked Ned, with alight laugh.
+
+"Because your accuser will be here then."
+
+"Why didn't you say something of an accuser before?" asked Ned.
+
+"It was not necessary."
+
+"What does the accuser say?"
+
+"He only warns us against delivering important papers to a youth
+answering your description."
+
+"Now I understand why all this rumpus has been kicked up!" cried the
+marine officer.  "The man who warned you is Lieutenant Rae?"
+
+The detective nodded.
+
+"Then he is causing us to be delayed for purposes of his own," the
+officer stormed.  "He aims to get to Peking in advance of us.  We must
+be permitted to depart immediately."
+
+He moved toward the door, but the detective stood in his way.  Without a
+word he seized the fellow by the shoulder whirled him around, put his
+beery face to the wall, and passed out of the room.  Ned was about to
+follow him when the strange attitude of the detective caught his
+attention and he stood waiting while a scuffle on the outside told of a
+physical complication there.
+
+"Much good that break will do him," said the detective, straightening
+out his twisted coat collar.  "He will find a squad of police at the
+street door."
+
+"European police?" asked Ned.
+
+"Native police," with a snarl of rage as the commotion in the outer room
+continued.
+
+Knowing that it would be no trouble at all to secure the release by any
+American officer taken into custody by Chinese police, Ned turned to the
+window and looked out on the court.  He understood, too, that his own
+arrest would mean a long delay in prison while his identity was being
+established.  So he thought best to keep out of the squabble the
+hot-headed officer had engaged in.
+
+How sane this decision was only those foreign citizens who had been
+arrested and cast into prison in China or Russia can appreciate.  While
+an accredited officer of a foreign power may almost instantly regain his
+liberty, a plain citizen, such as Ned was forced to appear, might be
+kept in jail for any number of days, weeks, or months.
+
+The detective stood glaring at the two boys for an instant, as if
+anxious to inflict physical punishment upon them, but, as they remained
+at the window and said no more to him, he was obliged to take a
+different course. After rapping out several insulting observations
+concerning school children who ought to be spanked and put to bed, he
+flung himself out of the room.
+
+"You saw Hans?" asked Ned, then.
+
+Jimmie opened his eyes in amazement.
+
+"Did you?" he asked.
+
+"I saw the tousled head you saw," replied Ned.
+
+"I thought you were looking another way," commented the little fellow.
+"That was Hans, all right.'
+
+"But why does he remain inactive?  He knows there is something doing
+down here, else he would not have shown the signal of warning.  He ought
+to be out of that window by this time."
+
+"This is a country of hard knots," laughed Jimmie.  "They may have tied
+up his fat little trotters."
+
+In spite of the serious situation, Ned laughed.
+
+"The tying up in this case makes it seem like a cheap drama on the lower
+East Side in New York," he said.
+
+"I think I might get up to that window," Jimmie suggested.
+
+"How?" asked Ned.
+
+"By the lower window frames an' castings.  If you'll manage to keep the
+Chinks off me I'll try."
+
+"It is worth trying," Ned mused.
+
+The other windows opening on the court were now closed.  The sleepy
+natives, possibly doped with opium, had wearied of watching the figures
+in the rear room of the telegraph office and tumbled back into bed, or
+back on such miserable heaps of dirty matings as they chose to call
+beds.
+
+The sounds of conflict had already died out in the front office, and
+another visit from the evil-faced detective was momentarily expected, so
+Jimmie was urged to make the proposed attempt to reach Hans at once.
+
+He passed out of the window, crossed the beaten earth floor of the
+court, and began to climb.  Ned was pleased to see that he had little
+difficulty in ascending to the window.  Once there he heard him rap on
+the pane. There was a pause, and then the boy pushed up the sash and
+clambered inside.
+
+Ned was glad to see that the boy had the good judgment to draw the sash
+down, as soon as he was in the room.  What he would discover there the
+watcher had no idea.
+
+He might find Hans there under guard.  He might discover, when it was
+too late, that the German had been, unwillingly, used as a decoy by
+cunning natives into whose hands he might have fallen.
+
+Still, there were the signals!  The natives could not have known of the
+Boy Scout system of warnings, and Hans would certainly have volunteered
+nothing in the way of allurement.
+
+He watched the window for what seemed to him to be a very long time.
+The pane remained dark.
+
+"If the lad finds the situation favorable," Ned thought, "he may not
+return here at all.  I should have instructed him to leave the room by
+the main stairway, if possible, and return to the marines.  It would
+look comfortable, just now, to see that file of bluecoats marching into
+the telegraph office."
+
+However, there was now no help for the omission, and Ned waited with
+varying emotions for some sign from the window.  None came, but
+presently the door of the rear room was opened and the detective
+blustered in.
+
+"Where is the other prisoner?" he demanded, looking keenly about the
+room. "He was here not long ago.  Where is he?"
+
+"Didn't you see him crowd out with the marine officer?" asked Ned.
+
+"He was here after that fellow left," was the reply.  "But he can't
+escape from the building," he added, "for every avenue is guarded, and
+the chap the cablegram belongs to has just asked for it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+TRICKS THAT WERE VAIN
+
+
+Ned eyed the bullying detective keenly.  He did not believe that the
+cablegram had been demanded by another.  That was only a pretext on the
+part of his enemies to make their attitude of delay appear more
+reasonable. If, as was claimed, the message was now claimed by two, the
+holders would certainly be justified in using great caution in
+delivering it.
+
+He did not believe, either, that the telegraph officials had been nervy
+enough to resort to police protection.  That would be to bring the
+matter into the courts, and he did not think those who were opposing him
+would care for that.
+
+"You are not telling the truth," he said, coolly, to the detective.  "No
+one here could honestly claim the message, because no one in Tientsin,
+previous to my arrival, knew there was such a message here, if I except
+the telegraph people and the man who sent it.  If a claimant has shown
+up, he is acting under instructions from you."
+
+"You are deceiving yourself!" snarled the other.
+
+"Where is Captain Martin, of the marines?" asked Ned, not caring to
+dispute the point.  "If you have arrested him, you'll be having his men
+after you before morning."
+
+"You mean the men you left in the cornfield?"
+
+"Certainly, the United States marines."
+
+"Then you don't know that they have gone back to Taku?"
+
+"No; neither do you," replied Ned.  This was too cheap!
+
+"But, they have," insisted the detective.  "At least, they have
+disappeared from the camp in the cornfield."
+
+"You seem pretty well posted as to our doings," said the boy.
+
+"We are pretty well informed as to all crooks who come here," was the
+reply.
+
+"What are you going to do about delivering the cablegram?" Ned asked,
+ignoring the insult.
+
+"Wait until morning and deliver it to the American consul."
+
+"In America," Ned said, with a provoking smile, "we elect men of your
+slant of mind to the Ananias club."
+
+"You'll see," was the reply.  "In the meantime, you are in custody."
+
+Where was Jimmie?  Had he escaped from the building, or was he detained
+in the room he had surreptitiously entered?  If he had indeed escaped,
+would he have the good sense to hasten to the camp instead of trying to
+assist his chum single-handed?
+
+Ned asked himself these questions, but could find no answer.  He saw
+that the detective was not inclined, not yet desperate enough, to march
+him off to prison, however, and took courage from the fact.  If he could
+secure a short delay all might yet be well.
+
+Directly the assistant manager entered the room, frowning and red of
+face. Ned saw that something, perhaps something of importance to
+himself, was in progress on the outside.
+
+"The American consul is out there," he exclaimed, storming about the
+little room.
+
+"That's fine!" cried Ned.  "I presume I can see him?"
+
+The detective glared at the boy and shook his head.
+
+"No, you can't," he declared.  "You'll stay here."
+
+"And in the meantime you'll tell him that I have gone away?"
+
+"We'll tell him what we choose."
+
+Ned made a quick dash for the door, tipped the assistant manager over a
+broken-backed chair which stood in the way, and passed into the outer
+office.  The detective grabbed at him as he sped past, but the boy
+eluded the ham-like hands which were thrust forward.
+
+There were three persons in the office, when Ned bolted into it.  These
+were the operator, the American consul, and Hans!  The German grinned in
+an apologetic way as Ned hastily greeted him.
+
+The American consul was a pleasant-faced gentleman of middle age.  He
+was dressed in rather sporty clothes, and there was just a hint of a
+swagger of importance in his walk and manner as he extended his hand to
+Ned. Dressler-Archibald Hewitt Dressler, to be exact--was a pretty fair
+sample of the keen, open-hearted corn-belt politician rewarded with a
+foreign appointment for rounding up the right crowd at the right time.
+
+Ned was glad to see that the consul recognized him as the lad in whose
+interest he had been pulled out of bed.  He took the official's
+outstretched hand and shook it warmly.
+
+"I never was so glad to see any person in my life!" Ned exclaimed, while
+Hans stood by with that bland German smile on his face.
+
+"Oh, we'll have this mess straightened out in no time," the consul said.
+"These people," with a gesture toward the operator, the assistant
+manager, and the detective, "are all right.  They mean to do the fair
+and honorable thing, but they have troubles of their own.  We'll have
+this all ironed out in no time."
+
+"This kid is an impostor!" shouted the detective.
+
+"No hard names, please," said the consul.  "Let us get at the facts of
+the case.  You claim to be Ned Nestor?" turning to the boy.
+
+"That is my name, sir."
+
+"And you claim a cablegram which is here?  A cablegram in cipher--the
+cipher code of the Secret Service of the United States government?"
+
+"Yes, it would naturally be in cipher."
+
+"You have the key to the code?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Be careful, young man," laughed the consul, "for I was in the Secret
+Service department before I came here, and know the code."
+
+"I'm glad you do," replied Ned.
+
+"Hand me the cablegram," ordered the consul, turning to the assistant
+manager.
+
+The detective stepped forward with a frown on his face.  He glared at
+the consul and at Ned for a moment, and then broke out:
+
+"You can't have it unless you will promise not to reveal its contents to
+this impostor."
+
+"Can't I?" said the consul, coolly.  "Hand me the cablegram."
+
+The operator and the assistant manager drew back.  The consul stood for
+an instant regarding them angrily.
+
+"One, two, three!" he said.  "At the word three, pass it over!"
+
+"Goot sphort, dot feller!" whispered Hans.
+
+During the dead silence which followed Ned watched the face of the
+consul for some sign of weakening, but found none.  He knew that he had
+come upon an official who would stand by his guns, no matter what took
+place.
+
+There was a little crowd in front of the office, and half a dozen faces
+were pressed against the windows and the glass panel of the door.  Ned
+thought he saw a face there he had last seen in the old house at Taku
+where he had been captured.  The fellow carried a long cicatrice on his
+left cheek.
+
+"What do you mean by coming in here and giving orders?" demanded the
+detective.  "I'll put you out if the manager says the word."
+
+Ned, standing close to Hans, felt the muscles of the German's great arm
+swell under the sleeve.  Hans was evidently anticipating trouble.
+
+"Will you deliver the cablegram?" asked the consul.
+
+"I will not."
+
+As the assistant manager spoke the detective reached his hand up to the
+electric light switch.  Ned saw in an instant what his intention was.
+If the room should be suddenly thrown into darkness, the operator might
+escape with the cablegram.
+
+The consul, too, saw what was meditated and sprang forward.  The
+detective struck at him, but before his blow reached its intended mark,
+Hans struck and the detective went down as suddenly as if he had been
+hit with an ax. Then, from unseen places, from beneath counters and out
+of closets, came a horde of Chinamen.  The room was full of them.
+
+"Soak um!" cried Hans.
+
+The German was about to adopt his own suggestion by passing a blow out
+to the nearest Chinaman when the consul stepped before him.  For an
+instant the threatening natives stepped back.  The attacking of the
+American consul was a thing to be seriously considered.
+
+"Once more!" warned the consul.  "Give me the cablegram."
+
+At a motion from the assistant manager the brown men closed
+threateningly about the American again.  There was malice in their eyes
+as they pressed closer and closer.
+
+"This looks like another Boxer uprising!" exclaimed the consul.  "Mr.
+Nestor," he added, "if you will assemble yourself at my back, and our
+German friend will stand by, we'll give 'em a run for their white alley.
+Hit hard and often."
+
+There is no knowing what might have happened then had not an
+interruption fell.  Ned saw the crowd at the door vanish, and the next
+instant the friendly popping of motorcycles rang a chorus in the air.
+
+Then came the rattle of guns and sabers, and a line of bluecoats stood
+before the door.  At their head stood Jimmie, wrinkling his freckled
+nose as if for dear life.
+
+Ned sprang to the door and opened it.
+
+"Quick!" he cried.  "Don't let a man now in the room get away."
+
+"Where is Captain Martin, the officer in charge?" asked one of the men.
+
+"The Chinks can tell you," Ned answered.  "Close up at the doors," he
+went on, gazing about excitedly, "so that no one can leave."
+
+This was done instantly.  In fact, the natives and the men of the
+telegraph office were not in a fighting mood now.  The guns and sabers
+of the marines had brought them to a peace-loving state of mind!
+
+They huddled about in the center of the room, the natives milling around
+like cattle in a storm.  The assistant manager pushed out of the press
+and handed the consul the cablegram.
+
+"Understand that I am doing this under protest," he said.  "Your conduct
+in invading my office with armed men shall be reported."
+
+"I shall welcome any investigation," the consul replied, with a smile,
+"because I want to know something of your motives in doing what you have
+done to-night.  You know very well that the cablegram is of no
+importance to any person except the one to whom it is addressed.  I can
+read the code, it is true, but you doubtless overlooked the fact that I
+have received such dispatches here. So, let us look at the matter in a
+reasonable light.  What inducements were offered you to keep the
+cablegram away from this young man?  Speak up!"
+
+"You are insulting"' gasped the assistant manager.
+
+"Come down to cases!" commanded the consul.
+
+"I don't understand your Bowery slang."
+
+"How much money was offered you to hold this message?"
+
+There was no answer, but the operator glanced slyly in the direction of
+the consul with a frightened look in his eyes.
+
+"Were you to withhold the message altogether, or were you merely to
+delay this young man?"
+
+"You are insulting!" repeated the other.
+
+"Who bribed you?" came the next question, snapped out like the crack of
+a lash.
+
+"You have the message," the assistant manager said.  "Get out."
+
+"Only for the marines you'd put me out!" laughed the consul.
+
+"Indeed I would!"
+
+Hans made a threatening gesture toward the fellow and he hastened to the
+protection of the counter.
+
+"My office is only a short distance away," said the consul, turning to
+Ned. "We may as well go there and size this extraordinary situation up.
+I hardly know what to make of it."
+
+"There is one thing you, perhaps, do not understand," Ned said, "and
+that is that Captain Martin, in charge of this squad, has been taken
+into custody by order of the detective Hans knocked out a moment ago."
+
+The consul's face turned red with anger.  He seized the assistant
+manager by the shoulder and shook him, over the counter, as a dog shakes
+a rat.
+
+"Where is he?" he demanded.  "Tell your hirelings to bring him here, not
+soon, but now."
+
+"He assaulted me!" complained the manager.
+
+"Produce him!  One, two, three.  At the third word he comes!"
+
+Obeying a motion from the frightened man, a native opened a door back of
+the counter and Captain Martin was pushed out into the room, smiling and
+evidently enjoying the situation.
+
+"I could have butted out at any moment," he said, "for these Chinks are
+not fighters, but I heard what was going on out here and thought I'd let
+events shape themselves.  If I had been out here a short time ago I am
+afraid I should have made trouble for myself and for you."
+
+"It is nice to watch a game that you can't lose at," laughed the consul.
+"Come along, with your men, to my office.  This lad wants a chance to
+read his message."
+
+"Sure," was the reply.  "I want to know how that Dutchman come to bring
+you here, and how my men managed to get here just in time.  There are
+mysteries to explain.  What?" he added, with a laugh.
+
+"I guess we'll have to wait for explanations until we know what is in
+this message," Ned said.  "Come along to the office, Mr. Consul, for we
+have lost a lot of time already."
+
+"I am anxious to know what the message contains," said the consul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE DARK ROAD TO PEKING
+
+
+Half an hour later the American consul, Captain Martin, and Ned sat in a
+private room at the consulate.  The marines and Jimmie and Hans were in
+the large outer room.
+
+The cablegram from Washington lay open on a table with a translation by
+its side.  It read:
+
+"Proceed to Peking immediately and report to the American ambassador.
+Keep within reach of the flying squadron.  Avoid complications with the
+natives. Look out for plots to delay your party.  Important that you
+should reach Peking at once.  Wire conditions."
+
+"Not much news in that," said Ned.  "Guess we've met all the trouble the
+Washington people anticipated."
+
+"Shall you go on to-night?" asked the Captain.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"It is a dark, rainy night," the consul warned, "and the highways of
+China are none too safe, even in daylight, for American messengers who
+are insufficiently guarded."
+
+"We'll look out for our part of the game," Captain Martin laughed.
+
+"We'll, keep close together," advised the consul.  "You will meet
+trouble on the way.  The men who bribed the telegraph people will not
+get into the discard now.  You'll find their hirelings waiting out on
+the dark road to Peking."
+
+Ned pointed to the dispatch.
+
+"We've got to go," he said.  "I can't tell you how thankful I am to have
+met a true American here," he added, extending his hand to the consul.
+"I shall tell the story of to-night in the State department at
+Washington when I get back."
+
+"Well, get it straight," laughed the consul.  "Say that a blundering
+German boy, who said he was a Boy Scout from Philadelphia, nearly
+dragged me out of bed about midnight and informed me that other Boy
+Scouts were in trouble at the telegraph office.  I knew that Ned was
+expected here, and so lost no time in getting down.  That's all.  The
+marines did the rest."
+
+"Save for that beautiful bluff of yours!" laughed Ned.  "But how in the
+Dickens did Hans ever get to you?  How did he know where to go?  How did
+he get to Tientsin, anyway?"
+
+"Give it up!" smiled the consul.  "You might as well ask me who got the
+marines out just in the nick of time."
+
+"Jimmie did that, of course," replied Ned.  "I think I know all about it
+now," he added.  "We saw Hans in a room opening on the court.  The
+little fellow burglarized the window and found Hans.  I don't know how
+Hans got there, but Jimmie found him, anyway.  Then the kid told his
+story and Hans went to the consul and Jimmie went after the flying
+squadron.  I have a notion that this is the way it came about."
+
+In this supposition Ned was exactly right, for Jimmie had found Hans in
+the room off the court and the two had planned their movements just as
+Ned explained.  The only mystery was as to how Hans got to the Tientsin
+house and the room where he was found.
+
+"We'll learn all about that in time," Ned added.  "Now we must be off.
+By the way, I wonder where Jack and Frank are?  I haven't seen them
+since I left the camp.  In the rush of events I quite forgot to ask for
+them."
+
+"Just wait until I talk with one of the boys out here," the Captain
+said. "Probably Jimmie is already telling them of his adventures."
+
+But when the door was opened and Jimmie questioned he opened his eyes
+wide in wonder.  The Captain drew him into the private room.
+
+"Say," the boy said, excitement in voice and manner, "didn't you leave
+Frank and Jack at the camp when you left?"
+
+"Why, I left when you did," was the reply.  "They were there then."
+
+Jimmie sprang to the door and beckoned the second in command into the
+room. By this time both Ned and the consul were on their feet.
+
+"Where did you leave Frank and Jack?" asked Ned, as the officer entered
+the apartment.
+
+"They left us," replied the officer, with hesitation.  "We made our beds
+of blankets and tumbled in, leaving one man on guard.  When I turned in
+the boys were in their bunks.  When Jimmie awoke us, they were nowhere
+to be seen.  They probably sneaked off to have a look at Tientsin by
+night--and a beautiful time they will have."
+
+"Didn't you see them when you went back?" asked Ned of Jimmie.
+
+"No; I looked for them, and one of the marines told me they had gone on
+ahead.  I'm goin' out an' dig 'em up!"
+
+"You'll make a sweet fist of digging them up in this man's town, at this
+hour of the night," the consul declared, anxiety showing on his face.
+"You'll have to leave them, Mr. Nestor," he went on, "and I'll rake the
+city with a fine tooth comb but I'll find them."
+
+Ned hesitated.  There was the cablegram on the table.  A delay of an
+hour or two might not prove serious, but this search for Frank and Jack
+might occupy days, if not weeks!
+
+It was inconceivable that the boys, disregarding all instructions from
+the Captain and all warnings from Ned, should have stolen off into the
+city for a night ramble.  They both knew how much depended on the party
+keeping together and keeping prepared for action.
+
+"They must have had some reason for leaving the camp," Ned said, after a
+long pause.  "They never would have gone away without some object other
+than amusement, or love of adventure in their minds."
+
+Captain Martin went to the door and stepped out into the main office,
+facing the marines.
+
+"Boys," he said, in as matter-of-fact tone as he could assume, "what did
+Frank and Jack say when they left the camp?"
+
+Nine of the men looked up in wonder, but the tenth hastened to answer
+the question.
+
+"Not a word," he said.  "I was on guard, and I saw a young chap come
+into the little bit of light there was about the old house where we were
+stopping."
+
+"Who was it?" Ned interrupted.
+
+The marine shook his head.
+
+"I didn't ask him who he was," he said.  "He asked where the boys were,
+and said he was a Boy Scout from Boston, and wanted to see some one from
+home. I knew that the lads would be as glad to see him as he would be
+glad to see them, and showed him where they had bunked down in a little
+dog-house of a shack just outside the house."
+
+"And they went away with this fellow?" asked Ned, anxious to get the
+story in as few words as possible.  "Why didn't you notify the officer
+then in charge of the squad?"
+
+"I didn't think it was necessary," was the reply.  "Well, the kid went
+to the shack where Frank and Jack were, and I saw them talking together
+there for a few minutes.  Then I saw the three of them pass through the
+circle of light, walking toward the city, and that's all I know about
+it.  I wasn't under orders to tell them when to go, or where to go, or
+when not to go. It wasn't for me to interfere."
+
+"Bonehead!" exclaimed Jimmie.
+
+The marine glanced up at the little fellow with a frown.
+
+"Don't you go to abusing me," he said.  "I won't stand for it.  I was
+raised a pet!" he added, with a smile, as the boy grinned.
+
+"Stop that!" commanded the Captain, sharply.  "If you have told all you
+know about the matter you may go."
+
+"'Wait," Ned said, as the marine moved toward the door, "I would like to
+ask a question.  Would you know this lad you speak of if you should see
+him again?"
+
+"I don't think so.  It was dark, and he didn't look me squarely in the
+face."
+
+"That's all," Ned said, turning to the consul.  "You'll do what you can
+to find them?" he asked.
+
+"Sure I will!"
+
+"I can't remain and help you," Ned went on, and there was a tremble in
+his voice.  "I've got my work to do."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"And we'll start right away," Ned continued, "if you are ready, Captain.
+We ought to be in Peking early in the morning."
+
+"It is a bad road," the consul said, "and you'll find, echoes of the
+scrap you had here waiting for you along the way.  In the language of
+the cablegram, keep together!"
+
+When all were mounted there were still two vacant cycles--those the
+missing boys had ridden.  Ned pointed to one and spoke to Hans:
+
+"Can you ride?"
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Then you may take one of the machines and come along with us."
+
+Hans sprang onto one of the motorcycles just as he had observed the
+others do.  Under the impetus of the leap the machine trundled along for
+a few feet and tipped over, landing Hans on his back with the rear wheel
+scraping acquaintance with his nose.
+
+"Ouch!" he shouted.  "Dake him off!  He bites!  Vot issit if I hand
+himone? Vot?"
+
+While the others were laughing at the plight of the German, he made an
+effort to arise and the machine promptly slid down an incline and
+sparked and gyrated until Hans' hair fairly stood on end with fright.
+
+"Catch heem!" he shouted.  "Catch heem!  He runs py the road avay!
+Dunner! Vot a streets!"
+
+"You mustn't tickle his ribs with your heels when you get on," advised
+Jimmie.  "That always makes him buck.  It is a wonder he didn't tramp
+you when you were down."
+
+"Holy schmoke!" cried Hans.  "Vot a nose I vill haf!  Me for the walks
+to Peeging!"
+
+"I guess you'll have to give up going with us"' laughed Ned.  "You may
+remain with the consul until we return.  And help him hunt Frank and
+Jack, will you?"
+
+Hans willingly agreed to this, and, with many handshakes and well-wishes
+from the consul, the boys were off for Peking.  By this time the streets
+were rather quiet, although they knew that before they could pass beyond
+the limits of the great, sprawling town with its million of inhabitants
+dawn would be showing in the sky.
+
+The swift ride through the city was a revelation to the American boys.
+All was strange with an atmosphere of age and decay.  The habitations,
+save those occupied by foreigner--and these were grouped together--were
+mostly old and mean.  The streets were in bad condition--worse than
+usual because of the softening effects of the rain--and the lights were,
+in places, infrequent.
+
+Watchmen patrolling the thoroughfares in the idle manner peculiar to all
+alleged guardians of the night, gazed menacingly at the machines as they
+whirled by, talking in their spark language, as Jimmie expressed it, but
+the uniforms kept them at a respectful distance.  Here and there were
+little tea shops, and before these were groups of natives, circled close
+together.
+
+It seemed to Ned like a ride through a cemetery, the occupants of which
+had been awakened to life for an instant and would go back to their
+graves and their dreamless sleep again as soon as the machines had
+passed.  The weight of ten thousand centuries seemed to hang over the
+place.
+
+There was a faint line of dawn in the direction of the Yellow Sea when
+the boys came to the suburbs of Tientsin.  Before them lay nearly eighty
+miles of rough road to the capital city.  With good luck, they figured
+that they could make that in four hours.
+
+Now, at dawn, the road which curved like a ribbon before them, started
+into life.  From field and village streamed forth natives carrying and
+drawing all kinds of burdens.  In that land the poor are obliged to be
+early astir, and even then the reward of their labors is small.
+
+It was autumn, and the produce of the field was ripe for barter.  There
+were loads attached to horses and loads drawn in carts; there were
+'rickshaws, and bundles on backs, and on long poles carried over bent
+shoulders.
+
+The strange procession of the motorcycles and the marines caused many a
+surprised halt in the procession of industry.  Chinamen stood at one
+side while the steel horses shot by them, and then gathered in little
+groups by the wayside to discuss this newest invention of the foreign
+devils.
+
+The sun rose in a cloudless sky and the earth steamed under its rays,
+sending back in eddying mist the rain which had poured upon her with
+such violence the night before.  It would be a hot day, notwithstanding
+the lateness of the season, and the eyes of the boys soon turned to a
+shaded grove not far from the highway.
+
+"Me for breakfast!" Jimmie declared, and the marines looked as if the
+lad had echoed their own thoughts.
+
+"We may as well halt a little while," Captain Martin said to Ned, "as my
+boys are beginning to look empty.  They have had a hard night of it, and
+we can't afford to cultivate any grouches!"
+
+Ned, although he was anxious to go forward, saw good judgment in this
+and ordered a halt.  In five minutes little fires were burning in the
+grove and the odor of steaming coffee soon rose softly with the mists of
+the morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE MYSTICISM OF THE EAST
+
+
+"You remember what the consul said regarding trouble on the road to
+Peking?" asked Ned of Captain Martin as the two took seats under a tree
+not far from the cooking fires.
+
+"Yes, and I wondered at his expressing such gloomy predictions.  He gave
+me quite a scare."
+
+"I think I understand, now, why he did it," Ned said, with a smile.  "He
+was following instructions."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"I mean that he had been communicated with by the Washington office,
+during the day, and given instructions."
+
+"To scare you?"
+
+"No; to keep me up to the mark in caution."
+
+"I don't think you needed that."
+
+"Well," Ned went on, "this is a queer case.  At first I could not make
+up my mind why the Secret Service people insisted on my making this trip
+to Peking on a motorcycle, guarded by soldiers like a passenger in time
+of war.  Now I think I know."
+
+"Then you have the advantage of me," said the officer.  "I've been
+thinking that over quite a lot, and the answer is still to find."
+
+"Unless I am mistaken," Ned replied, "I am expected to do my work on the
+way to Peking."
+
+"Come again!" smiled the Captain.
+
+"In other words," replied Ned, "I'm set up on a motorcycle as a mark for
+the diplomats of Europe to shoot at."
+
+"Then I must be a mark, also," grumbled the Captain.
+
+"Exactly.  How do you like it?"
+
+"Oh, it isn't so bad!" smiled the other, won into better humor by the
+laughing face of the boy.  "But why should the Secret Service department
+put you in such peril?"
+
+"It is my notion," Ned hastened to say, in defense of his superior
+officers, "that they give me credit for sense enough to take care of
+myself.  The same with regard to you."
+
+"But why--"
+
+"It seems to me," Ned interrupted, "that the department is up against a
+tough proposition.  The matter is so delicate that no foreign government
+can be accused of mixing this conspiracy for Uncle Sam.  What remains to
+do, then, is to spot the tools being used by the power that is most
+active."
+
+"That's good sense."
+
+"Well, we can't spot them in Washington, nor in Tientsin, nor yet in the
+American embassy at Peking.  Where, then, but on the road--on the road
+where they are striving with all their might to block the progress of
+the agent who is trying to land them?"
+
+Captain Martin mused a moment and then broke into a laugh.
+
+"And so," he said, "you think we are spread out along this road for the
+conspirators to grab off?"
+
+"If they can, of course; but that is not stating the case right.  We are
+spread out along the road to Peking to catch the men who will try to
+stop us.  See?  We are here to watch for those who will try to catch us,
+and to catch them!  What do you think of that?"
+
+"Clever!" exclaimed the Captain.
+
+"The system is an old one in detective work," Ned explained.  "It is no
+unusual thing for an officer to permit a prisoner to escape in order
+that be may be traced to his confederates.  Only this case is somewhat
+different, of course.  We don't know exactly who the criminals we, but
+we expect them to reveal their identity by their own acts."
+
+"Then we'd better be on double guard?"
+
+"Of course.  You know how the consul reiterated the warning he gave us.
+He couldn't tell us that it was the notion of the Secret Service
+department that we would be attacked on the way to Peking, but he could
+tell us to look out, and he did."
+
+"Perhaps he thought the truth would frighten you off?"
+
+"Perhaps," laughed Ned.
+
+"Well, I'm glad to have the puzzle solved," Captain Martin said.  "Now
+we know just what to look out for.  When do you expect to meet with
+these foxy chaps?"
+
+"They will appear in due time, if I am right," Ned replied.  "Look out
+there on the road," he added, "they may be coming now."
+
+The Captain looked and saw four men in the garb of priests, approaching
+the grove.  Their robes were long and of a dirty slate color, and there
+was a great star on the breast of the man in the lead.
+
+"A queer bunch," the officer said, "but not diplomats.  They are Taoist
+priests, and the chances are that they have a tumble-down temple in this
+vicinity.  They are not very popular in China just now."
+
+"Never heard of them," Ned said, watching the men turn from the road
+into the grove.
+
+"As you know," the officer explained; "I have been on Chinese stations a
+long time.  Well, I've taken a fancy to study up the religion of the
+people.  Or, to put it right, the three religions.  First, there is the
+Confucian religion, which is not really a religion, for it does not deal
+with the spiritual.  It is a philosophy, which teaches the brotherhood
+of man.
+
+"Second, there is Buddhism, with its ruined temples and begging monks.
+This religion is an importation from India.  Aged people and women are
+its chief devotees.
+
+"Third, there is Taoism, scarcely less popular that Buddhism.  The
+priests live with their families in ruined temples and practice all
+sorts of fool things.  They have a mystic alchemy, prepare spells and
+incantations, and claim to hold communion with the dead.  It is said
+that worthless foreigners travel about in the disguise of Taoist
+priests, just for the money there is in it, as fake spiritualist mediums
+travel about in our own country.
+
+"The people coming are Taoist priests, all right, for they have the
+drums, and gongs, and fifes of their trade with them.  Their ruined
+temple may not be far away.  If we have time we may witness some of
+their foolish ceremonies."
+
+Ned's face looked thoughtful for a moment, then cleared.  There was a
+smile on his face as he asked:
+
+"Do Taoist priests accost strangers on the highway?"
+
+"Yes; when there is a show of getting money.  They are a rank lot, as
+you will soon see."
+
+"These may not be so rank," Ned replied, meaningfully.
+
+"'Why," began Captain Martin, "you don't suppose--"
+
+"It seems odd that Taoist priests should arrive here just at this time."
+
+"If these chaps really I are spies--the spies we have been warned
+against--the fellows we were sent forth to meet, why, there may be a bit
+of action here."
+
+"Well," Ned went on, "let them take the initiative.  We shall soon be
+able to give a good guess as to what this visit means."
+
+As the four strangely clad figures moved across the little patch of
+field which separated the highway from the grove, Jimmie came running
+over to where the two were sitting, an egg sandwich in one hand and a
+cup of coffee in the other.  As he ran the hot liquid jolted out of the
+cup and came in contact with his hand.
+
+"Gee!" he shouted.  "Just look what's comin'."
+
+Then he dropped the hot cup on the ground and began to dance up and
+down, shaking his blistered hand as he did so.
+
+"I got it!" he said.  "There was only one hot cup in the lot, an' I got
+it! Say, Ned, what do you know about them callers you're goin' to have?
+Look like busted washee-washee geeks from Pell street.  Look at 'em!"
+
+By this time the marines were watching the advancing priests with
+curious eyes.  Breakfast was nearly over, and some of the men were
+preparing for a brief rest in the shady spot they had found.
+
+The priests, if such they were, entered the grove, passed through the
+group of men without a glance to the right or left, and approached the
+spot where Ned and the Captain sat.  Here they drew up in a line, much
+as the fakirs of the East Indies perform, with their crude drams, gongs
+and fifes in full view.
+
+"Hello, Sports!" Jimmie cried.
+
+Ned motioned to the boy to remain silent.
+
+The Captain addressed the priests in a couple of Chinese sentences, but
+received no immediate answer.  One of the fellows, the one with a great
+star painted, or worked, on the breast of his gown, soon advanced and
+stood directly in front of Ned.
+
+"We have had warning of your approach," he said.  "We have been waiting
+for you for many days."
+
+Ned started, for the words were spoken in English.  The Captain muttered
+under his breath:
+
+"I haven't a doubt of it."
+
+"What do you want?" asked Ned.
+
+The four bowed to the ground.
+
+"Attention.  The mysticism of the East is open to you if you are brave
+and strong."
+
+"Bunk!" whispered Jimmie.
+
+"Where do you live?" asked the Captain.
+
+The leader pointed to a pile of broken stones at the edge of the grove.
+A closer inspection of the heap told the officer that it was what time
+had left of a temple.
+
+"Tell him to get busy," whispered Jimmie.  "Can he make a tree three
+hundred years old in a minute?"
+
+"Where is this mysticism of the East located?" asked the Captain, unable
+to get the original notion that they were not what they seemed out of
+his mind.
+
+Again the leader pointed to the ruined temple.
+
+"Come!" he said.
+
+"Now is your chance!" whispered the Captain.
+
+"You are convinced that these are the people who were sent out to defeat
+the purpose of our mission?" asked Ned.
+
+"Sure," was the reply.  "These fellows are not priests.  I don't believe
+the chap who speaks is even a Chinaman."
+
+Ned did not hesitate long.  If he was correct in his interpretation of
+the orders of the Secret Service department, it would be the right thing
+for him to go with the strange visitors.
+
+If, as he really believed, they had designs on his life or his liberty,
+no better place or time for the test of cunning and strength could have
+been selected.  It was early morning, and the highway just beyond the
+grove was never long vacant of travelers.  Indeed, groups of five or six
+were constantly in sight.
+
+The travelers were Chinese, of course, and not likely to assist him out
+of any difficulty into which he might tumble, still the fact that they
+were there was something.  Even conspirators do not seek audiences for
+their crimes.
+
+Besides, there were the marines.  Ned understood that they would not be
+permitted to enter the ruined temple in a body, but he knew that they
+would be within call.
+
+"What's your notion?" Ned whispered to the Captain.
+
+"Go, and take me with you."
+
+"Of course you'll go if I do."
+
+"And what's the matter with me goin'?" demanded Jimmie, who was near
+enough to catch the impression that Ned was going somewhere and was
+intending to leave him behind.
+
+"Perhaps the hosts won't welcome three," suggested Ned, in a whisper.
+"Such people, like those who present communications from dead friends,
+at a dollar per, like to work in private."
+
+Jimmie did not wait to argue the question with Ned.  As usual, his
+answer was direct and to the point.  He advanced upon the priests and
+demanded:
+
+"Will you take me along?"
+
+The four regarded each other in perplexity.
+
+"Come, now," urged the boy, "be good sports.  Be good fellers, for
+once!"
+
+It was finally arranged that Ned, Jimmie and the Captain were to proceed
+to the ruined temple with the four and there learn something of the
+mysticism of the East!  Ned was positive that the time for his test of
+courage had come.  Still, he did not waver, for he was prepared.  The
+marines were instructed to gradually encircle the old temple, and to
+listen for orders from the inside.
+
+While satisfied that he had now come to the turning point in the case,
+Ned wondered, while on the way to the temple, if he ought to take the
+risk, whether it might not be wiser to arrest the fakirs, strip them of
+their disguises, and take them, by force of numbers, to the embassy at
+Peking. Still, if he took that course, he would have no proof against
+them--would not be able to connect the fellows with the conspiracy.
+
+The only thing to do was to take the risk.
+
+So, with a premonition of danger in his heart, he turned down the steps
+which led to the temple.
+
+For the temple was, as has been said, in ruins.  There was a heap of
+hewn stones on top of the earth, and that was all that showed from
+above.  In front a stone staircase led down into a damp and
+evil-smelling place.
+
+After a minute's descent Ned found himself in a long, narrow hall, which
+had at some time in the distant past formed the lobby of the temple.
+
+There was a cold wind blowing from somewhere in advance, and bats flew
+croakingly against it in their retreat from the intruders.  Ned heard
+the clang of a heavy door behind him.  Then the current of air was shut
+off.
+
+"This old barn of a place hasn't been used for a hundred years!" Jimmie
+whispered, clutching Ned by the arm.
+
+"What makes you think so?" asked Ned.
+
+"If in use, there would be something here to show it," was the reply.
+"See, they haven't even got lights here.  The ones they are now carrying
+were taken from the folds of their robes.  And there would be no bats if
+the place was in constant use."
+
+"Right you are, boy," Ned whispered back.  "But we knew what we were
+getting into.  Hark!"
+
+It was the dull, rolling sound of a drum that caused the exclamation.
+One of the men, far in advance, was evidently giving a signal.  In a
+moment the shrill notes of a fife reached the ears of the boys.
+
+They waited for a moment, wondering, and then a burst of light came from
+some unseen quarter and the four men were seen standing in line on a
+rock which lifted above the sloping floor.
+
+"Now for the ghosts!" whispered Jimmie.  "Who's first?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NIGHT IN AN ANCIENT CITY
+
+
+Frank Shaw and Jack Bosworth, suddenly awakened from a sound sleep in
+the little mud shack in the cornfield, in the suburbs of Tientsin, were
+not a little astonished at finding themselves rolled deftly out of the
+blankets in which they had wrapped themselves before lying down.
+
+"What's coming off here?" demanded Frank, rubbing his eyes and gazing
+blankly about the hovel.  "What kind of a hotel is this?"
+
+"What did you do that for?" asked Jack, edging newer to Frank.  "Why
+this midnight industry?  What did you pull me out of me covers for?"
+
+"I didn't!" cried Frank.  "You pulled me out!"
+
+"Not me!" Jack answered.  "I was catching German carp, in the upper
+lagoon in Central Park, N.Y., just a second ago.  Sorry I woke up before
+I got a mess!"
+
+"Who did it, then?" asked Frank.  "Some one gave me a thump in the wind
+and then rolled me out of the drapery of me elegant couch."
+
+"Search me!" Jack replied.  "I got something like that, also.  I'll bet
+it's the blooming marines, playing an alleged joke!  I'm going out to
+heave a rock at them."
+
+"Wait!" whispered a voice.  "Don't make so much noise, either.  You're
+pinched!"
+
+"That's Bowery!" cried Jack.
+
+"Come on and show yourself!" Frank commanded.  "What are you hiding back
+there in the darkness for?  Who are you, and where did you come from?
+What did you wake me up for, anyway?"
+
+"Black Cat Patrol, Chicago!" was the reply that came through the
+darkness. "You're both Black Bears, New York," the voice went on.  "I
+saw the badges on your vests."
+
+Both boys sprang to their feet instantly.  This was something worth
+while. A Boy Scout in China!
+
+"Got a light?" asked Frank.  "I'll just like to see whether you're a
+Black Cat or not."
+
+"Nix on the light," was the reply.
+
+"That's South Clark street, below Van Buren," laughed Jack.
+
+"All right," Frank said, in answer to the boy's negative, "I've got a
+flashlight."
+
+"Then keep it out of sight," advised the other.  "I don't want to stir
+up these soldiers.  Perhaps they won't let you go with me."
+
+"Oh, they won't?" Jack grumbled.  "We'll see!  Turn on your light,
+Frank, old top!"
+
+Frank, "old top." turned on his light, and the two saw a boy of
+apparently fifteen standing immediately in front of them.  He was
+slender but muscular, and his red hair and blue eyes betokened anything
+but Asiatic ancestors.
+
+The lad extended his right hand in full salute and waited.
+
+"Correct!" Jack said.  "Turn out your light, Frank.  Sit down, kid, and
+tell us why this surprise party."
+
+"I came down to tell you that there's doin's up town," was the quick
+reply. "You'd better get a move on!"
+
+"We're ready," Frank said, then, "but we'd like to know what we're going
+to move against."
+
+"Your friends are in trouble.  That's the answer."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I have just left them at the telegraph office."
+
+"That's where they went."
+
+"Well, that's where they're gettin' theirs," declared the lad.  "So buck
+up!"
+
+"Who--what--"
+
+"Aw, come along!" the boy cut in.  "They're goin' to be arrested, an'
+they won't get their cablegram, an' there'll be worse if you don't wake
+up. See?"
+
+"You'll have to explain to us," Frank observed.
+
+"You go tell that to the marines!" Jack exclaimed.  "They're right
+outside there."
+
+"All right!" the lad answered.  "I'm goin' back.  You can all go to
+Halifax for all me."
+
+"Wait," said Frank.  "Where did you get this information you're favoring
+us with?  What's your name?  How did you get to China?"
+
+"I'm a delivery boy at the telegraph office," the lad answered.  "I
+loafed around there tonight to see you folks, for I knew that the
+cablegram would be called for.  Before showing myself, I heard what was
+going on an' ducked.  Now, come on."
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"Sandy McNamara."
+
+"How did you get to China?"
+
+"Hid in a ship an' got caught an' beat up."
+
+"A stowaway, eh?"
+
+"You bet!  I'd do it again to get back to South Clark street, in little
+old Chi."
+
+"What they doing to Ned and Jimmie?" asked Jack.
+
+"Oh, come along!" Frank exclaimed.  "The boys may be in need of good
+advice and exclusive society!  We'll go and see."
+
+"Well," Sandy put in, "this ain't no case for the bulls.  You've got to
+get to them without makin' any show of fight.  You'd be eat up in this
+town with them few soldiers."
+
+"What do you propose?"
+
+"Why, we'll go to the American consul an' get him out."
+
+"You seem to be almost human in your intelligence," Jack cried.  "Let go
+your anchor and heave ahead!"
+
+"We'll have to make good time," said Sandy.  "Can you run?"
+
+"We're the original record-breakers when it comes to working our legs!"
+Jack said, and the three, after moving quietly through the lighted
+circle, so as not to attract the attention of the guard, broke into a
+run which fast lessened the distance between the camp and the telegraph
+office.  At the end of half a mile Sandy drew up against a mud wall.
+The rain was still falling, and the boys were soaked to the skin and
+shivering with cold, notwithstanding their exertions.
+
+"I'm winded," Sandy explained, panting.
+
+"I'm frozen stiff," Jack declared.
+
+"I'm wet enough to swim home," Frank put in.
+
+"Well," Sandy continued, "there's a little shack behind us--looks like
+one of the squatter shacks on the Lake front--an' we can go in an' rest
+up. Here's where the only friend I have in China lives."
+
+"Go on in, then," Jack replied, his teeth chattering with the cold.
+
+"We ought to keep on," Frank advised.  "This is no time to rest and get
+dry when Ned is in trouble!"
+
+"That's right," from Jack.  "Trot ahead, little one!"
+
+"I've got to go in here, anyway, an' get my uniform," the boy explained.
+"I'll be more protection to you boys if I have it on."
+
+"Protection to us!" laughed Jack.  "You're a joker!"
+
+"Hurry up, then, and get it," Frank urged.  "We've got to be getting
+along toward the telegraph office."
+
+"Ain't you comin' in?" asked Sandy.
+
+"No; we'll want to remain if we go in.  Hurry."
+
+"Do you think he's on the level?" asked Jack, as the boy disappeared
+through the low doorway.
+
+"I don't know," was the reply.  "It doesn't seem as if an American lad,
+and a Boy Scout at that, would play a treacherous game against his own
+countrymen."
+
+"No, it doesn't; yet what is he stopping here for?  He ought to be as
+anxious as we are to get over the ground."
+
+Then Sandy came stumbling to the door, on the inside, and asked the
+boys, through the rough boards, to come in with their lights.
+
+"There's somethin' mighty strange here," he said.
+
+"This may be a trap!" Jack said.  "Shall we go in?"
+
+"We may need this boy as a guide," Frank observed.
+
+"All right, then.  In we go."
+
+There was only one room to the shack, which was of mud, with thick walls
+and a leaky roof.  There was a table, a chair, a heap of clothes in a
+comer, and nothing else, save for a puddle of water on the floor.
+
+Sandy stood in the middle of the floor, his feet in the puddle, when
+Frank's searchlight illumined the bare room.  His eyes were staring in a
+strange way and his face was deadly pale.
+
+"Look there!" he exclaimed, his lips forming the words badly.  "The old
+woman who fed me when I was broke an' sick lies under the clothes,
+stupid from some dope.  The house has been poked over.  I saw a face at
+the little hole in the wall as I came in.  What does it mean?"
+
+Whisperings were heard at the door.  Frank extinguished his light and
+the boys stood in darkness as complete as ever fell since the dawn of
+creation.
+
+"What do you think?" asked Jack, of Frank.
+
+"Looks like a trap."
+
+Sandy sprang forward and seized Frank by the arm, and his voice shook as
+he began.
+
+"No!  It ain't no trap!  I didn't bring you here to get rolled for your
+wads, or anythin' like that.  I stopped here to get me telegraph
+messenger uniform.  I can go anywhere in the city with that on, and not
+be molested. I don't know what this means, but there are Chinks all
+around this house."
+
+"Perhaps you've been followed ever since you left the office," Frank
+suggested.  "Where is your uniform?"
+
+"Gone," replied Sandy, "an' everythin' else I had in that old box in the
+corner."
+
+Frank walked to the door and opened it a trifle.  There was no need to
+open it wider to see what kind of trouble they were in.  In front,
+patient in the downpour, stood six Chinamen.
+
+The flashlight dwelt on the silent row for an instant and was then
+turned off.  Frank closed the door and stood with his back against it.
+
+"Is there another way out?" he asked.
+
+Sandy pointed to a small door at the rear.  Frank opened it a trifle, as
+he had the other, and again the flashlight bored a round hole in the
+night. There were six Chinamen there.
+
+"They mean to keep us here!" Jack cried.  "I'll show them."
+
+"I hear them all around the place," Sandy almost sobbed.  "You'll think
+I brought you here for this.  I didn't!  I'm on the square with you
+boys.  I wanted to help you."
+
+"Perhaps they'll go away soon," Jack suggested.
+
+"Never!" Frank replied.  "This is purely an Oriental shut-in!  They will
+wait out there until the hot summer tans their hides if they are told
+to. The patience of the Orient is something awful to run up against."
+
+"But why?" asked Jack.
+
+"Oh, they got next to me!" Sandy observed.
+
+"They want to keep you from goin' to the assistance of your friends.
+They'll let you go after they've found some mysterious way of disposing
+of the others.  If I could get out, I'd go to the camp."
+
+"Dig around!  There may be some way of getting out.  These slant-eyed
+peoples are slant-eyed in their ways.  There may be a hole under the hut
+that leads somewhere."
+
+"I've seen the woman go down cellar," said Sandy.
+
+"Then you go down cellar," advised Frank, "and see if there is no way
+out from there.  I'm bound to get to Ned and Jimmie if I have to begin
+operations with my gun."
+
+Presently Sandy's voice was heard from below.  He said that he felt a
+current of air, as if there were a passage leading outside.
+
+"Come on down an' see," he said.
+
+The boys went down a steep ladder, after fastening both doors on the
+inside, and soon found themselves on the cellar bottom.  Frank turned on
+his flashlight and looked about.  There was a hole in one of the walls
+which seemed to lead downward, in the direction of the river.
+
+"I'm going to try it," Jack exclaimed, taking out his light.  "When I
+say for you to come on, come a-running."
+
+He said for them to come on in a moment, and Sandy and Frank soon found
+themselves in a square subterranean room which must have been cut near
+the surface and just outside the wall of the hut.  It was a comfortless
+place, and they lost no time in looking for a way out.
+
+"Here it is!" Sandy called out, directly.  "Here is a tunnel.  Say, but
+I never knew about this before.  Come on!"
+
+Frank led, but proceeded only a short distance.  Then his light rested
+on the grinning face of a Chinaman.
+
+The tunnel was guarded.  The boy turned back and looked into the tunnel
+by which they had entered the chamber.  Within a foot of the muzzle of
+his searchlight he saw the grinning face of another Chinaman.
+
+He stepped back to the mouth of the tunnel and motioned Jack to guard
+the exit, explaining, briefly, that they had been trapped, not in a hut
+on the street level, but in a subterranean chamber where they could not
+be heard, and where no one would ever think of looking for them.
+
+"Oh, no," Jack cried, regarding Sandy angrily, "you didn't know anything
+about this--not a thing!  You treacherous dog!"
+
+"I didn't!  I didn't!" shouted the boy.  "Call them men in an' ask them
+if I did."
+
+"You wait a minute," Jack gritted out, "and I'll see if the Chinks will
+stand quiet while I beat their accomplice up!"
+
+"Quit it!" Frank commanded.  "We're in trouble enough now, without
+bringing the Chinks down on us.  I'd give a good deal to know if Ned and
+Jimmie are still alive!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A VANISHING DIPLOMAT
+
+
+Ned turned to the Captain as the men in slate-colored robes lifted their
+hands after the manner of fake mystics the world over.  He was not
+uninterested, but he was anxious.
+
+They were now some distance from the grove in which the camp breakfast
+had been prepared, and the grove, in turn, was some distance from the
+highway. They were also some feet under ground, where any calls for
+assistance that might be necessary would be muffled by the hewn stone
+and the damp air and earth.
+
+Besides, the alleged priests had mapped out this scene before the
+arrival of the boys, as Ned believed.  Therefore they might have half a
+hundred natives within call, prepared to do murder if necessary.
+
+The marines had been ordered by the Captain to gradually surround the
+temple, to guard every entrance that could be discovered, and to force
+their way in if anything of a suspicious nature occurred.  Ned did not
+know the men as well as he knew the Captain, therefore he asked:
+
+"The men will obey your orders to the letter?  You see, we are in a box
+here!"
+
+"They will obey," said the officer.  "What do you make of the mummery
+now going on?"
+
+The "mummery" consisted in slow, gliding motions, in whirlings about
+intended to be graceful, in slow liftings of the hands upward, and in
+the beating of the drums.
+
+"I don't make anything of it," Ned replied.  "I take it they are waiting
+for time.  Perhaps they got us in here with less trouble than they had
+figured on, and are waiting for confederates."
+
+"What a land!" mused the Captain.  "What a way to seek the destruction
+of any enemy!  An Italian would have stabbed us in the back on the way
+in here, a Frenchman would have set a band of bullies upon us in the
+grove, an American would have walked up and made observations with his
+bare fists!"
+
+"This is Oriental!" smiled Ned.  "I wish we were well out of this hole
+in the ground!"
+
+"I see," began the man with the star on the breast of his dirty gown,
+"that you are in trouble of mind concerning the loss of two companions."
+
+"Correct!" shouted the irrepressible Jimmie.  "Come across with them--
+right soon, old hoss!"
+
+"I see," continued the other, not noticing the interruption, "that you
+are here in a weighty matter--a matter affecting the peace of nations."
+
+Jimmie was primed for another outbreak of conversation, but Ned caught
+him by the arm and ordered him to remain silent.
+
+"I see," the alleged seer went on, "that you have met with difficulties
+and perils on the way.  Is this true?"
+
+"All true," Ned answered.
+
+"Then approach.  Enter the holy room and receive instruction which shall
+be of benefit."
+
+Ned hesitated a moment.
+
+"And my friends?" he asked.
+
+"The spirit speaks to but one," was the reply.
+
+"What a lot of rot!" whispered Jimmie.  "You go on, an' I'll be there in
+a second if there is anything like rough house."
+
+With a warning look in the Captain's direction, the boy advanced to the
+platform of rock.  From there he was directed to a door cut in what,
+seemed to be soft earth and framed with timbers.  The timbers were new.
+He saw that at a glance, and drew his own conclusions.
+
+Ned was glad to see that the man who had done all the speaking was the
+only one to accompany him into the side room.  In a contest of muscles,
+he thought he could hold his own pretty well with this fellow.
+
+Ned was prepared for almost anything, but what took place next filled
+him with astonishment.  The room was just a hole out in the earth.  It
+did not appear to have been a part of the old temple.  There were in it
+a board table, roughly put together, two chairs, and a square box,
+perhaps five feet in length by one and a half in the other proportions.
+
+As soon as the door was closed the alleged priest threw aside his
+slate-colored robe, snatched a wig and beard from his head and face,
+and stood forth a handsome man, dressed in the costume of a modern
+Englishman or American.  At first Ned did not recognize the smiling face
+which confronted him.
+
+Then there came to his mind the memory of a time in Canton when he had
+watched a meeting of men he believed to be in conspiracy against his
+country.  This face certainly had been there.
+
+The voice was low, smooth, musical.  Ned stood looking at the subtle
+countenance, but said not a word.
+
+"You are caught at last!" came next.
+
+Still Ned stood silent, saying not a word, only wondering if the time
+for final action had arrived--if the Captain outside was in such peril
+as threatened himself.
+
+"Rather a bright boy," sneered the other, "only not bright enough to
+understand that men of the world are not to be defeated in their
+long-cherished plans by the kindergarten class.  Do you know where your
+two friends are--the two who accompanied you here?"
+
+"I presume that they are quite capable of taking care of themselves,"
+Ned replied.
+
+"They are on the road to a dungeon in Peking."
+
+"From first to last," Ned said, "from my first connection with this case
+up to this hour, I have come upon only bluffers and liars.  You seem to
+be making good in both lines."
+
+"Not so rude, kid," laughed the other.  "You've certainly got nerve to
+address such words to one who holds your life, and the lives of your
+friends, in his hand."
+
+"If you do," Ned said, "if you really have the power of life and death
+you claim to have, there is no hope for any of us."
+
+"Figure it out in your own way," said the other, "but, so far as the
+power of life and death is concerned, you hold the lives of your friends
+in your own hands."
+
+"I understand what you mean," the boy replied, "but I'm not for sale.
+Go ahead with your procession!  Death looks pretty good to me, as
+compared with the disgrace of asking a favor from one of your stripe."
+
+Ned's words, purposely designed to enrage the fellow, struck fire at
+last, and he said what he never would have said in calmer moments.
+
+"I'll show you that death is not so pleasant a thing as you seem to
+imagine!" he almost shouted.  "I'll show you how to learn the lesson of
+supplication!  When the future of a nation is at stake, human lives do
+not count.  What are the lives of a dozen or more to the prosperity of
+millions?  You have information which is needed, in the interest of
+humanity, and even torture shall be resorted to if it can be obtained in
+no other way."
+
+"And so," Ned replied, calmly, "you are not merely a tool.  As I
+supposed, you are one of the men at the head of the conspiracy.  You are
+the man I came upon at Canton.  You are the wretch who is trying to
+involve two continents in war.  Well, I hope to meet you under less
+trying circumstances!"
+
+The other laughed harshly and walked to the door.  Listening with his
+ear against the rough boards for an instant, he opened it a trifle and
+glanced out.  Ned heard sounds of a struggle there, and was about to
+spring forward when his captor faced him with a provoking smile.
+
+"By the way," he said, "I neglected to inform you that one threatening
+movement will mean instant death to you.  I am opposed to any bully-like
+display of weapons, preferring to discuss this question with you without
+coercion, but I took the precaution to place a rifleman at an opening in
+one of the walls of this room.  He has you 'covered,' as the saying is,
+and so it is advisable for you to remain passive."
+
+"What is going on out there?" demanded Ned.
+
+"Your people seem to be protesting against leaving the place under
+escort," laughed the other.  "The two you left at the camp in the
+cornfield were not so hard to control."
+
+"You seem to have a good knowledge of a our movements," said Ned.  "You
+have a spy system well in hand here."
+
+"That is refreshing, as coming from the mouth of a spy," retorted the
+other.  "If you are ready to talk business," he added, closing the door,
+"I am ready to make a proposition."
+
+"If your time and your breath are worth anything," the boy replied, "you
+may as well save both."
+
+"You have possession of certain documents taken from a certain wreck in
+the Pacific Ocean?"
+
+Ned made no reply.
+
+"You possess certain information concerning an alleged plot."
+
+Still no response from the boy.
+
+"Without you, your government can make no headway in the investigation
+now on foot."
+
+Ned dropped into a chair and turned his face away with a well assumed
+air of indifference.  Really, he was anxious for the man to go on, to
+say just how important were the papers and the information.
+
+"We have it in our power to prevent the information you possess ever
+reaching your government, but the documents you have we cannot get in
+the usual way.  Therefore we are offering you terms."
+
+"Naturally," Ned smiled.
+
+"Promise to restore the papers and forever remain silent as to what you
+have learned since you undertook this case, and you shall all go free,
+with more money than you ever dreamed of having in your hands."
+
+"You have not stated the case fully," Ned said, when the other
+concluded, with a superior air.  "You have not mentioned a certain
+alleged diplomat. You want me to forget all that he has said and done in
+the matter."
+
+"Naturally. I said that you were to forget everything connected with the
+case."
+
+"I prefer," Ned replied, "to see you on the gallows for murder."
+
+The other started violently.
+
+"Then this is final?"
+
+There came a sound resembling the report of firearms from the outer
+room. At the same time Ned caught a movement behind the south wall of
+the room. The gunman mentioned by the diplomat was evidently leaving his
+post for the purpose of joining in any struggle which might be taking
+place.
+
+The boy thought fast for a moment.  If the marines had fought their way
+into the outer room they would soon be knocking at the rough door that
+separated the two apartments.  In that case the man before him would do
+one of two things.
+
+He would try to fight his way out of the room, or he would try to escape
+by some exit not at that time in sight.  In the first instance he might
+wound or kill one or more of the marines.  In the latter, he might be
+able to conceal himself in some underground passage and finally escape.
+
+It seemed to Ned that the one thing for him to do was to attack the
+fellow and endeavor to disarm him.  The noises of conflict in the outer
+room grew more distinct, and Ned, observing that the diplomat was
+glancing restlessly about, as if seeking some means of escape, sprang
+upon him.
+
+Instead of turning and defending himself, the fellow struggled to
+release himself from the boy's hold, and to make his way toward a
+section of the wall on the south.  The statement that a rifleman had
+been stationed somewhere there now came back to the boy's mind, and he
+knew that there must be a passage behind that wall.
+
+The man with whom Ned was struggling was evidently unarmed, for he
+fought only with his hands and feet.  He tried by all the tricks known
+to wrestlers to break away from the boy, or to hurl him to the floor,
+but Ned had skill as well as strength, and all such efforts proved
+unavailing.
+
+While this silent struggle was going on, the rough door came crashing in
+and a score of Chinamen, evidently fleeing from an enemy, rushed in and
+flocked toward that south wall.  Ned and his enemy were trampled under
+foot for a moment, then the room was clear save for a half dozen marines
+who stood in the doorway, their smoking guns in their hands.
+
+Ned's head whirled from a blow he had received, and there was a numb
+feeling in one of his arms, but he arose to his feet and glanced around.
+Jimmie stood with the marines, a grin on his freckled face.
+
+"Gee whiz!" he shouted, "how that man did go!"
+
+"Which man?" demanded Ned.  "Why didn't some one follow him?"
+
+"He just went through that wall," Jimmie answered.  "When I tried to
+follow him I bumped me nose!  Say, but he went right through that old
+wall!"
+
+"Where did the Chinks go?" asked Ned.
+
+"Down through the floor!" was the reply.  "But, say, did you ever see
+anythin' like that vanishin' priest?  I'll bet a pie he's forty miles
+away right this minute."
+
+When Ned and the marines took up the search for the diplomat and the
+Chinese, it did seem that they were forty miles away!  There were
+numerous passages under the old temple, and in these the fugitives must
+have hidden.
+
+"How did you know?" asked Ned of the marines who had broken into the
+underground rooms.  "How did you know there was danger inside?"
+
+"That little imp of a Jimmie," one of the men said, "came to the
+entrance and shouted fit to wake the dead.  They were trying to carry
+the Captain and the kid away.  Bright boy, that!"
+
+Two of the marines had been slightly wounded by knives in the hands of
+the Chinese, but they declared themselves quite well enough to go on
+with the journey.
+
+"The Chinks didn't fight," one of them said.  "They just threw knives
+and ran!  We never hit one of them!  Sheep, that's what they are!  Just
+sheep!"
+
+"Well," Ned said, "we've lost our chance on the road to Peking, the
+fellow we want having escaped, so we must go ahead and set the rat trap
+once more."
+
+"You'll walk if you do," one of the marines said, showing from the
+outside, "for the Chinks have made off with the motorcycles!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SANDY PROVES HIS CASE
+
+
+"They'll be dead if you don't get out of here an' do somethin'!" said
+Sandy.  "The Chinks'll eat 'em up!"
+
+Frank looked around the dismal subterranean chamber and a cynical smile
+came to his lips.
+
+"We might get out of here," he said, "if we had a ton of dynamite.  I
+don't know but I'd take a chance on getting injured myself in order to
+see these Chinks sailing into the sky."
+
+Jack, still suspicious of Sandy, turned toward him with a frown.  The
+lad met the other's eyes steadily.
+
+"Do you know the way out of this?" Jack asked.
+
+"No," admitted the boy.  "Never was in here before.  Never knew there
+was such a place."
+
+"Well," Jack went on, "the longer we remain here the longer we'll be in
+finding our chums.  I'm going to make a break."
+
+"If you have a gun," Sandy said, calmly, "I'll go ahead with it.  If I
+get plugged, or anythin' like that, you boys may be able to get away.
+These Chinks are quick to run if there is danger ahead, and I think I
+can scare them off.  Give me the gun!"
+
+Sandy reached out his hand, but Frank did not extend the gun he had
+taken from his pocket.
+
+"You're nervy, all right," he said, "but you don't have to take all the
+risk.  Suppose we wait until daylight and then make a rush?"
+
+"Why daylight?" asked Jack.
+
+"There may then be some friendly face in sight, if we are able to get to
+the street."
+
+"There's force in that," Jack replied, "but this is no palace car to
+wait in."
+
+"You let me go and try," Sandy urged.
+
+Frank shook his head gravely.
+
+"No use," he said.  "There are probably a score or more of Chinks around
+this old shack.  We've got to wait until morning before we try to get
+away. The only question in my mind is this: Will they let us alone until
+daylight?  If they don't, then it will be a scrap."
+
+The boys sat down against the earth wall of the chamber and waited.  Now
+and then they could hear whispers in a tongue they could not understand.
+Occasionally they heard a wagon creaking along the distant street.  Then
+they knew that the doors connecting the mud hut with the outer world
+were open.
+
+"I wonder if old Chee is still asleep from the dope?" Sandy asked, after
+a long time had passed.
+
+"Why did they dope her?" asked Jack.  "I don't see any nourishment for
+them in that."
+
+"Guess they thought I'd be apt to help you boys," Sandy replied, "and
+made up their minds to catch me and chuck me away somewhere.  Chee's a
+nervy old lady, an' probably scrapped when they searched for me.  I'd
+like to help her."
+
+"Why do you call her Chee?"
+
+"Because she's so cheerful, an' because I don't know her name," was the
+reply.
+
+"It must be pretty near dawn," Jack said, after a long silence, with a
+prodigious yawn.
+
+Frank looked at his watch and found that it was six o'clock.  It had
+been a long night.  The sun would rise shortly after six.
+
+Five minutes later sounds of trouble of a physical nature were heard
+along the tunnel by which the chamber had been reached.  There were
+blows, grunts, and ejaculations of rage.  Then they heard a voice they
+knew:
+
+"Donner!  I make your face preak!  Come py mine punch of fives.  Oh, you
+loaver!"
+
+"Hans!" cried Jack.  "How the Old Harry did he get here?"
+
+"He'll soon be able to tell you himself," Frank said, "if he keeps on
+coming."
+
+Indeed, the German's voice came nearer every instant, nearer and more
+emphatic.  He was panting, too, and the sound of blows reached the ears
+of the listening boys.
+
+"Get in there!"
+
+The words were spoken in English, but not by Hans.
+
+"There's that gink who rounded us up back in Taku," exclaimed Jack.  "He
+seems to be winning all the tricks.  I wonder how he got hold of Hans?"
+
+"I thought Dutchy was back with the submarine," Frank replied.  "How he
+got to Tientsin is a mystery to me."
+
+The next moment Hans' broad face, now red from anger and exertion,
+appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, looking like a full moon, and then
+his bulky figure was projected violently into the chamber.  He scrambled
+in on his knees, but arose instantly and swung his fists in the
+direction of the tunnel, shouting imprecations on some out-of-sight
+person.
+
+There were numerous cuts and bruises on his face from which blood was
+oozing, and his clothing was torn and dirty, as if it had been dragged
+through the mud.
+
+"Loaver!  Loaver!" he shouted, still shaking his clenched fist at the
+entrance.  "Vait a liddle, yet!  I eats dern alife!"
+
+"I wish you would!" cried Jack.
+
+"Give me a bite while you are at it," Sandy cut in.
+
+Hans gazed around in bewilderment for a time, and then his face
+brightened as he caught sight of Frank and Jack.  It did not take the
+lads long to arrive at a mutual understanding of the happenings of the
+night.
+
+Hans had been followed from the place where he had left the other boys
+and captured.  He did not know what had become of Ned and the others any
+more than Frank and Jack did.
+
+His story brought some relief to the others, for it was presumable that
+their chums were now well on their way to Peking.  Once there, the
+imprisoned lads knew that every effort for their release would be made--
+then the whole power of the United States government, through the
+ambassador, would be exerted in their behalf.
+
+"But what's the use of all that," Jack asked, grumblingly--for he was
+getting hungry!  "What's the use of all that if the Chinks sit out there
+like blooming cigar-store images and never give a hint as to where we
+are? We are likely to starve before the American ambassador can act with
+success."
+
+Hans rubbed his stomach protectingly.
+
+"Empty!" he said.  "I could eats a Schinks!"
+
+"Eat one for me," advised Jack.
+
+Sandy, who had been listening in silence to the explanations which had
+been made, now asked:
+
+"How many Chinks are there out there?"
+
+"Army!" answered Hans.
+
+This was discouraging, for, as has already been stated, the boys were
+meditating a rush as soon as the city was astir.  They did not
+anticipate much help from bystanders, even if they should gain the
+street, but they knew that such a ruction as they would be able to put
+up would attract the attention of the authorities, and so bring the
+matter before the courts.
+
+While they talked the chances over, another breeze of trouble blew in
+from the entrance tunnel.  An argument of some kind was in progress
+between the men stationed there.
+
+Sandy moved forward to the mouth of the dark hole and listened.  The
+argument was being carried on in the language of the country, but now
+and then a few words in English were heard.
+
+"I tell you they got away, slick and clean!" the Englishman said, as
+Sandy listened.
+
+A mumbling of native talk, and then another sentence:
+
+"And some one will be here directly."
+
+Jack, who had heard the words, turned to Frank with a grin.
+
+"Is that a promise or a threat?" he asked.
+
+"I think our friends are coming," Frank replied.
+
+"They can never find us in this hole," Jack complained.  "Suppose we
+make a little noise?"
+
+"If they are headed this way, they know where we are," Frank said, "and
+it seems as if we ought to wait for them.".
+
+"I'll starve!" muttered Jack.  "I could eat a fried telegraph pole, and
+like it!"
+
+"I eat since yesterday only plue sky!" Hans contributed.  "My pelly
+makes argument mit my konscience!  But?"
+
+Sandy sat dejectedly by the wall and said nothing.  He knew that he was
+still suspected of leading the boys into the trap in which they now
+found themselves, and was studying over plans to assist them out and at
+the same time establish his innocence.
+
+It seemed to the lads that a whole day passed without a single thing to
+break the monotony, but Frank's watch insisted that it was only eleven
+o'clock.  It was dark most of the time in the chamber, for the boys were
+saving of their flashlight batteries.
+
+Finally one of the plans which had been slowly maturing in Sandy's brain
+brought the lad into action.  Noiselessly he crept away from the little
+group and moved on his hands and knees, along the tunnel leading to the
+cellar of the old mud house.
+
+He reasoned that that point would not be so closely guarded as the exit
+would be; also that Ned and his companions, if they returned to the city
+in quest of the boys and sought the mud house, would be more apt to be
+watching the house itself than the exit, which was some distance away
+from the road.
+
+After proceeding a few feet, Sandy stopped and listened.  There were no
+indications of human presence in the tunnel ahead, or in the cellar,
+which was not far away now, and from which a faint light shone.
+
+When the boy reached the entrance to the cellar he saw three Chinamen
+lying on the earth floor, either asleep or under the influence of opium.
+It did not take the lad long to make up his mind as to which one of the
+causes, sleep or opium, had put his guards off their guard.
+
+There was a strong odor of opium in the cellar, and a closer examination
+of the place showed him that the watchmen had been "hitting the pipe,"
+as the boys on South Clark street, Chicago, would have expressed it.
+However, the way did not seem to be clear, for there were soft footsteps
+on the patch of board floor which covered a part of the cellar, and then
+a Chinaman backed down the ladder.
+
+He came down slowly and stood for an instant on the cellar floor before
+looking around.  When at last he saw the men asleep on the floor he
+muttered some jargon which Sandy could not understand and turned back to
+the ladder again.
+
+Sandy believed that the man he saw was the only one the "pipe" had left
+on guard.  If he could prevent him reaching the street, he might be able
+to get the other boys out of the trap in which they had been caught.
+
+The Chinaman seemed large and strong, but Sandy would have taken even
+greater chances in order to convince the boys that he was not their
+enemy, so he sprang upon him.  The struggle was a desperate one for a
+time, for Sandy was not very strong as compared with his opponent, and
+the man he was fighting with fought viciously.
+
+Sandy did not dare cry out to the boys in the chamber for help, for that
+might bring other enemies into the fight.  The only way seemed to be to
+conquer the Chinaman and then get the boys into the street as silently
+as possible.  Once there, they would have little difficulty in making
+their way out of the city.
+
+It is quite probable that Sandy would have come off second best in the
+encounter if Jack had not heard the racket the two made and came into
+the cellar with a bound.  The two boys soon had the Chinaman down and
+well tied up.
+
+"You're a brick, Sandy," Jack said, as the boys faced each other in the
+dim light.  "While we sat in there waiting for some one to get us out,
+you got a move on and did something!  Say," he added, with a grin,
+"ain't this tie-up game getting stale?  Suppose we knock this fellow on
+the head?  He may get away if we don't.  And these others?  Think they
+are sufficiently soused with opium?"
+
+"They won't make any trouble for a long time," Sandy answered.  "It is a
+wonder they got into such a trance!  There must have been something
+stronger than opium in their pipes."
+
+"Didn't know there was anything meaner than opium," Jack said.
+
+"There is a drug that is used by old soaks after the poppy stuff gets
+too mild for them," replied Sandy.  "Perhaps these men got some of that.
+Keep quiet, boys!"
+
+This last as Frank and Hans came through the tunnel and stood staring at
+the men on the floor and their chums.
+
+"Who did it?" asked Frank.
+
+"Sandy did it!" answered Jack.  "Ain't he the broth of a lad?  Sure he's
+the goods."
+
+"Perhaps we'd better be getting out," Sandy observed.  "I hear some one
+upstairs.  They're comin' down here, too."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+WHY ESCAPE WAS SO EASY
+
+
+As Sandy finished speaking two figures dropped down the ladder, not
+stopping to descend rung by rung.  As they landed on the floor the boys
+sprang toward them, ready to make a battle for their liberty.  Then came
+another surprise.
+
+Instead of making hostile demonstrations, the two newcomers, Chinamen so
+far as appearances went, threw up their hands and dropped back against
+the wall.  Then shouts of laughter echoed through the place.
+
+Directly the newcomers seemed to forget to keep their hands up, for they
+gripped their waists with them and roared.  There was something about
+the laughter, too, which was not at all like the Orient.
+
+"Go it!" Jack exclaimed.
+
+"Have your fun before we come to settlement with you," Frank threatened.
+
+"Let me soak heem!" Hans pleaded.
+
+Sandy stood by with wonder showing in his face.
+
+"What kind of a play house is this?" he asked.  And still the others
+laughed, bending over, now, and covering their faces with their hands.
+The change from tragedy to comedy had been so sudden that for a time the
+boys did nothing at all to solve the mystery of the sudden outbreak of
+laughter.
+
+Then Frank stepped closer and peered down at the larger of the two
+figures. Then he turned his searchlight on the bowed head.
+
+Then a smile came over his face and he reached out a hand and took the
+bobbing pigtail into his hand and gave it a quick jerk.  The result was
+amazing.
+
+The pigtail came away in his hand, and with it a bunch of coarse hair
+and an odor!
+
+"Look here, kids!" Frank cried.  "Look who's here!"
+
+It was Ned, and the shaking figure by his side was that of Jimmie.  In a
+moment both were out of their disguises and making an inspection of the
+tunnels and the underground chamber.
+
+"You've got Herlock Sholmes beaten to a frazzle," said Jack, as Ned
+stooped over to examine the knocked-out Chinamen.
+
+"How did you do it?" demanded Frank.  "We thought you were on the road
+to Peking until we heard some of the Chinks talking, not long after
+daybreak, then we thought you might be in trouble."
+
+"It was long after daybreak when we mixed with the bunch," Jimmie
+answered. "Anythin' you heard before eight o'clock was fright an' not
+fact."
+
+Sandy was now presented and his share in the adventures of the night
+given proper recognition.
+
+"I thought he was a sneak at first," Jack explained, "but he showed us
+the way out in the end."
+
+"What did you go an' sit down there an' wait for?" asked Jimmie.  "Why
+didn't you get a move on?"
+
+"They did the very thing they should have done," Ned remarked.  "If they
+had tried to fight their way out they might have been killed,' as there
+was, I am told, a strong guard here at daybreak."
+
+"But how did you get here?" asked Frank.
+
+"When we got out of the old temple," Ned replied, "we had no motorcycles
+to go on with, so we came back to hunt up more.  There was little use in
+going on by any way other than the one mapped out for us.
+
+"The scamp we almost captured had been kind enough to tell us that you
+boys were in trouble and perhaps that had something to do with our
+coming back."
+
+"But how did you get here?"
+
+"Easy," laughed Ned.  "We knew that you boys had been captured, and it
+was easy to see who had had a hand in it.  The people at the telegraph
+office would know more about the matter than any one else.
+
+"So we went to the American consulate and got into these disguises.  The
+consul says he never saw anything smoother, though he must be prejudiced
+in our favor, for he helped get up the disguises himself.
+
+"Then we went to the vicinity of the telegraph office and waited.  In a
+moment we saw that something unusual was going on.  Directly a messenger
+started off in this direction and we followed him.  I knew then, as well
+as I know it now, that you boys had been detained in the hope of keeping
+us all out of Peking, so I bought some strong opium on the way and doped
+the pipes of the guards after I mixed with them."
+
+"How could you mix with them?" asked Jack.  "You know about as much
+Chinese as a robin."
+
+"Oh, they thought we were sullen brutes sent down from their
+headquarters, and took us into their confidence all right.  We were just
+ready to explore the underground places when we heard the scrap below."
+
+"And now what?" asked Frank.
+
+"Now, we're goin' to Peking!" cried Jimmie.
+
+"You said that before!" Jack taunted.
+
+"Well, we didn't get tied up in a hole we couldn't get out of," retorted
+the little fellow.
+
+"I guess you'd have been in the old temple until now if you hadn't
+traveled with an escort," Jack cut in.
+
+The boys, laughing and "roasting" each other, passed up the ladder and
+to the half earthen, half-board floor of the mud hut.  There they found
+the woman Chee moving about with a swollen face.
+
+She tried to talk with Ned, but as neither could understand what the
+other said, little progress was made.  However, she finally managed to
+make Ned understand that she wanted him to take the unconscious men out
+of the cellar, also the man who had been tied up by Jack and Sandy.
+
+Ned finally made her understand that she could call the police half an
+hour after their departure.  This seemed to satisfy her, and the piece
+of silver Ned presented was received with many gestures of gratitude.
+
+"Won't the finding of them men there get her into trouble?" asked Sandy,
+as the lads walked away.
+
+"I'll explain the matter to the American consul," answered Ned, "and ask
+him to inform the authorities.  You see, these people who are making us
+all this trouble are about as afraid of the officers as they are of us.
+The government is keeping a sharp lookout for the revolutionary leaders,
+and some are captured every day."
+
+"What do they do with them?" asked Jack.
+
+"They are never heard of again."
+
+"Murdered?  Without trial?"
+
+"That is the belief."
+
+"Then why don't we ask this good, wise, benevolent, sane, and all the
+rest of it government to keep the revolutionary party off Uncle Sam?"
+asked Jack.  "We represent Uncle Samuel, you know."
+
+"Because," was the reply, "there are spies in every branch and
+department of the government.  While the traitors who are serving the
+government while seeking its destruction may not be powerful enough to
+secure the release of such confederates as are caught, they are
+undoubtedly able to send out reports calculated to assist their party."
+
+"And every move we made under the protection of the Chinese government
+would be noted and reported," mused Jack.  "I see how it is!  Guess the
+people at Washington knew what they were about when they issued
+instructions regarding the trip to Peking."
+
+"Yes, I think they did," Ned replied.  "Observe how they tested us.  We
+did not know about the cablegram at the office here when we started on
+our long ride.  If we had weakened in any way we never should have known
+about it, but would have been ordered back home."
+
+"Land flowing with milk and honey, and breakfast foods, and choice beef
+cuts at a dollar a pound!" Jack exclaimed now.  "Are we never going to
+get anything to eat?"
+
+"I haf one vacancy!" observed Hans, laying a hand on his stomach.  "I
+haf a misery!"
+
+"You had a good breakfast, Jack!" reproved Frank.
+
+"What!  Where!  What was it?  Yes, I haf a breakfast two days ago.  This
+morning I haf cellar air for breakfast.  It isn't nourishing.  Where is
+there an eatery?"
+
+Before long Ned stopped at a little tea house where an American sign
+hung in a window, and the boys ordered such viands as the place
+afforded.  It was not much of a meal, as Jack insisted, but just a
+teaser for a dinner which would be procured later on.
+
+"Where are the marines?" asked Frank, as he and Ned seated themselves at
+a little table apart from the others.
+
+"Encamped in the grove," was the reply.
+
+"They will not be attacked there?" asked Frank, in some amazement.
+
+"Certainly not.  All Chinamen hate us, but we are safe except when the
+revolutionists take a hand in the game.  The marines are probably
+surrounded by a crowd of sullen curiosity seekers, but they will not be
+molested unless the revolutionists decide to take another chance with
+them."
+
+"And the machines are gone for good?"
+
+"No, the American consul is getting them back, or was when I left his
+office, one by one.  The men who were fighting were too frightened to
+take the machines with them, but the mob got them.  They were taken by
+individual thieves, and will soon be restored."
+
+"We ought to have come over in our aeroplane," smiled Frank.
+
+"That would have defeated our purpose," Ned replied.  "We are here to
+catch the leaders of this conspiracy, and the only way we can do it is
+to wait until they show themselves.
+
+"Just see how foolish they are!" Ned went on.  "If they had been content
+to wait, to manufacture such evidence as they needed to show their
+innocence, we could never have located them.  They would have lied us
+out of countenance if we charged any one man with being the leader, or
+any one nation with fostering the conspiracy.
+
+"But they tried to make a clean record for themselves by wiping us off
+the face of the earth and so showed themselves to us.  I am told by
+police officers that if criminals would keep away from women, away from
+the scenes of their crimes, and keep their mouths shut when given the
+famous--and disgraceful--third degree, not one in twenty would ever be
+convicted."
+
+"Well," Frank said, "here's hoping that the man we want will come within
+reach again!"
+
+After breakfast the boys headed for the American consulate, where they
+found the machines which had been stolen.
+
+"That was quick work," Ned congratulated.  "How did you do it?"
+
+The consul laughed.
+
+"Why," he replied, "you might as well try to bide a fifty story building
+in China as one of those machines!  The natives believe the devil is in
+them!"
+
+"I've known Americans to express the same opinion," laughed Frank.
+
+While they talked with the consul a message was brought him from the
+telegraph office.  It read:
+
+"Report progress."
+
+Ned laughed.
+
+"Nothing to report but disaster," he said.
+
+"Well," the consul replied, "we expected something of the kind.  You
+have gained the very point we expected you to gain.  You know exactly
+who is at the head of this mess.  Thinking he had you where you would
+never get away, he talked too much."
+
+"I think I should know him in any disguise," Ned said.  "I should know
+him anywhere, and under any circumstances.  Do you think he would have
+kept faith with me if I had given up the documents and promised never to
+implicate either his country or himself in the trouble?"
+
+"Certainly not.  The fact that he revealed himself to you shows that he
+meant to have you murdered there.  Only for the marines breaking in just
+as they did, it would have been all off with you, my boy."
+
+"He must be a treacherous old chap!" Ned commented.
+
+"His life and everything he loves is at stake."
+
+"Then he should have kept out of the mess!  Why should he want to get us
+into a war?"
+
+"My boy," replied the consul, "we are sure to have a war with some great
+European nation before many years."
+
+"Because the people are getting too thick over here.  Because they are
+going to America in droves.  Because the governments of Europe desire to
+retain control of their people after they leave the confines of their
+own countries.  They want English, German, Russian, Italian, French
+colonies held under their hand instead of a mass of their subjects doing
+reverence to a foreign flag."
+
+"And they will fight for that?"
+
+"Of course.  The only way we can keep out of a great and disastrous war
+is to abandon the Philippines, throw our island possessions to the dogs,
+and tumble the Monroe doctrine into the sea.  Then these foreign nations
+can buy, steal, or conquer all South and Central America.  We don't want
+the land there, and we can't afford to fight for the dagoes who live
+there."
+
+"There is too much jingo in our country to ever do what you suggest,"
+Ned suggested.
+
+"I'm afraid you are right," the consul replied.  "But now to business.
+Get your machines here and mount them!  You are to leave for Peking
+to-night."
+
+"And I'll not come back until I reach the town!" declared the boy.
+
+"By the way," said the consul, "where are the papers you took from the
+captain of the Shark--the boat you fought with your submarine?"
+
+"I have them here," was the reply.
+
+"Better leave them in my safe."
+
+Ned consented to this, and later, on the march to Peking, he was very
+glad that he had done.
+
+At twilight the boys joined the flying squadron, and were all off for
+the imperial city, little suspecting that the perils before them were
+greater than any they had encountered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A BIT OF SEALING WAX
+
+
+The night grew clearer as the flying squadron advanced toward the
+imperial city of China.  The roads were rough in places, but the superb
+machines carried the boys and their companions at good speed.
+
+It may well be imagined that the party created something of a sensation
+as it whirled along.  The constant popping of the engines, the strong
+lights which flashed ahead, and the voices of the marines brought many a
+sleepy-faced Chinaman to the door of his home.
+
+Now and then the boys were hailed from the roadside, but little
+attention was paid to these calls.  Finally, however, a voice addressed
+the party in English.
+
+"Where are you going?" it asked.
+
+Ned instructed the Captain to proceed a few paces with his company and
+then halted to see what manner of man it was that spoke to him in that
+tongue. He found an old Chinaman, a wise-looking old fellow with a keen
+face, leaning over a rude gate in front of a small house.
+
+"Did you speak?" he asked, advancing to the gate.
+
+"I did," was the reply.  "I was curious to know where you were going in
+the middle of the night."
+
+"You speak English remarkably well," Ned said, not in any hurry to
+satisfy the old fellow's curiosity.
+
+"I ought to," was the reply.  "I have just come back from New York.  I
+owned a laundry there for a good many years."
+
+"And have returned to China to live in peace and comfort?"
+
+"I don't know about the peace," replied the Chinaman, with a sigh.
+
+"You think there will be a war?"
+
+The Chinaman nodded.
+
+"The coming revolt," he declared, "was conceived more than two hundred
+years ago.  For fifty years organization has been going on.  For six
+years the revolutionists have been working as a whole."
+
+"And they are strong?" asked Ned.
+
+"Wherever in the world Chinamen live, in New York, Chicago, San
+Francisco, Boston, London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, anywhere, everywhere,
+there are funds being collected for the coming civil war."
+
+Ned wanted to ask the loquacious old fellow what his private ideas about
+the justice of the struggle were, but he decided not to do so.  He
+thought he might find out in another way.
+
+"And the revolutionists will win?" he asked.
+
+"God forbid!" was the reply, and the boy had the answer he thought he
+would receive.
+
+Still, he was not satisfied that the old fellow was telling the exact
+truth regarding his sentiments.  It was the revolutionists he had to
+battle with, and not the federalists.  This retired laundryman might
+know that!
+
+"Anyway," the boy thought, "the fellow seems desirous of keeping me here
+as long as possible.  This, of course, may be because of a desire for
+the companionship of one of the race he has lived with so long, but I do
+not think so."
+
+Pretending to be deeply interested in what the Chinaman was saying, he
+excused himself for a moment and beckoned to Jimmie.
+
+"Lead your motorcycle noiselessly up that rise of ground," he directed,
+"and when you get there keep your eyes wide open."
+
+"What for?" demanded the boy.
+
+"For whatever comes in sight," replied Ned.  "Keep the line of vision
+from this house to whatever may be beyond unimpaired if it is possible
+to do so. If you observe anything unusual, report to me."
+
+"All righto!" cried the boy.
+
+Ned saw Jimmie making a noiseless progress up the little hill and turned
+back to the man at the gate.  Instantly the latter offered refreshments,
+for the entire party, and seemed disappointed when the offer was
+declined.
+
+"You're going to Peking on business?" the Chinaman finally asked.
+
+"Yes," was the short answer.
+
+"Why do you ride in the night?"
+
+"Because we must get there in the morning."
+
+"But there is another day."
+
+"Always there is another day in the Far East," Ned smiled, "but we of
+the West count only on what we can do before that other day arrives."
+
+The two talked on for half an hour, while the marines muttered
+complaints and Frank and Jack rolled themselves in blankets and tried to
+pay a visit to Dreamland.  The previous night had been a hard one, and
+they felt the need of more rest than they had been able to get during
+the afternoon.
+
+After a time Ned became anxious.  He had sent Jimmie on ahead with the
+notion that something was going to happen there within a short time.
+But all was still about the house and the small fields which surrounded
+it. Jimmie did not return.
+
+"I wonder if the little scamp is in trouble again?" thought Ned.
+
+This seemed to be the natural solution of the puzzle of his long
+absence, and Ned was about to send Frank on after him when the little
+fellow came up to him.
+
+"The Captain wants you to get a move on," the boy said.
+
+Ned saw that Jimmie had something to say to him which was not for the
+ears of the Chinaman, and walked away, followed by the urgent voice of
+the former laundryman, who besought him to return and partake of
+refreshments.
+
+"In honor of old New York!" he added.
+
+"Gee!" Jimmie muttered, as the boys stood alone together.  "I was
+thinkin' I'd struck the fourth of July."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Up on the hill."
+
+"So, they were using rockets?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where did they ascend from?"
+
+"From the other side of the hill, at this end, and from an old house at
+the other end."
+
+Ned stood for a moment without speaking.  So the Chinaman had been
+holding him in conversation while his tools had been signaling to some
+one farther up the road!
+
+This was practically what he had suspected.  From the first he had
+believed that the old fellow's purpose was to hold him there as long as
+possible.
+
+Signals would naturally be the outgrowth of such a plan, and Ned had
+sent Jimmie on ahead--silently--in order to see where the other party
+answered the signals from, if they were answered at all.  As from the
+opening of the case, he had planned to secure his information from his
+enemies--from their actions and their presence or absence from the
+position he occupied.
+
+Directing the marines to follow on slowly, Ned awoke Frank and Jack.
+The four climbed the hill slowly, watching the sky as they advanced.
+The clouds lay low to the east, but in the west was a patch of clear
+sky.
+
+When they gained the summit of the rise, they saw a light in a little
+grove some distance away.  It seemed like a lantern moving out and in
+among the trees.
+
+"There," Jimmie explained, "when I got to the top of the hill, I saw a
+rocket shoot out of that thicket.  It did not ascend the sky, but follow
+the line of the earth and died out in the road."
+
+"Of course," Ned said.  "A rocket sent up in the usual way would have
+been visible from where we were standing."
+
+"And, in a minute," the boy went on, "there came a rocket from that
+house, the house where the light was a minute ago.  That, too, followed
+the ground line."
+
+"Talking together in low tones!" grinned Jack.
+
+"They were talkin' together, all right," Jimmie said.
+
+"Dollars to dumplings," Frank exclaimed, "that the funny chap we met in
+the old mud house at Taku has a room in that shack."
+
+"He might have been hiding there," Ned said.
+
+"An' that old stiff signaled to him to make his getaway?" asked the
+little fellow.
+
+"Looks like it," Ned replied.
+
+"Huh!" Jack objected.  "The signals might have told the men at the other
+end of the line to get their soldiers out and bump us off the
+continent."
+
+"Which idea," responded Frank, "causes me to want to approach that house
+with all due caution and respect."
+
+"Suppose we four surround it," suggested Jimmie.
+
+"That's the idea!" Jack commented.
+
+"Just what I was about to propose," said Wed.  "We'll leave the marines
+within call and go up to this temporary signal station and see what
+about it."
+
+The Captain was communicated with, and then the four left the road and
+moved around toward the rear of the house, keeping in the shadows of the
+trees.  Not until they reached the very door of the place were there any
+signs of life there.
+
+The lantern they had observed from a distance was seen no more.  The
+windows were dark and silent.  But when they came to the door they found
+it unlocked.
+
+As the crude latch was lifted, with a very slight creaking sound, a
+movement was heard inside, and then a heavy body was heard striking the
+ground at the rear.  Then a was as silent as before.
+
+"Someone jumped out of a window!" Jimmie whispered.  "I hope he broke
+his crust!"
+
+There was to be no defense of the place, then!  Whoever the inmates had
+been, they were deserting the house.
+
+Ned stationed Frank and Jack at the front and moved around to the rear
+with Jimmie close behind.  A rustle in the undergrowth told him that the
+former occupants of the place were still about.
+
+Jimmie darted in the direction of the noise, but was back again in a
+minute.
+
+"Might as well try to chase a ghost!" he said.
+
+"Got clear away, did he?" asked Ned.
+
+"You know it!" grunted the little fellow.
+
+Frank and Jack were now heard in the house, and the rays of a
+searchlight showed at a window, showed very faintly in cracks, for there
+was a heavy wooden shutter to the window on the inside.  Ned tried the
+rear door.  It was not locked and he entered.
+
+The house was deserted, but it was not unfurnished.  Indeed, articles of
+furniture scattered about the rooms, which were in great disorder,
+denoted not only wealth but a refined taste.
+
+There were velvet rugs on the floors and great easy chairs and lounging
+divans.  A pantry revealed unwashed dishes, showing that food had been
+served there recently.
+
+"Who was it that ran away?" asked Jack, as the boys met.
+
+"A ghost!" replied Jimmie.  "I chased him until he hid in a tree."
+
+"Why didn't you pull him out?" grinned Jack.
+
+"Because he turned into a green cow with purple wings!" the little
+fellow replied.
+
+Jack whirled his arms around in the manner of one turning a crank and
+laughed.  The boys delighted in such by-play.
+
+"If it's all the same to you, boys," Frank was now heard saying, "I'll
+just devour such few things as are left here.  I see a ham and a box of
+canned vegetables.  Must have intended a long stop here, whoever he
+was."
+
+Leaving the boys to search the remainder of the house, Ned entered what
+had evidently been a reading room and turned on his light.  The room was
+handsomely decorated, and there were scores of books lying around on
+tables and chairs.
+
+Calling to the boys, he directed them to bring up the marines and
+station them around the house.
+
+"I want to know that I'll not be disturbed," he said.
+
+"Found somethin'?" asked Jimmie.
+
+"Look at the books," Ned replied.
+
+Jimmie read half a dozen titles and cast the volumes aside.
+
+"They don't look good to me," he said.  "All about international law and
+treaties!"
+
+"Exactly!" Ned said, and then Jimmie opened his eyes.
+
+"I'll bet there's been some of them statesmen livin' here!" the little
+fellow almost whispered.  "Say, do you think you have run 'em down at
+last?"
+
+"I don't know, son," was the reply.  "Look on that table and see what
+you discover."
+
+"Bits of torn paper an' some red wax."
+
+"The paper," Ned explained, "is parchment, such as is used in important
+official transactions, and the wax is of the kind used by lawyers and
+diplomats.  Here is a seal!"
+
+Ned's face turned pale as he looked at the seal.  Could it be possible
+that the nation to which it belonged had been engaged in this
+conspiracy?  It did not seem possible.
+
+Ned put the telltale seal away in his pocket without permitting Jimmie
+to see it and picked up some loose pieces of sealing wax which lay on
+the table near where the seal had been found.
+
+"Do you see the fine work done with the seal which made this
+impression?" Ned asked.
+
+"Fine seal!" Jimmie replied.  "Was that stamp made by the seal you just
+hid away?"
+
+"No," Ned replied, "thank God it was not!"
+
+Wrapping the wax very carefully, so that it would not crumble, and
+securing every bit of paper in sight, Ned made a little bundle and
+stowed it away in a pocket.  Then he began a search of the rug on the
+floor.
+
+Jimmie was on his knees, in a moment.
+
+"Finders keepers?" he asked.
+
+"That depends!" Ned said.
+
+"Well, some one's been payin' out money here," the boy went on.  "See
+what I found!"
+
+What he had found was a gold piece of the denomination of twenty
+dollars. And it bore the stamp of the American eagle!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BOY SCOUTS IN A LIVELY MIXUP
+
+
+Ned took the gold piece into his hand and examined it.
+
+"It is American money, sure enough," he observed, "and was made at the
+San Francisco mint."
+
+Frank and Jack now joined the little group in the library and regarded
+the piece with interest.
+
+"What does it mean?" Frank asked.
+
+"Why," Jack volunteered, "it means that some American man is mixed up in
+this dirty affair."
+
+"Perhaps that gold came out of the wreck," Jimmie suggested.  "Say, are
+we ever goin' back after that gold?" he added.
+
+"Ned's got all the gold he can attend to right here," commented Frank.
+"He's got to find out how that came here."
+
+"Why, there was an American in the bunch, and he lost it out of his
+pocket," Jack ventured.
+
+"That's the very point," Frank observed.  "What was an American doing in
+that bunch?"
+
+"It might have been the American who planned to send the gold to the
+revolutionary leaders by way of a shipment to the Chinese government,"
+Ned said, thoughtfully.   "You know some American had to send the gold."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Well, suppose he is now here trying to get something in exchange for
+the gold which lies at the bottom of the Pacific?"
+
+"He naturally would be doing business, with the revolutionary party,"
+Frank exclaimed.  "What a trick that was!"
+
+"I haven't got it through my head yet," Jack said.  "I don't know any
+more about the plot than a robin."
+
+"Look here," Frank said, in a superior tone, "there are a lot of Chinese
+in the United States who want to assist the revolutionary party.  Got
+that?"
+
+"You know it!"
+
+"These men arrange with the Chinese government to send over a cargo of
+gold."
+
+"That's easy.  What were they to get for the gold?"
+
+"I don't know," Frank answered.  "But they arranged to send the gold
+right out of the subtreasury at San Francisco--or was it New York?--to
+the Chinese government."
+
+"All right," laughed Jack.  "I see daylight."
+
+"Then they notify the rebels-to-be that the gold will be shipped on such
+a vessel at such a time."
+
+"Warmer!" grinned Jimmie.
+
+"And the rebels undertake to have a ship ready to snatch off the gold
+when the right time comes.  So the Chinese government will have to pay
+for the yellow stuff and the rebels will have the good of it."
+
+"Great scheme!"
+
+"Yes, well, some other nation gets wise to what is going on, and sets
+out to burst up the combination."
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"So this foreign nation sends out a ship to ram the vessel carrying the
+gold."
+
+"Oh!  I got that long ago!"
+
+"And the vessel is rammed and the gold goes to the bottom.  Then this
+other government, thinking to kill two birds at one shot, gives it out,
+in certain diplomatic circles, that Uncle Sam shipped that gold directly
+to the Chinese government from the subtreasury, with the full knowledge
+that the rebels were to get it."
+
+"Yes, I've heard about that."
+
+"So Uncle Sam sends Ned over here to dig up that gold and see if the
+shippers didn't put documents in the bags or boxes which would prove out
+the whole transaction."
+
+"An' Ned found the documents!" cried Jimmie.  "Good old Ned!"
+
+"Yes, he found the documents which prove that the United States had
+nothing to do with the matter, but which do not show who started the
+slander.
+
+"And then Ned is sent out to track the statesman who had been doing
+business with the rebels down to his hiding place.  It is thought that
+his nation is the one that tried to mix Uncle Sam in the matter."
+
+"But why should this man be doing business with the rebels?" asked Jack.
+
+"That is what we don't know," was the reply.  "Still, we know that he is
+allied with the rebels.  We met him at Taku.  Ned met him at the ruined
+temple.  He may be treacherously in the company of the men who lead the
+revolutionary party, but he is there."
+
+"You have that figured out correctly," Ned cut in.  "If the man we are
+after had been doing business with the Chinese government, we would have
+had officers of the law after us at Tientsin and Taku, instead of men
+who ran when it came daylight."
+
+"What national seal made that stamp on the wax you have in your pocket,
+Ned?" Jimmie asked.
+
+Ned made no reply.
+
+"Was the stamp made with the seal you have with you?" was the next
+question.
+
+Still Ned did not answer.  He was in a quandary.  It did not seem
+possible that the two nations pointed out by the seal and the wax could
+be engaged in such dirty business.  He hoped to prove to his own
+satisfaction that they were not.
+
+"The only way to find out what we want to know," he said, "is to go on
+to Peking."
+
+"Your proof will assist you when you get there?" asked Frank.
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid so," Ned answered, tentatively.
+
+"I don't understand that reply," Frank observed, with a serious face.
+"You must have discovered something in this house which is not to your
+liking."
+
+"Time will show," Ned said.
+
+Captain Martin, of the marines, now entered the room where the
+discussion was going on.  His face was pale, and his eyes showed greater
+anger than Ned had ever seen reflected there before.
+
+"Just a moment, Ned," he said, and the two stepped into another room.
+The Captain dropped into a chair.
+
+"We have struck the hornet's nest," he said.
+
+"Do you hear them buzzing?" asked Ned, with a smile.
+
+"Worse than that," was the reply.  "I am feeling their stings.  Two of
+my men have been attacked in the dark."
+
+"And wounded?"
+
+"Yes; one of them seriously."
+
+"I'm sorry for the poor fellow," Ned said.  "Do you think we can get him
+on to Peking?"
+
+Captain Martin shook his head.
+
+"It is a bad wound," he said.  "The man was on guard not far from the
+edge of the grove when a figure loomed up before him.  He challenged and
+was about to shoot, for no reply came, when he got the knife in his
+back.  He can't be moved."
+
+"The trouble is," Ned replied, "that we got here too soon."
+
+"What's the answer to that?"
+
+"We did not give the plotters time enough to finish their business.
+When that old Chink, back there at the gate, signaled to them with his
+rockets, they cut and ran, leaving important evidence behind them."
+
+"And you think they will hang about the flying squadron until they
+recover what they have lost?"
+
+"They certainly will try to recover it.  Now you see the wisdom of the
+Washington people in sending me to Peking on a motorcycle!  You see that
+I was right in saying that we were being set up as marks for other
+nations to shoot at!"
+
+"Yes," said Martin, "you never could have got to the fellows in the old
+way.  It was right to plan it so that they would come to you, although
+it was placing you in great danger."
+
+"But the danger has rippled off our backs like water off the feathers of
+a duck!  If we meet no more peril than we have now encountered, we'll
+get back to New York fat and healthy."
+
+"One thing I fail to comprehend," Captain Martin said, "and that is why
+a flying squadron was sent with you."
+
+"To attract attention," laughed Ned.
+
+"To get you out of scrapes, I should say," the Captain retorted.
+
+"Well, then, both!"
+
+"I don't get it yet."
+
+"We might have reached Peking without our presence in the country being
+known to our enemies," Ned said, "but that was not the idea of the
+Washington people.  I have already explained to the boys that we were to
+do our real work in identifying the man we want while on the way."
+
+"Oh, all right," replied the officer, "but it seems to me that you might
+have made the trip in a quieter way with the same result.  These chaps
+would have found you, depend on that."
+
+"Yes, but we needed help," replied Ned, "and we got it in the nick of
+time. Guess the Secret Service people at Washington are all right."
+
+"Perhaps," the Captain said, then, "we would better get the wounded men
+into the house and look after their wounds.  The others I'll leave on
+guard."
+
+The injured marines were carried into the house and given such attention
+as could be bestowed in the absence of a surgeon.
+
+"What next?" asked Frank.
+
+"Peking!" answered Jack.  "We can't heal these wounds by remaining here,
+and we can help by going on and sending a surgeon back."
+
+"But my orders are to remain with you," Captain Martin said.
+
+"Then leave most of your men here and come on," Ned replied.
+
+This plan was agreed upon, and would have been carried out at once had
+not something not on the program of the night intervened.  Captain
+Martin had detailed two men to sit with the wounded and stationed the
+others in a circle about the house when a shot was fired off to the
+east.
+
+"I didn't think they would have the nerve to attack the house openly
+before we got away," Captain Martin remarked.
+
+All listened intently, but there was no more shooting.
+
+"That sounded to me more like a signal than anything else," Ned
+observed. "I wonder if they are out in force?"
+
+"I think I'd better call the men in," Captain Martin remarked.
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth when a skulking form appeared in
+the dim light which now fell from the stars.  The fellow was creeping
+from the house outward.
+
+"A spy!" Jack whispered.  "Shoot, some one.  I haven't my gun with me.
+Shoot!"
+
+The skulking man appeared to hear the words, though they were spoken in
+a very low tone, for he sprang to his feet and dashed away at full
+speed.  In a second he was lost to view in the thicket.
+
+"Say, but that chap is some runner!" Jimmie cried.  "He went so fast I
+never thought to wing him!"
+
+"Where did he come from?" asked Frank.  "I'm certain he was not in the
+house.  Perhaps he was up to some deviltry."
+
+"He wasn't here with any bouquets," Jimmie answered.  "I'm goin' out an'
+run around the house.  Perhaps I can find out where he was hidin', an'
+find his mate there."
+
+No objections being offered to this, the little fellow left the group
+and started in on a tour around the old house.  He was gone perhaps two
+minutes, then came dashing back, his face white and horror-stricken in
+the circle of light which met him.
+
+"Grab 'em!  Grab 'em an' get out!" he shouted.
+
+"Where did you get it?" demanded Jack.
+
+"You're scared stiff!" Frank laughed.
+
+"Grab the wounded men an' beat it!" Jimmie repeated.  "This ranch will
+go up in the air in a second!"
+
+"That's cheerful!" Jack cut in, half believing that Jimmie was up to
+another trick.
+
+Jimmie dashed into the house, seized one of the wounded men by the
+shoulders and tried to drag him off the improvised bed on which he had
+been laid.
+
+"All right!" he yelled.  "You boys may stay here an' get shot up into
+blue sky if you want to, but I'm goin' to get these men out."
+
+"Why don't you tell us what the danger is?" demanded Ned, shaking the
+little fellow by the arm.
+
+"You listen!" Jimmie replied.
+
+There was dead silence for an instant.  Then, seemingly from underneath
+the floor, came a low, sinister hissing sound which every one of the
+boys recognized.
+
+A great fuse was burning below, and might at any moment reach the
+explosive to which it was attached.  The Chinese tools of the man at the
+head of the conspiracy were taking desperate chances.
+
+In order to destroy the clues which Ned had found in the house, and also
+to prevent the boy ever discovering any more, they were taking the long
+chance of murdering the soldiers of a friendly power and bringing on
+international complications.  Ned was by no means idle while these
+thoughts were swarming in his brain.
+
+In fact, all the boys sprang to action instantly.  Captain Martin was
+told to order his men farther away from the point of danger.  In less
+time than the result of their activities can be written down the wounded
+men were lying in the grove, surrounded by their fellows, and the boys
+were waiting for what seemed inevitable, the complete destruction of the
+house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A BROKEN MATCH SAFE
+
+
+"Why don't she go up?" asked Jack, as the boys crouched in the grove.
+"I don't mind seeing a little fourth of July!"
+
+"She's coming," Frank answered.  "Do you see the light in the cellar?
+That's the fuse burning."
+
+"It must be a long one," Jimmie said.  "Gee, but I was scared stiff when
+I saw it burnin' right under where you all were!"
+
+"How did the sneak who set the fuse on fire ever get down there?"
+wondered Jack.
+
+"Must have been there all the time," Jimmie volunteered.
+
+"But he didn't have the powder, or the dynamite, or whatever thing he
+figured on blowing us up with, in his pockets, did he?" asked Jack.
+
+"I guess the old Chink down the road, the fellow who kept me talking at
+the gate, had something to do with storing the explosive there," Ned
+remarked. "I presume the plot was laid to blow us up the minute the
+effort to destroy us at the ruined temple failed."
+
+"Merry little time we're having," Frank laughed.  "Here, kid, where are
+you going?" he added, as Jimmie moved away.
+
+"I'm goin' to see why that don't go bang!" answered the boy.
+
+Ned tried to stop him, but the little fellow dodged away and disappeared
+around an angle of the house.
+
+The boys waited in suspense for a moment, expecting every instant to
+witness the explosion, then Frank and Jack darted around the corner, in
+quest of Jimmie.
+
+"Come back!" Ned called, but they paid no heed.
+
+Both Ned and the Captain sprang after the lads, the latter expressing in
+very vigorous language his opinion of boys who would take such risks out
+of curiosity.
+
+"I'd rather wait an hour for an explosion than go up to see why it
+didn't come off in time," he said.  "That Jimmie needs a good beating.
+He'll get it, too, if he doesn't behave!"
+
+Ned laughed, serious as the situation was, at the thought of what would
+be apt to happen if the Captain should lay hands on the little fellow in
+anger.  He would have the other boys on his hands in a second!
+
+When Ned rounded the corner he saw Jimmie's heels half blocking a cellar
+window.  Thick smoke was oozing out around him, and Frank and Jack were
+trying to pull him back.
+
+"You let go!" they heard the little fellow shout.  "I guess I know what
+I'm doin'.  You let go!"
+
+"Wait!" Ned said, then he stooped over and called out to Jimmie:
+
+"Is the fuse out?"
+
+"Sure!" was the reply.  "'Sure the fuse is out, but before it went out
+it set fire to something on the cellar bottom, an' the blaze is workin'
+its way up to the powder, or whatever it is.  Ouch!" he added, as Jack
+gave a pull at his foot.  "You let go!"
+
+"Let him go," Ned advised.  "Perhaps he can get in there in time to
+prevent the explosion."
+
+"The little gink!" Jack exclaimed, "I wanted to see the thing bust up.
+Now he's spoiled it!"
+
+In a moment the boy was in the cellar, and Ned was not far away when the
+creeping flame was extinguished.  While Frank and Jack looked in at the
+window, shielding their eyes and faces from the smudge as well as it was
+possible to do, Ned called out to them:
+
+"Tell Captain Martin to keep his men on guard around the house.  The
+scamps who did this may be up to some other trick.  They're determined
+that we shall never get to Peking!"
+
+Frank crawled through the window and stood by Ned's side, searchlight in
+hand.  Just about underneath the center of the house, was a half barrel
+of gunpowder.
+
+"That would have done the business," Frank observed, and Jimmie made a
+wry face.  "If this little nuisance hadn't seen the fuse burning, we
+might have been killed."
+
+"Aw, go on!" Jimmie said.  "The fuse went out, didn't it?  Gave us a
+good scare, anyway.  I'm six inches shorter than I was before I saw the
+blaze creepin' along like a bloomin' snake!"
+
+"How did it affect your appetite?" asked Frank.
+
+"If you mention anythin' to eat," Jimmie answered, "I'll have a fit.  I
+don't know how people live in China, but I've been starved ever since I
+struck the country."
+
+Flashlight in hand, Ned now devoted his whole attention to the floor of
+the cellar.  There were marks of shoes here and there, and half-burned
+matches.
+
+"It looks as if whoever did this job did it in a hurry," Ned said.  "If
+the fuse had been set right it would have done its work.  Do you see why
+it went out?"
+
+"Well, there's a break in it, and the break is over a damp spot on the
+floor.  The powder stuffed line burned to the break and there the flame
+went out.  It burned slowly, anyway, which probably accounts for our
+being alive at this time."
+
+Ned took a rule from his pocket and measured the shoe tracks on the
+floor. There were numerous tracks, but one was very distinct.  This had
+been made by the man who rolled the half-barrel of powder to the place
+where it had been found.
+
+The barrel had come upon a slight obstruction, and the man had evidently
+lifted and pulled at it until his shoe, by reason of the extra weight
+put upon it, had sunk deep into the light soil.
+
+"That wasn't any Chink shoe," Jimmie said.
+
+"No, it was a shoe made in America," Ned said.  "It is comparatively a
+new shoe, too.  I am wondering now why the American, or Englishman, or
+Frenchman, whatever he is, didn't hire some of the Chinks to do this
+work of laying the explosion."
+
+"They're afraid," Jack volunteered.
+
+There was a litter of half-burned matches near the barrel and Ned bent
+over and gathered them up.  As he did so something bright lying on the
+ground, caught his eye.  It was a gold rivet, or wire, not more than an
+inch long and about as thick as a knitting needle.
+
+"What is it?" asked Frank.
+
+"I should say," replied Ned, "that the fellow lost the cover to his
+match box here.  This looks like the rivet which served for a hinge.
+The cover itself may be here."
+
+But a close search did not reveal the cover, nor anything else of
+moment, in fact, and the boys soon left the cellar.  Frank laughed as
+Ned placed the gold wire in his pocketbook.
+
+"You are making quite a collection," he said.
+
+"Yes," Jack added, "he has a state department seal, bits of broken
+sealing wax, and now a piece of a broken match safe.  He'll set a trap
+with them directly!"
+
+"The trap is already set!" Ned replied.
+
+The long delay at the house made high speed necessary during the
+remainder of the run to Peking.  The machines sparked and roared through
+that ancient land, bringing sleepy-eyed natives to doors and windows,
+and setting villages into whirls of excitement.
+
+Captain Martin and one marine were with the boys, the rest having been
+left with the wounded men.
+
+"My flying squadron is just beginning to fly," Ned said, as the machines
+rolled noisily down a hill from which the towers of the distant city
+showed.  "And the smaller it becomes as we approach the end of the
+journey!"
+
+"Suppose the Chinks attack the men left behind?" asked Jack.
+
+"No danger of that," Ned replied.  "They are not after the marines, but
+the Boy Scouts who had the nerve to cross the Pacific for the purpose of
+bringing a rascal to punishment."
+
+This view of the case proved to be the correct one, as the marines were
+remarkably well treated by the natives, who gathered about them with
+many gestures and questions, all unintelligible to the warriors.  The
+boys who were slowly drawing a slowly closing circle around the guilty
+ones were the persons in demand!
+
+It was the middle of the forenoon when Ned and his companions reached
+the suburbs of the wonderful city.  They attracted a great deal of
+attention as they wheeled through the straggling streets.  They had not
+yet come to the wall, so the population was principally agricultural.
+Maize and millet are the principal products of the soil here, as the
+staple crops, wheat and rice, do not flourish well.
+
+They had no difficulty in passing the gate which gave into the southern
+or "Chinese City."  It is the northern part of Peking that is known to
+foreigners as "The Forbidden City."  Here the rulers live in wonderful
+palaces.  This is the old "Tartar City," too.
+
+The second division of Peking is the business section.  Here the boys
+drew up at a most uninviting native inn and asked a clerk who claimed to
+speak English for an interpreter.  A snaky-looking fellow was finally
+produced, and Ned proceeded to question him about the show places of the
+town.
+
+"Let him think we are American tourists," Ned said to his chums, "and
+we'll stand a better chance of getting into the diplomatic section of
+the town. Anyway, while we are here, we may as well see the sights."
+
+After a midday luncheon Ned and Jimmie started out to look over the
+place. They were now in what is known as the general city, where the
+streets are from 140 to 200 feet wide.  The thoroughfares are mostly
+unpaved, and the shops which line them are continuous, some green, some
+blue, some red, but all bustling with business.
+
+The shops in this section of Peking are decorated with huge, staring
+signs, resplendent with Chinese characters highly gilt.  Before the boys
+had traveled far they were forcibly reminded of the lower East Side of
+New York.  The great thoroughfares roared with the rush of commerce.
+
+Shopkeepers, peddlers, mountebanks, quack doctors, pedestrians rushing
+to and fro, all reminded the lads of the lower part of the big city on
+Manhattan island.  The theaters and public places of amusement are
+situated in this part of Peking.
+
+When Ned and Jimmie returned from the stroll they found Frank and Jack
+waiting for them with anxiety depicted on their faces.
+
+"What have you been doing?" Frank asked.  "I thought you came here to
+interview the American ambassador."
+
+"All in good time," Ned replied, with a smile.  "I want to pick up the
+American shoe print before I present my letter to the ambassador."
+
+"Fine show you stand of picking up a shoe print in a crowd like that one
+out there!" Jack said.  "It's worse than Coney Island on a midsummer
+Sunday."
+
+"Perhaps I didn't use the right words," smiled Ned.  "I might have said
+I was waiting for the American shoe man to pick me up."
+
+"He's done that now, all right," Captain Martin said.  "You had not been
+out of the house five minutes before the spies were thick as flies in
+the old Eighth ward.  They are all about us now.  Watch and see if we
+are ever alone."
+
+Ned glanced about carelessly and nudged Frank with his elbow.
+
+"That waiter?" he asked.  "How long has he been loitering about the
+room?"
+
+"Ever since we arrived.  The men who have been entertaining us on the
+way were evidently waiting for us."
+
+The boys were not in a private room, but in a public apartment where
+there were tables and refreshments.
+
+"But that chap belongs here," Ned replied.
+
+"Well, if you watch him, you will see that he is attending strictly to
+the wants of this party.  If we call he'll wait on us.  If any one else
+calls, another waiter glides over to him.  Nice to be so exclusive,
+isn't it?"
+
+"If you are right," Ned said, "it is time for us to move on."
+
+"To the embassy?" asked Captain Martin.  "You see," the Captain went on,
+"I'm rather anxious to land you boys under the protecting folds of the
+American flag, for there my responsibility ends."
+
+"No, not to the embassy," Ned replied.  "As yet I have nothing of
+importance to confide to the ambassador.  I can only tell him that we
+are here, that we had numerous nibbles on the road from Taku, but that
+all the fish got away."
+
+"Holy smoke!" exclaimed Jack.  "I hope you don't think of staying out in
+the open until you can convey a couple of diplomats to the embassy!  You
+can't catch your man single handed.  You're not in New York now, but in
+a heathen town, a town where the life of a foreign devil is not worth a
+grain of rice."
+
+"Just the same," Ned replied, "I'm going to stick around this town until
+I get what I want."
+
+"In this dump?" asked Jack.
+
+"No; there's an American hotel up the street--an American hotel operated
+by Chinks!  We'll go there and take rooms and wait for something to turn
+up."
+
+So, in spite of the protests of Captain Martin, the change was made, and
+late that night Ned awoke to find himself sitting up on the edge of his
+bed, automatic in hand, listening to the steady boring of a tool of some
+sort around the lock of his door!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A BOY SCOUT SURPRISE PARTY
+
+
+When Ned heard the assaults of the midnight visitor on his door he
+looked at his watch, then slipped over to the window facing the street.
+Twelve o'clock and the thoroughfare below still teeming with life.
+Peking has something over three millions of population, according to the
+records, but, as a matter of fact, no one knows the exact size of the
+town as to humanity, for the Chinese live in densely-packed districts,
+and there are no census reports given out.
+
+The city is many centuries old.  It was a thriving capital three
+thousand years before Christ was born and during all the years of war
+and starvation and intrigue it continued to grow.
+
+The hardy races from the North, which overran the country and kept a
+Tartar on the Chinese throne for centuries, are virile and pertinacious.
+It has been the fate of every civilization we know anything about to be
+wiped out by hardy races.  Rome went down before the Northmen, and
+England had its oversea conqueror.  Greece and Italy succumbed to the
+might of brawny arms, and civilization shrank back for hundreds of
+years.  So China fell before the men of the mountains, and her records
+were destroyed.
+
+As in all large cities, there is a night side to the life of Peking.  If
+you traverse the streets at night you will find shops which have been
+closed all day opening for the trade of the night workers.  You will see
+people who have slept through all the daylight hours walking through the
+streets to their nightly toil.  You will see about the same things, only
+on a smaller scale, that you see in the daytime.
+
+This night was no different from any other, except that there were more
+men who did not appear to have any particular business there lounging
+along the streets.  Now and then these loiterers, walking slowly along
+the business ways, slipped unostentatiously into alleys and narrow
+by-ways and so on into basement and garret halls where others of their
+kind were assembled.
+
+When Ned looked out of his window, listening meanwhile to the steady
+boring sound at his door, he saw a light at a window opposite to the
+building in which he stood waving slowly to and fro.  There was a long
+vertical motion, and then the light moved from side to side again.
+
+Ned counted the slow strokes.  Left to right, right to left, back again
+and yet again!
+
+"Six," he mused, "and all in action!"
+
+The mouse-like gnawing at his door continued, the sounds seemingly
+louder than before.  The intruder was evidently gaining courage!
+
+Presently the boy leaned out of his window, which was on the third floor
+of the hotel, and watched the entrance below.  There appeared to be a
+great rush of customers at that time.  At least a score of natives
+passed in at the large door.
+
+Then Ned turned to the right and studied the window of the room next to
+his own on that floor.  There was a light in that room, too, but it
+seemed to be a red light.  Then it changed to white, then to blue.
+
+Ned laughed and began drawing on his clothes.  Still the boring
+continued, and Ned bent over to see if he could discover any holes in
+the stile of the door.
+
+There being no light in his room and, presumably, one in the corridor
+outside, he thought he might be able to see when a cut through the stile
+had been made.  There were no indications of a break yet, and Ned
+settled back on his bed to wait.
+
+Just at that moment he hardly knew what he was waiting for.  He had been
+very busy all the afternoon, laying plans and conferring with a man who
+came from the police bureau, and who appeared to be working under
+instructions from the boy.  Ned considered his plans as near perfect as
+any human plans can be, still he did not know exactly what would happen
+at a quarter past twelve.
+
+At ten minutes past midnight the boy heard a rush of footsteps in the
+corridor.  They passed his door and the boring ceased.  Then they faded
+away in the distance and the gnawing was resumed.  There was a little
+more noise in the hotel than before.
+
+Ned smiled at the crude efforts that were being made to enter his room.
+In New York man disposed to enter for the purpose of robbery would have
+a skeleton key.  He would be inside the room in three seconds after
+entering the corridor and finding the apartment he sought wrapped in
+darkness.
+
+"But this isn't New York," the boy mused.  "This is the Orient, and the
+patience of the Orient, and the stupidity of the Orient!"
+
+At exactly a quarter past twelve there was a commotion in the corridor.
+Several people seemed to be moving toward the door of Ned's room.  Once
+there was a little cry of alarm.
+
+Ned looked out of his window.  The panes where he had observed the
+signals, across the street, were dark.  There was no light in the window
+next his own which had shown red, white and blue but a moment before.
+
+The clamor in the corridor increased, and Ned walked to the door and
+undid the fastenings.  Then it swung open, almost striking Ned in the
+face.
+
+Facing the boy, in the corridor, were six Chinamen, or men in native
+dress, rather.  Back of them were a score of stern-faced Chinese
+policemen.  To the right, and struggling with all their might to get
+into the room were Frank, Jack, and Jimmie, the latter with his nose
+wrinkled and wrinkling to such an extent that it resembled a small ocean
+with the wind undulating its surface.
+
+"Trap's closed!"
+
+That was Jimmie, of course.  Frank and Jack stood by laughing.  The
+faces of the six men who stood before the door were anything but
+pleasant to look upon.
+
+They expressed hate, despair, desperate intents.  As they stood there
+Frank reached forward and snatched a queue-wig from the head of the man
+nearest him.
+
+"There he is!" Jimmie cried.  "There's the old boy, Ned--the smooth gink
+we saw at Taku, at Tientsin, and at numerous places on the road.  I
+wonder how he likes the scene?"
+
+Ned motioned to the six to step into the room.  Three of them objected,
+then swords flashed in the light of the corridor and they moved on.
+
+They were followed by the three boys and half a dozen policemen, all
+with automatics in view.  At a motion from the leader of the officers
+the six were searched and ironed.  Jack nudged Frank in the ribs with
+his elbow as the handcuffs clicked on the wrists of the man who had so
+persistently followed them from the coast of the Yellow Sea.
+
+"That's a good sport," he said.  "I like to see a fellow play the game!"
+
+The prisoner turned a pair of treacherous eyes on the boys and a cynical
+smile curled his thin lips.
+
+"You have the cards now," he said, in English, "but look out for the new
+deal.  I'll keep you busy yet."
+
+"Go to it!" laughed Jack.  "Go as far as you like, only I fail to see
+how you're going to get into the game again.  Looks like you were all
+in, just now!"
+
+"Wait!" said the other, scornfully.
+
+There now came a knock at the door and Ned opened it to admit Captain
+Martin, who looked as if he had just left his bed after an
+unsatisfactory sleep.  He cast his eyes about the room with amazement
+showing in every glance.
+
+"What does this mean?" he asked.
+
+"Surprise party!" Jimmie cried.
+
+"Who are these men?"
+
+The Captain pointed to the six prisoners lined up against the wall of
+the room.
+
+"Our friends from Taku, from the ruined temple, from Tientsin, from the
+farm house loaded with gunpowder, and from the tea house," laughed Ned.
+"Do you recognize the fellow with his disguise off?  Jimmie gave him a
+haircut and shave just now."
+
+"And you have captured them?"
+
+"It doesn't look as if they had captured us," Jimmie broke in.
+
+"But how, when, why?"
+
+"All of that!" grinned Jimmie.
+
+Ned spoke a few words to the officer in charge of the squad and in a
+moment the room was occupied only by the handcuffed prisoners, the four
+boys, and Captain Martin.  The latter stood looking at Ned with a
+question in each eye.
+
+"When you get time," he said, "I'd like to have you tell me how you
+brought this case to a close so suddenly."
+
+Ned motioned to the man who had been stripped of his disguise to take a
+chair at the table.  The fellow did so reluctantly, turning his face
+this way and that, as if seeking some opportunity of escape.
+
+"Well," he said.  "You have the floor.  Go On."
+
+"You were at Taku?" asked Ned.
+
+"I deny everything!"
+
+"You will deny your own fingerprints, the shoeprints?" asked Ned.
+
+"Well, supposing, for the sake of argument, that I was at Taku, what has
+that to do with this brutal and illegal arrest?"
+
+"You placed the powder under the house where the wounded men lay?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I have something I want to show you," Ned said, taking a paper from his
+pocket.  "Have you a match?"
+
+Almost involuntarily the fellow put his hand to his right vest pocket
+and brought forth a gold match safe.  Ned took it into his hand and
+touched the spring which lifted the top.
+
+"There seems to be a new wire in the hinge," he said.
+
+"Yes, the old one wore out."
+
+Ned opened his pocketbook and took out the gold wire he had found in the
+cellar by the side of the powder.  The prisoner started violently when
+he saw it.
+
+"Is this yours?" Ned asked.
+
+"No!"
+
+"All right!" Ned said.
+
+With the point of his knife he pushed the sale and put the old new hinge
+from the match safe and put the old one in its place.
+
+It fitted exactly.
+
+"There!" Ned said, "you see the old one did not wear out entirely.  It
+wore away so that it dropped out.  Do you know where I found it, my
+friend?"
+
+"It is immaterial to me where you found it."
+
+"Even if I found it in a cellar by the side of a half barrel of
+gunpowder to which a lighted fuse had been attached?"
+
+"Hadn't you better make your case--if you can make it at all--in the
+courts?" asked the prisoner.
+
+Ned took the state department seal, the sealing wax, and the bits of
+parchment from his pocket.
+
+"Who met you in the library at the house you attempted to destroy?" he
+asked.
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Were these men present?" with a sweep of the hand toward the other
+prisoners.
+
+"What has this to do with my case?"
+
+"This," Ned replied.  "You were still conspiring to fix upon my
+government the crime of interfering in the private affairs of another
+nation--with the crime of providing, by a treacherous and despicable
+route, the money needed by the revolutionary party of China.  You were
+doing business in that house with the representatives of another nation.
+Who were they?  What nations did they represent, or pretend to
+represent?"
+
+"I have nothing to say to that."
+
+Ned held up the seal.
+
+"This was not used?" he asked.
+
+"It was not used."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because the representative of that nation refused to consider the terms
+offered him."
+
+Ned held forth the sealing wax.
+
+"This shows that the seal of another nation was used.  Where is the
+paper to which the seal was attached?"
+
+"Destroyed!"
+
+"Is that true?" asked Ned.
+
+"It is true, they all deserted me.  They all ran away when they knew you
+were in the country, but I brought them back, and held them until the
+incident at the house where you found those things."
+
+"So you are now the only one to look to for the history of this bit of
+deviltry?"
+
+"I stand alone," was the reply.  "Alone, with the exception of these men
+I who were arrested with me.  The plot has failed, and we know what to
+expect."
+
+The prisoner was about to say more, but just then a clamor in the street
+below attracted the attention of all in the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE EMPEROR TAKES A HAND
+
+
+Ned stepped to the window and looked out.  The street in front of the
+hotel was filled from curb to curb with an excited mob.
+
+That the efforts of those below were directed toward the building and
+its occupants there could be no doubt.  Many a shaking fist was thrust
+up to the lighted panes where Ned stood.
+
+The boy turned to Jimmie, spoke a few words in a whisper, and the little
+fellow left the room.  With him went the interpreter who had been
+engaged that day.
+
+Shouts, howls and groans of rage now came up from the street, and Ned
+stepped away from the window.  As he did so the prisoner who had been
+making a partial confession when the uproar came, moved forward, as if
+to show himself to those below.
+
+Seeing his intention, Ned seized him by the shoulder and hurled him to
+the back end of the room.  The prisoner smiled and again seated himself
+in the chair he had occupied before.
+
+"Your friends are excited," Ned said, drawing the curtain at the window.
+
+The other nodded in the direction of the window and smiled.
+
+"My friends?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Why do you attribute this outbreak to me?"
+
+"Because those not in league with you and your cause would hardly
+threaten American tourists, in the face of the law."
+
+"American tourists!" snarled the other, and Ned laughed.
+
+Jimmie now came bustling into the room, his eyes staring with
+excitement. The interpreter was only a trifle less moved by the
+information which had been gained.
+
+"What is it?" Jack asked.
+
+"He's crazy with fear again!" Frank put in.
+
+"Say," Jimmie cried, "you'd all better be gettin' out of this place.
+The people out there are goin' to raid it in a minute!"
+
+The prisoner uttered a defiant laugh and again started for the window.
+Again Ned forced him back.
+
+"What's the trouble?" asked Frank.
+
+"Why," was the reply, "this gink here," pointing toward the prisoner
+whose disguise had been removed, "this gazabo hadn't much confidence in
+his own ability to win this fight, so he appealed to the revolutionary
+leaders."
+
+"That's fine!" Jack said.  "We may have the luck to see a full-fledged
+revolution doing business."
+
+"You are quite likely to."
+
+This from the prisoner, now standing with the others at the back of the
+room.
+
+"You arranged for this demonstration in case you should be taken?" asked
+Ned.
+
+The prisoner snarled out some ugly reply.
+
+"You planned this?" demanded Ned, resolved to know the truth.
+
+"Yes," almost shouted the other, "and you will soon discover that it is
+something more than a demonstration."
+
+The interpreter drew Jimmie aside and whispered in his ear.  Then the
+boy turned to Ned.
+
+"This boy says he saw a signal given from a window as soon as this bunch
+was taken," he said.  "Then crowds began forming.  Say, but we'd better
+be gettin' out!"
+
+"Save yourselves the exertion," the prisoner said.  "They will find you,
+wherever you go!"
+
+"Possibly," Ned said.
+
+Then he walked to the window and again looked out on the mob.  The
+street was packed.  Faces showing rage and desperate bravery were
+uplifted.  Fists were shaken at the window where he stood.  In a moment
+a stone came hurtling against the wall of the house.
+
+Here and there, on the outskirts of the crowd, policemen in the funny
+uniforms the police of Peking wear, were seen trying vainly to force
+their way to the door of the hotel.  The main entrance seemed to be
+guarded, for the mob did not succeed in forcing its way in.
+
+Presently, however, Ned saw long ladders being carried forward on the
+shoulders of the rioters.  Then they were dropped against the wall and
+men with bloody faces--bloody from the acts of their own fellows--fought
+to be first to climb.
+
+"In three minutes," the prisoner said, "you will be torn limb from limb
+if I am not released."
+
+"Your friends certainly do insist on something of the kind," Ned
+replied.
+
+"Remove these irons and place me before the window," commanded the
+other. "That will quiet them."
+
+"And make terms with a pack of rioters?" smiled Ned.
+
+"You can save your life, and the lives of your friends, in no other
+way," insisted the other.
+
+Ned went to the window again, although bricks and stones were flying
+quite freely.  The ladders swarmed with excited men, but no one seemed
+able to gain entrance at the windows which were attacked.
+
+Instead, a ladder now and then went toppling backward, carrying dozens
+of rioters to death or injury.  When the ladders began falling the mob
+moved away from that side of the street.
+
+"You see," Ned said to the prisoner, "that we were on the lookout for
+something like this."
+
+"How could you have been?" gasped the other.
+
+"Our interpreter heard some of the messages sent out by mouth by the
+revolutionists.  I connected your possible capture with the gathering.
+We were warned and made ready."
+
+"But my men will soon be here!" shouted the other.  "They are sworn to
+go to death for the cause if necessary."
+
+"But I don't see them doing anything of the kind," Ned replied.  "On the
+contrary, they seem to be taking pretty good care of their yellow old
+hides!"
+
+"You'll see!" howled the other.
+
+Directly the heavy beat of marching feet came up to the window, heard
+above the roar of the mob below.  Far down the street Ned saw the
+advancing line, bearing the colors of the Emperor.
+
+The rioters saw the line, too, and the crowd in front of the hotel began
+to thin.  Then the soldiers arrived and the thoroughfare was empty save
+for their presence.  By this time the prisoner was in a condition of
+collapse.  He had planned this thing carefully, and was now in the
+meshes of failure.
+
+The street below soon cleared of the few who gathered about to witness
+the arrival of the soldiers.  The few prisoners, who had been taken
+marched sullenly to prison.  In ten minutes the city of Peking was as
+quiet as if the machinations of the conspirators had never stirred the
+people to riot.
+
+"Well?" Ned said, facing the prisoner.  "What do you think we ought to
+do with you?"
+
+"After all," was the reply, "you have no charges against me.  My
+government alone can discipline me for what has been done."
+
+"Your government will deny any knowledge of the conspiracy," Ned
+replied. "From this time on, you have no government."
+
+"And yet I acted under instructions."
+
+"What was the motive?" asked Frank, who saw a fine cablegram for his
+father's newspaper in the story.
+
+"The purpose," replied the other, weakly, "was to so entangle your
+government that it would not dare lend aid to the revolutionary
+leaders."
+
+"And you were engaged in it?"
+
+A nod of the head was the only reply.
+
+"Yet you pretended to be assisting the revolutionary party.  You were
+present at their councils.  Can it be possible that you were treacherous
+to both sides?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"Suppose," Ned said, "suppose I turn you over to the revolutionary
+leaders, with a statement of what you have just said?  What would be
+your fate? Remember that the men of the revolution were ready to fight
+for you not long ago."
+
+Still no reply.  The prisoner only looked sullenly down at the floor.
+
+"What government do you represent?" asked Frank.  "What nation is it
+that is protecting the imperial government of China?"
+
+"You need not answer that question," Ned said, with a sigh.
+
+Frank laughed.
+
+"I see," he said.  "You don't want to further implicate matters by
+giving out the name of the power whose seal shows on the wax!  All
+right, old boy, I'll get it yet!"
+
+"No good can come of a representative of the United States Government
+presenting charges of such a character against another power," Ned
+replied.
+
+Captain Martin now arose from the chair where he had been seated for a
+long time.  He glanced keenly into the faces of the six prisoners and
+then turned to Ned.
+
+"Shall I take them in charge?" he asked,
+
+"That would be useless."
+
+"Then what can be done with them?"
+
+"I am going to turn them over to the authorities on the charge of
+attempted murder, based on the effort they made to kill us in the old
+house."
+
+"Very well," the Captain said, "now will you tell me how you set this
+trap so, cleverly?"
+
+"It was only a matter of detail," Ned replied.  "I took good care to let
+the native waiters here know that I had the clues I had found secreted
+in my room.  I also let it be known that I was a heavy sleeper.
+
+"My interpreter, who is by no means as treacherous a chap as his looks
+would indicate, heard the robbery of my room planned.  He heard the hour
+fixed-a quarter past twelve.  So all the rest was easy."
+
+"Oh, yes, easy, but how did you do it?"
+
+"Frank, Jack and Jimmie helped," added Ned.  "Jack was at a window over
+the way.  He told me by signals just how many men were to take part in
+the attack on me.
+
+"Frank, in the next room to mine, told me when the time came to be on
+guard.  I really do not wake easily, and he rigged a cord through the
+wall so I could rest comfortably until the time for action came.
+
+"Then when all was ready, he told me by means of colored light that all
+the six were in the corridor, and that the officers I had engaged during
+the afternoon were on hand."
+
+"And you went to sleep with all this on your mind and slept up to within
+a quarter of an hour of the time set for action?" asked the Captain in
+wonder.
+
+"Why, certainly," was the reply.  "You see, we have been having some
+exciting nights, and I needed rest.  The other boys slept a good deal
+this afternoon, so I left them to wake me at night.  Nothing odd about
+that, is there?"
+
+"Nothing save the nerve of it."
+
+Two high officers now made their appearance in the room and beckoned to
+the prisoners.  All arose save the man from whom the disguise had been
+stripped.  He remained in the chair into which he had dropped, seemingly
+in a stupor.
+
+"Come," said the officer.
+
+The man arose, desperation in his eyes, and moved toward the door.  A
+few days before that miserable night he had been one of the leaders in
+the statecraft of the world.  Now he was being marched to a prison like
+any ordinary criminal.
+
+The speaker was interrupted by a quick movement on the part of the
+prisoner, the man he had addressed as Count.  There was no one between
+he desperate man and the still  open window.  Ned was at the door,
+Captain Martin was out in the corridor, and Frank, Jack and Jimmie were
+talking together in a corner.
+
+Handcuffed as he was, the Count leaped to the window and shot down to
+the hard pavement below.  There was a shrill cry as his body hurtled
+through the air, then a crash.
+
+Below passersby drew away from what lay in a bloody heap on the
+pavement. A little crowd gathered, at a distance, but none knew that the
+body of one of the most distinguished statesmen in the world lay there.
+
+"It is finished!" Ned said, with a sigh.  "The whole story of the
+conspiracy will never be told.  It is the story of a treacherous
+government and a treacherous statesman.
+
+"The documents I have will fully prove that the United States had no
+hand in the gold shipment, and that is all that we care for.  The old
+world may take care of its own political messes."
+
+"It is a mess indeed," Captain Martin, said.  "In less than a year China
+will be red with blood, and the streets of Peking will witness the
+retreat of the royal family."
+
+How true this prophecy was the readers of the daily newspapers now know.
+
+"Well," Jack said, with a yawn, as the boys and the Captain were left
+alone in the room together, "I presume it is us for little old New York
+to-morrow.  How do you like this motorcycle-flying-squadron business,
+boys," he added.  "We seem to have flown ahead of the flying squadron."
+
+"Then we ought to fly back and look after the ones who were wounded on
+the road," Frank said.  "Suppose we all go back on our machines, and
+really see something of the country?"
+
+This was agreed to, and the party separated for the night.  In the
+morning Ned paid his respects to the American ambassador, who greeted
+him courteously, but wanted to know all about the events of the trip
+from the coast.
+
+"You have gotten Uncle Sam out of a bad mess," the ambassador said, when
+Ned had finished his narration, "and you will find that you will be well
+rewarded when you return to Washington."
+
+The ambassador also requested the boys to visit the other legations, but
+they did not care to do so.
+
+"Well," he said, then, "you must take a letter from me which may help
+you on your way.  I have been expecting you here all the week, but it
+seems that you completed your work without my assistance,"
+
+"Just what I was figuring on," Ned replied.
+
+"I worked under surveillance all the way here, and I desired to show
+that I could do something on my own account."
+
+The boys left Peking early the next morning, and were not long in
+reaching the house where the powder trap had been set for them.  There
+they found Hans and Sandy!  The boys had followed them on from Tientsin
+in an automobile which an English merchant was taking through.
+
+Both boys were riding motorcycles, and were already proficient enough to
+proceed with the others, using the machines which had been ridden by the
+wounded marines, who were sent on to Peking in charge of Captain Martin.
+
+A week was spent on the road to Taku, and the lads enjoyed every minute
+of the time.  The letter given them by the American ambassador brought
+them every attention at Tientsin and Taku.
+
+It was late in the fall when they reached New York.  On the night of
+their arrival there were many joyful meetings in the clubroom of the
+Black Bear Patrol.  The next day Ned went on to Washington to file his
+report.  When he returned it was with a very substantial reward.
+
+"Now," he said, with a laugh, "I'm ready for the next trip.  I wonder
+where it will be?"
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Boy Scouts on Motorcycles, by G. Harvey Ralphson
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11469 ***
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+++ b/LICENSE.txt
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #11469 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11469)
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+Project Gutenberg's Boy Scouts on Motorcycles, by G. Harvey Ralphson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Boy Scouts on Motorcycles
+       With the Flying Squadron
+
+Author: G. Harvey Ralphson
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2004 [EBook #11469]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOY SCOUTS ON MOTORCYCLES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sean Pobuda
+
+
+
+
+Boy Scouts on Motorcycles
+
+Or
+
+With The Flying Squadron
+
+By G. HARVEY RALPHSON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BOY SCOUTS IN A STRANGE LAND
+
+
+"Fine country, this--to get out of!"
+
+"What's the difficulty, kid?"
+
+Jimmie McGraw, the first speaker, turned back to the interior of the
+apartment in which he stood with a look of intense disgust on freckled
+face.
+
+"Oh, nothin' much," he replied, wrinkling his nose comically, "only
+Broadway an' the Bowery are too far away from this town to ever amount
+to anythin'.  Say, how would you fellers like a chair in front of the
+grate in the little old Black Bear Patrol clubroom, in the village of N.
+Y.?  What?"
+
+The three boys lying, half covered with empty burlap bags, on the bare
+earth at the back of the apartment chuckled softly as Jimmie's face
+brightened at the small picture he drew verbally, of the luxurious Boy
+Scout clubroom in the City of New York.
+
+"New York is a barren island as compared with this place," one of the
+boys, Jack Bosworth by name, declared.  "Just think of the odor of the
+Orient all around us!"
+
+Jimmie wrinkled his nose in disdain and turned back to the window out of
+which he had been looking.  The other boys, Ned Nestor, of the Wolf
+Patrol, and Jack Bosworth and Frank Shaw, of the Black Bear Patrol, all
+of New York, pulled their coarse covering closer under their chins and
+grinned at the impatient Jimmie, who was of the Wolf Patrol, and who was
+just then on guard.
+
+It wasn't much of a window that the boy looked out of, just an irregular
+hole in a bare wall, innocent alike of sash and glass.  Away to the east
+rolled the restless waters of the Gulf of Pechili, which is little more
+than a round bay swinging west from the mystical Yellow Sea.
+
+To the south ran the swift current of the Peiho river, on the opposite
+bank of which lay the twin of Taku, Chinese town where Jimmie stood
+guard. Tungku, as the twin village is named, looked every bit as forlorn
+and disreputable as Taku, where the boys had waited four days for
+important information which had been promised by the Secret Service
+department at Washington.
+
+The gulf of Pechili and the Peiho river glistened under the October sun,
+which seemed to bring little warmth to the atmosphere.  Junks of all
+sizes and kinds were moving slowly through the waves, and farther out
+larger vessels lay at anchor, as if holding surveillance over the mouth
+of the stream which led to Tientsin, that famous city of the great
+Chinese nation.
+
+"Look at it!  Just look at it!"
+
+Jimmie pointed out of the opening, his hand swinging about to include
+the river and the gulf, the slowly moving boats and the picturesque
+streets.
+
+"'Tis a heathen land!" the boy went on.  "They wear their shirts outside
+of their trousers an' do their trucking on their shoulders.  Say, Ned,"
+he added, "why can't we cut it out?  I'm sick of it!"
+
+"Cut it out?" laughed Jack Bosworth, "why, kid, we've just got to the
+land of promise!"
+
+"Most all promise!" replied Jimmie.  "We've got nothin' but promises
+since we've been here.  Where's that Secret Service feller that was
+goin' to set the pace for us?"
+
+"Perhaps he's lost in the jungle," laughed Frank Shaw.  "He certainly
+ought to have been here three days ago.  What about it, Gulf of Pechili
+and the Peiho river Ned?" he added, turning to a youth who lay at his
+side, almost shivering in spite of his shaggy burlap covering.
+
+Ned Nestor yawned and threw aside his alleged protection from the
+growing chill of the October day.  The boys, fresh from a submarine in
+which they had searched an ocean floor for important documents as well
+as millions of dollars in gold, had arrived at Taku five days before
+this autumn afternoon.
+
+After concluding the mission on the submarine, Ned had been invited to
+undertake a difficult errand to Peking, in the interest of the United
+States Secret Service.  Even after landing at Taku, he had confessed to
+his chums his utter ignorance of the work he was to do.
+
+He had been requested by the Secret Service man who had engaged him for
+the duty to wait for instructions at the old house on the water front
+which, in company with Frank, Jack, and Jimmie, he now occupied.  The
+house was old and dilapidated, seemingly having been unoccupied for
+years, so the lads were really "camping out" there.
+
+Their provisions were brought to them regularly by a Chinaman who did
+not seem to understand a word of English, and, as the boys knowledge of
+the Chinese tongue was exceedingly limited, no information had been
+gained from him.  The Secret Service man had not appeared, and Ned was
+becoming uneasy, especially as the curiosity of his neighbors was
+becoming annoying.
+
+"I guess this is a stall," Jimmie grumbled, as Ned arose and stood at
+his side.  "You know how the Moores, father an' son, tried to get us on
+the submarine?  Well, I'll bet they've got loose, an' that we're bein'
+kept here until they can do us up proper without attractin' the
+attention of the European population."
+
+Ned laughed at the boy's fears.  He had no doubt that the man who had
+promised to meet him there had been delayed in some unaccountable
+manner, and that the information he was awaiting would be supplied
+before another day had passed.
+
+"Anyway," Jimmie insisted, "I don't like the looks of things hereabouts!
+There's always some pigtailed Chink watchin' this house from the street.
+I woke up last night an' saw a snaky-eyed Celestial peering in at this
+window.  I guess they've got rid of the man we are waitin' for."
+
+"If we only knew exactly what we were to do in Peking," Frank said,
+approaching the little group by the window, "we might jog along and
+report to the American legation.  I'm like Jimmie.  I don't fancy this
+long wait here--not a little bit!"
+
+"As I have told you before," Ned replied, "I don't know the first thing
+about the work cut out for us by the United States Secret Service
+people. There was some talk about following a brace of conspirators to
+Peking, the conspirators who tried to discredit the United States in the
+matter of the gold shipment but that was only incidental, and I was
+ordered to come here and await instructions.  So I'm going to wait--
+until the moon drops out of the sky, if necessary."
+
+"Oh, we'll stick around!" Frank put in.  "Don't think, for a minute,
+that any of us thought of quitting the game.  Still, I'd just like to
+know how much longer we have to remain here, and just what we are to do
+when we get to Peking, if we ever do."
+
+"Of course we'll stick!" Jimmie exclaimed.  "All I'm kickin' on is the
+delay.  We might have remained on board the submarine, where we had cozy
+quarters an' somethin' to eat besides this Chink stuff."
+
+"Whenever you want to bump Jimmie good and plenty," laughed Jack, "all
+you need to do is to tamper with his rations.  What's the matter with
+this rice, kid, and this meat pie?" he added, as the man who had served
+their food since their occupancy of the old house approached with a
+large, covered basket on his arm.
+
+Jimmie wrinkled his freckled nose again and laid a hand on his stomach,
+as if in sympathy with that organ for the unutterable Chinese
+concoctions it had been called upon to assimilate of late.
+
+"Rat pie!" he said, in a tone of disgust.
+
+"I'll bet a dollar to a rap on the nose that it's rat pie!  I can hear
+the rats squeal nights when I'm tryin' to sleep an' can't."
+
+"Say, Chink," Jack said, seizing the Chinaman by the shoulder and facing
+him about so that a good look into his slanty eyes might be had, "what
+do you know about this chuck?"
+
+"No chuck!  Pie!"
+
+"Of course it's pie!" answered Jack.  "It would be pie if it was made of
+old shoes, if it had a crust on.  What I want to know is, where did you
+catch him, and who pays you to bring it to us, and who pays him to pay
+you to feed it to us?  Where does he live, and is he black, white, or
+red? Come on, old top.  You know a lot if you could only think of it."
+
+The Chinaman, an evil-looking old fellow with a long cicatrice across
+his left cheekbone, shook his head and regarded his questioner craftily.
+
+"No spik English!" he said.
+
+"You spoke it then," Jack retorted.  "I'll bet a pan of pickles that you
+know what we were saying when you came in here."
+
+"Let him alone," Frank advised.  "That head of his is solid bone.  He
+would think his foot hurt if he had the toothache."
+
+"What a filthy, yellow, toothless, wicked old devil it is!" Jack went
+on. "Some day when he comes here with that basket of rats I'm going to
+cut his pigtail off close behind his ears."
+
+"I think he's the foulest old geezer I've ever met," Frank went on.  "If
+I had a dog with a mug like that I'd hire him out to the man who
+manufactures nightmares."
+
+The Chinaman stood looking stupidly about for a minute before placing
+his basket on the floor, then dropped it with a jar which rattled the
+few dishes within and scuffled out of the door.  Jimmie followed to see
+that he did not loiter around the house listening, and came back with a
+mischievous grin on his face.
+
+Long before the appearance of the Chinaman the boys had planned to use
+such uncomplimentary language in his presence as would be likely to
+excite his anger, if he understood what was being said.  They did not
+believe he was as ignorant of the English language as he pretended to
+be.
+
+"Well," Jimmie asked, of Ned, "did he tumble?  What did you see?"
+
+"I saw as evil a look as ever burned out of a  human eye," Ned replied.
+"Looked to me like he would enjoy feeding Jack and Frank to the rats."
+
+"Then he understood, all right?"
+
+"Of course he did," Jack, answered.  "I could see that with one eye.
+He's been coming here with his grub for four days, and picking up a word
+here and there every time.  We ought to have had sense enough to have
+been on guard against such treachery."
+
+"What's the answer now?" asked Jimmie, turning to Ned.
+
+"I'm afraid we're in a bad predicament," Ned replied.  "This shows me
+new light.  The messenger we are expecting should have been here long
+ago, and I'm now sure that we've just got to do something.  I'm getting
+afraid to eat the food they bring us, and I lie awake at night,
+listening for hostile footsteps."
+
+"That sounds a little more like Manhattan!" Jack cried.  "Sounds like
+action!  We're off in a heathen land, surrounded by enemies, and not
+likely to get anything like a fighting chance, but I'm for doing
+something right now.  I'm not going to lie still here and be poisoned,
+like a rat in a sewer!"
+
+"I'm for going on to Peking," Frank said.  "We can report to the
+American ambassador there, and, at least, get something to eat besides
+rat pie and something better than a bare floor to sleep on.  If we only
+had the Black Bear, the motor boat we cruised with on the Columbia
+river, we wouldn't be long on the way."
+
+"Huh!" Jimmie observed, taking out a minute memorandum book, "it is
+seventy miles by the river from Taku to Tientsin, and only twenty-seven
+by the road."
+
+"And how far to Peking by the road?" asked Jack.
+
+"It is seventy-nine Miles from Tientsin to Peking," was the reply, "and
+the roads ought to be good."
+
+"That's more than can be said of the natives!" Jack said.
+
+"The allied armies marched over the road to Peking in 1900," Frank
+explained, "and I rather think the inhabitants of strip of country have
+a wholesome respect for foreigners.  With our high-power motorcycles,
+ought to make Peking before daylight, if we start right after dark."
+
+"And don't run across any cutthroats on the way," added Jimmie.
+
+"Let's see," grinned Frank, "we were to have a flying squadron of
+marines with us?  What?  I reckon they're flying so high that they are
+out of sight!"
+
+"Suppose we see if the horses are in good shape," Ned said, going to an
+adjoining apartment.
+
+He made his appearance again in a minute trundling a magnificent
+motorcycle.  It was been built expressly for army use, with a long,
+powerful stroke 10 h. p. motor.  It was as indestructible and as auto
+machine as could well be designed.  With a perfect muffler, automatic
+carburetor and lubrication, it was a machine to cover miles silently and
+with little danger of delay.
+
+The open door behind Ned revealed three machines arranged along the
+wall, and the boys rushed to the examination of them.  In second all
+were in the room, bending over their steel pets.
+
+"Say!" Jimmie cried, presently, "we'll get Peking to-night--not!  This
+machine has been tampered with, and some parts are missing."
+
+"Yes, I reckon the Yellow Peril is on deck!" said Frank.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A DISQUIETING DISCOVERY
+
+
+The four boys regarded each other in silence for a moment.  Jack was the
+first to speak.
+
+"How badly are the machines damaged?" he asked.
+
+"Mine is all right," Jimmie reported, after a careful examination of his
+steel steed, "except that a couple of burrs are missing."
+
+"And mine," Frank hastened to say, "is all right except that the oil
+feed is blocked and the electric battery is shut off--that is, it is so
+arranged that the machine will spark for a short distance and then buck.
+Great doings!"
+
+"And yours, Jack?" asked Ned.
+
+"Just a few burrs gone."
+
+"And mine is o.k.," Ned went on, "except that the carburetor has been
+tampered with.  I think we'll get off for Peking before long."
+
+"How?" demanded Jimmie.  "We can't make burrs out of wood, or patch up
+with rat pie, which seems to be about the only thing we have plenty of.
+I don't suppose we can get repairs in this yellow hole."
+
+Ned took a handbag from under the burlap.  "I am carrying my own repair
+shop with me," he said, taking out a box of burrs and a pair of pincers.
+"I've got all the small parts right here in duplicate, and some of the
+larger ones are in the big suitcase."
+
+"You're a wonder!" Jimmie cried, dancing about his chum and wrinkling
+his nose until it looked like that of a comedian in a motion picture.
+"I wonder if you haven't got a hunk of Washington pie in that keyster!"
+
+The lads fell to work on their machines, and in a very short time all
+were ready for the road.  Then Ned put away his handbag and began an
+examination of the large suitcase, which contained the larger repairs
+for the motorcycles.  It had not been molested.
+
+"There's one thing certain," he said, "and that is that the Chinese who
+are watching us expect us to make a dash for Peking.  They took the
+pains to leave our machines in such shape that their tampering with them
+would not be suspected.  I'd like to know just when this mischief was
+accomplished."
+
+"Yes," Frank observed, "they wanted us to get out of Taku and break down
+on the road to Tientsin.  They would have us at their mercy out there--
+or they figured it out that way."
+
+"The work on the machines must have been done sometime during the day--
+or last night," Ned replied.  "Possibly while we were dozing."
+
+"I don't believe it!" Jimmie insisted.  "I've had me eyes open every
+minute to-day."
+
+"Well," Ned went on, laughing, "we had a high wind yesterday, didn't we?
+A wind that tumbled the dust of the streets in upon us?  Well," pointing
+to a portion of his machine frame which he had been careful not to
+touch, "here is some of the dust which fell upon the motorcycle then.
+The person who did the job brushed a lot of the dust away, so, you see,
+he must have worked since the dust fell."
+
+"Did he brush it all away?" asked Jimmie.
+
+"No," Ned replied, pointing, "here is a brace which he touched with his
+hands but did not wipe off.  In a short time I'll tell you just what
+sort of a chap it was that did the trick."
+
+The boy got his camera out of the suitcase and took a picture of the
+spot on the machine frame where the print of human fingers showed.  The
+motorcycle owned by, or in charge of, Jimmie also showed a similar mark,
+and this, too, was photographed.
+
+This completed, Ned laid the films aside for a time while he made a
+circuit of the old house, walking slowly as if out for chest exercise,
+but really seeing every square inch of the earth's surface where he
+walked.  Once he dropped a pocketknife which he carried in his hand and
+stooped over to pick it up.
+
+The boys thought he was a long time in securing the knife, although it
+was plainly in sight.  When he stood up again and continued his circuit
+of the house there was a strange, inscrutable smile on his face.
+
+"What is it?" asked Jack, the instant Ned entered the house.
+
+"We've been blind and deaf since we have boon here," Ned answered.
+"Hostile influences have been operating all around us.  Now," he
+continued, as Frank opened his lips to ask a question, "we'll see what
+sort of a tale the camera has to tell."
+
+As he looked at the films his face hardened and his eyes snapped.  In a
+moment he put the telltale sheets away.
+
+"European fingerprints," he said, quietly, "and European footprints out
+there.  It is not Chinamen that we have to look out for."
+
+"What the Old Harry--"
+
+Jimmie checked himself as a figure darkened the doorway.  Ned stepped
+forward to greet the newcomer.
+
+The visitor was a youngish man with black hair, growing well down on a
+narrow forehead, small black eyes, a straight-lipped mouth, and hard
+lines about his deep-set eyes.  His manner and carriage was that of a
+man trained to military service.
+
+"You are Mr. Nestor?" he asked, extending his hand as Ned approached
+him. "I have come a long distance to meet you," he added, before Ned
+could answer the question.
+
+"From Washington?" asked Ned.
+
+The visitor nodded; glanced sharply about the apartment, where the
+motorcycles were still lying, and then squatted on one of the burlap
+bags. Jimmie shook his fist behind the newcomer's back.  It was evident
+that the boy did not like his appearance.
+
+"I am Lieutenant Rae, of the Secret Service," he said, in a moment.  "I
+have been delayed on my way here.  You were about to start on without
+your final instructions?" he asked, lifting a pair of eyebrows which
+seemed to make his little black eyes smaller and more inscrutable than
+ever.
+
+Ned looked at the man, now lolling back on the burlap, and for a moment
+made no reply.  Then he lied deliberately--in the interest of Uncle Sam
+and human life, as he afterwards explained!
+
+"No," he said, "we were merely overhauling the machines.  We are in no
+haste to be away."
+
+"I see," grinned the other.  "You are taking life easily?  Well, that is
+not so bad.  However, you are to start on your journey early to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"I shall be ready," Ned replied.  "You have just landed?"
+
+For just a second Lieutenant Rae's eyes sought the ground, then he
+lifted them boldly.  Ned was watching his every movement.
+
+"No," he said, then, "I came in three days ago, but I was obliged to
+await the movements of others before reporting to you."
+
+Jimmie caught Frank by the arm and drew him out of the house.  Out in
+the deserted garden--which was only a yard or two of hard-packed earth--
+he whispered:
+
+"That feller's a liar!"
+
+"What makes you think so?" Frank asked.
+
+"He's no Englishman," Jimmie insisted.  "He's a Jap.  You bet your last
+round iron man that's the truth.  Now, what do you think he's doin'
+here?"
+
+"Well," Frank replied, "I think you are right.  He's not an Englishman.
+The nerve of him to put that up to us!"
+
+"Perhaps he's the gazabo that monkeyed with our machines," suggested
+Jimmie.  "Wish I'd 'a' caught him at it!"
+
+"But Ned says that was an European," Frank said.
+
+"Then they're thick around us," Jimmie went on, "and we're up to our
+necks in trouble.  I wonder what instructions this Rae person will give
+Ned?"
+
+"Suppose we go inside and see," Frank answered.
+
+When the lads reached the interior of the house again Ned and Rae were
+bending over a road map of the country between Taku and Peking.  The
+visitor was indicating a route with his pencil.
+
+"Very well," Ned said, as if fully convinced of the honesty of the
+other, "now about the private orders.  You understand, of course, that I
+know little concerning the work cut out for me."
+
+"You are to receive final instructions at Peking."
+
+Ned smiled, but there was something about the smile which told the boys
+that he was of their way of thinking.
+
+"He's on!" Jimmie whispered in Frank's ear.
+
+"You bet he is," was the reply.
+
+"I'll come here in the morning," the visitor said, looking at his watch,
+"and go out with you.  The chances are that we'll have to make a quick
+run. Machines in good order?" with a glance at the motorcycles lying
+against the wall.
+
+"We haven't as yet looked them over carefully," Ned lied again, "but
+presume they are in good shape.  As a matter of fact," he continued,
+hardly able to suppress a smile as Jimmie looked reprovingly at him, "as
+a matter of fact, we know little about the machines.  This is new
+business for us."
+
+Lieutenant Rae bowed himself out of the door, and the boys gathered in
+an inner room to discuss the situation.
+
+"We may as well face the truth," Ned said, calmly.  "The man who was to
+meet us here has fallen into the hands of our enemies.  We are alone in
+China without instructions and surrounded by foes.  Now, what shall we
+do? We may be able to reach the water front and get off to one of the
+British ships in sight."
+
+"And go back?" demanded Jimmie. "Not for me!  I'm goin' to stay an' see
+this thing out."
+
+"That's me!" Frank said, and Jack echoed his words.
+
+"Well, then," Ned went on, with a smile of satisfaction at the attitude
+of the lads, "if we are going on, we've got to get to Peking without
+delay. I'll tell you what I think.  The conspirators are aware that we
+are trying to run them down.  If they can stop us before we fully
+identify them, their part in the plot against Uncle Sam will never be
+known."  Rest assured, then, that they will stop us if they can."
+
+"Then it's us for the road to-night!" said Jimmie.  "That is fine."
+
+In referring to conspirators, Ned indicated the men who had been
+involved in a plot to get the United States into trouble with a foreign
+government over a shipment of gold to China.  This shipment had gone to
+the bottom of the Pacific.
+
+It had been claimed that the gold shipment, which was marked for the
+Chinese government, had really been intended for the revolutionary
+party, now becoming very strong.  It was now insisted that the
+revolutionists had been posted as to the shipment, and that it was on
+the books for them to seize it the moment it left the protection of the
+American flag.
+
+These claims having been made, and believed, in the state department of
+a foreign government, none too friendly to the government of the United
+States.  A ship had been sent out to watch the transfer of the gold.  At
+least, that was what had been claimed, but this ship, so sent out, had,
+by an "accident," rammed and sunk the treasure boat.  If the Chinese
+government did not get the gold, neither did the leaders of the
+revolutionary party.
+
+It had been claimed at Washington that the whole thing was a plot to
+discredit the United States government in the eyes of the nations of
+Europe, and Ned Nestor and his chums had been sent out to search the
+wreck for papers which would disprove the statements made.  The papers
+had been secured.
+
+The point now was to connect the foreign statesmen who had burned their
+fingers in the plot with the affair.  Ned knew that the papers would
+establish the falsity of the charges, but he wanted to place the blame
+for the whole matter where it belonged.  He wanted to track the man who
+had conferred with known conspirators back to his home.  He wanted to be
+able to point out the treacherous government which had so sought to
+belittle the United States in the eyes of the world.
+
+The boy had no doubt that this was actually the mission upon which he
+had been sent when ordered by the Secret Service department to report at
+Taku and there await instructions before proceeding to Peking.  He did
+not understand why he had been instructed to make the trip to Peking on
+a motorcycle when there were easier ways, but he was quick to obey
+orders. Later on he learned just why this order had been given.
+
+"Yes," Ned replied to Jimmie's remark, "I think we may as well set out
+for Peking to-night.  If we wait until morning, we may not be at liberty
+to start out."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Jack.
+
+"Study it out," smiled Ned, "and you may be able to find an answer."
+
+While the boy was speaking, he bent over and looked keenly at a
+footprint on the earthen floor of the room.  It was not such a print as
+the foot-covering of a Chinese man would leave.  It had been made by the
+long heel of an European shoe.
+
+When Ned looked closer, he saw that the ground was stained a deep red,
+that there were dark crimson spots on the window casing.  Then he saw
+that a struggle must have taken place in the room, for the few things it
+held were in disorder.
+
+"Boys," he said, "perhaps our Secret Service man got here before we
+did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A SHOE AND A SURPRISE
+
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Frank.  "If he had reached the old
+house first, he would have waited here for us, wouldn't he?"
+
+"Look what's here," Ned replied.  "There has been a fight in the room.
+The combatants fought from the inner wall to the window, then a knife
+was used. These stains are by no means fresh, but they tell the story.
+And to think that we've been here all these days and never found them!"
+
+"Well," Frank hastened to say, "we weren't suspicious; and, then, we had
+no occasion to visit this room."
+
+"We should have been on our guard," Ned replied, "but there is no help
+for it now.  This discovery may block our going on to Peking to-night."
+
+"I don't see why," Jack said, in a disappointed tone.
+
+"If the man who was wounded here and carried out of the window," Ned
+replied, "is really the messenger we are waiting for, we ought not to go
+away and leave him in the hands of the enemy.  It may not be the one I
+fear it is, but we ought to find out about that."
+
+"It might have been only natives fighting," urged Jack.
+
+"Of course," Ned insisted, "but we ought not to leave if there is any
+possibility of our friend being in trouble.  Besides, Jack," he went on,
+"a native fight here would hardly be umpired by a man wearing European
+shoes! Here are the tracks, and I found others like them on the ground
+outside not long ago.  We may as well go out now and try to follow
+them."
+
+Accompanied by Jimmie, Ned went out and made a closer examination.  The
+tracks crossed the yard and ended at the street in the rear of the old
+house.
+
+"Now," Ned said, as he stepped out on the beaten course of the unpaved
+street, "we shall have to take chances.  The trail has disappeared, and
+we can only depend on our enemies for guidance."
+
+"That's fine!" said Jimmie.  "We may as well go back!"
+
+Ned pointed to a little group of Chinamen standing not far away, at the
+corner of a street lined with miserable huts.
+
+"We'll walk about here," he said, "and if we get somewhere near any
+point of information to us or danger to the others, I have a notion that
+that nest of Celestials will begin to buzz."
+
+Jimmie laughed and the two passed on, merely looking in the direction of
+the group as they passed it.  They moved on down the street on the
+opposite side.  The Chinamen did not move.
+
+When they turned back, however, on the other side of the thoroughfare
+and stopped, on speculation, for an instant before a hut somewhat larger
+and more dilapidated than the others, a pair of the watchers suddenly
+detached themselves from the group and hastened away in opposite
+directions.  Two more strolled toward the boys.
+
+"What next?" asked Jimmie, in a whisper.
+
+"Seems to me that our halting here indicates that there may be something
+doing in this house," Ned replied.  "Suppose we go in and ask some
+ordinary question?"
+
+"An' get kicked out!" grunted Jimmie.
+
+"That will be all right, so long as they let us out at all," Ned replied
+with a smile.  "I just want to know why our stopping here excited the
+Chinks who were watching us."
+
+As Ned turned toward the house the little fellow caught him by the
+sleeve and held him back.
+
+"You look out," he said, "there's a snake in there, that black-eyed
+snake who claimed to be Lieutenant Rae!  Do you want him to know that we
+are wise to his game?"
+
+Ned turned and started away from the house, but there came a call from
+the structure, and the next instant two men were running out to greet
+him. More by gestures than by words they informed the boys that there
+was a man in the house wished to see them.
+
+In a moment they stood facing the man who had called himself Lieutenant
+Rae.  He advanced to meet them and pointed to chairs as they entered the
+room.
+
+"Out for a walk?" he asked, with a smile.
+
+Ned nodded and Jimmie grinned.
+
+"The owner of this house," Rae went on, "is an old friend of mine.  We
+met first, years ago, in San Francisco.  I'm staying here while in the
+town. By the way, I was about to visit your quarters."
+
+"Come along," Ned said.  "We must be getting back."
+
+Rae left the room, saying that he would bring a raincoat, and Jimmie
+pointed to a rear apartment where an old Chinaman with a long, sinister
+cicatrice on his left cheek was bending over a table.
+
+"That's the Chink who brings our grub," he said.  "What is this Rae
+person doing here?  I don't eat no more grub that Chink brings."
+
+Ned made no reply, for a swinging closet door attracted his attention at
+that moment.  Inside the narrow closet, on the rough floor, lay a pair
+of European shoes.  Ned slipped forward and seized one.  When Rae
+returned it was hidden in a capacious pocket.
+
+"What is it?" whispered Jimmie.
+
+"If I'm not much mistaken," was the reply, "it is the shoe that made the
+tracks we have been following."
+
+"Then this Rae person didn't always enter the old house where we are
+stopping by the front way," commented Jimmie.  "Gee," he added, "I'll
+bet he umpired that fight, and the man the Chinks carried off is in this
+house now."
+
+There was no more opportunity for conversation between the two boys at
+that time, for Rae stood watching them closely, a sneering smile on his
+face. Ned turned toward the door.
+
+"Why venture out in the storm?" asked Rae.  "Surely, there is no need of
+haste.  Your friends will not lose themselves during your absence."
+
+"You were ready to go, a moment ago," Ned said.
+
+"It is the storm," the other observed, with a shrug of the shoulders.
+"It is increasing in violence every moment."
+
+Glancing into the rear room, Ned saw the old Chinaman leave his work and
+pass through a door to the west.  The boy thought he recognized a
+significant signal as the fellow disappeared,
+
+The lads never knew exactly how it all occurred.  They only knew at the
+time that there was a quick rush, a flash of weapons, a desperate
+struggle, then momentary unconsciousness.
+
+They decided afterwards that their enemies had rushed upon them from
+every direction, and that the sneering face of Rae had gloated over
+their capture.
+
+"Don't injure them," Rae ordered, as ropes were knotted about the wrists
+and ankles of the prisoners.  "I'll go out now and see that the two
+Black Bears," with a double sneer in his voice, "are taken into camp in
+short order.  Bad climate, this, for school boys who imitate wild
+animals," he added, with a malicious smile.  "A bad climate."
+
+"You're all right!" Jimmie called out, as Rae paused in the doorway for
+an instant.  "You're all right!  But let me give you a pointer.  You
+keep the Bears and Wolves you get in strong cages!  If they get out,
+they'll eat you up!"
+
+"Oh! I'll pull their fangs!" laughed the other, and then he was gone.
+
+"This China seems to be a nice country," Jimmie said, turning to Ned.
+"Some people would break our crusts in instead of tyin' us up."
+
+"I rather think," Ned replied, "that they have planned to do that a
+little later on.  We ought never to have taken such chances."
+
+"You can't have a chicken pie," grinned Jimmie, "unless some one kills a
+chicken!  No more can you find out what's goin' on by sittin' down in an
+old house an' waitin' for someone to bring you the news in a New York
+newspaper!  We had to keep cases on this chap, didn't we?"
+
+"I think you would talk slang if you were drowning," Ned smiled.
+"Anyway," he added, "we've caused Rae, if that is his name, to show his
+hand.  That is something."
+
+"If we never get away," laughed Jimmie, "we can leave the information to
+our friends in a will!  I wonder if this gazabo will get Frank and
+Jack?"
+
+"Possibly," Ned answered.
+
+"They seem to be puttin' most all the Americans in China out of
+circulation!" said the little fellow.  "Wonder if that old gear-face
+thinks he can guard us an' sleep, too?  Say, you watch your chance, Ned,
+an' I'll roll over and geezle him an' you get out of the house.  Roll
+out, tumble out, any way to get out!  There," with a sigh of
+disappointment, "there's another Chink in the game.  Listen to what they
+are saying!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TWO BLACK BEARS IN TROUBLE
+
+
+Jack and Frank sat long by the window, waiting for Ned and Jimmie to
+return.  The doors of the adjoining rooms were wide open, so they had a
+full view of the lower floor.
+
+There were windows, unglazed like that which looked out on the Gulf of
+Pechili, too, and the lads could see for some distance along the street
+which ran parallel with the one upon which the miserable old structure
+faced.
+
+Presently a mist crept over the sky, and black clouds rolled in from the
+threatening canopy over the gulf.  There was evidently a storm brewing,
+and, besides, the night was coming on.
+
+In spite of the fact that they had a good view all about them, so far as
+the house and its immediate vicinity was concerned, both boys felt that
+almost indescribable sensation which one experiences when being observed
+from behind by keen and magnetic eyes.  They were not exactly afraid,
+but they had premonitions of approaching trouble.
+
+"I wonder what's keeping Ned?" Jack asked.  "Hope he hasn't gotten into
+trouble."
+
+"Oh, he'll look out for that!"
+
+"Of course!  Ned's no slouch!"
+
+While the boys cheered themselves with such remarks as these, the rooms
+grew darker and the black clouds from off the gulf dropped nearer.
+
+"What an ungodly country!" Jack exclaimed.  "I feel as if I were
+surrounded by snakes, and all kinds of reptiles.  How would you like to
+take a New York special, just now?"
+
+"I'm not yet seared of the job we are on," Frank replied, "but I'd like
+a half decent show of getting out alive.  I feel like we were in a hole
+in the ground, with all manner of creeping things about us.  The very
+air seems to be impregnated with treachery and cunning."
+
+"That's the breath of the Orient," smiled Jack, not inclined to continue
+in the vein in which the conversation had started.
+
+"I don't know why the breath of the Orient should differ from the breath
+of the Occident," replied Frank, well pleased at the change of subject.
+"It wouldn't, if the natives of the far East would put bathtubs in their
+houses and garbage cans on the street comers."
+
+"Well, there certainly is an odor about the East," grinned Jack.
+"Perhaps it is the hot weather."
+
+"Hot weather has nothing to do with the sanitary conditions of this part
+of the world," Frank went on.  "Peking is in the latitude of
+Philadelphia, or New York.  You wouldn't think so to hear people talk
+about the Orient back home, but you'll change your mind if you don't get
+out of this before winter sets in."
+
+"Somehow I never associated cold weather with the East," Jack said.
+
+"Why," Frank continued, "this river freezes over about the middle of
+December and they run sledges on the ice until the middle of March.  In
+summer it is often 106 above zero, while in the winter it drops to about
+6 degrees below.  If the natives were half civilized, you might get the
+idea that you were in Ohio, because of the fields of corn."
+
+"We don't know much about China, do we?" mused Jack.
+
+This was Frank's opportunity.  Before reaching the coast he had spent
+many hours studying up on the history of the strange land he was about
+to visit. His father was owner and editor of one of the most powerful
+newspapers in New York City, and the boy had had plenty of inspiration
+for historical research from the time he was old enough to read.  His
+father's library had supplied him with all the facilities necessary to
+the carrying out of his inclination, and his travels with the Boy Scouts
+had brought him into contact with many of the countries whole history he
+had studied so enthusiastically.
+
+Now he saw an opportunity of talking China to Jack, and started in at
+once. Jack listened eagerly, for, while interested in the past of the
+strange land, he was too busy a young man to spend much time in any
+library.  His father was one of the leading corporation lawyers in New
+York, but the boy's inclinations pointed to mining as a future
+profession--when he had investigated the wilds of the world!
+
+"We don't know much about China," Frank began, "because for centuries
+China has shunned what we call civilization.  This is said to be the
+most ancient and populous nation in the world, although it seems to me
+that history goes back farther on the banks of the Nile and the
+Euphrates than on the western shore of the Yellow Sea.
+
+"The authentic history of China goes back 2207 years before the birth of
+Christ, while Egyptian records and the data found along the Euphrates
+and the Tigris point to a much older organization of men into
+communities. However, it is said by some that Fuh-hi founded the Chinese
+empire eight hundred years before the date given, when Yu the Great
+began to make history.
+
+"One reason why the story of China is so short, comparatively, is that
+Ching Wang, the old fellow who caused the Chinese wall to be built to
+keep out the Tartars, ordered all books and records previous to his time
+to be destroyed.  This was to dispose of the stories of wars, in which
+China, before his time, was always engaged.
+
+"China has always been at war with the Mongolians.  In 1300 A.D.,
+Genghis Khan raised a Mongolian army and captured Peking.  Later, one
+Kublai Khan overthrew the Sung dynasty and established a Mongolian
+empire.  The members of the defeated royal family drowned themselves in
+the river at Canton. This Mongolian dynasty lasted until the middle of
+the fourteenth century, when it was overthrown.
+
+"The Chinese governed their own land, then, until 1644, just before
+which time the emperor was murdered by native sons.  Then the Tartars
+got to Peking, in spite of the Great Wall, and established the dynasty
+now on the throne.
+
+"One cause of the growing revolt in China is the fact that the Tartars
+are still in power.  But the Tartars who were warlike enough when China
+lay before them for conquest quieted down as soon as Sun-chi took the
+throne. Peace has been the rule since then.
+
+"It seem strange, but it is true, that China has not progressed, has not
+been given the respect conferred on other nations, because she would
+not, or could not fight.  Talk about peace all you like, but it is the
+fighters that win whether in private or national life.
+
+"China has been kicked about by all the nations of the world, large and
+powerful as she is, because it was understood that she could be insulted
+with impunity.  England put the opium curse on her against only feeble
+resistance.  She has stood for peace, not conquest, and had been treated
+condescendingly, like a big booby of a boy at school who is afraid of
+lads half his size.  The secret organization now forming in this country
+may overthrow the Manchu dynasty, but if it does it will build a Chinese
+republic and not a new Chinese empire.
+
+"It is claimed by some that the United States is favoring this new
+Chinese party of liberty, that the gold recently lost in the Pacific was
+our contribution to the cause--by the roundabout way we have heard so
+much about--and that the Washington government will be the first to
+recognize the new republic.
+
+"I don't know whether all this is true or not, but father says it is,
+and he ought to know.  Anyhow, there will be plenty of fighting before
+the present rulers release their grip on the royal treasury.  It may be
+that our mission here is to find out something more about this new
+movement.
+
+"You see," he added, "if our government is for the new movement, the
+nation which rammed the gold ship, which set the conspirators at work,
+which sent a great statesman, as we believe, to negotiate with the
+conspirators, is against it, and Uncle Sam possibly wants to know what
+power it is that is likely to assist the present Emperor of China in
+holding his job.  If Ned can get the proof he needs to establish what he
+already knows and suspects, he will do a good piece of work."
+
+"I wish he would return," Jack said, with an apprehensive look about the
+room.  'I don't see what is keeping him."
+
+"Here he comes, now!" Frank cried, "or it may be Jimmie," he added,
+"blundering through the window."
+
+Both boys arose and hastened to the door of the room from which the
+sounds of approach had been heard.  The apartment was dark and still,
+save for the whipping of the wind at the open casement.  While the boys
+stood there, expecting every instant to hear the voice of one of their
+chums, rain began to fall, and a sharp zigzag of lightning cut across
+the sky.
+
+By this natural searchlight the lads saw a figure crouching just under
+the window.  The illumination lasted for an instant only, and it was not
+possible for them to see whether the visitor was dressed in native or
+European costume.  His face was not in sight, and only the barest
+outlines of his figure were discernible.
+
+Jack was for rushing forward on a tour of inspection, but Frank took a
+firm grip on his friend's arm and held him back.  He not only prevented
+him springing upon the crouching figure, but drew him away from the open
+door-way, believing that both had been observed by the intruder.
+
+"We ought to get him!" Jack panted, in a whisper.  "We ought to find out
+if he is one of our enemies or only a common thief."
+
+"Much good it would do to capture him!" Frank whispered back.  "We
+couldn't force the truth out of him, and the things they call courts of
+justice here would soon be after us."
+
+"Then what can we do?" demanded Jack.
+
+Frank did not reply, for footsteps, now plainly heard above the sweep of
+the wind and rain, were approaching the room where the boys were
+standing, with automatic revolvers in their hands.
+
+"He's got his nerve!" Jack said.  "Why doesn't he come into the place
+with a brass band?  Shall we sneak out of a window, or remain here and
+find out what he wants?"
+
+"I'm for getting out!"
+
+Frank leaped from the window as he spoke, and in a second Jack came
+piling out on top of him.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Frank whispered.  "Why don't you knock a fellow over?"
+
+"What are you trying to do?" demanded Jack.
+
+"Not a thing," was the reply.  "Say, but we'll get a nice soak if we
+remain here."
+
+"You'll get a nice soak on the coco, if you don't stop pulling me
+around," came back from Jack.
+
+"Then keep your hands off me!" Frank responded.
+
+But in a moment both boys knew that they were not struggling with each
+other.  A brilliant flash of lightning cut the sky, and by its light
+they saw each other lying on the ground under the window, each with a
+couple of men in native costume perched on top.
+
+Jack fired, but the pressure on his back was not lessened.  Instead, he
+felt a snaky hand slip down his arm, seize his fingers and twist the gun
+away.
+
+"Frank!" he called out.  "Frank!  Shoot at the heathens!  I missed, and
+one of them has my gun."
+
+Frank obeyed the suggestion, and three reports were heard.  Jack, though
+not naturally bloodthirsty, was overjoyed at the sound of a groan which
+came from the spot where Frank lay.
+
+"Don't try that again, son!"
+
+"That will be enough!"
+
+Both sentences were spoken in English.  Then the boys were carried
+bodily into the house and sat down against a wall.  Then a lighted
+lantern was brought in, and the prisoners saw six sleepy-looking
+Chinamen grinning at them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A COLLECTION OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+"Well, what do you think of it?"
+
+The voice was that of an Englishman, and the words were spoken in the
+room, but the struggling prisoners could not discover where the person
+who uttered them stood.  It seemed to them that there were only the six
+sleepy-looking Chinamen and themselves in the apartment.
+
+Frank ceased his useless struggling with the rope which held both feet
+and hands in its strong coils, and glanced along the row of stupid
+faces.
+
+"What did you say?" he asked, hoping that the speaker would say
+something more and so locate himself.
+
+"How do you like it?"
+
+That was the same voice, and it was in that room, but, still, there were
+only the six Chinamen and Jack in sight.  Frank looked at his chum with
+a smile on his face.  In that moment he resolved to meet whatever Fate
+might have in store for him with a cheerful heart.  He had little doubt
+that both Ned and Jimmie had been caught in the trap into which Jack and
+himself had fallen.
+
+There was no knowing what the fate of himself and his friends would be,
+but whatever had been planned for them by their enemies, there would be
+no relief in sighs and pleas for pity.  They were alone in the land of
+mystery.  Owing to the necessity for secrecy regarding their movements,
+no one with whom they had been associated in the Secret Service work
+knew of their whereabouts, save only Lieutenant Scott, who had sent them
+on to Taku, and who had failed to keep his promises to them.
+
+And Lieutenant Scott?  Frank believed him dead or in the clutches of the
+conspirators.
+
+Otherwise, he would have kept his appointment at the old house on the
+water front.  The view ahead was not a long one, as the boy considered
+the matter, nor a smooth one, but he decided that nothing was to be
+gained by subserviency.
+
+"I like it!" was Jack's quick reply.  "Who is it that is doing the
+talking?"
+
+"One of the six in front of you," came the answer in English.
+
+Jack cast his eyes quickly along the row of faces, but failed to catch
+the movement of a lip, the twinkle of an eye.
+
+"You're a funny bloke," Jack went on.  "How much will you take for a
+month in vaudeville?"
+
+"He'd make a fine spirit medium," Frank cut in.  "Can you make the talk
+come from behind me?" he added, with a grin.
+
+"Of course I can!"
+
+Although the boys watched closely, there were no signs of motion in any
+one of the six yellow, foxy faces, still the words seemed to come from
+the wall directly back of Jack's head.
+
+"If I had you on the Bowery," Jack continued, "I'd give you a hundred a
+month.  Come on over and get busy in the little old United States!"
+
+"I think I'll wait until the boys bring in the other two wild animals,"
+replied the unknown speaker.  "I rather want to see the finish of you
+Wolves and Black Bears before I see the Bowery again."
+
+"You'll find more wild animals of our stripe on the Bowery than you will
+want to meet," Jack replied, "especially when it is known that you've
+been mixed up with Boy Scouts, to their harm, in China."
+
+"I'll take my chances on that," was the reply.  "You have been very
+successful, you wild beasts, in butting into the business of other
+people, and getting out again uninjured, but it is going to be different
+now. There are two black Bears and two Wolves that I know of who will
+never get back to New York again."
+
+"All right," Frank said.  "We've had fun enough out of the Secret
+Service work we have done to pay for whatever trouble we have now.  Ned
+will be along presently, and then you'll have another think coming."
+
+"Sure, he'll be along directly," was the reply.  "In fact, he's right
+here now!"
+
+But it was not Ned who was pushed, bound hand and foot, into the circle
+of light in the room.  The little fellow came near falling as he was
+thrust forward, but he regained his equilibrium, and turned around to
+face his tormentor.
+
+"You're a cheap skate!" he said.  "If  I had you on Chatham Square I'd
+change your face good and plenty!"
+
+Then he saw that he was speaking to empty air.  There was no one in the
+doorway.  The person who had brought him there and hustled him into the
+room had disappeared.
+
+"Now, what do you know about that?"
+
+Jimmie chuckled as he asked the question of the six silent figures
+ranged along the wall.  As yet his eyes had not fallen on the figures of
+Frank and Jack, farther back in the shadows.
+
+There was, of course, no answer to his question, and the boy leaned
+forward, a grin on his freckled face.
+
+"Say, but you're a bum lot!" he cried.  "Why don't you go back to the
+Pyramids and sleep for another thousand years?  There ain't no
+nourishment in sitting up there like a dime museum, for there's no one
+sellin' tickets at the door."
+
+"Look behind you!"
+
+That was the English voice again, seemingly out of the heavy air, or out
+of the storm outside.  Jimmie turned quickly and saw his chums nicely
+tied up.
+
+In a moment he turned back to the row of six, without even exchanging a
+look with his friends.
+
+"Who's doin' the talkin'," he asked.
+
+Frank and Jack were now too impatient to know what had become of their
+leader to delay longer.  The latter asked:
+
+"Where's Ned?"
+
+"Ask this lineup," Jimmie replied.  "I don't know.  Gee!  If I had a
+face like that man on the end, I'd sell it to the wild man of Borneo,
+its an improvement on anythin' he could get up.  Say, Old Socks!" he
+added, "where is Ned?"
+
+"Packed up, ready for delivery," was the reply.  "Say, how would you
+wild animals like to take a jaunt on your motorcycles to-night?  Nice
+cool night for a ride!  You might reach Poking by morning and report to
+the American ambassador!"
+
+"We'll get there in due time," Frank answered.
+
+"I've drawn the teeth of this collection of wild animals, at all
+events," said the voice.  "No more Wolves and Black Bears will be apt to
+come to China.  Such collections are not popular here."
+
+Jimmie dropped back to where his chums were seated.  Serious as the
+situation was, the boy could not restrain a smile as he threw himself
+down beside Frank.  The storm was still thundering outside, and splashes
+of rain now and then whirled in at the open casement.
+
+The lantern which illuminated the interior of the room showed only a
+round blotch against the darkness.  In this circle sat the six silent
+men, watchful but motionless.
+
+"It might be a scene in a play!" Jimmie exclaimed.
+
+Frank nodded and whispered:
+
+"Did they get Ned, too?"
+
+Jimmie nodded.  His face was grave in an instant.
+
+"Where is he?" Frank whispered.
+
+The little fellow shook his head.  Then the voice which seemed to come
+from nowhere was heard again:
+
+"You'll meet him in due time," it said.
+
+A long silence followed.  The lantern which gave out the light flickered
+in the wind and the beat of the rain increased in violence.  In all the
+adventurous lives of the Boy Scouts nothing so weird, so uncanny, as
+this had ever occurred.
+
+"Well," Jack said, more to break the strange silence than for any other
+purpose, "why don't you say something?"
+
+Then, through the clamor of the storm, came the sharp ring of steel.  It
+sounded to the listening boys like the purring of two swords directed
+against each other by strong hands.
+
+Instantly the light was extinguished, and the shuffling of feet told the
+captives that the watchful six were getting into upright positions.
+
+"Hello, the house!"
+
+The challenging call came from the street outside.
+
+"That's good, honest United States!" Jimmie whispered.  "Shall I risk an
+answer?"
+
+"You'll probably get a knife in your side if you do," Frank answered.
+"The Chinks are still in the room."
+
+"Show a light!"
+
+The voice was nearer than before, and the three boys lifted to their
+feet and moved toward the window, which was just above where they had
+been sitting.  Frank was about to throw himself out into the storm when
+a muscular hand seized him by the arm.
+
+"Nothing doing!" a voice said in his ear.
+
+"If you move again, or try to answer the call, that will be the last of
+one Black Bear.  Remain silent while I talk with your friends."
+
+"Our friends?" repeated Frank.
+
+"Certainly," was the reply--given with a chuckle.  "Your very good
+friends from the American ship in the harbor."
+
+There was torture in the words, in the fierce grip on the arm.  The
+promised assistance had arrived and the boys were powerless to make
+their perilous situation known!
+
+But a hopeful thought came to the brain of the boy as he was dragged
+away from the open window.  It was barely possible that Ned had escaped,
+that he knew of the peril his friends were in, and would arrive before
+the Americans were, by some treacherous falsehood, sent away.
+
+"Nestor!" cried the voice outside.  "Are you there?  Show a light."
+
+There was a rustle in the room, then black silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON
+
+
+"Go around to the front and come in," a voice said--a voice from the
+room where the boys were.  "I've just got here, and am trying to find a
+light."
+
+There was a rattle of arms outside, then the heavy tread of men still
+making some pretense, even in the darkness and the rain, of moving in
+marching order.  The men who had come to the assistance of the Boy
+Scouts were preparing to enter the house.
+
+How would they be received?  This was the question uppermost in the
+minds of all the boys as they waited.
+
+Would they be greeted with treacherous words, or with a murderous
+fusillade of bullets and knives stabbing in the darkness?  It would seem
+that the Chinamen would hardly dare attack an American military squad,
+yet these men were outlaws, and there was no knowing what they might do.
+
+The lads heard the marines, as they supposed the newcomers to be, pass
+around an angle of the old house and stand for an instant talking in the
+doorway to which they had been directed by the voice of the man on the
+inside.  Frank was preparing to set up a cry of warning, let the
+consequences be what they might, when the rattle of arms told him that
+the marines had surrounded the house, and that every door and window was
+guarded!  The men who were guarding the boys evidently knew what was
+taking place, for they released their clutches on the lads and moved
+away.
+
+Next came a struggle at the window, and then a strong electric light
+swept into the room.  Jimmie jumped forward and bumped into Ned, who was
+clambering over the decayed window sill.
+
+There were several shots exchanged on the outside, followed by shouts of
+both rage and pain, then three men in the uniform of the United States
+marine service entered the room.  One of them picked up Ned's
+searchlight, which had fallen to the floor when Jimmie bunted its owner,
+and turned its rays on the mix-up under the window.
+
+There was a flutter of arms and legs, as Frank and Jack, half choking
+with laughter at the manner in which tragedy had so suddenly and
+unexpectedly been changed into comedy, pulled Ned and Jimmie apart.
+Jimmie sat up, wrinkling his nose until one would think it never would
+smooth out again, and gazed at Ned with provoking grin.
+
+"Gee!" he cried.  "I thought I was mixing it with six Chinks!  Wonder
+you wouldn't knock before entering a private room!"
+
+"I did knock," laughed Ned, rising from the floor and taking the
+flashlight.
+
+"Yes, you knocked me down," grunted Jimmie.
+
+The three marines, standing in the middle of the room with amused faces,
+regarded the four boys curiously for a moment and then moved out of
+range of the window.  Also Ned was asked to shut off the light.
+
+"We're not out of it yet," one of them said.  "Our men chased the Yellow
+Faces into a bad part of town, and they are likely to be chased back,
+not by a few, but by a mob!  These Chinks like Americans about as much
+as brook trout love the desert."
+
+"Perhaps I'd better go out an' see what's comin' off," suggested the
+little fellow.
+
+"You'll only get captured again," Jack suggested, provokingly.
+
+"I ain't got nothin' on you in getting tied up with ropes," Jimmie
+retorted.  "You looked like one of these mummy things when the light was
+turned on."
+
+The officer in charge of the marines motioned to Jimmie to remain where
+he was, but the order came too late.  Having been relieved of his bonds
+by Ned's quick fingers, he fairly dived out of the window into the
+darkness.
+
+"Now there'll be trouble catching him again," complained the officer.
+"If he doesn't get a hole bored through him, we'll have to hunt the town
+over to get him out of the Chinks' hands.  Why can't you boys behave
+yourselves?"
+
+"Ruh!" Jack retorted, annoyed at the tone of superiority adopted by the
+officer.  "I guess we've been doing pretty well, thank you!  I reckon
+you fellows must have followed off a cow path!  We've been waiting here
+for you long enough to walk to Peking on our hands!"
+
+"That's the fact!" the officer replied, speaking in a whisper in the
+darkness.  "We were the first ones to fall into the snares set by the
+Chinks.  Only for Ned, we would still be waiting for you in a house
+something like this one, in a distant part of the town.  How the boy
+found us I can't make out, but find us he did."
+
+"What are you going to do about that runaway kid?" asked Frank of Ned.
+"Shall I go get him?"
+
+It was not necessary for Ned to reply to the question, for at that
+moment a figure came tumbling through the window and a voice recognized
+as that of the little fellow cried out:
+
+"Gee!" he said, feeling about in the darkness, "what do you think of my
+ruinnin' into a sea soldier an' getting chucked through the hole the
+carpenter left?"
+
+"If you boy will get ready now," a voice said, "we'll be on, our way
+toward Peking."
+
+"How many of the Chinks did you catch?" asked Ned.
+
+"Not a blooming one," was the disgusted reply.  "They ran away like
+water leaking into the ground."
+
+"If you'd only let me alone," wailed Jimmie,  "I'd have got one.  I want
+to soak the man that tied me up."
+
+The marines, a full dozen of them, now gathered in the old house and all
+made ready for departure.  Directly a motorcycle for every man was
+wheeled up to the door.
+
+"We have been practicing riding while waiting for you," the officer in
+charge explained, "and the fellows think they can go some!"
+
+"It is a wild night for such a ride," Frank suggested.
+
+"Couldn't have been better for our purpose," said the officer.
+
+"Do you know why we are going on motorcycles?" asked Ned.
+
+"I think I do," was the reply.
+
+"Why don't you out with it, then?" asked Jack.
+
+"You'll learn of the reason soon enough!" replied the other.  "Before we
+go to Peking you may understand why you are going with a flying squadron
+of Uncle Sam's men!"
+
+"Who directed you to the house where I found you?" asked Ned.
+
+"A chap who called himself Lieutenant Rae," was the reply.
+
+"Japanese-lookin' chap?" asked Jimmie.
+
+"That's the fellow."
+
+"There's one more question," Ned went on.  "Are all the men you took
+from the ship with you?"
+
+"Every one of my men is here," answered the officer, "but there was a
+fellow, a friend of yours, with us at first who is not with us now.
+Queer chap he was, too!  German, I think, and a master at tangling up
+the United States language.  He came on board the ship, and managed to
+get off with us when we left.  In two days he disappeared."
+
+"That was Hans!" cried Jack.
+
+"Who's Hans?"
+
+"A German Boy Scout we picked up on an island.  A member of the Owl
+Patrol, of Philadelphia, he said.  We left him on the submarine."
+
+"Well, he asked after you boys, and looked disappointed when we did not
+find you, owing to the misleading statements of that fraud, Rae.  He
+left us without a word of explanation, and is probably looking for you.
+Did he know where you were going?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Ned, "I told him we were going to Peking by way of
+Tientsin.  I should not have done that."
+
+"Oh, it can do no harm, and may be for your benefit.  If the lad was not
+killed by the Chinks, he is doubtless on his way to Peking."
+
+"Then you think he knew there was something wrong because we did not
+meet you?" asked Ned.
+
+"Yes; he acted queerly."
+
+"There are evidences of a struggle in this house," Ned went on, "and we
+thought the messenger we were waiting for had been attacked, but it may
+have been Hans after all.  I hope he is not in serious trouble."
+
+"I am the only messenger sent to you," the officer said, "so, as you
+say, it might have been the German who was attacked, though no one knows
+how he ever found this house, or why, when attacked, he didn't make
+himself heard."
+
+The rain was now falling heavily, and it was decided to remain under
+shelter for a time, so the flashlight was brought into use again.
+
+"If your men can keep up with us," Jack said to the officer, "we can get
+to Peking in six hours, so there is no need of hurrying."
+
+"If you get to Peking in six weeks you'll be doing well," laughed the
+officer.
+
+"What do you mean by that? Demanded Ned, who was anxious for a start.
+
+"I can't tell you," was the answer.  "But it was never believed you
+could make a quick jump to the capital city.  There maybe things to do
+on the way there.  That is why you have to escort.  I don't like this
+diplomacy game, but have to obey orders."
+
+"What I want to know," Jimmie broke in, "is how Ned got away.  They had
+him tied up plenty last time I saw him.  And, after he got away, how did
+he happen to blunder into the company of our escort?  China is a land of
+mystery, all right!"
+
+"They didn't watch me closely," Ned replied, modestly, "after they took
+you away, and when I did get out of the house I had only to follow one
+of my captors.  Believing that I was safely tied, my captors talked a
+lot about having the marines waiting in the wrong house while they
+disposed of the Boy Scouts!"
+
+"This man Rae?" asked the officer.  "Was he there with your captors?
+That's one of the men we must take."
+
+"Oh, he is the man that caused us to be taken," Jimmie cut in.  "I'd
+like to break his crust for him.  I'm gettin' sick of bein' tied up in
+every case, like the hero in a Bowery play!"
+
+"Was there a Chink who spoke English like a native?" asked Jack.
+
+"There were two."
+
+"Dressed in native costume?"
+
+"Yes, and looking bored and weary."
+
+"Then they're the men that sat with the others in a grinning row up
+against the wall," Frank exclaimed.  "Do you think they are Chinamen?"
+
+"Disguised Englishmen," Ned replied.
+
+"That's my notion," Frank went on.  "Oh, we'll get this all ironed out
+directly!  If we could find Hans we might start off with a thorough
+understanding of how the game was carried out here."
+
+The rain now slacked a little, and here and there stars showed through
+masses of hurrying clouds.  The boys led their steel horses to the door
+and prepared to mount.
+
+"Plenty of mud," Jack suggested.
+
+In the little pause caused by the marines getting out their machines a
+dull, monotonous sound came to the ears of the party.  It was such a
+sound as the Boy Scouts had heard on the rivers of South America, when
+the advance of their motor-boat was blocked, and hundreds of savages
+were peering out of the thickets.
+
+"What is it?" asked Jack.
+
+"Sounds like the roaring of a mob," answered the officer.  "You
+understand that a word will stir the natives to arms against foreigners.
+As there is no knowing what this fake Lieutenant Rae and the men we
+drove away from this house may have said to the Chinks, we may as well
+be moving.  It may be safer out on the road!"
+
+"I should say so!" exclaimed Jack.  "We can't fight a whole nation, can
+we? Look there!  That was a rocket, and means trouble."
+
+The distant murmur was fast growing into a roar, and rockets were
+flecking the clouds with their green, red, and blue lights.  Shadowy
+figures began to show in the darkness, and a group was seen ahead, in
+the street which led away toward Peking.
+
+"More dangerous than wild beasts!" exclaimed the officer.  "Be careful
+to keep together and in the middle of the road, when we get under way,
+for if one of us gets pulled down there's an end of all things for him!"
+
+"It is too bad we can't stay long enough to find Hans," Ned said.
+
+"If we remain here five minutes longer," the officer replied, "someone
+will have to come and find us.  Are you ready?"
+
+All were ready, and the next moment sixteen motorcycles shot out into
+the street and headed northwest for Tientsin, which city lay in the
+direct path to Peking.  The group in the road ahead parted sullenly as
+the squadron pressed on its outer circle and the company passed through
+without mishap.
+
+That was as wild a ride as any living being ever engaged in.  Nothing
+but the speed of the motorcycles saved the boys, for enemies sprung up
+all along the way.  Some mysterious system of signaling ahead seemed to
+be in vogue there.
+
+The sky cleared presently.  The road was muddy, but the giant machines
+made good progress, especially through little towns, through the doors
+and windows of which curious eyes peered out on the silent company,
+marching, seemingly, to the music of the spark explosions.
+
+After a run of two hours the officer halted and dismounted.
+
+"Now," he said, "we've got a bit of work cut out for us here.  If we
+make it, we may go on in peace.  If we fail, all must keep together and
+take chances on speed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE MIDNIGHT CALL OF AN OWL
+
+
+Ned glanced about keenly as he left his seat on the machine and stood
+awaiting further instructions.  There was little rain in the air now,
+but it was still dark except for the faint reflection of a distant group
+of lights.
+
+"Where are we?" Ned asked.
+
+"Near Tientsin."
+
+"So soon?  Why, I thought we'd be a long time on the way."
+
+"I reckon you don't know how fast we have been traveling," said the
+officer.  "Fear led me to take risks.  I'll admit that."
+
+"I want to look through the city before I leave the country," Ned
+remarked.
+
+"You are standing now where the allied armies encamped in 1900," the
+officer went on.  "You doubtless recall the time the allied armies were
+sent to Peking to rescue the foreign ambassadors during the Boxer
+uprising? That was an exciting time."
+
+"Hardly," laughed Ned, "although I have read much about that march.  I
+must have been about eight years old at the time."
+
+"Well here is where the American brigade encamped on the night before
+the start for Peking was made.  At that time it was believed that the
+foreigners at Peking had all been murdered.  I was here with the boys in
+blue."
+
+"Then you ought to know the road to Peking."
+
+"I certainly do."
+
+"What are we halting here for?"
+
+"There is a dispatch from Washington due you here," was the reply.
+
+"Telegrams in China?"
+
+"Certainly.  Why, kid, this city has over a million of inhabitants, and
+thousands of the residents are foreigners.  Of course they have
+telegraph facilities."
+
+"But how am I to get it to-night?"
+
+To the east lay a great cornfield, to the west a broken common upon
+which were a few houses of the meaner sort.  The corn had been cut and
+was in the shock.  In the houses the lights were out.  But far over the
+poverty-stricken abodes of the poor shone the reflections of the high
+lights of the city.
+
+Tientsin is a squalid Oriental city, its native abodes being of the
+cheapest kind, but the foreign section is well built up and well
+lighted. These were the reflections, glancing down from a gentle slope,
+that the boys saw.
+
+The officer pointed to the north, indicating a low-roofed hut half
+hidden in the corn shocks.
+
+"We are to remain there," he said, "until you receive your instructions
+from Washington."
+
+"But why were they not given me before?" demanded Ned.
+
+"Because the man in charge of this matter for the Secret Service
+department doubted your ability to make the trip to Tientsin.  That is
+the truth of it.  If you had failed back there at Taku, I should have
+taken the message from the office and mailed it, unopened, back to
+Washington.  You have made good, so you get it yourself."
+
+"They never put me to such a test before," grumbled Ned.
+
+The officer turned, gave a short order to his men, and passed his
+machine over to one of them.
+
+"I am going into the city with Mr. Nestor," he said; "see that none of
+these youngsters gets away during my absence."
+
+"I'm goin' to get away right now," Jimmie exclaimed.  "I'm goin' with
+Ned to the city.  I guess I'm not visiting China to live in a cornfield.
+I want to see the wheels go round!"
+
+The officer glanced at Ned questioningly, while the little fellow made a
+face back.
+
+"Let him come along," Ned said.  "He'll come anyway, whether we give him
+permission or not.  How far must we walk?"
+
+"Walk?" repeated Jimmie.  "I'm goin' to take my motorcycle."
+
+"That may be a good idea," admitted the officer.  "I had not thought of
+that."
+
+"We may have to make a run for it, judging from the experiences we had
+at Taku," Ned suggested.
+
+"Nothing of the kind here," the other said.  "You are as safe in this
+city as you would be in New York, under the same conditions, of course.
+You know there are sections of New York which strangers do well to keep
+out of at night."
+
+So, mounting their cycles again, the three set off for the foreign
+section of Tientsin.  At first the streets were very bad, but in time
+they came to smoother running and good time was made.
+
+It was now approaching midnight, but the city, was still awake and
+stirring.  The streets were well filled with pedestrians, and many of
+the small shops were open.
+
+Naturally the three motorcycles, speeding through the streets of the
+ancient city, attracted no little attention.  Here and there little
+groups blocked the way for an instant, but on the whole fair progress
+was made.
+
+Jimmie, by no means as anxious as were his companions, enjoyed every
+moment of the dash.  He was thinking of the stories he would have to
+tell when he returned to the Bowery again!
+
+It is quite possible that the way would have been more difficult for the
+riders only for the uniform of the officer.  Foreigners are not given
+much consideration by the street crowds in China--especially by such
+crowds as enliven the thoroughfares at night--but, since the march of
+the allied armies to Peking, uniforms have been held in great awe.
+
+At last the telegraph office was reached, and Ned was glad to see that
+lights still burned within.  His night ride would at least prove of
+avail. He would receive instructions directly from Washington, and that
+would be more to the purpose than traveling along like a blind mole in
+the earth, receiving his information by bits from underlings in the
+Secret Service.
+
+Besides, the boy was wet and cold, for the night was growing more
+disagreeable every moment, and he would now have an opportunity to warm
+himself by a blaze such as foreigners ordinarily insist on in the cold
+months in China.
+
+The man at the desk bowed courteously as the three entered the office.
+He was evidently a native of China but seemed to have profited by a
+foreign education.
+
+When Ned gave his name and asked for a message, the operator, who
+appeared to be the sole employee there, coolly surveyed him critically
+from head to foot.  Then he turned questioning eyes to the marine.
+
+"It is all right," the officer said.  "This is the person brought here
+by the flying squadron."
+
+"A boy!" cried the operator.  "Only a boy!"
+
+"Aw, cut that out!" cried Jimmie, always ready to resent any seeming
+discourtesy to his chum.
+
+The operator scowled at the little fellow and turned to the officer with
+the remark that he should be obliged to consult with his superior.
+
+"All right," was the officer's reply.  "Only make haste."
+
+The operator entered a back room and presently returned with a boy who
+evidently served as messenger during the daytime.  After receiving
+whispered instructions, the lad passed out of the office, with a furtive
+glance over his shoulder at Jimmie.
+
+Then the operator went back to his desk, while the officer and Ned stood
+waiting.  There was no fire in the outer office, but a wave of warm air
+came from the rear room.
+
+"We have been riding in the rain," the officer said, seeing that they
+were not to be invited into the heated apartment.  "May we go back to
+the fire?"
+
+The operator scowled, but the uniform won the day, and the three were
+ushered into a small room where an American oil stove was sending forth
+a generous heat.  Then the grouchy operator slammed the door and left
+his guests to their own reflections.
+
+"Say," Jimmie whispered, in a moment, "I don't believe that chump is on
+the level!"
+
+"Well," Ned replied, "he's got to give me the dispatch.  He can't get
+out of doing that."
+
+"Perhaps he knows what the message contains," the officer suggested,
+"and is not inclined to deliver it."
+
+"I hardly think he knows what it contains," Ned answered, "for it is
+undoubtedly in cipher."
+
+"And you have the Secret Service code?" asked the officer, amazement
+showing on his face.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, they have a lot of confidence in you, then," said the other.
+
+At the end of half an hour a man said to be the assistant in charge of
+the station entered the room and eyed all three occupants keenly.  His
+glances were met frankly by Ned and the officer, but Jimmie could not
+resist an inclination to wrinkle his nose at him.
+
+"Which is Ned Nestor?" the man asked, addressing the officer.
+
+The marine pointed toward Ned.
+
+"Do you know him to be Ned Nestor?" was the next question, and Ned
+thought he felt a hostile spirit in the tone.
+
+"Certainly I do, else I would not be here with him."
+
+"This is important business of state," suggested the other, "and I have
+to be cautious."
+
+"Your conduct seems more like curiosity than caution," the officer
+declared.  "Have you the message with you?"
+
+"Yes, but I can't deliver it except in the presence of the manager."
+
+"Is it in the code of the Secret Service?" asked Ned.
+
+"It is in some code unknown to me."
+
+"If you don't deliver it in five minutes," declared the officer, "I
+shall call the American consul!"
+
+The official made no reply.
+
+"You can read this code, I suppose?" he asked of Ned.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, I'll communicate with the manager, and if he says it is all right
+I'll give you the message and take your receipt for it.  Will that
+answer?"
+
+"It must, I suppose," replied the officer.
+
+The obdurate official left the room.
+
+"Gee, but it's close in here!" Jimmie declared, in a moment.  "Seems
+like a hop joint in Pell street."
+
+"There is opium in the air," the officer said.  "See if you can find a
+window."
+
+Jimmie found a window opening on a large court and lifted the lower
+sash. Then he called to Ned.
+
+"I don't like the looks of this," he said.  "If they should try to hold
+us here, what?"
+
+"They won't do that."
+
+"Oh, they won't tie us up, I guess," said the little fellow, "but they
+may delay our departure."
+
+"Go on," smiled Ned.
+
+"An' communicate with the ginks that have been chasing us ever since we
+left the submarine," concluded the boy.
+
+"In time, Jimmie," Ned answered, "you may even get into the thinking
+row. I have been wondering ever since we came in here if we were not
+with enemies instead of friends."
+
+"I can soon find out," declared Jimmie.
+
+"Yes?  How, may I ask?"
+
+"I'll rush out into the other room an' try to get to the street.  If
+there's anythin' in the notion we have, they'll turn me back."
+
+"You might try that," smiled Ned, and the officer clapped a hand on the
+boy's shoulder and declared that he was a "brick."
+
+So Jimmie hustled out into the front office.  The listeners heard sharp
+words, and then a slight scuffling of feet.  Then next instant the boy
+was pushed back through the doorway.
+
+"What is the trouble?" asked the marine of the assistant, whose flushed
+face showed in the half-open doorway.
+
+"You'll all have to be identified before you can leave here," was the
+curt reply.  "You have asked for important state dispatches, and we want
+to know what your motive is."
+
+"My motive is to get them," replied Ned, coolly.
+
+"Wait until you prove your right to them," said the other, and the door
+was slammed shut.  Ned stepped back to the window and looked out into
+the court.  The walls were four stories high, and there seemed to be no
+passage out of the box-like place.  The officer suggested that he force
+his way through the outer office and reach the American consul, but Ned
+did not approve of this.  He thought there must be some other way.  Then
+a hint of that other way came from the court in the call of an owl.
+
+"That's a Boy Scout signal, and not a bird!" almost shouted Jimmie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE MESSAGE FROM WASHINGTON
+
+
+"Surely," the marine officer said, in answer to the boy's exclamation,
+"that is a genuine, feathered owl.  No boy could make so perfect an
+imitation."
+
+"It's Dutchy, all right," insisted Jimmie.  "I've heard him make that
+noise before.  Now, how did he ever get to Tientsin, and how did he
+locate us?"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible that it is Hans," Ned said.  "How could he
+make the journey on foot, through a country suspicious of every
+foreigner?  And how comes it that he chanced on this building?"
+
+"Didn't he know that you were expecting instructions from Washington
+while on the way to Peking?" asked the officer.
+
+"I did not know, myself, that I was to receive instructions while on the
+way until I met you," Ned replied.  "If Hans is indeed here, he has
+either blundered into his present position or gained pretty accurate
+information from some one unknown to me."
+
+"If he is here?" repeated Jimmie.  "Of course he is here.  I'm goin' out
+in the court an' give him the call of the pack!"
+
+"What does he mean by that?" asked the officer of Ned.  "Call of the
+pack?"
+
+"The call of the Wolf pack," answered Ned.  "We both belong to the Wolf
+Patrol, of New York."
+
+"And you think Hans, if it is he, will understand?"
+
+"Of course!" scorned Jimmie.
+
+The little fellow was about to step out of the low window to the floor
+of the court when a mist of light appeared at one of the glazed windows
+on the opposite side.  The three watched the illumination with absorbing
+interest for a moment.
+
+"Hans must be up there," Ned, muttered, "although I would almost as soon
+expect to find him up in a balloon."
+
+"I reckon you'll find an owl with wise eyes and feathers up there, if
+you wait," said the officer, with a smile.  "The boy you refer to never
+could have traveled here alone."
+
+"You just wait," advised Jimmie.
+
+Presently the mist of light centered down to three small flames,
+apparently coming from three narrow twists of paper, burning in a row in
+front of a window on the second floor.  Jimmie grasped Ned's arm as the
+three tiny columns of flame showed for an instant and then vanished.
+
+"There!" he said.  "Do you know what that means?"
+
+"It is a warning of danger," Ned muttered.
+
+"Say that again," exclaimed the officer.  "What kind of a game is this?"
+
+"It is a Boy Scout warning," Ned replied.  "In the forest three columns
+of smoke express the warning.  How did this German boy learn all this?"
+he continued, turning to Jimmie.
+
+"Don't you ever think the Philadelphia Boy Scouts are slow!" answered
+the boy.  "Hans has been out in the forest with them, and knows all
+about woods work, an' signs, an' signals.  Give it up, now?"
+
+"Yes," replied the officer, "I give it up.  You boys must have a
+wonderful organization."
+
+"We certainly have," Ned replied.
+
+The three waited for a moment, but no more signals came from the window.
+Instead a heavy footfall sounded outside the door and a man they had not
+seen before stepped into the room.
+
+He was a heavily built man, with broad shoulders, black hair and eyes,
+and a wicked mouth.  His face looked hard and repulsive, like the face
+of a reckless, intolerant, whisky-drinking captain of police in a
+graft-ridden district.  He closed the door with his back as he entered.
+
+"You are Ned Nestor?" he asked of the officer.  The latter pointed
+toward Ned.
+
+"That child!" exclaimed the newcomer.
+
+Jimmie restrained himself with an effort, for he knew that this was no
+time to engage in a quarrel.  He turned his back to the group and looked
+out of the window into the court.
+
+There was now no light at the window from which the warning had been
+given, but there were flickers of uncertain candles at some of the
+others.  The hooting of the owl had undoubtedly attracted the attention
+of the occupants of the building.
+
+As Jimmie looked, however, the sash of the window he was watching was
+pushed up and a tousled head appeared.  Other sashes were pushed up in
+an instant, and pigtailed heads and slanting, evil eyes were in view.
+
+"I guess they're keepin' cases on the kid!" Jimmie thought, as he made
+an almost imperceptible motion toward Hans.  "It would be pretty poor, I
+reckon, if I could get up there," he added, not meaning that it would be
+"pretty poor" at all, but, on the contrary, a very good move indeed.
+
+While the lad watched the window, from which the tousled head had now
+disappeared, some of the other windows closed.  The natives were
+evidently in no mood to lose their sleep because of a foreign-devil
+noise in the middle of the night.
+
+The little fellow was certain that the head he had for a moment seen was
+that of Hans, the Philadelphia Boy Scout who had been so strangely
+encountered during the visit of the submarine to an island off the coast
+of China.  He knew, too, that the German understood that something
+unusual and hostile to his friends was going on below.
+
+He did not stop to consider the means by which Hans had reached the city
+of Tientsin and that particular building.  He accepted it for granted
+that he was there, and wondered just what steps he, the German, would be
+apt, or able, to take in the emergency which threatened the failure of
+the mission to Peking.
+
+Presently the voices of the marine officer, the official who had been
+summoned by the assistant manager, and Ned reached his ears.  The
+officer was clearly in an angry mood and Ned was trying his persuasive
+powers on the newcomer.
+
+"Are you an officer of the telegraph company?" the officer asked, in an
+angry tone.
+
+"I am not," was the equally discourteous rejoinder.  "I am a private
+detective employed, by the manager here.  It is my duty to look after
+just such cases as this."
+
+"Well," Ned said, calmly, "ask any questions you desire and we will
+answer them frankly.  I came to China at the request of the Washington
+government, and am to receive instructions here.  The operator tells me
+that there is a cablegram here for me, but refuses to deliver it on the
+ground that I may be an impostor."
+
+"I think he has you sized up right," grated the detective.
+
+"Then we may as well be going," Ned said, still coolly.  "There is
+nothing for us to do now but try to establish our identity before the
+American consul."
+
+The boy moved toward the door as he spoke, but the brawny detective
+obstructed his passage to the outer room.  Ned drew back with a smile on
+his face.
+
+"You can't leave here just at present," said the detective.  "You will
+remain in custody until morning."
+
+"Why morning?" asked Ned, with alight laugh.
+
+"Because your accuser will be here then."
+
+"Why didn't you say something of an accuser before?" asked Ned.
+
+"It was not necessary."
+
+"What does the accuser say?"
+
+"He only warns us against delivering important papers to a youth
+answering your description."
+
+"Now I understand why all this rumpus has been kicked up!" cried the
+marine officer.  "The man who warned you is Lieutenant Rae?"
+
+The detective nodded.
+
+"Then he is causing us to be delayed for purposes of his own," the
+officer stormed.  "He aims to get to Peking in advance of us.  We must
+be permitted to depart immediately."
+
+He moved toward the door, but the detective stood in his way.  Without a
+word he seized the fellow by the shoulder whirled him around, put his
+beery face to the wall, and passed out of the room.  Ned was about to
+follow him when the strange attitude of the detective caught his
+attention and he stood waiting while a scuffle on the outside told of a
+physical complication there.
+
+"Much good that break will do him," said the detective, straightening
+out his twisted coat collar.  "He will find a squad of police at the
+street door."
+
+"European police?" asked Ned.
+
+"Native police," with a snarl of rage as the commotion in the outer room
+continued.
+
+Knowing that it would be no trouble at all to secure the release by any
+American officer taken into custody by Chinese police, Ned turned to the
+window and looked out on the court.  He understood, too, that his own
+arrest would mean a long delay in prison while his identity was being
+established.  So he thought best to keep out of the squabble the
+hot-headed officer had engaged in.
+
+How sane this decision was only those foreign citizens who had been
+arrested and cast into prison in China or Russia can appreciate.  While
+an accredited officer of a foreign power may almost instantly regain his
+liberty, a plain citizen, such as Ned was forced to appear, might be
+kept in jail for any number of days, weeks, or months.
+
+The detective stood glaring at the two boys for an instant, as if
+anxious to inflict physical punishment upon them, but, as they remained
+at the window and said no more to him, he was obliged to take a
+different course. After rapping out several insulting observations
+concerning school children who ought to be spanked and put to bed, he
+flung himself out of the room.
+
+"You saw Hans?" asked Ned, then.
+
+Jimmie opened his eyes in amazement.
+
+"Did you?" he asked.
+
+"I saw the tousled head you saw," replied Ned.
+
+"I thought you were looking another way," commented the little fellow.
+"That was Hans, all right.'
+
+"But why does he remain inactive?  He knows there is something doing
+down here, else he would not have shown the signal of warning.  He ought
+to be out of that window by this time."
+
+"This is a country of hard knots," laughed Jimmie.  "They may have tied
+up his fat little trotters."
+
+In spite of the serious situation, Ned laughed.
+
+"The tying up in this case makes it seem like a cheap drama on the lower
+East Side in New York," he said.
+
+"I think I might get up to that window," Jimmie suggested.
+
+"How?" asked Ned.
+
+"By the lower window frames an' castings.  If you'll manage to keep the
+Chinks off me I'll try."
+
+"It is worth trying," Ned mused.
+
+The other windows opening on the court were now closed.  The sleepy
+natives, possibly doped with opium, had wearied of watching the figures
+in the rear room of the telegraph office and tumbled back into bed, or
+back on such miserable heaps of dirty matings as they chose to call
+beds.
+
+The sounds of conflict had already died out in the front office, and
+another visit from the evil-faced detective was momentarily expected, so
+Jimmie was urged to make the proposed attempt to reach Hans at once.
+
+He passed out of the window, crossed the beaten earth floor of the
+court, and began to climb.  Ned was pleased to see that he had little
+difficulty in ascending to the window.  Once there he heard him rap on
+the pane. There was a pause, and then the boy pushed up the sash and
+clambered inside.
+
+Ned was glad to see that the boy had the good judgment to draw the sash
+down, as soon as he was in the room.  What he would discover there the
+watcher had no idea.
+
+He might find Hans there under guard.  He might discover, when it was
+too late, that the German had been, unwillingly, used as a decoy by
+cunning natives into whose hands he might have fallen.
+
+Still, there were the signals!  The natives could not have known of the
+Boy Scout system of warnings, and Hans would certainly have volunteered
+nothing in the way of allurement.
+
+He watched the window for what seemed to him to be a very long time.
+The pane remained dark.
+
+"If the lad finds the situation favorable," Ned thought, "he may not
+return here at all.  I should have instructed him to leave the room by
+the main stairway, if possible, and return to the marines.  It would
+look comfortable, just now, to see that file of bluecoats marching into
+the telegraph office."
+
+However, there was now no help for the omission, and Ned waited with
+varying emotions for some sign from the window.  None came, but
+presently the door of the rear room was opened and the detective
+blustered in.
+
+"Where is the other prisoner?" he demanded, looking keenly about the
+room. "He was here not long ago.  Where is he?"
+
+"Didn't you see him crowd out with the marine officer?" asked Ned.
+
+"He was here after that fellow left," was the reply.  "But he can't
+escape from the building," he added, "for every avenue is guarded, and
+the chap the cablegram belongs to has just asked for it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+TRICKS THAT WERE VAIN
+
+
+Ned eyed the bullying detective keenly.  He did not believe that the
+cablegram had been demanded by another.  That was only a pretext on the
+part of his enemies to make their attitude of delay appear more
+reasonable. If, as was claimed, the message was now claimed by two, the
+holders would certainly be justified in using great caution in
+delivering it.
+
+He did not believe, either, that the telegraph officials had been nervy
+enough to resort to police protection.  That would be to bring the
+matter into the courts, and he did not think those who were opposing him
+would care for that.
+
+"You are not telling the truth," he said, coolly, to the detective.  "No
+one here could honestly claim the message, because no one in Tientsin,
+previous to my arrival, knew there was such a message here, if I except
+the telegraph people and the man who sent it.  If a claimant has shown
+up, he is acting under instructions from you."
+
+"You are deceiving yourself!" snarled the other.
+
+"Where is Captain Martin, of the marines?" asked Ned, not caring to
+dispute the point.  "If you have arrested him, you'll be having his men
+after you before morning."
+
+"You mean the men you left in the cornfield?"
+
+"Certainly, the United States marines."
+
+"Then you don't know that they have gone back to Taku?"
+
+"No; neither do you," replied Ned.  This was too cheap!
+
+"But, they have," insisted the detective.  "At least, they have
+disappeared from the camp in the cornfield."
+
+"You seem pretty well posted as to our doings," said the boy.
+
+"We are pretty well informed as to all crooks who come here," was the
+reply.
+
+"What are you going to do about delivering the cablegram?" Ned asked,
+ignoring the insult.
+
+"Wait until morning and deliver it to the American consul."
+
+"In America," Ned said, with a provoking smile, "we elect men of your
+slant of mind to the Ananias club."
+
+"You'll see," was the reply.  "In the meantime, you are in custody."
+
+Where was Jimmie?  Had he escaped from the building, or was he detained
+in the room he had surreptitiously entered?  If he had indeed escaped,
+would he have the good sense to hasten to the camp instead of trying to
+assist his chum single-handed?
+
+Ned asked himself these questions, but could find no answer.  He saw
+that the detective was not inclined, not yet desperate enough, to march
+him off to prison, however, and took courage from the fact.  If he could
+secure a short delay all might yet be well.
+
+Directly the assistant manager entered the room, frowning and red of
+face. Ned saw that something, perhaps something of importance to
+himself, was in progress on the outside.
+
+"The American consul is out there," he exclaimed, storming about the
+little room.
+
+"That's fine!" cried Ned.  "I presume I can see him?"
+
+The detective glared at the boy and shook his head.
+
+"No, you can't," he declared.  "You'll stay here."
+
+"And in the meantime you'll tell him that I have gone away?"
+
+"We'll tell him what we choose."
+
+Ned made a quick dash for the door, tipped the assistant manager over a
+broken-backed chair which stood in the way, and passed into the outer
+office.  The detective grabbed at him as he sped past, but the boy
+eluded the ham-like hands which were thrust forward.
+
+There were three persons in the office, when Ned bolted into it.  These
+were the operator, the American consul, and Hans!  The German grinned in
+an apologetic way as Ned hastily greeted him.
+
+The American consul was a pleasant-faced gentleman of middle age.  He
+was dressed in rather sporty clothes, and there was just a hint of a
+swagger of importance in his walk and manner as he extended his hand to
+Ned. Dressler-Archibald Hewitt Dressler, to be exact--was a pretty fair
+sample of the keen, open-hearted corn-belt politician rewarded with a
+foreign appointment for rounding up the right crowd at the right time.
+
+Ned was glad to see that the consul recognized him as the lad in whose
+interest he had been pulled out of bed.  He took the official's
+outstretched hand and shook it warmly.
+
+"I never was so glad to see any person in my life!" Ned exclaimed, while
+Hans stood by with that bland German smile on his face.
+
+"Oh, we'll have this mess straightened out in no time," the consul said.
+"These people," with a gesture toward the operator, the assistant
+manager, and the detective, "are all right.  They mean to do the fair
+and honorable thing, but they have troubles of their own.  We'll have
+this all ironed out in no time."
+
+"This kid is an impostor!" shouted the detective.
+
+"No hard names, please," said the consul.  "Let us get at the facts of
+the case.  You claim to be Ned Nestor?" turning to the boy.
+
+"That is my name, sir."
+
+"And you claim a cablegram which is here?  A cablegram in cipher--the
+cipher code of the Secret Service of the United States government?"
+
+"Yes, it would naturally be in cipher."
+
+"You have the key to the code?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Be careful, young man," laughed the consul, "for I was in the Secret
+Service department before I came here, and know the code."
+
+"I'm glad you do," replied Ned.
+
+"Hand me the cablegram," ordered the consul, turning to the assistant
+manager.
+
+The detective stepped forward with a frown on his face.  He glared at
+the consul and at Ned for a moment, and then broke out:
+
+"You can't have it unless you will promise not to reveal its contents to
+this impostor."
+
+"Can't I?" said the consul, coolly.  "Hand me the cablegram."
+
+The operator and the assistant manager drew back.  The consul stood for
+an instant regarding them angrily.
+
+"One, two, three!" he said.  "At the word three, pass it over!"
+
+"Goot sphort, dot feller!" whispered Hans.
+
+During the dead silence which followed Ned watched the face of the
+consul for some sign of weakening, but found none.  He knew that he had
+come upon an official who would stand by his guns, no matter what took
+place.
+
+There was a little crowd in front of the office, and half a dozen faces
+were pressed against the windows and the glass panel of the door.  Ned
+thought he saw a face there he had last seen in the old house at Taku
+where he had been captured.  The fellow carried a long cicatrice on his
+left cheek.
+
+"What do you mean by coming in here and giving orders?" demanded the
+detective.  "I'll put you out if the manager says the word."
+
+Ned, standing close to Hans, felt the muscles of the German's great arm
+swell under the sleeve.  Hans was evidently anticipating trouble.
+
+"Will you deliver the cablegram?" asked the consul.
+
+"I will not."
+
+As the assistant manager spoke the detective reached his hand up to the
+electric light switch.  Ned saw in an instant what his intention was.
+If the room should be suddenly thrown into darkness, the operator might
+escape with the cablegram.
+
+The consul, too, saw what was meditated and sprang forward.  The
+detective struck at him, but before his blow reached its intended mark,
+Hans struck and the detective went down as suddenly as if he had been
+hit with an ax. Then, from unseen places, from beneath counters and out
+of closets, came a horde of Chinamen.  The room was full of them.
+
+"Soak um!" cried Hans.
+
+The German was about to adopt his own suggestion by passing a blow out
+to the nearest Chinaman when the consul stepped before him.  For an
+instant the threatening natives stepped back.  The attacking of the
+American consul was a thing to be seriously considered.
+
+"Once more!" warned the consul.  "Give me the cablegram."
+
+At a motion from the assistant manager the brown men closed
+threateningly about the American again.  There was malice in their eyes
+as they pressed closer and closer.
+
+"This looks like another Boxer uprising!" exclaimed the consul.  "Mr.
+Nestor," he added, "if you will assemble yourself at my back, and our
+German friend will stand by, we'll give 'em a run for their white alley.
+Hit hard and often."
+
+There is no knowing what might have happened then had not an
+interruption fell.  Ned saw the crowd at the door vanish, and the next
+instant the friendly popping of motorcycles rang a chorus in the air.
+
+Then came the rattle of guns and sabers, and a line of bluecoats stood
+before the door.  At their head stood Jimmie, wrinkling his freckled
+nose as if for dear life.
+
+Ned sprang to the door and opened it.
+
+"Quick!" he cried.  "Don't let a man now in the room get away."
+
+"Where is Captain Martin, the officer in charge?" asked one of the men.
+
+"The Chinks can tell you," Ned answered.  "Close up at the doors," he
+went on, gazing about excitedly, "so that no one can leave."
+
+This was done instantly.  In fact, the natives and the men of the
+telegraph office were not in a fighting mood now.  The guns and sabers
+of the marines had brought them to a peace-loving state of mind!
+
+They huddled about in the center of the room, the natives milling around
+like cattle in a storm.  The assistant manager pushed out of the press
+and handed the consul the cablegram.
+
+"Understand that I am doing this under protest," he said.  "Your conduct
+in invading my office with armed men shall be reported."
+
+"I shall welcome any investigation," the consul replied, with a smile,
+"because I want to know something of your motives in doing what you have
+done to-night.  You know very well that the cablegram is of no
+importance to any person except the one to whom it is addressed.  I can
+read the code, it is true, but you doubtless overlooked the fact that I
+have received such dispatches here. So, let us look at the matter in a
+reasonable light.  What inducements were offered you to keep the
+cablegram away from this young man?  Speak up!"
+
+"You are insulting"' gasped the assistant manager.
+
+"Come down to cases!" commanded the consul.
+
+"I don't understand your Bowery slang."
+
+"How much money was offered you to hold this message?"
+
+There was no answer, but the operator glanced slyly in the direction of
+the consul with a frightened look in his eyes.
+
+"Were you to withhold the message altogether, or were you merely to
+delay this young man?"
+
+"You are insulting!" repeated the other.
+
+"Who bribed you?" came the next question, snapped out like the crack of
+a lash.
+
+"You have the message," the assistant manager said.  "Get out."
+
+"Only for the marines you'd put me out!" laughed the consul.
+
+"Indeed I would!"
+
+Hans made a threatening gesture toward the fellow and he hastened to the
+protection of the counter.
+
+"My office is only a short distance away," said the consul, turning to
+Ned. "We may as well go there and size this extraordinary situation up.
+I hardly know what to make of it."
+
+"There is one thing you, perhaps, do not understand," Ned said, "and
+that is that Captain Martin, in charge of this squad, has been taken
+into custody by order of the detective Hans knocked out a moment ago."
+
+The consul's face turned red with anger.  He seized the assistant
+manager by the shoulder and shook him, over the counter, as a dog shakes
+a rat.
+
+"Where is he?" he demanded.  "Tell your hirelings to bring him here, not
+soon, but now."
+
+"He assaulted me!" complained the manager.
+
+"Produce him!  One, two, three.  At the third word he comes!"
+
+Obeying a motion from the frightened man, a native opened a door back of
+the counter and Captain Martin was pushed out into the room, smiling and
+evidently enjoying the situation.
+
+"I could have butted out at any moment," he said, "for these Chinks are
+not fighters, but I heard what was going on out here and thought I'd let
+events shape themselves.  If I had been out here a short time ago I am
+afraid I should have made trouble for myself and for you."
+
+"It is nice to watch a game that you can't lose at," laughed the consul.
+"Come along, with your men, to my office.  This lad wants a chance to
+read his message."
+
+"Sure," was the reply.  "I want to know how that Dutchman come to bring
+you here, and how my men managed to get here just in time.  There are
+mysteries to explain.  What?" he added, with a laugh.
+
+"I guess we'll have to wait for explanations until we know what is in
+this message," Ned said.  "Come along to the office, Mr. Consul, for we
+have lost a lot of time already."
+
+"I am anxious to know what the message contains," said the consul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE DARK ROAD TO PEKING
+
+
+Half an hour later the American consul, Captain Martin, and Ned sat in a
+private room at the consulate.  The marines and Jimmie and Hans were in
+the large outer room.
+
+The cablegram from Washington lay open on a table with a translation by
+its side.  It read:
+
+"Proceed to Peking immediately and report to the American ambassador.
+Keep within reach of the flying squadron.  Avoid complications with the
+natives. Look out for plots to delay your party.  Important that you
+should reach Peking at once.  Wire conditions."
+
+"Not much news in that," said Ned.  "Guess we've met all the trouble the
+Washington people anticipated."
+
+"Shall you go on to-night?" asked the Captain.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"It is a dark, rainy night," the consul warned, "and the highways of
+China are none too safe, even in daylight, for American messengers who
+are insufficiently guarded."
+
+"We'll look out for our part of the game," Captain Martin laughed.
+
+"We'll, keep close together," advised the consul.  "You will meet
+trouble on the way.  The men who bribed the telegraph people will not
+get into the discard now.  You'll find their hirelings waiting out on
+the dark road to Peking."
+
+Ned pointed to the dispatch.
+
+"We've got to go," he said.  "I can't tell you how thankful I am to have
+met a true American here," he added, extending his hand to the consul.
+"I shall tell the story of to-night in the State department at
+Washington when I get back."
+
+"Well, get it straight," laughed the consul.  "Say that a blundering
+German boy, who said he was a Boy Scout from Philadelphia, nearly
+dragged me out of bed about midnight and informed me that other Boy
+Scouts were in trouble at the telegraph office.  I knew that Ned was
+expected here, and so lost no time in getting down.  That's all.  The
+marines did the rest."
+
+"Save for that beautiful bluff of yours!" laughed Ned.  "But how in the
+Dickens did Hans ever get to you?  How did he know where to go?  How did
+he get to Tientsin, anyway?"
+
+"Give it up!" smiled the consul.  "You might as well ask me who got the
+marines out just in the nick of time."
+
+"Jimmie did that, of course," replied Ned.  "I think I know all about it
+now," he added.  "We saw Hans in a room opening on the court.  The
+little fellow burglarized the window and found Hans.  I don't know how
+Hans got there, but Jimmie found him, anyway.  Then the kid told his
+story and Hans went to the consul and Jimmie went after the flying
+squadron.  I have a notion that this is the way it came about."
+
+In this supposition Ned was exactly right, for Jimmie had found Hans in
+the room off the court and the two had planned their movements just as
+Ned explained.  The only mystery was as to how Hans got to the Tientsin
+house and the room where he was found.
+
+"We'll learn all about that in time," Ned added.  "Now we must be off.
+By the way, I wonder where Jack and Frank are?  I haven't seen them
+since I left the camp.  In the rush of events I quite forgot to ask for
+them."
+
+"Just wait until I talk with one of the boys out here," the Captain
+said. "Probably Jimmie is already telling them of his adventures."
+
+But when the door was opened and Jimmie questioned he opened his eyes
+wide in wonder.  The Captain drew him into the private room.
+
+"Say," the boy said, excitement in voice and manner, "didn't you leave
+Frank and Jack at the camp when you left?"
+
+"Why, I left when you did," was the reply.  "They were there then."
+
+Jimmie sprang to the door and beckoned the second in command into the
+room. By this time both Ned and the consul were on their feet.
+
+"Where did you leave Frank and Jack?" asked Ned, as the officer entered
+the apartment.
+
+"They left us," replied the officer, with hesitation.  "We made our beds
+of blankets and tumbled in, leaving one man on guard.  When I turned in
+the boys were in their bunks.  When Jimmie awoke us, they were nowhere
+to be seen.  They probably sneaked off to have a look at Tientsin by
+night--and a beautiful time they will have."
+
+"Didn't you see them when you went back?" asked Ned of Jimmie.
+
+"No; I looked for them, and one of the marines told me they had gone on
+ahead.  I'm goin' out an' dig 'em up!"
+
+"You'll make a sweet fist of digging them up in this man's town, at this
+hour of the night," the consul declared, anxiety showing on his face.
+"You'll have to leave them, Mr. Nestor," he went on, "and I'll rake the
+city with a fine tooth comb but I'll find them."
+
+Ned hesitated.  There was the cablegram on the table.  A delay of an
+hour or two might not prove serious, but this search for Frank and Jack
+might occupy days, if not weeks!
+
+It was inconceivable that the boys, disregarding all instructions from
+the Captain and all warnings from Ned, should have stolen off into the
+city for a night ramble.  They both knew how much depended on the party
+keeping together and keeping prepared for action.
+
+"They must have had some reason for leaving the camp," Ned said, after a
+long pause.  "They never would have gone away without some object other
+than amusement, or love of adventure in their minds."
+
+Captain Martin went to the door and stepped out into the main office,
+facing the marines.
+
+"Boys," he said, in as matter-of-fact tone as he could assume, "what did
+Frank and Jack say when they left the camp?"
+
+Nine of the men looked up in wonder, but the tenth hastened to answer
+the question.
+
+"Not a word," he said.  "I was on guard, and I saw a young chap come
+into the little bit of light there was about the old house where we were
+stopping."
+
+"Who was it?" Ned interrupted.
+
+The marine shook his head.
+
+"I didn't ask him who he was," he said.  "He asked where the boys were,
+and said he was a Boy Scout from Boston, and wanted to see some one from
+home. I knew that the lads would be as glad to see him as he would be
+glad to see them, and showed him where they had bunked down in a little
+dog-house of a shack just outside the house."
+
+"And they went away with this fellow?" asked Ned, anxious to get the
+story in as few words as possible.  "Why didn't you notify the officer
+then in charge of the squad?"
+
+"I didn't think it was necessary," was the reply.  "Well, the kid went
+to the shack where Frank and Jack were, and I saw them talking together
+there for a few minutes.  Then I saw the three of them pass through the
+circle of light, walking toward the city, and that's all I know about
+it.  I wasn't under orders to tell them when to go, or where to go, or
+when not to go. It wasn't for me to interfere."
+
+"Bonehead!" exclaimed Jimmie.
+
+The marine glanced up at the little fellow with a frown.
+
+"Don't you go to abusing me," he said.  "I won't stand for it.  I was
+raised a pet!" he added, with a smile, as the boy grinned.
+
+"Stop that!" commanded the Captain, sharply.  "If you have told all you
+know about the matter you may go."
+
+"'Wait," Ned said, as the marine moved toward the door, "I would like to
+ask a question.  Would you know this lad you speak of if you should see
+him again?"
+
+"I don't think so.  It was dark, and he didn't look me squarely in the
+face."
+
+"That's all," Ned said, turning to the consul.  "You'll do what you can
+to find them?" he asked.
+
+"Sure I will!"
+
+"I can't remain and help you," Ned went on, and there was a tremble in
+his voice.  "I've got my work to do."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"And we'll start right away," Ned continued, "if you are ready, Captain.
+We ought to be in Peking early in the morning."
+
+"It is a bad road," the consul said, "and you'll find, echoes of the
+scrap you had here waiting for you along the way.  In the language of
+the cablegram, keep together!"
+
+When all were mounted there were still two vacant cycles--those the
+missing boys had ridden.  Ned pointed to one and spoke to Hans:
+
+"Can you ride?"
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Then you may take one of the machines and come along with us."
+
+Hans sprang onto one of the motorcycles just as he had observed the
+others do.  Under the impetus of the leap the machine trundled along for
+a few feet and tipped over, landing Hans on his back with the rear wheel
+scraping acquaintance with his nose.
+
+"Ouch!" he shouted.  "Dake him off!  He bites!  Vot issit if I hand
+himone? Vot?"
+
+While the others were laughing at the plight of the German, he made an
+effort to arise and the machine promptly slid down an incline and
+sparked and gyrated until Hans' hair fairly stood on end with fright.
+
+"Catch heem!" he shouted.  "Catch heem!  He runs py the road avay!
+Dunner! Vot a streets!"
+
+"You mustn't tickle his ribs with your heels when you get on," advised
+Jimmie.  "That always makes him buck.  It is a wonder he didn't tramp
+you when you were down."
+
+"Holy schmoke!" cried Hans.  "Vot a nose I vill haf!  Me for the walks
+to Peeging!"
+
+"I guess you'll have to give up going with us"' laughed Ned.  "You may
+remain with the consul until we return.  And help him hunt Frank and
+Jack, will you?"
+
+Hans willingly agreed to this, and, with many handshakes and well-wishes
+from the consul, the boys were off for Peking.  By this time the streets
+were rather quiet, although they knew that before they could pass beyond
+the limits of the great, sprawling town with its million of inhabitants
+dawn would be showing in the sky.
+
+The swift ride through the city was a revelation to the American boys.
+All was strange with an atmosphere of age and decay.  The habitations,
+save those occupied by foreigner--and these were grouped together--were
+mostly old and mean.  The streets were in bad condition--worse than
+usual because of the softening effects of the rain--and the lights were,
+in places, infrequent.
+
+Watchmen patrolling the thoroughfares in the idle manner peculiar to all
+alleged guardians of the night, gazed menacingly at the machines as they
+whirled by, talking in their spark language, as Jimmie expressed it, but
+the uniforms kept them at a respectful distance.  Here and there were
+little tea shops, and before these were groups of natives, circled close
+together.
+
+It seemed to Ned like a ride through a cemetery, the occupants of which
+had been awakened to life for an instant and would go back to their
+graves and their dreamless sleep again as soon as the machines had
+passed.  The weight of ten thousand centuries seemed to hang over the
+place.
+
+There was a faint line of dawn in the direction of the Yellow Sea when
+the boys came to the suburbs of Tientsin.  Before them lay nearly eighty
+miles of rough road to the capital city.  With good luck, they figured
+that they could make that in four hours.
+
+Now, at dawn, the road which curved like a ribbon before them, started
+into life.  From field and village streamed forth natives carrying and
+drawing all kinds of burdens.  In that land the poor are obliged to be
+early astir, and even then the reward of their labors is small.
+
+It was autumn, and the produce of the field was ripe for barter.  There
+were loads attached to horses and loads drawn in carts; there were
+'rickshaws, and bundles on backs, and on long poles carried over bent
+shoulders.
+
+The strange procession of the motorcycles and the marines caused many a
+surprised halt in the procession of industry.  Chinamen stood at one
+side while the steel horses shot by them, and then gathered in little
+groups by the wayside to discuss this newest invention of the foreign
+devils.
+
+The sun rose in a cloudless sky and the earth steamed under its rays,
+sending back in eddying mist the rain which had poured upon her with
+such violence the night before.  It would be a hot day, notwithstanding
+the lateness of the season, and the eyes of the boys soon turned to a
+shaded grove not far from the highway.
+
+"Me for breakfast!" Jimmie declared, and the marines looked as if the
+lad had echoed their own thoughts.
+
+"We may as well halt a little while," Captain Martin said to Ned, "as my
+boys are beginning to look empty.  They have had a hard night of it, and
+we can't afford to cultivate any grouches!"
+
+Ned, although he was anxious to go forward, saw good judgment in this
+and ordered a halt.  In five minutes little fires were burning in the
+grove and the odor of steaming coffee soon rose softly with the mists of
+the morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE MYSTICISM OF THE EAST
+
+
+"You remember what the consul said regarding trouble on the road to
+Peking?" asked Ned of Captain Martin as the two took seats under a tree
+not far from the cooking fires.
+
+"Yes, and I wondered at his expressing such gloomy predictions.  He gave
+me quite a scare."
+
+"I think I understand, now, why he did it," Ned said, with a smile.  "He
+was following instructions."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"I mean that he had been communicated with by the Washington office,
+during the day, and given instructions."
+
+"To scare you?"
+
+"No; to keep me up to the mark in caution."
+
+"I don't think you needed that."
+
+"Well," Ned went on, "this is a queer case.  At first I could not make
+up my mind why the Secret Service people insisted on my making this trip
+to Peking on a motorcycle, guarded by soldiers like a passenger in time
+of war.  Now I think I know."
+
+"Then you have the advantage of me," said the officer.  "I've been
+thinking that over quite a lot, and the answer is still to find."
+
+"Unless I am mistaken," Ned replied, "I am expected to do my work on the
+way to Peking."
+
+"Come again!" smiled the Captain.
+
+"In other words," replied Ned, "I'm set up on a motorcycle as a mark for
+the diplomats of Europe to shoot at."
+
+"Then I must be a mark, also," grumbled the Captain.
+
+"Exactly.  How do you like it?"
+
+"Oh, it isn't so bad!" smiled the other, won into better humor by the
+laughing face of the boy.  "But why should the Secret Service department
+put you in such peril?"
+
+"It is my notion," Ned hastened to say, in defense of his superior
+officers, "that they give me credit for sense enough to take care of
+myself.  The same with regard to you."
+
+"But why--"
+
+"It seems to me," Ned interrupted, "that the department is up against a
+tough proposition.  The matter is so delicate that no foreign government
+can be accused of mixing this conspiracy for Uncle Sam.  What remains to
+do, then, is to spot the tools being used by the power that is most
+active."
+
+"That's good sense."
+
+"Well, we can't spot them in Washington, nor in Tientsin, nor yet in the
+American embassy at Peking.  Where, then, but on the road--on the road
+where they are striving with all their might to block the progress of
+the agent who is trying to land them?"
+
+Captain Martin mused a moment and then broke into a laugh.
+
+"And so," he said, "you think we are spread out along this road for the
+conspirators to grab off?"
+
+"If they can, of course; but that is not stating the case right.  We are
+spread out along the road to Peking to catch the men who will try to
+stop us.  See?  We are here to watch for those who will try to catch us,
+and to catch them!  What do you think of that?"
+
+"Clever!" exclaimed the Captain.
+
+"The system is an old one in detective work," Ned explained.  "It is no
+unusual thing for an officer to permit a prisoner to escape in order
+that be may be traced to his confederates.  Only this case is somewhat
+different, of course.  We don't know exactly who the criminals we, but
+we expect them to reveal their identity by their own acts."
+
+"Then we'd better be on double guard?"
+
+"Of course.  You know how the consul reiterated the warning he gave us.
+He couldn't tell us that it was the notion of the Secret Service
+department that we would be attacked on the way to Peking, but he could
+tell us to look out, and he did."
+
+"Perhaps he thought the truth would frighten you off?"
+
+"Perhaps," laughed Ned.
+
+"Well, I'm glad to have the puzzle solved," Captain Martin said.  "Now
+we know just what to look out for.  When do you expect to meet with
+these foxy chaps?"
+
+"They will appear in due time, if I am right," Ned replied.  "Look out
+there on the road," he added, "they may be coming now."
+
+The Captain looked and saw four men in the garb of priests, approaching
+the grove.  Their robes were long and of a dirty slate color, and there
+was a great star on the breast of the man in the lead.
+
+"A queer bunch," the officer said, "but not diplomats.  They are Taoist
+priests, and the chances are that they have a tumble-down temple in this
+vicinity.  They are not very popular in China just now."
+
+"Never heard of them," Ned said, watching the men turn from the road
+into the grove.
+
+"As you know," the officer explained; "I have been on Chinese stations a
+long time.  Well, I've taken a fancy to study up the religion of the
+people.  Or, to put it right, the three religions.  First, there is the
+Confucian religion, which is not really a religion, for it does not deal
+with the spiritual.  It is a philosophy, which teaches the brotherhood
+of man.
+
+"Second, there is Buddhism, with its ruined temples and begging monks.
+This religion is an importation from India.  Aged people and women are
+its chief devotees.
+
+"Third, there is Taoism, scarcely less popular that Buddhism.  The
+priests live with their families in ruined temples and practice all
+sorts of fool things.  They have a mystic alchemy, prepare spells and
+incantations, and claim to hold communion with the dead.  It is said
+that worthless foreigners travel about in the disguise of Taoist
+priests, just for the money there is in it, as fake spiritualist mediums
+travel about in our own country.
+
+"The people coming are Taoist priests, all right, for they have the
+drums, and gongs, and fifes of their trade with them.  Their ruined
+temple may not be far away.  If we have time we may witness some of
+their foolish ceremonies."
+
+Ned's face looked thoughtful for a moment, then cleared.  There was a
+smile on his face as he asked:
+
+"Do Taoist priests accost strangers on the highway?"
+
+"Yes; when there is a show of getting money.  They are a rank lot, as
+you will soon see."
+
+"These may not be so rank," Ned replied, meaningfully.
+
+"'Why," began Captain Martin, "you don't suppose--"
+
+"It seems odd that Taoist priests should arrive here just at this time."
+
+"If these chaps really I are spies--the spies we have been warned
+against--the fellows we were sent forth to meet, why, there may be a bit
+of action here."
+
+"Well," Ned went on, "let them take the initiative.  We shall soon be
+able to give a good guess as to what this visit means."
+
+As the four strangely clad figures moved across the little patch of
+field which separated the highway from the grove, Jimmie came running
+over to where the two were sitting, an egg sandwich in one hand and a
+cup of coffee in the other.  As he ran the hot liquid jolted out of the
+cup and came in contact with his hand.
+
+"Gee!" he shouted.  "Just look what's comin'."
+
+Then he dropped the hot cup on the ground and began to dance up and
+down, shaking his blistered hand as he did so.
+
+"I got it!" he said.  "There was only one hot cup in the lot, an' I got
+it! Say, Ned, what do you know about them callers you're goin' to have?
+Look like busted washee-washee geeks from Pell street.  Look at 'em!"
+
+By this time the marines were watching the advancing priests with
+curious eyes.  Breakfast was nearly over, and some of the men were
+preparing for a brief rest in the shady spot they had found.
+
+The priests, if such they were, entered the grove, passed through the
+group of men without a glance to the right or left, and approached the
+spot where Ned and the Captain sat.  Here they drew up in a line, much
+as the fakirs of the East Indies perform, with their crude drams, gongs
+and fifes in full view.
+
+"Hello, Sports!" Jimmie cried.
+
+Ned motioned to the boy to remain silent.
+
+The Captain addressed the priests in a couple of Chinese sentences, but
+received no immediate answer.  One of the fellows, the one with a great
+star painted, or worked, on the breast of his gown, soon advanced and
+stood directly in front of Ned.
+
+"We have had warning of your approach," he said.  "We have been waiting
+for you for many days."
+
+Ned started, for the words were spoken in English.  The Captain muttered
+under his breath:
+
+"I haven't a doubt of it."
+
+"What do you want?" asked Ned.
+
+The four bowed to the ground.
+
+"Attention.  The mysticism of the East is open to you if you are brave
+and strong."
+
+"Bunk!" whispered Jimmie.
+
+"Where do you live?" asked the Captain.
+
+The leader pointed to a pile of broken stones at the edge of the grove.
+A closer inspection of the heap told the officer that it was what time
+had left of a temple.
+
+"Tell him to get busy," whispered Jimmie.  "Can he make a tree three
+hundred years old in a minute?"
+
+"Where is this mysticism of the East located?" asked the Captain, unable
+to get the original notion that they were not what they seemed out of
+his mind.
+
+Again the leader pointed to the ruined temple.
+
+"Come!" he said.
+
+"Now is your chance!" whispered the Captain.
+
+"You are convinced that these are the people who were sent out to defeat
+the purpose of our mission?" asked Ned.
+
+"Sure," was the reply.  "These fellows are not priests.  I don't believe
+the chap who speaks is even a Chinaman."
+
+Ned did not hesitate long.  If he was correct in his interpretation of
+the orders of the Secret Service department, it would be the right thing
+for him to go with the strange visitors.
+
+If, as he really believed, they had designs on his life or his liberty,
+no better place or time for the test of cunning and strength could have
+been selected.  It was early morning, and the highway just beyond the
+grove was never long vacant of travelers.  Indeed, groups of five or six
+were constantly in sight.
+
+The travelers were Chinese, of course, and not likely to assist him out
+of any difficulty into which he might tumble, still the fact that they
+were there was something.  Even conspirators do not seek audiences for
+their crimes.
+
+Besides, there were the marines.  Ned understood that they would not be
+permitted to enter the ruined temple in a body, but he knew that they
+would be within call.
+
+"What's your notion?" Ned whispered to the Captain.
+
+"Go, and take me with you."
+
+"Of course you'll go if I do."
+
+"And what's the matter with me goin'?" demanded Jimmie, who was near
+enough to catch the impression that Ned was going somewhere and was
+intending to leave him behind.
+
+"Perhaps the hosts won't welcome three," suggested Ned, in a whisper.
+"Such people, like those who present communications from dead friends,
+at a dollar per, like to work in private."
+
+Jimmie did not wait to argue the question with Ned.  As usual, his
+answer was direct and to the point.  He advanced upon the priests and
+demanded:
+
+"Will you take me along?"
+
+The four regarded each other in perplexity.
+
+"Come, now," urged the boy, "be good sports.  Be good fellers, for
+once!"
+
+It was finally arranged that Ned, Jimmie and the Captain were to proceed
+to the ruined temple with the four and there learn something of the
+mysticism of the East!  Ned was positive that the time for his test of
+courage had come.  Still, he did not waver, for he was prepared.  The
+marines were instructed to gradually encircle the old temple, and to
+listen for orders from the inside.
+
+While satisfied that he had now come to the turning point in the case,
+Ned wondered, while on the way to the temple, if he ought to take the
+risk, whether it might not be wiser to arrest the fakirs, strip them of
+their disguises, and take them, by force of numbers, to the embassy at
+Peking. Still, if he took that course, he would have no proof against
+them--would not be able to connect the fellows with the conspiracy.
+
+The only thing to do was to take the risk.
+
+So, with a premonition of danger in his heart, he turned down the steps
+which led to the temple.
+
+For the temple was, as has been said, in ruins.  There was a heap of
+hewn stones on top of the earth, and that was all that showed from
+above.  In front a stone staircase led down into a damp and
+evil-smelling place.
+
+After a minute's descent Ned found himself in a long, narrow hall, which
+had at some time in the distant past formed the lobby of the temple.
+
+There was a cold wind blowing from somewhere in advance, and bats flew
+croakingly against it in their retreat from the intruders.  Ned heard
+the clang of a heavy door behind him.  Then the current of air was shut
+off.
+
+"This old barn of a place hasn't been used for a hundred years!" Jimmie
+whispered, clutching Ned by the arm.
+
+"What makes you think so?" asked Ned.
+
+"If in use, there would be something here to show it," was the reply.
+"See, they haven't even got lights here.  The ones they are now carrying
+were taken from the folds of their robes.  And there would be no bats if
+the place was in constant use."
+
+"Right you are, boy," Ned whispered back.  "But we knew what we were
+getting into.  Hark!"
+
+It was the dull, rolling sound of a drum that caused the exclamation.
+One of the men, far in advance, was evidently giving a signal.  In a
+moment the shrill notes of a fife reached the ears of the boys.
+
+They waited for a moment, wondering, and then a burst of light came from
+some unseen quarter and the four men were seen standing in line on a
+rock which lifted above the sloping floor.
+
+"Now for the ghosts!" whispered Jimmie.  "Who's first?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NIGHT IN AN ANCIENT CITY
+
+
+Frank Shaw and Jack Bosworth, suddenly awakened from a sound sleep in
+the little mud shack in the cornfield, in the suburbs of Tientsin, were
+not a little astonished at finding themselves rolled deftly out of the
+blankets in which they had wrapped themselves before lying down.
+
+"What's coming off here?" demanded Frank, rubbing his eyes and gazing
+blankly about the hovel.  "What kind of a hotel is this?"
+
+"What did you do that for?" asked Jack, edging newer to Frank.  "Why
+this midnight industry?  What did you pull me out of me covers for?"
+
+"I didn't!" cried Frank.  "You pulled me out!"
+
+"Not me!" Jack answered.  "I was catching German carp, in the upper
+lagoon in Central Park, N.Y., just a second ago.  Sorry I woke up before
+I got a mess!"
+
+"Who did it, then?" asked Frank.  "Some one gave me a thump in the wind
+and then rolled me out of the drapery of me elegant couch."
+
+"Search me!" Jack replied.  "I got something like that, also.  I'll bet
+it's the blooming marines, playing an alleged joke!  I'm going out to
+heave a rock at them."
+
+"Wait!" whispered a voice.  "Don't make so much noise, either.  You're
+pinched!"
+
+"That's Bowery!" cried Jack.
+
+"Come on and show yourself!" Frank commanded.  "What are you hiding back
+there in the darkness for?  Who are you, and where did you come from?
+What did you wake me up for, anyway?"
+
+"Black Cat Patrol, Chicago!" was the reply that came through the
+darkness. "You're both Black Bears, New York," the voice went on.  "I
+saw the badges on your vests."
+
+Both boys sprang to their feet instantly.  This was something worth
+while. A Boy Scout in China!
+
+"Got a light?" asked Frank.  "I'll just like to see whether you're a
+Black Cat or not."
+
+"Nix on the light," was the reply.
+
+"That's South Clark street, below Van Buren," laughed Jack.
+
+"All right," Frank said, in answer to the boy's negative, "I've got a
+flashlight."
+
+"Then keep it out of sight," advised the other.  "I don't want to stir
+up these soldiers.  Perhaps they won't let you go with me."
+
+"Oh, they won't?" Jack grumbled.  "We'll see!  Turn on your light,
+Frank, old top!"
+
+Frank, "old top." turned on his light, and the two saw a boy of
+apparently fifteen standing immediately in front of them.  He was
+slender but muscular, and his red hair and blue eyes betokened anything
+but Asiatic ancestors.
+
+The lad extended his right hand in full salute and waited.
+
+"Correct!" Jack said.  "Turn out your light, Frank.  Sit down, kid, and
+tell us why this surprise party."
+
+"I came down to tell you that there's doin's up town," was the quick
+reply. "You'd better get a move on!"
+
+"We're ready," Frank said, then, "but we'd like to know what we're going
+to move against."
+
+"Your friends are in trouble.  That's the answer."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I have just left them at the telegraph office."
+
+"That's where they went."
+
+"Well, that's where they're gettin' theirs," declared the lad.  "So buck
+up!"
+
+"Who--what--"
+
+"Aw, come along!" the boy cut in.  "They're goin' to be arrested, an'
+they won't get their cablegram, an' there'll be worse if you don't wake
+up. See?"
+
+"You'll have to explain to us," Frank observed.
+
+"You go tell that to the marines!" Jack exclaimed.  "They're right
+outside there."
+
+"All right!" the lad answered.  "I'm goin' back.  You can all go to
+Halifax for all me."
+
+"Wait," said Frank.  "Where did you get this information you're favoring
+us with?  What's your name?  How did you get to China?"
+
+"I'm a delivery boy at the telegraph office," the lad answered.  "I
+loafed around there tonight to see you folks, for I knew that the
+cablegram would be called for.  Before showing myself, I heard what was
+going on an' ducked.  Now, come on."
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"Sandy McNamara."
+
+"How did you get to China?"
+
+"Hid in a ship an' got caught an' beat up."
+
+"A stowaway, eh?"
+
+"You bet!  I'd do it again to get back to South Clark street, in little
+old Chi."
+
+"What they doing to Ned and Jimmie?" asked Jack.
+
+"Oh, come along!" Frank exclaimed.  "The boys may be in need of good
+advice and exclusive society!  We'll go and see."
+
+"Well," Sandy put in, "this ain't no case for the bulls.  You've got to
+get to them without makin' any show of fight.  You'd be eat up in this
+town with them few soldiers."
+
+"What do you propose?"
+
+"Why, we'll go to the American consul an' get him out."
+
+"You seem to be almost human in your intelligence," Jack cried.  "Let go
+your anchor and heave ahead!"
+
+"We'll have to make good time," said Sandy.  "Can you run?"
+
+"We're the original record-breakers when it comes to working our legs!"
+Jack said, and the three, after moving quietly through the lighted
+circle, so as not to attract the attention of the guard, broke into a
+run which fast lessened the distance between the camp and the telegraph
+office.  At the end of half a mile Sandy drew up against a mud wall.
+The rain was still falling, and the boys were soaked to the skin and
+shivering with cold, notwithstanding their exertions.
+
+"I'm winded," Sandy explained, panting.
+
+"I'm frozen stiff," Jack declared.
+
+"I'm wet enough to swim home," Frank put in.
+
+"Well," Sandy continued, "there's a little shack behind us--looks like
+one of the squatter shacks on the Lake front--an' we can go in an' rest
+up. Here's where the only friend I have in China lives."
+
+"Go on in, then," Jack replied, his teeth chattering with the cold.
+
+"We ought to keep on," Frank advised.  "This is no time to rest and get
+dry when Ned is in trouble!"
+
+"That's right," from Jack.  "Trot ahead, little one!"
+
+"I've got to go in here, anyway, an' get my uniform," the boy explained.
+"I'll be more protection to you boys if I have it on."
+
+"Protection to us!" laughed Jack.  "You're a joker!"
+
+"Hurry up, then, and get it," Frank urged.  "We've got to be getting
+along toward the telegraph office."
+
+"Ain't you comin' in?" asked Sandy.
+
+"No; we'll want to remain if we go in.  Hurry."
+
+"Do you think he's on the level?" asked Jack, as the boy disappeared
+through the low doorway.
+
+"I don't know," was the reply.  "It doesn't seem as if an American lad,
+and a Boy Scout at that, would play a treacherous game against his own
+countrymen."
+
+"No, it doesn't; yet what is he stopping here for?  He ought to be as
+anxious as we are to get over the ground."
+
+Then Sandy came stumbling to the door, on the inside, and asked the
+boys, through the rough boards, to come in with their lights.
+
+"There's somethin' mighty strange here," he said.
+
+"This may be a trap!" Jack said.  "Shall we go in?"
+
+"We may need this boy as a guide," Frank observed.
+
+"All right, then.  In we go."
+
+There was only one room to the shack, which was of mud, with thick walls
+and a leaky roof.  There was a table, a chair, a heap of clothes in a
+comer, and nothing else, save for a puddle of water on the floor.
+
+Sandy stood in the middle of the floor, his feet in the puddle, when
+Frank's searchlight illumined the bare room.  His eyes were staring in a
+strange way and his face was deadly pale.
+
+"Look there!" he exclaimed, his lips forming the words badly.  "The old
+woman who fed me when I was broke an' sick lies under the clothes,
+stupid from some dope.  The house has been poked over.  I saw a face at
+the little hole in the wall as I came in.  What does it mean?"
+
+Whisperings were heard at the door.  Frank extinguished his light and
+the boys stood in darkness as complete as ever fell since the dawn of
+creation.
+
+"What do you think?" asked Jack, of Frank.
+
+"Looks like a trap."
+
+Sandy sprang forward and seized Frank by the arm, and his voice shook as
+he began.
+
+"No!  It ain't no trap!  I didn't bring you here to get rolled for your
+wads, or anythin' like that.  I stopped here to get me telegraph
+messenger uniform.  I can go anywhere in the city with that on, and not
+be molested. I don't know what this means, but there are Chinks all
+around this house."
+
+"Perhaps you've been followed ever since you left the office," Frank
+suggested.  "Where is your uniform?"
+
+"Gone," replied Sandy, "an' everythin' else I had in that old box in the
+corner."
+
+Frank walked to the door and opened it a trifle.  There was no need to
+open it wider to see what kind of trouble they were in.  In front,
+patient in the downpour, stood six Chinamen.
+
+The flashlight dwelt on the silent row for an instant and was then
+turned off.  Frank closed the door and stood with his back against it.
+
+"Is there another way out?" he asked.
+
+Sandy pointed to a small door at the rear.  Frank opened it a trifle, as
+he had the other, and again the flashlight bored a round hole in the
+night. There were six Chinamen there.
+
+"They mean to keep us here!" Jack cried.  "I'll show them."
+
+"I hear them all around the place," Sandy almost sobbed.  "You'll think
+I brought you here for this.  I didn't!  I'm on the square with you
+boys.  I wanted to help you."
+
+"Perhaps they'll go away soon," Jack suggested.
+
+"Never!" Frank replied.  "This is purely an Oriental shut-in!  They will
+wait out there until the hot summer tans their hides if they are told
+to. The patience of the Orient is something awful to run up against."
+
+"But why?" asked Jack.
+
+"Oh, they got next to me!" Sandy observed.
+
+"They want to keep you from goin' to the assistance of your friends.
+They'll let you go after they've found some mysterious way of disposing
+of the others.  If I could get out, I'd go to the camp."
+
+"Dig around!  There may be some way of getting out.  These slant-eyed
+peoples are slant-eyed in their ways.  There may be a hole under the hut
+that leads somewhere."
+
+"I've seen the woman go down cellar," said Sandy.
+
+"Then you go down cellar," advised Frank, "and see if there is no way
+out from there.  I'm bound to get to Ned and Jimmie if I have to begin
+operations with my gun."
+
+Presently Sandy's voice was heard from below.  He said that he felt a
+current of air, as if there were a passage leading outside.
+
+"Come on down an' see," he said.
+
+The boys went down a steep ladder, after fastening both doors on the
+inside, and soon found themselves on the cellar bottom.  Frank turned on
+his flashlight and looked about.  There was a hole in one of the walls
+which seemed to lead downward, in the direction of the river.
+
+"I'm going to try it," Jack exclaimed, taking out his light.  "When I
+say for you to come on, come a-running."
+
+He said for them to come on in a moment, and Sandy and Frank soon found
+themselves in a square subterranean room which must have been cut near
+the surface and just outside the wall of the hut.  It was a comfortless
+place, and they lost no time in looking for a way out.
+
+"Here it is!" Sandy called out, directly.  "Here is a tunnel.  Say, but
+I never knew about this before.  Come on!"
+
+Frank led, but proceeded only a short distance.  Then his light rested
+on the grinning face of a Chinaman.
+
+The tunnel was guarded.  The boy turned back and looked into the tunnel
+by which they had entered the chamber.  Within a foot of the muzzle of
+his searchlight he saw the grinning face of another Chinaman.
+
+He stepped back to the mouth of the tunnel and motioned Jack to guard
+the exit, explaining, briefly, that they had been trapped, not in a hut
+on the street level, but in a subterranean chamber where they could not
+be heard, and where no one would ever think of looking for them.
+
+"Oh, no," Jack cried, regarding Sandy angrily, "you didn't know anything
+about this--not a thing!  You treacherous dog!"
+
+"I didn't!  I didn't!" shouted the boy.  "Call them men in an' ask them
+if I did."
+
+"You wait a minute," Jack gritted out, "and I'll see if the Chinks will
+stand quiet while I beat their accomplice up!"
+
+"Quit it!" Frank commanded.  "We're in trouble enough now, without
+bringing the Chinks down on us.  I'd give a good deal to know if Ned and
+Jimmie are still alive!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A VANISHING DIPLOMAT
+
+
+Ned turned to the Captain as the men in slate-colored robes lifted their
+hands after the manner of fake mystics the world over.  He was not
+uninterested, but he was anxious.
+
+They were now some distance from the grove in which the camp breakfast
+had been prepared, and the grove, in turn, was some distance from the
+highway. They were also some feet under ground, where any calls for
+assistance that might be necessary would be muffled by the hewn stone
+and the damp air and earth.
+
+Besides, the alleged priests had mapped out this scene before the
+arrival of the boys, as Ned believed.  Therefore they might have half a
+hundred natives within call, prepared to do murder if necessary.
+
+The marines had been ordered by the Captain to gradually surround the
+temple, to guard every entrance that could be discovered, and to force
+their way in if anything of a suspicious nature occurred.  Ned did not
+know the men as well as he knew the Captain, therefore he asked:
+
+"The men will obey your orders to the letter?  You see, we are in a box
+here!"
+
+"They will obey," said the officer.  "What do you make of the mummery
+now going on?"
+
+The "mummery" consisted in slow, gliding motions, in whirlings about
+intended to be graceful, in slow liftings of the hands upward, and in
+the beating of the drums.
+
+"I don't make anything of it," Ned replied.  "I take it they are waiting
+for time.  Perhaps they got us in here with less trouble than they had
+figured on, and are waiting for confederates."
+
+"What a land!" mused the Captain.  "What a way to seek the destruction
+of any enemy!  An Italian would have stabbed us in the back on the way
+in here, a Frenchman would have set a band of bullies upon us in the
+grove, an American would have walked up and made observations with his
+bare fists!"
+
+"This is Oriental!" smiled Ned.  "I wish we were well out of this hole
+in the ground!"
+
+"I see," began the man with the star on the breast of his dirty gown,
+"that you are in trouble of mind concerning the loss of two companions."
+
+"Correct!" shouted the irrepressible Jimmie.  "Come across with them--
+right soon, old hoss!"
+
+"I see," continued the other, not noticing the interruption, "that you
+are here in a weighty matter--a matter affecting the peace of nations."
+
+Jimmie was primed for another outbreak of conversation, but Ned caught
+him by the arm and ordered him to remain silent.
+
+"I see," the alleged seer went on, "that you have met with difficulties
+and perils on the way.  Is this true?"
+
+"All true," Ned answered.
+
+"Then approach.  Enter the holy room and receive instruction which shall
+be of benefit."
+
+Ned hesitated a moment.
+
+"And my friends?" he asked.
+
+"The spirit speaks to but one," was the reply.
+
+"What a lot of rot!" whispered Jimmie.  "You go on, an' I'll be there in
+a second if there is anything like rough house."
+
+With a warning look in the Captain's direction, the boy advanced to the
+platform of rock.  From there he was directed to a door cut in what,
+seemed to be soft earth and framed with timbers.  The timbers were new.
+He saw that at a glance, and drew his own conclusions.
+
+Ned was glad to see that the man who had done all the speaking was the
+only one to accompany him into the side room.  In a contest of muscles,
+he thought he could hold his own pretty well with this fellow.
+
+Ned was prepared for almost anything, but what took place next filled
+him with astonishment.  The room was just a hole out in the earth.  It
+did not appear to have been a part of the old temple.  There were in it
+a board table, roughly put together, two chairs, and a square box,
+perhaps five feet in length by one and a half in the other proportions.
+
+As soon as the door was closed the alleged priest threw aside his
+slate-colored robe, snatched a wig and beard from his head and face,
+and stood forth a handsome man, dressed in the costume of a modern
+Englishman or American.  At first Ned did not recognize the smiling face
+which confronted him.
+
+Then there came to his mind the memory of a time in Canton when he had
+watched a meeting of men he believed to be in conspiracy against his
+country.  This face certainly had been there.
+
+The voice was low, smooth, musical.  Ned stood looking at the subtle
+countenance, but said not a word.
+
+"You are caught at last!" came next.
+
+Still Ned stood silent, saying not a word, only wondering if the time
+for final action had arrived--if the Captain outside was in such peril
+as threatened himself.
+
+"Rather a bright boy," sneered the other, "only not bright enough to
+understand that men of the world are not to be defeated in their
+long-cherished plans by the kindergarten class.  Do you know where your
+two friends are--the two who accompanied you here?"
+
+"I presume that they are quite capable of taking care of themselves,"
+Ned replied.
+
+"They are on the road to a dungeon in Peking."
+
+"From first to last," Ned said, "from my first connection with this case
+up to this hour, I have come upon only bluffers and liars.  You seem to
+be making good in both lines."
+
+"Not so rude, kid," laughed the other.  "You've certainly got nerve to
+address such words to one who holds your life, and the lives of your
+friends, in his hand."
+
+"If you do," Ned said, "if you really have the power of life and death
+you claim to have, there is no hope for any of us."
+
+"Figure it out in your own way," said the other, "but, so far as the
+power of life and death is concerned, you hold the lives of your friends
+in your own hands."
+
+"I understand what you mean," the boy replied, "but I'm not for sale.
+Go ahead with your procession!  Death looks pretty good to me, as
+compared with the disgrace of asking a favor from one of your stripe."
+
+Ned's words, purposely designed to enrage the fellow, struck fire at
+last, and he said what he never would have said in calmer moments.
+
+"I'll show you that death is not so pleasant a thing as you seem to
+imagine!" he almost shouted.  "I'll show you how to learn the lesson of
+supplication!  When the future of a nation is at stake, human lives do
+not count.  What are the lives of a dozen or more to the prosperity of
+millions?  You have information which is needed, in the interest of
+humanity, and even torture shall be resorted to if it can be obtained in
+no other way."
+
+"And so," Ned replied, calmly, "you are not merely a tool.  As I
+supposed, you are one of the men at the head of the conspiracy.  You are
+the man I came upon at Canton.  You are the wretch who is trying to
+involve two continents in war.  Well, I hope to meet you under less
+trying circumstances!"
+
+The other laughed harshly and walked to the door.  Listening with his
+ear against the rough boards for an instant, he opened it a trifle and
+glanced out.  Ned heard sounds of a struggle there, and was about to
+spring forward when his captor faced him with a provoking smile.
+
+"By the way," he said, "I neglected to inform you that one threatening
+movement will mean instant death to you.  I am opposed to any bully-like
+display of weapons, preferring to discuss this question with you without
+coercion, but I took the precaution to place a rifleman at an opening in
+one of the walls of this room.  He has you 'covered,' as the saying is,
+and so it is advisable for you to remain passive."
+
+"What is going on out there?" demanded Ned.
+
+"Your people seem to be protesting against leaving the place under
+escort," laughed the other.  "The two you left at the camp in the
+cornfield were not so hard to control."
+
+"You seem to have a good knowledge of a our movements," said Ned.  "You
+have a spy system well in hand here."
+
+"That is refreshing, as coming from the mouth of a spy," retorted the
+other.  "If you are ready to talk business," he added, closing the door,
+"I am ready to make a proposition."
+
+"If your time and your breath are worth anything," the boy replied, "you
+may as well save both."
+
+"You have possession of certain documents taken from a certain wreck in
+the Pacific Ocean?"
+
+Ned made no reply.
+
+"You possess certain information concerning an alleged plot."
+
+Still no response from the boy.
+
+"Without you, your government can make no headway in the investigation
+now on foot."
+
+Ned dropped into a chair and turned his face away with a well assumed
+air of indifference.  Really, he was anxious for the man to go on, to
+say just how important were the papers and the information.
+
+"We have it in our power to prevent the information you possess ever
+reaching your government, but the documents you have we cannot get in
+the usual way.  Therefore we are offering you terms."
+
+"Naturally," Ned smiled.
+
+"Promise to restore the papers and forever remain silent as to what you
+have learned since you undertook this case, and you shall all go free,
+with more money than you ever dreamed of having in your hands."
+
+"You have not stated the case fully," Ned said, when the other
+concluded, with a superior air.  "You have not mentioned a certain
+alleged diplomat. You want me to forget all that he has said and done in
+the matter."
+
+"Naturally. I said that you were to forget everything connected with the
+case."
+
+"I prefer," Ned replied, "to see you on the gallows for murder."
+
+The other started violently.
+
+"Then this is final?"
+
+There came a sound resembling the report of firearms from the outer
+room. At the same time Ned caught a movement behind the south wall of
+the room. The gunman mentioned by the diplomat was evidently leaving his
+post for the purpose of joining in any struggle which might be taking
+place.
+
+The boy thought fast for a moment.  If the marines had fought their way
+into the outer room they would soon be knocking at the rough door that
+separated the two apartments.  In that case the man before him would do
+one of two things.
+
+He would try to fight his way out of the room, or he would try to escape
+by some exit not at that time in sight.  In the first instance he might
+wound or kill one or more of the marines.  In the latter, he might be
+able to conceal himself in some underground passage and finally escape.
+
+It seemed to Ned that the one thing for him to do was to attack the
+fellow and endeavor to disarm him.  The noises of conflict in the outer
+room grew more distinct, and Ned, observing that the diplomat was
+glancing restlessly about, as if seeking some means of escape, sprang
+upon him.
+
+Instead of turning and defending himself, the fellow struggled to
+release himself from the boy's hold, and to make his way toward a
+section of the wall on the south.  The statement that a rifleman had
+been stationed somewhere there now came back to the boy's mind, and he
+knew that there must be a passage behind that wall.
+
+The man with whom Ned was struggling was evidently unarmed, for he
+fought only with his hands and feet.  He tried by all the tricks known
+to wrestlers to break away from the boy, or to hurl him to the floor,
+but Ned had skill as well as strength, and all such efforts proved
+unavailing.
+
+While this silent struggle was going on, the rough door came crashing in
+and a score of Chinamen, evidently fleeing from an enemy, rushed in and
+flocked toward that south wall.  Ned and his enemy were trampled under
+foot for a moment, then the room was clear save for a half dozen marines
+who stood in the doorway, their smoking guns in their hands.
+
+Ned's head whirled from a blow he had received, and there was a numb
+feeling in one of his arms, but he arose to his feet and glanced around.
+Jimmie stood with the marines, a grin on his freckled face.
+
+"Gee whiz!" he shouted, "how that man did go!"
+
+"Which man?" demanded Ned.  "Why didn't some one follow him?"
+
+"He just went through that wall," Jimmie answered.  "When I tried to
+follow him I bumped me nose!  Say, but he went right through that old
+wall!"
+
+"Where did the Chinks go?" asked Ned.
+
+"Down through the floor!" was the reply.  "But, say, did you ever see
+anythin' like that vanishin' priest?  I'll bet a pie he's forty miles
+away right this minute."
+
+When Ned and the marines took up the search for the diplomat and the
+Chinese, it did seem that they were forty miles away!  There were
+numerous passages under the old temple, and in these the fugitives must
+have hidden.
+
+"How did you know?" asked Ned of the marines who had broken into the
+underground rooms.  "How did you know there was danger inside?"
+
+"That little imp of a Jimmie," one of the men said, "came to the
+entrance and shouted fit to wake the dead.  They were trying to carry
+the Captain and the kid away.  Bright boy, that!"
+
+Two of the marines had been slightly wounded by knives in the hands of
+the Chinese, but they declared themselves quite well enough to go on
+with the journey.
+
+"The Chinks didn't fight," one of them said.  "They just threw knives
+and ran!  We never hit one of them!  Sheep, that's what they are!  Just
+sheep!"
+
+"Well," Ned said, "we've lost our chance on the road to Peking, the
+fellow we want having escaped, so we must go ahead and set the rat trap
+once more."
+
+"You'll walk if you do," one of the marines said, showing from the
+outside, "for the Chinks have made off with the motorcycles!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SANDY PROVES HIS CASE
+
+
+"They'll be dead if you don't get out of here an' do somethin'!" said
+Sandy.  "The Chinks'll eat 'em up!"
+
+Frank looked around the dismal subterranean chamber and a cynical smile
+came to his lips.
+
+"We might get out of here," he said, "if we had a ton of dynamite.  I
+don't know but I'd take a chance on getting injured myself in order to
+see these Chinks sailing into the sky."
+
+Jack, still suspicious of Sandy, turned toward him with a frown.  The
+lad met the other's eyes steadily.
+
+"Do you know the way out of this?" Jack asked.
+
+"No," admitted the boy.  "Never was in here before.  Never knew there
+was such a place."
+
+"Well," Jack went on, "the longer we remain here the longer we'll be in
+finding our chums.  I'm going to make a break."
+
+"If you have a gun," Sandy said, calmly, "I'll go ahead with it.  If I
+get plugged, or anythin' like that, you boys may be able to get away.
+These Chinks are quick to run if there is danger ahead, and I think I
+can scare them off.  Give me the gun!"
+
+Sandy reached out his hand, but Frank did not extend the gun he had
+taken from his pocket.
+
+"You're nervy, all right," he said, "but you don't have to take all the
+risk.  Suppose we wait until daylight and then make a rush?"
+
+"Why daylight?" asked Jack.
+
+"There may then be some friendly face in sight, if we are able to get to
+the street."
+
+"There's force in that," Jack replied, "but this is no palace car to
+wait in."
+
+"You let me go and try," Sandy urged.
+
+Frank shook his head gravely.
+
+"No use," he said.  "There are probably a score or more of Chinks around
+this old shack.  We've got to wait until morning before we try to get
+away. The only question in my mind is this: Will they let us alone until
+daylight?  If they don't, then it will be a scrap."
+
+The boys sat down against the earth wall of the chamber and waited.  Now
+and then they could hear whispers in a tongue they could not understand.
+Occasionally they heard a wagon creaking along the distant street.  Then
+they knew that the doors connecting the mud hut with the outer world
+were open.
+
+"I wonder if old Chee is still asleep from the dope?" Sandy asked, after
+a long time had passed.
+
+"Why did they dope her?" asked Jack.  "I don't see any nourishment for
+them in that."
+
+"Guess they thought I'd be apt to help you boys," Sandy replied, "and
+made up their minds to catch me and chuck me away somewhere.  Chee's a
+nervy old lady, an' probably scrapped when they searched for me.  I'd
+like to help her."
+
+"Why do you call her Chee?"
+
+"Because she's so cheerful, an' because I don't know her name," was the
+reply.
+
+"It must be pretty near dawn," Jack said, after a long silence, with a
+prodigious yawn.
+
+Frank looked at his watch and found that it was six o'clock.  It had
+been a long night.  The sun would rise shortly after six.
+
+Five minutes later sounds of trouble of a physical nature were heard
+along the tunnel by which the chamber had been reached.  There were
+blows, grunts, and ejaculations of rage.  Then they heard a voice they
+knew:
+
+"Donner!  I make your face preak!  Come py mine punch of fives.  Oh, you
+loaver!"
+
+"Hans!" cried Jack.  "How the Old Harry did he get here?"
+
+"He'll soon be able to tell you himself," Frank said, "if he keeps on
+coming."
+
+Indeed, the German's voice came nearer every instant, nearer and more
+emphatic.  He was panting, too, and the sound of blows reached the ears
+of the listening boys.
+
+"Get in there!"
+
+The words were spoken in English, but not by Hans.
+
+"There's that gink who rounded us up back in Taku," exclaimed Jack.  "He
+seems to be winning all the tricks.  I wonder how he got hold of Hans?"
+
+"I thought Dutchy was back with the submarine," Frank replied.  "How he
+got to Tientsin is a mystery to me."
+
+The next moment Hans' broad face, now red from anger and exertion,
+appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, looking like a full moon, and then
+his bulky figure was projected violently into the chamber.  He scrambled
+in on his knees, but arose instantly and swung his fists in the
+direction of the tunnel, shouting imprecations on some out-of-sight
+person.
+
+There were numerous cuts and bruises on his face from which blood was
+oozing, and his clothing was torn and dirty, as if it had been dragged
+through the mud.
+
+"Loaver!  Loaver!" he shouted, still shaking his clenched fist at the
+entrance.  "Vait a liddle, yet!  I eats dern alife!"
+
+"I wish you would!" cried Jack.
+
+"Give me a bite while you are at it," Sandy cut in.
+
+Hans gazed around in bewilderment for a time, and then his face
+brightened as he caught sight of Frank and Jack.  It did not take the
+lads long to arrive at a mutual understanding of the happenings of the
+night.
+
+Hans had been followed from the place where he had left the other boys
+and captured.  He did not know what had become of Ned and the others any
+more than Frank and Jack did.
+
+His story brought some relief to the others, for it was presumable that
+their chums were now well on their way to Peking.  Once there, the
+imprisoned lads knew that every effort for their release would be made--
+then the whole power of the United States government, through the
+ambassador, would be exerted in their behalf.
+
+"But what's the use of all that," Jack asked, grumblingly--for he was
+getting hungry!  "What's the use of all that if the Chinks sit out there
+like blooming cigar-store images and never give a hint as to where we
+are? We are likely to starve before the American ambassador can act with
+success."
+
+Hans rubbed his stomach protectingly.
+
+"Empty!" he said.  "I could eats a Schinks!"
+
+"Eat one for me," advised Jack.
+
+Sandy, who had been listening in silence to the explanations which had
+been made, now asked:
+
+"How many Chinks are there out there?"
+
+"Army!" answered Hans.
+
+This was discouraging, for, as has already been stated, the boys were
+meditating a rush as soon as the city was astir.  They did not
+anticipate much help from bystanders, even if they should gain the
+street, but they knew that such a ruction as they would be able to put
+up would attract the attention of the authorities, and so bring the
+matter before the courts.
+
+While they talked the chances over, another breeze of trouble blew in
+from the entrance tunnel.  An argument of some kind was in progress
+between the men stationed there.
+
+Sandy moved forward to the mouth of the dark hole and listened.  The
+argument was being carried on in the language of the country, but now
+and then a few words in English were heard.
+
+"I tell you they got away, slick and clean!" the Englishman said, as
+Sandy listened.
+
+A mumbling of native talk, and then another sentence:
+
+"And some one will be here directly."
+
+Jack, who had heard the words, turned to Frank with a grin.
+
+"Is that a promise or a threat?" he asked.
+
+"I think our friends are coming," Frank replied.
+
+"They can never find us in this hole," Jack complained.  "Suppose we
+make a little noise?"
+
+"If they are headed this way, they know where we are," Frank said, "and
+it seems as if we ought to wait for them.".
+
+"I'll starve!" muttered Jack.  "I could eat a fried telegraph pole, and
+like it!"
+
+"I eat since yesterday only plue sky!" Hans contributed.  "My pelly
+makes argument mit my konscience!  But?"
+
+Sandy sat dejectedly by the wall and said nothing.  He knew that he was
+still suspected of leading the boys into the trap in which they now
+found themselves, and was studying over plans to assist them out and at
+the same time establish his innocence.
+
+It seemed to the lads that a whole day passed without a single thing to
+break the monotony, but Frank's watch insisted that it was only eleven
+o'clock.  It was dark most of the time in the chamber, for the boys were
+saving of their flashlight batteries.
+
+Finally one of the plans which had been slowly maturing in Sandy's brain
+brought the lad into action.  Noiselessly he crept away from the little
+group and moved on his hands and knees, along the tunnel leading to the
+cellar of the old mud house.
+
+He reasoned that that point would not be so closely guarded as the exit
+would be; also that Ned and his companions, if they returned to the city
+in quest of the boys and sought the mud house, would be more apt to be
+watching the house itself than the exit, which was some distance away
+from the road.
+
+After proceeding a few feet, Sandy stopped and listened.  There were no
+indications of human presence in the tunnel ahead, or in the cellar,
+which was not far away now, and from which a faint light shone.
+
+When the boy reached the entrance to the cellar he saw three Chinamen
+lying on the earth floor, either asleep or under the influence of opium.
+It did not take the lad long to make up his mind as to which one of the
+causes, sleep or opium, had put his guards off their guard.
+
+There was a strong odor of opium in the cellar, and a closer examination
+of the place showed him that the watchmen had been "hitting the pipe,"
+as the boys on South Clark street, Chicago, would have expressed it.
+However, the way did not seem to be clear, for there were soft footsteps
+on the patch of board floor which covered a part of the cellar, and then
+a Chinaman backed down the ladder.
+
+He came down slowly and stood for an instant on the cellar floor before
+looking around.  When at last he saw the men asleep on the floor he
+muttered some jargon which Sandy could not understand and turned back to
+the ladder again.
+
+Sandy believed that the man he saw was the only one the "pipe" had left
+on guard.  If he could prevent him reaching the street, he might be able
+to get the other boys out of the trap in which they had been caught.
+
+The Chinaman seemed large and strong, but Sandy would have taken even
+greater chances in order to convince the boys that he was not their
+enemy, so he sprang upon him.  The struggle was a desperate one for a
+time, for Sandy was not very strong as compared with his opponent, and
+the man he was fighting with fought viciously.
+
+Sandy did not dare cry out to the boys in the chamber for help, for that
+might bring other enemies into the fight.  The only way seemed to be to
+conquer the Chinaman and then get the boys into the street as silently
+as possible.  Once there, they would have little difficulty in making
+their way out of the city.
+
+It is quite probable that Sandy would have come off second best in the
+encounter if Jack had not heard the racket the two made and came into
+the cellar with a bound.  The two boys soon had the Chinaman down and
+well tied up.
+
+"You're a brick, Sandy," Jack said, as the boys faced each other in the
+dim light.  "While we sat in there waiting for some one to get us out,
+you got a move on and did something!  Say," he added, with a grin,
+"ain't this tie-up game getting stale?  Suppose we knock this fellow on
+the head?  He may get away if we don't.  And these others?  Think they
+are sufficiently soused with opium?"
+
+"They won't make any trouble for a long time," Sandy answered.  "It is a
+wonder they got into such a trance!  There must have been something
+stronger than opium in their pipes."
+
+"Didn't know there was anything meaner than opium," Jack said.
+
+"There is a drug that is used by old soaks after the poppy stuff gets
+too mild for them," replied Sandy.  "Perhaps these men got some of that.
+Keep quiet, boys!"
+
+This last as Frank and Hans came through the tunnel and stood staring at
+the men on the floor and their chums.
+
+"Who did it?" asked Frank.
+
+"Sandy did it!" answered Jack.  "Ain't he the broth of a lad?  Sure he's
+the goods."
+
+"Perhaps we'd better be getting out," Sandy observed.  "I hear some one
+upstairs.  They're comin' down here, too."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+WHY ESCAPE WAS SO EASY
+
+
+As Sandy finished speaking two figures dropped down the ladder, not
+stopping to descend rung by rung.  As they landed on the floor the boys
+sprang toward them, ready to make a battle for their liberty.  Then came
+another surprise.
+
+Instead of making hostile demonstrations, the two newcomers, Chinamen so
+far as appearances went, threw up their hands and dropped back against
+the wall.  Then shouts of laughter echoed through the place.
+
+Directly the newcomers seemed to forget to keep their hands up, for they
+gripped their waists with them and roared.  There was something about
+the laughter, too, which was not at all like the Orient.
+
+"Go it!" Jack exclaimed.
+
+"Have your fun before we come to settlement with you," Frank threatened.
+
+"Let me soak heem!" Hans pleaded.
+
+Sandy stood by with wonder showing in his face.
+
+"What kind of a play house is this?" he asked.  And still the others
+laughed, bending over, now, and covering their faces with their hands.
+The change from tragedy to comedy had been so sudden that for a time the
+boys did nothing at all to solve the mystery of the sudden outbreak of
+laughter.
+
+Then Frank stepped closer and peered down at the larger of the two
+figures. Then he turned his searchlight on the bowed head.
+
+Then a smile came over his face and he reached out a hand and took the
+bobbing pigtail into his hand and gave it a quick jerk.  The result was
+amazing.
+
+The pigtail came away in his hand, and with it a bunch of coarse hair
+and an odor!
+
+"Look here, kids!" Frank cried.  "Look who's here!"
+
+It was Ned, and the shaking figure by his side was that of Jimmie.  In a
+moment both were out of their disguises and making an inspection of the
+tunnels and the underground chamber.
+
+"You've got Herlock Sholmes beaten to a frazzle," said Jack, as Ned
+stooped over to examine the knocked-out Chinamen.
+
+"How did you do it?" demanded Frank.  "We thought you were on the road
+to Peking until we heard some of the Chinks talking, not long after
+daybreak, then we thought you might be in trouble."
+
+"It was long after daybreak when we mixed with the bunch," Jimmie
+answered. "Anythin' you heard before eight o'clock was fright an' not
+fact."
+
+Sandy was now presented and his share in the adventures of the night
+given proper recognition.
+
+"I thought he was a sneak at first," Jack explained, "but he showed us
+the way out in the end."
+
+"What did you go an' sit down there an' wait for?" asked Jimmie.  "Why
+didn't you get a move on?"
+
+"They did the very thing they should have done," Ned remarked.  "If they
+had tried to fight their way out they might have been killed,' as there
+was, I am told, a strong guard here at daybreak."
+
+"But how did you get here?" asked Frank.
+
+"When we got out of the old temple," Ned replied, "we had no motorcycles
+to go on with, so we came back to hunt up more.  There was little use in
+going on by any way other than the one mapped out for us.
+
+"The scamp we almost captured had been kind enough to tell us that you
+boys were in trouble and perhaps that had something to do with our
+coming back."
+
+"But how did you get here?"
+
+"Easy," laughed Ned.  "We knew that you boys had been captured, and it
+was easy to see who had had a hand in it.  The people at the telegraph
+office would know more about the matter than any one else.
+
+"So we went to the American consulate and got into these disguises.  The
+consul says he never saw anything smoother, though he must be prejudiced
+in our favor, for he helped get up the disguises himself.
+
+"Then we went to the vicinity of the telegraph office and waited.  In a
+moment we saw that something unusual was going on.  Directly a messenger
+started off in this direction and we followed him.  I knew then, as well
+as I know it now, that you boys had been detained in the hope of keeping
+us all out of Peking, so I bought some strong opium on the way and doped
+the pipes of the guards after I mixed with them."
+
+"How could you mix with them?" asked Jack.  "You know about as much
+Chinese as a robin."
+
+"Oh, they thought we were sullen brutes sent down from their
+headquarters, and took us into their confidence all right.  We were just
+ready to explore the underground places when we heard the scrap below."
+
+"And now what?" asked Frank.
+
+"Now, we're goin' to Peking!" cried Jimmie.
+
+"You said that before!" Jack taunted.
+
+"Well, we didn't get tied up in a hole we couldn't get out of," retorted
+the little fellow.
+
+"I guess you'd have been in the old temple until now if you hadn't
+traveled with an escort," Jack cut in.
+
+The boys, laughing and "roasting" each other, passed up the ladder and
+to the half earthen, half-board floor of the mud hut.  There they found
+the woman Chee moving about with a swollen face.
+
+She tried to talk with Ned, but as neither could understand what the
+other said, little progress was made.  However, she finally managed to
+make Ned understand that she wanted him to take the unconscious men out
+of the cellar, also the man who had been tied up by Jack and Sandy.
+
+Ned finally made her understand that she could call the police half an
+hour after their departure.  This seemed to satisfy her, and the piece
+of silver Ned presented was received with many gestures of gratitude.
+
+"Won't the finding of them men there get her into trouble?" asked Sandy,
+as the lads walked away.
+
+"I'll explain the matter to the American consul," answered Ned, "and ask
+him to inform the authorities.  You see, these people who are making us
+all this trouble are about as afraid of the officers as they are of us.
+The government is keeping a sharp lookout for the revolutionary leaders,
+and some are captured every day."
+
+"What do they do with them?" asked Jack.
+
+"They are never heard of again."
+
+"Murdered?  Without trial?"
+
+"That is the belief."
+
+"Then why don't we ask this good, wise, benevolent, sane, and all the
+rest of it government to keep the revolutionary party off Uncle Sam?"
+asked Jack.  "We represent Uncle Samuel, you know."
+
+"Because," was the reply, "there are spies in every branch and
+department of the government.  While the traitors who are serving the
+government while seeking its destruction may not be powerful enough to
+secure the release of such confederates as are caught, they are
+undoubtedly able to send out reports calculated to assist their party."
+
+"And every move we made under the protection of the Chinese government
+would be noted and reported," mused Jack.  "I see how it is!  Guess the
+people at Washington knew what they were about when they issued
+instructions regarding the trip to Peking."
+
+"Yes, I think they did," Ned replied.  "Observe how they tested us.  We
+did not know about the cablegram at the office here when we started on
+our long ride.  If we had weakened in any way we never should have known
+about it, but would have been ordered back home."
+
+"Land flowing with milk and honey, and breakfast foods, and choice beef
+cuts at a dollar a pound!" Jack exclaimed now.  "Are we never going to
+get anything to eat?"
+
+"I haf one vacancy!" observed Hans, laying a hand on his stomach.  "I
+haf a misery!"
+
+"You had a good breakfast, Jack!" reproved Frank.
+
+"What!  Where!  What was it?  Yes, I haf a breakfast two days ago.  This
+morning I haf cellar air for breakfast.  It isn't nourishing.  Where is
+there an eatery?"
+
+Before long Ned stopped at a little tea house where an American sign
+hung in a window, and the boys ordered such viands as the place
+afforded.  It was not much of a meal, as Jack insisted, but just a
+teaser for a dinner which would be procured later on.
+
+"Where are the marines?" asked Frank, as he and Ned seated themselves at
+a little table apart from the others.
+
+"Encamped in the grove," was the reply.
+
+"They will not be attacked there?" asked Frank, in some amazement.
+
+"Certainly not.  All Chinamen hate us, but we are safe except when the
+revolutionists take a hand in the game.  The marines are probably
+surrounded by a crowd of sullen curiosity seekers, but they will not be
+molested unless the revolutionists decide to take another chance with
+them."
+
+"And the machines are gone for good?"
+
+"No, the American consul is getting them back, or was when I left his
+office, one by one.  The men who were fighting were too frightened to
+take the machines with them, but the mob got them.  They were taken by
+individual thieves, and will soon be restored."
+
+"We ought to have come over in our aeroplane," smiled Frank.
+
+"That would have defeated our purpose," Ned replied.  "We are here to
+catch the leaders of this conspiracy, and the only way we can do it is
+to wait until they show themselves.
+
+"Just see how foolish they are!" Ned went on.  "If they had been content
+to wait, to manufacture such evidence as they needed to show their
+innocence, we could never have located them.  They would have lied us
+out of countenance if we charged any one man with being the leader, or
+any one nation with fostering the conspiracy.
+
+"But they tried to make a clean record for themselves by wiping us off
+the face of the earth and so showed themselves to us.  I am told by
+police officers that if criminals would keep away from women, away from
+the scenes of their crimes, and keep their mouths shut when given the
+famous--and disgraceful--third degree, not one in twenty would ever be
+convicted."
+
+"Well," Frank said, "here's hoping that the man we want will come within
+reach again!"
+
+After breakfast the boys headed for the American consulate, where they
+found the machines which had been stolen.
+
+"That was quick work," Ned congratulated.  "How did you do it?"
+
+The consul laughed.
+
+"Why," he replied, "you might as well try to bide a fifty story building
+in China as one of those machines!  The natives believe the devil is in
+them!"
+
+"I've known Americans to express the same opinion," laughed Frank.
+
+While they talked with the consul a message was brought him from the
+telegraph office.  It read:
+
+"Report progress."
+
+Ned laughed.
+
+"Nothing to report but disaster," he said.
+
+"Well," the consul replied, "we expected something of the kind.  You
+have gained the very point we expected you to gain.  You know exactly
+who is at the head of this mess.  Thinking he had you where you would
+never get away, he talked too much."
+
+"I think I should know him in any disguise," Ned said.  "I should know
+him anywhere, and under any circumstances.  Do you think he would have
+kept faith with me if I had given up the documents and promised never to
+implicate either his country or himself in the trouble?"
+
+"Certainly not.  The fact that he revealed himself to you shows that he
+meant to have you murdered there.  Only for the marines breaking in just
+as they did, it would have been all off with you, my boy."
+
+"He must be a treacherous old chap!" Ned commented.
+
+"His life and everything he loves is at stake."
+
+"Then he should have kept out of the mess!  Why should he want to get us
+into a war?"
+
+"My boy," replied the consul, "we are sure to have a war with some great
+European nation before many years."
+
+"Because the people are getting too thick over here.  Because they are
+going to America in droves.  Because the governments of Europe desire to
+retain control of their people after they leave the confines of their
+own countries.  They want English, German, Russian, Italian, French
+colonies held under their hand instead of a mass of their subjects doing
+reverence to a foreign flag."
+
+"And they will fight for that?"
+
+"Of course.  The only way we can keep out of a great and disastrous war
+is to abandon the Philippines, throw our island possessions to the dogs,
+and tumble the Monroe doctrine into the sea.  Then these foreign nations
+can buy, steal, or conquer all South and Central America.  We don't want
+the land there, and we can't afford to fight for the dagoes who live
+there."
+
+"There is too much jingo in our country to ever do what you suggest,"
+Ned suggested.
+
+"I'm afraid you are right," the consul replied.  "But now to business.
+Get your machines here and mount them!  You are to leave for Peking
+to-night."
+
+"And I'll not come back until I reach the town!" declared the boy.
+
+"By the way," said the consul, "where are the papers you took from the
+captain of the Shark--the boat you fought with your submarine?"
+
+"I have them here," was the reply.
+
+"Better leave them in my safe."
+
+Ned consented to this, and later, on the march to Peking, he was very
+glad that he had done.
+
+At twilight the boys joined the flying squadron, and were all off for
+the imperial city, little suspecting that the perils before them were
+greater than any they had encountered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A BIT OF SEALING WAX
+
+
+The night grew clearer as the flying squadron advanced toward the
+imperial city of China.  The roads were rough in places, but the superb
+machines carried the boys and their companions at good speed.
+
+It may well be imagined that the party created something of a sensation
+as it whirled along.  The constant popping of the engines, the strong
+lights which flashed ahead, and the voices of the marines brought many a
+sleepy-faced Chinaman to the door of his home.
+
+Now and then the boys were hailed from the roadside, but little
+attention was paid to these calls.  Finally, however, a voice addressed
+the party in English.
+
+"Where are you going?" it asked.
+
+Ned instructed the Captain to proceed a few paces with his company and
+then halted to see what manner of man it was that spoke to him in that
+tongue. He found an old Chinaman, a wise-looking old fellow with a keen
+face, leaning over a rude gate in front of a small house.
+
+"Did you speak?" he asked, advancing to the gate.
+
+"I did," was the reply.  "I was curious to know where you were going in
+the middle of the night."
+
+"You speak English remarkably well," Ned said, not in any hurry to
+satisfy the old fellow's curiosity.
+
+"I ought to," was the reply.  "I have just come back from New York.  I
+owned a laundry there for a good many years."
+
+"And have returned to China to live in peace and comfort?"
+
+"I don't know about the peace," replied the Chinaman, with a sigh.
+
+"You think there will be a war?"
+
+The Chinaman nodded.
+
+"The coming revolt," he declared, "was conceived more than two hundred
+years ago.  For fifty years organization has been going on.  For six
+years the revolutionists have been working as a whole."
+
+"And they are strong?" asked Ned.
+
+"Wherever in the world Chinamen live, in New York, Chicago, San
+Francisco, Boston, London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, anywhere, everywhere,
+there are funds being collected for the coming civil war."
+
+Ned wanted to ask the loquacious old fellow what his private ideas about
+the justice of the struggle were, but he decided not to do so.  He
+thought he might find out in another way.
+
+"And the revolutionists will win?" he asked.
+
+"God forbid!" was the reply, and the boy had the answer he thought he
+would receive.
+
+Still, he was not satisfied that the old fellow was telling the exact
+truth regarding his sentiments.  It was the revolutionists he had to
+battle with, and not the federalists.  This retired laundryman might
+know that!
+
+"Anyway," the boy thought, "the fellow seems desirous of keeping me here
+as long as possible.  This, of course, may be because of a desire for
+the companionship of one of the race he has lived with so long, but I do
+not think so."
+
+Pretending to be deeply interested in what the Chinaman was saying, he
+excused himself for a moment and beckoned to Jimmie.
+
+"Lead your motorcycle noiselessly up that rise of ground," he directed,
+"and when you get there keep your eyes wide open."
+
+"What for?" demanded the boy.
+
+"For whatever comes in sight," replied Ned.  "Keep the line of vision
+from this house to whatever may be beyond unimpaired if it is possible
+to do so. If you observe anything unusual, report to me."
+
+"All righto!" cried the boy.
+
+Ned saw Jimmie making a noiseless progress up the little hill and turned
+back to the man at the gate.  Instantly the latter offered refreshments,
+for the entire party, and seemed disappointed when the offer was
+declined.
+
+"You're going to Peking on business?" the Chinaman finally asked.
+
+"Yes," was the short answer.
+
+"Why do you ride in the night?"
+
+"Because we must get there in the morning."
+
+"But there is another day."
+
+"Always there is another day in the Far East," Ned smiled, "but we of
+the West count only on what we can do before that other day arrives."
+
+The two talked on for half an hour, while the marines muttered
+complaints and Frank and Jack rolled themselves in blankets and tried to
+pay a visit to Dreamland.  The previous night had been a hard one, and
+they felt the need of more rest than they had been able to get during
+the afternoon.
+
+After a time Ned became anxious.  He had sent Jimmie on ahead with the
+notion that something was going to happen there within a short time.
+But all was still about the house and the small fields which surrounded
+it. Jimmie did not return.
+
+"I wonder if the little scamp is in trouble again?" thought Ned.
+
+This seemed to be the natural solution of the puzzle of his long
+absence, and Ned was about to send Frank on after him when the little
+fellow came up to him.
+
+"The Captain wants you to get a move on," the boy said.
+
+Ned saw that Jimmie had something to say to him which was not for the
+ears of the Chinaman, and walked away, followed by the urgent voice of
+the former laundryman, who besought him to return and partake of
+refreshments.
+
+"In honor of old New York!" he added.
+
+"Gee!" Jimmie muttered, as the boys stood alone together.  "I was
+thinkin' I'd struck the fourth of July."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Up on the hill."
+
+"So, they were using rockets?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where did they ascend from?"
+
+"From the other side of the hill, at this end, and from an old house at
+the other end."
+
+Ned stood for a moment without speaking.  So the Chinaman had been
+holding him in conversation while his tools had been signaling to some
+one farther up the road!
+
+This was practically what he had suspected.  From the first he had
+believed that the old fellow's purpose was to hold him there as long as
+possible.
+
+Signals would naturally be the outgrowth of such a plan, and Ned had
+sent Jimmie on ahead--silently--in order to see where the other party
+answered the signals from, if they were answered at all.  As from the
+opening of the case, he had planned to secure his information from his
+enemies--from their actions and their presence or absence from the
+position he occupied.
+
+Directing the marines to follow on slowly, Ned awoke Frank and Jack.
+The four climbed the hill slowly, watching the sky as they advanced.
+The clouds lay low to the east, but in the west was a patch of clear
+sky.
+
+When they gained the summit of the rise, they saw a light in a little
+grove some distance away.  It seemed like a lantern moving out and in
+among the trees.
+
+"There," Jimmie explained, "when I got to the top of the hill, I saw a
+rocket shoot out of that thicket.  It did not ascend the sky, but follow
+the line of the earth and died out in the road."
+
+"Of course," Ned said.  "A rocket sent up in the usual way would have
+been visible from where we were standing."
+
+"And, in a minute," the boy went on, "there came a rocket from that
+house, the house where the light was a minute ago.  That, too, followed
+the ground line."
+
+"Talking together in low tones!" grinned Jack.
+
+"They were talkin' together, all right," Jimmie said.
+
+"Dollars to dumplings," Frank exclaimed, "that the funny chap we met in
+the old mud house at Taku has a room in that shack."
+
+"He might have been hiding there," Ned said.
+
+"An' that old stiff signaled to him to make his getaway?" asked the
+little fellow.
+
+"Looks like it," Ned replied.
+
+"Huh!" Jack objected.  "The signals might have told the men at the other
+end of the line to get their soldiers out and bump us off the
+continent."
+
+"Which idea," responded Frank, "causes me to want to approach that house
+with all due caution and respect."
+
+"Suppose we four surround it," suggested Jimmie.
+
+"That's the idea!" Jack commented.
+
+"Just what I was about to propose," said Wed.  "We'll leave the marines
+within call and go up to this temporary signal station and see what
+about it."
+
+The Captain was communicated with, and then the four left the road and
+moved around toward the rear of the house, keeping in the shadows of the
+trees.  Not until they reached the very door of the place were there any
+signs of life there.
+
+The lantern they had observed from a distance was seen no more.  The
+windows were dark and silent.  But when they came to the door they found
+it unlocked.
+
+As the crude latch was lifted, with a very slight creaking sound, a
+movement was heard inside, and then a heavy body was heard striking the
+ground at the rear.  Then a was as silent as before.
+
+"Someone jumped out of a window!" Jimmie whispered.  "I hope he broke
+his crust!"
+
+There was to be no defense of the place, then!  Whoever the inmates had
+been, they were deserting the house.
+
+Ned stationed Frank and Jack at the front and moved around to the rear
+with Jimmie close behind.  A rustle in the undergrowth told him that the
+former occupants of the place were still about.
+
+Jimmie darted in the direction of the noise, but was back again in a
+minute.
+
+"Might as well try to chase a ghost!" he said.
+
+"Got clear away, did he?" asked Ned.
+
+"You know it!" grunted the little fellow.
+
+Frank and Jack were now heard in the house, and the rays of a
+searchlight showed at a window, showed very faintly in cracks, for there
+was a heavy wooden shutter to the window on the inside.  Ned tried the
+rear door.  It was not locked and he entered.
+
+The house was deserted, but it was not unfurnished.  Indeed, articles of
+furniture scattered about the rooms, which were in great disorder,
+denoted not only wealth but a refined taste.
+
+There were velvet rugs on the floors and great easy chairs and lounging
+divans.  A pantry revealed unwashed dishes, showing that food had been
+served there recently.
+
+"Who was it that ran away?" asked Jack, as the boys met.
+
+"A ghost!" replied Jimmie.  "I chased him until he hid in a tree."
+
+"Why didn't you pull him out?" grinned Jack.
+
+"Because he turned into a green cow with purple wings!" the little
+fellow replied.
+
+Jack whirled his arms around in the manner of one turning a crank and
+laughed.  The boys delighted in such by-play.
+
+"If it's all the same to you, boys," Frank was now heard saying, "I'll
+just devour such few things as are left here.  I see a ham and a box of
+canned vegetables.  Must have intended a long stop here, whoever he
+was."
+
+Leaving the boys to search the remainder of the house, Ned entered what
+had evidently been a reading room and turned on his light.  The room was
+handsomely decorated, and there were scores of books lying around on
+tables and chairs.
+
+Calling to the boys, he directed them to bring up the marines and
+station them around the house.
+
+"I want to know that I'll not be disturbed," he said.
+
+"Found somethin'?" asked Jimmie.
+
+"Look at the books," Ned replied.
+
+Jimmie read half a dozen titles and cast the volumes aside.
+
+"They don't look good to me," he said.  "All about international law and
+treaties!"
+
+"Exactly!" Ned said, and then Jimmie opened his eyes.
+
+"I'll bet there's been some of them statesmen livin' here!" the little
+fellow almost whispered.  "Say, do you think you have run 'em down at
+last?"
+
+"I don't know, son," was the reply.  "Look on that table and see what
+you discover."
+
+"Bits of torn paper an' some red wax."
+
+"The paper," Ned explained, "is parchment, such as is used in important
+official transactions, and the wax is of the kind used by lawyers and
+diplomats.  Here is a seal!"
+
+Ned's face turned pale as he looked at the seal.  Could it be possible
+that the nation to which it belonged had been engaged in this
+conspiracy?  It did not seem possible.
+
+Ned put the telltale seal away in his pocket without permitting Jimmie
+to see it and picked up some loose pieces of sealing wax which lay on
+the table near where the seal had been found.
+
+"Do you see the fine work done with the seal which made this
+impression?" Ned asked.
+
+"Fine seal!" Jimmie replied.  "Was that stamp made by the seal you just
+hid away?"
+
+"No," Ned replied, "thank God it was not!"
+
+Wrapping the wax very carefully, so that it would not crumble, and
+securing every bit of paper in sight, Ned made a little bundle and
+stowed it away in a pocket.  Then he began a search of the rug on the
+floor.
+
+Jimmie was on his knees, in a moment.
+
+"Finders keepers?" he asked.
+
+"That depends!" Ned said.
+
+"Well, some one's been payin' out money here," the boy went on.  "See
+what I found!"
+
+What he had found was a gold piece of the denomination of twenty
+dollars. And it bore the stamp of the American eagle!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BOY SCOUTS IN A LIVELY MIXUP
+
+
+Ned took the gold piece into his hand and examined it.
+
+"It is American money, sure enough," he observed, "and was made at the
+San Francisco mint."
+
+Frank and Jack now joined the little group in the library and regarded
+the piece with interest.
+
+"What does it mean?" Frank asked.
+
+"Why," Jack volunteered, "it means that some American man is mixed up in
+this dirty affair."
+
+"Perhaps that gold came out of the wreck," Jimmie suggested.  "Say, are
+we ever goin' back after that gold?" he added.
+
+"Ned's got all the gold he can attend to right here," commented Frank.
+"He's got to find out how that came here."
+
+"Why, there was an American in the bunch, and he lost it out of his
+pocket," Jack ventured.
+
+"That's the very point," Frank observed.  "What was an American doing in
+that bunch?"
+
+"It might have been the American who planned to send the gold to the
+revolutionary leaders by way of a shipment to the Chinese government,"
+Ned said, thoughtfully.   "You know some American had to send the gold."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Well, suppose he is now here trying to get something in exchange for
+the gold which lies at the bottom of the Pacific?"
+
+"He naturally would be doing business, with the revolutionary party,"
+Frank exclaimed.  "What a trick that was!"
+
+"I haven't got it through my head yet," Jack said.  "I don't know any
+more about the plot than a robin."
+
+"Look here," Frank said, in a superior tone, "there are a lot of Chinese
+in the United States who want to assist the revolutionary party.  Got
+that?"
+
+"You know it!"
+
+"These men arrange with the Chinese government to send over a cargo of
+gold."
+
+"That's easy.  What were they to get for the gold?"
+
+"I don't know," Frank answered.  "But they arranged to send the gold
+right out of the subtreasury at San Francisco--or was it New York?--to
+the Chinese government."
+
+"All right," laughed Jack.  "I see daylight."
+
+"Then they notify the rebels-to-be that the gold will be shipped on such
+a vessel at such a time."
+
+"Warmer!" grinned Jimmie.
+
+"And the rebels undertake to have a ship ready to snatch off the gold
+when the right time comes.  So the Chinese government will have to pay
+for the yellow stuff and the rebels will have the good of it."
+
+"Great scheme!"
+
+"Yes, well, some other nation gets wise to what is going on, and sets
+out to burst up the combination."
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"So this foreign nation sends out a ship to ram the vessel carrying the
+gold."
+
+"Oh!  I got that long ago!"
+
+"And the vessel is rammed and the gold goes to the bottom.  Then this
+other government, thinking to kill two birds at one shot, gives it out,
+in certain diplomatic circles, that Uncle Sam shipped that gold directly
+to the Chinese government from the subtreasury, with the full knowledge
+that the rebels were to get it."
+
+"Yes, I've heard about that."
+
+"So Uncle Sam sends Ned over here to dig up that gold and see if the
+shippers didn't put documents in the bags or boxes which would prove out
+the whole transaction."
+
+"An' Ned found the documents!" cried Jimmie.  "Good old Ned!"
+
+"Yes, he found the documents which prove that the United States had
+nothing to do with the matter, but which do not show who started the
+slander.
+
+"And then Ned is sent out to track the statesman who had been doing
+business with the rebels down to his hiding place.  It is thought that
+his nation is the one that tried to mix Uncle Sam in the matter."
+
+"But why should this man be doing business with the rebels?" asked Jack.
+
+"That is what we don't know," was the reply.  "Still, we know that he is
+allied with the rebels.  We met him at Taku.  Ned met him at the ruined
+temple.  He may be treacherously in the company of the men who lead the
+revolutionary party, but he is there."
+
+"You have that figured out correctly," Ned cut in.  "If the man we are
+after had been doing business with the Chinese government, we would have
+had officers of the law after us at Tientsin and Taku, instead of men
+who ran when it came daylight."
+
+"What national seal made that stamp on the wax you have in your pocket,
+Ned?" Jimmie asked.
+
+Ned made no reply.
+
+"Was the stamp made with the seal you have with you?" was the next
+question.
+
+Still Ned did not answer.  He was in a quandary.  It did not seem
+possible that the two nations pointed out by the seal and the wax could
+be engaged in such dirty business.  He hoped to prove to his own
+satisfaction that they were not.
+
+"The only way to find out what we want to know," he said, "is to go on
+to Peking."
+
+"Your proof will assist you when you get there?" asked Frank.
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid so," Ned answered, tentatively.
+
+"I don't understand that reply," Frank observed, with a serious face.
+"You must have discovered something in this house which is not to your
+liking."
+
+"Time will show," Ned said.
+
+Captain Martin, of the marines, now entered the room where the
+discussion was going on.  His face was pale, and his eyes showed greater
+anger than Ned had ever seen reflected there before.
+
+"Just a moment, Ned," he said, and the two stepped into another room.
+The Captain dropped into a chair.
+
+"We have struck the hornet's nest," he said.
+
+"Do you hear them buzzing?" asked Ned, with a smile.
+
+"Worse than that," was the reply.  "I am feeling their stings.  Two of
+my men have been attacked in the dark."
+
+"And wounded?"
+
+"Yes; one of them seriously."
+
+"I'm sorry for the poor fellow," Ned said.  "Do you think we can get him
+on to Peking?"
+
+Captain Martin shook his head.
+
+"It is a bad wound," he said.  "The man was on guard not far from the
+edge of the grove when a figure loomed up before him.  He challenged and
+was about to shoot, for no reply came, when he got the knife in his
+back.  He can't be moved."
+
+"The trouble is," Ned replied, "that we got here too soon."
+
+"What's the answer to that?"
+
+"We did not give the plotters time enough to finish their business.
+When that old Chink, back there at the gate, signaled to them with his
+rockets, they cut and ran, leaving important evidence behind them."
+
+"And you think they will hang about the flying squadron until they
+recover what they have lost?"
+
+"They certainly will try to recover it.  Now you see the wisdom of the
+Washington people in sending me to Peking on a motorcycle!  You see that
+I was right in saying that we were being set up as marks for other
+nations to shoot at!"
+
+"Yes," said Martin, "you never could have got to the fellows in the old
+way.  It was right to plan it so that they would come to you, although
+it was placing you in great danger."
+
+"But the danger has rippled off our backs like water off the feathers of
+a duck!  If we meet no more peril than we have now encountered, we'll
+get back to New York fat and healthy."
+
+"One thing I fail to comprehend," Captain Martin said, "and that is why
+a flying squadron was sent with you."
+
+"To attract attention," laughed Ned.
+
+"To get you out of scrapes, I should say," the Captain retorted.
+
+"Well, then, both!"
+
+"I don't get it yet."
+
+"We might have reached Peking without our presence in the country being
+known to our enemies," Ned said, "but that was not the idea of the
+Washington people.  I have already explained to the boys that we were to
+do our real work in identifying the man we want while on the way."
+
+"Oh, all right," replied the officer, "but it seems to me that you might
+have made the trip in a quieter way with the same result.  These chaps
+would have found you, depend on that."
+
+"Yes, but we needed help," replied Ned, "and we got it in the nick of
+time. Guess the Secret Service people at Washington are all right."
+
+"Perhaps," the Captain said, then, "we would better get the wounded men
+into the house and look after their wounds.  The others I'll leave on
+guard."
+
+The injured marines were carried into the house and given such attention
+as could be bestowed in the absence of a surgeon.
+
+"What next?" asked Frank.
+
+"Peking!" answered Jack.  "We can't heal these wounds by remaining here,
+and we can help by going on and sending a surgeon back."
+
+"But my orders are to remain with you," Captain Martin said.
+
+"Then leave most of your men here and come on," Ned replied.
+
+This plan was agreed upon, and would have been carried out at once had
+not something not on the program of the night intervened.  Captain
+Martin had detailed two men to sit with the wounded and stationed the
+others in a circle about the house when a shot was fired off to the
+east.
+
+"I didn't think they would have the nerve to attack the house openly
+before we got away," Captain Martin remarked.
+
+All listened intently, but there was no more shooting.
+
+"That sounded to me more like a signal than anything else," Ned
+observed. "I wonder if they are out in force?"
+
+"I think I'd better call the men in," Captain Martin remarked.
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth when a skulking form appeared in
+the dim light which now fell from the stars.  The fellow was creeping
+from the house outward.
+
+"A spy!" Jack whispered.  "Shoot, some one.  I haven't my gun with me.
+Shoot!"
+
+The skulking man appeared to hear the words, though they were spoken in
+a very low tone, for he sprang to his feet and dashed away at full
+speed.  In a second he was lost to view in the thicket.
+
+"Say, but that chap is some runner!" Jimmie cried.  "He went so fast I
+never thought to wing him!"
+
+"Where did he come from?" asked Frank.  "I'm certain he was not in the
+house.  Perhaps he was up to some deviltry."
+
+"He wasn't here with any bouquets," Jimmie answered.  "I'm goin' out an'
+run around the house.  Perhaps I can find out where he was hidin', an'
+find his mate there."
+
+No objections being offered to this, the little fellow left the group
+and started in on a tour around the old house.  He was gone perhaps two
+minutes, then came dashing back, his face white and horror-stricken in
+the circle of light which met him.
+
+"Grab 'em!  Grab 'em an' get out!" he shouted.
+
+"Where did you get it?" demanded Jack.
+
+"You're scared stiff!" Frank laughed.
+
+"Grab the wounded men an' beat it!" Jimmie repeated.  "This ranch will
+go up in the air in a second!"
+
+"That's cheerful!" Jack cut in, half believing that Jimmie was up to
+another trick.
+
+Jimmie dashed into the house, seized one of the wounded men by the
+shoulders and tried to drag him off the improvised bed on which he had
+been laid.
+
+"All right!" he yelled.  "You boys may stay here an' get shot up into
+blue sky if you want to, but I'm goin' to get these men out."
+
+"Why don't you tell us what the danger is?" demanded Ned, shaking the
+little fellow by the arm.
+
+"You listen!" Jimmie replied.
+
+There was dead silence for an instant.  Then, seemingly from underneath
+the floor, came a low, sinister hissing sound which every one of the
+boys recognized.
+
+A great fuse was burning below, and might at any moment reach the
+explosive to which it was attached.  The Chinese tools of the man at the
+head of the conspiracy were taking desperate chances.
+
+In order to destroy the clues which Ned had found in the house, and also
+to prevent the boy ever discovering any more, they were taking the long
+chance of murdering the soldiers of a friendly power and bringing on
+international complications.  Ned was by no means idle while these
+thoughts were swarming in his brain.
+
+In fact, all the boys sprang to action instantly.  Captain Martin was
+told to order his men farther away from the point of danger.  In less
+time than the result of their activities can be written down the wounded
+men were lying in the grove, surrounded by their fellows, and the boys
+were waiting for what seemed inevitable, the complete destruction of the
+house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A BROKEN MATCH SAFE
+
+
+"Why don't she go up?" asked Jack, as the boys crouched in the grove.
+"I don't mind seeing a little fourth of July!"
+
+"She's coming," Frank answered.  "Do you see the light in the cellar?
+That's the fuse burning."
+
+"It must be a long one," Jimmie said.  "Gee, but I was scared stiff when
+I saw it burnin' right under where you all were!"
+
+"How did the sneak who set the fuse on fire ever get down there?"
+wondered Jack.
+
+"Must have been there all the time," Jimmie volunteered.
+
+"But he didn't have the powder, or the dynamite, or whatever thing he
+figured on blowing us up with, in his pockets, did he?" asked Jack.
+
+"I guess the old Chink down the road, the fellow who kept me talking at
+the gate, had something to do with storing the explosive there," Ned
+remarked. "I presume the plot was laid to blow us up the minute the
+effort to destroy us at the ruined temple failed."
+
+"Merry little time we're having," Frank laughed.  "Here, kid, where are
+you going?" he added, as Jimmie moved away.
+
+"I'm goin' to see why that don't go bang!" answered the boy.
+
+Ned tried to stop him, but the little fellow dodged away and disappeared
+around an angle of the house.
+
+The boys waited in suspense for a moment, expecting every instant to
+witness the explosion, then Frank and Jack darted around the corner, in
+quest of Jimmie.
+
+"Come back!" Ned called, but they paid no heed.
+
+Both Ned and the Captain sprang after the lads, the latter expressing in
+very vigorous language his opinion of boys who would take such risks out
+of curiosity.
+
+"I'd rather wait an hour for an explosion than go up to see why it
+didn't come off in time," he said.  "That Jimmie needs a good beating.
+He'll get it, too, if he doesn't behave!"
+
+Ned laughed, serious as the situation was, at the thought of what would
+be apt to happen if the Captain should lay hands on the little fellow in
+anger.  He would have the other boys on his hands in a second!
+
+When Ned rounded the corner he saw Jimmie's heels half blocking a cellar
+window.  Thick smoke was oozing out around him, and Frank and Jack were
+trying to pull him back.
+
+"You let go!" they heard the little fellow shout.  "I guess I know what
+I'm doin'.  You let go!"
+
+"Wait!" Ned said, then he stooped over and called out to Jimmie:
+
+"Is the fuse out?"
+
+"Sure!" was the reply.  "'Sure the fuse is out, but before it went out
+it set fire to something on the cellar bottom, an' the blaze is workin'
+its way up to the powder, or whatever it is.  Ouch!" he added, as Jack
+gave a pull at his foot.  "You let go!"
+
+"Let him go," Ned advised.  "Perhaps he can get in there in time to
+prevent the explosion."
+
+"The little gink!" Jack exclaimed, "I wanted to see the thing bust up.
+Now he's spoiled it!"
+
+In a moment the boy was in the cellar, and Ned was not far away when the
+creeping flame was extinguished.  While Frank and Jack looked in at the
+window, shielding their eyes and faces from the smudge as well as it was
+possible to do, Ned called out to them:
+
+"Tell Captain Martin to keep his men on guard around the house.  The
+scamps who did this may be up to some other trick.  They're determined
+that we shall never get to Peking!"
+
+Frank crawled through the window and stood by Ned's side, searchlight in
+hand.  Just about underneath the center of the house, was a half barrel
+of gunpowder.
+
+"That would have done the business," Frank observed, and Jimmie made a
+wry face.  "If this little nuisance hadn't seen the fuse burning, we
+might have been killed."
+
+"Aw, go on!" Jimmie said.  "The fuse went out, didn't it?  Gave us a
+good scare, anyway.  I'm six inches shorter than I was before I saw the
+blaze creepin' along like a bloomin' snake!"
+
+"How did it affect your appetite?" asked Frank.
+
+"If you mention anythin' to eat," Jimmie answered, "I'll have a fit.  I
+don't know how people live in China, but I've been starved ever since I
+struck the country."
+
+Flashlight in hand, Ned now devoted his whole attention to the floor of
+the cellar.  There were marks of shoes here and there, and half-burned
+matches.
+
+"It looks as if whoever did this job did it in a hurry," Ned said.  "If
+the fuse had been set right it would have done its work.  Do you see why
+it went out?"
+
+"Well, there's a break in it, and the break is over a damp spot on the
+floor.  The powder stuffed line burned to the break and there the flame
+went out.  It burned slowly, anyway, which probably accounts for our
+being alive at this time."
+
+Ned took a rule from his pocket and measured the shoe tracks on the
+floor. There were numerous tracks, but one was very distinct.  This had
+been made by the man who rolled the half-barrel of powder to the place
+where it had been found.
+
+The barrel had come upon a slight obstruction, and the man had evidently
+lifted and pulled at it until his shoe, by reason of the extra weight
+put upon it, had sunk deep into the light soil.
+
+"That wasn't any Chink shoe," Jimmie said.
+
+"No, it was a shoe made in America," Ned said.  "It is comparatively a
+new shoe, too.  I am wondering now why the American, or Englishman, or
+Frenchman, whatever he is, didn't hire some of the Chinks to do this
+work of laying the explosion."
+
+"They're afraid," Jack volunteered.
+
+There was a litter of half-burned matches near the barrel and Ned bent
+over and gathered them up.  As he did so something bright lying on the
+ground, caught his eye.  It was a gold rivet, or wire, not more than an
+inch long and about as thick as a knitting needle.
+
+"What is it?" asked Frank.
+
+"I should say," replied Ned, "that the fellow lost the cover to his
+match box here.  This looks like the rivet which served for a hinge.
+The cover itself may be here."
+
+But a close search did not reveal the cover, nor anything else of
+moment, in fact, and the boys soon left the cellar.  Frank laughed as
+Ned placed the gold wire in his pocketbook.
+
+"You are making quite a collection," he said.
+
+"Yes," Jack added, "he has a state department seal, bits of broken
+sealing wax, and now a piece of a broken match safe.  He'll set a trap
+with them directly!"
+
+"The trap is already set!" Ned replied.
+
+The long delay at the house made high speed necessary during the
+remainder of the run to Peking.  The machines sparked and roared through
+that ancient land, bringing sleepy-eyed natives to doors and windows,
+and setting villages into whirls of excitement.
+
+Captain Martin and one marine were with the boys, the rest having been
+left with the wounded men.
+
+"My flying squadron is just beginning to fly," Ned said, as the machines
+rolled noisily down a hill from which the towers of the distant city
+showed.  "And the smaller it becomes as we approach the end of the
+journey!"
+
+"Suppose the Chinks attack the men left behind?" asked Jack.
+
+"No danger of that," Ned replied.  "They are not after the marines, but
+the Boy Scouts who had the nerve to cross the Pacific for the purpose of
+bringing a rascal to punishment."
+
+This view of the case proved to be the correct one, as the marines were
+remarkably well treated by the natives, who gathered about them with
+many gestures and questions, all unintelligible to the warriors.  The
+boys who were slowly drawing a slowly closing circle around the guilty
+ones were the persons in demand!
+
+It was the middle of the forenoon when Ned and his companions reached
+the suburbs of the wonderful city.  They attracted a great deal of
+attention as they wheeled through the straggling streets.  They had not
+yet come to the wall, so the population was principally agricultural.
+Maize and millet are the principal products of the soil here, as the
+staple crops, wheat and rice, do not flourish well.
+
+They had no difficulty in passing the gate which gave into the southern
+or "Chinese City."  It is the northern part of Peking that is known to
+foreigners as "The Forbidden City."  Here the rulers live in wonderful
+palaces.  This is the old "Tartar City," too.
+
+The second division of Peking is the business section.  Here the boys
+drew up at a most uninviting native inn and asked a clerk who claimed to
+speak English for an interpreter.  A snaky-looking fellow was finally
+produced, and Ned proceeded to question him about the show places of the
+town.
+
+"Let him think we are American tourists," Ned said to his chums, "and
+we'll stand a better chance of getting into the diplomatic section of
+the town. Anyway, while we are here, we may as well see the sights."
+
+After a midday luncheon Ned and Jimmie started out to look over the
+place. They were now in what is known as the general city, where the
+streets are from 140 to 200 feet wide.  The thoroughfares are mostly
+unpaved, and the shops which line them are continuous, some green, some
+blue, some red, but all bustling with business.
+
+The shops in this section of Peking are decorated with huge, staring
+signs, resplendent with Chinese characters highly gilt.  Before the boys
+had traveled far they were forcibly reminded of the lower East Side of
+New York.  The great thoroughfares roared with the rush of commerce.
+
+Shopkeepers, peddlers, mountebanks, quack doctors, pedestrians rushing
+to and fro, all reminded the lads of the lower part of the big city on
+Manhattan island.  The theaters and public places of amusement are
+situated in this part of Peking.
+
+When Ned and Jimmie returned from the stroll they found Frank and Jack
+waiting for them with anxiety depicted on their faces.
+
+"What have you been doing?" Frank asked.  "I thought you came here to
+interview the American ambassador."
+
+"All in good time," Ned replied, with a smile.  "I want to pick up the
+American shoe print before I present my letter to the ambassador."
+
+"Fine show you stand of picking up a shoe print in a crowd like that one
+out there!" Jack said.  "It's worse than Coney Island on a midsummer
+Sunday."
+
+"Perhaps I didn't use the right words," smiled Ned.  "I might have said
+I was waiting for the American shoe man to pick me up."
+
+"He's done that now, all right," Captain Martin said.  "You had not been
+out of the house five minutes before the spies were thick as flies in
+the old Eighth ward.  They are all about us now.  Watch and see if we
+are ever alone."
+
+Ned glanced about carelessly and nudged Frank with his elbow.
+
+"That waiter?" he asked.  "How long has he been loitering about the
+room?"
+
+"Ever since we arrived.  The men who have been entertaining us on the
+way were evidently waiting for us."
+
+The boys were not in a private room, but in a public apartment where
+there were tables and refreshments.
+
+"But that chap belongs here," Ned replied.
+
+"Well, if you watch him, you will see that he is attending strictly to
+the wants of this party.  If we call he'll wait on us.  If any one else
+calls, another waiter glides over to him.  Nice to be so exclusive,
+isn't it?"
+
+"If you are right," Ned said, "it is time for us to move on."
+
+"To the embassy?" asked Captain Martin.  "You see," the Captain went on,
+"I'm rather anxious to land you boys under the protecting folds of the
+American flag, for there my responsibility ends."
+
+"No, not to the embassy," Ned replied.  "As yet I have nothing of
+importance to confide to the ambassador.  I can only tell him that we
+are here, that we had numerous nibbles on the road from Taku, but that
+all the fish got away."
+
+"Holy smoke!" exclaimed Jack.  "I hope you don't think of staying out in
+the open until you can convey a couple of diplomats to the embassy!  You
+can't catch your man single handed.  You're not in New York now, but in
+a heathen town, a town where the life of a foreign devil is not worth a
+grain of rice."
+
+"Just the same," Ned replied, "I'm going to stick around this town until
+I get what I want."
+
+"In this dump?" asked Jack.
+
+"No; there's an American hotel up the street--an American hotel operated
+by Chinks!  We'll go there and take rooms and wait for something to turn
+up."
+
+So, in spite of the protests of Captain Martin, the change was made, and
+late that night Ned awoke to find himself sitting up on the edge of his
+bed, automatic in hand, listening to the steady boring of a tool of some
+sort around the lock of his door!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A BOY SCOUT SURPRISE PARTY
+
+
+When Ned heard the assaults of the midnight visitor on his door he
+looked at his watch, then slipped over to the window facing the street.
+Twelve o'clock and the thoroughfare below still teeming with life.
+Peking has something over three millions of population, according to the
+records, but, as a matter of fact, no one knows the exact size of the
+town as to humanity, for the Chinese live in densely-packed districts,
+and there are no census reports given out.
+
+The city is many centuries old.  It was a thriving capital three
+thousand years before Christ was born and during all the years of war
+and starvation and intrigue it continued to grow.
+
+The hardy races from the North, which overran the country and kept a
+Tartar on the Chinese throne for centuries, are virile and pertinacious.
+It has been the fate of every civilization we know anything about to be
+wiped out by hardy races.  Rome went down before the Northmen, and
+England had its oversea conqueror.  Greece and Italy succumbed to the
+might of brawny arms, and civilization shrank back for hundreds of
+years.  So China fell before the men of the mountains, and her records
+were destroyed.
+
+As in all large cities, there is a night side to the life of Peking.  If
+you traverse the streets at night you will find shops which have been
+closed all day opening for the trade of the night workers.  You will see
+people who have slept through all the daylight hours walking through the
+streets to their nightly toil.  You will see about the same things, only
+on a smaller scale, that you see in the daytime.
+
+This night was no different from any other, except that there were more
+men who did not appear to have any particular business there lounging
+along the streets.  Now and then these loiterers, walking slowly along
+the business ways, slipped unostentatiously into alleys and narrow
+by-ways and so on into basement and garret halls where others of their
+kind were assembled.
+
+When Ned looked out of his window, listening meanwhile to the steady
+boring sound at his door, he saw a light at a window opposite to the
+building in which he stood waving slowly to and fro.  There was a long
+vertical motion, and then the light moved from side to side again.
+
+Ned counted the slow strokes.  Left to right, right to left, back again
+and yet again!
+
+"Six," he mused, "and all in action!"
+
+The mouse-like gnawing at his door continued, the sounds seemingly
+louder than before.  The intruder was evidently gaining courage!
+
+Presently the boy leaned out of his window, which was on the third floor
+of the hotel, and watched the entrance below.  There appeared to be a
+great rush of customers at that time.  At least a score of natives
+passed in at the large door.
+
+Then Ned turned to the right and studied the window of the room next to
+his own on that floor.  There was a light in that room, too, but it
+seemed to be a red light.  Then it changed to white, then to blue.
+
+Ned laughed and began drawing on his clothes.  Still the boring
+continued, and Ned bent over to see if he could discover any holes in
+the stile of the door.
+
+There being no light in his room and, presumably, one in the corridor
+outside, he thought he might be able to see when a cut through the stile
+had been made.  There were no indications of a break yet, and Ned
+settled back on his bed to wait.
+
+Just at that moment he hardly knew what he was waiting for.  He had been
+very busy all the afternoon, laying plans and conferring with a man who
+came from the police bureau, and who appeared to be working under
+instructions from the boy.  Ned considered his plans as near perfect as
+any human plans can be, still he did not know exactly what would happen
+at a quarter past twelve.
+
+At ten minutes past midnight the boy heard a rush of footsteps in the
+corridor.  They passed his door and the boring ceased.  Then they faded
+away in the distance and the gnawing was resumed.  There was a little
+more noise in the hotel than before.
+
+Ned smiled at the crude efforts that were being made to enter his room.
+In New York man disposed to enter for the purpose of robbery would have
+a skeleton key.  He would be inside the room in three seconds after
+entering the corridor and finding the apartment he sought wrapped in
+darkness.
+
+"But this isn't New York," the boy mused.  "This is the Orient, and the
+patience of the Orient, and the stupidity of the Orient!"
+
+At exactly a quarter past twelve there was a commotion in the corridor.
+Several people seemed to be moving toward the door of Ned's room.  Once
+there was a little cry of alarm.
+
+Ned looked out of his window.  The panes where he had observed the
+signals, across the street, were dark.  There was no light in the window
+next his own which had shown red, white and blue but a moment before.
+
+The clamor in the corridor increased, and Ned walked to the door and
+undid the fastenings.  Then it swung open, almost striking Ned in the
+face.
+
+Facing the boy, in the corridor, were six Chinamen, or men in native
+dress, rather.  Back of them were a score of stern-faced Chinese
+policemen.  To the right, and struggling with all their might to get
+into the room were Frank, Jack, and Jimmie, the latter with his nose
+wrinkled and wrinkling to such an extent that it resembled a small ocean
+with the wind undulating its surface.
+
+"Trap's closed!"
+
+That was Jimmie, of course.  Frank and Jack stood by laughing.  The
+faces of the six men who stood before the door were anything but
+pleasant to look upon.
+
+They expressed hate, despair, desperate intents.  As they stood there
+Frank reached forward and snatched a queue-wig from the head of the man
+nearest him.
+
+"There he is!" Jimmie cried.  "There's the old boy, Ned--the smooth gink
+we saw at Taku, at Tientsin, and at numerous places on the road.  I
+wonder how he likes the scene?"
+
+Ned motioned to the six to step into the room.  Three of them objected,
+then swords flashed in the light of the corridor and they moved on.
+
+They were followed by the three boys and half a dozen policemen, all
+with automatics in view.  At a motion from the leader of the officers
+the six were searched and ironed.  Jack nudged Frank in the ribs with
+his elbow as the handcuffs clicked on the wrists of the man who had so
+persistently followed them from the coast of the Yellow Sea.
+
+"That's a good sport," he said.  "I like to see a fellow play the game!"
+
+The prisoner turned a pair of treacherous eyes on the boys and a cynical
+smile curled his thin lips.
+
+"You have the cards now," he said, in English, "but look out for the new
+deal.  I'll keep you busy yet."
+
+"Go to it!" laughed Jack.  "Go as far as you like, only I fail to see
+how you're going to get into the game again.  Looks like you were all
+in, just now!"
+
+"Wait!" said the other, scornfully.
+
+There now came a knock at the door and Ned opened it to admit Captain
+Martin, who looked as if he had just left his bed after an
+unsatisfactory sleep.  He cast his eyes about the room with amazement
+showing in every glance.
+
+"What does this mean?" he asked.
+
+"Surprise party!" Jimmie cried.
+
+"Who are these men?"
+
+The Captain pointed to the six prisoners lined up against the wall of
+the room.
+
+"Our friends from Taku, from the ruined temple, from Tientsin, from the
+farm house loaded with gunpowder, and from the tea house," laughed Ned.
+"Do you recognize the fellow with his disguise off?  Jimmie gave him a
+haircut and shave just now."
+
+"And you have captured them?"
+
+"It doesn't look as if they had captured us," Jimmie broke in.
+
+"But how, when, why?"
+
+"All of that!" grinned Jimmie.
+
+Ned spoke a few words to the officer in charge of the squad and in a
+moment the room was occupied only by the handcuffed prisoners, the four
+boys, and Captain Martin.  The latter stood looking at Ned with a
+question in each eye.
+
+"When you get time," he said, "I'd like to have you tell me how you
+brought this case to a close so suddenly."
+
+Ned motioned to the man who had been stripped of his disguise to take a
+chair at the table.  The fellow did so reluctantly, turning his face
+this way and that, as if seeking some opportunity of escape.
+
+"Well," he said.  "You have the floor.  Go On."
+
+"You were at Taku?" asked Ned.
+
+"I deny everything!"
+
+"You will deny your own fingerprints, the shoeprints?" asked Ned.
+
+"Well, supposing, for the sake of argument, that I was at Taku, what has
+that to do with this brutal and illegal arrest?"
+
+"You placed the powder under the house where the wounded men lay?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I have something I want to show you," Ned said, taking a paper from his
+pocket.  "Have you a match?"
+
+Almost involuntarily the fellow put his hand to his right vest pocket
+and brought forth a gold match safe.  Ned took it into his hand and
+touched the spring which lifted the top.
+
+"There seems to be a new wire in the hinge," he said.
+
+"Yes, the old one wore out."
+
+Ned opened his pocketbook and took out the gold wire he had found in the
+cellar by the side of the powder.  The prisoner started violently when
+he saw it.
+
+"Is this yours?" Ned asked.
+
+"No!"
+
+"All right!" Ned said.
+
+With the point of his knife he pushed the sale and put the old new hinge
+from the match safe and put the old one in its place.
+
+It fitted exactly.
+
+"There!" Ned said, "you see the old one did not wear out entirely.  It
+wore away so that it dropped out.  Do you know where I found it, my
+friend?"
+
+"It is immaterial to me where you found it."
+
+"Even if I found it in a cellar by the side of a half barrel of
+gunpowder to which a lighted fuse had been attached?"
+
+"Hadn't you better make your case--if you can make it at all--in the
+courts?" asked the prisoner.
+
+Ned took the state department seal, the sealing wax, and the bits of
+parchment from his pocket.
+
+"Who met you in the library at the house you attempted to destroy?" he
+asked.
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Were these men present?" with a sweep of the hand toward the other
+prisoners.
+
+"What has this to do with my case?"
+
+"This," Ned replied.  "You were still conspiring to fix upon my
+government the crime of interfering in the private affairs of another
+nation--with the crime of providing, by a treacherous and despicable
+route, the money needed by the revolutionary party of China.  You were
+doing business in that house with the representatives of another nation.
+Who were they?  What nations did they represent, or pretend to
+represent?"
+
+"I have nothing to say to that."
+
+Ned held up the seal.
+
+"This was not used?" he asked.
+
+"It was not used."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because the representative of that nation refused to consider the terms
+offered him."
+
+Ned held forth the sealing wax.
+
+"This shows that the seal of another nation was used.  Where is the
+paper to which the seal was attached?"
+
+"Destroyed!"
+
+"Is that true?" asked Ned.
+
+"It is true, they all deserted me.  They all ran away when they knew you
+were in the country, but I brought them back, and held them until the
+incident at the house where you found those things."
+
+"So you are now the only one to look to for the history of this bit of
+deviltry?"
+
+"I stand alone," was the reply.  "Alone, with the exception of these men
+I who were arrested with me.  The plot has failed, and we know what to
+expect."
+
+The prisoner was about to say more, but just then a clamor in the street
+below attracted the attention of all in the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE EMPEROR TAKES A HAND
+
+
+Ned stepped to the window and looked out.  The street in front of the
+hotel was filled from curb to curb with an excited mob.
+
+That the efforts of those below were directed toward the building and
+its occupants there could be no doubt.  Many a shaking fist was thrust
+up to the lighted panes where Ned stood.
+
+The boy turned to Jimmie, spoke a few words in a whisper, and the little
+fellow left the room.  With him went the interpreter who had been
+engaged that day.
+
+Shouts, howls and groans of rage now came up from the street, and Ned
+stepped away from the window.  As he did so the prisoner who had been
+making a partial confession when the uproar came, moved forward, as if
+to show himself to those below.
+
+Seeing his intention, Ned seized him by the shoulder and hurled him to
+the back end of the room.  The prisoner smiled and again seated himself
+in the chair he had occupied before.
+
+"Your friends are excited," Ned said, drawing the curtain at the window.
+
+The other nodded in the direction of the window and smiled.
+
+"My friends?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Why do you attribute this outbreak to me?"
+
+"Because those not in league with you and your cause would hardly
+threaten American tourists, in the face of the law."
+
+"American tourists!" snarled the other, and Ned laughed.
+
+Jimmie now came bustling into the room, his eyes staring with
+excitement. The interpreter was only a trifle less moved by the
+information which had been gained.
+
+"What is it?" Jack asked.
+
+"He's crazy with fear again!" Frank put in.
+
+"Say," Jimmie cried, "you'd all better be gettin' out of this place.
+The people out there are goin' to raid it in a minute!"
+
+The prisoner uttered a defiant laugh and again started for the window.
+Again Ned forced him back.
+
+"What's the trouble?" asked Frank.
+
+"Why," was the reply, "this gink here," pointing toward the prisoner
+whose disguise had been removed, "this gazabo hadn't much confidence in
+his own ability to win this fight, so he appealed to the revolutionary
+leaders."
+
+"That's fine!" Jack said.  "We may have the luck to see a full-fledged
+revolution doing business."
+
+"You are quite likely to."
+
+This from the prisoner, now standing with the others at the back of the
+room.
+
+"You arranged for this demonstration in case you should be taken?" asked
+Ned.
+
+The prisoner snarled out some ugly reply.
+
+"You planned this?" demanded Ned, resolved to know the truth.
+
+"Yes," almost shouted the other, "and you will soon discover that it is
+something more than a demonstration."
+
+The interpreter drew Jimmie aside and whispered in his ear.  Then the
+boy turned to Ned.
+
+"This boy says he saw a signal given from a window as soon as this bunch
+was taken," he said.  "Then crowds began forming.  Say, but we'd better
+be gettin' out!"
+
+"Save yourselves the exertion," the prisoner said.  "They will find you,
+wherever you go!"
+
+"Possibly," Ned said.
+
+Then he walked to the window and again looked out on the mob.  The
+street was packed.  Faces showing rage and desperate bravery were
+uplifted.  Fists were shaken at the window where he stood.  In a moment
+a stone came hurtling against the wall of the house.
+
+Here and there, on the outskirts of the crowd, policemen in the funny
+uniforms the police of Peking wear, were seen trying vainly to force
+their way to the door of the hotel.  The main entrance seemed to be
+guarded, for the mob did not succeed in forcing its way in.
+
+Presently, however, Ned saw long ladders being carried forward on the
+shoulders of the rioters.  Then they were dropped against the wall and
+men with bloody faces--bloody from the acts of their own fellows--fought
+to be first to climb.
+
+"In three minutes," the prisoner said, "you will be torn limb from limb
+if I am not released."
+
+"Your friends certainly do insist on something of the kind," Ned
+replied.
+
+"Remove these irons and place me before the window," commanded the
+other. "That will quiet them."
+
+"And make terms with a pack of rioters?" smiled Ned.
+
+"You can save your life, and the lives of your friends, in no other
+way," insisted the other.
+
+Ned went to the window again, although bricks and stones were flying
+quite freely.  The ladders swarmed with excited men, but no one seemed
+able to gain entrance at the windows which were attacked.
+
+Instead, a ladder now and then went toppling backward, carrying dozens
+of rioters to death or injury.  When the ladders began falling the mob
+moved away from that side of the street.
+
+"You see," Ned said to the prisoner, "that we were on the lookout for
+something like this."
+
+"How could you have been?" gasped the other.
+
+"Our interpreter heard some of the messages sent out by mouth by the
+revolutionists.  I connected your possible capture with the gathering.
+We were warned and made ready."
+
+"But my men will soon be here!" shouted the other.  "They are sworn to
+go to death for the cause if necessary."
+
+"But I don't see them doing anything of the kind," Ned replied.  "On the
+contrary, they seem to be taking pretty good care of their yellow old
+hides!"
+
+"You'll see!" howled the other.
+
+Directly the heavy beat of marching feet came up to the window, heard
+above the roar of the mob below.  Far down the street Ned saw the
+advancing line, bearing the colors of the Emperor.
+
+The rioters saw the line, too, and the crowd in front of the hotel began
+to thin.  Then the soldiers arrived and the thoroughfare was empty save
+for their presence.  By this time the prisoner was in a condition of
+collapse.  He had planned this thing carefully, and was now in the
+meshes of failure.
+
+The street below soon cleared of the few who gathered about to witness
+the arrival of the soldiers.  The few prisoners, who had been taken
+marched sullenly to prison.  In ten minutes the city of Peking was as
+quiet as if the machinations of the conspirators had never stirred the
+people to riot.
+
+"Well?" Ned said, facing the prisoner.  "What do you think we ought to
+do with you?"
+
+"After all," was the reply, "you have no charges against me.  My
+government alone can discipline me for what has been done."
+
+"Your government will deny any knowledge of the conspiracy," Ned
+replied. "From this time on, you have no government."
+
+"And yet I acted under instructions."
+
+"What was the motive?" asked Frank, who saw a fine cablegram for his
+father's newspaper in the story.
+
+"The purpose," replied the other, weakly, "was to so entangle your
+government that it would not dare lend aid to the revolutionary
+leaders."
+
+"And you were engaged in it?"
+
+A nod of the head was the only reply.
+
+"Yet you pretended to be assisting the revolutionary party.  You were
+present at their councils.  Can it be possible that you were treacherous
+to both sides?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"Suppose," Ned said, "suppose I turn you over to the revolutionary
+leaders, with a statement of what you have just said?  What would be
+your fate? Remember that the men of the revolution were ready to fight
+for you not long ago."
+
+Still no reply.  The prisoner only looked sullenly down at the floor.
+
+"What government do you represent?" asked Frank.  "What nation is it
+that is protecting the imperial government of China?"
+
+"You need not answer that question," Ned said, with a sigh.
+
+Frank laughed.
+
+"I see," he said.  "You don't want to further implicate matters by
+giving out the name of the power whose seal shows on the wax!  All
+right, old boy, I'll get it yet!"
+
+"No good can come of a representative of the United States Government
+presenting charges of such a character against another power," Ned
+replied.
+
+Captain Martin now arose from the chair where he had been seated for a
+long time.  He glanced keenly into the faces of the six prisoners and
+then turned to Ned.
+
+"Shall I take them in charge?" he asked,
+
+"That would be useless."
+
+"Then what can be done with them?"
+
+"I am going to turn them over to the authorities on the charge of
+attempted murder, based on the effort they made to kill us in the old
+house."
+
+"Very well," the Captain said, "now will you tell me how you set this
+trap so, cleverly?"
+
+"It was only a matter of detail," Ned replied.  "I took good care to let
+the native waiters here know that I had the clues I had found secreted
+in my room.  I also let it be known that I was a heavy sleeper.
+
+"My interpreter, who is by no means as treacherous a chap as his looks
+would indicate, heard the robbery of my room planned.  He heard the hour
+fixed-a quarter past twelve.  So all the rest was easy."
+
+"Oh, yes, easy, but how did you do it?"
+
+"Frank, Jack and Jimmie helped," added Ned.  "Jack was at a window over
+the way.  He told me by signals just how many men were to take part in
+the attack on me.
+
+"Frank, in the next room to mine, told me when the time came to be on
+guard.  I really do not wake easily, and he rigged a cord through the
+wall so I could rest comfortably until the time for action came.
+
+"Then when all was ready, he told me by means of colored light that all
+the six were in the corridor, and that the officers I had engaged during
+the afternoon were on hand."
+
+"And you went to sleep with all this on your mind and slept up to within
+a quarter of an hour of the time set for action?" asked the Captain in
+wonder.
+
+"Why, certainly," was the reply.  "You see, we have been having some
+exciting nights, and I needed rest.  The other boys slept a good deal
+this afternoon, so I left them to wake me at night.  Nothing odd about
+that, is there?"
+
+"Nothing save the nerve of it."
+
+Two high officers now made their appearance in the room and beckoned to
+the prisoners.  All arose save the man from whom the disguise had been
+stripped.  He remained in the chair into which he had dropped, seemingly
+in a stupor.
+
+"Come," said the officer.
+
+The man arose, desperation in his eyes, and moved toward the door.  A
+few days before that miserable night he had been one of the leaders in
+the statecraft of the world.  Now he was being marched to a prison like
+any ordinary criminal.
+
+The speaker was interrupted by a quick movement on the part of the
+prisoner, the man he had addressed as Count.  There was no one between
+he desperate man and the still  open window.  Ned was at the door,
+Captain Martin was out in the corridor, and Frank, Jack and Jimmie were
+talking together in a corner.
+
+Handcuffed as he was, the Count leaped to the window and shot down to
+the hard pavement below.  There was a shrill cry as his body hurtled
+through the air, then a crash.
+
+Below passersby drew away from what lay in a bloody heap on the
+pavement. A little crowd gathered, at a distance, but none knew that the
+body of one of the most distinguished statesmen in the world lay there.
+
+"It is finished!" Ned said, with a sigh.  "The whole story of the
+conspiracy will never be told.  It is the story of a treacherous
+government and a treacherous statesman.
+
+"The documents I have will fully prove that the United States had no
+hand in the gold shipment, and that is all that we care for.  The old
+world may take care of its own political messes."
+
+"It is a mess indeed," Captain Martin, said.  "In less than a year China
+will be red with blood, and the streets of Peking will witness the
+retreat of the royal family."
+
+How true this prophecy was the readers of the daily newspapers now know.
+
+"Well," Jack said, with a yawn, as the boys and the Captain were left
+alone in the room together, "I presume it is us for little old New York
+to-morrow.  How do you like this motorcycle-flying-squadron business,
+boys," he added.  "We seem to have flown ahead of the flying squadron."
+
+"Then we ought to fly back and look after the ones who were wounded on
+the road," Frank said.  "Suppose we all go back on our machines, and
+really see something of the country?"
+
+This was agreed to, and the party separated for the night.  In the
+morning Ned paid his respects to the American ambassador, who greeted
+him courteously, but wanted to know all about the events of the trip
+from the coast.
+
+"You have gotten Uncle Sam out of a bad mess," the ambassador said, when
+Ned had finished his narration, "and you will find that you will be well
+rewarded when you return to Washington."
+
+The ambassador also requested the boys to visit the other legations, but
+they did not care to do so.
+
+"Well," he said, then, "you must take a letter from me which may help
+you on your way.  I have been expecting you here all the week, but it
+seems that you completed your work without my assistance,"
+
+"Just what I was figuring on," Ned replied.
+
+"I worked under surveillance all the way here, and I desired to show
+that I could do something on my own account."
+
+The boys left Peking early the next morning, and were not long in
+reaching the house where the powder trap had been set for them.  There
+they found Hans and Sandy!  The boys had followed them on from Tientsin
+in an automobile which an English merchant was taking through.
+
+Both boys were riding motorcycles, and were already proficient enough to
+proceed with the others, using the machines which had been ridden by the
+wounded marines, who were sent on to Peking in charge of Captain Martin.
+
+A week was spent on the road to Taku, and the lads enjoyed every minute
+of the time.  The letter given them by the American ambassador brought
+them every attention at Tientsin and Taku.
+
+It was late in the fall when they reached New York.  On the night of
+their arrival there were many joyful meetings in the clubroom of the
+Black Bear Patrol.  The next day Ned went on to Washington to file his
+report.  When he returned it was with a very substantial reward.
+
+"Now," he said, with a laugh, "I'm ready for the next trip.  I wonder
+where it will be?"
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Boy Scouts on Motorcycles, by G. Harvey Ralphson
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+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOY SCOUTS ON MOTORCYCLES ***
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