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 h