er 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 str