nstant. "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 afrai