d,
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