vement 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, b