," Jack suggested, provokingly.

"I ain't got nothin' on you in getting tied up with ropes," Jimmie
retorted. "You looked like one of these mummy things when the light was
turned on."

The officer in charge of the marines motioned to Jimmie to remain where
he was, but the order came too late. Having been relieved of his bonds
by Ned's quick fingers, he fairly dived out of the window into the
darkness.

"Now there'll be trouble catching him again," complained the officer.
"If he doesn't get a hole bored through him, we'll have to hunt the town
over to get him out of the Chinks' hands. Why can't you boys behave
yourselves?"

"Ruh!" Jack retorted, annoyed at the tone of superiority adopted by the
officer. "I guess we've been doing pretty well, thank you! I reckon
you fellows must have followed off a cow path! We've been waiting here
for you long enough to walk to Peking on our hands!"

"That's the fact!" the officer replied, speaking in a whisper in the
darkness. "We were the first ones to fall into the snares set by the
Chinks. Only for Ned, we would still be waiting for you in a house
something like this one, in a distant part of the town. How the boy
found us I can't make out, but find us he did."

"What are you going to do about that runaway kid?" asked Frank of Ned.
"Shall I go get him?"

It was not necessary for Ned to reply to the question, for at that
moment a figure came tumbling through the window and a voice recognized
as that of the little fellow cried out:

"Gee!" he said, feeling about in the darkness, "what do you think of my
ruinnin' into a sea soldier an' getting chucked through the hole the
carpenter left?"

"If you boy will get ready now," a voice said, "we'll be on, our way
toward Peking."

"How many of the Chinks did you catch?" asked Ned.

"Not a blooming one," was the disgusted reply. "They ran away like
water leaking into the ground."

"If you'd only let me alone," wailed Jimmie, "I'd have got one. I want
to soak the man that tied me up."

The marines, a full dozen of them, now gathered in the old house and all
made ready for departure. Directly a motorcycle for every man was
wheeled up to the door.

"We have been practicing riding while waiting for you," the officer in
charge explained, "and the fellows think they can go some!"

"It is a wild night for such a ride," Frank suggested.

"Couldn't have been better for our purpose," said the officer.

"Do you know why