back with a smile on
his face.

"You can't leave here just at present," said the detective. "You will
remain in custody until morning."

"Why morning?" asked Ned, with alight laugh.

"Because your accuser will be here then."

"Why didn't you say something of an accuser before?" asked Ned.

"It was not necessary."

"What does the accuser say?"

"He only warns us against delivering important papers to a youth
answering your description."

"Now I understand why all this rumpus has been kicked up!" cried the
marine officer. "The man who warned you is Lieutenant Rae?"

The detective nodded.

"Then he is causing us to be delayed for purposes of his own," the
officer stormed. "He aims to get to Peking in advance of us. We must
be permitted to depart immediately."

He moved toward the door, but the detective stood in his way. Without a
word he seized the fellow by the shoulder whirled him around, put his
beery face to the wall, and passed out of the room. Ned was about to
follow him when the strange attitude of the detective caught his
attention and he stood waiting while a scuffle on the outside told of a
physical complication there.

"Much good that break will do him," said the detective, straightening
out his twisted coat collar. "He will find a squad of police at the
street door."

"European police?" asked Ned.

"Native police," with a snarl of rage as the commotion in the outer room
continued.

Knowing that it would be no trouble at all to secure the release by any
American officer taken into custody by Chinese police, Ned turned to the
window and looked out on the court. He understood, too, that his own
arrest would mean a long delay in prison while his identity was being
established. So he thought best to keep out of the squabble the
hot-headed officer had engaged in.

How sane this decision was only those foreign citizens who had been
arrested and cast into prison in China or Russia can appreciate. While
an accredited officer of a foreign power may almost instantly regain his
liberty, a plain citizen, such as Ned was forced to appear, might be
kept in jail for any number of days, weeks, or months.

The detective stood glaring at the two boys for an instant, as if
anxious to inflict physical punishment upon them, but, as they remained
at the window and said no more to him, he was obliged to take a
different course. After rapping out several insulting observations
concerning school child