d in getting
away from the camp. They did not know, of course, that the member of the
Wild Cat Patrol from Manila had noted the capture of the lads, and had
started away to notify their friends as soon as the explosions heard so
plainly by the boys notified him of the whereabouts of the _Manhattan_.

Jimmie and Jack remained quietly in the tent for some moments after
their freedom from their bonds had been gained, then Jimmie crawled to
the wall nearest the center of the camp, lifted the canvas and looked
out. He crouched there a moment and then dropped the canvas and turned
to his chum.

"You remember the night in Yokohama?" he asked.

"I should say so," Jack replied. "Didn't I wait around a bum old hotel
until almost morning for you to come back?"

"Well," Jimmie went on, "the man that sat in disguise in the tea house,
and the men who were there with him, are out there."

Jack approached the little opening made by the lifting of the canvas and
looked out.

"Which one?" he asked. "Which one was disguised!"

"The military-lookin' chap," was the reply.

"On the night them gazabos chased us down the Street of a Thousand Steps
he was made up like a Jap. When we came to the marines he ducked, as if
afraid of Uncle Sam's uniforms."

"Ned rather thought he'd be down to this conference," Jack said.

The man to whom the boy called special attention was in the garb of a
civilian, but the military manner was unmistakable. He now stood talking
with half a dozen Filipinos, occasionally pointing to the eastern coast
of the island.

"He's sendin' his natives after the _Manhattan_, all right," Jimmie
said. "There's goin' to be somethin' doin here before long. Look who's
here!" he added, as a young man of perhaps twenty-five sauntered toward
the tent.

Under his arm the young man carried a steel box, like those used as
receptacles for cash and important papers in safe deposit vaults. The
box seemed to be quite heavy, for the young man frequently shifted it
from one side to the other.

"There's your treaty box!" laughed Jack, poking Jimmie in the ribs.

"It may be, at that," the boy replied.

The young man passed from group to group in front of the tents,
apparently seeking some one. Occasionally he pointed to the keyhole of
the box and the others felt in their pockets.

"He's lost the key to the treaty box," Jimmie grinned.

"Probably he's got cigarettes in there and wants to dope himself with
one," Jack replied.