f the sweater on the nail, he
might, by working his body downward, pull the garment over his head and
carry with it the stout cloth in which he was still swathed. At the cost
of some skin scraped from his back, he got the nail fastened in the
sweater and gradually succeeded in turning it inside out. In a minute or
two he said to himself, exultantly, he would have his hands free, and
then it would be quick and easy work to untie his feet.

At that moment, when escape was almost within his grasp, dreaded sounds
came to his ears,--the opening of the door and the shuffle of running
feet. Teeny-bits was in a hopeless position to make any resistance; the
folds of tough cloth which had been wound about his body, pinioning his
arms, had been pulled upward with the sweater until the whole mass was
bunched across the top of his bare shoulders, and though he was able to
move his arms slightly, he was still so tangled that he could do nothing
except await whatever fate was in store for him. Two persons came into
the room; he heard them speak sharply and knew then that they were
Chinese; there was no mistaking the outlandish inflection of vowel and
consonant. In a second rough hands were laid upon him and he was dragged
away from the wall. He gave a few last futile wrenches and then lay
still, face down, on the floor.

His captors had him at their mercy; they could do with him what they
wished. One of them was pulling at the folds of cloth; Teeny-bits could
feel the man's hands on his bare back. Suddenly the hands paused in
their work; then the sweater was pushed an inch or two higher and there
came to Teeny-bits' ears one of the strangest sounds that he had ever
heard: an exclamation, a startled cry in syllables that, though wild and
meaningless in themselves, conveyed an unmistakable effect,--discovery
and the highest degree of astonishment. This strange cry was answered in
kind by another voice, and Teeny-bits felt the two Chinese fumbling at
his back with trembling fingers. To his surprise he realized, after a
moment, that they were loosening the bonds, that they were freeing his
arms and legs and removing the folds over his mouth and eyes.

In a few moments Teeny-bits sat up and looked about him; he had the same
sensation that a person sometimes experiences on waking at night in a
room away from home and finding the walls too near or too far and
windows where they should not be. He had imagined himself in a wide,
high, dimly