Boy Scouts on Motorcycles | Page 8

Ned saw the old Chinaman leave his work
and pass through a door to the west. The boy thought he recognized a
significant signal as the fellow disappeared,
The lads never knew exactly how it all occurred. They only knew at the
time that there was a quick rush, a flash of weapons, a desperate

struggle, then momentary unconsciousness.
They decided afterwards that their enemies had rushed upon them from
every direction, and that the sneering face of Rae had gloated over their
capture.
"Don't injure them," Rae ordered, as ropes were knotted about the
wrists and ankles of the prisoners. "I'll go out now and see that the two
Black Bears," with a double sneer in his voice, "are taken into camp in
short order. Bad climate, this, for school boys who imitate wild
animals," he added, with a malicious smile. "A bad climate."
"You're all right!" Jimmie called out, as Rae paused in the doorway for
an instant. "You're all right! But let me give you a pointer. You keep
the Bears and Wolves you get in strong cages! If they get out, they'll
eat you up!"
"Oh! I'll pull their fangs!" laughed the other, and then he was gone.
"This China seems to be a nice country," Jimmie said, turning to Ned.
"Some people would break our crusts in instead of tyin' us up."
"I rather think," Ned replied, "that they have planned to do that a little
later on. We ought never to have taken such chances."
"You can't have a chicken pie," grinned Jimmie, "unless some one kills
a chicken! No more can you find out what's goin' on by sittin' down in
an old house an' waitin' for someone to bring you the news in a New
York newspaper! We had to keep cases on this chap, didn't we?"
"I think you would talk slang if you were drowning," Ned smiled.
"Anyway," he added, "we've caused Rae, if that is his name, to show
his hand. That is something."
"If we never get away," laughed Jimmie, "we can leave the information
to our friends in a will! I wonder if this gazabo will get Frank and
Jack?"

"Possibly," Ned answered.
"They seem to be puttin' most all the Americans in China out of
circulation!" said the little fellow. "Wonder if that old gear-face thinks
he can guard us an' sleep, too? Say, you watch your chance, Ned, an' I'll
roll over and geezle him an' you get out of the house. Roll out, tumble
out, any way to get out! There," with a sigh of disappointment, "there's
another Chink in the game. Listen to what they are saying!"
CHAPTER IV
TWO BLACK BEARS IN TROUBLE
Jack and Frank sat long by the window, waiting for Ned and Jimmie to
return. The doors of the adjoining rooms were wide open, so they had a
full view of the lower floor.
There were windows, unglazed like that which looked out on the Gulf
of Pechili, too, and the lads could see for some distance along the street
which ran parallel with the one upon which the miserable old structure
faced.
Presently a mist crept over the sky, and black clouds rolled in from the
threatening canopy over the gulf. There was evidently a storm brewing,
and, besides, the night was coming on.
In spite of the fact that they had a good view all about them, so far as
the house and its immediate vicinity was concerned, both boys felt that
almost indescribable sensation which one experiences when being
observed from behind by keen and magnetic eyes. They were not
exactly afraid, but they had premonitions of approaching trouble.
"I wonder what's keeping Ned?" Jack asked. "Hope he hasn't gotten
into trouble."
"Oh, he'll look out for that!"
"Of course! Ned's no slouch!"

While the boys cheered themselves with such remarks as these, the
rooms grew darker and the black clouds from off the gulf dropped
nearer.
"What an ungodly country!" Jack exclaimed. "I feel as if I were
surrounded by snakes, and all kinds of reptiles. How would you like to
take a New York special, just now?"
"I'm not yet seared of the job we are on," Frank replied, "but I'd like a
half decent show of getting out alive. I feel like we were in a hole in the
ground, with all manner of creeping things about us. The very air seems
to be impregnated with treachery and cunning."
"That's the breath of the Orient," smiled Jack, not inclined to continue
in the vein in which the conversation had started.
"I don't know why the breath of the Orient should differ from the breath
of the Occident," replied Frank, well pleased at the change of subject.
"It wouldn't, if the natives of the far East would