The Boy Scout Camera Club | Page 6

the Chink let him in and then loan him
the dress?"
"I rather think that's why the Chinaman ran away!" laughed Ned. "You
boys seem to have reasoned it all out. He might have let the sneak in
and then let him have some of his own clothes to wear! And that will
make trouble for us!"
"Do you think the fellow heard about the Camera Club trip, and the
object of it?" asked Oliver. "If he was scared away half an hour ago he
didn't learn much, for we hadn't begun to talk much about it at that
time!"
"He may not have heard anything important," Ned replied, "but the fact

that he was sent here to listen is significant! Some one in Washington
knows that we have been chosen to search the mountains for the prince!
Some one knows that we are going out as an innocent- looking Boy
Scout Camera Club, but really to find the boy. Now, what will that
person do to the Camera Club, after we get out into the mountains?"
"The question in my mind," Jimmie broke in, "is what we shall do to
him!"
"I'm sorry the information about our going leaked out," Ned said,
gravely. "As boy snapshot friends we might have been able to do things
which the Secret Service men could not do. No one would pay much
attention to a group of boys roaming over the mountains. But now I'm
afraid our investigations will be all in the limelight!"
"Tell you what," Jimmie cut in, "suppose we find the Chink and make
him point out the man who was in the house--listening?"
CHAPTER III
WHAT THE BOX CONTAINED
"All right," Oliver encouraged. "Let's go out and make a throw at
finding him, anyway! He may be in the garage, or the carriage house
right this minute."
Jimmie and Oliver rushed away to find Terance, the coachman, and
undertake the search suggested, while Ned, Jack, Frank and Teddy sat
at the open windows looking out on the street.
"Chang Chu was at liberty to go into the attic at any time?" asked Ned,
tentatively.
"Oh, yes," Jack answered, "the other servants sent him about on errands.
He is a handy man about the premises--or was, rather."
"Is he a man to do such a thing as we are accusing him of?" Ned then
asked.

"I never thought so," was the puzzled reply. "I hope you don't think that
he was beaten up by the man who secured his blue clothes! That would
be tough on the fellow."
"I have been thinking of that," Ned responded, "and while the boys are
looking for the Chinaman in the outbuildings suppose we look for him
in the upper part of the house."
"But if the sneak could get into the upper part of the house without the
use of the disguise," reasoned Jack, "he wouldn't need it at all, would
he?"
"He might have been surprised while at work by the Chinaman," Ned
suggested. "In that case he might have taken the clothes as an
afterthought. Suppose we look and see?"
Leaving Frank and Teddy sitting by the window, looking out on a
perfect May night, Ned and Jack climbed the staircase to the attic and
entered the room directly over the Black Bear Patrol clubroom. It was a
large room, more of a storeroom than an attic, with a hardwood floor
and papered walls and ceiling.
A great sack upon which clothing and odds and ends of all descriptions
were hanging stood at the south end of the apartment, while a long row
of boxes and packing trunks occupied the floor at the north end. The
rug, which had been thrown down on the floor near the hole bored
through a plank, was still there where the servants had seen it. The
listener had, at least, a good notion of personal comfort!
"Where was this rug taken from?" asked Ned.
"It was on the rack the last time I saw it," Jack answered.
"Was it clean at that time?" Ned continued, examining the rug with a
glass.
"What do you mean by clean? It was dusty, of course, like everything
else here."

"Were there any stains on it--stains like blood?" Ned went on, dragging
the rug under the electric lights which had been switched on.
"Why, of course not. It was originally in the little den off the library,
but father became tired of it and told Terance to bring it here."
"How long ago was that?"
"Oh, a month or two. I can't be exact as to the date, you know."
Ned handed his chum the glass and indicated a certain portion of the
rug.
"What do you call that?" he asked. "What does it look like?"
"It looks like a spot of