"I ought to," was the reply. "I have just come back from New York. I owned a laundry there for a good many years."

"And have returned to China to live in peace and comfort?"

"I don't know about the peace," replied the Chinaman, with a sigh.

"You think there will be a war?"

The Chinaman nodded.

"The coming revolt," he declared, "was conceived more than two hundred years ago. For fifty years organization has been going on. For six years the revolutionists have been working as a whole."

"And they are strong?" asked Ned.

"Wherever in the world Chinamen live, in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, anywhere, everywhere, there are funds being collected for the coming civil war."

Ned wanted to ask the loquacious old fellow what his private ideas about the justice of the struggle were, but he decided not to do so. He thought he might find out in another way.

"And the revolutionists will win?" he asked.

"G.o.d forbid!" was the reply, and the boy had the answer he thought he would receive.

Still, he was not satisfied that the old fellow was telling the exact truth regarding his sentiments. It was the revolutionists he had to battle with, and not the federalists. This retired laundryman might know that!

"Anyway," the boy thought, "the fellow seems desirous of keeping me here as long as possible. This, of course, may be because of a desire for the companionship of one of the race he has lived with so long, but I do not think so."

Pretending to be deeply interested in what the Chinaman was saying, he excused himself for a moment and beckoned to Jimmie.

"Lead your motorcycle noiselessly up that rise of ground," he directed, "and when you get there keep your eyes wide open."

"What for?" demanded the boy.

"For whatever comes in sight," replied Ned. "Keep the line of vision from this house to whatever may be beyond unimpaired if it is possible to do so. If you observe anything unusual, report to me."

"All righto!" cried the boy.

Ned saw Jimmie making a noiseless progress up the little hill and turned back to the man at the gate. Instantly the latter offered refreshments, for the entire party, and seemed disappointed when the offer was declined.

"You're going to Peking on business?" the Chinaman finally asked.

"Yes," was the short answer.

"Why do you ride in the night?"

"Because we must get there in the morning."

"But there is another day."

"Always there is another day in the Far East," Ned smiled, "but we of the West count only on what we can do before that other day arrives."

The two talked on for half an hour, while the marines muttered complaints and Frank and Jack rolled themselves in blankets and tried to pay a visit to Dreamland. The previous night had been a hard one, and they felt the need of more rest than they had been able to get during the afternoon.

After a time Ned became anxious. He had sent Jimmie on ahead with the notion that something was going to happen there within a short time.

But all was still about the house and the small fields which surrounded it. Jimmie did not return.

"I wonder if the little scamp is in trouble again?" thought Ned.

This seemed to be the natural solution of the puzzle of his long absence, and Ned was about to send Frank on after him when the little fellow came up to him.

"The Captain wants you to get a move on," the boy said.

Ned saw that Jimmie had something to say to him which was not for the ears of the Chinaman, and walked away, followed by the urgent voice of the former laundryman, who besought him to return and partake of refreshments.

"In honor of old New York!" he added.

"Gee!" Jimmie muttered, as the boys stood alone together. "I was thinkin' I'd struck the fourth of July."

"Where?"

"Up on the hill."

"So, they were using rockets?"

"Yes."

"Where did they ascend from?"

"From the other side of the hill, at this end, and from an old house at the other end."

Ned stood for a moment without speaking. So the Chinaman had been holding him in conversation while his tools had been signaling to some one farther up the road!

This was practically what he had suspected. From the first he had believed that the old fellow's purpose was to hold him there as long as possible.

Signals would naturally be the outgrowth of such a plan, and Ned had sent Jimmie on ahead--silently--in order to see where the other party answered the signals from, if they were answered at all. As from the opening of the case, he had planned to secure his information from his enemies--from their actions and their presence or absence from the position he occupied.

Directing the marines to follow on slowly, Ned awoke Frank and Jack.

The four climbed the hill slowly, watching the sky as they advanced.

The clouds lay low to the east, but in the west was a patch of clear sky.

When they gained the summit of the rise, they saw a light in a little grove some distance away. It seemed like a lantern moving out and in among the trees.

"There," Jimmie explained, "when I got to the top of the hill, I saw a rocket shoot out of that thicket. It did not ascend the sky, but follow the line of the earth and died out in the road."

"Of course," Ned said. "A rocket sent up in the usual way would have been visible from where we were standing."

"And, in a minute," the boy went on, "there came a rocket from that house, the house where the light was a minute ago. That, too, followed the ground line."

"Talking together in low tones!" grinned Jack.

"They were talkin' together, all right," Jimmie said.