“Cut it out?” laughed Jack Bosworth, “why,
kid, we’ve just got to the land of promise!”
“Most all promise!” replied Jimmie.
“We’ve got nothin’ but promises
since we’ve been here. Where’s that
Secret Service feller that was goin’ to set
the pace for us?”
“Perhaps he’s lost in the jungle,”
laughed Frank Shaw. “He certainly ought
to have been here three days ago. What about
it, Gulf of Pechili and the Peiho river Ned?”
he added, turning to a youth who lay at his side,
almost shivering in spite of his shaggy burlap covering.
Ned Nestor yawned and threw aside his alleged protection
from the growing chill of the October day. The
boys, fresh from a submarine in which they had searched
an ocean floor for important documents as well as
millions of dollars in gold, had arrived at Taku five
days before this autumn afternoon.
After concluding the mission on the submarine, Ned
had been invited to undertake a difficult errand to
Peking, in the interest of the United States Secret
Service. Even after landing at Taku, he had confessed
to his chums his utter ignorance of the work he was
to do.
He had been requested by the Secret Service man who
had engaged him for the duty to wait for instructions
at the old house on the water front which, in company
with Frank, Jack, and Jimmie, he now occupied.
The house was old and dilapidated, seemingly having
been unoccupied for years, so the lads were really
“camping out” there.
Their provisions were brought to them regularly by
a Chinaman who did not seem to understand a word of
English, and, as the boys knowledge of the Chinese
tongue was exceedingly limited, no information had
been gained from him. The Secret Service man
had not appeared, and Ned was becoming uneasy, especially
as the curiosity of his neighbors was becoming annoying.
“I guess this is a stall,” Jimmie grumbled,
as Ned arose and stood at his side. “You
know how the Moores, father an’ son, tried to
get us on the submarine? Well, I’ll bet
they’ve got loose, an’ that we’re
bein’ kept here until they can do us up proper
without attractin’ the attention of the European
population.”
Ned laughed at the boy’s fears. He had
no doubt that the man who had promised to meet him
there had been delayed in some unaccountable manner,
and that the information he was awaiting would be supplied
before another day had passed.
“Anyway,” Jimmie insisted, “I don’t
like the looks of things hereabouts! There’s
always some pigtailed Chink watchin’ this house
from the street. I woke up last night an’
saw a snaky-eyed Celestial peering in at this window.
I guess they’ve got rid of the man we are waitin’
for.”
“If we only knew exactly what we were to do
in Peking,” Frank said, approaching the little
group by the window, “we might jog along and
report to the American legation. I’m like
Jimmie. I don’t fancy this long wait here—not
a little bit!”
