Ned sprang to the door and opened it.

“Quick!” he cried.  “Don’t let a man now in the room get away.”

“Where is Captain Martin, the officer in charge?” asked one of the men.

“The Chinks can tell you,” Ned answered.  “Close up at the doors,” he went on, gazing about excitedly, “so that no one can leave.”

This was done instantly.  In fact, the natives and the men of the telegraph office were not in a fighting mood now.  The guns and sabers of the marines had brought them to a peace-loving state of mind!

They huddled about in the center of the room, the natives milling around like cattle in a storm.  The assistant manager pushed out of the press and handed the consul the cablegram.

“Understand that I am doing this under protest,” he said.  “Your conduct in invading my office with armed men shall be reported.”

“I shall welcome any investigation,” the consul replied, with a smile, “because I want to know something of your motives in doing what you have done to-night.  You know very well that the cablegram is of no importance to any person except the one to whom it is addressed.  I can read the code, it is true, but you doubtless overlooked the fact that I have received such dispatches here.  So, let us look at the matter in a reasonable light.  What inducements were offered you to keep the cablegram away from this young man?  Speak up!”

“You are insulting"’ gasped the assistant manager.

“Come down to cases!” commanded the consul.

“I don’t understand your Bowery slang.”

“How much money was offered you to hold this message?”

There was no answer, but the operator glanced slyly in the direction of the consul with a frightened look in his eyes.

“Were you to withhold the message altogether, or were you merely to delay this young man?”

“You are insulting!” repeated the other.

“Who bribed you?” came the next question, snapped out like the crack of a lash.

“You have the message,” the assistant manager said.  “Get out.”

“Only for the marines you’d put me out!” laughed the consul.

“Indeed I would!”

Hans made a threatening gesture toward the fellow and he hastened to the protection of the counter.

“My office is only a short distance away,” said the consul, turning to Ned.  “We may as well go there and size this extraordinary situation up.  I hardly know what to make of it.”

“There is one thing you, perhaps, do not understand,” Ned said, “and that is that Captain Martin, in charge of this squad, has been taken into custody by order of the detective Hans knocked out a moment ago.”

The consul’s face turned red with anger.  He seized the assistant manager by the shoulder and shook him, over the counter, as a dog shakes a rat.

“Where is he?” he demanded.  “Tell your hirelings to bring him here, not soon, but now.”