Boy Scouts on Motorcycles Part 29

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Ned answered, tentatively.

"I don't understand that reply," Frank observed, with a serious face.

"You must have discovered something in this house which is not to your liking."

"Time will show," Ned said.

Captain Martin, of the marines, now entered the room where the discussion was going on. His face was pale, and his eyes showed greater anger than Ned had ever seen reflected there before.

"Just a moment, Ned," he said, and the two stepped into another room.

The Captain dropped into a chair.

"We have struck the hornet's nest," he said.

"Do you hear them buzzing?" asked Ned, with a smile.

"Worse than that," was the reply. "I am feeling their stings. Two of my men have been attacked in the dark."

"And wounded?"

"Yes; one of them seriously."

"I'm sorry for the poor fellow," Ned said. "Do you think we can get him on to Peking?"

Captain Martin shook his head.

"It is a bad wound," he said. "The man was on guard not far from the edge of the grove when a figure loomed up before him. He challenged and was about to shoot, for no reply came, when he got the knife in his back. He can't be moved."

"The trouble is," Ned replied, "that we got here too soon."

"What's the answer to that?"

"We did not give the plotters time enough to finish their business.

When that old c.h.i.n.k, back there at the gate, signaled to them with his rockets, they cut and ran, leaving important evidence behind them."

"And you think they will hang about the flying squadron until they recover what they have lost?"

"They certainly will try to recover it. Now you see the wisdom of the Was.h.i.+ngton people in sending me to Peking on a motorcycle! You see that I was right in saying that we were being set up as marks for other nations to shoot at!"

"Yes," said Martin, "you never could have got to the fellows in the old way. It was right to plan it so that they would come to you, although it was placing you in great danger."

"But the danger has rippled off our backs like water off the feathers of a duck! If we meet no more peril than we have now encountered, we'll get back to New York fat and healthy."

"One thing I fail to comprehend," Captain Martin said, "and that is why a flying squadron was sent with you."

"To attract attention," laughed Ned.

"To get you out of sc.r.a.pes, I should say," the Captain retorted.

"Well, then, both!"

"I don't get it yet."

"We might have reached Peking without our presence in the country being known to our enemies," Ned said, "but that was not the idea of the Was.h.i.+ngton people. I have already explained to the boys that we were to do our real work in identifying the man we want while on the way."

"Oh, all right," replied the officer, "but it seems to me that you might have made the trip in a quieter way with the same result. These chaps would have found you, depend on that."

"Yes, but we needed help," replied Ned, "and we got it in the nick of time. Guess the Secret Service people at Was.h.i.+ngton are all right."

"Perhaps," the Captain said, then, "we would better get the wounded men into the house and look after their wounds. The others I'll leave on guard."

The injured marines were carried into the house and given such attention as could be bestowed in the absence of a surgeon.

"What next?" asked Frank.

"Peking!" answered Jack. "We can't heal these wounds by remaining here, and we can help by going on and sending a surgeon back."

"But my orders are to remain with you," Captain Martin said.

"Then leave most of your men here and come on," Ned replied.

This plan was agreed upon, and would have been carried out at once had not something not on the program of the night intervened. Captain Martin had detailed two men to sit with the wounded and stationed the others in a circle about the house when a shot was fired off to the east.

"I didn't think they would have the nerve to attack the house openly before we got away," Captain Martin remarked.

All listened intently, but there was no more shooting.

"That sounded to me more like a signal than anything else," Ned observed. "I wonder if they are out in force?"

"I think I'd better call the men in," Captain Martin remarked.

The words were hardly out of his mouth when a skulking form appeared in the dim light which now fell from the stars. The fellow was creeping from the house outward.

"A spy!" Jack whispered. "Shoot, some one. I haven't my gun with me.

Shoot!"

The skulking man appeared to hear the words, though they were spoken in a very low tone, for he sprang to his feet and dashed away at full speed. In a second he was lost to view in the thicket.

"Say, but that chap is some runner!" Jimmie cried. "He went so fast I never thought to wing him!"

"Where did he come from?" asked Frank. "I'm certain he was not in the house. Perhaps he was up to some deviltry."

"He wasn't here with any bouquets," Jimmie answered. "I'm goin' out an'

run around the house. Perhaps I can find out where he was hidin', an'

find his mate there."

No objections being offered to this, the little fellow left the group and started in on a tour around the old house. He was gone perhaps two minutes, then came das.h.i.+ng back, his face white and horror-stricken in the circle of light which met him.

"Grab 'em! Grab 'em an' get out!" he shouted.