Boy Scouts on Motorcycles Part 34

The other nodded in the direction of the window and smiled.

"My friends?" he asked.

"Certainly."

"Why do you attribute this outbreak to me?"

"Because those not in league with you and your cause would hardly threaten American tourists, in the face of the law."

"American tourists!" snarled the other, and Ned laughed.

Jimmie now came bustling into the room, his eyes staring with excitement. The interpreter was only a trifle less moved by the information which had been gained.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"He's crazy with fear again!" Frank put in.

"Say," Jimmie cried, "you'd all better be gettin' out of this place.

The people out there are goin' to raid it in a minute!"

The prisoner uttered a defiant laugh and again started for the window.

Again Ned forced him back.

"What's the trouble?" asked Frank.

"Why," was the reply, "this gink here," pointing toward the prisoner whose disguise had been removed, "this gazabo hadn't much confidence in his own ability to win this fight, so he appealed to the revolutionary leaders."

"That's fine!" Jack said. "We may have the luck to see a full-fledged revolution doing business."

"You are quite likely to."

This from the prisoner, now standing with the others at the back of the room.

"You arranged for this demonstration in case you should be taken?" asked Ned.

The prisoner snarled out some ugly reply.

"You planned this?" demanded Ned, resolved to know the truth.

"Yes," almost shouted the other, "and you will soon discover that it is something more than a demonstration."

The interpreter drew Jimmie aside and whispered in his ear. Then the boy turned to Ned.

"This boy says he saw a signal given from a window as soon as this bunch was taken," he said. "Then crowds began forming. Say, but we'd better be gettin' out!"

"Save yourselves the exertion," the prisoner said. "They will find you, wherever you go!"

"Possibly," Ned said.

Then he walked to the window and again looked out on the mob. The street was packed. Faces showing rage and desperate bravery were uplifted. Fists were shaken at the window where he stood. In a moment a stone came hurtling against the wall of the house.

Here and there, on the outskirts of the crowd, policemen in the funny uniforms the police of Peking wear, were seen trying vainly to force their way to the door of the hotel. The main entrance seemed to be guarded, for the mob did not succeed in forcing its way in.

Presently, however, Ned saw long ladders being carried forward on the shoulders of the rioters. Then they were dropped against the wall and men with b.l.o.o.d.y faces--b.l.o.o.d.y from the acts of their own fellows--fought to be first to climb.

"In three minutes," the prisoner said, "you will be torn limb from limb if I am not released."

"Your friends certainly do insist on something of the kind," Ned replied.

"Remove these irons and place me before the window," commanded the other. "That will quiet them."

"And make terms with a pack of rioters?" smiled Ned.

"You can save your life, and the lives of your friends, in no other way," insisted the other.

Ned went to the window again, although bricks and stones were flying quite freely. The ladders swarmed with excited men, but no one seemed able to gain entrance at the windows which were attacked.

Instead, a ladder now and then went toppling backward, carrying dozens of rioters to death or injury. When the ladders began falling the mob moved away from that side of the street.

"You see," Ned said to the prisoner, "that we were on the lookout for something like this."

"How could you have been?" gasped the other.

"Our interpreter heard some of the messages sent out by mouth by the revolutionists. I connected your possible capture with the gathering.

We were warned and made ready."

"But my men will soon be here!" shouted the other. "They are sworn to go to death for the cause if necessary."

"But I don't see them doing anything of the kind," Ned replied. "On the contrary, they seem to be taking pretty good care of their yellow old hides!"

"You'll see!" howled the other.

Directly the heavy beat of marching feet came up to the window, heard above the roar of the mob below. Far down the street Ned saw the advancing line, bearing the colors of the Emperor.

The rioters saw the line, too, and the crowd in front of the hotel began to thin. Then the soldiers arrived and the thoroughfare was empty save for their presence. By this time the prisoner was in a condition of collapse. He had planned this thing carefully, and was now in the meshes of failure.

The street below soon cleared of the few who gathered about to witness the arrival of the soldiers. The few prisoners, who had been taken marched sullenly to prison. In ten minutes the city of Peking was as quiet as if the machinations of the conspirators had never stirred the people to riot.

"Well?" Ned said, facing the prisoner. "What do you think we ought to do with you?"

"After all," was the reply, "you have no charges against me. My government alone can discipline me for what has been done."

"Your government will deny any knowledge of the conspiracy," Ned replied. "From this time on, you have no government."

"And yet I acted under instructions."

"What was the motive?" asked Frank, who saw a fine cablegram for his father's newspaper in the story.