“Of course,” Ned insisted, “but we ought not to leave if there is any possibility of our friend being in trouble.  Besides, Jack,” he went on, “a native fight here would hardly be umpired by a man wearing European shoes!  Here are the tracks, and I found others like them on the ground outside not long ago.  We may as well go out now and try to follow them.”

Accompanied by Jimmie, Ned went out and made a closer examination.  The tracks crossed the yard and ended at the street in the rear of the old house.

“Now,” Ned said, as he stepped out on the beaten course of the unpaved street, “we shall have to take chances.  The trail has disappeared, and we can only depend on our enemies for guidance.”

“That’s fine!” said Jimmie.  “We may as well go back!”

Ned pointed to a little group of Chinamen standing not far away, at the corner of a street lined with miserable huts.

“We’ll walk about here,” he said, “and if we get somewhere near any point of information to us or danger to the others, I have a notion that that nest of Celestials will begin to buzz.”

Jimmie laughed and the two passed on, merely looking in the direction of the group as they passed it.  They moved on down the street on the opposite side.  The Chinamen did not move.

When they turned back, however, on the other side of the thoroughfare and stopped, on speculation, for an instant before a hut somewhat larger and more dilapidated than the others, a pair of the watchers suddenly detached themselves from the group and hastened away in opposite directions.  Two more strolled toward the boys.

“What next?” asked Jimmie, in a whisper.

“Seems to me that our halting here indicates that there may be something doing in this house,” Ned replied.  “Suppose we go in and ask some ordinary question?”

“An’ get kicked out!” grunted Jimmie.

“That will be all right, so long as they let us out at all,” Ned replied with a smile.  “I just want to know why our stopping here excited the Chinks who were watching us.”

As Ned turned toward the house the little fellow caught him by the sleeve and held him back.

“You look out,” he said, “there’s a snake in there, that black-eyed snake who claimed to be Lieutenant Rae!  Do you want him to know that we are wise to his game?”

Ned turned and started away from the house, but there came a call from the structure, and the next instant two men were running out to greet him.  More by gestures than by words they informed the boys that there was a man in the house wished to see them.

In a moment they stood facing the man who had called himself Lieutenant Rae.  He advanced to meet them and pointed to chairs as they entered the room.

“Out for a walk?” he asked, with a smile.

Ned nodded and Jimmie grinned.

“The owner of this house,” Rae went on, “is an old friend of mine.  We met first, years ago, in San Francisco.  I’m staying here while in the town.  By the way, I was about to visit your quarters.”