“Of course I can!”

Although the boys watched closely, there were no signs of motion in any one of the six yellow, foxy faces, still the words seemed to come from the wall directly back of Jack’s head.

“If I had you on the Bowery,” Jack continued, “I’d give you a hundred a month.  Come on over and get busy in the little old United States!”

“I think I’ll wait until the boys bring in the other two wild animals,” replied the unknown speaker.  “I rather want to see the finish of you Wolves and Black Bears before I see the Bowery again.”

“You’ll find more wild animals of our stripe on the Bowery than you will want to meet,” Jack replied, “especially when it is known that you’ve been mixed up with Boy Scouts, to their harm, in China.”

“I’ll take my chances on that,” was the reply.  “You have been very successful, you wild beasts, in butting into the business of other people, and getting out again uninjured, but it is going to be different now.  There are two black Bears and two Wolves that I know of who will never get back to New York again.”

“All right,” Frank said.  “We’ve had fun enough out of the Secret Service work we have done to pay for whatever trouble we have now.  Ned will be along presently, and then you’ll have another think coming.”

“Sure, he’ll be along directly,” was the reply.  “In fact, he’s right here now!”

But it was not Ned who was pushed, bound hand and foot, into the circle of light in the room.  The little fellow came near falling as he was thrust forward, but he regained his equilibrium, and turned around to face his tormentor.

“You’re a cheap skate!” he said.  “If I had you on Chatham Square I’d change your face good and plenty!”

Then he saw that he was speaking to empty air.  There was no one in the doorway.  The person who had brought him there and hustled him into the room had disappeared.

“Now, what do you know about that?”

Jimmie chuckled as he asked the question of the six silent figures ranged along the wall.  As yet his eyes had not fallen on the figures of Frank and Jack, farther back in the shadows.

There was, of course, no answer to his question, and the boy leaned forward, a grin on his freckled face.

“Say, but you’re a bum lot!” he cried.  “Why don’t you go back to the Pyramids and sleep for another thousand years?  There ain’t no nourishment in sitting up there like a dime museum, for there’s no one sellin’ tickets at the door.”

“Look behind you!”

That was the English voice again, seemingly out of the heavy air, or out of the storm outside.  Jimmie turned quickly and saw his chums nicely tied up.

In a moment he turned back to the row of six, without even exchanging a look with his friends.

“Who’s doin’ the talkin’,” he asked.

Frank and Jack were now too impatient to know what had become of their leader to delay longer.  The latter asked: