“You are standing now where the allied armies encamped in 1900,” the officer went on.  “You doubtless recall the time the allied armies were sent to Peking to rescue the foreign ambassadors during the Boxer uprising?  That was an exciting time.”

“Hardly,” laughed Ned, “although I have read much about that march.  I must have been about eight years old at the time.”

“Well here is where the American brigade encamped on the night before the start for Peking was made.  At that time it was believed that the foreigners at Peking had all been murdered.  I was here with the boys in blue.”

“Then you ought to know the road to Peking.”

“I certainly do.”

“What are we halting here for?”

“There is a dispatch from Washington due you here,” was the reply.

“Telegrams in China?”

“Certainly.  Why, kid, this city has over a million of inhabitants, and thousands of the residents are foreigners.  Of course they have telegraph facilities.”

“But how am I to get it to-night?”

To the east lay a great cornfield, to the west a broken common upon which were a few houses of the meaner sort.  The corn had been cut and was in the shock.  In the houses the lights were out.  But far over the poverty-stricken abodes of the poor shone the reflections of the high lights of the city.

Tientsin is a squalid Oriental city, its native abodes being of the cheapest kind, but the foreign section is well built up and well lighted.  These were the reflections, glancing down from a gentle slope, that the boys saw.

The officer pointed to the north, indicating a low-roofed hut half hidden in the corn shocks.

“We are to remain there,” he said, “until you receive your instructions from Washington.”

“But why were they not given me before?” demanded Ned.

“Because the man in charge of this matter for the Secret Service department doubted your ability to make the trip to Tientsin.  That is the truth of it.  If you had failed back there at Taku, I should have taken the message from the office and mailed it, unopened, back to Washington.  You have made good, so you get it yourself.”

“They never put me to such a test before,” grumbled Ned.

The officer turned, gave a short order to his men, and passed his machine over to one of them.

“I am going into the city with Mr. Nestor,” he said; “see that none of these youngsters gets away during my absence.”

“I’m goin’ to get away right now,” Jimmie exclaimed.  “I’m goin’ with Ned to the city.  I guess I’m not visiting China to live in a cornfield.  I want to see the wheels go round!”

The officer glanced at Ned questioningly, while the little fellow made a face back.

“Let him come along,” Ned said.  “He’ll come anyway, whether we give him permission or not.  How far must we walk?”

“Walk?” repeated Jimmie.  “I’m goin’ to take my motorcycle.”