“Must have been there all the time,” Jimmie volunteered.

“But he didn’t have the powder, or the dynamite, or whatever thing he figured on blowing us up with, in his pockets, did he?” asked Jack.

“I guess the old Chink down the road, the fellow who kept me talking at the gate, had something to do with storing the explosive there,” Ned remarked.  “I presume the plot was laid to blow us up the minute the effort to destroy us at the ruined temple failed.”

“Merry little time we’re having,” Frank laughed.  “Here, kid, where are you going?” he added, as Jimmie moved away.

“I’m goin’ to see why that don’t go bang!” answered the boy.

Ned tried to stop him, but the little fellow dodged away and disappeared around an angle of the house.

The boys waited in suspense for a moment, expecting every instant to witness the explosion, then Frank and Jack darted around the corner, in quest of Jimmie.

“Come back!” Ned called, but they paid no heed.

Both Ned and the Captain sprang after the lads, the latter expressing in very vigorous language his opinion of boys who would take such risks out of curiosity.

“I’d rather wait an hour for an explosion than go up to see why it didn’t come off in time,” he said.  “That Jimmie needs a good beating.  He’ll get it, too, if he doesn’t behave!”

Ned laughed, serious as the situation was, at the thought of what would be apt to happen if the Captain should lay hands on the little fellow in anger.  He would have the other boys on his hands in a second!

When Ned rounded the corner he saw Jimmie’s heels half blocking a cellar window.  Thick smoke was oozing out around him, and Frank and Jack were trying to pull him back.

“You let go!” they heard the little fellow shout.  “I guess I know what I’m doin’.  You let go!”

“Wait!” Ned said, then he stooped over and called out to Jimmie: 

“Is the fuse out?”

“Sure!” was the reply. “’Sure the fuse is out, but before it went out it set fire to something on the cellar bottom, an’ the blaze is workin’ its way up to the powder, or whatever it is.  Ouch!” he added, as Jack gave a pull at his foot.  “You let go!”

“Let him go,” Ned advised.  “Perhaps he can get in there in time to prevent the explosion.”

“The little gink!” Jack exclaimed, “I wanted to see the thing bust up.  Now he’s spoiled it!”

In a moment the boy was in the cellar, and Ned was not far away when the creeping flame was extinguished.  While Frank and Jack looked in at the window, shielding their eyes and faces from the smudge as well as it was possible to do, Ned called out to them: 

“Tell Captain Martin to keep his men on guard around the house.  The scamps who did this may be up to some other trick.  They’re determined that we shall never get to Peking!”

Frank crawled through the window and stood by Ned’s side, searchlight in hand.  Just about underneath the center of the house, was a half barrel of gunpowder.