Ned motioned to the six to step into the room.  Three of them objected, then swords flashed in the light of the corridor and they moved on.

They were followed by the three boys and half a dozen policemen, all with automatics in view.  At a motion from the leader of the officers the six were searched and ironed.  Jack nudged Frank in the ribs with his elbow as the handcuffs clicked on the wrists of the man who had so persistently followed them from the coast of the Yellow Sea.

“That’s a good sport,” he said.  “I like to see a fellow play the game!”

The prisoner turned a pair of treacherous eyes on the boys and a cynical smile curled his thin lips.

“You have the cards now,” he said, in English, “but look out for the new deal.  I’ll keep you busy yet.”

“Go to it!” laughed Jack.  “Go as far as you like, only I fail to see how you’re going to get into the game again.  Looks like you were all in, just now!”

“Wait!” said the other, scornfully.

There now came a knock at the door and Ned opened it to admit Captain Martin, who looked as if he had just left his bed after an unsatisfactory sleep.  He cast his eyes about the room with amazement showing in every glance.

“What does this mean?” he asked.

“Surprise party!” Jimmie cried.

“Who are these men?”

The Captain pointed to the six prisoners lined up against the wall of the room.

“Our friends from Taku, from the ruined temple, from Tientsin, from the farm house loaded with gunpowder, and from the tea house,” laughed Ned.  “Do you recognize the fellow with his disguise off?  Jimmie gave him a haircut and shave just now.”

“And you have captured them?”

“It doesn’t look as if they had captured us,” Jimmie broke in.

“But how, when, why?”

“All of that!” grinned Jimmie.

Ned spoke a few words to the officer in charge of the squad and in a moment the room was occupied only by the handcuffed prisoners, the four boys, and Captain Martin.  The latter stood looking at Ned with a question in each eye.

“When you get time,” he said, “I’d like to have you tell me how you brought this case to a close so suddenly.”

Ned motioned to the man who had been stripped of his disguise to take a chair at the table.  The fellow did so reluctantly, turning his face this way and that, as if seeking some opportunity of escape.

“Well,” he said.  “You have the floor.  Go On.”

“You were at Taku?” asked Ned.

“I deny everything!”

“You will deny your own fingerprints, the shoeprints?” asked Ned.

“Well, supposing, for the sake of argument, that I was at Taku, what has that to do with this brutal and illegal arrest?”

“You placed the powder under the house where the wounded men lay?”

“No.”

“I have something I want to show you,” Ned said, taking a paper from his pocket.  “Have you a match?”