e crash of arms on a door and Jarvis burst
into the room. He was followed by the whole gang.

"Ow-ee! Ow-ee!" squealed the yellow men. "The white devils!"

In another moment the room was cleared of fighters. Only three of the
enemy remained. They were well past moving.

"Pitch 'em after 'em," roared Johnny. "Tell the cowards to carry away
their wounded."

The wounded men were sent sliding down the stairs.

"Now then, git out. Scatter. I never saw any of you before. See!"

There was a roar of understanding from the men. Then they "faded."

Leaping to the back stairway, Johnny picked Mazie up in his arms and
carried her down to the garden. Here he cut the bands that held her hands
and feet.

"Can you walk?"

"Yes."

"C'mon then. Gotta beat it."

They were away like a shot.

A half-hour later they were joking over a cup of chocolate and a plate of
sweet biscuits in the Red Cross canteen. Mazie was still dressed as a
Russian peasant girl.

"I say, Mazie!" exclaimed Johnny. "You make a jolly fine-looking
peasant!"

"Thanks!" said Mazie. "But if that's the way they treat peasant girls, I
prefer to be an American."

"What did they do to you?"

"Nothing, only tried to frighten me into telling where the gold was. It's
not so much what they did as what they would have done." She shivered.

"Did they get any of the gold?"

"Not an ounce. It's all stowed away here at the Red Cross."

"Good! Then we'll have our haven of refuge yet."

"If we live."

"And we will."

They lapsed into a long silence, each thinking many thoughts.

CHAPTER XX

SOME MYSTERIES UNCOVERED

The days that followed were busy ones for Johnny Thompson and Mazie. The
tumult in the city had died away. There was a chance for work. Feed must
be bought for the cattle from Mongolia; the hotel was to be rented.
Through the good services of the Red Cross, the most needy of the refugees
were to be assembled, and, when the ship from China arrived, the work of
unloading was to be directed.

Several busy days had passed before Johnny had time to think of looking up
his gang. At this moment he was seated at the head of a seemingly endless
table on each side of which was an array of pinch-faced but happy
children.

When he started out to find the men the first one he came upon was Dave
Tower. Dave began telling him of the strange case of the professor who had
been with the Orientals at the mines, and had drifted north with them in
t