h the club. The others--some
smoking the little brass pipes, and others not smoking--were probably men
who were endeavoring to get into the States without the knowledge of the
emigration authorities. Indeed, they were already in New York. This
island was south of the American line. But from the Kingdom of Pipes to
any city where the Chinamen would be safe from apprehension was a pretty
big jump.

As for the opium--the smoke of which Ruth smelled now for the first
time--she had no idea how that commodity might be handled or disposed of.
She knew that it was valuable, even when imported for medicinal purposes.
There was a heavy tariff on it, as well as restrictions upon the trading
in it.

If those boxes--each as heavy as a man could lift and which she and Chess
had seen brought ashore on this island--contained opium, there might be
many thousand of dollars' worth of the drug, in its paste form, here now.
Perhaps it was hidden somewhere in this cave.

Ruth had seated herself upon the end of one of the low tables. She knew
that all the furniture in the cavern, including the rugs, must be of
Chinese manufacture. There could be no doubt that the place was fitted up
for the convenience of the Orientals.

She looked about, trying to penetrate the obscurity of the place. Were
there passages besides the one by which she and Chess had been dragged
in? Were there other apartments in the cavern, shut off by some of the
hanging rugs which she saw?

Her principal thought, however, was of the possibility of escape. And she
wished heartily that she and Copley could get out of the cave before the
arrival of the "others" of whom the King of the Pipes had spoken. Whoever
they might be--or whether Horatio Bilby was one of them--Ruth did not
want to meet the smugglers and Chinese runners.

She feared very much for her safety, and for that of her companion. The
law-breakers would know immediately that their safety was threatened.
They must know that if they allowed Ruth and Chess to depart from the
cave, their presence here and what they were doing would be reported to
the police. And men like Bilby, who would stoop to anything for money,
were not likely to give over such a profitable business as the smuggling
of opium without a fight.

Just how much did Bilby and his companions care for the law? It was a
question that created no little anxiety in Ruth's mind. And she wondered,
too, what Chess thought about it.

The young fellow la