r to see what kind of trouble they were in. In front,
patient in the downpour, stood six Chinamen.

The flashlight dwelt on the silent row for an instant and was then
turned off. Frank closed the door and stood with his back against it.

"Is there another way out?" he asked.

Sandy pointed to a small door at the rear. Frank opened it a trifle, as
he had the other, and again the flashlight bored a round hole in the
night. There were six Chinamen there.

"They mean to keep us here!" Jack cried. "I'll show them."

"I hear them all around the place," Sandy almost sobbed. "You'll think
I brought you here for this. I didn't! I'm on the square with you
boys. I wanted to help you."

"Perhaps they'll go away soon," Jack suggested.

"Never!" Frank replied. "This is purely an Oriental shut-in! They will
wait out there until the hot summer tans their hides if they are told
to. The patience of the Orient is something awful to run up against."

"But why?" asked Jack.

"Oh, they got next to me!" Sandy observed.

"They want to keep you from goin' to the assistance of your friends.
They'll let you go after they've found some mysterious way of disposing
of the others. If I could get out, I'd go to the camp."

"Dig around! There may be some way of getting out. These slant-eyed
peoples are slant-eyed in their ways. There may be a hole under the hut
that leads somewhere."

"I've seen the woman go down cellar," said Sandy.

"Then you go down cellar," advised Frank, "and see if there is no way
out from there. I'm bound to get to Ned and Jimmie if I have to begin
operations with my gun."

Presently Sandy's voice was heard from below. He said that he felt a
current of air, as if there were a passage leading outside.

"Come on down an' see," he said.

The boys went down a steep ladder, after fastening both doors on the
inside, and soon found themselves on the cellar bottom. Frank turned on
his flashlight and looked about. There was a hole in one of the walls
which seemed to lead downward, in the direction of the river.

"I'm going to try it," Jack exclaimed, taking out his light. "When I
say for you to come on, come a-running."

He said for them to come on in a moment, and Sandy and Frank soon found
themselves in a square subterranean room which must have been cut near
the surface and just outside the wall of the hut. It was a comfortless
place, and they lost no time in looking for a way out.

"Here it