ere hailed from the roadside, but little
attention was paid to these calls. Finally, however, a voice addressed
the party in English.

"Where are you going?" it asked.

Ned instructed the Captain to proceed a few paces with his company and
then halted to see what manner of man it was that spoke to him in that
tongue. He found an old Chinaman, a wise-looking old fellow with a keen
face, leaning over a rude gate in front of a small house.

"Did you speak?" he asked, advancing to the gate.

"I did," was the reply. "I was curious to know where you were going in
the middle of the night."

"You speak English remarkably well," Ned said, not in any hurry to
satisfy the old fellow's curiosity.

"I ought to," was the reply. "I have just come back from New York. I
owned a laundry there for a good many years."

"And have returned to China to live in peace and comfort?"

"I don't know about the peace," replied the Chinaman, with a sigh.

"You think there will be a war?"

The Chinaman nodded.

"The coming revolt," he declared, "was conceived more than two hundred
years ago. For fifty years organization has been going on. For six
years the revolutionists have been working as a whole."

"And they are strong?" asked Ned.

"Wherever in the world Chinamen live, in New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Boston, London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, anywhere, everywhere,
there are funds being collected for the coming civil war."

Ned wanted to ask the loquacious old fellow what his private ideas about
the justice of the struggle were, but he decided not to do so. He
thought he might find out in another way.

"And the revolutionists will win?" he asked.

"God forbid!" was the reply, and the boy had the answer he thought he
would receive.

Still, he was not satisfied that the old fellow was telling the exact
truth regarding his sentiments. It was the revolutionists he had to
battle with, and not the federalists. This retired laundryman might
know that!

"Anyway," the boy thought, "the fellow seems desirous of keeping me here
as long as possible. This, of course, may be because of a desire for
the companionship of one of the race he has lived with so long, but I do
not think so."

Pretending to be deeply interested in what the Chinaman was saying, he
excused himself for a moment and beckoned to Jimmie.

"Lead your motorcycle noiselessly up that rise of ground," he directed,
"and when you get there keep your eyes wide o