him off the improvised bed on which he had
been laid.

"All right!" he yelled. "You boys may stay here an' get shot up into
blue sky if you want to, but I'm goin' to get these men out."

"Why don't you tell us what the danger is?" demanded Ned, shaking the
little fellow by the arm.

"You listen!" Jimmie replied.

There was dead silence for an instant. Then, seemingly from underneath
the floor, came a low, sinister hissing sound which every one of the
boys recognized.

A great fuse was burning below, and might at any moment reach the
explosive to which it was attached. The Chinese tools of the man at the
head of the conspiracy were taking desperate chances.

In order to destroy the clues which Ned had found in the house, and also
to prevent the boy ever discovering any more, they were taking the long
chance of murdering the soldiers of a friendly power and bringing on
international complications. Ned was by no means idle while these
thoughts were swarming in his brain.

In fact, all the boys sprang to action instantly. Captain Martin was
told to order his men farther away from the point of danger. In less
time than the result of their activities can be written down the wounded
men were lying in the grove, surrounded by their fellows, and the boys
were waiting for what seemed inevitable, the complete destruction of the
house.

CHAPTER XVIII

A BROKEN MATCH SAFE

"Why don't she go up?" asked Jack, as the boys crouched in the grove.
"I don't mind seeing a little fourth of July!"

"She's coming," Frank answered. "Do you see the light in the cellar?
That's the fuse burning."

"It must be a long one," Jimmie said. "Gee, but I was scared stiff when
I saw it burnin' right under where you all were!"

"How did the sneak who set the fuse on fire ever get down there?"
wondered Jack.

"Must have been there all the time," Jimmie volunteered.

"But he didn't have the powder, or the dynamite, or whatever thing he
figured on blowing us up with, in his pockets, did he?" asked Jack.

"I guess the old Chink down the road, the fellow who kept me talking at
the gate, had something to do with storing the explosive there," Ned
remarked. "I presume the plot was laid to blow us up the minute the
effort to destroy us at the ruined temple failed."

"Merry little time we're having," Frank laughed. "Here, kid, where are
you going?" he added, as Jimmie moved away.

"I'm goin' to see why that don't go bang!" an