we
are trying to run them down. If they can stop us before we fully
identify them, their part in the plot against Uncle Sam will never be
known." Rest assured, then, that they will stop us if they can."

"Then it's us for the road to-night!" said Jimmie. "That is fine."

In referring to conspirators, Ned indicated the men who had been
involved in a plot to get the United States into trouble with a foreign
government over a shipment of gold to China. This shipment had gone to
the bottom of the Pacific.

It had been claimed that the gold shipment, which was marked for the
Chinese government, had really been intended for the revolutionary
party, now becoming very strong. It was now insisted that the
revolutionists had been posted as to the shipment, and that it was on
the books for them to seize it the moment it left the protection of the
American flag.

These claims having been made, and believed, in the state department of
a foreign government, none too friendly to the government of the United
States. A ship had been sent out to watch the transfer of the gold. At
least, that was what had been claimed, but this ship, so sent out, had,
by an "accident," rammed and sunk the treasure boat. If the Chinese
government did not get the gold, neither did the leaders of the
revolutionary party.

It had been claimed at Washington that the whole thing was a plot to
discredit the United States government in the eyes of the nations of
Europe, and Ned Nestor and his chums had been sent out to search the
wreck for papers which would disprove the statements made. The papers
had been secured.

The point now was to connect the foreign statesmen who had burned their
fingers in the plot with the affair. Ned knew that the papers would
establish the falsity of the charges, but he wanted to place the blame
for the whole matter where it belonged. He wanted to track the man who
had conferred with known conspirators back to his home. He wanted to be
able to point out the treacherous government which had so sought to
belittle the United States in the eyes of the world.

The boy had no doubt that this was actually the mission upon which he
had been sent when ordered by the Secret Service department to report at
Taku and there await instructions before proceeding to Peking. He did
not understand why he had been instructed to make the trip to Peking on
a motorcycle when there were easier ways, but he was quick to obey
orders. Lat