aptain.

"Yes, there was a heavy man, but his tracks are cut sharply in the mud.
His step was quick and firm. Now these other deep tracks show a
staggering foot. What does that mean?"

"Blessed if I know!" cried the Captain.

"It means, to my mind, that the men who made these deep, wobbly tracks
carried a burden into the boat. What do you think that burden was?"

"You will be telling me next that it was a wounded man--perhaps the
Lieutenant himself," said the Captain, his face alive with interest.

"It was a wounded man, all right," Ned replied, "but we have no means of
knowing whether it was the Lieutenant. See, there are drops of blood
close to the margin of the river!"

"You're a genius!" roared the Captain.

"Just observation," Ned said modestly. "There is nothing unusual about
the faculty of seeing things. We all draw the same conclusions after the
facts are pointed out. So, you see, there was a struggle in the hut,
after all, and some one was cut with a knife, for there were no shots
fired. As there would have been no fight if the Lieutenant had been in
the game, as you express it, the inference is that he was taken
prisoner."

"Granted--for the sake of argument!"

"Now," Ned continued, "you have seen Indian service, I understand, so
you will no doubt recognize these signs in grass. Read them!"

"Sure I can read them," exclaimed the Captain, "but I never would have
discovered them. Indian signals in grass, eh? Now, who do you think put
them there?"

At the edge of the thicket were two bunches of grass, each tied tightly
at a point near the top. On one the grass stood straight up beyond the
band. On the other the top was bent toward the river.

"'Here is the trail,'" Captain Godwin read, pointing to the first one,
"and the trail leads this way," he added, pointing to the other. "They
left by the river!"

"There is one more," Ned said. "Read this," pointing to three bunches of
grass, each tied near the top and standing in a row.

"That is a warning. It says, 'Be careful,'" read the other. "What does
it mean?"

"Just what it says. It also means that there is a Boy Scout with the
party!"

CHAPTER V.

ON THE RIM OF THE CHINA SEA.

The rain fell heavily, persistently, provokingly. Now and then came a
crash of thunder which seemed to shake the earth; vivid lightning cut
zigzags in the murky sky. The little islands of the Babuyan group in the
Balintang channel seemed to rock in the arms of