Phyllis left the window and ran to the door. She wanted to get up to the ranch house and see if Gale and Val were safe and sound, but she wanted company, for something told her she might run into trouble. Ever since she had seen that man guarding Loo Wong, she had a secret conviction that the girls were in trouble. If they were, it was up to her, Tom, and Loo Wong, to get them out of it. The Sheriff and the others wouldn’t be back for hours yet.
“That’ll hold him for a while,” Tom declared as she appeared. He dusted his hands and turned to the Chinese cook. “What happened, Wong?”
Laboriously and in his funny English, Loo Wong proceeded to acquaint the others with the details of how the man had surprised him at work and held him prisoner at the point of a gun. Of the two girls in the ranch house, he knew nothing. He had not known the man who accosted him had had companions.
“When did he come, Loo Wong?” Tom asked.
“Mebbe one, almost one hour,” the Chinaman said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Time flies.”
“Don’t you think we better go up to the house?” Phyllis asked Tom worriedly.
“Yes, come along, Wong!” Tom said turning to the door.
“One moment, please,” the Chinaman said and disappeared into the kitchen.
“What do you suppose he is after?” Phyllis asked impatiently.
“I don’t know,” Tom said with a half smile. “He has a funny idea in his head, I suppose.”