A telegraph operator hurriedly opened the door and with great beads of perspiration rolling down his face, shouted at the top of his lungs: "Boys, the Japanese have surprised San Francisco."
A roar of laughter greeted this piece of information.
"Stung!" cried Harry. "Stung! Perry is the Jap."
"Perry?" inquired the newcomer, staring at the other four. "Who's Perry?"
"Don't you know, Mr. Allen, that there are naval maneuvers going on to-day and that Admiral Perry is to surprise San Francisco with the fleet?"
"But there are notices at all the street-corners saying that the Japanese governor of San Francisco begs the citizens——"
"Yes, that's where the joke comes in. Perry is going to attack the town as a Jap—that's his scheme."
"You haven't had enough sleep," cried Tom. "If all the Japs looked like Admiral Perry, then——"
Tom broke off short and dropped his tea-cup on the floor, staring blankly at the door as if he saw a ghost. Just behind Mr. Allen stood a Jap, with a friendly grin on his face, but a Jap all the same, most certainly and without the slightest doubt a Jap. He looked around the bare office and said in fluent English: "I must ask you to remain in this room for the present." With these words he raised his revolver and kept a sharp eye on the five occupants.
Johnny jumped up and felt instinctively for the revolver in his hip pocket, but in a flash the muzzle of the Jap's gun was pointed straight at him and mechanically he obeyed the order "Hands up!"