But it was no use.
The door flew open and he could hear somebody coming after him.
Feeling that he might as well be caught in the passage as in the act of getting down through the trap door, Ed turned to face his pursuer.
He was a young Chinaman, very much Americanized in appearance.
He, like Ed, was forced to crouch low, and he looked very fierce as he thrust his ugly face forward close under Ed's nose.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "Say, who are you?"
"Don't kill me!" gasped Ed, feeling rather foolish when he had said it.
"Kill you nothing! Why should I kill you? Say, are you Dock Hing's prisoner?"
"I am a prisoner all right. I don't know Dock Hing."
"Listen! Are you the boy what did the diving?"