"Why did you send the boy?" he asked.
"Because we may both be wanted outside," was the reply.
"You mean that others may come—others who should be followed and observed?"
"That's the idea," Ned replied.
Directly two more men, evidently not Chinamen, passed into the shop, then Jimmie came running out.
"They're going into a back room," he said.
Ned strolled into the shop, and in a moment the Captain followed.
Jimmie remained at the door.
The two worked gradually back to the door of the rear room, and Ned "accidentally" leaned against it. It was locked. With the impact of the boy's shoulder against the panels came a scraping of chairs on the floor of the room beyond.
"You've stirred them up," whispered the Captain.
Then some one called from the inside.