When Ned and the marines took up the search for the diplomat and the Chinese, it did seem that they were forty miles away! There were numerous passages under the old temple, and in these the fugitives must have hidden.
"How did you know?" asked Ned of the marines who had broken into the underground rooms. "How did you know there was danger inside?"
"That little imp of a Jimmie," one of the men said, "came to the entrance and shouted fit to wake the dead. They were trying to carry the Captain and the kid away. Bright boy, that!"
Two of the marines had been slightly wounded by knives in the hands of the Chinese, but they declared themselves quite well enough to go on with the journey.
"The Chinks didn't fight," one of them said. "They just threw knives and ran! We never hit one of them! Sheep, that's what they are! Just sheep!"
"Well," Ned said, "we've lost our chance on the road to Peking, the fellow we want having escaped, so we must go ahead and set the rat trap once more."
"You'll walk if you do," one of the marines said, showing from the outside, "for the Chinks have made off with the motorcycles!"
CHAPTER XIV
SANDY PROVES HIS CASE
"They'll be dead if you don't get out of here an' do somethin'!" said
Sandy. "The Chinks'll eat 'em up!"