"I did," was the reply. "I was curious to know where you were going in the middle of the night."
"You speak English remarkably well," Ned said, not in any hurry to satisfy the old fellow's curiosity.
"I ought to," was the reply. "I have just come back from New York. I owned a laundry there for a good many years."
"And have returned to China to live in peace and comfort?"
"I don't know about the peace," replied the Chinaman, with a sigh.
"You think there will be a war?"
The Chinaman nodded.
"The coming revolt," he declared, "was conceived more than two hundred years ago. For fifty years organization has been going on. For six years the revolutionists have been working as a whole."
"And they are strong?" asked Ned.
"Wherever in the world Chinamen live, in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, anywhere, everywhere, there are funds being collected for the coming civil war."