"They were talkin' together, all right," Jimmie said.
"Dollars to dumplings," Frank exclaimed, "that the funny chap we met in the old mud house at Taku has a room in that shack."
"He might have been hiding there," Ned said.
"An' that old stiff signaled to him to make his getaway?" asked the little fellow.
"Looks like it," Ned replied.
"Huh!" Jack objected. "The signals might have told the men at the other end of the line to get their soldiers out and bump us off the continent."
"Which idea," responded Frank, "causes me to want to approach that house with all due caution and respect."
"Suppose we four surround it," suggested Jimmie.
"That's the idea!" Jack commented.
"Just what I was about to propose," said Wed. "We'll leave the marines within call and go up to this temporary signal station and see what about it."