"You have that figured out correctly," Ned cut in. "If the man we are after had been doing business with the Chinese government, we would have had officers of the law after us at Tientsin and Taku, instead of men who ran when it came daylight."
"What national seal made that stamp on the wax you have in your pocket,
Ned?" Jimmie asked.
Ned made no reply.
"Was the stamp made with the seal you have with you?" was the next question.
Still Ned did not answer. He was in a quandary. It did not seem possible that the two nations pointed out by the seal and the wax could be engaged in such dirty business. He hoped to prove to his own satisfaction that they were not.
"The only way to find out what we want to know," he said, "is to go on to Peking."
"Your proof will assist you when you get there?" asked Frank.
"Yes, I'm afraid so," Ned answered, tentatively.
"I don't understand that reply," Frank observed, with a serious face. "You must have discovered something in this house which is not to your liking."
"Time will show," Ned said.