"Study it out," smiled Ned, "and you may be able to find an answer."
While the boy was speaking, he bent over and looked keenly at a footprint on the earthen floor of the room. It was not such a print as the foot-covering of a Chinese man would leave. It had been made by the long heel of an European shoe.
When Ned looked closer, he saw that the ground was stained a deep red, that there were dark crimson spots on the window casing. Then he saw that a struggle must have taken place in the room, for the few things it held were in disorder.
"Boys," he said, "perhaps our Secret Service man got here before we did."
CHAPTER III
A SHOE AND A SURPRISE
"What do you mean by that?" asked Frank. "If he had reached the old house first, he would have waited here for us, wouldn't he?"
"Look what's here," Ned replied. "There has been a fight in the room.
The combatants fought from the inner wall to the window, then a knife
was used. These stains are by no means fresh, but they tell the story.
And to think that we've been here all these days and never found them!"
"Well," Frank hastened to say, "we weren't suspicious; and, then, we had no occasion to visit this room."
"We should have been on our guard," Ned replied, "but there is no help for it now. This discovery may block our going on to Peking to-night."