"You'll see!" howled the other.
Directly the heavy beat of marching feet came up to the window, heard above the roar of the mob below. Far down the street Ned saw the advancing line, bearing the colors of the Emperor.
The rioters saw the line, too, and the crowd in front of the hotel began to thin. Then the soldiers arrived and the thoroughfare was empty save for their presence. By this time the prisoner was in a condition of collapse. He had planned this thing carefully, and was now in the meshes of failure.
The street below soon cleared of the few who gathered about to witness the arrival of the soldiers. The few prisoners, who had been taken marched sullenly to prison. In ten minutes the city of Peking was as quiet as if the machinations of the conspirators had never stirred the people to riot.
"Well?" Ned said, facing the prisoner. "What do you think we ought to do with you?"
"After all," was the reply, "you have no charges against me. My government alone can discipline me for what has been done."
"Your government will deny any knowledge of the conspiracy," Ned replied. "From this time on, you have no government."
"And yet I acted under instructions."
"What was the motive?" asked Frank, who saw a fine cablegram for his father's newspaper in the story.
"The purpose," replied the other, weakly, "was to so entangle your government that it would not dare lend aid to the revolutionary leaders."