"There is no knowing how long he was here!"
"Some one in Washington has leaked!" Ned declared, angrily.
"Why Washington?" demanded Jack. "Why not New York?"
"Because no one in this city knows about our being engaged to hunt
down the abductor. My instructions have all come in cypher, and some
of them have, as you know, been addressed to this house. And there
you are!"
Chang Chu arose limply, rubbing a small wound in his head from which
blood had come, and tottered off toward the staircase. As he did so,
Ned noticed that his pigtail was very black, very long, and very
greasy.
"Did he take you by the cue?" asked the boy. "Did he pull your hair?"
"Velly much lough-neck pull--dam!" answered the Chinaman.
Ned went back to the box where the Chink had been hidden and began
taking out the articles it held, slowly and one by one.
"The cloth he poured the chloroform on must be here," he said. "He
would naturally throw it into the box before shutting down the cover,
as there might still be enough of the drug in it to put the Chink to
sleep."
"Here it is," Jack said, reaching into the box and lifting out a rag
and smelling of it. "Here is the dope cloth, all right and pretty
strong yet."
"That's it, all right," Ned answered.
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