This completed, Ned laid the films aside for a time while he made a
circuit of the old house, walking slowly as if out for chest exercise,
but really seeing every square inch of the earth's surface where he
walked. Once he dropped a pocketknife which he carried in his hand and
stooped over to pick it up.

The boys thought he was a long time in securing the knife, although it
was plainly in sight. When he stood up again and continued his circuit
of the house there was a strange, inscrutable smile on his face.

"What is it?" asked Jack, the instant Ned entered the house.

"We've been blind and deaf since we have boon here," Ned answered.
"Hostile influences have been operating all around us. Now," he
continued, as Frank opened his lips to ask a question, "we'll see what
sort of a tale the camera has to tell."

As he looked at the films his face hardened and his eyes snapped. In a
moment he put the telltale sheets away.

"European fingerprints," he said, quietly, "and European footprints out
there. It is not Chinamen that we have to look out for."

"What the Old Harry--"

Jimmie checked himself as a figure darkened the doorway. Ned stepped
forward to greet the newcomer.

The visitor was a youngish man with black hair, growing well down on a
narrow forehead, small black eyes, a straight-lipped mouth, and hard