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Rh With scant ceremony Ben was conducted to the small boat and told to get in. He asked where they were going to take him, but could get no satisfaction. As soon as the steamer was reached, he was conducted to an empty stateroom and locked in.

"This is the worst yet!" he muttered, as he sat down. "I suppose they intend to carry me miles and miles away. Poor Gilbert! I never thought he would be killed in such a fashion as this! What cutthroats these Chinese brigands are! It's a wonder they didn't kill me too! Can that story about Larry be true?"

There was a little water in the stateroom, and as his hands had been released, Ben bathed his wounds and bound them up as best he could. He heard the steamer move away from the shore, and soon the steady pounding of the engines proved that she was forging ahead at her best rate of speed.

He was a prisoner of the enemy, and what they were going to do with him was a question still to be answered.