"It's a blame sight more likely that someone will catch on to us," growled Leggett. "Hush! Hush! Listen!" He had scarcely spoken when someone behind the middle door called out in a loud voice in English: "Now, Ah Lung, I've got you. You scoundrel! It was I myself who kidnapped your princes! The secret of Gong Schow's hidden treasure is mine! Now you die!" Bang! Bang! Bang! Three shots were instantly fired. "This is murder!" cried Old King Brady, and he threw himself against the middle door from behind which the shots came. CHAPTER IX. THE BRADYS GET TOGETHER ONCE AGAIN. BUT THE PRINCESS SLIPS THROUGH THEIR FINGERS. Urged by Harry, Ah Lung jumped to the outer door of the smoking room as this part of the House of the Seven Delights was called. Young King Brady hastily adjusting his clothes--he had taken off his coat and vest after the manner of opium smokers--prepared to follow him, but Ah Lung was back before he could get ready. "Well?" he demanded. "I know where he went," replied Lung. "Are you ready?" "Yes." "Then come with me." They passed out into the corridor. There were the "two Chinamen" seen by Old King Brady and Leggett. "Where did he go?" demanded Harry. "Listen," replied Lung. "We--the organization, I mean--don't make use of all this big building. Our part is only on this side. There are rooms on the other side which we rent, some to secret societies, others to individuals; most of them are vacant just now. The Doctor went in through a door leading to a suite of these supposed-to-be vacant rooms and here it is." He paused before the door which Dr. Garshaski had called the "Door of Death." It carried no red paper on it now, but a Chinese character painted on the panel. "What does that say?" asked Harry, pointing to it. "Flat to let," replied Ah Lung, "but I strongly suspect that our janitor is allowing the Doctor to use it for purposes of his own. Otherwise why should he be going through that door? Still it may have been rented to him for all I know. Anyhow that's where he went. What do you think of it? Shall we attempt to follow him up?" "By all means," replied Harry. "Let me tell you something. I know this Dr. Garshaski. He is an infamous scoundrel." Ah Lung shrugged his shoulders. "We meet all kinds," he replied. "They are necessary to make up the world. But you heard what was said; you heard him try to blackmail me. Do you believe he really knows anything about the princess, or is it all bluff? There was nothing that he said he had not heard from me before." "I don't believe it was bluff and I do believe he has the princess," replied Harry, "and I'll tell you why." He went on to explain about Alice, and this while he was trying his skeleton keys. "I believe he has Miss Montgomery a prisoner in the rooms you speak of," he declared, "and it would not surprise me a bit if the princess was there too. Hello! I've got the door open now. Shall we go exploring and see what we find?"