As Ed did not know he suggested that it might be a good scheme to answer the knock and find out. "I shall have to do it," whispered Tom Quee as the knocking continued, "but first to get you out of sight. It won't do to have you seen." Tom Quee opened the door of a closet and pushed Ed inside. "Don't make a sound if you value your life," he whispered as he closed the door upon him. An unpleasant half hour followed. Two Chinamen came into the room. Tom Quee seemed to have his hands full with them, whatever it was they wanted. They gabbled away in Chinese until Ed was sick of listening to them. Then they seemed to fade away. He ventured to open the door slightly and peer through the crack. The room was vacant; the door leading into the secret passage was open; evidently the Chinamen had gone that way. Ed slipped out and tried the other door, seized with some wild idea of making his escape. There was nothing doing, however, for the door was securely locked and the key gone. Glad to get back to his closet, Ed waited there. At last all three Chinamen returned and Tom Quee let the intruders out, calling Ed when they had gone. "It's all right now," he said. "You can come out. They were looking for you. Your escape has been discovered. They thought you might have come this way, but I fooled 'em. They will trouble us no more. Now is our time to get out of this." Just who Tom Quee was or how he came to be there in the secret room Ed never learned. The Chinaman seemed to know the ropes, however. He provided Ed with clothes and led him through many winding passages, up stairs and down, until at last they came out up in Pell street. Tom Quee now led the way to the Bowery. They went up the Bowery, and stopping in at a restaurant the Chinaman put up for a good meal, which Ed was glad enough to get. As they ate they talked and it was decided to go at once to the Bronx and start their work, which they did. Ed now resigned himself entirely to the guidance of the Chinaman. He had little idea where they went. The ride in the subway seemed interminable, and a long ride by trolley car followed. At last they came to the water front, where there were docks and factories. It was now night and Ed was almost tired out. The Chinaman tried to hire a boat but no one he could find would rent him one. Tom Quee was a persistent fellow, however. "If we can't hire a boat we must steal one," he said, as they came to a pier. "Let's go down here and see what we can find." They explored and found that there were three boats fastened to this pier. Watching his chance Tom Quee slipped down into one of them and Ed followed. It was now almost nine o'clock in the evening. The night was singularly hot and oppressive. The effects of the drug were still on the boy. He hardly realized it then, but later he understood why he was so indifferent to all that was passing. When they got out on the water, he grew so sleepy that he could scarcely hold his head up.