At first no one could be seen, then a figure crawled slowly out from under the planes and stood upright. “The Chink!” exclaimed Ben. “Now, I wonder how he found his way here?” Carl questioned. “That’s the fellow we released from captivity over at the first stopping-place, isn’t it?” asked Ben. “You may search me!” replied Carl. “Negroes and horses and Chinamen all look alike, so far as I’m concerned.” “Me savvee you!” exclaimed the Chinaman, in most outrageous pidgin English. “Me savvee you, alle same.” “Where’d you come from?” demanded Ben impatiently. The Chinaman put a finger to his lips and looked puzzled. “No can do!” he said. “Look here!” Ben exclaimed. “How did you ever find this place, anyway? If a Chink fresh from the odorous Orient can walk in on us like this, I’d like to know what an outlaw who really meant business could do!” “No can do!” repeated the Chinaman. “You’re the fellow we found tied up, aren’t you?” asked Carl. “Me savvee you!” was the only reply, the words being accompanied by a foolish grin. “Me savvee you, alle same.” Ben pointed to the provisions spread on a cloth lying on the turf. “Hungry?” he asked. “You seem to me to look rather lank!” “I bet you don’t shake your head at that, and chatter out that everlasting ‘No can do’,” Carl laughed. “Fall to, friend!” he added. The Chinaman quickly accepted this invitation, and was soon devouring bread and butter, tinned meats, and vegetables, as if he had eaten nothing before for a week. The boys watched laughingly. “We’re next to you!” Carl cried. “You came to visit on purpose to get a good feed! Look here!” he added as the Chinaman looked up with a submissive grin, “what did those fellows tie you up for?” “No can do!” answered the Chinaman. “No can do.” “Go to it!” exclaimed Ben. “Put a couple of pounds of groceries under your belt at our expense and then you may be able to talk United States.” “No can do,” was the only answer received to this suggestion. Watching the man critically as he ate the provisions with all the gusto of one near to the point of starvation, Ben thought he saw indications of a different sort of a life in his manner of handling his food. The fellow’s face expressed only stupidity. His eyes were dull and staring, but the manner in which he brought the food to his mouth was not that of a man who had been trained to eat with chopsticks. In a moment Ben drew his chum to one side. “There’s something strange about that Chink,” he said, when they were out of hearing of their strange guest. “He’s not as stupid or as ignorant as he would have us believe. And he never stumbled on us by chance, either! How does the idea strike you?” “There is no doubt in my mind that the fellow is disguised in manner and speech if not in person,” Carl replied. “For all we know, he may be one of the leaders of the smuggling gang.” “Then why should the bunch we found in the cavern tie him up?” asked Ben. “You remember the shape in which he was found?”