"That bolt will be no good, sir," said Wang; "they will force the door in a few minutes, and we shall all be tortured and killed."
"I must beg of you to be silent," said Mr. Li, sternly. "If you would like to join the party outside, there is still time to do so, but I think that you would probably prefer to remain with us."
Poor Wang protested most humbly that he had never meant anything by his words, and so great was his attachment to their persons that nothing in the world would induce him to leave them.
"That being the case," said Mr. Li, drily, "and your attachment to us being so great, you will do all in your power to help instead of hindering us. I cannot have these ladies alarmed. Now see," he said, turning to Lilian and Nina, who had turned a shade whiter, for though they placed unbounded confidence in Mr. Li, it was not pleasant to hear the sounds in the outer room.
"Now see: I touch this button, and look at the result!" As he spoke he pressed a spring in the wall, and a huge sliding door shot right across, protecting the door through which they had passed, and which the Chinese were forcing from the outer side.
[Illustration: As he spoke he pressed a spring in the wall.]
"I think," said Mr. Li, with a smile of triumph in his dark eyes, "they will find it a little difficult to break through that door. Now let us collect what we require for the journey."
"The packages are here," said Mr. St. John. "We have had them all placed in the corner of the room."
"That is well," replied Mr. Li. "Now we will continue our journey. It will take our friends some little time," he added, pleasantly, "to force an entrance into this room, and I think they will be more than ever puzzled when they get here. You see these four doors," he said, pointing to one side of the apartment which seemed to be composed entirely of doors, "Which do you think is the one to be used? They are all dummies," he continued, after a pause, in which the doors had been tried and various opinions expressed: "but I fancy they will puzzle our friends. The real one is here."
He touched a spring which was wholly invisible to any but the most practised eye, and they found themselves in a kind of hall, the walls of which were very lofty, the light entering by mere apologies for windows, let in close to the ceiling. There were low divans all round this hall, and Mr. Li begged them to be seated.