lid. Jake sprang out like a Jack-in-the box, alive with eagerness to see

why their carefully-laid scheme had fallen through. He met a disgusted look from the grease-painted face of the Mysterious Mandarin.

“Fine brother you’ve got!” muttered Chink. “I thought he was going to be all ready up there when the time came!”

“But—but he was!” stammered Jake. “I—I saw him up there just a minute ago!”

“Well, he’s not there now,” Chink growled, turning away. Jake cast his eyes aloft.

The beam of a flashlight still slanted upward toward the raftered corner under the roof. But Jerry Utway was nowhere in sight!