Chatterbox, 1905 Part 100

J. R. S. C.

AFLOAT ON THE DOGGER BANK.

A Story of Adventure on the North Sea and in China.

(_Continued from page 293._)

CHAPTER XII.

Before the three adventurers had gone many yards, a Chinese beggar sidled up to Charlie and begged his honourable brother to bestow a gift upon the degraded dog who addressed him.

At first Charlie did not know whether the man was asking what the time was, or whether he desired to be directed to some place. So he gave a glance round, and discovering that the man was begging he shook his head gravely. The beggar departed, and Charlie inwardly congratulated himself on having done very well. His self-satisfaction was, however, short-lived. He looked round to a.s.sure himself that Fred and Ping w.a.n.g were following him, and just as he did so a European lady stepped out of a shop, and her parasol, which she was in the act of opening, prodded him in the back. He turned sharply, and the lady, believing him to be a Chinaman, apologised in Chinese. Seeing that she was apologising Charlie quite forgot his disguise, and seizing his skull-cap, raised it. Of course the pigtail came off with it, to the amazement of the lady, who stepped quickly into her trap and drove off.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "The pigtail came off with the skull-cap."]

Fred had the greatest difficulty in preventing himself from laughing aloud, but Ping w.a.n.g hurried forward, and taking Charlie by the arm, said in an undertone, 'Come into this shop: you have put your cap on crooked.'

The Chinese shop a.s.sistant laughed heartily as he saw Ping w.a.n.g arrange Charlie's skull-cap. He saw that Charlie was a European, but, as Ping w.a.n.g said later, it was better that he should discover it than some of the street loafers, who would probably have set to work to find out the reason for an Englishman being disguised as a Chinaman.

'We had better go back at once,' Ping w.a.n.g said, as they quitted the shop, and they walked to their temporary home without further adventure.

The manager was highly amused on hearing of Charlie's mishap, but when his merriment had subsided he gave the brothers a few words of advice.

'You will have to be very careful indeed when you get away from the treaty ports,' he said earnestly, 'for if people discovered you in Chinese attire, they would think that you were disguised for some evil purpose. Of course, there are some missionaries who wear Chinese dress, but the people know them, and understand their reasons. But you, not being missionaries, would naturally be regarded with great suspicion, and would probably be punished severely--perhaps executed.'

'I will remember what you have said,' Fred answered, 'and I am very much obliged to you.'

'And so am I,' Charlie declared. 'My brother and I will be very careful after to-day.'

The conversation was now changed to home affairs, for the manager, being a thorough-bred Englishman, was anxious to hear the latest news of London.

Soon after lunch they went aboard the _Canton_, which they found to be a small and poky vessel. The saloon placed at their disposal was very similar to the after-saloons which Charlie and Ping had seen in the North Sea steam trawlers; that is to say, the bunks were round the table.

The trip to Tien-tsin occupied several days, and all on board, except the skipper and his mate, being Chinamen, Charlie and Fred were compelled to speak very little, and then only in an undertone, for fear that they should be overheard. However, they managed to enjoy themselves, as Ping w.a.n.g taught them several exciting Chinese games.

'In which direction do you intend to travel when we reach Tien-tsin?'

the skipper of the _Canton_ asked Ping w.a.n.g, shortly after they had pa.s.sed Taku.

'Up the Pei-ho,' Ping w.a.n.g answered. 'By-the-bye, I suppose you know several boatmen who work up the river?'

'I have a slight acquaintance with a score or so of them, and if you wish to get a pa.s.sage on one of their boats I dare say that I can manage to choose a fairly honest man.'

'That is just what I do want. Of course it can never do to let him know that my friends are Englishmen. He might refuse to take them.'

'He would take them readily enough; but he would demand an absurdly high price for it; and, possibly, when you reached your destination, he would make known that they were foreigners.'

'That is highly probable,' Ping w.a.n.g admitted. 'I am afraid that some one on board is certain to discover that our friends are not Chinamen.'

'Pretend that they are both ill, and that they must on no account be disturbed. Then they will be able to escape being spoken to.'

'That is a very good idea,' Ping w.a.n.g declared; but when they arrived at Tien-tsin, and he and the skipper started bargaining with a small cargo-boat owner for pa.s.sages, it was found that the idea was not so good as he expected.

'I will not take them,' the boatman declared, when he heard that two of his proposed pa.s.sengers were invalids. 'They will die on my boat, and then their spirits will haunt me.'

Neither Ping w.a.n.g nor the skipper of the _Canton_ had thought of this objection--a very natural one from a Chinese point of view.

'But these men will not die,' the skipper declared, hurriedly. 'It is only bad eyes that they are suffering from. They have come from Hongkong with Ping w.a.n.g, and, if they are not worried, they will soon be well again.'

For a moment the Chinese boatman was silent.

'I will take them,' he said, at length, 'if my honourable brother, Ping w.a.n.g, will promise that if they become very ill he will throw them overboard, so that they shall not die in my boat.'

'I promise,' Ping w.a.n.g said, and he had no qualms about making that vow, for Fred and Charlie were in splendid health, and it was very unlikely that they would become seriously ill during the two days' journey up-river.

'It seems to me,' Charlie said, when he heard of the arrangement that had been made, 'that I shall never make a really enjoyable trip on water. My first voyage I made as a cook, and had a bullying skipper to worry me. Then I escaped to what I thought was a mission ship, but it turned out to be a rascally coper. On the _Canton_ I had to pretend that I was a Chinaman, and now, if I get ill, I'm to be thrown overboard.'

'You have told the boatman that my brother and I are suffering from bad eyes,' Fred remarked to Ping w.a.n.g; 'but he will see at a glance that there is nothing the matter with them.'

'I have thought of that,' Ping w.a.n.g answered, 'and have bought a pair of Chinese goggles for each of you. I wonder that I didn't think of them when we were at Hongkong, for they will make your disguise much more complete. At present your eyes do not look at all like Chinamen's.'

Charles and Fred at once put on the goggles which Ping w.a.n.g gave them, and the skipper declared that now, if they did not speak aloud, no one would guess that they were not Chinamen.

'We ought to go at once,' said Ping w.a.n.g; and, after shaking hands with the skipper, the three travellers quitted the _Canton_, and made their way towards the boat.

In less than five minutes the three travellers reached the spot where it was moored. It was a long, heavy boat. The cargo was packed in the middle of the boat, and near the stern was a roughly-made awning, composed of mats and dirty-looking cloth, which had been erected for the comfort of Ping w.a.n.g's invalids.

Charlie and Fred walked aboard in silence, and a.s.sumed invalids' airs with so much success that the boatman, believing them to be seriously ill, said to Ping w.a.n.g, as he pa.s.sed him, 'Honourable brother, do not forget the promise which you made to your worthless servant--that if the honourable lords with sore eyes get worse you will throw them into the river.'

'Have I not promised you?' Ping w.a.n.g asked, haughtily. 'Do you doubt my word?'

The boatman protested, humbly, that Ping w.a.n.g's word could not possibly be doubted by his disreputable servant, adding, moreover, that he lived simply to obey him.

The wooden seats under the awning were hard and uncomfortable, and Charlie, Fred, and Ping w.a.n.g were soon tired of sitting there, especially as they dared not talk, for fear of being overheard. Once Ping w.a.n.g caught the boatman peeping under the awning. He seized him quickly, and demanded his reason for prying on the sick travellers.

'n.o.ble brother,' the boatman answered, trembling with fear, 'I wanted to see if they were dying.'

'They are getting better,' Ping w.a.n.g declared. 'It is a good thing for you that they are not dying, for their father is as rich as a mandarin; and if I had to throw them overboard he would certainly have you executed.'

Ping w.a.n.g's romancing had the desired effect. The boatman shook with fear, and, kowtowing before Ping w.a.n.g, groaned aloud.

'I shall be glad if they will die in my boat,' he declared, without the slightest intention of intimating that he hoped that Charlie and Fred would die. He was too excited to speak calmly: for, though he dreaded the spirits, he had a greater fear of mandarins.

From that minute Charlie, Fred, and Ping w.a.n.g were left undisturbed. The boatman's four a.s.sistants shunned the awning, as if it sheltered lepers, and were apparently greatly relieved when an opportunity occurred for them to go ash.o.r.e and tow the boat. The boatman remained on board, but, except when Ping w.a.n.g addressed him, kept at a respectful distance from the pa.s.sengers.

(_Continued on page 308._)