Walking rapidly, the boy soon found himself upon the right bank of the
river. Though there was as yet no sign of daybreak in the east, several
people were already abroad, for the Chinese begin their day's work early
in the morning and do not cease till late at night. Parties of men were
engaged in loading the junks and _wupans_ which were moored to the
wharves and jetties.
Frank walked along the river-side until he found a junk about to sail.
He hailed the captain, a tall, sun-burnt Chinaman with his pigtail
coiled round the top of his head, who wore hardly any clothes at all.
This man informed him that the junk was bound upon a fishing cruise upon
the open sea. He readily agreed to take Frank as far as Canton for a
small consideration in the way of copper cash; and a minute later, the
boy was on board, whilst the junk moved down-stream under full canvas.
Nearly all the relatives of the captain and his crew had come down to
the wharf to bid them good-bye. There were small-footed Chinese women,
and little round-faced, naked children, each of whom appeared to have
eaten so much rice that he looked in danger of bursting. There was much
wailing and gnashing of teeth--for the Chinese on occasion can be
exceedingly emotional--and no sooner was the junk clear of her moorings
than the silence of the morning was disturbed by a veritable fusillade
of Chinese squibs, rockets and crackers.
Indeed it might have been an Eastern Fifth of November. A great bundle
of gunpowder crackers, tied to the poop of the vessel, went off in a
kind of _feu de joie_, sending out so many sparks in all directions that
it appeared that the ship was in danger of catching fire. The idea and
object of this custom, which is universal throughout China from Tonkin
to the Great Wall, is to scare away the evil spirits which might be
disposed to embark on board the departing ship. The Chinese believe in
the potency and the ubiquity of evil spirits. A European--commonly
called "a foreign devil"--is invariably accompanied by a host of such
attendant ghosts. Indeed, it is extremely difficult for any man, even a
virtuous Chinese, to avoid being shadowed by malignant spooks who desire
nothing more than to lead him into calamity and misfortune. There is,
as every Chinese is well aware, but one method of driving away these
evil spirits, and that is by exploding so much gunpowder and creating
such a noise, that they flee in all haste back to the spirit land whence
they come.
Frank Armitage observed this ceremony from the forepart of the boat. He
had often witnessed such a scene before in the Chinese quarter of the
harbour of Hong-Kong, but he had seldom seen such an expensive and
gorgeous display. It was evident that the master and owner of the junk
was a rich man who could afford to insure his property at the maximum
premium. Also, this particular junk had an unusually large pair of eyes
painted upon the bows. As the captain himself explained later in the
day, if a junk has no eyes it cannot see where it is going. If a junk
cannot see where it is going, it will probably, sooner or later, strike
a rock or another ship, or run ashore. That would be a disaster for
both the junk and its owner. Hence a junk must have eyes the same as a
man. This argument is thoroughly Chinese and would be entirely rational
provided the painted eyes upon the bows of a Chinese ship were of the
slightest practical use.
All that day they sailed down-stream towards the centre of the great
valley of the West River. Every mile the country became more and more
thickly populated. They passed many villages situated upon both banks
of the river, the houses in the majority of cases overhanging the water,
supported by heavy wooden piles. The country was exceedingly fertile,
being given over almost exclusively to the cultivation of rice. There
were few trees and few hills except far in the distance, towards the
north, where the foothills of the great Nan-ling Mountains stood forth
upon the horizon like a wall.
Late the following afternoon the river joined a wider stream flowing
towards the south-east. This Frank at first believed to be the West
River itself, but he was informed by the captain of the junk that the
Si-kiang was still fifty _li_ to the south.
It was midnight when they turned into the main stream, and soon
afterwards they saw before them the bright lights of the city of
Sanshui, which is situated about twenty-five miles due west of Canton.
At this place, Frank was in two minds what to do. He might go straight
on to Canton and thence down the river to Hong-Kong, at both of which
places he would be able to get in touch with his friends. On the other
hand, he had every reason to suppose that Men-Ching was at that very
moment in the city of Sanshui. The junk had made good headway down the
river, and the boy knew that the boat on which Cheong-Chau's messenger
had come south was to call at Sanshui to take on a cargo.
Now there is no doubt that Frank Armitage would have been wise had he
first considered his own safety. He was already practically out of
danger; there was no vital necessity for him to put his head
deliberately into the lion's mouth. If his determination appears to be
rash, it may be supposed that he was guided by some natural instinct
that warned him that, in this case, the most dangerous course was the
only means by which his uncle and Mr Waldron could be saved.
Be that as it may, he argued thus: from the very moment he escaped from
the cave his journey had been extraordinarily uneventful; he saw no
reason why it should not continue to be so. If Cheong-Chau's men were
in pursuit he had seen nothing of them; he had apparently left them
miles behind. He had every reason to be satisfied with his disguise; he
was fairly confident that even if he found Men-Ching he would not be
recognised, since he knew the old man to be extremely short-sighted.
Throughout his journey, he had experienced no difficulty in passing
himself off as a Chinese. The barber, the proprietor of the opium den,
the fisherman and the captain of the junk--all had taken him to be a
native of the country. The boy was sanguine of success; he never dreamt
for a moment of failure. He saw no reason why he should not succeed in
finding Men-Ching, in tracking the old rascal all the way to Hong-Kong
and there having him arrested by the British police authorities. He
even considered the possibility of completing the remainder of his
journey actually in the company of Men-Ching and his companion.
He therefore asked the captain of the junk to set him ashore. He paid
the man according to his agreement, and found himself, at about one
o'clock in the morning, in the centre of a very dilapidated and
evil-smelling city.
Since he had slept a good deal on board the junk--there being nothing
else for him to do--he decided to remain awake until daybreak, keeping a
close watch upon the _bund_, alongside which the junks and river-boats
were moored. He felt sure, from what he had overheard in the opium den,
that one of the many _wupans_ that lay alongside the wharves was that
upon which Men-Ching had come down the river. His object was first to
discover the _wupan_. He would then have no difficulty in finding
Men-Ching himself.
The boy seated himself upon the end of a jetty whence he could obtain a
good view of the harbour. A watery moon was low in the heavens, and
this, together with the stars, illumined the river with an iridescent,
ghostly light, by which it was possible to see for a considerable
distance.
The hour was as yet too early for the riverside workmen to begin work.
The _bund_ was deserted save for a number of rats, which were to be seen
quite clearly continually crossing the open space that separated the
houses from the ships.
Though the night was warm the air was somewhat damp, and Frank, fearing
that he would contract malarial fever, rose to his feet and strolled
casually down the jetty. At the corner of a narrow street he came quite
suddenly face to face with a most alarming personage.
The expression "face to face" cannot be taken literally, for the man was
a giant, and Frank's face was scarcely on a level with his chest. In the
shadowy slums of a poverty-stricken Chinese town, at such a ghostly hour
as two o'clock in the morning, to find oneself unexpectedly confronted
by an individual of the stature of a Goliath and with the countenance of
a demon, is an experience well calculated to give a jolt to the nervous
system of anyone. To put the truth in a word, Frank Armitage was
frightened out of his wits, and these fears were by no means dissipated
when the Herculean stranger, without the least warning, grasped him by
the collar of his coat and lifted him bodily from off his feet.
"Ha!" the man roared, in the Cantonese of the educated classes. "A
river-side thief! A junk rat! A prowler by night! Tell me, friend
weasel, have you stolen rice from on board a Canton junk, or a
night-watchman's supper?"
"I pray you, sir," cried Frank, "put me down upon my feet again. I am
no thief, I assure you, but a peaceable citizen of Wu-chau, who goes
upon a visit to his grandfather."
"A peaceable citizen!" roared the man, bursting into laughter. "That's
good, indeed. I would have you to know that all citizens are peaceful
when they fall into the hands of the mighty Ling."
So if Frank were none the wiser, the reader at any rate is better
informed. Frank Armitage had never in his life, to the best of his
knowledge, heard of the mighty Ling. The reader, however, has made that
extraordinary man's acquaintance. He knows that Ling was not by any
means one who could be trifled with, and he has been given some kind of
a notion of the character and reputation of this same unmitigated
villain who was wont to call himself "the mighty Ling."
The giant set down the boy upon his feet, planting him immediately in
front of him.
"I have need of you," said he. "It is possible you may be able to
render me some assistance. You doubtless have not failed to observe
that the gods have made me too big to hide myself without considerable
inconvenience. It is in this regard that you can help me. If you do so
faithfully I shall reward you. If you attempt to play the fool with me,
you go into the river with a twisted neck. And now, follow, my junk
rat! Follow me!"
At that, he grasped the boy by a wrist and, taking such tremendous
strides that Frank was obliged almost to run, dragged him along the
wharf.