In the morning, when Darrin and his chum came on deck, the sun was
shining brightly over Nu-ping.
Perhaps a hundred of the smaller houses of the place had been burned by
the fires started by the gunboat’s shells the night before, but in a
whole city full of small Chinese houses the loss was not especially
noticeable.
“You wouldn’t want to land over yonder to-day, Darrin,” smiled
Lieutenant Warden, when Ensign Dave saluted him on deck.
“Why not, sir?”
“Soon after daylight the governor’s troops marched into the city. As
nearly as we could estimate the strength of the force from this deck,
there are about twelve thousand of the troops, and with them are three
batteries of field artillery.”
“Are the batteries strong enough to be used against this craft?”
“The batteries might be able to give us a good bit of trouble to
handle, but there is no danger of their being employed. It would cost
the governor his head to turn his troops against us, for that would be
an official act of his, and a violation of China’s peace with us. Of
course the pretended riot and rebellion of the populace was carried out
by the governor’s secret orders, but we could never prove that. His
excellency will be questioned by the Chinese government, but he can
claim that the rebellion started when his troops were in another part
of the province. The governor will promise Pekin to punish the
ringleaders of the rebellion. He will then proceed to ‘try’ and behead
a few of his political enemies, and Pekin will be satisfied. That will
close the incident.”
A messenger came briskly up, with word calling the executive officer
into the presence of his commander.
Pembroke’s confession, which Dave and the witnesses had promptly
reported to the Lieutenant-Commander the night before, was the talk of
the officers this morning.
The wounded man was said to be in somewhat better condition. All of the
wounded sailors, marines and civilians were reported as being in no
danger of dying from the injuries received in the spirited fighting of
the day before.
Dave’s eyes caught sight of Belle the instant she stepped on deck. He
hurried to her, looking her over closely to see how she had stood the
excitement and terrors of the day before.
“Do you think I shall ever be able to qualify as a naval man’s wife?”
Belle asked, laughing.
“You won’t have to qualify,” Dave assured her. “You’ve already passed
all the necessary tests.”
“There were times yesterday when I was dreadfully afraid,” shuddered
Belle.
“Then you have mastered the necessary secret of how to conceal your
fears,” Darrin assured her. “There was many a time yesterday when I,
too, was badly scared.”
“You?” cried Belle, gazing at her husband, in astonishment.
“Yes,” smiled Dave. “Did I betray myself?”
“You are jesting,” Belle declared. “I saw you often, in the worst of
the fighting and your courage and endurance were magnificent. Not once
did you show any sign of faltering.”
“None the less, I had my moments of scare,” Darrin assured her.
“You surely _are_ jesting,” asserted Belle.
“Not a bit of it, my dear. Every man who has to fight and who is honest
about it will admit that he is often badly scared.”
“Am I interrupting a private conversation, Mr. Darrin?” asked the
executive officer.
“Not in the least, sir,” replied the young ensign, raising his cap.
“Then what I have to tell you is that our wireless picked up the
admiral’s flagship a little while ago, and we have reported what took
place here yesterday. We are under orders to sail as promptly as
possible, and the flagship will meet us at the mouth of the river. The
flagship will also try to pick up some coasting steamer, which will
carry the missionary party and others down the coast to Shanghai, which
is considered a safer place at present for Americans.”
“Did the Admiral approve of what was done here yesterday, sir?”
“He expressed neither approval nor criticism, but will take our
detailed report when we join. The ladies will be summoned to breakfast
soon, Mr. Darrin. Most of the officers will breakfast at second table
to-day, but on account of Mrs. Darrin’s presence on board you will go
to first table with her. You will take my place at the head of the
table.”
“And, of course, as soon as the civilians are transferred to that
coasting steamer I shall have to go with them,” pouted Belle. “It may
be months before I shall see you again. I had hoped to be with you at
least a few weeks in Manila. Instead, I had to come here. I have had a
day with you—and what a day!”
“It’s hard, dear,” sighed Dave, “but such is a naval officer’s life.
However, our turn will come. One of these days I shall be ordered to
shore duty for a while, and then we shall be together, month after
month. We shall even be able to have a little home of our own. It may
be, dear, that my shore duty will be at Washington.”
“Yes,” groaned Mrs. Darrin. “And if you send for me to come and join
you in Washington, by the time I arrive there I shall find out that you
have just been sent away on a three-year rescue cruise to find some
lost explorer at the South Pole! That is the Navy!”
When the breakfast call came Dave led his wife into the wardroom,
conducting her to her seat at table and seating himself beside her.
Before the meal was ten minutes under way the deck watch began to make
active preparations for the start down the river. As the anchor was
being hoisted a large boat put out from the shore flying the governor’s
banner.
As it came alongside a great bale was hoisted on board, addressed,
simply, “To the American Ladies.”
An envelope bearing a similar address was brought aboard by an officer
from the governor’s yamen, as well as a second envelope addressed to
Lieutenant-Commander Tuthill.
The second letter was delivered at once. It contained an expression of
the governor’s “profound regret” over the occurrences of the day
before, and stated that, the governor’s troops having fortunately
returned, his excellency was now able to guarantee the safety of all
Americans who might condescend to honor the city by their presence
ashore.
The governor’s letter ended with the statement that he had endeavored
to express his apologies to the American ladies in a more tangible if
very humble and poor form.
The American commander immediately dictated a letter thanking his
excellency for his letter and assurances, but adding that, under
orders, the American party was being taken to the mouth of the
Nung-kiang River.
“Get this letter over the side and signal the engine-room for
half-speed ahead,” Lieutenant-Commander Tuthill brusquely directed.
So, before breakfast was ended, the “Castoga” was steaming down the
muddy river.
Not until the officers and male guests had been served at second table
was any mention of the bale made by the busy executive officer. Then
the ladies were once more summoned to the wardroom, while two sailors
undid the package that had come from the governor.
The contents would have made a gift fit, indeed, for a royal family.
There were more than enough handsome furs to go all around. There were
silks, such as are never seen in America. Gold hair ornaments and rare
jade jewelry were there in abundance, and many other articles dear to
the feminine heart.
“If this is a true expression of the governor’s regret, then I wonder
that he could ever have permitted the rioting to start,” said one of
the women.
“But, under the circumstances, have we any right to accept such
valuable gifts?” asked Belle Darrin.
“Shall I have them thrown overboard, then?” queried Mr. Warden,
smilingly.
“No; of course not,” replied another woman, “but I feel that these
magnificent gifts should be returned.”
“How?” asked the executive officer. “This gunboat may never enter the
Nung-kiang River again.”
“It begins to look,” laughed Dave, “as though the necessities of the
case compel the acceptance of these visible expressions of the
governor’s invisible regrets. There is no way to send the stuff back.”
It took an hour’s discussion to convince the women that they must
perforce accept. That point settled, they proceeded to divide the gifts
by lot.
“Where am I going to put all this plunder?” Belle asked her husband as
she gathered up her own considerable share of the “expressions of
regret.” “I haven’t a single piece of baggage.”
“I fear I shall have to place them in my chest, and turn them over to
you when we next meet,” Dave suggested.
“And I may very likely be an old woman by that time,” sighed Belle.
At noon Dave took the bridge until four o’clock. It was just before his
watch was finished that the mouth of the river was made. Two miles off
shore the flagship could be seen, steaming back and forth. A quarter of
a mile away a small ocean-going steamer followed a similar course.
“And I won’t have a chance to cry on my husband’s shoulder for a few
moments,” Belle complained, tragically, to another woman. “He’s stuck
away up forward on the bridge.”
“Your husband will be off duty in ten minutes,” Lieutenant Warden
assured her. “He will have command of the launch that transfers the
party to the coasting vessel.”
“In the Navy the smallest favors look like great ones,” Belle observed
to herself.
Watch changed just before the gunboat ran up behind the stern of the
flagship.
Relieved of his duty on the bridge, Dave received his further orders
and immediately called the launch crew to quarters.
Launched and brought alongside, the motor boat was quickly filled with
the refugees.
Dave gave the order to cast off, then sat down beside Belle. Their time
was altogether too short. The halted coasting steamer received the
refugees on board, Dave, too, going up over the side.
In the instant that he and Belle clung together she whispered:
“Shall I go to Yokohama and await the chance to join you?”
“That will be a fine idea, little girl!” cried Dave. Then with a final
kiss he went down over the side and into the launch.
“Cast off. Make back to the gunboat.”
The coastwise steamer was already sounding her hoarse whistle, and
moving under slow way.
Once in the launch, Ensign Darrin stood up and waved his cap at the
lonely little figure standing by the stern rail on the after-deck of
the steamship.
Until the launch rounded up under the “Castoga’s” quarter Dave waved
his cap frequently. Through the mist that lay over his eyes he could
barely see the answering fluttering of white on the deck of the
southbound steamship.
“Let the crew remain in the launch,” came from the officer of the deck.
“Ensign Darrin will report to the executive officer.”
“Lieutenant-Commander Tuthill and Ensigns Darrin and Dalzell are
ordered aboard the flagship,” announced the executive officer. “Mr.
Darrin, you will make the necessary change in uniform.”
Hastening to his quarters, Dave changed to full dress uniform for which
the regulations now called. He girded on his dress belt, with his dress
sword, and drew on white gloves. Then he gained the deck, saluting and
reporting to the commander of the gunboat.
“We shall be called upon to make our report, Mr. Darrin, of the Nu-ping
affair. It is a good thing that we can do so with clear consciences,”
smiled the Lieutenant-Commander.
“The Admiral may not approve of all that I did to His Excellency, the
Governor,” remarked Ensign Dave.
“I think he will,” replied the commanding officer. “In my opinion, at
least, you made the best possible use of your discretion.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Soon the three officers from the gunboat found themselves on the
quarter-deck of the battleship “Katahdin,” flagship of the Asiatic
Fleet.
Captain Tucker received them and then remarked:
“I have orders to conduct you at once to Admiral Branch.”
The Admiral gave the three visiting officers pleasant if formal
greeting.
“This is my report, sir, in writing, of the affair at Nu-ping,”
declared Lieutenant-Commander Tuthill, passing over a bulky official
envelope.
“Quite so,” observed Admiral Branch. “I will read it at once.”
For more than five minutes the three officers remained seated, and in
silence, while the Admiral slowly turned the pages of the report.
From time to time the fleet commander frowned. Dave, noting this,
wondered to what features of his conduct in Nu-ping Admiral Branch most
objected.
“Dave is surely going to catch it,” reflected Dan Dalzell uneasily. “I
wonder if I shall come in for some of the scotching, too. But probably
there’ll be no such luck. Dave was ranking officer ashore, and I acted
only on his orders. I wish I could take my share in the storm.”
Having read the last page of the report, the Admiral slowly,
thoughtfully folded it, laying it away in a pigeon-hole over his desk.
“Surely, Mr. Darrin, you found some new ways of treating a Chinese
viceroy, or, I should say, governor,” remarked the fleet commander
dryly.
“I tried, sir, not to subject him to any annoyance or indignity that
could be avoided,” Darrin responded gravely.
“And in a way that would have been impossible, had the governor been
attended by his usual number of troops,” continued Admiral Branch.
“Under the circumstances, however, you treated him in a way that I, as
a junior officer, often longed to handle many an important Chinese
official.”
Though the fleet commander spoke gravely there was an unmistakable
twinkle in his eyes. Dave’s hopes began to rise.
“I shall endorse Lieutenant-Commander Tuthill’s report as being
satisfactory to myself,” continued the Admiral, “and then shall send
the report on through the usual channels. And I sincerely trust, Mr.
Darrin, that the Navy and State Departments at Washington will also
endorse the report. For myself, Ensign Darrin, I congratulate you on
your handling of a most unusual and highly difficult lot of problems. I
congratulate you, sir,” continued Admiral Branch. “I shall be glad to
have you aboard this ship.”
“On this ship, sir?” asked Darrin, as he took the Admiral’s
outstretched hand.
“Yes; but that is another story, and perhaps I had better tell that
first. Some transfers have been ordered in the Asiatic Fleet. Among
other changes, Ensigns Holton and Brown, now on this ship, are ordered
to duty on the ‘Castoga,’ and Ensigns Darrin and Dalzell are ordered to
the ‘Katahdin.’ I fancy, gentlemen,” turning to the two younger
officers present, “that very likely you have seen as much as you wish
of China for the present, so you will be glad to know that this ship is
ordered to Japan, and that we shall likely be there for two months or
more. You will move your baggage over to this ship and report for duty
as quickly as possible.”