Two hours later some of the Chinese re-entered the room and led the
captives outside, and the lads then saw what was the meaning of the
noise they had heard. A cage had been manufactured of strong bamboos.
It was about four and a half feet long, four feet wide, and less than
three feet high; above it were fastened two long bamboos. Two or three
of the bars of the cage had been left open.
"My goodness! they never intend to put us in there," Percy exclaimed.
"That they do," Jack said. "They are going to carry us the rest of the
way."
The cords which bound the prisoners' hands were now cut, and they were
motioned to crawl into the cage. This they did. The bars were then put
in their places and securely lashed. Four men went to the ends of the
poles and lifted the cage upon their shoulders. Two others took their
places beside it, and one man, apparently the leader of the party,
walked on ahead. The rest remained behind.
"I never quite realized what a fowl felt in a coop before," Jack said,
"but if its sensations are at all like mine they must be decidedly
unpleasant. It isn't high enough to sit upright in, it is nothing like
long enough to lie down, and as to getting out one might as well think
of flying. Do you know, Percy, I don't think they mean taking us to
Canton at all. I did not think of it before, but from the direction of
the sun I feel sure that we cannot have been going that way. What they
are up to I can't imagine."
In an hour they came to a large village. Here the cage was set down and
the villagers closed round. They were, however, kept a short distance
from the cage by the men in charge of it. Then a wooden platter was
placed on the ground, and persons throwing a few copper coins into this
were allowed to come near the cage.
"They are making a show of us!" Fothergill exclaimed. "That's what they
are up to; you see if it isn't. They are going to travel up country to
show the whites whom their valour has captured."
This was, indeed, the purpose of the pirates. At that time Europeans
seldom ventured beyond the limits assigned to them in the two or three
towns where they were permitted to trade, and few, indeed, of the
country people had ever obtained a sight of the white barbarians of
whose doings they had so frequently heard.
Consequently a small crowd soon gathered round the cage, eyeing the
captives with the same interest they would have felt as to unknown and
dangerous beasts. They laughed and joked, passed remarks upon them, and
even poked them with sticks. Fothergill, furious at this treatment,
caught one of the sticks, and wrenching it from the hands of the
Chinaman, tried to strike at him through the bars, a proceeding which
excited shouts of laughter from the bystanders.
"I think, Jack," Percy said, "it will be best to try and keep our
tempers and not to seem to mind what they do to us; then if they find
they can't get any fun out of us they will soon leave us alone."
"Of course, that's the best plan," Fothergill agreed, "but it's not so
easy to follow. That fellow very nearly poked out my eye with his stick,
and no one's going to stand that if he can help it."
It was some hours before the curiosity of the village was satisfied.
When all had paid who were likely to do so, the guards broke up their
circle, and leaving two of their number at the cage to see that no
actual harm was caused to their prisoners, the rest went off to a
refreshment house.