"Whee!"
The million pigtails shook more wildly each time until, at the last,
the million little Chinamen rose up from their hiding-places under the
bushes, and came running from all over the fields like the inhabitants
of a great city running to a fire.
When they reached the road and the green palanquin, they fell on their
knees, jabbering and praying the chief Choo Choo Choo not to hurt them
with his long curved sword or the curved fingernails, which were worse
than the sword.
"Pss-ss-iss-ssst!" exclaimed Choo Choo Choo, who for all his faults
liked to see people brave and not cowardly like that.
"Psss-sss-iss-sst!" he said again, then a third time, for in China,
especially if you are a robber, you must say things three times if you
really mean it, or else people won't believe you at all.
So, again "Pss-ss-iss-sst!" said this bold Choo Choo Choo.
At this third dread cry, each of the million Chinamen took out of his
pocket a penny, a Chinese penny. And a Chinese penny is rather big,
with a hole in the centre, and funny chicken-track letters stamped on
it.
Before Marmaduke could have said "Jack Robinson," there were a million
of them lying in the road.
Choo Choo Choo scratched his head with his long fingernail. He didn't
know what in the world to do with so many pennies.
After some time he seemed to land on an idea, for he beckoned to one
of his soldiers with that nail. And when that nail beckoned, it looked
like the long claw of a lobster, waving awkwardly back and forth. It
would have been funny indeed, if it hadn't been quite so dangerous.
Nearby a kite flew high in the air, its string tied to a tea-bush.
Choo Choo Choo's servant hauled in the kite and the twine, and one by
one the soldiers strung all those pennies, those pennies with holes in
them, on the twine, like beads on a string.
When they had finished, the string of pennies looked like a great
shiny bronze snake coiling back in the road for almost a mile.
By this time the great robber chief Choo Choo Choo had begun to notice
Marmaduke.
"Come here!" he commanded, crooking a fingernail. It was funny how
Ping Pong, Sing Song, and Ah See, who were quite honest, spoke broken
or Pigeon English, while Choo Choo Choo talked correctly and very
politely. Robbers, and burglars too, frequently do that. So you can't
always tell a man by his fine language.
Marmaduke obeyed. He drew near the palanquin and waited, his heart
banging against his ribs.
"What are you doing here?" asked Choo Choo Choo.
"I want to see China."
"Oh you do, do you!" said the robber chief, "and why, pray, do you
want to see China?"
"I wanted to see if the people stood upside down on the other side of
the world," explained Marmaduke, hoping that this explanation would
please Choo Choo Choo.
"So," said he very sarcastically, "that's silly--immeasurably silly, I
call it. Look out or you'll go back without a head yourself. But first
tell me,--have you any ancestors, _honorable_ ancestors?"
"What _are_ ancestors, honorable ancestors, sir?" Marmaduke
inquired. He thought that if he said "sir"--very politely--it might
help matters a bit.
"Oh, people in your family who lived long before you, and who have
long beards and are very honest," returned the robber chief.
Marmaduke thought it was odd, his mentioning that honorable ancestors
must be honest, when he was a robber himself, but anyway he was
relieved as he thought of "Greatgrandpa Boggs."
"Yes," he told Choo Choo Choo, "if that's what it is, I have an
honorable ancestor--Greatgrandpa Boggs. He was very old before he
died. He was so old his voice sounded like a tiny baby's, and he had a
beard--a long and white one--that nearly reached to the bottom button
of his vest, and he must have been honest, 'cause Mother said he might
have been rich if he hadn't been so honest."
"But wait a minute," roared Choo Choo Choo, "did he have fingernails
as long as mine?"
"No," replied Marmaduke, "they were short like these," and he showed
him his own hands.
"Pss-ss-iss-sst!" said Choo Choo Choo in disgust, "he couldn't have
been so very honorable then. I guess we'd better behead you without
any more argument."
He looked around at the sky and so did Marmaduke. It was very pretty
and blue, and the road looked very white and inviting, the tea-bushes
very lovely and green.
"It's just the right weather for beheading," remarked Choo Choo Choo,
"soldiers, are your swords very sharp?" and he patted the snake made
of pennies that curved up the white road.
Marmaduke was certainly in danger now, but he kept his head so as not
to lose it. And he found an idea in it.