CHAPTER XI--OF THE REAPPEARANCE OF LING
Walking rapidly, the boy soon found himself upon the right bank of theriver. Though there was as yet no sign of daybreak in the east, severalpeople were already abroad, for the Chinese begin their day's work earlyin the morning and do not cease till late at night. Parties of men wereengaged in loading the junks and _wupans_ which were moored to thewharves 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 pigtailcoiled 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 uponthe open sea. He readily agreed to take Frank as far as Canton for asmall consideration in the way of copper cash; and a minute later, theboy 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 tothe wharf to bid them good-bye. There were small-footed Chinese women,and little round-faced, naked children, each of whom appeared to haveeaten so much rice that he looked in danger of bursting. There was muchwailing and gnashing of teeth--for the Chinese on occasion can beexceedingly emotional--and no sooner was the junk clear of her mooringsthan the silence of the morning was disturbed by a veritable fusilladeof Chinese squibs, rockets and crackers.
Indeed it might have been an Eastern Fifth of November. A great bundleof gunpowder crackers, tied to the poop of the vessel, went off in akind of _feu de joie_, sending out so many sparks in all directions thatit appeared that the ship was in danger of catching fire. The idea andobject of this custom, which is universal throughout China from Tonkinto the Great Wall, is to scare away the evil spirits which might bedisposed to embark on board the departing ship. The Chinese believe inthe potency and the ubiquity of evil spirits. A European--commonlycalled "a foreign devil"--is invariably accompanied by a host of suchattendant ghosts. Indeed, it is extremely difficult for any man, even avirtuous Chinese, to avoid being shadowed by malignant spooks who desirenothing more than to lead him into calamity and misfortune. There is,as every Chinese is well aware, but one method of driving away theseevil spirits, and that is by exploding so much gunpowder and creatingsuch a noise, that they flee in all haste back to the spirit land whencethey come.
Frank Armitage observed this ceremony from the forepart of the boat. Hehad often witnessed such a scene before in the Chinese quarter of theharbour of Hong-Kong, but he had seldom seen such an expensive andgorgeous display. It was evident that the master and owner of the junkwas a rich man who could afford to insure his property at the maximumpremium. Also, this particular junk had an unusually large pair of eyespainted upon the bows. As the captain himself explained later in theday, if a junk has no eyes it cannot see where it is going. If a junkcannot see where it is going, it will probably, sooner or later, strikea rock or another ship, or run ashore. That would be a disaster forboth the junk and its owner. Hence a junk must have eyes the same as aman. This argument is thoroughly Chinese and would be entirely rationalprovided the painted eyes upon the bows of a Chinese ship were of theslightest practical use.
All that day they sailed down-stream towards the centre of the greatvalley of the West River. Every mile the country became more and morethickly populated. They passed many villages situated upon both banksof 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. Therewere few trees and few hills except far in the distance, towards thenorth, where the foothills of the great Nan-ling Mountains stood forthupon the horizon like a wall.
Late the following afternoon the river joined a wider stream flowingtowards the south-east. This Frank at first believed to be the WestRiver itself, but he was informed by the captain of the junk that theSi-kiang was still fifty _li_ to the south.
It was midnight when they turned into the main stream, and soonafterwards they saw before them the bright lights of the city ofSanshui, 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 straighton to Canton and thence down the river to Hong-Kong, at both of whichplaces he would be able to get in touch with his friends. On the otherhand, he had every reason to suppose that Men-Ching was at that verymoment in the city of Sanshui. The junk had made good headway down theriver, and the boy knew that the boat on which Cheong-Chau's messengerhad 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 hefirst considered his own safety. He was already practically out ofdanger; there was no vital necessity for him to put his headdeliberately into the lion's mouth. If his determination appears to berash, it may be supposed that he was guided by some natural instinctthat warned him that, in this case, the most dangerous course was theonly 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 fromthe cave his journey had been extraordinarily uneventful; he saw noreason why it should not continue to be so. If Cheong-Chau's men werein pursuit he had seen nothing of them; he had apparently left themmiles behind. He had every reason to be satisfied with his disguise; hewas fairly confident that even if he found Men-Ching he would not berecognised, since he knew the old man to be extremely short-sighted.Throughout his journey, he had experienced no difficulty in passinghimself 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 anative of the country. The boy was sanguine of success; he never dreamtfor a moment of failure. He saw no reason why he should not succeed infinding Men-Ching, in tracking the old rascal all the way to Hong-Kongand there having him arrested by the British police authorities. Heeven considered the possibility of completing the remainder of hisjourney actually in the company of Men-Ching and his companion.
He therefore asked the captain of the junk to set him ashore. He paidthe man according to his agreement, and found himself, at about oneo'clock in the morning, in the centre of a very dilapidated andevil-smelling city.
Since he had slept a good deal on board the junk--there being nothingelse for him to do--he decided to remain awake until daybreak, keeping aclose watch upon the _bund_, alongside which the junks and river-boatswere 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 thatupon which Men-Ching had come down the river. His object was first todiscover the _wupan_. He would then have no difficulty in findingMen-Ching himself.
The boy seated himself upon the end of a jetty whence he could obtain agood view of the harbour. A watery moon was low in the heavens, andthis, together with the stars, illumined the river with an iridescent,ghostly light, by which it was possible to see for a considerabledistance.
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 seenquite clearly continually crossing the open space that separated thehouses from the ships.
Though the night was warm the air was somewhat damp, and Frank, fearingthat he would contract malarial fever, rose to his feet and strolledcasually down the jetty. At the corner of a narrow street he came quitesuddenly face to face with a most alarming personage.
The expression "face to face" cannot be taken literally, for the man wasa giant, and Frank's face was scarcely on a level with his chest. In theshadowy slums of a poverty-stricken Chinese town, at such a ghostly houras two o'clock in the morning, to find oneself unexpectedly confrontedby an individual of the stature of a Goliath and with the countenance ofa demon, is an experience well calculated to give a jolt to the nervoussystem of anyone. To put the truth in a word, Frank Armitage wasfrightened out of his wits, and these fears were by no means dissipatedwhen the Herculean stranger, without the least warning, grasped him bythe collar of
his coat and lifted him bodily from off his feet.
"Ha!" the man roared, in the Cantonese of the educated classes. "Ariver-side thief! A junk rat! A prowler by night! Tell me, friendweasel, have you stolen rice from on board a Canton junk, or anight-watchman's supper?"
"I pray you, sir," cried Frank, "put me down upon my feet again. I amno thief, I assure you, but a peaceable citizen of Wu-chau, who goesupon a visit to his grandfather."
"A peaceable citizen!" roared the man, bursting into laughter. "That'sgood, indeed. I would have you to know that all citizens are peacefulwhen they fall into the hands of the mighty Ling."
So if Frank were none the wiser, the reader at any rate is betterinformed. Frank Armitage had never in his life, to the best of hisknowledge, heard of the mighty Ling. The reader, however, has made thatextraordinary man's acquaintance. He knows that Ling was not by anymeans one who could be trifled with, and he has been given some kind ofa notion of the character and reputation of this same unmitigatedvillain who was wont to call himself "the mighty Ling."
The giant set down the boy upon his feet, planting him immediately infront of him.
"I have need of you," said he. "It is possible you may be able torender me some assistance. You doubtless have not failed to observethat the gods have made me too big to hide myself without considerableinconvenience. It is in this regard that you can help me. If you do sofaithfully 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 junkrat! Follow me!"
At that, he grasped the boy by a wrist and, taking such tremendousstrides that Frank was obliged almost to run, dragged him along thewharf.