sailor can't fightee. When plenty sailor can fightee, pilate lun away
velly fast, and no come back."

"Can you understand him, Mr Grey?" I said.

"Oh yes, I understand him, and I daresay he's right, but there's no harm
in being on the look-out;" and, to show his intention of following out
his words, the boatswain took his revolver from its case, and laid it
ready upon his knees.

"How much farther is this village, or whatever it is?" said Mr Reardon
from behind.

"Do you hear, Ching?" I said.

"Ching hear; Ching don'tee know; not velly far," was the unsatisfactory
reply.

"I'm afraid we've come on a cock-and-bull hunt," said the boatswain,
looking to right and left as he stood up in the boat, for the creek now
grew so narrow that the men had to lay in their oars, and the coxswain
also stood up and drew the boat onward by hooking the overhanging
boughs.

"Do you think they do come up here, Ching?" I said.

He nodded, and looked sharply about him.

"There can be no big traffic up here, Mr Grey," said the lieutenant.
"What does the interpreter say?"

"Do you hear, Ching?" I whispered; "what do you say?"

"Allee light," he replied. "Pilate come along in littlee sampan; cally
silk, tea, lice."

"Oh, bother!" I said. Then aloud to Mr Reardon, whose boat was half
hidden by the growth overhead, "He seems quite sure they do come up
here, sir."

"Well, then, go a little farther, but I feel far from sure. Push right
in at the next place where there's room for the boat, and climb up the
bank."

"Yes, sir," I cried; and we went on again for another hundred yards,
when all at once I caught sight of an opening where I could land, and
pointed it out to Mr Grey.

"Yes," said Ching, "allee light. That place where pilate land allee
plize-money."

I laughed, and Mr Grey told the coxswain to draw the boat close to the
bank, when, to my intense surprise, I found there was a broadly-trampled
path, beaten into soft steps, and I turned in my glee and shouted--

"Here's the place, sir."

The boat glided rustling in; two men sprang out, and then we followed.
The second boat came alongside, and five minutes later our sturdy little
force was tramping along through a dense patch of wood by a well-beaten
path, and in about ten minutes more were out at the foot of a low ridge
which hid the river from our sight, and in face of a couple of dozen or
so low bamboo huts, two of which were of pretty good size.

"Steady!