; in fact,
he was a consummate villain, and seems to have been the actual
originator of the plot which was presently devised to rob the mandarin.

"This plot was as remarkable for its simplicity as for its cold-blooded
barbarity. On the evening before the barque sailed, the three seamen,
Nilsson, Foucault, and Parratt, proceeded to the Danish ship with a
supply of whisky, made the ship-keeper royally drunk, and locked him up
in an empty berth. Meanwhile Wo-li made a secret communication to the
mandarin to the effect that certain stolen property, believed to be his,
had been secreted in the hold of the empty ship. Thereupon the mandarin
came down hot-foot to the quay-side, and was received on board by the
three seamen, who had got the covers off the after-hatch in readiness.
Parratt now ran down the iron ladder to show the way, and the mandarin
followed; but when they reached the lower deck, and looked down the
hatch into the black darkness of the lower hold, he seems to have taken
fright, and begun to climb up again. Meanwhile Nilsson had made a
running bowline in the end of a loose halyard that was rove through a
block aloft, and had been used for hoisting out the cargo. As the
mandarin came up, he leaned over the coaming of the hatch, dropped the
noose over the Chinaman's head, jerked it tight, and then he and
Foucault hove on the fall of the rope. The unfortunate Chinaman was
dragged from the ladder, and, as he swung clear, the two rascals let go
the rope, allowing him to drop through the hatches into the lower hold.
Then they belayed the rope, and went down below. Parratt had already
lighted a slush-lamp, by the glimmer of which they could see the
mandarin swinging to and fro like a pendulum within a few feet of the
ballast, and still quivering and twitching in his death-throes. They
were now joined by Wo-li, who had watched the proceedings from the quay,
and the four villains proceeded, without loss of time, to rifle the body
as it hung. To their surprise and disgust, they found nothing of value
excepting an ebony pendant set with a single large pearl; but Wo-li,
though evidently disappointed at the nature of the booty, assured his
comrades that this alone was well worth the hazard, pointing out the
great size and exceptional beauty of the pearl. As to this, the seamen
know nothing about pearls, but the thing was done, and had to be made
the best of; so they made the rope fast to the lower deck-beams, cut off
the r