They have come from Hongkong
with Ping Wang, and, if they are not worried, they will soon be well
again.'

For a moment the Chinese boatman was silent.

'I will take them,' he said, at length, 'if my honourable brother, Ping
Wang, will promise that if they become very ill he will throw them
overboard, so that they shall not die in my boat.'

'I promise,' Ping Wang said, and he had no qualms about making that vow,
for Fred and Charlie were in splendid health, and it was very unlikely
that they would become seriously ill during the two days' journey
up-river.

'It seems to me,' Charlie said, when he heard of the arrangement that
had been made, 'that I shall never make a really enjoyable trip on
water. My first voyage I made as a cook, and had a bullying skipper to
worry me. Then I escaped to what I thought was a mission ship, but it
turned out to be a rascally coper. On the _Canton_ I had to pretend that
I was a Chinaman, and now, if I get ill, I'm to be thrown overboard.'

'You have told the boatman that my brother and I are suffering from bad
eyes,' Fred remarked to Ping Wang; 'but he will see at a glance that
there is nothing the matter with them.'

'I have thought of that,' Ping Wang answered, 'and have bought a pair of
Chinese goggles for each of you. I wonder that I didn't think of them
when we were at Hongkong, for they will make your disguise much more
complete. At present your eyes do not look at all like Chinamen's.'

Charles and Fred at once put on the goggles which Ping Wang gave them,
and the skipper declared that now, if they did not speak aloud, no one
would guess that they were not Chinamen.

'We ought to go at once,' said Ping Wang; and, after shaking hands with
the skipper, the three travellers quitted the _Canton_, and made their
way towards the boat.

In less than five minutes the three travellers reached the spot where it
was moored. It was a long, heavy boat. The cargo was packed in the
middle of the boat, and near the stern was a roughly-made awning,
composed of mats and dirty-looking cloth, which had been erected for the
comfort of Ping Wang's invalids.

Charlie and Fred walked aboard in silence, and assumed invalids' airs
with so much success that the boatman, believing them to be seriously
ill, said to Ping Wang, as he passed him, 'Honourable brother, do not
forget the promise which you made to your worthless servant--that if the
honourable lords with sore eyes get worse you will thro