ve eaten one.'

'Eaten two,' Charlie said, but Fred ignored the interruption.

'I make a practice of tasting any new dish I come across,' he continued.

'When we get to China,' Charlie said, 'Ping Wang will have the pleasure
of offering you puppy-dog pie.'

Ping Wang smiled serenely.

'I don't think that you will find Chinese food so bad as you imagine,'
he said. 'Certainly it will be better than what we had to eat on the
_Sparrow-hawk_.'

While they were looking at a heap of dead fish, the captain shouted to
them to come over to the starboard side; and on doing so they beheld a
shoal of small fish being chased by big ones. To escape their pursuers
the small fish jumped out of the water, and were instantly seized by the
gulls, a flock of which were hovering around. The gulls had a splendid
feast, several hundred of small fish being eaten by them before the
_Twilight_ steamed away from the shoal.

It was not long before the _Twilight_ arrived at Aden, where they all
went ashore for a short time.

After they left Aden the days were extremely monotonous, for there was
nothing to be seen but the ocean.

'I shall be jolly glad when the voyage is at an end,' Charlie declared
when they had passed Ceylon without catching a glimpse of it.

'So shall I,' Fred answered, 'but it won't be much longer, and then the
fun will begin.'

'I hope,' Ping Wang said, 'that you will not mind being dressed as
Chinamen.'

'But, my dear fellow,' Fred replied, 'if we were dressed as Chinamen, we
should not deceive any one. Our faces are not at all Chinese.'

'I can alter that by shaving your eyebrows.'

'Very likely, but Chinamen without pigtails would be as absurd as a
wingless bird.'

'I will buy two pigtails,' Ping Wang declared, calmly.

'What! Surely Chinamen don't wear false pigtails?' Charlie exclaimed.

'Thousands of them do, but, of course they keep it as secret as do your
English ladies who wear false hair.'

'But how do they fix it to their head? Stick it on to their bald pates
with gum?'

'Oh, no! Chinamen are never quite bald--at least, I have never met any
who are--and the pigtail is fixed to what hair they have. My reason for
advising you not to have your hair cut in Port Said was that I wanted
you to have long hair by the time we reached Hongkong. I think that it
is already long enough for pigtails to be attached.'

Charlie was delighted at the prospect of having to don Chinese attire,
but Fred was far fro