better by us having been
lately transferred to the Siamese flag; though the skipper can't see
that it makes any difference--'as long as we are on board'--he says.
There are feelings that this man simply hasn't got--and there's an end
of it. You might just as well try to make a bedpost understand. But
apart from this it is an infernally lonely state for a ship to be going
about the China seas with no proper consuls, not even a gunboat of her
own anywhere, nor a body to go to in case of some trouble.

"My notion was to keep these Johnnies under hatches for another fifteen
hours or so; as we weren't much farther than that from Fu-chau. We would
find there, most likely, some sort of a man-of-war, and once under
her guns we were safe enough; for surely any skipper of a
man-of-war--English, French or Dutch--would see white men through as
far as row on board goes. We could get rid of them and their money
afterwards by delivering them to their Mandarin or Taotai, or whatever
they call these chaps in goggles you see being carried about in
sedan-chairs through their stinking streets.

"The old man wouldn't see it somehow. He wanted to keep the matter
quiet. He got that notion into his head, and a steam windlass couldn't
drag it out of him. He wanted as little fuss made as possible, for the
sake of the ship's name and for the sake of the owners--'for the sake of
all concerned,' says he, looking at me very hard.

"It made me angry hot. Of course you couldn't keep a thing like that
quiet; but the chests had been secured in the usual manner and were safe
enough for any earthly gale, while this had been an altogether fiendish
business I couldn't give you even an idea of.

"Meantime, I could hardly keep on my feet. None of us had a spell of
any sort for nearly thirty hours, and there the old man sat rubbing his
chin, rubbing the top of his head, and so bothered he didn't even think
of pulling his long boots off.

"'I hope, sir,' says I, 'you won't be letting them out on deck before we
make ready for them in some shape or other.' Not, mind you, that I felt
very sanguine about controlling these beggars if they meant to take
charge. A trouble with a cargo of Chinamen is no child's play. I was
dam' tired, too. 'I wish,' said I, 'you would let us throw the whole
lot of these dollars down to them and leave them to fight it out amongst
themselves, while we get a rest.'

"'Now you talk wild, Jukes,' says he, looking up in his slow way th