jungles of Africa less than a quarter of a
century ago!

CHAPTER IV

FLASH-LIGHTS OF FEAR

Quick, short, sharp signals shot down the speaking tube from the bridge.

The Chief Engineer of the _Santa Cruz_ yelled across the boiler room.

The bell rang for reverse and the entire ship shivered.

A woman on deck screamed, and there was a rush to the railings, for the
old boat had been slowly making its way up the winding, treacherous
Saigon River out of the China Sea into French Indo-China.

"Those damned Chinks again, trying to escape the Devil!"

"What's the matter, Pop?" some one asked the captain.

"That sampan full of Chinks was trying to get away from the River Devil,
so they shot across our bow to fool him and we nearly ran them down."

"Do they often indulge in that little friendly game with the Devil?" I
asked him, smiling at his seriousness.

"Every time we enter one of these rivers they do it. I killed six of
them going up the river at Shanghai a year ago. It gives me the creeps
every time I see them shoot across our bow. A ship like this will cut
'em in two like a knife!"

We looked over the green railing of the _Santa Cruz_. The big ship had
almost come to a stop for the engines were still in reverse and the
shallow river mud was churned up until the otherwise clear water looked
like a muddy pond. The little sampan, full of grinning, naked Chinese
coolies was fifty feet away from us, and our American sailors were
swearing at them in every language they knew and shaking big, brawny,
brown fists in their grinning direction.

It was considered a joke by the passengers but it was a very real thing
to these poor ignorant Chinese. One sees this happen everywhere in the
Orient. For the Chinaman starts out every morning in his sampan with the
worst kind of a River Devil after him. He must rid himself of that
Devil. So, when a big ship comes into sight, he waits until its bow is
very close and then darts in front of its pathway. The idea is, that
when a sampan full of Chinamen shoots in front of a big ship the Devil
is supposed to follow the ship all that day, and let the Chinese junk or
sampan alone.

[Illustration: CONFUCIUS' TOMB AT CHUFU, CHINA.]

[Illustration: RUIN OF THE MING TOMBS.

The turtle, the symbol of long life, is almost as common in China as the
dragon.]

[Illustration: GRINDING RICE IN CHINA.]

[Illustration: A CAMEL TRAIN FROM THE PLAINS OF MONGOLIA ENTERS PEKING
ON A WI