the pain, Percy, so much as the humiliation of the
thing. To be stared at and poked at as if we were wild beasts by these
curs, when with half a dozen of our men we could send a hundred of them
scampering, I feel as if I could choke with rage."

"You had better try and eat some of this rice, Jack. It is beastly, but
I dare say we shall get no more until tomorrow night, and we must keep
up our strength if we can. At any rate, the water is not bad, that's a
comfort."

"No thanks to them," Jack growled. "If there had been any bad water in
the neighborhood they would have given it to us."

For two weeks the sufferings of the prisoners continued. Their captors
avoided towns where the authorities would probably at once have taken
the prisoners out of their hands. No one would have recognized the
two captives as the midshipmen of the Perseus; their clothes were in
rags--torn to pieces by the thrusts of the sharp pointed bamboos, to
which they had daily been subjected--the bad food, the cramped position,
and the misery which they suffered had worn both lads to skeletons;
their hair was matted with filth, their faces begrimed with dirt. Percy
was so weak that he felt he could not stand. Fothergill, being three
years older, was less exhausted, but he knew that he, too, could not
support his sufferings for many days longer. Their bodies were covered
with sores, and try as they would they were able to catch only a few
minutes' sleep at a time so much did the bamboo bars hurt their wasted
limbs.

They seldom exchanged a word during the daytime, suffering in silence
the persecutions to which they were exposed, but at night they talked
over their homes and friends in England, and their comrades on board
ship, seldom saying a word as to their present position. They were now
in a hilly country, but had not the least idea of the direction in which
it lay from Canton or its distance from the coast.

One evening Jack said to his companion, "I think it's nearly all over
now, Percy. The last two days we have made longer journeys, and have not
stopped at any of the smaller villages we passed through. I fancy our
guards must see that we can't last much longer, and are taking us down
to some town to hand us over to the authorities and get their reward for
us."

"I hope it is so, Jack; the sooner the better. Not that it makes much
difference now to me, for I do not think I can stand many more days of
it."

"I am afraid I am tougher tha