The War Tiger

by William Dalton

  CHAPTER XII.

  NICHOLAS AGAIN TAKEN PRISONER.

  With the wild whirling of the waters ringing in his ears, and the greatpainted eye before his vision, Nicholas stared around. Where could hebe? He was lying upon a mat, in a small low room; he sat up, endeavoredto comprehend his position, and the san-pan, the bore, the torrent, thewhirlpool, all flashed across him--but where could he be? There beforehim stood a copper god, hideously grinning at a pan of burning incense.Surely it must be the cabin of a junk--but what?--whose? Possibly theyah-yu's. It must be so; and, brave as he was, he shuddered. Then,looking out of the window, he could see nothing but a vast extent ofpaddy (rice in the husks) fields. Then he saw the junk was passing alonga canal, which, from its width, he knew must be the great ImperialCanal. Then Chow--poor Chow--and as he believed him to have beenswallowed up in the waters, the gallant boy burst into tears; and thisgreat grief banished every selfish thought from his mind. Then hetrembled for the safety of his letters; but, feeling beneath his robe,he found them secure. Again he wept for Chow, and, happening to look atthe god, the hideous little brute seemed to be rejoicing at histroubles, and in momentary rage he knocked the deity off its perch withhis fist, with such violence that the pain and blood upon his laceratedknuckles immediately reminded him of the stupidity of the act, and helaughed at his folly; but reflecting that the captain of the vesselmight visit such an insult to the image upon himself he replaced it inits original position.

  At that moment the door opened, and Chow entered with a tray, upon whichwere two cups, a jar, and other materials for a meal, and in hissurprise exclaiming "Chow!" the latter was so much startled that henearly dropped the tray.

  "May Tien be thanked; my master is far from Yen-Vang."

  "Where are we, O Chow?" said Nicholas, recovering from his surprise; butthe boy would answer no questions until Nicholas had partaken of themeal.

  As soon as by eating and drinking, he had satisfied Chow that he wasreally alive, the latter said, "Truly the gods must have been favorablydisposed toward the noble Nicholas, to have kept him alive for so manydays and nights, without brains in his head or food in his mouth."

  "What words are these, O Chow?" said Nicholas, placing his hand to hisforehead, as if making an effort to decipher the boy's meaning.

  "Let my master open his ears," said Chow; adding, "Worn out with myexertions in the boat, I no sooner perceived the terrible eye than Iloosened my hold of the pole, and either from fright or fatigue, becameinsensible; the water, however, revived me, and looking for my master, Isaw him lying by my side upon a shelving edge of rock, for, thanks be toFo, we had dashed upon the rock, the servant with out harm, but themaster receiving such a blow that it deprived him of his senses; when,alarmed for his life, I shouted to the crew of the junk for help, andbegged of them to take us on board, but the rats refused, saying, thatas the gods had evidently reserved us for drowning, to resist would beto provoke Ma-tsoo-po. Then, as my only hope, I shouted to them that Ihad secured a traitor for whose head fifty taels were offered."

  "Surely thou art not a rogue." But not noticing this, Chow continued,"The hope of so much silver made the rogues carry us on board, and thenpoor Chow could have swallowed fire, for when he begged of them to usemeans to recall thee to thy senses, the dog of a captain said, 'Knowthou rat of a boy, that if fifty taels are offered for the rascal'shead, it will save trouble to lop it off at once.' Then Fo sent athought into my brainless head, and falling at the captain's feet, Itold him that so great were thy crimes, that although fifty taels wouldbe given for thy head, five hundred and a mandarin's button would begiven for thy whole body.

  "Then said the captain, 'the dog utters words of wisdom,' and fearing tolose the silver, if you died, he commanded a physician who happened tobe on board to make thee sound and whole, and moreover, promised toreward me with ten taels if I helped to bring thee round."

  But as they heard approaching footsteps, Chow said softly, "Get thee tothy mat, it is the physician; do not let him bring thee to thy senses,or we are lost."

  By the time Nicholas had lain down, an elderly man, with a small funneland a porcelain cup in his hands, entered the cabin, and with as muchmeaningless mystery of manner as one of our doctors, knelt by his sideand commenced the comical operation of feeling his pulse, or ratherpulses, for the physician's hands and fingers traveled up and down theboy's body like a flea in search of a choice bite. Having gone throughthis performance, he placed the funnel in the patient's mouth, andpoured down his throat a decoction of the gen-seng root, a plant whichthe Chinese believe will cure all ills; and, disagreeable and difficultas it was, Nicholas swallowed it, which so delighted the old gentlemanthat he left the cabin chuckling, but telling Chow on no account toattempt to awake him for the next three hours, as he was assured thatnature was bringing him to by her own means.

  "Verily the old cheat believes I have a fever," said Nicholas, jumpingup as soon as the doctor had left the cabin.

  Chow, who had been gazing from the window of the cabin while thephysician was present, no sooner saw him leave than he said, "We shallleave the dogs now;" adding, "Let the noble Nicholas remain senselesstill Chow returns," and without another word he left the cabin.

  For some time Nicholas remained quiet upon the mat, but getting tired hearose, and looking out of the window he saw that the junk was in themiddle of the canal, and from the great quantity of boats knew they werenear to some great city. He had not, however, been looking long, when tohis surprise he saw one of these san-pans come alongside the junk, andtaking Chow on board, paddled off to the shore, where he remained forsome time, and then was brought back to the junk. What could that mean?Surely Chow was not playing him false. No he was ashamed of the thought.The boy must be concocting some scheme for his benefit; but hearingfootsteps he resumed his position upon the mat, and in another minutethe physician and Chow entered. This time the doctor only went throughthe pulse performance, saying, "Now if the rascal would but move a limbit would show that Fo and the immortal drug had sent the blood into hismuscles."

  A comical notion came into the patient's head; it was dangerous, but itmight prevent the necessity of the funnel being put in his throat, andso with a slight yawn he suddenly gave the old gentleman such a kick onthe shins that he started with surprise, but delighted that histreatment had succeeded, he said, "Truly the rogue is getting hisstrength," and hopped out of the room, uttering maledictions upon thesailors for robbing him of his gen-seng.

  "What meant the rat by those words?" said Nicholas, and he was morethan satisfied when Chow told him the following story: The doctor placedimplicit faith in the wonderful curative powers of the famous gen-seng,a quantity of which he carried about with him, ready for any accidentthat might happen. Knowing this, Chow had managed to secure the whole,and, as he anticipated, when the old gentleman discovered his loss hegrew furious, and told the captain that Nicholas would die. The captainbeing in fear of losing his reward, had all the men searched, and not afew beaten with the bamboo. It was all of no use. What was to be done?Chow offered to go ashore and procure some; the captain agreed, a signalwas made for a boatman, who, as we have seen, came off to the junk, tookChow ashore, from whence he returned with the much-prized plant, which,by the way, he had no greater trouble in obtaining than putting his handin a hole in the lining of his outer garment.

  While in the boat Chow had made good use of his time, for he had bribedthe boatman to bring his little craft alongside the junk about themiddle of the third watch.

  The night is divided into five watches; the first begins at seven and isdistinguished by a single stroke, which is repeated every minute tillthe second watch, when two blows are given, and so with the third,fourth, and fifth.

  Anxiously did they await the treble sound; at length it came,--one, two,three,--and they stood with breathless expectation; about the tenthminute of the third watch there was a tap at the paper window, whenpulling out his knife, Chow ran the blade around the paper, and the nextmoment the end of
a rope was thrown through. Making this fast to a hookwithin the cabin, Nicholas crept legs foremost through the hole, andcatching hold of a rope swang himself into the san-pan. Chow followed,and they crawled into the little cabin, when the san-pan glided away,not, however, without arousing one of the sailors, who believing thatthe boat had crept alongside with some nefarious design upon theproperty of the vessel, sharply warned the boatman of the danger of anysuch attempt, as he was on the _qui vive_. The boatman, however, havinggiven a satisfactory reply, he pushed onward, and after passing througha little world of junks, san-pans, and barges, they managed to effect alanding without being noticed. After which, the man having fastened hisboat led them through the suburbs till they reached a small mud hut,from the top of which issued a wreathing column of flame and smoke.

  "It is the hut of a sentry," exclaimed Nicholas, who knew that thesignal huts were distributed at distances of about a mile apartthroughout the interior, as a warning to all would-be depredators thatthe police were on the alert, and this being precisely the kind of placethey should have avoided, he said, "For what purpose has the worthyboatman brought us to this hut."

  "Truly, my master, we are in safe hands, for the man on duty is theboatman's brother and will let us hide here till morning," said Chow,and the next moment they were within the hut partaking of a portion ofthe soldier's fare of hot tea and rice bread.

  After some little time the boatman said, "Truly it is not often thatbrothers meet, and it is well that we should have a fraternalconversation."

  When the men left the hut Chow took a paper from his robe, leant over afire, and having perused it, said, "The dog is a rogue, he would give usshelter to-night but to betray us in the morning."

  "What words are these? Truly the boatman knew us as nought but two poortravelers."

  "My master's thoughts are generous," replied Chow; adding, as he handedNicholas the paper, "Let the noble man-boy read for himself."

  Taking the paper, Nicholas read, "Let the noble commander offer ahandsome reward, and the rascals who have escaped shall be again placedin his hands."

  "Truly this is villainy; but how fell this paper into thy hands, OChow."

  "Is it not a maxim that wickedness defeats its own ends?" said Chow;adding, "As thy servant was getting from the window of the junk into thesan-pan, that paper fell into his hand. Doubtless the rascal boatmanthrew it upon the deck, from whence by accident, it fell into my hands."

  "Truly it must have been thrown by the hand of Heaven," said Nicholas.

  "We will defeat the rascals, for fortunately I have saved one of thethieves' pastiles," said Chow, pulling one of the pyramids from beneathhis robe.

  Then as they heard the footsteps of the soldier they squatted before thefire, pretending to be in earnest conversation. The man joined them, andhaving poured some hot water into a cup, took a pinch of tea-dust from alittle packet and made himself a cup of that beverage. But while thesoldier was drinking, and probably chuckling at the good round sum heshould obtain in the morning for Chow and Nicholas, the latter pulledhis arms behind, and held them till Chow tore enough of his coarse loosegarment to form a ligature, with which he secured them; then throwinghim upon his back, and leaving Nicholas to prevent his rolling over, hepulled from his robe a portable lantern, unfolded it, lit the wick, thenlighting the pastile, at arm's length he held it beneath the soldier'snostrils till he became stupid, and indeed, until he became insensible,when, rolling him over and leaving the pastile burning, they left thehut, taking good care to secure it from the outside.