Crown and Anchor Part 37

"Yellow hat," however, would not allow the palanquin bearers to stop at any of these villages, as I supposed the huts represented, our procession not coming to a halt until late in the afternoon; when, on arriving at a place which, in addition to these huts had a paG.o.da or josshouse, the old rascal grunted a little louder than usual to our bearers and they set down our cages in front of a card-house of the same description as that at Tientsin where we had been so nicely "taken in and done for," as Macan would have expressed it in his Irish vernacular.

The gags were then dragged, in no very gentle way, from our mouths, and our hands and feet untied, and the leader of the party, in a more pig-like squeak than ever, ordered us to come out of our very uncomfortable quarters.

We thought he meant this at least, from the violent gesticulations he made, waving his arms wildly and hopping about as if he were a parched pea on a griddle; for, of course, we could not make out his gibberish though he squealed and grunted at us at a fine rate!

"I suppose he means us to get out," said Ned Anstruther, glad to be able to use his tongue again; "but I can't, I'm so cramped."

"Nor can I, old fellow," I rejoined. "I'm as stiff as a boiled lobster and couldn't move to salute the admiral if he came along."

"I wish to goodness he would," cried Ned. "Ay, and with a file of marines at his back, too. Wouldn't I like to shoot this treacherous old scoundrel, ay, or string him up to the top of that paG.o.da there!"

"So would I too, Ned," I replied heartily. "But, I don't think the yellow rascal means us any harm; at all events, not at present, old fellow. See, he's actually getting us something to eat, I think."

"Some nasty mess or other, no doubt," growled Ned, chafing one of his legs and then stretching it out. "By Jove, though, I'm beginning to get some life in my limbs again, but these blessed cords they tied us with stopped my circulation. Here goes!"

So saying, he made an attempt to scramble up, and the old fellow, who had approached us with a big bowl of rice in both hands, put this down on the ground and gave my companion a lift, afterwards extending the same courtesy to myself.

We then stretched our cramped legs a bit; and, presently, sat down on the outside of our bamboo cages, instead of inside them, being comparatively free.

But, from the way in which the bearers who had carried us, and some other fellows with bows and arrows and broad-bladed knives in their belts, closed round us at the word of command from "yellow hat," we would have fared ill had we attempted just then to give him and his retainers "leg-bail."

We saw this at a glance; so, making the best of a bad business, we commenced pegging into the rice the old fellow now handed us, which we did not find at all bad eating.

It was very well cooked, and besides had a bit of salt fish of some sort on the top of the bowl, which we smelt at intervals, being too small to bite, so as to make the main contents of the dish more appetising.

"Not bad," commented Ned, after taking a preliminary mouthful of it for a taste, delving out the rice with his fingers, no spoon or fork being provided, and the chopsticks _a la Chinoise_ furnished with the bowl being useless to us from our not being accustomed to their proper manipulation. "Better served up, too, than we ever got on board!"

"Yes; I've tasted worse," said I. "They've cut us rather short with the fish, though, Ned. I think they might have served out enough for a fellow to put his teeth through."

"Perhaps the old chap can't afford it, you know, Jack; and yet, he doesn't look badly off. That hat of his would fetch something in an old curio shop, and so would his breeches too. By Jove, they're big and baggy enough for a Dutchman twice his size."

At this we both laughed, whereupon the old chap, thinking we did so in high appreciation of his viands, smiled and nodded, patting his fat stomach and saying in his guttural tones, "Bono, Johnny, goot--goot!"

"By Jove!" exclaimed Ned, quite startled. "You speak English?"

"Mi one piecee can do," replied the other, with a broader smile that made him look quite venerable, the deceitful old wretch! "No goodee number one chop!"

"Oh, you can speak it well enough," replied Ned, as our friend said this in "Pijin English," implying that although he could manage a little of our language he was not a first-rater at it. "What wantchee can do, my one two?"

Ned pointed at the same time towards me, and then indicated himself, requesting in this idiotic jargon to be informed of our fate.

"Yellow hat's" reply was not of a rea.s.suring character, although he uttered no word. What he did was, to draw the forefinger of his dirty hand across his throat in the most unpleasant manner.

Ned shuddered at this; and, I confess, so did I. Seeing the effect his gesture had produced, the old chap, smiling affably, proceeded to justify the extreme course he had suggested.

"Yang-kei-tze catchee one Chinaman, one piecee shootee chop chop," he argued, on the retaliatory principle, which, of course, held good in war, although no comfort to us at the moment. "Chinaman one piecee catchee Yang-kei-tze, mi takee Pekin."

"And what will be done with us there?" The old scoundrel answered this question in the same mode as before; his action being if possible even more expressive.

"I say, Ned, show him a dollar or two," I said, not liking his humbly suggestive way of stating that we were going to be taken to Pekin and there beheaded--at least that was what I gathered from the conversation.

"Perhaps he'll be open to silver reason if we argue on the other side of the question?"

Ned pulled a handful of money out of his pocket, at the sight of which the old chap's little eyes glistened and he smiled more genially; but, he shook his head.

"No one piecee take can do," he said sorrowfully, as if it went to his heart to refuse it. "Talkee, talkee no bono, mi takee Pekin chop chop, Yang-kei-tze catchee one piecee by by."

He then turned away to give some order to the men, and Ned seized the opportunity of his being out of earshot to speak to me.

"I think he's open to argument, Jack," he said encouragingly, seeing I looked rather glum at the prospect before us now, although I had been so light-hearted before, not thinking things were going to turn out so badly as they now appeared. "The old chap, as you can see for yourself, with all those soldiers about him, must keep up his reputation as a bloodthirsty foe to all foreigners; or else, he'd lose his billet as a mandarin and have that rum old tile of his taken from him! But, he tipped me a wink, Jack; didn't you see him? That means business, and tells me as plain as a pikestaff that he's open to be bribed to get us off by-and-by, although he is forced to take us first to Pekin. They want as many of us as they can catch, you know, to show to their blessed emperor as a proof of their having licked us again, and 'wiped out' all the red devils--that's what Yangkei-tze, means, 'red devils,' though it sounds very like Yankee! Ain't that so, old chappie, and don't you agree?"

He jingled the money which he still held in his hand, addressing his last remark to our friend "yellow hat," who had approached us again after conferring with his men; and, catching the sound, he nodded his head and gave Ned a perceptible wink, as if he thoroughly understood what he had said, and would be our friend--for a consideration!

The bearers then coming up, the old chap motioned us to take our places in the bamboo cages, although he did not offer to gag or bind us again; when, on our being seated, our travelling prisons were raised to the men's shoulders and we resumed our journey.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

ON THE ROAD TO PEKIN.

As we got further up the countryside, we saw numbers of gardens full of peach trees, the fruit of which was plentiful enough, with an occasional poplar grove, the usual decoration of a cemetery; while the villages became more frequent, too, and more populous, one meeting us almost at every mile.

The people that we met, however, received us in a very puzzling fas.h.i.+on, coming round our cages to look at us, as if we were so many wild animals, and roaring with laughter at our appearance; even the very babies crowing with merriment on our being pointed out to them by their fond parents, much to Ned's disgust, although I joined in with their hilarity, it was really so hearty and catching!

That night we all slept together in one of the inns along the road, where, although the bed-place was fixed, it had plenty of moving tenants before our arrival; and, I'm sorry to say, we carried off a few of them when we went away in the morning, and suffered in consequence.

But beyond this little personal matter, which is a mere detail to anyone travelling in China, and the staring of the inhabitants, we did not suffer much inconvenience during our journey, the old fellow in charge of us giving us the best food he could get, in the shape of rice and eggs, the latter of which were sometimes in such a state of perfection that they deserved to have been promoted to the rank of poultry; and, on the third day after leaving Tientsin, although the distance between the two places must be eighty or ninety miles, we saw the walls of Pekin in front of us.

So our guide, the old chap, told us, at least; but, although the sight of this celestial city is a.s.serted by the Chinese to "strike awe" into the beholder on first sighting it, we should not have known we were gazing on such an imposing object as the capital of China undoubtedly is!

On closing up with the town, we pa.s.sed a collection of tombs with stone tortoises carrying memorial tablets on their backs, and other signs of mourning, and a josshouse; and we soon after this entered Pekin by a granite causeway over a tumble-down bridge, pa.s.sing for some distance along, the ma.s.sive walls, which were some fifty feet in height and of equal thickness.

"Yellow hat" was evidently anxious to keep us as private as possible; for, he hurried the bearers through the streets, which, though dirty, were wide, and the buildings on either side, with their roofs of glazed yellow tiles and fronts all carved and gilded, looked showy enough in the suns.h.i.+ne.

It was like a panorama, being thus carried through these strange streets, with the people stopping to look at us, but not behaving at all rudely, although our army must have been known to be marching on the capital; and Ned and I absolutely enjoyed it, noting as we sailed past the temples and curio shops and paG.o.das and all, the constant stream of umbrella-bearing pa.s.sers-by and the fact that nearly all the old men held birds in their hands tied on to sticks, looking just like those wooden monkeys which pedlars hawk about at home for the delectation of rustic juveniles.

"Yellow hat" told us subsequently, with reference to this curious picture of their domestic life, that it was the custom of the country so to take out their pet canaries and other little songsters for an airing, instead of lapdogs.

These they reserve for their pies and other choice dishes.

Ned and I seemed to pa.s.s through miles of real nightmares as we went along, the people and their surroundings having an air of unreality.

The only things about Pekin we thought genuine were the smells, which were something awful; as we learnt from bitter experience during our four weeks' captivity here, locked up in a cell with all the common criminals, and, I believe, all the vermin of the city.

Somehow or other, the old man had mysteriously disappeared after leaving us at a quiet inn in the Tartar quarter, where, as well as we could understand him, we were to remain until he had a chance of communicating with the approaching English force to have us ransomed.

"Chin, chin!" he said to Ned as he left us. "Mi go one piecee and yo waittee; Fanqui comee one piecee by by."

The next day, instead of his coming back again, a file of rough Tartars belonging to Prince Sankoliu-sin's army rushed into the room where we were, and throwing us roughly on the floor, proceeded to strip us of everything we had about us, leaving us only our s.h.i.+rts, which were rather ragged by this time and not in a condition to do our laundress credit!