A Story of Adventure on the North Sea and in China.

(Continued from page 287.)

It was early one morning when the Twilight arrived at Hongkong, and the Pages and Ping Wang at once went ashore in a sampan, or native boat, to present a letter of introduction which they had brought from England.

Although it was only half-past six when they arrived at the Hongkong merchant's office, they found the manager, to whom their letter was addressed, already hard at work. He had received, some days before, from the head of the firm in London, notification of the Pages being on their way to Hongkong, and greeted them very cordially.

'I had hoped,' he said, after a few minutes' conversation, 'that you would have been here a day or two ago, for there is a very decent boat starting for Tien-tsin this afternoon, on which you would have been very comfortable. The next one will not be leaving until to-day three weeks.'

'Then let us start this afternoon,' Charlie exclaimed.

'I am quite willing,' Ping Wang said, 'if we can get you and Fred disguised in time.—As we are going to my native village, which is a very anti-foreign place,' he continued, addressing the manager, 'I think that it will be wise to have my friends disguised as Chinamen.'

'If they can act up to their disguise the suggestion is an excellent one,' the manager declared, 'for there are rumours that the Boxers or Big Sword Society are threatening to drive out all the foreigners in the land. If you wish to go on by this afternoon's boat there should be no difficulty about getting your friends disguised in time. I will send for my barber and tailor at once.'

The manager sent for the barber and tailor, and also dispatched a message to the skipper of the boat which was sailing that afternoon, the Canton. The Pages and Ping Wang had breakfast when these orders had been given, and long before they had finished their meal the barber arrived, the tailor following him very quickly. After breakfast the manager took his guests up to his bedroom, and called to the barber and the tailor to follow them. The latter had brought with him an excellent assortment of Chinese garments, and from them Ping Wang speedily selected suitable clothes for his English friends. He also chose, with the aid of the barber, a couple of splendid pigtails. Charlie having paid for the goods, the tailor departed, leaving the barber to begin shaving the Englishmen's heads and eyebrows.

Fred was the first to be operated on, and Charlie laughed heartily when he saw the alteration which the loss of eyebrows made in the appearance of his brother. The barber was a quick worker, and turning his attention to Fred's head, speedily removed with scissors and razor a large portion of his hair. He found, however, that although Fred's hair had been allowed to grow during the voyage, it was not sufficiently long for a pigtail to be tied securely to it. Therefore he sewed the pigtail to the inside of a skull-cap, and placed the cap on Fred's head.

'It is very well done,' Ping Wang admitted, when Fred was fully dressed in Chinese garments. 'If I had glanced at you casually out of doors, I should not have suspected that you were not a Chinaman.'

'But I don't like the idea of wearing this little cap,' Fred protested; 'I shall get sunstroke.'

'When you go into the sun you can wear a beehive,' Ping Wang replied, pointing to several big Chinese hats which the tailor had left for inspection.

Charlie's disguise was completed with even more speed than Fred's had been.

'It's splendid,' Charlie declared, as he surveyed himself in the glass; 'don't you think so, Fred?'

A few minutes later the barber was dismissed, and the four of them returned to the sitting-room, where the skipper of the Canton was awaiting them. He shook hands with the manager and greeted the other three men in Chinese. Charlie was nearest to them, and feeling that politeness demanded that he should say something, blurted out, 'Je ne parle pas Chinese.'

The skipper looked puzzled, and the manager, who was already in a laughing humour, roared, but Ping Wang was very serious.

'I say, Charlie,' he exclaimed, 'do remember that you are not to answer any one who addresses you in Chinese, or we shall be discovered.'

The skipper looked at Charlie in surprise. It was the first time that he had heard a Chinaman called Charlie.

'Two of these gentlemen are Englishmen,' the manager explained. 'What do you think of their disguise?'

'It is excellent. If I had not heard you speak,' he added, addressing Ping Wang, 'I should never have believed that you were an Englishman.'

'I'm not one,' Ping Wang declared merrily; 'I'm a Chinaman.'

'Well, who am I to believe?' the skipper exclaimed in bewilderment.

'They are the Englishmen,' the manager answered, pointing to Fred and Charlie; 'the other gentleman is a Chinaman. But to come to the point, I want you to take my three friends to Tien-tsin. They wish to be undisturbed, and do not want it to be known that they are not Chinamen. Therefore let every one—even the mate—fancy that they are Celestials.'

'I understand. I will have the saloon berths got ready at once. What time will they come aboard? I shall sail about four.'

'Will half-past three be early enough?'

'Half-past three, sharp, will do.'

The skipper departed a few minutes later, leaving the three travellers alone with the manager.

'Let us sit in the verandah,' the manager suggested, and for fully two hours they sat in long chairs chatting together, and watching the busy scene in the street below.

'Would it not be a good idea if we went for a short stroll?' Fred asked, after a time. 'It would accustom us to appearing in public in our Chinese garb.'

'That is a good suggestion,' Charlie declared. 'Don't you think so, Ping Wang?'

'You would be safer here,' said Ping Wang, 'but if you wish to go out, I will come with pleasure. We must not go far. We needn't wear our beehives. We will keep in the shade.'

'We mustn't walk three abreast, I suppose?' Fred remarked, as they quitted the premises.

'No,' Ping Wang answered. 'It will be better to walk single file. I'll walk in the rear, so that I can keep watch on you, and hurry forward if any of my countrymen speak to you. Don't walk fast.'

Charlie stepped into the street, Fred followed, and Ping Wang brought up the rear. At first Charlie and Fred felt decidedly uncomfortable, and fancied that every one who glanced at them had discovered that they were not Chinamen.

(Continued on page 300.)