"Gleat big-button mandalin say he velly much 'blige captain big fine ship, and he allee light, no hurtee 'tall by killee badee bad men." "Bah!" ejaculated the captain, turning angrily away; and I saw Mr Reardon's face grow fixed, as if carved in wood, in his efforts to keep from smiling. The last of the prisoners had been brought out of confinement, thrown down, chained, and bundled into the barge, half the soldiers followed, orders were given, and the second barge pushed off, when the captain once more had recourse to Ching's help. "Ask the mandarin if he will come into the cabin and take a glass of wine." But this was declined, and Ching communicated the fact that the great man "would not eatee dlinkee, but wantee velly much see ship." He was taken round, the whole following keeping at his heels, and his officers and soldiers scowling fiercely, or looking about with supreme contempt, as they made a great display of their weapons, and acted generally as if they were condescending to look round, so as to be civil to the Western barbarians. At last they went over the side, and the gorgeous barge was rowed away. "Thank goodness, Reardon," I heard the captain say; and directly after, as I was passing, Tom Jecks' voice was heard in the midst of a group of the Jacks. "Say, messmate," he said, "fancy, stripped and fists only, how many Chinese could you polish off?" "Dunno," said a voice, which I knew to be that of Billy Wakes, a big manly-looking young Plymouth fellow. "'Course I could do one, and I think I could doctor two on 'em; I'd have a try at three; and I'm blest if I'd run away from four. That is about as fair as I can put it, messmate." I was helping Barkins to the companion-way, and Smith was walking very slowly by us. But as we heard this we stopped to laugh, just as Mr Brooke came up and asked what amused us. We told him, and he laughed too. "That means one of our fellows would try at four Chinamen. He's too modest. Four to one, lads! why, if it came to real righting, ten of them would follow me against a hundred of the enemy. Ten to one.--News for you." "News, sir; what?" I said. "We sail again directly. There is another gang at work south, and we have a hint of the whereabouts of their nest." CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. IN A TRAP. "Ever feel at all uncomfortable about--that--Chinaman, Morris?" I said one day, after we had been coasting along the shore southward for about a week. I had not encountered that marine sentry alone since the terrible scene in the place where the prisoners were confined; and now, as soon as I saw him, the whole affair came back with all its shuddering horrors, and I felt quite a morbid desire to talk to him about it.