"Let my master open his ears," said Chow; adding, "Worn out with my exertions in the boat, I no sooner perceived the terrible eye than I loosened my hold of the pole, and either from fright or fatigue, became insensible; the water, however, revived me, and looking for my master, I saw him lying by my side upon a shelving edge of rock, for, thanks be to Fo, we had dashed upon the rock, the servant with out harm, but the master 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, and begged of them to take us on board, but the rats refused, saying, that as the gods had evidently reserved us for drowning, to resist would be to provoke Ma-tsoo-po. Then, as my only hope, I shouted to them that I had 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 then poor Chow could have swallowed fire, for when he begged of them to use means to recall thee to thy senses, the dog of a captain said, 'Know thou rat of a boy, that if fifty taels are offered for the rascal's head, it will save trouble to lop it off at once.' Then Fo sent a thought into my brainless head, and falling at the captain's feet, I told him that so great were thy crimes, that although fifty taels would be given for thy head, five hundred and a mandarin's button would be given for thy whole body. "Then said the captain, 'the dog utters words of wisdom,' and fearing to lose the silver, if you died, he commanded a physician who happened to be on board to make thee sound and whole, and moreover, promised to reward me with ten taels if I helped to bring thee round." But as they heard approaching footsteps, Chow said softly, "Get thee to thy 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 funnel and a porcelain cup in his hands, entered the cabin, and with as much meaningless mystery of manner as one of our doctors, knelt by his side and commenced the comical operation of feeling his pulse, or rather pulses, for the physician's hands and fingers traveled up and down the boy's body like a flea in search of a choice bite. Having gone through this performance, he placed the funnel in the patient's mouth, and poured down his throat a decoction of the gen-seng root, a plant which the Chinese believe will cure all ills; and, disagreeable and difficult as it was, Nicholas swallowed it, which so delighted the old gentleman that he left the cabin chuckling, but telling Chow on no account to attempt to awake him for the next three hours, as he was assured that nature was bringing him to by her own means. "Verily the old cheat believes I have a fever," said Nicholas, jumping up as soon as the doctor had left the cabin.