A Chinese Command Part 11

Again seizing the megaphone, Wong-lih entered into a long conversation with the temporary skipper of the _Chih' Yuen_, during which he ascertained that the vessel had fortunately struck only very lightly; and, as she had been considerably sheltered from the seas by the part of the reef through which she had somehow managed to blunder before striking, she had not b.u.mped to any extent, and was making but little water. It was therefore to be hoped that her bottom was not so badly injured as Wong-lih had at first antic.i.p.ated, and that, at the rising of the tide, it might be possible, with the a.s.sistance of the _San-chau_, to get her safely off again. The admiral intimated to her captain that he would stand by all night, and would commence salvage operations as soon after daylight as the state of the tide would permit. Meanwhile steam was to be kept in the boilers, and the pumps were to be kept going continuously, so as to free the s.h.i.+p from water by the time that morning dawned.

High tide, Admiral Prince Wong-lih ascertained from his almanack, was at about seven-thirty on the following morning; so before daybreak all hands were mustered and preparations put in hand for running a hawser across to the _Chih' Yuen_. The sea had gone down during the night until, when the first streaks of daylight came stealing up out of the east, it was almost as calm as on the previous afternoon before the storm.

Frobisher was one of the first among the officers to turn out and go up on deck, and he occupied the time until breakfast very pleasantly in watching the cruiser's boats running out kedge-anchors. Everything being then in readiness, and both s.h.i.+ps being under a full pressure of steam, the crews went to breakfast; and directly that was disposed of, the _San-chau's_ boats were sent across to the cruiser with a light steel hawser, Wong-lih accompanying them in person, to see that "that fool of a captain" did not make any mistakes this time. The light hawser having been taken aboard the _Chih' Yuen_, the towing hawser, also of steel, was bent on to the end still on board the dispatch-vessel, and was hauled from her through the water on board the cruiser.

As soon as this was done, the ends of the steel hawser on board both craft were backed by several thicknesses of best Manila hemp, in order to procure the necessary elasticity and guard against the wire-rope parting when the terrific strain should be put upon it. After this the hemp portion of the tow-rope was secured to bollards on the quarter-decks of both craft, the slack of the hawsers attached to the kedge-anchors was taken up, the skippers stood by their respective engine-room telegraphs, and, at a signal from Wong-lih, the _San-chau_ went slowly ahead until the towing hawser was taut. Steam was then given to the after-winches aboard the cruiser, to which the kedge-hawsers were led, the screws of the _Chih' Yuen_ were sent astern at full speed, while the _San-chau_ went ahead with every ounce of steam her boilers could supply to the engines.

The great steel cable vibrated until it fairly hummed with the strain, the _Chih' Yuen's_ winches bucked and kicked until Wong-lih, on the cruiser's bridge, momentarily expected them to break away altogether, and the white water foamed and roared under both vessels' quarters as the screws whirred round. For several minutes it seemed as though the attempt was doomed to failure, and that all the cables would part without the cruiser budging an inch; but quite suddenly, as Frobisher watched, keeping the cruiser's mast in line with a pinnacle of rock about a quarter of a mile behind her, he detected a slight movement.

The vessel's mast appeared to vibrate, as though the cruiser herself were pulsing with life, and then it slowly, very slowly, moved backward, until mast and pinnacle were a little out of line.

"She moves! she moves!" he shouted, waving his cap in his excitement; and then, like a vessel gradually sliding off the stocks when being launched, the _Chih' Yuen_ gathered way, and a few moments later she slid bodily off the rock with a plunge that caused the _San-chau_ to roll as though in a heavy sea, overrunning her kedge-anchors before her _momentum_ could be checked.

She was afloat again, however, and Frobisher breathed a sigh of thanksgiving. He had set his heart on commanding her, and he would have been bitterly disappointed if so fine a s.h.i.+p had been lost to him and the Navy through the despicable cupidity of a mandarin and the incompetence of a Chinese so-called sailor.

Wong-lih remained aboard the cruiser for another hour or more, until he had satisfied himself that the leaks resulting from her strained and buckled plates were not so serious but that they could easily be kept under by the pumps; and then, having signalled for the first lieutenant of the _San-chau_ to come aboard and take charge of the cruiser, in place of the incompetent captain, he ordered the latter to accompany him back to the dispatch-boat under arrest, as a preliminary to his appearance before a court martial at Tien-tsin on the charge of stranding his s.h.i.+p.

Wong-lih and the captain having boarded the _San-chau_, steam was rung for, and presently the two s.h.i.+ps proceeded on their respective voyages, dipping their flags to each other as they parted company.

"It was most fortunate that we saw those rockets last night," observed Wong-lih, when he and Frobisher were again standing together on the _San-chau's_ bridge. "Had we not happened to be on the spot at the moment, the Navy would have lost the _Chih' Yuen_, without a doubt. As it is, I fear she is rather badly damaged, and it will probably mean a few months in dock for her before she is fit for service again--which is all the more deplorable, because we may need her at any moment. At a crisis like this every vessel counts, especially in such a small navy as we possess. I am afraid you will not be joining your s.h.i.+p just yet, Mr Frobisher; but I have not the least doubt that, when we reach Tien-tsin, some congenial service will be found for you which will keep you occupied until the _Chih' Yuen_ is repaired. There is plenty of work, and very few officers to do it; so you need have no apprehension whatever on the score of non-employment."

"I thank your Highness," answered Frobisher. "I am rejoiced to hear you say that, for I confess I felt very sore when I saw my s.h.i.+p, or what was intended to be my s.h.i.+p, cast away on the Miao-tao reef."

Twenty-four hours later the _San-chau_ steamed past the Taku forts, flying the admiral's flag to announce that Wong-lih was on board, and received and answered a salute from the batteries; and shortly afterward the anchor was dropped in the middle of the river, opposite the handsome city of Tien-tsin, upon which Frobisher now looked for the first time.

CHAPTER TEN.

THE PIRATES' LAIR.

It was about midday when the _San-chau_ anch.o.r.ed off the port of Tien-tsin; and Wong-lih suggested to his young protege that they should lunch aboard before going ash.o.r.e to the Navy Buildings, which were at that time situated in the "Street of many Sorrows"--an ill-omened name, indeed, as after-events were to prove.

They were nearing the completion of the meal when there came a knock upon the cabin door, and the sentry announced that a messenger had arrived with a letter for "his Highness, the most honourable Admiral Prince Wong-lih". The admiral opened and read it, wrote a brief reply, and then explained to Frobisher that, the arrival of the _San-chau_ having been observed, and his own presence on board disclosed by the fact of his flag flying from the fore-topmast head, the Council, then sitting in debate at the Navy Buildings, had sent to say that they would be glad to see him on a matter of importance as soon as he could make it convenient to come ash.o.r.e.

"Further developments in Korea, I suspect," observed the admiral, frowning. "I pray that no open rupture between ourselves and j.a.pan may occur just yet; for we are utterly unprepared. We must put off the evil day as long as possible, even if we have to humble ourselves before them for a month or two; for it would be absolutely suicidal for us to engage in a war with j.a.pan at the present moment. Our s.h.i.+ps are good; our men are excellent fighters; and to the outsider it would naturally appear that all the advantages are on our side: but alas! men, however brave they may be, cannot fight to win under the command of inefficient officers, and with arms, ammunition, and stores that may fail them at any moment. Ah me! ah me!"

"You feel, then," said Frobisher, "that war is inevitable?"

"I am sure of it," replied the admiral. "Perhaps not to-day, or to-morrow; but war there certainly will be before many months are past.

I only wish I could bring the realisation of this fact home to some of those officials who are content to wait and wait, spending the country's money, if not on themselves personally, at any rate upon things on which it ought not to be spent; until the time comes, all too suddenly, when they will awake to the fact that they have procrastinated too long, and that their country is at the mercy of the enemy."

"Let us hope, sir," replied Frobisher, cheerfully--for he had begun to have quite a strong liking for the cultured and patriotic Chinese gentleman and sailor, and was sorry to find him taking so pessimistic a view of the situation--"that matters are not so bad as you imagine, and that China will issue from the coming struggle more powerful than before."

"We will, indeed, hope so," said Wong-lih, rising. "But I greatly fear that our hope will be unfulfilled. However, an end to these dismal forebodings of mine, Mr Frobisher! I am growing old, and am on that account more liable, perhaps, to look on the dark side of things. Let us go ash.o.r.e now, and see what it is that the Council wishes to talk about. I will seize the opportunity to introduce you to the officials composing it, and we will get your commission made out and signed, so that you may be ready for service whenever called upon."

With these words Wong-lih went up on deck, followed by Frobisher, and the two men, entering the _San-chau's_ gig, were pulled ash.o.r.e.

Frobisher was very favourably impressed by the handsome appearance of the various public buildings, and was quite astonished at the size and magnificence of those devoted to the Navy Department, when he and his companion finally halted before the wrought-iron gates which gave admittance to the grounds surrounding them.

Wong-lih, exhilarated at the near prospect of a discussion upon his favourite subject, the Navy, ran up the steps leading into the building with the activity of a boy; and in a few minutes the two men found themselves in a beautifully-furnished antechamber, whither they had been conducted to wait for the summons to present themselves before the all-powerful Council. Frobisher himself felt just a trifle nervous at the prospect, but Wong-lih's countenance was transformed by a happy smile, while he actually sniffed the air from time to time, like an old warhorse scenting battle.

Presently a door, opposite that by which the two had entered, opened, and a gorgeously-dressed attendant stepped up to Wong-lih and saluted, saying something at the same time in Chinese.

"Come along, my young friend," smilingly exclaimed the admiral, as he rose to his feet; "the moment of your ordeal has arrived. Present a bold front, my boy; there is nothing to be nervous about, I a.s.sure you."

He led the way, through the door which the attendant respectfully held open, into another chamber--or rather hall, so large and lofty was it-- where Frobisher saw a group of Chinamen, nine in number, seated round an oval table on which a quant.i.ty of official-looking doc.u.ments were lying.

So far as it is possible to tell any Chinaman's age from mere observation, they were all elderly men, with the exception of one individual, who was obviously quite young, and who was seated at the right hand of the one who was clearly the chief official present.

He was a man of perhaps thirty, or possibly younger still, with a very yellow skin, a long, very thin, drooping moustache, and brilliant, coal-black eyes, deeply sunken in their sockets, out of which they glared with an emotionless, steely glitter that reminded Frobisher most unpleasantly of a snake. There was also in them something of the deadly malevolence that all snakes' eyes seem to possess, and the Englishman could barely repress a shudder of disgust as he found those eyes fixed on his, for he felt as though he had suddenly come in contact with some noxious reptile.

As they entered, the Council, with the exception of the man just referred to, rose and bowed solemnly to Wong-lih, who returned the bow ceremoniously. He and Frobisher were then signed to seat themselves, after which the Councillors resumed their seats.

Commencing with the old man at the head of the table, each of the members of the Council in turn questioned Wong-lih, and a long conversation in Chinese ensued, which Frobisher was of course unable to understand. He occupied himself with looking round the room and admiring the wonderful carving and the priceless tapestries on the walls, and was quite taken by surprise when he suddenly heard Wong-lih's voice calling his name.

He was then introduced to the Council collectively, and a number of questions were put to him in English, with which tongue he was beginning to think every Chinaman must be familiar, so many had he already encountered who were able to speak it almost as fluently as himself.

Like many of his fellow countrymen, he had up to now imagined that the Chinese were a barbarous race, knowing nothing of anything that happened outside their own country.

Apparently he soon satisfied his examiners as to his nautical attainments; and presently he found himself in possession of a parchment which set forth the fact that Murray Frobisher was appointed to the Chinese Navy with the rank of captain; and he was informed that he was to take command of the _Chih' Yuen_ as soon as she was ready for service again. Until that time he was to consider himself on the staff of Admiral Wong-lih, who would find employment for him in the interim.

After this little ceremony a further lengthy discussion took place in Chinese, and it was not until late in the evening that he and his sponsor were able to get away and return to the s.h.i.+p.

Arrived there, they proceeded to the cabin where Wong-lih had taken up his quarters, and here Frobisher received an account of what had occurred at the meeting.

"It seems," announced the admiral, "that a dispatch has been received from our Minister in Tokio, informing us that the j.a.panese, although they have sent an escort for their Minister at Seoul, have decided to delay for a time the dispatch of a large armed force to Korea, and to await further developments. This is grand news, for it gives us a little longer in which to make our preparations; but our Minister also advises us to be on our guard, for j.a.pan means to force a quarrel, sooner or later. Now, as regards yourself, news has recently been brought that the river merchants of the Hoang-ho have been greatly troubled lately by the excesses of a band of pirates, who are believed to have their head-quarters somewhere near the place where the old bed of the river leaves the present channel--that is, not far from the village of Tchen-voun-hien, three hundred miles from here. I wish you to take command of the gunboat _Su-chen_, and proceed in her to this place. You will investigate the matter thoroughly; and, if the stories are anything approaching truth, you will hunt down that band of pirates, and destroy them and their head-quarters. No quarter must be shown, Mr Frobisher; those criminals must be dealt with severely.

"The interpreter I mentioned to you shall be attached at once to your person, and I shall be glad if you will enter upon your new duties immediately. Oh, by the way, I have also had news of your friend, Captain Drake. He was told of what had happened by a survivor from your party; and he came round here in the _Quernmore_ to demand that we send an expedition to rescue you. He appears to be very much attached to you.

"Of course he was told that such a course was not to be thought of, besides being quite useless; and he appeared to be very much cut up at the news, so I am told. He accepted a contract from the Navy Department for the supply of a cargo of arms, ammunition, and guns, and left in his s.h.i.+p for England only a week before our own arrival here. When he returns, should you not be here yourself, I shall of course inform him of your rescue, and so ease his mind.

"Now, Captain Frobisher, I have little more to say. Get away as soon as you can. Your crew is already aboard; and, if you need any stores or ammunition, indent for them in the usual way; they will be duly supplied. But there, I need not tell a British Navy man how to do his business. Good-bye, my boy, and Heaven grant you a safe return!" he concluded, affectionately.

The two men clasped hands, Wong-lih buried himself in a ma.s.s of papers, and Frobisher departed to bed to refresh himself in readiness to commence his duties early on the following morning. His last thought, as he dropped off to sleep, was that he was now Captain Frobisher, of the _Chih' Yuen_; and that it would not be his fault if he did not make her name famous in Chinese Naval history.

He awoke in the morning, however, utterly unrefreshed, for he had slept badly. A vague feeling of foreboding and a strong presentiment of disaster had oppressed him throughout the night, and his dreams had been haunted by a thin, yellow face, with long, attenuated, drooping moustache--a face out of which peered a pair of eyes, glowing like flame and with hideous possibilities of evil s.h.i.+ning in their black depths.

The face was the face of Prince Hsi, the youngest member of the Council.

The splendid, keen, invigorating air of a Chinese morning soon blew the cobwebs away from Frobisher's brain, and half an hour after leaving his bed he was smiling to himself at his own folly in allowing Prince Hsi's evil countenance to affect him to such an extent as to spoil his rest.

The man couldn't help being born with a face like that; and perhaps an ugly exterior might in reality hide a very kind and gentle soul. By the time that Frobisher had arrived at the wharf where the _Su-chen_ was lying, he had completely forgotten the existence of "the man with the snake's eyes", as he afterwards came to call him.

The interpreter promised by Wong-lih had duly presented himself to Frobisher on board the _San-chan_ that morning, and the Englishman very soon began to find the man's services invaluable. With his a.s.sistance, the _Su-chen_ was easily located, and Frobisher at once boarded her and made himself known, and read his commission to her officers and crew through the medium of Quen-lung, the interpreter. A very quiet, decent set of men they seemed to be, to all appearance. They gave him such information as he asked for, quickly and without hesitation; and, so far as he could learn on such brief acquaintance, seemed thoroughly conversant with their duties. He made enquiries about the amount of water and provisions that was aboard, satisfied himself that there was a sufficiency to serve them for the expedition, and then went into the question of the quant.i.ty of ammunition remaining on board.

This did not at all satisfy his requirements; for he found that, although there appeared to be plenty of small-arm ammunition, there was very little belonging to the machine-guns and the guns in the batteries; so, taking Quen-lung with him, he made his way to the magazines, taking his requisition book with him in his pocket.

It was then that he obtained his first insight into the subtle ways of Chinese Naval officialdom. He knew perfectly well what kind of ammunition he required, and how much of it, but he seemed utterly unable to find anybody who possessed the necessary authority to issue it. He was sent from one official to another, all of them gorgeously dressed and very eager to give every a.s.sistance; yet when the moment arrived for the stores to be actually given into his hands--well, they were heart-broken to give the honourable captain so much trouble, but would he be pleased to obtain the approval of his Excellency the honourable Somebody Else, whose signature was also needed before the ammunition could be removed.

At last, so disgusted did Frobisher become at all this delay and prevarication that he went back to the _Su-chen_, selected some twenty of the strongest members of his crew, and himself took them up to the magazine with a number of hand-wagons which he had collected, under much voluble protest, _en route_. Then, having found the required pattern of cartridge, he ordered his men to load the cases on to the wagons, and, amid the intensely-shocked expostulations of the outraged officials of the Ordnance Department, who were quite unaccustomed to fill a requisition in less than a month, the several indents were wheeled down to the gunboat by the Chinese sailors, who already began to show the respect they felt for a man who knew what he wanted, and got it.

The task was finished at last, and that afternoon the _Su-chen_ dipped her ensign to the _San-chau_, on board of which Admiral Wong-lih had his quarters, steamed down the river Pei-ho, past the Taku forts at its mouth, and out into the open sea on her way to the mouth of the Hoang-ho, some three hundred miles up which lay the village of Tchen-voun-hien, at or near which the pirates' lair was said to be situated. During the hundred-mile run across the gulf of Chi-lih, Frobisher set his men to clean s.h.i.+p thoroughly, overhaul and polish the guns, and make things in general a little more s.h.i.+pshape than they had been since the time when the _Su-chen_ left her builders' hands on the Thames.

Frobisher was fortunate in the moment when the gunboat arrived off the mouth of the Hoang-ho, for the sea was smooth, and the usually dangerous bar at the mouth of the river was pa.s.sed with ease. But there were many reminders, in the shape of broken spars, and in some cases fragments of hulls, projecting out of the water, to show that the sea was not always in so gentle a mood, and that many other captains had been less fortunate. The bar at the mouth of the Hoang-ho is indeed one vast graveyard, both of men and s.h.i.+ps.