of bunting and say what
the decoration on the flag was intended to represent.

Quen-lung obediently placed the eyepiece to his eye, and a few seconds
later Frobisher observed the man turn pale and stagger backward, almost
dropping the telescope as he did so. The man's eyes were dilated, his
face turned the colour of putty; his lower lip had dropped, and his
hands were trembling as though palsied. He presently recovered himself,
however, and the colour gradually returned to his face. Frobisher asked
what ailed him.

"Oh, sir," he answered, "turn back; turn back before it is too late. I
have read the design on that flag, and know we can never hope to succeed
against those who fight under its folds. I may not say--no man who
knows may tell what those characters signify; but the men who belong to
the Society that flies that ensign have never been conquered, and not a
single one among them has ever been captured, although troops have been
sent against them time after time. No one has ever returned alive to
tell what happened; and we can only guess. They have sworn enmity
against the whole human race, and their numbers are always being
increased by the addition of men who have wrongs to redress, or believe
themselves to have been injured by their fellows; and it is said that
they always put their captives to death in an unspeakably horrible
manner, although no witness has ever returned to tell the tale. I am
sure that, if the admiral had known who the people were whom he wants to
destroy, he would never have sent the expedition at all."

Frobisher looked the man up and down for a few seconds, as though he
thought that the fellow's mind had given way. Then he said, sternly:

"What child's talk is this, Quen-lung? Do I hear a man speaking, or is
it a boy, frightened by a bogy? What are you dreaming about, that you
tell me I had better return without attacking these pirates? I am most
certainly going to attack them, and my orders are to exterminate the
whole crew of them; so you will very soon be able to disabuse your mind
of the belief that they are invulnerable, as you seem to suppose. You
say that no man has ever escaped them; but there are two men on board
now to contradict that statement--the men we rescued from the junk. No,
no, my good man; you've been listening to some old woman's tale and
allowed it to frighten you. You'll see that you will be quite all right
as soon as the fighting begins; you will do