m
a good deal of trouble in transporting them to the shore.

Just then the other junk bumped heavily alongside, and her men came
aboard, reporting that their craft had been so badly damaged that she
was in a sinking condition. Indeed her crew had hardly transferred
themselves before she disappeared beneath the muddy waters.

The fourth junk safely accounted for, Frobisher comforted himself with
the assurance that, with any sort of luck at all, the _Su-chen_ ought to
be able to make her way back to Tien-tsin, short-handed though she must
undoubtedly be; and, once there, he knew a report of the failure of the
expedition would be speedily carried to Wong-lih, provided the admiral
happened to be still there. The latter would then be quite certain to
send a rescue expedition up the Hoang-ho to recover any prisoners the
pirates might have taken, or to avenge them if slain. Happily for the
Englishman's peace of mind, he did not know that, although the _Su-chen_
did eventually reach Tien-tsin in safety, she arrived too late to catch
the admiral, who had left to visit some of the Southern Chinese ports
and inspect the men-of-war on that station, and was not expected back,
unless specially sent for, for at least a couple of months. And it was
certain that none of the Chinese officials at Tien-tsin would consider
the fact of Frobisher's capture and probable murder at the hands of the
pirates as sufficient to justify the exertion of dispatching a messenger
to recall Wong-lih, or even to give him news of the result of the
expedition. So, although he did not know it, there was little prospect
of rescue for Murray Frobisher, for some time, at all events.

The business of disposing of the dead and badly wounded men having been
completed, the pirate chief, whose name--from the number of times the
word was used when he was being addressed--Frobisher guessed to be
Ah-fu, issued a few brief orders in barbarous-sounding, up-country
Chinese; and the survivors of the fight got up the anchor, and slowly
poled the junk back to her berth behind the small headland where the
fleet had been lying on the arrival of the _Su-chen_. Observing that,
in his bound condition, nobody seemed to consider it necessary to stand
on guard over him, and being anxious to learn as much as possible
respecting his present surroundings--with a view to future escape if he
were left alive long enough--Frobisher contrived to bring himself into a
kneeling position,