miral. "You say you have met him twice; I recollect
the first time, but do not recall a second. When was it?"

"Not an hour ago, sir," returned Frobisher. "I met him, with his
retinue, just leaving the dockyard. He honoured me so far as to treat
me to a very impertinent scrutiny as he passed."

"Leaving the dockyard!" echoed Wong-lih. "I did not see him about here.
He ought to be on board his ship, the _Ting Yuen_, by rights, for she
is quite ready for sea; and I know Admiral Ting is only too eager to
take his fleet out to look for the enemy. Indeed, as soon as you are
aboard the _Chih' Yuen_ and have hoisted your flag, he is likely to make
the signal to proceed to sea. No; that man had no business here. I
wonder what he was doing."

Acting upon Wong-lih's hint that the interview had better terminate,
Frobisher and Drake took their leave of the kindly admiral, and went
back into the city to transact some necessary business before going on
board. This included securing uniforms, and suits of mufti, toilet
articles, and, in fact, personal requisites of every kind, of which both
men had been destitute for several months past. This business having
been transacted, their new possessions were packed and sent to the ship,
and Frobisher and Drake followed immediately afterward. Arrived on
board, the former had his commission read by the interpreter (for it
was, of course, written in Chinese script), and at last, after many
strange vicissitudes, found himself standing on his own quarterdeck,
captain of the Chinese cruiser _Chih' Yuen_.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

PRINCE--AND TRAITOR?

Once fairly settled on board the _Chih' Yuen_, although there turned out
to be an enormous amount of work to be done, and numerous little matters
to be attended to before the cruiser could be said to be thoroughly
"shipshape", Frobisher found time to look round him a little, and to
cast his eyes over the remainder of the northern fleet lying off the
city of Tien-tsin. Accustomed as he was to the sight of Great Britain's
noble squadrons, and the enormous size of her battleships and cruisers,
the Chinese fleet at first glance seemed utterly insignificant as a
fighting machine. In the first place, the ships were few in number, and
there were but two battleships among them; and both they and the
cruisers would nearly all have been considered obsolete in England.

About a quarter of a mile from his own ship, and anchored in mid-stream,