ready decided.

There was therefore nothing left for his Highness but to obey; but the
spoilt scion of royalty showed very plainly by his bearing that he was
considerably upset by the admiral's adherence to his decision.

Admiral Ting then signified in his courteous fashion that the
deliberations were at an end, and dismissed each of his captains with a
word or two of hope and encouragement; being particularly gracious to
the three Britons. He added for the benefit of all that it was his
intention to _hoist the signal to_ proceed to sea as soon as _possible
after the skippers had regained their own ships_.

Frobisher noticed that no sooner were these words out of Ting's mouth
than Prince Hsi murmured a low-voiced excuse, and disappeared hastily
from the cabin, as though he had suddenly recollected something of
importance. He paid little attention to the fact at the moment, being
too fully occupied with his own thoughts; but the circumstance was
recalled to his memory during the short journey between the _Ting Yuen_
and his own ship.

His gig had just passed under the stern gallery of the flagship, at a
few yards' distance, when one of the Chinese seamen who were pulling the
boat uttered an exclamation and covered his eyes for a few seconds with
his hand, as though something had blown into them. Frobisher instructed
the interpreter to enquire what was the matter, and was told that "there
must be an evil spirit in the boat", for while he had been keeping his
eyes on the _Ting Yuen_ a blaze of light, "brighter than the sun", had
flashed into them, nearly blinding him. The Englishman could see for
himself, when the fellow removed his hand, that he was still dazzled.

Puzzled to know what had happened, for the sky was absolutely clear,
with no possibility of the light being attributable to a flash of
lightning, Frobisher handed the yoke-lines to the interpreter and turned
round in the sternsheets, looking to see where it could have originated.
A few seconds later he saw what it was. From one of the cabin ports in
the flagship's stern, situated just below the gallery and in the
position where the captain's quarters would almost certainly be placed,
there came another quick flash of brilliant light, lasting but an
instant, but extraordinarily dazzling in its intensity; and the
Englishman at once recognised what was happening. Somebody--and he was
able to form a pretty accurate guess who--was using a hand-glass or
sh