erous days--and had fastened round him a leather belt and bandolier
combined, filled it with cartridges, and attached to it one of Penryn's
revolvers in a leather holster, it would have been rather difficult to
recognise in him the erstwhile smart and spruce Murray Frobisher.
Rather he resembled a South African transport-rider in a state of
disrepair, and of so truculent an appearance that he might have been
expected to put to flight with ease, and singlehanded, a considerable
detachment of Korean soldiery. He slipped the second revolver into one
of the side pockets of his jacket, and an extra supply of cartridges
into the other pocket, and then ran up on deck, ready to start on his
perilous journey into the interior.

By the time he had said good-bye to the skipper, and had received his
instructions with regard to the collection of the purchase-money and
sundry other matters, the last of the cargo had been sent ashore; and
Drake's own gig was waiting at the foot of the accommodation-ladder to
take the young man to the landing-place.

As he was on the point of descending the side-ladder, Drake asked him to
wait a moment, and ran down below; reappearing, a few seconds later,
with a serviceable ship's cutlass in his hand, which he himself belted
round Frobisher's waist.

"Revolvers are all very well in their way," remarked the little skipper;
"but sometimes a man is too busy fighting to have time to reload, and
then he is very glad to have a yard of good, stout steel in his fist.
Take it along with you, Mr Frobisher. If there should happen to be a
scrap, I feel sure you will find it mighty handy. Avoid a fight if you
can, of course; but, as Charlie Dickens says in that play of his, _Jim
the Penman_, `once in a fight so carry yourself that the enemy shall be
sorry for himself.' Good-bye, my boy, and take care of yourself!"

With a laughing reply Frobisher clasped Drake's hand once more, and ran
lightly down the ladder into the boat; and fifteen minutes later he
found himself safely ashore. The boat pulled back to the ship, where
the remainder of the small fleet were already being hoisted up to the
davits; and he was alone in a strange land, charged with a dangerous
mission, with no white man to share his burden, and with only one man,
Ling, who had even a nodding acquaintance with the English language.

Escort there was none, in the usual sense of the word, for the drivers
of the carts containing the arms and ammu