set down our cages in front of a card-house of the same
description as that at Tientsin where we had been so nicely "taken in
and done for," as Macan would have expressed it in his Irish vernacular.

The gags were then dragged, in no very gentle way, from our mouths, and
our hands and feet untied, and the leader of the party, in a more
pig-like squeak than ever, ordered us to come out of our very
uncomfortable quarters.

We thought he meant this at least, from the violent gesticulations he
made, waving his arms wildly and hopping about as if he were a parched
pea on a griddle; for, of course, we could not make out his gibberish
though he squealed and grunted at us at a fine rate!

"I suppose he means us to get out," said Ned Anstruther, glad to be able
to use his tongue again; "but I can't, I'm so cramped."

"Nor can I, old fellow," I rejoined. "I'm as stiff as a boiled lobster
and couldn't move to salute the admiral if he came along."

"I wish to goodness he would," cried Ned. "Ay, and with a file of
marines at his back, too. Wouldn't I like to shoot this treacherous old
scoundrel, ay, or string him up to the top of that pagoda there!"

"So would I too, Ned," I replied heartily. "But, I don't think the
yellow rascal means us any harm; at all events, not at present, old
fellow. See, he's actually getting us something to eat, I think."

"Some nasty mess or other, no doubt," growled Ned, chafing one of his
legs and then stretching it out. "By Jove, though, I'm beginning to get
some life in my limbs again, but these blessed cords they tied us with
stopped my circulation. Here goes!"

So saying, he made an attempt to scramble up, and the old fellow, who
had approached us with a big bowl of rice in both hands, put this down
on the ground and gave my companion a lift, afterwards extending the
same courtesy to myself.

We then stretched our cramped legs a bit; and, presently, sat down on
the outside of our bamboo cages, instead of inside them, being
comparatively free.

But, from the way in which the bearers who had carried us, and some
other fellows with bows and arrows and broad-bladed knives in their
belts, closed round us at the word of command from "yellow hat," we
would have fared ill had we attempted just then to give him and his
retainers "leg-bail."

We saw this at a glance; so, making the best of a bad business, we
commenced pegging into the rice the old fellow now handed us, which we
did not fin