d at all bad eating.

It was very well cooked, and besides had a bit of salt fish of some sort
on the top of the bowl, which we smelt at intervals, being too small to
bite, so as to make the main contents of the dish more appetising.

"Not bad," commented Ned, after taking a preliminary mouthful of it for
a taste, delving out the rice with his fingers, no spoon or fork being
provided, and the chopsticks _a la Chinoise_ furnished with the bowl
being useless to us from our not being accustomed to their proper
manipulation. "Better served up, too, than we ever got on board!"

"Yes; I've tasted worse," said I. "They've cut us rather short with the
fish, though, Ned. I think they might have served out enough for a
fellow to put his teeth through."

"Perhaps the old chap can't afford it, you know, Jack; and yet, he
doesn't look badly off. That hat of his would fetch something in an old
curio shop, and so would his breeches too. By Jove, they're big and
baggy enough for a Dutchman twice his size."

At this we both laughed, whereupon the old chap, thinking we did so in
high appreciation of his viands, smiled and nodded, patting his fat
stomach and saying in his guttural tones, "Bono, Johnny, goot--goot!"

"By Jove!" exclaimed Ned, quite startled. "You speak English?"

"Mi one piecee can do," replied the other, with a broader smile that
made him look quite venerable, the deceitful old wretch! "No goodee
number one chop!"

"Oh, you can speak it well enough," replied Ned, as our friend said this
in "Pijin English," implying that although he could manage a little of
our language he was not a first-rater at it. "What wantchee can do, my
one two?"

Ned pointed at the same time towards me, and then indicated himself,
requesting in this idiotic jargon to be informed of our fate.

"Yellow hat's" reply was not of a reassuring character, although he
uttered no word. What he did was, to draw the forefinger of his dirty
hand across his throat in the most unpleasant manner.

Ned shuddered at this; and, I confess, so did I. Seeing the effect his
gesture had produced, the old chap, smiling affably, proceeded to
justify the extreme course he had suggested.

"Yang-kei-tze catchee one Chinaman, one piecee shootee chop chop," he
argued, on the retaliatory principle, which, of course, held good in
war, although no comfort to us at the moment. "Chinaman one piecee
catchee Yang-kei-tze, mi takee Pekin."

"And what will be do