by the horrible
procession; and I now saw, just in front of the bearers, a tall-looking
bare-headed man carrying a large bright sword, curved in the fashion we
see in old pictures of the Turkish scimitar, a blade which increases in
width from the hilt nearly to the end, where it is suddenly cut off
diagonally to form a sharp point.

Behind this man marched five more, the procession moving right to the
front between us and the brilliant party whose centre was the principal
mandarin.

I now saw, too, that every one of the miserable culprits was ticketed or
labelled, a bamboo upon which a piece of paper was stuck being attached
to his neck and head.

A low murmur ran round among the spectators, as, at a signal from the
man with the great sword, who I saw now must be the executioner, the
bearers stopped, and with a jerk threw the poles off their shoulders
into their hands, bumped the baskets heavily down upon the ground, and
shot the malefactors out as unceremoniously as if they had been so much
earth.

I heard Barkins draw a deep breath, and saw Smith leaning forward and
gazing wildly at the scene, while I felt my heart go _throb throb_
heavily, and found myself wishing that I had not shared in the capture
of the wretched men.

The chief mandarin then turned to the officer on horseback, who carried
the imperial yellow flag, said a few words in a low tone, and he in turn
pushed his horse a little forward to where the executioner was waiting,
and evidently conveyed the mandarin's orders.

Then suddenly the pirates, as if moved by one consent, struggled to
their feet and began shouting.

Ching placed his lips close to my ear--

"Say, please no choppee off head. Velly bad men, killee lot always;
velly bad."

And now I felt that the time had come to close my eyes, but they
remained fixed. I could not avert my gaze from a scene which was made
more horrible by a struggle which took place between the first pirate of
the long row in which they stood and the executioner.

The man shouted out some words angrily, and Ching interpreted them in my
ear, his explanation being in company with a strange surging noise--

"Say he come back and killee him if he choppee off head. Oh, he velly
bad man."

But quickly, as if quite accustomed to the task, two of the
executioner's assistants rushed at the pirate; one of them forced him
down into a kneeling position; they then seized his long tail, drew it
over his head and hung