men who had captured them,
and then returned indoors.

Ping Wang was still ignorant of the cause of their arrest, but, as no
cries of 'Foreigners!' had been raised, he knew that it had not yet been
discovered that Charlie and Fred were Europeans. Once again he demanded
to be told why they had been arrested, but, instead of replying, the
leader raised his bamboo cane menacingly. As Ping Wang had no desire to
be beaten, he made no further efforts to solve the mystery of their
arrest. His sole anxiety now was as to what would be done to them. That
they were supposed to have committed some crime he guessed, and that
they would be punished, although they had not been tried, he was also
sure.

Without any delay, Charlie, Fred, and Ping Wang were marched out of the
courtyard, and through the streets, until they came to a large building,
which Ping Wang recognised with dismay as a prison. But, with a thrill
of hope, he found that they were not taken into the prison, but marched
round the wall until they came to a spot where there were half-a-dozen
wooden collars lying on the ground. These wooden collars are very much
like the old English pillory, with the exception that the person who has
to wear the instrument is not placed on a platform, but stands or sits
on the ground.

Charlie and Fred did not recognise the instruments of punishment, and,
when they were suddenly flung to the ground, they imagined that they
were about to be executed. As they felt the collars tighten round their
necks, and had their hands pushed through two holes lower down on the
wooden board, they came to the conclusion that they were to be tortured
to death. But when they found that nothing more was done to them they
turned their heads--as far as their wooden collars would permit--to see
how their companion was faring. Then, seeing each other, they
understood the nature of their punishment.

The Chinamen, having chained the wooden collars to the prison wall,
departed, leaving the three prisoners to the tender mercies of any
passers-by.

'Now they are all gone I must speak,' Charlie exclaimed. 'How long will
they keep us in these things?'

'I haven't the faintest idea,' Ping Wang answered.

For fully half an hour they did not speak a word. Scores of people
passed them during that time, but very few took any notice of them, for
it was by no means an unusual sight to see prisoners there. Two or three
chaffed them, but no one molested them. Their fi