I shall get sunstroke.'

'When you go into the sun you can wear a beehive,' Ping Wang replied,
pointing to several big Chinese hats which the tailor had left for
inspection.

Charlie's disguise was completed with even more speed than Fred's had
been.

'It's splendid,' Charlie declared, as he surveyed himself in the glass;
'don't you think so, Fred?'

A few minutes later the barber was dismissed, and the four of them
returned to the sitting-room, where the skipper of the _Canton_ was
awaiting them. He shook hands with the manager and greeted the other
three men in Chinese. Charlie was nearest to them, and feeling that
politeness demanded that he should say something, blurted out, '_Je ne
parle pas Chinese._'

The skipper looked puzzled, and the manager, who was already in a
laughing humour, roared, but Ping Wang was very serious.

'I say, Charlie,' he exclaimed, 'do remember that you are not to answer
any one who addresses you in Chinese, or we shall be discovered.'

The skipper looked at Charlie in surprise. It was the first time that he
had heard a Chinaman called Charlie.

'Two of these gentlemen are Englishmen,' the manager explained. 'What do
you think of their disguise?'

'It is excellent. If I had not heard you speak,' he added, addressing
Ping Wang, 'I should never have believed that you were an Englishman.'

'I'm not one,' Ping Wang declared merrily; 'I'm a Chinaman.'

'Well, who am I to believe?' the skipper exclaimed in bewilderment.

'They are the Englishmen,' the manager answered, pointing to Fred and
Charlie; 'the other gentleman is a Chinaman. But to come to the point, I
want you to take my three friends to Tien-tsin. They wish to be
undisturbed, and do not want it to be known that they are not Chinamen.
Therefore let every one--even the mate--fancy that they are Celestials.'

'I understand. I will have the saloon berths got ready at once. What
time will they come aboard? I shall sail about four.'

'Will half-past three be early enough?'

'Half-past three, sharp, will do.'

The skipper departed a few minutes later, leaving the three travellers
alone with the manager.

'Let us sit in the verandah,' the manager suggested, and for fully two
hours they sat in long chairs chatting together, and watching the busy
scene in the street below.

'Would it not be a good idea if we went for a short stroll?' Fred asked,
after a time. 'It would accustom us to appearing in public in our
Chinese garb