ere passed round his body in every direction, and he was fastened
back to back upon the shoulders of a Chinaman. Percy remembered the
tales he had heard of the imprisonment and torture of those who fell
into the hands of the Chinese, and he bitterly regretted that he had
not been killed instead of stunned in the surprise of the temple.

"It would have been just the same feeling," he said to himself, "and
there would have been an end of it. Now, there is no saying what is
going to happen. I wonder whether Jack was killed, and the sailors."

Presently there was a jabber of voices; the motion ceased. Percy could
feel that the cords were being unwound, and he was dropped on to his
feet; then the cloth was removed from his head, and he could look round.

A dozen Chinese, armed with matchlocks and bristling with swords and
daggers, stood around, and among them, bound like himself and gagged by
a piece of bamboo forced lengthways across his mouth and kept there with
a string going round the back of the head, stood Fothergill. He was
bleeding from several cuts in the head. Percy's heart gave a bound of
joy at finding that he was not alone; then he tried to feel sorry that
Jack had not escaped, but failed to do so, although he told himself that
his comrade's presence would not in any way alleviate the fate which was
certain to befall him. Still the thought of companionship, even in
wretchedness, and perhaps a vague hope that Jack, with his energy and
spirit, might contrive some way for their escape, cheered him up.

As Percy, too, was gagged, no word could be exchanged by the midshipmen,
but they nodded to each other. They were now put side by side and made
to walk in the centre of their captors. On the way they passed through
several villages, whose inhabitants poured out to gaze at the captives,
but the men in charge of them were evidently not disposed to delay, as
they passed through without a stop. At last they halted before two
cottages standing by themselves, thrust the prisoners into a small room,
removed their gags, and left them to themselves.

"Well, Percy, my boy, so they caught you too? I am awfully sorry. It was
my fault for going with only two men into that temple, but as the
village had been deserted and scarcely a man was found there, it never
entered my mind that there might be a party in the temple."

"Of course not, Jack; it was a surprise altogether. I don't know
anything about it, for I was knocked down,