"It was yesterday. We shan"t be safe until we reach Sui-Fu."
"You had better drop, then, and run in the water. We"ve come too far already for them to overtake us."
This seemed good advice, and Burroughs shut off the tractor and let the vessel drop gently into the water. a.s.sisted by the current, and with the engine at little more than half speed, it skimmed along at the rate of at least twenty-five knots.
"I think I had better go and have a word with Chung Pi," said Burroughs to Errington. "He"s in a terrible stew by the look of him."
"He"s done for with Su Fing, beyond doubt. Go and smooth him down as well as you can, old man."
Burroughs left Errington to navigate the boat, and sat down at Chung Pi"s feet, calling Chin Tai to interpret.
"Have the evil spirits taken possession of the thing?" asked the unhappy captain. "But no; I see that you are not perturbed in mind, honourable stranger. What is the meaning of this? Did you not see the chief"s launch? Why do you not give him the boat, and the thousand dollars that your august mandarins sent to support him?"
"I owe you a humble apology, n.o.ble captain," replied Burroughs. "I will confess all to you, and when you have heard me, I hope you will pardon me. The prisoner there is my friend."
"But you are a German!" Chung Pi interrupted.
"No. I am an Englishman." Chung Pi groaned. "My friend, as you know, had the ill-fortune to interfere with your chief in a little fight down-stream, and your chief very naturally got even with him as soon as he could. Since he could be released in no other way, I came up on this vessel to see what I could do. Imagine, then, my dismay when, on returning with you from our little trip, I saw the launch of a man, a German, who had been a bad friend to my friend there, and had refused to help him, though I begged him to do so, knowing his relations with your chief."
"Ah! It is ill to catch a fish, and throw away the net," said Chung Pi sententiously. "But you say he is a German. Where, then, is his moustache?"
"Here!" said Burroughs solemnly, pointing to his upper lip.
The Chinaman gasped. Bending forward, he examined the moustache closely.
"Such a thing I never heard of," he cried. "Are you speaking the truth?
You have deceived me once and twice."
"I know--I"m sorry I had to do it. The moustache was shaved from the German in an opium house, and a skilful countryman of yours fitted it to my own hairless lip."
The Chinaman smiled; then he appeared to reflect.
"It was well done," he said presently. "Will you tell me where I can find that man?"
"My comprador can tell you," Burroughs replied. "Are you thinking of employing him?"
"I should like my moustache to grow up instead of down," said Chung Pi simply. "Yours is so much more becoming to a warrior."
"If it didn"t tickle so! But, n.o.ble captain, we must consider your position."
Chung Pi"s look of anxiety returned; in his preoccupation with this wonderful matter of the moustache he had forgotten that he too was a fugitive.
"Su Fing has a very hasty temper, by all accounts," Burroughs went on.
"The loss of his prisoner, and your treatment of his German friend, will make him very angry with you; he will believe, no doubt, that you are a party to the whole scheme, and I"m very much afraid that it won"t be safe for you to show your face at Meichow again."
"Su Fing would chop off my head," said the captain ruefully.
"And that would be an irreparable loss," said Burroughs. ("Not like the loss of a moustache," added Chin Tai in translating.) "We are going to Sui-Fu. Will you come with us, or shall we put you down somewhere near Chia-ling Fu, and leave you to make your peace with the chief?"
"Not that," said Chung Pi decisively. "A fish may sport in the kettle, but his life will not be long. I will go with you to Sui-Fu. And then----"
He fell into a train of deep reflection. Burroughs waited, expecting him to reveal something of what was pa.s.sing in his mind; but after some minutes" silence, he said--
"I feel that I have treated you very shabbily, n.o.ble captain; but perhaps if you consider what you yourself would have done in the same circ.u.mstances----"
"Say no more, ill.u.s.trious stranger," Chung Pi interrupted, with a smile which Burroughs at the time was at a loss to understand. "I feel that I am hanging on the tail of a beautiful horse."
"What does he mean?" asked Burroughs of Chin Tai, who grinned as he translated the captain"s remark.
"Hai! He say he catchee tailo numpa one hoss," said the man; "that tell he tink he belongey some time topside fella."
"Get a rise in the world? I don"t quite see it."
"Ma.s.sa no unastand this time; some time ma.s.sa savvy pidgin all same,"
said Chin Tai.
The explanation was as obscure as the original statement; but Burroughs did not press the matter; he had caught sight of Chia-ling Fu in the distance.
His intention was to run past the town at full speed. It was in the occupation of the rebels: the river was no doubt crowded with their sampans and other small craft; but the speed of the hydroplane was so great that it ought to be easy to slip past almost before the rebels were aware of their approach. When once they had run by, there was nothing in the harbour that could catch them. Then, with evening closing upon them, the remainder of the journey down to Sui-Fu would be free from peril.
The Englishmen were, however, much startled when, on drawing nearer to the town, they saw, apparently anch.o.r.ed in mid-stream, one of the gunboats which had been lying early that morning in the river above Mei-chow. Burroughs remembered now that when he had accompanied Chung Pi down to the landing-stage the vessel had left its moorings. He had supposed that it had gone up-stream to meet the chief; but it seemed probable that it had been sent downstream to announce at Chia-ling Fu the victory which Su Fing wished his supporters to believe that he had won.
"This is rather awkward," said Errington. "That"s the very boat that took me to Mei-chow. If they see me here they"ll smell a rat."
"You can duck down: then they won"t see you. Besides, if they see Chung Pi they"ll never dream there"s anything wrong."
"There"s something in that; but it looks to me as if they are waiting for us. If they are they may fire before we are near enough for them to see Chung Pi."
They knew the vessel well. She had been employed for some time in patrolling the river, before she was captured by the pirates. She carried a ten-pounder and a couple of machine guns. Su Fing, on arriving at his headquarters and learning what had happened, had at once telegraphed to Chia-ling Fu, ordering the gunboat to intercept the hydroplane.
Almost as soon as Errington had spoken, there was a spurt of flame from the bows of the vessel, and a heavy splash in the water only twenty or thirty yards behind them. No further proof was needed that the gunboat had been lying in wait for them, and that the gunners had got the range to a nicety. Only the great speed of the hydroplane had saved it.
Burroughs did not lose a moment in meeting this emergency. Throwing the differential gearing into action, he set the air tractor in motion, and managed to lift the vessel above the surface just as a second shot dashed up a shower of spray beneath him. He glanced at the banks right and left: the country was too open to give any shelter from the enemy"s fire, and no matter in which direction he steered, he could hardly be safe against the gun for several minutes, when he should have succeeded in rising to an alt.i.tude at which only high-angle fire could be effective. And to make matters worse, the machine guns were brought into action, and a stream of bullets rattled and hissed around him.
Chung Pi and the other Chinamen had at the first shot thrown themselves face downwards in the bottom of the boat.
"Straight forward, Ted; right over their heads," cried Errington, "it"s the only chance. They can"t use their guns then, and I"ll give odds against their doing any damage with rifles."
Clearly this was the best thing to be done. The next few moments were tense with excitement. The vessel rose, but it seemed to Burroughs that she had never answered so slowly to the elevating lever. Above the hum of the tractor could be heard the zip of bullets as they tore their way through the canvas of the planes and the sides of the boat. Burroughs felt a nervous dread lest a shot should reach the petrol tank or the cylinders. But the boat still rose; it was drawing rapidly nearer to the enemy, and the Englishmen held their breath with suspense.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RUNNING THE GAUNTLET]
There fell a sudden silence. Burroughs" intention had been seen by the gunners, and as they could not lift their pieces high enough to take aim at the vessel now that it was rising, and the range altering every moment, the gunboat was slewing round as if to head down-stream. It was broadside against the stream when the flying boat flashed by at a height of sixty feet. The occupants heard the reports of several rifles; but they were now travelling at the rate of fifty or sixty miles an hour, and nothing but a shower of bullets from the machine guns had any likelihood of striking them.
"All right now," said Errington, with a gasp of relief, when the flying boat was a good two hundred yards down-stream, and the gunboat was still turning.
"I hope so," replied Burroughs.