CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
"WHAT'S THE MATTER?"
The night proved to be brilliant, for the moon was nearly at its full,so that, the wind being favourable and the current swift, sunrise thenext morning found the fugitive far beyond pursuit. There was not aboat in sight, and as far as he could see on either side stretched thewide-open country, from the winding river's banks right away to thedistant hills; and when at times as the day wore on, with the boatgliding down fast, any craft came in sight, Stan had his choice of sidesto take on the great river, and naturally he hugged the shore oppositeto that taken by the trading-junk or smaller boat. Now and then hecould see farm-buildings or clusters of village cottages, with anoccasional pagoda. Once he passed a more pretentious collection ofhouses, like a small town, but it was some distance up a stream thatjoined the river; and as he sailed farther on, it was into cultivatedland where traces of inhabitants were very few. Towards evening he tookadvantage of the fact that there was neither house nor boat in sight torun his little craft ashore where a patch of woodland came right down tothe stream; and here in an opening he collected sufficient dead branchesand twigs to make a fire, whose smoke was diffused among the boughsoverhead, feeding it well till there were plenty of glowing embers, overwhich he roasted the best of his fish. He spent an hour or so in eatingheartily and, after roasting, cooling down enough in a pot he found inthe boat so as to have an ample supply for the next two days.
Grilled fish and cold river water seemed to ask for something else, butStan had plenty of strong young appetite, and he was ready tocongratulate himself upon having done so well; and in excellent spiritshe quenched the fire with the water-pot when he had done, and pushed offat once.
That late afternoon and evening he sailed on till the moon was rightoverhead, when, feeling more secure, he made fast to a tree; and utterlyunable to battle against an overpowering feeling of drowsiness, he sleptin the bottom of the boat, with the matting sail for cover, till themorning sun was well up.
That day, as he was passing a solitary house about a hundred yards fromthe bank, where he could see a couple of women at work in an enclosedfield, he ran the boat inshore, the women in answer to his signs comingto the bank to stare at him. Then by means of the little Chinese heknew, and the offer of the figured white silk neckerchief he wore inexchange, he not only obtained a good supply of cake-bread and someeggs, but the women made him some tea before he pushed off again.
Encouraged by his success, he fished the next day, had excellent sport,and bartered some of his prizes at a house for a couple of dozen finepotatoes, whose fate it was later on to be roasted in the embers of oneof his fires.
And in this fashion, without any noteworthy experience, Stan droppeddown the river, losing count of the days in the monotony of the journey,but always obtaining a sufficiency of provisions of some kind or anotherin exchange for the plentiful supply of fish he caught in the eveningsafter sundown, or else for some portion of his clothes--for his watch,money, and knife had disappeared in the prison, he never knew how.
In fact, the escape down the river, under the happy circumstances whichfell to his lot, was simple in the extreme, it being easy enough toavoid the boats and junks he met, as well as the more inhabited parts ofthe shore.
He kept a sharp lookout during the last three days, expecting every hourto catch sight of the great _hong_ towering up by the right bank of theriver; but it was far longer than he expected before it appeared, andeven then proved to be much more distant than he could have believed.
At last, however, there it was, with a river-boat drawn up to the wharf,and by degrees he made out one of the big coolies; then Lawrence, theforeman, came out of the office door, but he took no notice of the whitefigure in the little native boat when Stan stood up and waved his hand.
"Why, I should have thought he would have known me directly," grumbledStan to himself. "Ah! now we shall see," he cried joyously as a tallfamiliar figure came out, crossed the wharf, and stood talking to someone in the river-boat.
Stan waved his hand so excitedly now that he was seen, and he noted thatthe tall figure shaded its eyes and then turned to speak to one of theboatmen, who hurried in through the door of the warehouse and returnedwith something which the tall figure held up to its eyes.
"He'll see me now," said Stan to himself.
He was right, for the next minute a hand was being waved by the manager,who stood ready to exchange grips with Stan as he ran his boat upalongside the wharf and stepped ashore.
That evening was passed in the relation of adventures and a discussionabout the fate of Wing.
"I'm afraid--very much afraid--that he was killed by the savages," saidStan sadly at last.
"Savages--cowardly savages!" cried Blunt angrily. "But I don't know;old Wing is a very slippery gentleman, and knows his way about prettywell. I'm not going to give him up for a bad job yet."
"You think he has escaped?" said Stan excitedly.
"I hope so," was the reply. "Things are not so bad as they might havebeen. You see that amongst the soldiery there is a feeling of respectfor the English name."
"Respect!" cried Stan indignantly. "You don't fully grasp how theytreated me."
"Yes, I do, Lynn; for they didn't kill you, and with people who holdlife so cheaply that is saying a great deal. Well, my lad, it has beenan adventure that you will never forget, and I'm very glad you haveescaped so well. You don't feel much the worse for it all?"
"Not in the least. But it's delightful to get to civilisation again,and I'm looking forward to lying in a clean bed once more. I shallsleep to-night after what you have said about Wing."
"I suppose so. But I say," continued Blunt dryly; "wouldn't you haveliked to bring that monkey away with you?"
"I should," cried Stan eagerly.
"Yes, of course; but it's as well not. I know those chaps. They'rewonderfully strong and vicious. Only safe in a cage. We couldn't havedone with him here. I say, shouldn't you like to make one with me in anexpedition to knock that prison to pieces?"
"Yes," cried Stan eagerly. "Could it be done?"
"Yes, if we went to war; but I dare say if proper application were madewe could get compensation. We shall see I say, though, what about thatgathering of war-junks you saw? Not piratical craft, were they?"
"I don't know," replied Stan. "I had thought no more of them. Ithought more, however, of that poor boy's boat that I took."
"Ah! that was a bit of an annexation. Never mind; I'll send it back tothe Chinese merchants we deal with; they'll find out whom it belongsto."
"'Longs to," said Stan slowly.
"Hullo!" cried Blunt. "What's the matter? Feel ill?"
"Hi? I--Oh, I can't help it; I'm so stupidly sleepy I can't keep myeyes open, and I could hardly understand what you said last--sodreadfully drowsy I don't know what to do."
"I'll tell you," said Blunt, smiling.
"Do, please. Go and bathe my face?"
"No," said Blunt. "Off with you and tumble into bed."