"A ROAR OF APPLAUSE GREETED THE FIFTH SHOT"
'Thus ends all our trouble,' he cried. 'We can shorten sail, and go on slowly.'
Late that evening Hung announced a ship in the offing, and before darkness had fallen a gun-boat ranged up beside them. In fact, she fired a shot across the bows of this suspicious-looking vessel, and then sent a boat's crew aboard her. A dapper little Chinese officer swarmed up on her deck, and even he, with all his native impassiveness, showed unusual surprise as his eyes fell upon the Professor and his party.
'English?' he asked pleasantly, bowing courteously, and then, when he had received an assuring answer, 'Then there is something to explain. We are in search of a notorious pirate.'
He spoke English with hardly an accent, and his face lit up wonderfully as the Professor answered. Then, as he listened to the tale the latter told him, a flush rose to his sallow cheeks.
'You will please to come aboard at once,' he commanded. 'This news is very important. My commander will require the fullest information.'
It appeared, in fact, that news of the pirate's presence in those waters had come to the Chinese navy officials, who had despatched a gun-boat.
'Some one gave information in Shanghai,' explained the dapper little officer. 'No doubt he did so for a reward. But we learned that some Europeans had set off in a native boat, and that there was a plot to seize them. We made sure when we sighted you that you were the pirate. Now, of course, we shall take them easily.'
Which actually happened, for four hours' steaming brought the gun-boat within easy range of the vessel that had so lately accommodated the Professor and his party. Then, such is the summary justice handed out by the celestial race, the ship was callously bombarded, and sent with all the villains aboard her to the bottom.
'For which one cannot really grieve, though it does seem a barbarous way of executing them,' said the Professor. 'And now to get ashore and pursue our search for ruins.'
Two days later saw them landed, and within a little while the expedition had left for the interior.