"Fu-kien," came the answer, promptly, and the girls' hopes were raised sky-high.
"Did you ever live in Amoy?"
"No, never lived there—always in hills back beyond."
"Well, do you, by any chance, happen to know anything about the parties spoken of in that bracelet translation?"
"No. Was at sea at date mentioned. Young man then—not very well on dry land. Must live on ship always—or not live. Never was acquainted with parties mentioned."
"Thank you. That is all, Lee Ching."
The bright hopes of the girls were considerably dampened, but Marcia was not to be downed.
"Anyway," she argued, "you've other Chinese sailors on board. Why couldn't we question them all? We might find some one who knows."
The captain was rather dubious about it. "Yes, the cook and four sailors are Chinese. You can question them if you like, but I'm afraid it won't be much satisfaction. They're an appallingly ignorant lot! But I'll have them summoned."
In a few moments the five were lined up, and, true to the captain's estimate, a hopeless-looking lot they were. After much confused questioning in Pidgin-English it developed that the cook and two sailors were from the province of Shansi, a third from Kiang-su, and the two others from nowhere in particular that they could seem to remember. None of them knew anything about Amoy beyond the squalid shops about the wharves.