On a sudden, Ling stopped dead. His headlong course had been arrested by a peculiar sound, or rather combination of sounds, the explanation of which was not difficult to seek. There was the shrill whistle of a siren and the sound of large paddles violently thrashing the water.
Almost at once, the Hong-Kong boat hove in sight. The decks were ablaze with light. Upon the bridge, Ling could distinguish both the Chinese pilot and the English captain.
"Hi!" he shouted. "I have missed the ship. If you slow down and lower a rope I can come on board from a sampan."
He spoke in excellent English. There is no doubt that the captain both heard and understood him, for Ling received his answer.
"Too late, my friend!" shouted the captain. "We sail to time, and if you're not here it's your own fault. You'll have to wait till to-morrow--eight o'clock in the morning."
Ling's answer was neither in the English language nor at the top of his voice. It was in Cantonese, and as a matter of fact it cannot be translated. And if it could be translated, no one would print it. For Ling had not failed to observe Yung How, standing alone upon the upper deck.
[CHAPTER XVIII--OF THE SPIDER AND THE WEB]
When Frank was thrown into the little room beneath the stairs, and heard the key turn upon him, he at first believed himself to be in utter darkness. But very soon his eyes became accustomed to the dim light that emanated from several cracks in the woodwork.
These cracks were in the stairs that led from the lower room to the balcony. The opium den was, of course, well illumined by several paraffin lamps. The little room in which Frank was imprisoned extended from the foot of the staircase to the back wall, the staircase itself forming the ceiling, which was in consequence only about three feet high at one end of the room, and about twelve feet high at the other. Now it so happened that the largest crack was at the lower end of the room, and Frank Armitage was not slow to discover that, by placing his eye to this, he could see quite easily into the opium den.
When he looked into the outer room he was able to observe several opium smokers, and Ah Wu himself, who was seated at his desk at the doorway. There was, however, no sign of Ling, and Frank rightly concluded that the Honanese must have left the establishment in pursuit of Yung How.