Under the Chinese Dragon: A Tale of Mongolia

by F. S. Brereton

'Allee lightee,' he lisped, grinning as they came to him. 'Soon makee Excellencies same as one Chinaman. Allee same, so that mother not be able to knowee dem. Jong shavee de head now. Den put on de pigtail. Not eber wear him before, Misser Davie? Den you soon see. Fine, Misser Davie. You one great big swell, wid a tail reachin' lightee down to de middle ob you. Now boil de kettle, get de soap, sharpen de razor.'

He set about his work humming a Chinese refrain devoid of all tune, while Alphonse emerged from his tent in his shirt sleeves, and using a native bellows soon had his fire going. It made the lads laugh to watch him hopping quickly about, and to see the extraordinary costume which he still adhered to. For if David and his friends out there in China were still, in spite of their local surroundings, in spite of essentially Celestial environment, undoubtedly Englishmen, Alphonse was as decidedly a Frenchman. His peaky little beard, and the way he carried himself, as well as the quickness of his movements, told one that. It was not necessary to regard his extremely loud shirt, his appalling cap, nor the pointed boots which he found comfort in wearing.

'Bien! You depart to-day. Bon voyage, messieurs,' he said, as he brought them each a steaming cup of tea. 'Let Alphonse tell you that you will find native costume comfortable, as comfortable as is mine, for he has tried it. Oui, messieurs, he has tried it. He owed his life to the disguise once.'

David could not imagine how any disguise could cloak this very obvious Frenchman. He smiled a little dubiously.

'Ah, you do not believe. Then I will tell you. It was on our last journey, the Professor's and mine. The people were angry with us; we were foreign devils who had caused the rain to fall for a month in succession. They surrounded the house; guns were fired; there was a great commotion.'

'What happened then?' asked Dick, eagerly.

'They dragged us out, the Professor and myself. They put us into wooden cages and carried us in them to their mandarin. But he, though he did not love foreign devils, was afraid to harm us. He took us into his house, saying to the mob that he would hand us over in the morning. Then he dressed us like natives, and passed us out through a back door very secretly. Bien, messieurs, we strolled through the mob. They would have torn us to pieces had they known that we were the foreign devils they had captured. We passed through them and got right away. It was what you call a narrow shave.'

'And the mandarin, how did he explain your flight?' asked David, curious to hear how such a matter would be arranged in this country of surprises, of ignorance and bigotry.

'I will tell you. He barred the door and the window. He burned our clothes. In the morning he took the ringleaders of the mob to the room and announced that they were free to kill us. Then he feigned as great surprise as they. He pointed to the charred remains of our clothing, and suggested that we had vanished into the air, perhaps to stop the rain, for as luck would have it, the downpour ceased that very evening. I tell you, for us it was a close shave.'

He bustled off to his camp kitchen, leaving the lads wondering greatly. To them the tale seemed impossible. But then they did not know China very well. They had no idea of the crass ignorance and superstition which even to-day sways the mass of the people. Had they had more knowledge, they would instantly have realised that such a sequel was possible, and that in the Celestial Empire one can encounter hopeless ignorance on one hand, and a depth of cunning adjacent to it. But Jong had his pot of water boiling now, and had put a fine edge on to the wedge-shaped native razor which he intended to use. He quickly lathered the hair over the temples and round the crown of each lad's head, and rapidly removed those portions. Then he produced two wonderful pigtails, and having snipped the hair left on the crown as short as possible, he heated the base of the pigtails, thus melting the adhesive already there, and applied them. A touch with a stick of charcoal to their eyebrows made a vast effect, while a line drawn outside the eyes gave a distinctly Celestial expression. After that it took but little time to don the native costume, and before Alphonse announced breakfast both David and Dick were dressed for their journey.