Perhaps a hundred of the smaller houses of the place had been burned by the fires started by the gunboat’s shells the night before, but in a whole city full of small Chinese houses the loss was not especially noticeable.
“You wouldn’t want to land over yonder to-day, Darrin,” smiled Lieutenant Warden, when Ensign Dave saluted him on deck.
“Why not, sir?”
“Soon after daylight the governor’s troops marched into the city. As nearly as we could estimate the strength of the force from this deck, there are about twelve thousand of the troops, and with them are three batteries of field artillery.”
“Are the batteries strong enough to be used against this craft?”
“The batteries might be able to give us a good bit of trouble to handle, but there is no danger of their being employed. It would cost the governor his head to turn his troops against us, for that would be an official act of his, and a violation of China’s peace with us. Of course the pretended riot and rebellion of the populace was carried out by the governor’s secret orders, but we could never prove that. His excellency will be questioned by the Chinese government, but he can claim that the rebellion started when his troops were in another part of the province. The governor will promise Pekin to punish the ringleaders of the rebellion. He will then proceed to ‘try’ and behead a few of his political enemies, and Pekin will be satisfied. That will close the incident.”
A messenger came briskly up, with word calling the executive officer into the presence of his commander.
Pembroke’s confession, which Dave and the witnesses had promptly reported to the Lieutenant-Commander the night before, was the talk of the officers this morning.
The wounded man was said to be in somewhat better condition. All of the wounded sailors, marines and civilians were reported as being in no danger of dying from the injuries received in the spirited fighting of the day before.
Dave’s eyes caught sight of Belle the instant she stepped on deck. He hurried to her, looking her over closely to see how she had stood the excitement and terrors of the day before.