"Such a thing I never heard of," he cried. "Are you speaking the truth? You have deceived me once and twice."
"I know--I'm sorry I had to do it. The moustache was shaved from the German in an opium house, and a skilful countryman of yours fitted it to my own hairless lip."
The Chinaman smiled; then he appeared to reflect.
"It was well done," he said presently. "Will you tell me where I can find that man?"
"My comprador can tell you," Burroughs replied. "Are you thinking of employing him?"
"I should like my moustache to grow up instead of down," said Chung Pi simply. "Yours is so much more becoming to a warrior."
"If it didn't tickle so! But, noble captain, we must consider your position."
Chung Pi's look of anxiety returned; in his preoccupation with this wonderful matter of the moustache he had forgotten that he too was a fugitive.
"Su Fing has a very hasty temper, by all accounts," Burroughs went on. "The loss of his prisoner, and your treatment of his German friend, will make him very angry with you; he will believe, no doubt, that you are a party to the whole scheme, and I'm very much afraid that it won't be safe for you to show your face at Meichow again."
"Su Fing would chop off my head," said the captain ruefully.