"Superfluous to say one's prayers?" questioned Willy in utmost surprise, opening wide his big blue eyes. "The good Fathers prayed every day, and used to say that 'he who knows not how to pray, the sea will teach to pray'. What will become of us, if God and his angels do not watch over and guard us?"
"Oh, dear me! You talk just like the preaching Brothers," laughed the
Captain, in a way that made the boy shudder.
"Well, for aught that I care keep on praying to your guardian angel to watch over you, but now go into the kitchen and get a cup of coffee and a biscuit or two. Hurry yourself. In five minutes be ready for work and report on deck to the first officer."
In the meantime the boatswain had started for the steerage, where three hundred Chinamen were packed like herrings on the floor and in the berths along the sides of the room. When he opened the trap-door to go down the stairs, the poisonous stench which assailed his nostrils almost knocked him down. "By all the great sharks in the sea," he cried angrily, "I believe it would be easier to breathe in the bottom of the ocean than down there with those pig-tailed Chinamen! He! I don't want to go down there. Be quick, and send the interpreter up here," he called.
A babel of Chinese words came from the unventilated room which was lighted by an old kerosene lamp, and the crowd pushed to the gangway to get up on deck. The boatswain thundered "Back", and to make his words emphatic as well as intelligible, drew his revolver. The men went back, and Lihoa brought his nephew, the small Peppo, to the foot of the gangway. "Tell him that he is to let us come out on deck before we suffocate in this vile hole," commanded Lihoa.
As soon as Peppo began to tell in English what he had been told to say, the boatswain cried out: "Ha, ha! So you are the interpreter, you little pigmy? Why, that's all right. How lucky! Come up. I am looking for you, but your pig-tailed cousins will have to stay down there. They won't suffocate for awhile; the air of the steerage is thicker and more nourishing than that on deck."
After a little parleying Lihoa let his nephew go. Quickly he ran up the ladder, and when Gray had closed the trap-door he threw himself at his feet, and with outstretched hands begged to land, because he had been brought on board against his will.
"Land?" laughed Gray. "Land on what? We have been under sail for six hours or more and are now a goodly number of miles from Hongkong, and probably won't see land again for weeks. For good or for evil, for better or for worse, my little pigmy, you'll have to go with us until we land those cousins of yours in Australia. Get up. I'll take you to the kitchen, and there our cook will find so much for you to do, that you won't have time for sad thoughts."
With these words he seized Peppo by the arm and led him to the kitchen, where he gave him over to the cook. The fat cook with the big white apron looked at the slender youth half angrily, half compassionately, and grumbled:
"That little Chinaman is to give me the promised help? How is he to lift the heavy kettles of rice off the fire, Mr. Gray?"