“Might as well tell her,” said Jim, “and let her suffer.”
“Well,” said Joe, reluctantly, “that fellow’s being executed.”
“What do you mean?” exclaimed Mabel, in horror.
“Just that,” replied Joe. “That thing that looked like a tree box is what they call a cangue. They put him in there so that he’s standing on thin slabs of wood that just enable him to keep his head above that narrow opening around his 178 neck. Every little while they take one of the slabs of wood from underneath him; then he has to stand on tiptoe. By and by his feet can’t touch the slabs at all, and then he chokes to death.”
The girls shuddered and Mabel regretted her ill-timed curiosity.
“What a hideous thing!” exclaimed Clara.
“And what cruel people!” added Mabel.
“One of the most cruel on God’s earth,” replied Jim. “You see in all this crowd there is nobody looking at that fellow with pity. They don’t seem to have the slightest tincture of it.”
“Let’s go back to our hotel,” pleaded Mabel. “I’ve seen all I want to for to-day.”
The games at Hong Kong were interesting and largely attended. There was one rattling contest between the major leaguers that after an eleventh-inning fight was won by the Giants.