'But, my dear fellow,' Fred replied, 'if we were dressed as Chinamen, we should not deceive any one. Our faces are not at all Chinese.'
'I can alter that by shaving your eyebrows.'
'Very likely, but Chinamen without pigtails would be as absurd as a wingless bird.'
'I will buy two pigtails,' Ping Wang declared, calmly.
'What! Surely Chinamen don't wear false pigtails?' Charlie exclaimed.
'Thousands of them do, but, of course they keep it as secret as do your English ladies who wear false hair.'
'But how do they fix it to their head? Stick it on to their bald pates with gum?'
'Oh, no! Chinamen are never quite bald—at least, I have never met any who are—and the pigtail is fixed to what hair they have. My reason for advising you not to have your hair cut in Port Said was that I wanted you to have long hair by the time we reached Hongkong. I think that it is already long enough for pigtails to be attached.'
Charlie was delighted at the prospect of having to don Chinese attire, but Fred was far from pleased. He had provided himself with an excellent khaki campaigning suit, and did not at all like the idea of its lying idle. However, after some further conversation, Ping Wang succeeded in convincing him that, for the success of their plans for recovering the idol, it was necessary that he and Charlie should pass themselves off as Chinese.
'We shall have to eat our food with chop-sticks I suppose?' Charlie remarked.