'It's splendid,' Charlie declared, as he surveyed himself in the glass; 'don't you think so, Fred?'
A few minutes later the barber was dismissed, and the four of them returned to the sitting-room, where the skipper of the Canton was awaiting them. He shook hands with the manager and greeted the other three men in Chinese. Charlie was nearest to them, and feeling that politeness demanded that he should say something, blurted out, 'Je ne parle pas Chinese.'
The skipper looked puzzled, and the manager, who was already in a laughing humour, roared, but Ping Wang was very serious.
'I say, Charlie,' he exclaimed, 'do remember that you are not to answer any one who addresses you in Chinese, or we shall be discovered.'
The skipper looked at Charlie in surprise. It was the first time that he had heard a Chinaman called Charlie.
'Two of these gentlemen are Englishmen,' the manager explained. 'What do you think of their disguise?'
'It is excellent. If I had not heard you speak,' he added, addressing Ping Wang, 'I should never have believed that you were an Englishman.'
'I'm not one,' Ping Wang declared merrily; 'I'm a Chinaman.'
'Well, who am I to believe?' the skipper exclaimed in bewilderment.
'They are the Englishmen,' the manager answered, pointing to Fred and Charlie; 'the other gentleman is a Chinaman. But to come to the point, I want you to take my three friends to Tien-tsin. They wish to be undisturbed, and do not want it to be known that they are not Chinamen. Therefore let every one—even the mate—fancy that they are Celestials.'