'I understand. I will have the saloon berths got ready at once. What time will they come aboard? I shall sail about four.'
'Will half-past three be early enough?'
'Half-past three, sharp, will do.'
The skipper departed a few minutes later, leaving the three travellers alone with the manager.
'Let us sit in the verandah,' the manager suggested, and for fully two hours they sat in long chairs chatting together, and watching the busy scene in the street below.
'Would it not be a good idea if we went for a short stroll?' Fred asked, after a time. 'It would accustom us to appearing in public in our Chinese garb.'
'That is a good suggestion,' Charlie declared. 'Don't you think so, Ping Wang?'
'You would be safer here,' said Ping Wang, 'but if you wish to go out, I will come with pleasure. We must not go far. We needn't wear our beehives. We will keep in the shade.'
