“Can you take me to the ‘Albaque’?” he questioned the coxswain eagerly.
The sailor glanced up in surprise. Where was his captain? He had seen him, as he supposed, with this Chinaman.
“I am waiting for the captain,” he replied, a shade of suspicion in his voice. “Wasn’t he with you?”
It was Ta-Ling’s turn to be surprised.
“With me!” he exclaimed. “I was to have met him hours ago.”
The coxswain shook his head, mystified. Had he not seen his captain go away with this man? Then he suddenly thought of the crowd of Chinese who had boarded a launch below him and had then gone alongside of his ship. His captain surely could not have been among those men. He gave it up. It was too deep for his understanding, for that launch had then gone down the river shortly before the fight between the forts and a strange war-ship.
“All right; get in,” he said finally.
In several minutes Ta-Ling was greeted warmly by the officer of the deck of the “Albaque.” The latter was glad to see the Chinaman again. The quartermaster of the gunboat had persisted that the launch of the Chinaman had not landed, but had gone down the river, and the young officer had commenced to fear that he had been duped into giving up both the captain’s correspondence and the Chinese refugee.
“May I see your captain?” Ta-Ling asked anxiously. “It’s of the utmost importance.”
“My captain has not returned!” the officer exclaimed, alarm in his voice.