The naval men alighted from their chairs, well satisfied to have escaped so easily from a disagreeable situation; but the pilot was not so well pleased.
“We’re in for it, I fear,” he confided to Phil; “that was another insult. The viceroy knew we were coming and he doubtless planned that we should be mobbed, holding his soldiers back to give us a few unpleasant minutes.”
“What would that Chinaman have done to you?” Phil asked gravely.
“It was an act of bravado,” Langdon answered smilingly, the picture of the discomfited man in his mind; “but if he had succeeded in pulling me from the chair it would have been serious; a leader is all these people need.”
“Pretty tight squeak, eh, Langdon?” Commander Hughes asked while they waited for the summons to approach the audience-chamber.
“It looked bad for a time, sir,” the pilot replied; “if some one had thrown a stone, we’d have been mobbed then and there, and the soldiers would have been powerless to save us. Not in my ten years among these people have I seen such a menacing mob. We must deal boldly with the viceroy, sir, or else we’ll not get out of the city alive.”
“Is it really as bad as that?” the captain asked anxiously.
“Yes, sir,” Langdon answered earnestly, lowering his voice so as not to be heard by any save the captain; “they were in an ugly mood, and if I am not mistaken they were acting under orders from the yamen; otherwise the rabble wouldn’t have dared molest us. If we don’t keep our feet on their necks, they’ll make short work of every foreigner in the Yangtse Valley.”
After a few minutes more of waiting the inner doors were thrown open and the naval men were ushered into the second courtyard, and then through more doors to the council-chamber of the viceroy. Here they found Chang-Li-Hun and his advisers ready to receive them.
Commander Hughes advanced toward the viceroy and bowed ceremoniously; the ancient Chinaman clasped his hands in front of him and murmured a few monosyllables in his own language, after which all were seated. Phil found his place between Langdon and a Chinaman, while Commander Hughes sat at the viceroy’s left, the seat of honor in the dragon kingdom.