The pilot stoutly refused to accept his clemency.
“Would your commander really dare attempt to bombard my city?” the mandarin continued curiously.
The severe pain at his wrists spurred Langdon on to picture blackly the doom awaiting the self-satisfied and treacherous official.
“If you hold these officers captive, the American commander will not rest until he has set them at liberty. If you harm a hair of their heads he will raze your city to the ground and every shell will be directed at this yamen. The inside of the wall will be as desolate as that of your great city of Nanking after the Taiping rebels had sacked it.”
The viceroy turned livid with uncontrolled rage. He spurned the bound prisoner with his foot, while the soldiers, seeing the anger in their master’s face, pulled the hair and beard of the helpless man.
Langdon was now beside himself. By a mighty effort, he bore back upon the soldiers, his great strength scattering them with ease, and then he raised his head and gazed full into the face of the viceroy.
“By holding us as hostages you are but signing your own death-warrant. Our mission here was for your own good. Your people will suffer, but the mandarins are those whom Commander Hughes desires to punish. You know that if your city is destroyed by the foreign fleet you must either commit suicide or falsify the reports to Peking which in time will be discovered. If you liberate us at once and give your promise that foreigners will be protected, even now you can redeem your action.”
Chang-Li-Hun could hardly believe his ears. He had never been talked to so plainly in all his life. His mandarins stood near him, the scowls on their outraged faces betokening evil for the helpless Americans.
Langdon was, at a motion from the viceroy, quickly restrained, and struggling violently in the hands of numerous soldiers was borne out of the council-chamber. The midshipmen’s guards were severe as they dragged the unresisting lads from the presence of the viceroy.
“I fear I’ve made a worse muddle of it,” the pilot exclaimed dolefully, after they were again alone in the room which for the present served as their prison. Then he recounted to his companions what had passed between him and the powerful mandarin.