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"At first, when I heard he was a lieutenant in the navy, I said I must give it up, knowing as I did that with such men there is no trifling. But Chevassat scolded me so terribly, and called me such hard names, that I finally got mad, and promised everything. "'Besides, he said to me, 'listen to my plan. The navy department wants mechanics to go to Saigon.
I am profoundly pleased to say that they succeeded, Artacho withdrawing the suit through a transaction. In accordance with the decision of the meeting above referred to, I left Hongkong quietly on the 7th April, 1898, on board the steamship Taisany, and after calling at Saigon I reached Singapore as a passenger by the s.s. Eridan, landing there as secretly as possible on the 21st April.
And really, one fine evening, as the sun was setting, land was seen, and the next morning, at daybreak, the frigate sailed into the Dong-Nai, the king of Cochin Chinese rivers, which is so wide and so deep, that vessels of the largest tonnage can ascend it without difficulty till they reach Saigon.
On my weary way I was overtaken by a young French artillery officer, who walked with me until we came upon an empty gharrie, and was eloquent upon the miseries of Saigon. A large force of infantry and artillery is always in barracks here, but it is a most sickly station.
During the heat of the day the Europeans keep within doors, but toward nightfall they all come out and, gathering about the little tables which crowd the sidewalks before the cafés in the Boulevard Bonnard and the Rue Catinat, they gossip and sip their absinthes and smoke numberless cigarettes and mop their florid faces and argue noisily and with much gesticulation over the news in the Courrier de Saigon or the six-weeks-old Figaro and Le Temps which arrive fortnightly by the mail-boat from France.
"I did not know myself what speed the Blanchita could make, though I was informed that she had gone nine knots for twelve hours together," replied Scott. "I am very glad that I met you, and I hope I shall see you again. You have a very agreeable party, and I should think you might enjoy yourselves." "I think we are likely to meet again at Saigon.
In the dry stores there are many cases of liquor and wine. The men may break into the stuff before we reach the Catwick. That will take ten or twelve days if Cunningham lays a course outside Formosa. What's his game? I don't know. Probably he will maroon us on the Catwick, an island I know nothing about, except that it is nearer to Saigon than to Singapore.
He entertained us in the evenings with weird tales of his adventures in the South Seas, where pigs are exchanged for wives and the wives thus acquired are then put to work to raise more pigs to get new wives. Saigon Good students of geography will doubtless recall that the approach to Saigon is through the crookedest river in the world.
"Thank you, Captain Scott; and if we part company on the voyage, I hope we shall meet again. I am liable to be detained some time in Saigon; for mine is a tramp steamer, and I have to look up a cargo for some port," said Captain Rayburn, as he shook hands with the four, and went into his boat alongside. The first thing Scott did was to look up the mast and sail of the Blanchita.
I should almost be disposed to answer for M. Champcey, if I had him in a good bed in the hospital at Saigon. At all events, we must try to get him there alive. Let one of you gentlemen tell the sailors who have come with us to make a litter of branches." The noise of a struggle, of fearful oaths and inarticulate cries, interrupted his orders.
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