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I was sitting panting with the heat, resting my head against the rock, listening to the breathing of Tom Jecks, and wondering why it was that something hot and black and intangible should be always coming down and pressing on my brain, when I started into wakefulness, or rather out of my stupor, for Ching touched me, and I found that he had crept past Tom Jecks to where I had made my seat, and had his lips close to my ear.
"Now then," cried Barkins, who was full of memories of hard biscuit and tough salt beef, "what are we going to have to eat?" "I don't know," I said, looking round uneasily. "What have they got?" "Here, let's make Ching order the dinner," cried Smith. "Look here, old chap. We can have a good dinner for a dollar apiece, can't we?" "Velly good dinner, dollar piecee," he replied.
General Ching went to interview them outside one of the city gates, taking Gordon with him. His idea was that if the great General Gordon showed the rebels that he had actually been concerned in the successful operations against them, they would be the more likely to consider further resistance hopeless.
The Dragon-king went to Li Ching and demanded an explanation. Being entirely ignorant of what had taken place, Li Ching sought No-cha to question him. An Unruly Son No-cha was in the garden, occupied in weaving the belt of dragon-sinew. The stupefaction of Li Ching may be imagined. "You have brought most awful misfortunes upon us," he exclaimed. "Come and give an account of your conduct."
But more than that they kept their own armies in Peking as a guard and as a final resort in case there was danger of the legation being overcome, and as a matter of fact there were regular pitched battles between the troops of Prince Ching and his associates and those of the Boxer leader, Tung Fu-hsiang.
"Let 'em," said Barkins, as the party settled themselves. "Now then, we're all here. All in to begin. We ought to have a programme. Here, Ching, what's the first thing they do?" "Ching no quite sure; p'laps lichi." "Lichi?" I said. "You don't know? You see velly gland velly ploper for bad, bad man."
This event is supposed to have taken place in the year 2197 B.C., and the Hia dynasty, of which there were seventeen emperors, ruled down to the year 1776 B.C. These Hia princes present no features of interest, and the last of them, named Kia, was deposed by one of his principal nobles, Ching Tang, Prince of Chang.
"Waitee lit' bit," Ching whispered. "Allee s'eep, and Ching get eat dlink." But I felt certain that he would be caught, and begged him not to go till we were absolutely driven by hunger and thirst; and so that day passed, with the rock growing hotter, and the air too stifling almost to breathe, while, to my horror, I found that Tom Jecks was growing more and more feverish.
The man's eyes flashed and his hand stole toward his sword hilt. "'Tention!" roared Barkins with a fierce stamp, and though the order was new to the guard, he took it to be a military command and stepped back to remain stiff and motionless. "Ha! that's better," cried Barkins, and he nodded and then passed on with us after Ching, whose eyes bespoke the agony of terror he felt.
"Shoot bird now," said Ching, in answer to an inquiring look from Mr Brooke. "Yes; but do you think the junks are up here?" "Oh yes, velly quite su'e. Plenty eye in boat watchee see what Queen Victolia offlicer going to do uppee river." "What does he mean?" said Mr Brooke, who was puzzled by this last rather enigmatical speech.
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