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A signal-pull now came for "Less air," but Molly had taken up an idea, and it could not be dislodged. She thought it must be "More air" that was wanted. "Pump away, boys pump," she cried, in rapidly increasing alarm. Chok-foo and Ram-stam obeyed. The signal was repeated somewhat impatiently. "Pump away, boys; for dear life pump," cried the little woman in desperate anxiety.
In short, there is every probability that an attack of croup, or something dreadful, would have ensued if the child's mother had not risen hastily and snatched it away from the would-be infanticide. "Now then, Ram-stam and Chok-foo," said Edgar Berrington, putting down his spoon, "clear away the rat's-tail soup, and bring on the roast puppy."
What d'ee mane by it, Chok-foo? Didn't I say I'd give you as much baccy as ye could chaw or smoke an ye'd only kape out o' this place? Come along wid ye!" It is perhaps scarcely necessary to say that the man who spoke, and who immediately collared and dragged Chok-foo away, was none other than our friend Rooney Machowl.
Quick." Thus invoked, the Chinaman spoke so quickly and in such a miraculous jumble of bad English, that Edgar could not comprehend him at all; only one thing he felt quite sure of, namely, that his anxiety was well found. "Ho! Chok-foo!" he shouted. The domestic entered, and to him the Chinaman delivered his message, which was to the following effect:
When, however, pipes were got out by those who smoked, and chairs were placed in the verandah, and no sound was heard around save the yelling of Chinese children who were romping in the Chinese kennel that skirted the pagoda, and the champing of the jaws of Ram-stam and Chok-foo as they masticated inside then came the feast of reason, not to mention the flow of soul.
It may easily be imagined with what mingled feelings of anxiety and impatience the "tall, stout, and extremely handsome young man" listened to this narrative as it was volubly delivered by the "pleeceman" and slowly translated by Chok-foo. When at last he was fairly in possession of all that the messenger had to relate, Edgar paced up and down the room for a few seconds with rapid strides.
Of course his distracted wife hauled in on the life-line with all her might, and Chok-foo and Ram-stam, forsaking the pump, lent their aid and soon hauled the luckless diver into the boat, when his first act was to deal the Chinamen a cuff each that sent one into the stern-sheets on his nose, and the other into the bow on his back.
"Come boys, give way. The morning's gittin' on, an' we must set to work as soon as ever we can. Time an' tide, you know, etcetera." Rooney, Maxwell, Chok-foo, and Ram-stam, who were rowing, bent to their work with a will, but the heavy boat did not respond heartily, being weighted with a large amount of diving gear.
After the fire, Rooney removed with his family to the house of a Chinese labourer named Chok-foo, whose brother, Ram-stam, dwelt with him. They were both honest hard-working men, but Chok-foo was beginning, as we have seen, to fall under the baleful influence of opium-smoking. Ram-stam may be said to have been a teetotaler in this respect. They were both men of humble spirit.
For full five minutes Maxwell stayed under water without a fresh supply of air then he signalled for it, and the anxious pumpers sent it down with a will. While the divers were engaged with these experiments, Chok-foo was sent on shore in the small boat for a supply of fresh water from a spring near the top of the island.
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