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Updated: May 7, 2025
There is little more to add to the present history of Captain Murray Frobisher. The captured destroyer was, of course, claimed by Japan, and Frobisher himself remained a prisoner for one day, until the treaty was signed. Then, being free, he sought Admiral Wong-lih, who had refused to follow his comrades' example and destroy himself.
The fourth junk safely accounted for, Frobisher comforted himself with the assurance that, with any sort of luck at all, the Su-chen ought to be able to make her way back to Tien-tsin, short-handed though she must undoubtedly be; and, once there, he knew a report of the failure of the expedition would be speedily carried to Wong-lih, provided the admiral happened to be still there.
High tide, Admiral Prince Wong-lih ascertained from his almanack, was at about seven-thirty on the following morning; so before daybreak all hands were mustered and preparations put in hand for running a hawser across to the Chih' Yuen.
Presently the captain saluted and went off about his own business, and Wong-lih, turning, caught sight of Drake and Frobisher. As his eyes fell upon the latter, he stood stock-still, his jaw dropped, his eyebrows went up, and he looked as though he had seen a ghost. "Why, Captain Frobisher," he exclaimed at last, coming forward and holding out his hand, "is it then really you?
Then, seizing a megaphone, Wong-lih hailed, and asked the stranger's name. A man in a drenched Naval uniform similar to that which Frobisher was wearing leant over the rail of her navigating bridge and gave a lengthy reply, which the Englishman, of course, could not understand; but from the expression on the admiral's face he could see that the news was not at all of a satisfactory character.
He was also informed that the expedition had failed, and that his friend was either dead or a prisoner. Wong-lih, said Drake, was greatly cut up at losing so promising an officer, a man, too, of whom he had made a friend; but he could not be induced to send a rescue party.
When Frobisher had finished his recital, Wong-lih pulled his long moustache thoughtfully for a few moments without speaking; then he said: "Well, Mr Frobisher, I am bound to admit that I think you have been very harshly treated. I do not consider that the fault lay with you at all, but with the men who ought to have been on the look-out aboard the steamer which ran you down.
You probably heard that the expedition failed for no other reason than that more than half our shells were filled with charcoal instead of gunpowder?" "Alas! alas! I did," replied Wong-lih; "and I wish I could promise you that such monstrous iniquities should never occur again. But I cannot.
"Of course I do not know Captain Drake, or how he would be likely to act under the circumstances," rejoined Wong-lih; "but I feel sure that by this time he will have learnt of the capture of the consignment news travels fast out here, you know; and knowing that you had fallen into the clutches of the Korean troops, he will, to put it bluntly, expect never to see you alive again.
But there, I need not tell a British Navy man how to do his business. Good-bye, my boy, and Heaven grant you a safe return!" he concluded, affectionately. The two men clasped hands, Wong-lih buried himself in a mass of papers, and Frobisher departed to bed to refresh himself in readiness to commence his duties early on the following morning.
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