Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/220

 houses perched on stilts above sticky mud-flats, where pigs and pariah dogs roamed dejectedly. Beyond usually rose the grey-white shape of the pagoda, and perhaps some ancient mansions among fir-groves, but no trace of Western civilization. There might or might not be some English official, some American missionary, yet how could the boys be sure of finding him among the babbling, uncomprehending crowd?

No, it was out of the question, so they sailed on. When the wind fell, Mark and Alan each took their trick at the sweep and sculled their boat erratically onward. Many other craft passed; sometimes the Chinese stared at the boys with a shrewd, curious gaze.

"Though we must look pretty much like some sort of coolies by this time," Alan commented.

Their appearance, in truth, was rather wild. They were extremely dirty, their hair unbrushed and their faces sun-browned. Mark wore a blue linen coat which he had found on board, and looked like some strange outcast from the frontiers of civilization. Their first night they passed in some discomfort. When darkness made navigation at first difficult and