Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/247

 excellent chance to part company from his brother's protégee.

"Yes, yes!" cried the official, wholly unwilling that any evidence in the case should be left behind.

So Alan, with a groan, bundled Ping-Pong under his arm, and the whole procession set forth through shiny waterside streets. At the first turn Alan cast back toward the Sham-Poo one despairing look. She lay quietly, her half-furled sail looped over her deck-house, the idle yulow inboard. He knew very well that he would never see her again.

And presently they arrived at the yamen, gray and austere in its courtyard, where scribes and students hurried to and fro. The treasure-box was plumped down and opened before the eyes of high authority, and Alan was pushed forward. The magistrate, in his round cap and large spectacles, looked solemnly down and listened to a long tale which the police captain gabbled in swift Chinese—how wrongly told Alan had no means of knowing. His own story, when he was allowed to tell it, was listened to in silence. He explained as much of the original purpose of the expedition as he thought any one