230 A CENTRE OF TRADE 



mother's soothing croon. It soon ceased, but it 

 was half an hour before we got clear. 



" Are you all right ? " called the skipper. 



A man's voice answered. " He says he's all 

 right, but he doesn't like floating about in the 

 straits at midnight with no mast," called some 

 one. 



I sympathised with his feelings, but of course he 

 had no right to be there. 



It was a far cry to the Straits of Shimonoseki, 

 but I always remember that little frightened 

 whimper in the darkness so soon comforted. 



The telegraph wires were hot with messages, 

 and from JMr. Ross we gathered all the latest 

 rumours. 



The revolutionary authorities had telegraphed 

 to the Viceroy to request all foreigners to leave, as 

 Lanchow was to be invested. Three armies were 

 said to be converging on the city from Sian-fu to 

 the east, Tsin-chow to the south, and Ningsia-fu 

 to the north. 



Chang-i-Chien, the artilleryman who was in 

 command at Sian-fu, had sworn to capture Lanchow 

 or raze it to the ground. The Viceroy, on condi- 

 tion that he evacuated the place, was promised his 

 life : as, though a Manchu, he had the reputation 

 of being an honest and unselfish man, M^ho had not 

 used his official position to enrich his own pocket. 

 Ma-an-Liang, the son of the great Mohammedan 

 leader who had given the Chinese government so 

 much trouble fifty years before, and had finally, 

 after twelve years of war, been bribed with high 

 office, is the leader of the Mohammedans in Kansu. 

 They are well armed, aloof, and make much better 



