276 TROPIC DAYS 



He yelled with vexation, fear, and pain. 



"Ye can holler as much as ye have the moind ter. 

 Be jabers, the next hay then Chinkee that gits out of 

 the darbies I clap on'm '11 be a slippery, slathery eel, 

 and meself after fergittin' to maake a knot in his taale 1 

 Come quiet, me good haythen, and I'll dale aisy wid 

 yer." 



Hu Dra securely manacled to a scented gum, Tim 

 dealt with the baskets, capsizing the contents and 

 belabouring them with the bamboo until they looked 

 as if they had been the playthings of a baboon. Hu 

 Dra watched the foundation of his fortune vanish. He 

 wailed. 



"Come away, me bhoy 1 I arrest ye, Tsing Hi, fer 

 escaping from lawful custody. Ye may be charged 

 also with resisting the pollis in the execution of dooty. 

 It's a sarious charge. If ye come quiet I'll maake it 

 aisy fer ye. If ye maake it a haard job for me, be 

 gorra I'll maake ye sorry ful 1" 



Hu Dra gathered that it was a case of mistaken 

 identity. He endeavoured to explain that he was 

 Hu Dra, and not Tsing Hi. Tim curtly informed him 

 that he was none other than Tsing Hi, that he had 

 been convicted of stealing gold, and while on the way 

 to Cooktown had wilfully and with malice aforethought 

 escaped from legal custody. He would be taken to 

 Cooktown at once. Hu Dra understood but little of 

 the harangue, but being a pious Buddhist, having 

 once climbed the Holy Mountain to gain merit, and 

 being in the hands of a strong man armed, he accepted 

 the fate of the moment. Meekly he followed Tim to 

 the spot where the horses had been left, and was 

 hoisted into the saddle and manacled. It was all a 

 dreadful mystery, but he was sage enough to accept 

 hard facts. 



