396 



ONE MAN ARRESTED. 



Chap. XX. 



and many other necessaries which they supposed 

 would be required on the voyage. The old white- 

 buttoned mandarin who had become security for 

 them, accompanied them to see them safely away, 

 and very anxious he seemed to be to get them off, 

 and thus get rid of the responsibility which he 

 had taken upon his shoulders, and for which he, 

 no doubt, took care to be well paid. 



But now another difficulty presented itself in 

 the shape of a creditor who came down and seized 

 one of the men for debt. In the noise which 

 accompanied and succeeded this seizure it was 

 quite impossible to understand the nature of the 

 case, and to interfere in the matter would only 

 have made things worse. There was nothing to 

 be done except to wait as patiently as possible 

 and allow the contending parties to settle the 

 matter themselves. The business was arranged 

 in some way at last, and as a boat was alongside 

 the jetty, we got them into it and sculled off to 

 the steamer, which was lying in the middle of the 

 river with her steam up and ready for sea. 



As the ninth man did not make his appearance, 

 I told the old mandarin with the white button 

 that he would have to return me the hundred 

 dollars I had advanced and the amount of the 

 man's passage-money, should it not be refunded 

 by the agents of the Peninsular and Oriental 

 Company. This he acknowledged was perfectly 

 just, but at this moment another man came on 

 board and offered to go as a substitute for the 



