ClIAP. III. 
AN ALARM. 
51 
us ; but had we not been awake and fully prepared, it 
would soon have been all over with us." 
I must confess I felt a little shaken in my opinion, 
and scarcely knew what to think of the business. The 
whole scene, to a looker-on who could have foreseen 
the result, would have been highly amusing, but it ap- 
peared to be much too serious for me to enjoy it. None 
of the other passengers were asleep, although they were 
all in bed, and they kept up a whispering conversation, 
which seemed ominous and suspicious. I felt quite 
certain that no assistance would be rendered us by them ; 
on the contrary, it was not impossible that they would 
turn against us and assist the boatmen. 
About half an hour after the first alarm the city gate 
was again opened, and some men were observed coming 
down the hill with lanterns, as the former ones had 
done. This time it proved to be the missing boatmen, 
who were supposed to be concocting a conspiracy with 
their friends inside the city. When they came on board 
they tried to look astonished at the state in which they 
found us. They laughed at Wang, and said they had 
no intention of drowning him. He quietly told them 
that he did not believe them, and, turning to me, said 
he was sure they still meditated an attack. The fellows 
now lay down to sleep, and requested us to put out our 
lantern a.nd do the same. This, however, my servants 
would not consent to do, as they firmly believed that the 
sleep of the boatmen was only feigned. 
We were in this state of excitement from eight o'clock 
in the evening until three next morning. Long before 
this time the boatmen seemed to be sound asleep. The 
D 2 
