Blue Jackets | Page 8

little more screwing up.
Peng, peng, pang--pong.
Ching stopped, nursed the instrument upon his knee as if it were a baby,
pulled out the offending peg as if it were a tooth, moistened the hole,
replaced the peg, and began again--screw, screw, screw.
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Just a quarter of a tone out still, and he tried again diligently, while my
eyes half closed, and the Tanner and Blacksmith both nodded in the
heat.
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Right at last; and Ching threw himself back so that his mouth would
open to the widest extent, struck a chord on the three strings, and burst
forth with celestial accompaniment into what was in all probability a
passionate serenade, full of allusions to nightingales, moonbeams,
dew-wet roses, lattice-windows, and beautiful moon-faced maidens, but
which sounded to me like--
"Ti ope I ow wow, Ti ope I ow yow, Ti ope I ow tow, Ti ope I ligh."
The words, I say, sounded like that: the music it would be impossible to
give, for the whole blended together into so lamentable a howl, that
both Barkins and Smith started up into wakefulness from a deep sleep,
and the former looked wildly round, as confused and wondering he
exclaimed--
"What's matter?"
As for Smith, he seemed to be still half-asleep, and he sat up, staring
blankly at the performer, who kept on howling--I can call it nothing
else--in the most doleful of minor keys.

"I say," whispered Barkins, "did you set him to do that?"
I shook my head.
"Because--oh, just look! here are all the people coming out to see
what's the matter."
He was right as to the people coming, for in twos and threes, as they
finished the refreshment of which they had been partaking, first one
path was filled and then another, the people coming slowly up and
stopping to listen, while Barkins stared at them in blank astonishment.
"Here Nat--Poet," he whispered, "look at 'em."
"I am looking," I said. "Isn't it just like a picture?"
"It's like an old firescreen," he said; "but I don't mean that. Look! Hang
me if the beggars don't seem to like it. Can't you stop him?"
"No, of course not."
"But how long will it be before he has run down?"
"I don't know," I whispered. "But look, aren't those like some of the
men we saw by the gates?"
I drew his attention to about half-a-dozen fierce-looking men in showy
coats and lacquered hats, who came up to the garden, stared hard at us,
and then walked in. Each of them, I noticed, wore a sword, and a kind
of dagger stuck in his belt, and this made me at once recall their
offensive looks and contemptuous manner towards us, and think of how
far we were away from the ship, and unarmed, save for the ornamental
dirks which hung from our belts, weapons that would have been, even if
we had known how to use them, almost like short laths against the
Chinamen's heavy, broad-bladed, and probably sharp swords.
"I say, Gnat," whispered Barkins, "those must be the chaps we saw at
the mandarin's gate. Never mind; we'll ask them to have something as
soon as old Ching has finished his howling."

But that did not seem likely to be for some time, and I began to think, as
I sat there noticing how the men were gradually closing in upon us,
that our position was not very safe, right away from the landing-place,
and that we had done wrong in stopping so long where we were. I knew
that the Chinese were obsequious and humble enough so long as they
were face to face with a stronger power, but if they had the upper hand,
cruel and merciless to any one not of their own nation, and that it was
wiser to give them a wide berth.
Then I began to think that the captain had been too ready to believe in
our prestige in giving us leave to go, and that we should have been
wiser if we had stayed on board. Finally, I had just come to the
conclusion that we ought to stop Ching in his howling or singing,
which grew more and more vehement as he saw that his audience was
increasing, when Smith jogged my elbow.
"I say," he whispered, "let's get away from here."
"Why?" I said, to get to know what he thought.
"Because I'm afraid those chaps with the swords mean mischief."
"I say, lads," said Barkins, leaning towards us, "aren't those chaps
crowding us up rather? What do they mean? Here, I'm senior, and the
skipper said I was to take care of you youngsters. We'll go back to the
wharf at once."
"What's the good?" said Smith. "The boat won't be there to fetch us