By this time the Phantom's sailing powers have put her far ahead, and it is possible to see how the race is faring. The wind is only patchy, and the heavier boats are being left in the lurch.
Once past the Pootung mark boat—which by the way had lost its anchor and was in no very certain frame of mind as to its exact location—there is a run to the Gardens. A boat train comes puffing out of the Soochow Creek, but the Phantom is well ahead, and escapes a detour. Not so the Ella, the next boat in order. She is imprisoned, as it were, on the Pootung shore, and has to carry on down river to clear herself.
Apparently the train gives equal trouble to others, but by this time the traffic on the river is so thick that it is difficult to see what is really happening. In fact the Phantom has here to make a narrow passage between a coal boat and a belated junk, so even the mark boat at the Gardens disappears from immediate view.
And so round again a second time, and then home. The work of pulling up alongside the pontoon is even more difficult than the race itself. There are not only junks
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.