The foreigner now was more interested than ever, and as Kid Shar-kee was returning he instructed his laodah to hail him to "come on board and have a drink." The pirate showed no fear whatever as to coming alongside, though he positively refused to leave his own boat. Then, with the help of a boy, he was questioned as to his conduct and replied that he was a Customs man.
"Oh, no," said the foreigner, "you are a thief and some time you will lose your head."
This sent the pirate into roars—of laughter. There was no fear of "that, said he,.for there were many men in his band and they had plenty of arms and ammunition. They were too strong for the forees of the law and the country people knew this, so that there was not the slightest objection made to the collection of: toll and not the least danger about the collection of it. That was why he, single-handed andi without any display of arms, could hold up a fleet of cargo boats in the manner just seen. That was all, and the cheery pirate, quite unconcerned, wished the foreigner al] joy and departed.
So that is the state of affairs within rifle shot of the Arsenal. Some years ago, the Flying Oars,"' Government sampans manned by. a composite crew of sailors and police, well armed and very fast over the water, used to dispense quick justice amongst these river pirates and the trade then was neither healthy nor flourishing. There still are many police sampans about, fast and trim boats, mounting small pieces of for the robbers feed themselves ' ordnance—sometimes maxim guns —bow and stern, and they are a very familiar sight along both the Huangpu and the Yangtze. They are amongst the few things in China that always are kept clean and smart, but so they should be, for the sight of one of them away from its anchorage in a creek is as rate xs a record-breaking sub-griffin, One wonders if the Arsenal authorities have heard of the wooden horse of Troy. A dozen armed men could lie very comfortably under a load of melons.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.