"Be varry careful," he whispered, and we groped our way down some irregular stone steps. We could hear them still banging away at the courtyard door. I kept on bruising my feet and toes in the cracks, and stumbling, but the old Scotchman always seemed to keep me from falling; and at last we seemed to be at the bottom, and near some water—I could hear it lapping against the stones. "Hush!" he whispered, and bent down, stretched out his hand, got hold of a rope, began hauling it in, and a native boat came sliding up, out of the dark.
"Get in—quick!" he whispered, and we all stumbled in, one after the other, and he jumped in after us. Right above us I could see two lighted windows, and knew they were those two rooms, and as he shoved off we heard a splintering sound—the big door had given way—and heard the mob rushing across the courtyard, yelling in the most fearful manner, and begin banging at the house door.
I had hurt my arm again getting into the boat, and the pain of it must have numbed me, because I quite well remember that I wasn’t so frightened then as I ought to have been.
We could just see the strange man standing up in the stern, swaying from side to side, and working a scull as the boat wriggled through the water.
"It’s aboot twa hours afore high water, and we’ve the flood wi’ us, the Lord be praised!" he whispered. "Keep down oot o’ sight," and we tried to squirm down into the bottom of the boat below the gunwales.
He stopped and stooped down, and we saw that he was putting on some kind of a Chinaman’s coat and a native cap.
Just in Time—Too Late!—In Hiding—Mr. Ching Arrives—Death of Mr. Hoffman—The Attack on the House—The Vigilant Signals—The Fog Increases—Searching for Rifles—Ford finds the Ammunition—Ford Saves the Situation—Waiting for Daybreak
We went wriggling along through the dark, and presently began to pass between junks—heaps of them. You could see nothing but their tall leaning masts sticking up like slate pencils. We dodged in and out, and sometimes a voice would sing out from one of them, and we would huddle down in the bottom of the boat, whilst the Scotchman replied in what I suppose was Chinese, and pushed on.
We must have gone like this for nearly twenty minutes, I should imagine, and then he stopped to take a breath.