"You dlunk! You velly dlunk!" he said.
The Professor did not understand the meaning of the words. But he felt, he understood, the contempt which underlay them. For a moment he was hurt.
Could it, then, be that Jemchug, the great Tchuktche Chief to whom he had given as fief the Empire of Khorassan, had turned traitor?
Suddenly a great rage overcame him.
"Die, traitor!" he shouted, and he smote the Chinaman over the head with his elastic rattan cane.
Wu Kee became enraged in his turn.
"Wassahellamallayou?" he asked, all in one word.
He picked up a nearly red-hot pressing-iron and applied it with savage aim on the seat of the Professor's trousers.
Barker Harrison yelled with pain and fury.
"Treason! Treason!" he shouted. "Kublai Khan! Brother mine! To the rescue! To the rescue!"
He rushed out of the shop.
He ran up and down the street, waving his rattan cane.
Where was Kublai Khan? Where was his beloved brother, he of the great thirst?
