"Well, they took my ship, too."
"Big schooner your shipee?"
"Yes."
"Won Lung weep for you—all ship gone up spout, samee like Won Lung's ship gone up spout!"
"Well, we haven't gone up the spout yet," put in Larry, with a laugh. "Let us thank fortune that we are alive and well."
"Dat so—Won Lung lose fliends on junk—six, seven, ten—don't know how many yet," and the Chinese officer shook his head sadly. "Bad war, bad!"
"Can you tell us how the war is going?" asked Tom Grandon. "These Russians say everything is a Russian victory."
"Russians sayee dat?"
"Yes—they pretend to say they have the Japs about beaten."
At this Won Lung screwed up his eyes into mere slits.
"Big lie dat. Japanese win everyt'ing allee timee. Russian warships gone up spout—Russian army run like—like—up spout!"
After that Won Lung told them all he knew. It was hard to understand him, yet they gathered that there had been another sea fight in the vicinity of Port Arthur, in which the Russian navy had come off second best, and that the Japanese army that had
