Chinaman laugh tellin' him things, for I could speak their lingo very well, you understand—well, after a very pleasant trip we gets to Soochow, and a rummy old place it was. It stood right on top of the river, with its old walls runnin' straight down into the muddy water. It was a strong town and important, a town of fighters and wealthy merchantmen. Well, they was all very pleased to see me and received me very proper. Most of 'em was a-lookin' over the wall a-wavin' flags at me, and them as 'adn't got none were a-wavin' their pigtails. I might 'ave been the great Cham for all the fuss they made o' me. O' course, mind you, I had my enemies. There was a sort o' lord mayor o' the place wot I could see didn't quite approve of me bein' the nine days' wonder, but he was one of them self-centred sort o' coves wot don't like any one to have a fling but hisself. But I didn't mind him, for, although I was only a little fellow, I had an eye like a vulture, a nose like a swordfish, and when I was put out, a way of lashin' myself about like a tiger's tail wot used to scare them natives. O' course, mind you, it wasn't pleasant when you come to think of it, 'cos there I was the only Englishman amongst them millions of yellow jacks. But an Englishman's an Englishman all the world over, ain't he, Captain? and he wants a bit of squashin', and so that lord mayor discovered, 'cos one day I walked right up to him in the street and I clacked my teeth at him so very loud that he ran home and never annoyed
