Read "The Boy Fortune Hunters in China" by L. Frank Baum online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
When we arrived on deck again the wind had freshened and the pleasant spell of weather we had lately experienced seemed likely to leave us. But our gallant _Seagull_ headed the waves merrily, with scarcely any heaving of her swanlike body, and we knew her staunchness so well that we did not dread any weather that might overtake us.
Finding a sheltered position in the waist, we three boys eagerly discussed our important interview with the Prince and the chances of success in the adventure offered us.
"He's made everything so blamed easy for us that it's like taking candy from a babe," said Archie, gleefully.
"He has certainly proved himself a generous friend," I assented. "It's a pity he must die. I'd rather have him alive and my friend, than to get the treasure. Eh, Joe?"
"Exactly," answered Joe, in his quiet voice.
"I like the chap, too," said Archie, "but our sentiment won't alter the facts in the case, will it? Here's a treasure -- and a whopper, too, I imagine -- calling to us to come and take it, and -- -- "
"And here's Mai Lo, who wants it himself," added Joe.
"Oh, him! " cried Archie, scornfully.
"Joe's right," said I, thoughtfully; "Mai Lo is a power to be reckoned with. Even the Prince fears him."
"I don't," declared Archie, "the man's a dummy. Anyone that'll kow-tow and get on his knees the way this fellow does, is a coward and a sneak."
"The doctor," said Joe, softly, "calls him 'Old Death's-Head."
"Well, what of it?"
"I'm afraid of Death."
We both started at this; but Archie, recovering courage, asked:
"What can one miserable Chinaman do, opposed to three Americans?"
"Very little, in America," replied Joe. "But we're going to his own country, to China, where old Death's-Head is a high mandarin, and the governor of a province. He won't kow-tow there, for the Prince is his only superior, and the Prince will be deep under the ocean soon."
We thought this over. There was usually something to think over when Joe made a long speech.
"Do you mean, then, that you're scared out; that you won't undertake this thing? " demanded Archie, finally.
"No," said Joe, "I'm going to China. That is, if you fellows are game to go with me."
"That's the way to talk!"