At last the boat came alongside, the gangway was lowered, and a moment later Walworth, accompanied by a big, clumsily built man with a heavy sensual face, small ferretty eyes, a curled moustache, and dark hair, appeared up the side. He seemed to wonder what was required of him, and it was evident that so far he had no idea into whose hands he had fallen. I glanced at Alie, as he appeared on deck, to discover that she was regarding him out of half-closed eyes, just as she had looked at Kwong Fung before she had ordered him off to execution, and at Ebbington in the cabin half an hour before.
"Will you let me say that I am more than pleased to see you, Mr. Barkmansworth?" she said in her silkiest tone as he gained the deck. "It was only last month I heard that you were coming to China to take up your residence among us. It is my desire to offer you a warm welcome to the East, hence this reception in mid-ocean. Mr. Walworth, will you be good enough to bring Mr. Ebbington to me?"
Walworth went below, and presently returned with the prisoner.
"Mr. Ebbington," said Alie, as the man she addressed took his place beside the newly erected funnel, "I have sent for you in order that you may see for yourself how I show my appreciation of those whom the world, to my thinking, does not properly reward. Mr. Barkmansworth, in case you may not know in whose presence you now stand, let me inform you that I am the woman you have so often expressed a desire to meet. I am she whom you boasted in Sydney, a year ago, you would flog when she fell into your hands, as you flogged those
