To evade the direct question she
was obliged to abandon her defiant attitude. "If you please, sir," she
said hurriedly, with an increasing color and no stops, "we're not always
Pirates, you know, and Wan Lee is only our boy what brushes my shoes in
the morning, and runs of errands, and he doesn't mean anything bad, sir,
and we'd like to take him back home with us."
"Enough," said the leader, changing his entire manner with the most
sudden and shameless inconsistency. "You shall go back together, and woe
betide the miscreant who would prevent it! What say you, brothers?
What shall be his fate who dares to separate our noble Queen from her
faithful Chinese henchman?"
"He shall die!" roared the others, with beaming cheerfulness.
"And what say you--shall we see them home?"
"We will!" roared the others.
Before the children could fairly comprehend what had passed, they were
again lifted into the truck and began to glide back into the tunnel they
had just quitted. But not again in darkness and silence; the entire band
of Red rovers accompanied them, illuminating the dark passage with the
candles they had snatched from the walls.
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