"Of course he's a heathen. But I admit he makes you forget that, for in London and at Oxford he acquired the polish of an English gentleman. It was only when I noted the rascals surrounding him that I realized he was a Chinaman."
"To the death," said he, with a slight shudder. "They even tried to oppose their frail bodies between him and the ship's splintering timbers. Sir, it would have made you cringe to see their mangled remains----as I did. But the sacrifice did no good at all."
"I am positive. Surgical skill can do nothing to save him. If only old Death's-Head had perished with him," he added, with a glance toward the state cabin, "I should feel more reconciled. But Mai Lo happened to be in a safe place, and escaped."
"You never can tell a Chinaman's age from his looks," said the Doctor. "Yet I would wager that Mai Lo is sixty, if he's a day. I'm told that at home he's the governor of Prince Kai's native province, and a person of consequence."
"No one likes him, not even his young master," returned the Doctor. "By the way, how old should you judge Kai Lun Pu to be?"
"Perhaps the Prince is eighteen--or nineteen," I hazarded.
"He is seven-and-twenty. These Chinese seem to age very slowly, unless they're addicted to opium, like the coolies. Have a cigar, sir?"
I shook my head and went on deck, where Archie and Joe at once collared me with a demand to know what "His Royal Muchness, the Chink" had been talking about all the afternoon. I was quite full of the subject and told them as much as I knew about our injured passenger, adding that I was sincerely sorry the poor fellow must die.
Next morning after breakfast I was again summoned to attend Prince Kai Lun Pu. I may as well remark in this place that with the Chinese the surname comes first, and Kai was my new friend's family name, as mine is Steele. "Pu" with him stood in the place of "Sam" with me, and Lun was his middle name. But as the Chinese name always means something, a free translation of Kai Lun Pu into English would be "blossom of the tree," Kai being a tree, or in some connections the root of a tree. So the Prince's name was a very pretty and appropriate one, although it sounds so queer to our uncomprehending ears.