The afternoon slipped away as if by magic in these new and fascinating surroundings. They wove in and out among the countless shops, picking up souvenirs here and there, until their pockets were much heavier and their purses correspondingly lighter. Articles were secured for a song that would have cost them ten times as much in any American city, if indeed they could be bought at all. The ivory carvers, workers in jade, silk dealers, painters of rice-paper pictures, porcelain and silver sellers--all these were many _cash_ richer by the time the boys, tired but delighted, turned back to the shore and were conveyed to the _Fearless_.
"Well," smiled the doctor, as they came up the side, "how did you enjoy your first day ashore in China?"
"Simply great," responded Bert, enthusiastically, while the others concurred. "I never had so many new sensations crowding upon me at one time in all my whole life before. As a matter of fact I'm bewildered by it yet. I suppose it will be some days before I can digest it and have a clear recollection of all we've seen and done to-day."
"Yes," said the doctor, "but, even yet, you haven't seen the real China. Hong-Kong is so largely English that even the native quarter is more or less influenced by it. Now, Canton is Chinese through and through. Although of course there are foreign residents there, they form so small a part of the population that they are practically nil. It's only about seventy miles away, and I'm going down there to-morrow on a little business of my own. How would you fellows like to come along? Provided, of course, that the captain agrees."
Needless to say the boys agreed with a shout, and the consent of the captain was readily obtained.
"What's the matter with taking the 'Gray Ghost' along?" put in Tom.
"No," said he. "That would be all right if the roads were good. Of course they're fine here in the city and for a few miles out. But beyond that they're simply horrible. If it should be rainy you'd be mired to the hubs, and even if the weather keeps dry, the roads in places are mere footpaths. They weren't constructed with a view to automobile riding."
So they took an English river steamer the next day, and before night reached the teeming city, full of color and picturesque to a degree not attained by any other coast city of the Empire. Their time was limited and there was so much to see that they scarcely knew where to begin. But here again the vast experience of the doctor stood them in good stead. Under his expert guidance next day they visited the Tartar City, the Gate of Virtue, the Flowery Pagoda, the Clepsydra or Water Clock, the Viceroy's Yamen, the City of the Dead, and the Temple of the Five Hundred Genii. The latter was a kind of Chinese "Hall of Fame," with images of the most famous statesmen, soldiers, scholars, and philosophers that the country had produced. Before their shrines fires were kept constantly burning, and the place was heavy with the pungent odor of joss sticks and incense.