Somebody might stumble over it and bark their shins." Now this, as you can conceive, roused a powerful commotion in the room.
They were all on their feet, captains and mariners and men-at-arms, cheering or grumbling, and arguing the rights and wrongs of the matter.
All but the sea-captain, who saw it all, and he never blinked an eyelid, never even missed a draw of the pipe.
And then Marco Polo knew him to be a Chinaman, because, as all the world knows, Chinamen are never surprised at anything..