'll be all right when my ship comes in; anyhow, I'll
have had a good time--I'll have _that_ to look back upon when I'm an
old fellow upon the shelf. Now you," suddenly turning to stare at
MacNab, "never spend a rupee; you wouldn't take a taxi to save your
life, never go to a cinema or a concert, nothing that costs money; you
just bicycle and drink lemon squashes and write home."

"Oh, if you want to ride in taxis and go to cinemas, you might as well
be in London," put in Roscoe, who had joined them.

"I wish to the Lord I was!" declared FitzGerald; "standing at the
corner of Piccadilly Circus this blessed minute, and making up my mind
whether to go to the Criterion grill or to Prince's?"

"But as you happen to be in Rangoon, and _not_ Piccadilly Circus, why
don't you open your eyes and see the place, and enjoy it?"

"_Enjoy_!" repeated FitzGerald with a dramatic gesture; "see it? I see
a deal too much of it; while you fellows are snoozing in bed, I'm
turning out filthy liquor shops, drug stores, tea houses, and stopping
Chinese fights, smuggling and murder."

"Yes, we know all that," rejoined Roscoe; "you look into the dark,
Shafto and I see the bright side of this country."

"Oh, yes, you're a bright pair, and here, I'm off!" exclaimed the
police officer, as he suddenly caught sight of a mounted orderly and
thundered down the stairs.

Roscoe was neither economical, nor yet extravagant; he patronised the
theatres and shows, made expeditions into the country on "Later On,"
read many books, and occasionally took a trip up the river in a cargo
boat.

Shafto and Roscoe had one taste in common--a craving to see, know,
understand and, as it were, get under the skin of this wonderful land.
An impossible achievement! From the first they had been drawn
together; they were searching in an eager way for the same object; they
had both been at a public school and once, when Shafto dropped a word
about Sandhurst, Roscoe said:

"I was intended for the Army, but I couldn't pass the doctor--rather a
facer after scraping through the exam.; when that was knocked on the
head, I got a post as assistant-master, but I couldn't stick it for
more than a couple of years; after that, I was in a newspaper office;
then I got badly stage-struck and went on the boards. Unfortunately, I
was not a success; I never could do the love parts--I neither bellowed
nor whined; at last my people got fairly sick of me, I was so often
'resting,' an