ised his danger and that his lease of life could
now be counted by seconds. His thoughts flew straight to Sophy; with a
sensation of piercing agony he felt that he would never see her again.
By extraordinary good fortune a steam launch which was crossing had
noticed the swimmer's dark head, as well as the shouts and the signals
from the landing-stage, and promptly overtook him, drew him breathless
and half drowned on board, and landed him at Dallah. Shafto had had a
miraculous escape, for those who fall into the Irrawaddy rarely emerge
alive; his adventure was much discussed and debated for one whole day
at Gregory's and elsewhere.

"How on earth did it happen? Lucky you were clear of the ship,
otherwise you would have been sucked underneath and never been found,"
remarked a friend; "we cannot imagine how you tumbled in--did anyone
_shove_ you?"

"Oh, I just tripped over a rope," he announced, when questioned at the
Club; but to FitzGerald he confided the truth--the whole truth:

"I was standing pretty close to the edge of the stage--among a lot of
natives, as it happened--taking snapshots of the elephants, when all of
a sudden I felt a rope twist round my legs; it gave a sort of sharp
pull, and the next moment I was in the water! It's a nasty experience
to have the Irrawaddy closing over your head; I have its taste in my
mouth still! I'll swear that there were hands at the end of the rope,
and that I saw no rope about when I first came on the pier, for I
happened to be early--and it was pretty empty. Later, there was a big
crowd and a lot of pushing and hustling. I noticed several Chinamen
hanging round and pressing together; now that I come to think of it,
they surrounded me. The rope was not the usual thick hawser, but
something thinner and more flexible--more like whipcord such as a
fellow could carry in his pocket."

"What did I tell you?" said FitzGerald, thumping on the table with both
his fists. "We must get a move on and try to corner Krauss; that rope
was a preliminary experiment, and all but landed you in Kingdom Come!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

MA CHIT

Although Shafto had many acquaintances and continual engagements, he
never forgot his first friends, the Salters, and still strolled over of
an evening, accompanied by Roscoe, to sit in the veranda, talk, smoke,
and listen, until his companions began to discuss such abstract
questions as, "What is the real driving force of life?" or to argue on