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matter. The curious happening vexed him considerably. It seemed such
an idiotic trick to play; and the more he thought about the matter the
more convinced he became that this joke, or whatever it was intended to
be, had a deeper significance than he had at first imagined.

Since his arrival in China he had contrived to acquire a fragmentary
knowledge of the language, and by its means he endeavoured to ascertain
from the man who nightly brought him food the reason for the apparently
senseless prank; but the fellow either could not or would not
understand, and Frobisher was obliged to give up the attempt.

The jailer had hitherto been in the habit of closing the iron-bound door
behind him with a slam, rattling the lock after him to make sure that it
was fastened, when he brought the prisoner's food; and this circumstance
had come to be so expected by Frobisher that when, on the evening of the
day on which his boots had disappeared, the man simply pulled the door
to gently behind him and went off about his business without even trying
the lock, the omission immediately attracted the Englishman's attention.

The man had never before been so careless, and Frobisher could not
decide whether he had been thinking of something else at the moment, and
had succumbed to an attack of absent-mindedness, or whether he had
suddenly recollected something that he had forgotten, and intended to
pay another visit to the cell. Whichever it might be, Frobisher
believed he saw in the circumstance a possibility of escape of which he
instantly determined to avail himself.

With stealthy footsteps he crept across the stone-flagged floor,
scarcely daring to breathe lest his movements should attract some
inconvenient person's attention. He had, it is true, heard the jailer
walk away down the corridor; but perhaps, playing some stupid joke, the
man had crept back noiselessly, and was even now outside the door,
listening and chuckling to himself at the prisoner's foolishness in
imagining that he would be careless enough to go away leaving the door
unfastened. The mere idea caused the beads of sweat to start out on
Frobisher's forehead; disappointment would be too terrible!

But he swiftly pulled himself together, and, with fingers that trembled
in spite of himself, he touched the old-fashioned latch and slowly, very
slowly, raised it, pulling the door gently toward him as he did so.

The door opened, and, scarcely daring to credit his se