the ground gave off jets of steam; there
was vapour rising from boulders on the river-bed, and the stab of a
stick into the warm, moist soil was followed by a little pool of warm
water. The existing supply was not enough for the inhabitants. They were
mining for more in a casual and disconnected fashion. I tried to crawl
down a shaft eighteen inches by two feet in the hillside, but the steam,
which had no effect on the Japanese hide, drove me out. What happens, I
wonder, when the pick strikes the liquid, and the miner has to run or be
parboiled?

In the twilight, when we had reached upper earth once more and were
passing through the one street of Myanoshita, we saw two small fat
cherubs about three years old taking their evening tub in a barrel sunk
under the eaves of a shop. They feigned great fear, peeping at us behind
outspread fingers, attempting futile dives, and trying to hide one
behind the other in a hundred poses of spankable chubbiness, while their
father urged them to splash us. It was the prettiest picture of the day,
and one worth coming even to the sticky, paint-reeking hotel to see.

* * * * *

He was dressed in a black frock-coat, and at first I took him for a
missionary as he mooned up and down the empty corridor.

"I have been under a ban for three days," he whispered in a husky voice,
"through no fault of mine--no fault of mine. They told me to take the
third watch, but they didn't give me a printed notification which I
always require, and the manager of this place says that whisky would
hurt me. Through no fault of mine, God knows, no fault of mine!"

I do not like being shut up in an echoing wooden hotel next door to a
gentleman of the marine persuasion, who is just recovering from D. T.,
and who talks to himself all through the dark hours.

No. XVIII

CONCERNING A HOT-WATER TAP, AND SOME GENERAL CONVERSATION.

"Always speak to the stranger. If he doesn't shoot, the chances
are he'll answer you."--_Western Proverb._

It is a far cry from Myanoshita to Michni and Mandalay. That is why we
have met men from both those stations, and have spent a cheerful time
talking about dacoits and the Black Mountain Expedition. One of the
advantages of foreign travel is that one takes such a keen interest in,
and hears so much about, Home. Truly, they change their trains, but not
their train of thought, who run across the sea.

"This is a most extraordinary