nly by combining European and Chinese interests on the modern
company system, the real Opening of China can be effected.

* * * * *

Distances are as variable as the wind in the Middle Kingdom.

The first forty li on this journey were much shorter than the last
thirty, which took about twice as long to cover. I dragged along over
the narrow path through the wheat fields, and, making for an old man,
who looked as if he should know, I asked him the distance to my
destination. His reply of twenty li I accepted as accurate, and I
reckoned that I could cover this easily in a couple of hours. But at the
end of this time we had, according to a casual wayfarer, five more li,
and when we had covered at least four another rustic said it was "two
and a bit." This answer we got from four different people on the way,
and I was glad when I had completed the journey. One does not mind the
two li so much--it is the "bit" which upsets one's calculations.

The following day, on the road to Huan-chiang, I lost myself--that is, I
lost my men, and did not know the road. I got away into some quaint,
secluded garden and sat down, tired and hot, under a tree in the shade,
where a faint wind swung the heavy foliage with a solemn sound, and the
subdued and soothing music of a brook running between two banks of moss
and turf must have sent me to sleep. It was with a dreary sense of
ominous foreboding that I woke, as if in expectation of some disaster.
Not a living creature was visible, and I doubted the possibility of
finding anyone in such a spot. Never, surely, was there a silence
anywhere as here! Seized with a solemn fear, my presence there seemed to
me a strange intrusion. I looked around, moved forward a little,
hastened my steps to get away, but whence or how I knew not. I knew this
was a country of erratic distances--it was now getting on for
sunset--and the continuous toiling up and down the sides of the
difficult mountains had tired me. All of a sudden I heard a noise, heard
someone fall, looked round and beheld T'ong, perspiration pouring down
his back and front.

"Oh, master, this b'long velly much bobbery. I makee velly frightened. I
think p'laps master wantchee makee run away." And then, after a time:
"You no wantchee catch 'chow'?"

"Chow?"

No, I could easily have gone without food for that night. I was lost,
and now was found. I had no money, could not speak the language, was
fatigued beyond