were all taken
out on the street before the prison and well beaten with sticks to the
gleeful shouts of the multitude. The Asiatic is a cruel beast, and
delights in spectacles of human suffering.

At any rate we were pleased when an end to our beatings came. This was
caused by the arrival of Kim. Kim? All I can say, and the best I can
say, is that he was the whitest man I ever encountered in Cho-Sen. He
was a captain of fifty men when I met him. He was in command of the
palace guards before I was done doing my best by him. And in the end he
died for the Lady Om's sake and for mine. Kim--well, Kim was Kim.

Immediately he arrived the planks were taken from our necks and we were
lodged in the beet inn the place boasted. We were still prisoners, but
honourable prisoners, with a guard of fifty mounted soldiers. The next
day we were under way on the royal highroad, fourteen sailormen astride
the dwarf horses that obtain in Cho-Sen, and bound for Keijo itself. The
Emperor, so Kim told me, had expressed a desire to gaze upon the
strangeness of the sea devils.

It was a journey of many days, half the length of Cho-Sen, north and
south as it lies. It chanced, at the first off-saddling, that I strolled
around to witness the feeding of the dwarf horses. And what I witnessed
set me bawling, "What now, Vandervoot?" till all our crew came running.
As I am a living man what the horses were feeding on was bean soup, hot
bean soup at that, and naught else did they have on all the journey but
hot bean soup. It was the custom of the country.

They were truly dwarf horses. On a wager with Kim I lifted one, despite
his squeals and struggles, squarely across my shoulders, so that Kim's
men, who had already heard my new name, called me Yi Yong-ik, the Mighty
One. Kim was a large man as Koreans go, and Koreans are a tall muscular
race, and Kim fancied himself a bit. But, elbow to elbow and palm to
palm, I put his arm down at will. And his soldiers and the gaping
villagers would look on and murmur "Yi Yong-ik."

In a way we were a travelling menagerie. The word went on ahead, so that
all the country folk flocked to the roadside to see us pass. It was an
unending circus procession. In the towns at night our inns were besieged
by multitudes, so that we got no peace until the soldiers drove them off
with lance-pricks and blows. But first Kim would call for the village
strong men and wrestlers for the fun of seeing me crum