ed himself to be. But for the present
Bill would discuss nothing of the kind. He was thoroughly content to
sit beside Archie on the warm steamer deck, and watch the ever varied
surface of the Indian Ocean.

CHAPTER XXIII.

HONG KONG--A HAPPY TIME IN TOKIO--HONOLULU AGAIN--ARRIVAL IN SAN
FRANCISCO, AND A GREAT RECEPTION BY THE PRESS--ARCHIE AND BILL ARRIVE IN
NEW YORK, AND ARE THE HEROES OF THE HOUR.

AFTER a short and pleasant voyage they reached Hong Kong, and Archie
found this city to be much more interesting than he had expected to find
it. It was charming, he thought, to run across a place which combined
the conveniences of England and America with the picturesque oddities
of China and Japan, and he enjoyed himself to the utmost during the two
days they spent there. Bill Hickson enjoyed the place, too, and they
would both have liked to remain longer had it been possible for them to
do so, but they were anxious to see something of Japan before sailing
for San Francisco, and their steamer was due to leave Yokohama in eleven
days.

But they did enjoy Hong Kong to the utmost while they were there. They
called first, of course, upon the American consul, whom they found to be
an exceedingly pleasant man. They learned, to their great surprise, that
he had read of Archie Dunn, and of Bill Hickson, too, in the Enterprise,
and Archie began to think that his paper had a much wider circulation
than even the editors claimed for it. He thought it very remarkable,
at first, that a man living in Hong Kong should have read about his
Philippine experiences in a New York paper, but of course, after he
thought of it awhile, it didn't seem such a very remarkable thing, after
all. And after this, when they heard of people having read of them,
they weren't so much surprised, having come to realise the tremendous
circulation of this paper.

The consul did all in his power to make their stay in Hong Kong
pleasant. He was anxious to have a formal dinner for them, but Bill
Hickson said that he would much prefer not having to dress up, and
Archie was willing for Bill's sake to forego the honour. So they spent
their two days in going about the city, visiting the quaint Chinese
shops, and seeing everything of particular interest. They found many
wonderful things to look at, and Archie said that he couldn't imagine
any more delightful place; but Bill told him to wait until they reached
Japan, for he'd find that much more charmi