y, he is not in it with this fellow. He could give him points
and beat him hollow."

An hour later the stranger was so far recovered as to be able to join
his hosts at their evening meal. Between them they had managed to fit
him out with a somewhat composite set of garments. He had shaved off his
beard, had reduced his hair to something like order, and in consequence
had now the outward resemblance at least of a gentleman.

"Come, that's better," said Gregory as he welcomed him. "I don't know
what your usual self may be like, but you certainly have more the
appearance of a man, and less that of a skeleton than when we first
brought you in. You must have been pretty hard put to it out yonder."

The recollection of all he had been through was so vivid, that the man
shuddered at the mere thought of it.

"I wouldn't go through it again for worlds," he said. "You don't know
what I've endured."

"Trading over the border alone?" Gregory inquired.

The man shook his head.

"Tried to walk across from Pekin," he said, "_via_ Szechuen and Yunnan.
Nearly died of dysentery in Yunnan city. While I was there my servants
deserted me, taking with them every halfpenny I possessed. Being
suspected by the Mandarins, I was thrown into prison, managed eventually
to escape, and so made my way on here. I thought to-day was going to
prove my last."

"You have had a hard time of it, by Jove," said Dempsey; "but you've
managed to come out of it alive. And now where are you going?"

"I want, if possible, to get to Rangoon," the other replied. "Then I
shall ship for England as best as I can. I've had enough of China to
last me a lifetime."

From that moment the stranger did not refer again to his journey. He was
singularly reticent upon this point, and feeling that perhaps the
recollection of all he had suffered might be painful to him, the two men
did not press him to unburden himself.

"He's a strange sort of fellow," said Gregory to Dempsey, later in the
evening, when the other had retired to rest. "If he has walked from
Pekin here, as he says, he's more than a little modest about it. I'll be
bound his is a funny story if only he would condescend to tell it."

They would have been more certain than ever of this fact had they been
able to see their guest at that particular moment. In the solitude of
his own room he had removed a broad leather belt from round his waist.
From the pocket of this belt he shook out upwards of a hundred r