which had brought them to this out-ofpocket condition his brains should have been subservient to another man's money. Without Allerton's financing Fielding would never have explored that interesting and little known tract of country, while, on the other hand, without Fielding's pluck and ready wit Allerton would have died a score of deaths and would never have stood, as he did now, fit and well, but penniless, a thing so incomprehensible to him that he was bewildered.

There was another silence, and then Fielding spoke again.

"If you haven't any ideas of your own, you'd better adopt mine," he said with a touch of impatience. "I suggest that one of us shall go to Hong Kong and look for work. You don't want to wire home for money, I have no one to wire to. There's just about enough left for one passage. We'll toss for who shall go, and whoever wins must make it a point of honor to take the first billet that offers, no matter what it is, and keep himself up to the collar until he can send the other fellow enough to join him. He must deny himself small luxuries; he must scrimp and save; he mustn't have a pipeful of tobacco until the two are reunited. He must strain every nerve to send the passage-money at the earliest possible date."

“Of course. Anybody would.”

"Everybody wouldn't," snapped Fielding, in a moment of sharp intuition. "There are some fellows who are a dashed sight too easy-going to remember others when once they are out of the wood themselves."

"If I win the toss," Allerton said, “I swear that I'll do no more than exist until I've earned enough to start us both."

"So do I. Agreed then. Will you toss, or shall I?"

"You," said Allerton. Then he cried, "Wait. Let us think it over!"

"Surely you've thought it over long enough," Fielding said coldly. "The tender won't wait. She's been hooting this half hour."

He took a small coin out of his pocket and looked at it.

"The dragon you go. Cry!" he said. "Dragon!" cried Allerton, with a promptness that brought a smile to Fielding's face.

He clapped his hands upon the little piece and showed it. The dragon was down.

"Best out of three," said Allerton feverishly. "I should have said so before."

With a cool glance at him, Fielding spun the coin and showed the dragon in his palm. Then, with an exasperating slowness, with a kind of drawl in his movements, he threw the coin again, this time allowing it to fall to the ground. Instantly it was covered with dust. He stooped and blew the surface clear.

"Which side-which side?" asked Allerton.

"Dragon. Can't you see?"

It

Allerton went down upon his knees to look, and gave a gasp of relief. was evident that he did not wish to be left to fend for himself in Shanghai.

Fielding's expression did not change, save for a sudden look of intentness that came into his eyes, but he felt alarmed when he saw the increasing satisfaction of Allerton's face.

"He'll forget me," he thought. "I can feel it in my bones that he'll forget me as soon as he's in easy circumstances himself."

Aloud he said: "Then that's settled. Here's the money for your passage and ten dollars to start you in H. K. Not a very large amount, but it's got to be enough. Here's the balance for myself, seven dollars thirty. And I think we'd better change coats. Mine's too big for you, but it's not so worn. I

wonder if I can get into yours without bursting the seams. Right-o. Better fit than I expected. Here's the haversack,-last remnant of your carefully planned outfit!"

They walked to the tender, which lay bumping gently against the wooden jetty.

"You remember the terms of the

compact?" Fielding asked, with a cheery voice and a searching eye.

"Yes, that's all right. You'll hear from me very soon. How long will that seven dollars last you?"

"Just until I hear from you, and no longer."

"I'll write very soon,-as soon as possible. I hope you'll get on all right."

"You needn't worry about me," said Fielding drily. "You've got to take care of yourself, and then to remember the compact."

Just as the tender started, when she was about six feet from the pier, Allerton was overcome with compunction at leaving Fielding behind.

"I wish you'd won the toss," he said. "There's time to change even now if you would. You'd get on just as well as I should in Hong Kong. you "

Won't

But the Woosung widened between them.

It

Better not to ask how he lived,what he ate or where he ate it. suffices to say that he existed upon seven dollars and thirty cents for three weeks. At first he tried again to find some sort of work that he could do with either his head or his hands, and wandered about the city making inquiries; but everybody appeared to be particularly satisfied with the people whom they employed already, and did not consider themselves justified in taking on an extra hand. And later, when rations grew very short, he gave up the attempt, partly because he had great trouble in making his tired brain

and limbs obedient to his will, and partly because he felt that to call at a man's office to ask for work and possibly prove one's incapability by fainting upon the doorstep would be a subtle form of begging in which he would rather not indulge. So he shunned his fellow-countrymen, and lived among the Chinese. He called at the post office as soon as it was possible to hear from Allerton, and continued to call there, growing more and more discouraged day by day. On the first morning that he was entirely out of funds he found that a steamer had arrived from the south, and went again to the post office full of hope. Perhaps Allerton had written in time to save him at this eleventh hour. He might have found a billet, got an advance, and hastened to send some of it to his chum. A single dollar would help him to tide over for the moment, anyhow. He would not think of what would happen later if there was no letter.

By this time the clerk knew him by sight, and he shook his head at him the moment that Fielding entered the doorway.

"Go and look!" said Fielding.

The man went to the letter rack and came back saying that there was nothing for any one of his name today.

Fielding turned to the door. He did not see the orderly street, the substantial buildings, and the green trees with the sun shining upon them. He saw starvation, with sunken cheeks and hollow eyes that stared into his, starvation personified, with twitching lips and restless glance. The next moment he gave an unbalanced laugh when he realized that he had seen his own reflection in a glass door. He went out into the street feeling a little shaken.

Beside the pavement a coolie was waiting with a 'ricksha. He patted the cushion invitingly, saying, "Licksha, licksha!" And, moved by some unreasoning impulse, and forgetful that

his pockets were empty, Fielding stepped into it. The boy lifted the shafts and turned for his direction, and Fielding pointed forwards with his

arm.

They followed the long straight road until they were beyond all landmarks known to Fielding, and most of those known to any foreigner. They left the houses behind them and came to queer huts and shanties and big open spaces with heaps of building rubble, old rusty iron, and the refuse of timber-yards. The tide plashed up in a single ripple that reached the boundary of a little garden. The 'ricksha boy had looked round curiously at his fare more than once, and now he put down the shafts and approached him with outstretched hands and the question, "How much farther do you wish to go?"

Fielding regarded him vaguely, and then suddenly became alert and turned out his pockets.

"I have no money," he said briefly. "How did I get here?"

The boy began to swear, but was stopped by a stern look. Fielding got out of the 'ricksha, walked across the road and sat down with his back against the wall of a little house. The 'ricksha boy, realizing that one cannot get money out of empty pockets, accepted the situation, and thumped on the closed door of the hut, crying, "O, Wu, boat-builder, I have brought you a guest. May he be more profitable to you than he has been to me!" and he rattled off in search of a more lucrative fare.

Wu, who was bending over a halffinished boat in the middle of his back garden, was small and old and shrivelled. He had kindly eyes, and the sun and air had given him rosy cheeks that looked strange upon a yellow face. His cousin, who was warder of the yard, and responsible to their various owners for the safety of the heaps of

scrap-iron and timber, helped him with his trade.

Wu did not leave the boat until midday, when he came into the house to prepare his rice. While it was boiling he opened the street door to see if any were passing with whom he might exchange civilities, and his eyes fell upon the long figure of the foreigner under the wall.

Fielding had got beyond the belttightening pitch of hunger and was merely drowsy. The friendly autumn sun shone upon him, and he felt dimly grateful for its warm benison. He had slipped down until he lay upon the ground with one arm across his brow. He did not wish to be disturbed. The sharp edge of his suffering was past, and it was followed by something very like peace. He had had dreams of manna in the wilderness, of kind hands ministering to him, of light and friendship. But they were past; and he was done with his hot, resentful anger against Allerton, and the wish to meet him and extract an apology. He was beyond the reach of all that could worry and annoy. He was tired and heavy, and a great stupidity was upon him, so deep that painful thoughts could no more pierce his brain than starvation could disturb his body. He looked forward tranquilly to oblivion and the nothingness that he felt approaching nearer every hour.

The little boat-builder stared at him with an astonished exclamation, and then touched him with his foot to gain his attention. With a painful effort the long form withdrew itself about an inch. Wu lifted the arm that hid the brow, and a pair of vacant eyes gazed up at him. It did not need the man's thinness and sunken cheeks to tell the Chinese his extremity,-the eyes alone did that. Wu stared curiously, but with a look that was not destitute of sympathy. Then he dived under the low doorway and returned with his

rice-bowl, and Fielding came to himself to find that he was sitting up, drinking the hot fluid with grains floating in it. "Give me some more!" he cried in English, but Wu took away the bowl and hid it from sight. "Go to sleep now," he said, "I will come back presently." And Fielding dozed again. At evening when the sun was off the roadway and the ground beginning to grow cold, Wu reappeared, and helping him to his feet led him into the hut and showed him a place on the k'ang where he could lie down.

That was how it began.

Wu had a good opinion of foreigners, supposed that they were always rich men, and deemed that a friendly turn done to one of them would be well paid. Also he had a humane heart, and in his care for Fielding was actuated about equally by kindness and the desire for a reward. His wife was dead, his only son in America; the warden of the scrap-heaps was not an amusing person for one's sole companion. Wu found the foreigner extremely interesting and entertaining.

Fielding told him frankly that he had no money to requite him for his kindness, but that he was willing to work. Wu asked if he could build a boat, and Fielding confessed that he could not. The Chinese inquired what trade he followed, and on hearing that he had none, was disposed to consider him either very rich or else very idle. And he asked, with much flowery circumlocution, how he came to be in such an impecunious condition. Fielding answered that he had been robbed in the Interior, and asked whether Wu could suggest any way of his earning a livelihood.

There ensued a long controversy between the two Chinese as to the calling which it would be proper, under such circumstanecs, for a foreigner to adopt. Fielding was not quick enough at the language to understand all the

ramifications of the conversation, and ceased to take an interest in it. All that he gathered was that Wu had a little hoard of savings that he was anxious to let out at an usury of fifty per cent for six months. As he waited for the sing-song talk to wear itself out, some accident of memory threw before him the steady swing and stride of the 'ricksha boy who had brought him to Wu's door no further in the past than yesterday. Surely this was a form of unskilled labor which was always in demand. He thought the matter over quietly for a moment, and then told his new friends that he had decided to pull a 'ricksha, if they would help him at the start.

He

Wu

Wu was staggered at the idea. said that no foreigner had ever pulled a 'ricksha, and that, speaking as one in the dust to one above the clouds, he would like to discourage Fielding's august mind from entertaining such a suggestion. Fielding said that if he had been willing to build or row a boat for a living, why not pull a 'ricksha? No foreigner had done so because no one had been quite in his position. said that he had seen foreigners rowing boats, but never pulling 'rickshas. However, he added (having gleaned from Fielding's purposeful face that he must find some other bourse for his sav. ings), it was a good way to earn a living, if the sage's honorable dignity could descend from its altitude to enrich the 'ricksha boy's calling with its brilliant example. The cousin slipped his horny fingers into Fielding's collar and felt the back of his neck.

"He will never do it," he said. "He has no muscle."

But mindful of the half-arm balance that had been the pride of his youth, Fielding answered, "It will come. Help me to procure a 'ricksha, old uncle."

So after many days of enjoyable bargaining Wu hired a 'ricksha with brass