Pennicuick smiled, not very pleasantly; that piece of extravagance was perhaps a sore subject; or perhaps his eye resting for the moment on Fu-chow, caused him to show his teeth.

More tombs, more tea-farms, more pagodas, and presently a villa residence on the riverside, which would have astonished a Thames tourist, accustomed though he is to various styles of architecture. Imagine a Swiss cottage, painted very brightly, and with gilt bells hanging from the verandahs, that shone in the sun and tinkled in the breeze in front a garden with grottoes and fishponds; on one side, and a little to the rear, what in England would have been a coach-house and stables, but was in this instance a 'Hall of Ancestors,' where the memory of one's great-grandfather was a never-tiring subject of devotional exercise. On the other side of the villa a similar range of buildings, the Hall of Education,' or, as we should say, the schoolroom, where the children of the proprietor take in Confucius with their mothers' milk. This was the residence of Twang-hi, the mandarin.

The boat was pulled ashore and one of the soldiers despatched to his Excellency, bearing the Englishmen's credentials: the letter of introduction from their Shanghae acquaintance, and a piece of cardboard of bright vermilion, eight inches long by four wide, which was Conway's visiting card. His name was on the centre, and in one corner, in Chinese, the words, Your stupid younger brother bows his head in salutation.'

'Well, I don't like children,' observed Pennicuick frankly, but to call these people children is to pay them far too high a compliment. Does the fool who lives in this gimcrack edifice the proper place of which is at the top of a twelfth-cake-wear a peacock's feather, I wonder?

Certainly not; that is reserved for even greater men. He boasts of the red button only.'

Then he is not allowed to swallow gold-leaf when the Emperor grants his gracious permission to him to die?'

'I am not sure, but I think he can only strangle himself with a silken cord,' answered Conway gravely. Now, whatever you do, Penn, when we come into this gentleman's presence, don't you laugh -see, here is his master of the ceremonies.'

Down the steps of the gimcrack villa, like an actor out of a stage castle a trifle, too small for him, was seen descending a solemn personage, with a wand in his hand, and a similar address card, only a trifle bigger, to that which had been handed in. He was attired in a blue dressing-gown, so full in its make as almost to give a suspicion of crinoline, and wore upon his head a sort of inverted butter-dish, which wobbled as he moved. As he drew near

the boat, he shook his own hands with cordiality, and then placed them reverently on his stomach.

'My master,' said he, is doubtful whether he shall presume to receive the trouble of your honourable footsteps.'

'Confound him! then he won't give us any breakfast,' observed Pennicuick, when this sentence had been translated to him.

Hush! hush! that is only his form of invitation,' explained Conway. Tell the great Twang-hi, whose reputation reaches beyond the seas, that we crave permission to look upon him.'

This reply was evidently expected, as with a profound obeisance the master of the ceremonies moved his wand and marched before them towards the mansion, like a drum-major at the head of a regiment.

As they drew near the house, they perceived a number of paper lanterns hanging from the eaves of the verandah, each inscribed with the name of the proprietor; and, on the triple door being set wide, Twang-hi himself seated at the end of the entrance-hall. He was a man barely of middle age, but endowed with great gravity of demeanour, though, as Pennicuick thought, by no means with more than was needed to carry off his gown of office, with the tablets of the law worked on the breast, his necklace of huge beads that descended below his middle, and his mandarin's hat with the red button conspicuous on its summit, exactly like a dish-cover with its knob.

He rose on the approach of his guests, with a 'Tsing-tsing!' (Hail! hail!'), then addressed Conway, who, he seemed to divine at once, was the one endowed with talking powers.

'What is your honourable age?'

'My worthless number is about five-and-forty.'

6

Does the venerable man enjoy happiness?'

My father is happy, I trust; being in the abodes of the blessed.'

For the moment Twang-hi showed some symptoms of embarrassment. He had concluded from his visitor's age that his father was alive, and by this mistake had perhaps awakened sorrowful memories. Conway therefore at once came to the rescue by asking in his turn: Is your honourable wife living?'

The mean person of the inner apartment is still in life,' was the uncomplimentary but conventional reply.

How many worthy young gentlemen have you?'

'Fate has been unpropitious to me in that particular. I have but one bug.'

'He is, however, doubtless doing credit to your Excellency in

his education.'

'I believe that the lazy little beggar has learned a few characters.'

Thus they continued for several minutes, each one underrating himself and his own possessions, while exaggerating the importance of everything pertaining to the other; and then pipes and coffee were brought in. With these came several attendants, each of whom performed a different sort of obeisance, corresponding to his position in the household. There are no fewer than eight gradations of salutation, from the mere clasping of the hands to the knocking the head nine times upon the floor, so that there was a good deal of pantomimic action. To Conway's great relief, this seemed to have no effect upon the risibility of his friend, who indeed was looking very grave. His hearing, like his other physical senses, was especially acute, and certain sounds of shouting and tumult without had reached him. Presently the number of the attendants in the room became augmented; among them were some of the soldiers from the boat, but there were also other soldiers.

The mandarins in China, as Conway was aware, have no business hours,' as we term them, but are subject at any time to have the claims of justice urged upon them; therefore the sudden appearance of two police officials followed by their myrmidons did not occasion any alarm to him. Pennicuick, on the other hand, grew, not alarmed, indeed-for to fear he might with truth be said to be a stranger-but suspicious of danger. He maintained an air of politeness, but his stern face grew dark, and he mechanically pushed his chair back to the wall.

With a wave of his hand, as if to bespeak his visitors' pardon for his momentary neglect of them, the mandarin turned slowly to the foremost police official, who addressed him with an excitement very unusual; for an inferior in China is to his superior always respectful, even to the very carriage of his pigtail. It was plain that something had happened to override even the national regard for ceremony.

So rapidly did the man speak, that Conway was unable to gather any sense from his words except that it was some sort of accusation, and his astonishment was great indeed on seeing the mandarin suddenly turn round and point towards his friend. At the same moment, as if in obedience to the signal, he saw Fu-chow emerge from the crowd, with several soldiers, and make a rush at Pennicuick. Quick as thought, the latter leapt from his seat and drew a revolver from his pocket; the next instant Fu-chow, for certain, would have been sent to Hades, and in all probability the mandarin after him, had not Conway, with a warning cry of Madman! what would you do?' struck the muzzle of the weapon upwards,

so that the bullet buried itself harmlessly in the roof of the apartment. Before Pennicuick could recover himself, a dozen men were on him, and he was disarmed and thrown upon the floor. A soldier on either side of Conway had also seized each an arm, though he made no sign of resistance.

'We are Englishmen, Twang-hi,' he exclaimed in a loud voice, and claim the protection of our flag.'

"If what I have just heard is true,' returned the mandarin, ‘the Son of Heaven himself could scarcely protect yonder wretch. He has committed a sacrilege more impious than has yet entered into the brain of man to execute.'

"This is some terrible mistake or lying charge, your Excellency.'

"Mistake!' cried the mandarin in a tone of horror; 'look yonder !'

Conway looked, and beheld the treacherous Fu-chow holding in his open palms, with a mixture of malignant joy and superstitious reverence, a shining something, like the drop of a chandelier.

'It is the sacred Shay-le of Buddha, O barbarian devil!'continued Twang-hi, that your comrade has stolen from its tenthousand-year-old shrine.'

'It is impossible!' cried Conway, in tones almost as horrorstricken as those of the other; for he well knew the heinous nature of such an outrage in Chinese eyes, and also its consequences. 'I saw him place it round his neck last night,' put in Fu-chow, and have just taken it from thence with my own hands.'

O Pen, is this true?' cried Conway in a tone of agony,'that you took away the Shay-le?'

'Yes, it's true enough,' returned Pennicuick, speaking with some difficulty from the number of Chinese upon his chest, but still with a certain characteristic scorn. I was a fool to do it, of course, and I am sorry for it; but not half so sorry as that you made me miss that whey-faced scoundrel Fu-chow with my first barrel.'

Not a syllable of this, of course, was intelligible to those who heard it, except that Fu-chow caught the sound of his own name. As he did so, the same look of vindictive fury came into his face that Conway had noticed in it on that night when the captain had played the spy.

'You would not turn traitor, surely, and destroy those who have fed you?' pleaded Conway desperately.

'No,' said Fu-chow slowly; only, the guilty must needs be punished. His Excellency here, as my father the mandarin has informed me, is one whose justice never fails. I will tell him you are a good man; how you defended my daughter from this devil, and