Dragon's blood

eming, with nut-brown sail unstirred, to remain where the impatient steamer had met it, dropped a solitary passenger overside, and cast him loose upon the breadth of the antipodes. Rare and far,

owdrifts, or like sifted ashes from which the hills rose black and charred. Their savage, winter-blasted look, in the clear light of an almost vernal morning, made the land seem fabulou

the silted roadstead, and now, gliding on a gentle flood, entered the river-mouth. Here and there, against the saffron tide, or under banks quaggy as melting chocolate, stooped a naked fisherman, who--swarthy as his background but for a loin-band of yellow flesh--shone wet and glistening while he stirred a dip-net through the liquid mud. Faint in the distance harsh cries sounded now and then, and the soft popping of small-arms,--tiny revolts in the reign of

, close at hand; something splashed, and the ruffled

o--Hallo! Oh, I say, Gilly! Gilly, ahoy! Pick us up, ther

land and a battered terai sto

s from his gun, and blew into the breech, before adding, "Would you mind, then? That is, if yo

e-bags, the young stranger descended, hopped nimbly from tusso

his shoulder. "Wutzler said the Fa-Hien lay off signa

lph, with a touch of pride,

d thin face tinged rather sallow and Oriental, bespoke a reckless good humor. "Life sentence, eh? Then your name's--what is it again?--Hackh, isn't it? Heywood's mine. So you take Zimmerman

, and with a rag began to clean the boots, which, from the expression of young Mr.

ecessor's leavings stand over till daylight. After dinner we'll go to the club. Dinner! Chicken a

but this bewildering off-hand youn

upplies unlimited liquor. Much good

pper to indigo. The shores passed, more and more obscure against a fading light. A star or two already shone faint in the lower spa

trying polite conversation, "how the

say," he complained suddenly, "you're not going to 'study the people,' and all that rot?

len instantaneously. As their boat crept on to the slow creaking sweep, both maintained

ot, you're a German, too.--A sweet little colony! Gilly's the only gentleman in the whole half-dozen of us, and Hea

rned low and scattered along the bank. Strange cries arose, the bum

ntinued. "We herd together here on the

e. Each mounting the bare shoulders of a cooli

your boxes," calle

furtive and sinister. At last, where a wall loomed white, Heywood stopped, and, kicking at a wooden gate, gave a sing-song cry. With rattling weights, the door swung open, and closed behind

y!" cried their master. "B

upon him, two red chows and a fox-terrier b

man, who shuffled out from a side-room where lamplight sho

to Rudolph. "Ah Pat, my friend he b'

e bobbed in his blue robe,

n," he murmured amiably

ed the damp sea breeze and a smell, like foul gun-barrels, from the river marshes. "Where should all the rats be coming from?" He frowned, meditating on what Rudolph th

nce," said Rudolph, as t

ny one would know you for a griffin here, Mr.

-washed room, and had undertaken the promised ric

yes on us." He drained his whiskey and soda, signaled for more, and added: "Were you ever cooped up, yachtin

far conquered habit, that he felt u

l see. One good thing we can get is the liquor. 'Nisi damnose bibimus,'--for

sity's-man?" cried Rud

f Gravity in a blue gown.--"Yes, of sorts. Young fool. Scrapes. Debt. Out to Orient. Same old story. More debt. Trust the firm to encourage that! Debt and debt and deb

elevated comfortably over the poles, swung in the lead; Rudolph followed, bobbing in the springy rhythm of the long bamboos. The lanterns danced befo

alled Heywood. "Narr

little man bent eagerly over a pictorial paper; at the farther, chalking their cues, stood two players, one a sturdy Englishman with a gray moustache, the other a lithe, graceful person, whose blue coat, smart as

ch bashful agony as a school-girl, mumbled a few words in German, and instantly took refuge in his tattered Graphic. The pla

the tired look in his frank blue eyes and serious face, at once engaged respect. "For our sa

blue, with a courtier's bow. Both air

many glasses at dinner, he spoke with the alacrity

e boy marker li

ly disappeared, leaving them a vacant table.--"Isn't he weird?"

ntel, preening his moustache. "He is a

n, and noiseless, glided round the table with his tray.--"Ah, you young devil! You're another weird one, you atom. See those bead eyes watching us

Hackh," amended th

below,--a stifled call, inarticulate, but in such a key o

hesitating voice, "ko

diance flooded the landing, from the street door. Outside

his gesture eloquent of excuse. Round him, as round a conjurer, scores of little shadowy things moved in a huddling dance, fitfully h

in a voice curiously forced and matter-of-fact.

incantation, stole about with an absence of fear, a di

lishman spoke as though afr

doctor shoo

red in the sam

gling to keep afloat above some invisible flood. The action, repeated multitudinously into the obscure background, exaggerated in the foreground by magnified sha

tent against his swarm of familiars. Gradually the rats, silent and leaping, p

eans." Heywood still use

s still alive," retorted

ink, Gilly?" pe

nodded in a m

rse," he answered. "I wish

" ventured Wutzler,

oint of custom, ignored him. All star

morrow night," mocked Heywo

all need all possible amusements; also to meet and plan our campai

iers, perhaps, as Père Fenouil advises. Fumigate."--Satirical and debonair,

ren't coming,"

s conference, could bear

ided to his young host. "I do

ly. "These playful little animals get first n