keep the tail of his eye too tight on ye? Did ye
manage to coax a greatcoat of a hall-table or any other trifle of the
kind up those sleeves of yours?"

This time Ah-Fo looked genuinely bewildered, but he gazed at Dennis as
if he would have given anything to understand him.

"Uppee sleevee--you know?" said Dennis, illustrating his meaning by
signs. ("Chinese is a mighty easy language, Willie, I find, when you're
used to it.")

A grin of intelligence spread from ear to ear on Ah-Fo's countenance.

"Eyah!" said he, and with one jerk he produced our three letters,
fan-fashion, in his right hand, and then they vanished as quickly, and
he clapped his empty palms and cried, "Ha, ha! Ha, ha!"

"It's clever, there's no denying," said Alister, "but it's an uncanny
kind of cleverness."

Something uncannier was to come. Ah-Fo had stood irresolute for a minute
or two, then he appeared to make up his mind, and coming close under the
balcony he smiled at Dennis and said, "You lookee here." Then feeling
rapidly in the inner part of his dress he brought out a common needle,
which he held up to us, then pricked his finger to show that it was
sharp, and held it up again, crying, "You see?"

"I see," said Dennis. "Needle. Allee same as pin, barring that a pin's
got a head with no eye in it, and a needle's got an eye with no head to
it."

"You no talkee, you lookee," pleaded Ah-Fo.

"One for you, Dennis," laughed the engineer. We looked, and Ah-Fo put
the needle into his mouth and swallowed it. He gave himself a pat or two
and made some grimaces to show that it felt rather prickly going down,
and then he produced a second needle, and tested and then swallowed
that. In this way he seemed to swallow twelve needles, nor, with the
closest watching, could we detect that they went anywhere but into his
mouth.

"Will he make it a baker's dozen, I wonder?" gasped Dennis.

But this time Ah-Fo produced a small ball of thread, and it followed the
needles, after which he doubled himself up in uneasy contortions, which
sent us into fits of laughter. Then he put his fingers into his
mouth--we watched closely--and slowly, yard after yard, he drew forth
the unwound thread, and all the twelve needles were upon it. And whilst
we were clapping and cheering him, both needles and thread disappeared
as before.

Ah-Fo was evidently pleased by our approval, and by the shower of coins
with which our host rewarded his performance, but when he had dis