nade. He was in the centre of an admiring circle of half-nude
Malay and Hindu boys, going through his quaint antics, while Hamat
squatted before him beating on a crocodile-hide drum and singing a
plaintive, monotonous song.

When it was finished, Lepas took an empty cocoanut shell and went
out into the crowd to collect pennies.

I threw in a dollar. Lepas salaamed low as he snatched it out and bit
it to test its genuineness. It was his latest accomplishment. Then
he hid himself among the laughing crowd.

That Lepas knew me, I could tell by the droop in his eye and the
quick glance he gave to the right and left, to see if there was room
to escape in case I made an effort to avenge my wrongs.

I had no desire, however, to renew the acquaintance, and was quite
willing to let by-gones be by-gones.

KING SOLOMON'S MINES

Being an Account of an Ascent of Mount Ophir in Malaya, by His
Excellency, the Tuan Hakim of Maur, and the Writer

"And they came to Ophir, and fetched
from thence gold, four hundred and
twenty talents, and brought it to
King Solomon."--1 Kings IX. 28.

"For the King's ships went to Tarshish
with the servants of Huram; every
three years once came the ships of
Tarshish, bringing gold and silver,
ivory, and apes, and peacocks."
--2 Chronicles VIII. 21.

The rose tints of a tropical sunrise had broken through the heavy
bamboo chicks that jealously guarded the rapidly fleeting half-lights
of my room: there came three deferential taps at the door, and the
smiling, olive-tinted face of Ah Minga appeared at the opening. "Tabek,
Tuan," he saluted, as he raised the mosquito curtains, and placed a
tray of tea and mangosteens on a table by my side.

I sprang to the floor and across the heavily rugged room, and pulled
up the offending chick.

Across the palace grounds, fresh from their morning bath, across the
broad river Maur, for the nonce black in the shadow of the jungle,
across the gilded tops of the jungle, forty miles away as the crow
flies, rested the serrated peak of Mount Ophir.

Directly below me, a soldier in a uniform of duck and a rimless cap
with a gold band was pacing up and down the gravelled walk. A little
farther on a bevy