er of losing them too, we ordered
them to give up the struggle and unload the cart. Before we got it out
of dry-dock, reloaded, and again in line with the other carts it was nine
o'clock, and dark.

In the meantime, Lynch, his sense of duty weakened by visions of
enamelled bathtubs filled with champagne and floating lumps of ice, had
secretly abandoned us, stealing away in the night and leaving us to
follow. This, not ten minutes after we had started, Mr. Prior decided
that he would not do, so he camped out with the carts in a village,
while, dinnerless, supperless, and thirsty, I rode on alone. I reached
New-Chwang at midnight, and after being refused admittance by the
Japanese soldiers, was finally rescued by the Number One man from the
Manchuria Hotel, who had been sent out by Fox with two sikhs and a
lantern to find me. For some minutes I dared not ask him the fateful
questions. It was better still to hope than to put one's fortunes to the
test. But I finally summoned my courage.

"Ice, have got?" I begged.

"Have got," he answered.

There was a long, grateful pause, and then in a voice that trembled, I
again asked, "Champagne, have got?"

Number One man nodded.

"Have got," he said.

I totally forgot until the next morning to ask about the enamelled
bathtubs.

When I arrived John Fox had gone to bed, and as it was six weeks since
any of us had seen a real bed, I did not wake him. Hence, he did not
know I was in the hotel, and throughout the troubles that followed I
slept soundly.

Meanwhile, Lynch, as a punishment for running away from us, lost his own
way, and, after stumbling into an old sow and her litter of pigs, which
on a dark night is enough to startle any one, stumbled into a Japanese
outpost, was hailed as a Russian spy, and made prisoner. This had one
advantage, as he now was able to find New-Chwang, to which place he was
marched, closely guarded, arriving there at half-past two in the morning.
Since he ran away from us he had been wandering about on foot for ten
hours. He sent a note to Mr. Little, the British Consul, and to Bush
Brothers, the kings of New-Chwang, and, still tormented by visions of ice
and champagne, demanded that his captors take him to the Manchuria Hotel.
There he swore they would find a pass from Fukushima allowing him to
enter New-Chwang, three friends who could identify him, four carts, seven
servants, nine coolies, and nineteen animals. The commandant took hi