for the governor of the
colony and the commander of the military forces were promptly recalled
in disgrace. The terrible object-lesson doubtless had the desired
effect, for the natives cringe like whipped dogs when a Frenchman
speaks to them. But there is that in their manner which bodes ill for
their masters if a crisis ever arises in Indo-China. I should not like
to see our own brown wards, the Filipinos, look at Americans with the
murderous hate with which the Annamites regard the French. In Africa,
by moderation and tolerance and justice, France has built up a mighty
colonial empire whose inhabitants are as loyal and contented as though
they had been born under the Tricolor. But in far-off Indo-China French
administration seems, even to as staunch a friend of France as myself,
to be very far from an unqualified success.

During the ten days that I spent in Saigon I stayed at the Hotel
Continental. I shall remember it as the place where they charged a
dollar and a half for a highball and fifty cents for a lemonade. It was
insufferably hot. I can sympathize now with the recalcitrant convict
who is punished by being sent to the sweat-box. Battalions of ferocious
mosquitoes launched their assaults against my unprotected person with
the persistence that the Germans displayed at Verdun. In the next room
the tenor of the itinerant grand opera company that was giving a series
of performances at the Theatre Municipal squabbled unceasingly with his
woman companion. Both were generally much the worse for drink. One
particularly sultry afternoon, when the whole world seemed like the
steam room of a Turkish bath, their voices rose to an unprecedented
pitch of violence. Through the thin panels of the door came the sound
of scuffling feet. Some heavy article of furniture went over with a
crash. Then came the thud of a falling body.

"Thou accurst one!" I heard the tenor groan. Then "Help me!... I'm
dying!"

"She's done it now!" I exclaimed, springing from my bed.

"Are you stifling with blood?" the woman hissed, fierce exultation in
her tone.

"Help me!... I'm dying!" moaned the man. "And done to death by a
woman!"

It was murder--no doubt about that. Clad only in my pajamas though I
was, I prepared to throw myself against the door.

"Die, thou accurst one! Perish!" shrieked the woman.

I was on the point of bursting into the room when I was arrested by the
sound of the tenor's voice speaking in normal tones. There follo