he struck me heavily upon the left
shoulder, which among the barbarians is a proof of cordiality to be
esteemed much above the mere wagging of each other's hands.

"In the matter of guidance," I replied, "this person is ready to sit
unreservedly on your well-polished feet. But touching the borrowing of
money, obligations to restore with an added sum after a certain period,
initial-bearing papers of doubtful import, and the like, I have read too
deeply the pointed records of your own printed sheets not to prefer
an existence devoted to the scraping together of dust at the street
corners, rather than a momentary affluence which in the end would betray
me into the tiger-like voracity of a native money-lender."

"Well, you do me proud, Kong," said William Beveledge, after regarding
me fixedly for a moment. "If I didn't remember that you are a
flat-faced, slant-eyed, top-side-under, pig-tailed old heathen, I should
be really annoyed at your unwarrantable personalities. Do you take ME
for what you call a 'native money-lender'?"

"The pronouncements of destiny are written in iron," I replied
inoffensively, "and it is as truly said that one fated to end his life
in a cave cannot live for ever on the top of a pagoda. Undoubtedly as
one born and residing here you are native, and as inexorably it succeeds
that if you lend me pieces of gold you become a money-lender. Therefore,
though honourably inspired at the first, you would equally be drawn into
the entanglement of circumstance, and the unevadible end must inevitably
be that against which your printed papers consistently warn one."

"And what is that?" asked Beveledge Greyson, still regarding me closely,
as though I were a creature of another part.

"At first," I replied, "there would be an alluring snare of graceful
words, tea, and the consuming of paper-rolled herbs, and the matter
would be lightly spoken of as capable of an easy adjustment; which,
indeed, it cannot be denied, is how the detail stands at present. The
next position would be that this person, finding himself unable to
gather together the equivalent of return within the stated time, would
greet you with a very supple neck and pray for a further extension,
which would be permitted on the understanding that in the event of
failure his garments and personal charms should be held in bondage. To
escape so humiliating a necessity, as the time drew near I would address
myself to another, one calling himself Willia