tringed
instrument wailed and thundered in unison. There was a vast shuffling
of padded soles and a continuous interchange of singsong monosyllables,
high-pitched and staccato, while from every hand rose the strange
aromas of the East--sandalwood, punk, incense, oil, and the smell of
mysterious cookery.

"Chinatown!" exclaimed Travis. "I hadn't the faintest idea we had come
up so far. Condy Rivers, do you know what time it is?" She pointed a
white kid finger through the doorway of a drug-store, where, amid
lacquer boxes and bronze urns of herbs and dried seeds, a round Seth
Thomas marked half-past two.

"And your lunch?" cried Condy. "Great heavens! I never thought."

"It's too late to get any at home. Never mind; I'll go somewhere and
have a cup of tea."

"Why not get a package of Chinese tea, now that you're down here, and
take it home with you?"

"Or drink it here."

"Where?"

"In one of the restaurants. There wouldn't be a soul there at this
hour. I know they serve tea any time. Condy, let's try it. Wouldn't
it be fun?"

Condy smote his thigh. "Fun!" he vociferated; "fun! It is--by Jove--it
would be HEAVENLY! Wait a moment. I'll tell you what we will do. Tea
won't be enough. We'll go down to Kearney Street, or to the market,
and get some crackers to go with it."

They hurried back to the California market, a few blocks distant, and
bought some crackers and a wedge of new cheese. On the way back to
Chinatown Travis stopped at a music store on Kearney Street to get her
banjo, which she had left to have its head tightened; and thus burdened
they regained the "town," Condy grieving audibly at having to carry
"brown-paper bundles through the street."

"First catch your restaurant," said Travis as they turned into Dupont
Street with its thronging coolies and swarming, gayly clad children.
But they had not far to seek.

"Here you are!" suddenly exclaimed Condy, halting in front of a
wholesale tea-house bearing a sign in Chinese and English. "Come on,
Travis!"

They ascended two flights of a broad, brass-bound staircase leading up
from the ground floor, and gained the restaurant on the top story of
the building. As Travis had foretold, it was deserted. She clasped
her gloved hands gayly, crying: "Isn't it delightful! We've the whole
place to ourselves."

The restaurant ran the whole depth of the building, and was finished
off at either extremity with a gilded balcony, one overlooking Dupo