he
thanked him sweetly.

"You're no mad noo?" said Scotty. "I'll tak' a steady billet tae put it
back." He took to slyly stroking the fur piece when he thought she could
not see him.

A woman lost her passport, but did not know it until she was about to be
passed through the door. Then she shrieked. She came back in the crowd
to look for it. She had been standing in one spot for an hour--it must
be there. She rushed to the spot, lit a match, and began to look under
her feet. A man lit a match and began to look under his feet. Another
man lit a match and began to look under his feet. We all lit matches and
began to look under our feet.

She shrieked again. "Ma Gud, she's a dyin' woman!" said Scotty.

She was not. She had found her passport. The business of waiting was
resumed by the rest of us.

The little cafes along the water-front were closing; loads of soldiers
and sailors began to flow out on to the jetty. One began to sing, and
another; others to whirl along in grotesque dance steps. Two began to
talk loudly. They came to blows. A third one stepped in to stop it,
whereupon one of the first two turned on him to inquire what he was
interfering for.

"But he's a friend o' mine," explained the third man.

"Is he a better friend o' yours than o' me? Answer me that. Is he? Do
you know him longer than I know him? No? Then mind your own and do not
be interferin'." The third man felt properly rebuked. He withdrew his
objections and the other two resumed their fight.

We were inside the shed at last; and by and by I came before a man in a
little office inside the shed. He was a Frenchman, but spoke good
English.

"Your passport, please."

I produced it. He took a look and passed it back.

"Any gold on your person?"

"Thirty dollars--American."

"Hand it over, please. Wait. Are you American?"

"I am."

"In that case keep it. That is all. Pass out. Next."

Next came a little house with a row of men sitting at a long, narrow
pine-board table. The first had a quick look at my passport and handed
it on to a man who sat on his left before a card index in boxes. That
one dug into his boxes, found what he was looking for, and slid the
passport along to the next on his left, who slid it along to the man on
his left, and he to the man on his left, and he to the last one.

You chased that passport down the line, answering the questions which
each one put in turn, as to where you last came from, where before that,