six o'clock, be on the careful
lookout for a bundle _which I shall send to you_ from the other side.
This will contain my remittance for the week, which I wish you to
deposit to mother's credit in three places, the names of which I give
you on paper. She can then draw from time to time such sums as she may
need.

"I shall remain at home for a few days and arrange to be in China next
Monday evening. On Tuesday morning you will forward the bundle of
papers."

"Are you going to tell mother and sister all about this?" said Bob.

"No: it would only worry them. I shall merely say that I have a great
opening for making money, and shall be obliged to be absent from home
for several months."

"I think," said Bob, chuckling,--Bob labored under the delusion that he
was a wag,--"that it _is_ a great opening, or rather, I might say, a
_lengthy_ opening."

Every thing was duly arranged according to the programme; and, on the
following Monday, I bade adieu for a while to the sweet light of day,--I
don't mean that I said exactly these words as I stood on the edge of the
hole--but that is the way in which it would be expressed in a
book,--and jumped boldly into the dark abyss. In due time I arrived
safely in China, and took lodgings in a small country inn about two
miles off, as I did not care to show myself at the Canton Coffee-House
until I had the papers in my possession.

It was with a somewhat anxious heart that I went to my Air-Line Station,
as I had taken a fancy to call it, on Tuesday evening.

CHAPTER II.

HOW JOHN GOT INTO TROUBLE IN CHINA.

It was Tuesday evening in good old Massachusetts, but not far from the
break of day in China. In order that I might be more sure to catch the
bundle of papers on its arrival, I had woven a net-work with my strong
twine, and securely fastened it to a stout wooden hoop. This I then
attached to a pole about six feet in length, and stood ready to swing
the net under the package as soon as it came within reach. The hour at
which I had calculated that the bundle ought to come in sight, provided
Bob had been prompt to the time that I had prescribed, had now passed,
and I began to feel excited and uneasy. "What if Bob had forgotten to
hold the package high enough from the surface when he dropped it, and so
the momentum had not proved sufficient to drive it _clear through_ the
hole? What if it had struck against the sides of the cavity, and so the
friction had stopped it on the