ll and
ceased writhing. Blood gushed from his mouth, making a puddle in the
dust, a puddle which turned black and thick about the edges.

In an instant Rivers was sobered. He glanced swiftly up and down the
road, and to his dismay, saw a crowd of blue coated figures running in
his direction. He had barely time to stoop down and pick up the
tell-tale coppers before he was surrounded by a noisy and excited
group of Chinese, gesticulating furiously and rending the hot, blue
air with their outlandish cries. A policeman came in sight, and a
passing motor filled with foreigners stopped to see the trouble. He
had overdone things, surely. There was nothing for it but the police
station.

Now such accidents are not infrequent in Shanghai, the white man's
city built in China, administered by the white men to their own
advantage, and to the advantage of the Chinese who seek protection
under the white man's just and beneficent rule. However, human life is
very cheap in China, cheaper than most places in the Orient, although
that is not saying much. It would, therefore, have been very easy for
Rivers to have extricated himself from this scrape had he possessed
any money. Two hundred and fifty dollars, Mex. is the usual price for
a coolie's life when an affair of this kind happens. There is a well
established precedent to this effect. Unfortunately for Rivers, he did
not possess two hundred and fifty dollars, for as has been said, he
was at this time living on borrowed money. Nothing for it then but a
trial, and certain unpleasant publicity. Happily, there were no
witnesses to the occurrence, and Rivers' plea of self-defence would
naturally he accepted. It was an unpleasant business, however, but
there was no other way out of it, seeing that he was bankrupt.

The trial took place with due dignity. Evidence, produced after an
autopsy, proved that at the time of the accident Kwong was in a very
poor state of health. Every one knows that the work of a rickshaw
coolie is hard, the physical strain exceedingly severe. Four years, at
the outside, is the average life of a rickshaw runner, after which he
must change his occupation to something more suited to a physical
wreck. Much testimony was produced to show that Kwong had long ago
reached that point. He was courting death, defying death, every day.
It was his own fault. He had great varicose veins in his legs, which
were large and swollen. His heart, constantly overtaxed by running
wi