on the big outer gate before a sleeping watchman could be made to roll
out of his wadded quilts; but finally, after prolonged consultation,
the despatch was taken in to the I.G., the messenger calmed with tea
and a _pourboire_, and quiet once more restored. Next morning, early,
the I.G.'s cart was at the door--a vehicle, by the way, interesting
in itself, since it was chosen by Hung Ki, the man who liberated Sir
Harry Parkes--and Robert Hart started for the only shop in Peking,
ostensibly to buy toys for his children friends, as it was near
Christmas.

[Illustration: SIR ROBERT HART'S PRIVATE CART.

The wheels have knobs on them to strengthen them, there are no
springs. The carter always walks.]

In those days the Legations watched his movements very closely;
he wished them to hear that his little expedition was purely a
pleasurable one. No doubt they did, for not a soul knew that, when
he casually strolled into a bank near by, it was to quietly produce a
paper from his pocket and say, as one might say "Good day,"--"I have
here a loan agreement for L16,000,000, but I can only give it to you
on condition that you sign immediately."

Half an hour later the necessary signatures were on the document--the
whole great matter put through. Looking back upon the success, one
marvels at how he contrived it so rapidly that, once the news was out,
people caught their breath with astonishment. Instinctively he must
have felt it was a psychological moment when a man is required to take
responsibility--to presume even on his power, and that in a moment's
hesitation all might have been lost.

In 1896 came the formal establishment of the Imperial Chinese Post
Office--in itself the work of many a man's lifetime. Money had to
be found for the experiment from the Customs funds first, then
innumerable rules and regulations framed and experiments tried before
it became a practical working institution. The I.G.'s wonderful grasp
of detail stood him in good stead then, for a hundred details came
daily under his notice, and he was consulted on every possible
subject--from a design on a postage stamp to the opening of a
new department. To him, indeed, belongs the entire credit for the
designing and building of the greatest success of recent years in
China--a postal service, grown beyond the most sanguine hopes,
which not only pays its own way but is beginning to turn over some
revenue--indirectly, of course--to the Imperial Treasury.

[I