as we
had never before dreamed of."

"But if you were so lucky and so much in love with your profession, how
does it come about that you are in England now?" I inquired.

"I will tell you why," he answered, leaning towards me and tapping with
his fingers upon the edge of my writing-table. "It is a sad story, and
the mere telling of it causes me more pain than you would believe. You
must understand that at the time of the Mandarin's death an English
traveller, who had been passing through the Western Provinces, reached
our city and took up his abode with us. Needless to say we were
overwhelmed with grief at the loss of our patron. The treasure he had
presented us with we took to the mission and deposited it in a safe
place. We had no suspicion of any sort of treachery. I fear my companion
and I are not men of the world, that is to say we do not go about
suspecting evil of our neighbours."

"I think I understand," I said. "You brought the treasure home, put it
in what you considered a safe place, and one day awoke to find your
estimable guest missing and the treasure gone with him. Have I guessed
correctly?"

"You have hit the mark exactly," Kitwater replied. "We woke one day not
only to find the treasure gone, but also ourselves and our mission
seriously compromised. The relations of the dead man not only accused us
of having alienated him from the faith of his forefathers, but also of
having robbed him of his ancestral treasure. We could not but admit that
we had been presented with the wealth in question, and when it was
demanded of us, we could only explain that we had lost it in our turn.
You can imagine the position for yourself. At the best of times the
foreigner is not popular in China, and our situation was particularly
unpleasant. Situated as we were in one of the wildest portions of the
empire, and accused of the basest sacrilege, that is to say of violating
the home of a dead man, we could hope for but small mercy. The man who
had robbed us had entirely disappeared and no trace of him could be
discovered. To attempt to offer any explanation, or to incriminate him,
was out of the question. We could only suffer in silence."

He paused and heaved a heavy sigh.

"And what form did your punishment take?" I inquired, for I was
beginning to be interested in their story.

"Can you not see for yourself?" the man answered. "Can you not see that
I am blind, while my companion is dumb? That was what they condemne