ere's nothing about to tell us," said Dempsey.
"What do you think we had better do with him?"

"Get him up the hill," said his superior, without hesitation. "When he's
a bit stronger we'll have his story out of him. I'll bet a few years'
pay it will be interesting."

A file of men were called, and the mysterious stranger was carried up to
the residence of the English officers. It was plain to the least
observant that he was in a very serious condition. Such clothes as he
possessed were in rags; his face was pinched with starvation, and
moreover he was quite unconscious. When his bearers, accompanied by the
two Englishmen, reached the cluster of huts, he was carried to a small
room at the end of the officers' bungalow and placed upon the bed. After
a little brandy had been administered, he recovered consciousness and
looked about him. Heaving a sigh of relief, he inquired where he
might be.

"You are at Nampoung," said Gregory, "and you ought to thank your stars
that you are not in Kingdom Come. If ever a man was near it, you have
been. We won't ask you for your story now; however, later on, you shall
_bukh_ to your heart's content. Now I am going to give you something to
eat. You look as if you want it badly enough."

Gregory looked at Dempsey and made a sign, whereupon the other withdrew,
to presently return carrying a bowl of soup. The stranger drank it
ravenously, and then lay back and closed his eyes once more. He would
have been a clever man who could have recognized in the emaciated being
upon the bed, the spruce, well-cared-for individual who was known to the
Hotel of the Three Desires in Singapore as Gideon Hayle.

"You'd better rest a while now," said Gregory, "and then perhaps you'll
feel equal to joining us at mess, or whatever you like to call it."

"Thanks very much," the man replied, with the conventional utterance of
an English gentleman, which was not lost upon his audience. "I hope I
shall feel up to it."

"Whoever the fellow is," said Gregory, as they passed along the verandah
a few minutes later, "he has evidently seen better days. Poor beggar, I
wonder where he's been, and what he has been up to?"

"We shall soon find out," Dempsey answered. "All he said when we fished
him out of the water was '_at last_,' and then he fainted clean away. I
am not more curious than my neighbours, but I don't mind admitting that
I am anxious to hear what he has to say for himself. Talk about Rip Van
Winkle, wh