k.
Bobbie, I started something on that ship, and I'm on my way to
Ching-Fu--and 'way beyond Ching-Fu--to finish it."

"It will be beautifully finished, Peter! Or your name's not Moore."

"There was a girl, a beautiful girl----"

"There usually is," MacLaurin sighed.

Peter gazed bitterly at the scenery flitting evenly past the window:
groves of feathery bamboo, flaming mustard fields, exquisite gardens,
and graves--graves beyond count.

"Perhaps she is passing through the Inland Sea by now. Bobbie, I
wanted her to go home. She was--she was that kind of a girl. She
wanted to stay. Bobbie, that girl could have made a man of me!
She--she even told me she--liked me!"

"They have a way of doing that," commented Bobbie sadly.

Several miles rolled by before either of the men spoke.

"Why is Miss Vost making the trip to Ching-Fu?"

"You'll have to find that out, Peter. I was too busy letting her know
how bright my life has become since she entered it!"

The square, red jaw swung savagely toward Peter. Of a sudden the
sea-blue eyes seemed a trifle inflamed. "She's probably going to
Ching-Fu on serious business. She's like that. She's not like you!"

"What do you mean?" said Peter.

"You're going to try to break into Len Yang; that's what I mean! Some
day, on one of these reckless expeditions of yours, Peter, you're going
to run plumb into a long, sharp knife! If I could head you off, I
would."

"You can't, Bobbie. My mind is made up."

"Get out of China. Why enter the lion's den? You're too confiding,
too trusting, too young. In duty to my conscience, I oughtn't to let
you go. But I know you'd walk or fly or swim if I tried to head you
off."

"I certainly would," agreed Peter.

CHAPTER XII

No member of the earth's great brotherhood of dangerous waterways is
blessed with quite the degree of peril which menaces those hardy ones
who dare the River of the Golden Sands.

Bobbie MacLauren's steamer, the _Hankow_, was the net result of long
ship-building experience. Dozens of apparently seaworthy boats have
gone up the Yangtze-Kiang, not to return. After years of experiment a
somewhat satisfactory river-boat has been evolved. It combines the
sturdiness of a sea-going tug with the speed of a torpedo-boat
destroyer.

The _Hankow_ was ridiculously small, and monstrously strong. Chiefly
it consisted of engines and boilers. Despite their security, despite
the shipwrecks and deaths that