The man shook his head.

"Tried to walk across from Pekin," he said, "_viâ_ Szechuen and Yunnan.
Nearly died of dysentery in Yunnan city. While I was there my servants
deserted me, taking with them every halfpenny I possessed. Being
suspected by the Mandarins, I was thrown into prison, managed eventually
to escape, and so made my way on here. I thought to-day was going to
prove my last."

"You have had a hard time of it, by Jove," said Dempsey; "but you've
managed to come out of it alive. And now where are you going?"

"I want, if possible, to get to Rangoon," the other replied. "Then I
shall ship for England as best as I can. I've had enough of China to
last me a lifetime."

From that moment the stranger did not refer again to his journey. He was
singularly reticent upon this point, and feeling that perhaps the
recollection of all he had suffered might be painful to him, the two men
did not press him to unburden himself.

"He's a strange sort of fellow," said Gregory to Dempsey, later in the
evening, when the other had retired to rest. "If he has walked from
Pekin here, as he says, he's more than a little modest about it. I'll be
bound his is a funny story if only he would condescend to tell it."

They would have been more certain than ever of this fact had they been
able to see their guest at that particular moment. In the solitude of
his own room he had removed a broad leather belt from round his waist.