agonies. The Chinese are devils. But yours is not the first case we have
heard of. We only come up here for a month at a time, but the man we
relieved told us a strange tale about another poor beggar who came into
the station some two months ago. He had been wandering in the jungle,
and was nearly at death's-door."

The blind man gave a start, while the little man seized his hand and
made a number of rapid movements upon it with his fingers.

"My friend wants to know if you are aware of that man's name?" he said.
"We lost a companion, and he thinks that he may be the man. For
Heaven's sake tell us what you know. You have no idea what it means
to us."

"Since you are so interested in him I am sorry to have to say that I do
not know very much. You see he had very little to do with us. As I have
said, he turned up while our predecessors were here. From what I heard
about him from Gregory, he gathered that he was a tall, thin man, who
had come through from Pekin by way of Yunnan."

"Are you sure it was from Yunnan?"

"That's what they told me," said Grantham. "Since then I have heard that
he was on his way from Pekin to Burmah, and that his coolies had robbed
him of all he possessed."

"You don't happen to remember his name, I suppose!"

The blind man tried to ask the question calmly, but his voice failed
him.