China which, from its ungodly name, should be in the furthermost
parts of a wilderness. Perhaps you have snatched enough time from
guarding the kiddies from a premature end in Como to read a
headline or so in the home papers. If by some wonderful chance,
between baby prattle, bumps and measles, they have given you a
moment's respite, then you know that the Government has grown
decidedly restless for fear the energetic and enterprising bubonic
or pneumonic germ might take passage on some of the ships from the
Orient. So it is fortifying against invasion. The Government,
knowing Jack's indomitable determination to learn everything
knowable about the private life and character of a given germ,
asked him to join several other men it is sending out to get
information, provided of course the germ doesn't get them first.

Jack read me the official-looking document one night between puffs
of his after-dinner pipe.

Another surprise awaits you. For once in my life I had nothing to
say. Possibly it is just as well for the good of the cause that
the honorable writer of the letter could not see how my thoughts
looked.

I glanced about our little den, aglow with soft lights; everything
in it seemed to smile. Well, as you know it, Mate, I do not
believe even you realize the blissfulness of the hours of quiet
comradeship we have spent there. With the great know-it-all old
world shut out, for joyful years we have dwelt together in a
home-made paradise. And yet it seemed just then as if I were
dwelling in a home-made Other Place.