Roman Catholic priest, who was also on the construction
train and who had wheelbarrows for his own goods, cordially
told us to pile our luggage on top of his. We gratefully accepted
this kind offer, and giving his coolies some extra cash
for their labour, they good-naturedly accepted the additional
burden, while we footed the twelve li to Kaomi.


[14] A li is about a third of a mile.


But the progress of the barrows was slow and it was half-
past eight when we reached Kaomi. In the darkness we could
not find the inn which the magistrate had set aside for foreigners
and the Chinese whom we met gave conflicting replies.
But at that moment, two resident Roman Catholic priests,
Austrians, appeared and one of them recognized Mr. Laughlin
as the associate of Dr. Van Schoick, a Presbyterian medical
missionary who had sympathetically treated a fellow priest during
a long and dangerous illness several years before. He
promptly invited us to go with him, declaring that Dr. Van
Schoick had saved the life of his dearest friend. He was
so cordially insistent that we accepted his invitation. Our
shendzas, carts and pack-mule were we knew not where, and
we were hungry after our long day. Warned by my experience
in Korea that the traveller should never trust to the
punctuality of natives and pack-animals, I had insisted on
taking our bedding and a little food on the flat car. It was
well that I did, for we did not see our shendzas that night as
they arrived after the city gates had been shut so that they