CHAPTER VI—CONFLAGRATION  

  CHAPTER VII—THE INSCRUTABLE WEST  

  CHAPTER VIII—ABOARD THE YELLOW JUNK  

  CHAPTER IX—IN A GARDEN  

  CHAPTER X—YOUTH  

  CHAPTER XI—THE LANDSCAPE SCROLL OF CHAO MENG-FU  

  CHAPTER XII—AT THE HOUR OF THE TIGER  

  CHAPTER XIII—HIS EXCELLENCY SPEAKS  

  CHAPTER XIV—THE WORLD OF FACT  

  CHAPTER XV—IN A COURTYARD  

  

  

       CHAPTER I—FELLOW VOYAGERS     

 ON a night in October, 1911, the river steamer Yen Hsin lay alongside the godown, or warehouse, of the Chinese Navigation Company at Shanghai. Her black hull bulked large in the darkness that was spotted with inadequate electric lights. Her white cabins, above, lighted here and there, loomed high and ghostly, extending as far as the eye could easily see from the narrow wharf beneath. Swarming continuously across the gangplanks, chanting rhythmically to keep the quick shuffling step, crews of coolies carried heavy boxes and bales swung from bamboo poles.     

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       During the evening the white passengers were coming aboard by ones and twos and finding their cabins, all of which were forward on the promenade deck, grouped about the enclosed area that was to be at once their dining-room and “social hall.” Here, within a narrow space, bounded by strips of outer deck and a partition wall, these few casual passengers were to be caught, willy-nilly, in a sort of passing comradeship. For the greater part of this deck, 

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