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Not long ago some Englishmen came out to Hong-Kong to dive to a vessel which had been wrecked on an island off the coast. My worthy agent there, Dwarro, cast his eyes on them and soon found out all about their plans. Dwarro is a very intelligent fellow. Like yourself, he has a good deal of the sneaking robber about him.
The commander put down two English sovereigns, for which he received a bag full of the current coins, which were not the native cash, but the pieces made for Hong-Kong, as they are made for the island of Jamaica, where an English penny will not pass. The smallest was of the value of a cash, or one mill.
Two years passed; and Swan Day was to all appearance no nearer his return to the land of his birth than when he first trod the deck that bore him away from it. He was still on the first round of the high ladder to fortune. Thus far he had wrought diligently and successfully. He had been sent hither and thither: from Canton to Hong-Kong; from Macao to Ningpo and Shanghai.
"Still," went on the manager, "they are slaves in a sense; they are bought and sold until their original indebtedness is paid. A father is in debt, we'll say. He sells his daughter to a geisha or a sing-song master, and the girl is rented out until the debt is paid. Then the work is optional; they go on their own. There are sing-song girls in Hong-Kong and Shanghai who are famous and wealthy.
He first mistook me for a stevedore, then for the manager, and next for the Hong-Kong-Shanghai Bank. I stormed at him, irritated that I should have to shout my business for the benefit of the loafers in the hotel office. "Correspondent!" I yelled in answer to his questions. "Newspaper correspondent working on the war. I want to go to Hong-Kong in the Kut Sang!"
I really don't know what possessed me. Perhaps I was a bit hypnotized. Perhaps I was curious. Perhaps I wanted some excitement. On my word, I don't know just what happened. Anyhow, here I am in a dinner gown, bound for Hong-Kong, so he says. He offered me ten thousand for the beads, and my freedom, if I would promise not to report his high-handedness; and I haven't uttered a sound."
Frenchmen pleasant travelling companions The limitations Vicomte de Vogue, the innkeeper and the Ikon An early oil-burning steamer A modern Bluebeard His "Blue Chamber" Dupleix His ambitious scheme A disastrous period for France A personal appreciation of the Emperor Nicholas II A learned but versatile Orientalist Pidgin English Hong-Kong An ancient Portuguese city in China Duck junks A comical Marathon race Canton Its fascination and its appalling smells The malevolent Chinese devils Precautions adopted against "Foreign Devils" The fortunate limitations of Chinese devils The City of the Dead A business interview.
"The American captain fulfilled his promise, and landed us at Yokohama. We were detained there a considerable time before we could get across to this place. As soon as we arrived we sent word to Hong-kong of our safety, but I suppose the news had not reached that place before you sailed."
The little wooden-frame house and the garden would be paradise enough. The crimson ramblers, the hollyhocks, the bachelor's-buttons, and the peonies, the twisted apple tree that never bore more than enough for one pie! Her throat tightened. She hadn't heard from the mother in two months, but there would be mail at Hong-Kong. Letters and papers from home!
A hopeless cry is continually ascending in Hong-Kong and Shanghai that trade is bad, that the palmy days are gone, and that one might as well leave business to take care of itself. And it is not to be denied that increased trade in the Far East does not of necessity mean increased profits.
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