And at last, at bay in the corner, and beset by an infuriated mob of editors, blacklegs, politicians, and desperadoes, who raved and swore and flourished their weapons about my head till the air shimmered with glancing flashes of steel, I was in the act of resigning my berth on the paper when the chief arrived, and with him a rabble of charmed and enthusiastic friends.

Then ensued a scene of riot and carnage such as no human pen, or steel one either, could describe.

People were shot, probed, dismembered, blown up, thrown out of the window.

There was a brief tornado of murky blasphemy, with a confused and frantic war-dance glimmering through it, and then all was over.

In five minutes there was silence, and the gory chief and I sat alone and surveyed the sanguinary ruin that strewed the floor around us.
He said, "You'll like this place when you get used to it." I said, "I'll have to get you to excuse me; I think maybe I might write to suit you after a while; as soon as I had had some practice and learned the language I am confident I could.