"Then I shall ship for England as best as I can.

I've had enough of China to last me a lifetime." From that moment the stranger did not refer again to his journey.

He was singularly reticent upon this point, and feeling that perhaps the recollection of all he had suffered might be painful to him, the two men did not press him to unburden himself.
"He's a strange sort of fellow," said Gregory to Dempsey, later in the evening, when the other had retired to rest.

"If he has walked from Pekin here, as he says, he's more than a little modest about it.

I'll be bound his is a funny story if only he would condescend to tell it." They would have been more certain than ever of this fact had they been able to see their guest at that particular moment.