My men talked on far into the night until I lost patience and yelled at them in English.

They thought that I was swearing, and desisted for fear that I should injure their ancestors.

There was a shrine in this room for private devotions, the corresponding spot in the adjoining room being a rough opium-couch already occupied by two lusty thickset "slaves to this thrice-accursed drug." My men ate the most frugal of suppers.

Food was so much in advance of its ordinary price that my men, in common with thousands of other coolies, were doing their hard work on starvation rations.
On the 5th we did a long day's stage and spent the night at a bleak hamlet 8500 feet above sea level, in a position so exposed that the roofs of the houses were weighted with stones to prevent their being carried away by the wind.

This was the "Temple of the Dragon King," and it was only twenty li from Tongchuan.
Next day we were astir early and soon after daylight we came suddenly to the brow of the tableland overlooking the valley of Tongchuan.