An opium-pipe was held to his lips by one comrade, while another rolled the pellet of opium and placed it heated in the pipe-bowl, so that he might inhale its fumes.
In the morning the officer accompanied me to the gate of the stockade and bade me good-bye, with many unintelligible expressions of good will.
His eight best soldiers were told off to escort me to the frontier, distant only fifteen li.

It was a splendid walk through the jungle across the mountains to the Hongmuho.

We passed the outlying stockade of the Chinese, and, winding along the spur, came full in view of the British camp across the valley, half-way up the opposite slope.

By a very steep path we descended through the forest to the frontier fort of the Chinese, and emerged upon the grassy slope that shelves below it to the river.
There are a few bamboo huts on the sward, and here the Chinese guard left me; for armed guards are allowed no further.

I was led to the ford, my pony plunged into the swift stream, and a moment or two later I was on British soil and passing the Sepoy outpost, where the guard, to my great alarm, for I feared being shot, turned out and saluted me.