At least we are better
off here than in America."
"Ah, that is true," agreed Mr. Camber, throwing his head back and
speaking the words as though they possessed some deep dramatic
significance. "Yes, but such laws are an insult to every intelligent
man."
He sat down again rather heavily, and I stood looking from him to the
landlady, and wondering what I should do. The matter was decided for
me, however, in a way which I could never have foreseen. For, hearing a
light footfall upon the step which led up to the bar-parlour, I turned
--and there almost beside me stood a wrinkled little Chinaman!
He wore a blue suit and a tweed cap, he wore queer, thick-soled
slippers, and his face was like a smiling mask hewn out of very old
ivory. I could scarcely credit the evidence of my senses, since the
Lavender Arms was one of the last places in which I should have looked
for a native of China.
Mr. Colin Camber rose again, and fixing his melancholy eyes upon the
newcomer:
"Ah Tsong," he said in a tone of cold anger, "what are you doing here?"
Quite unmoved the Chinaman replied:
"Blingee you chit, sir, vellee soon go back.
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