In the afternoon I visited the Russian settlement and the railway station, and saw the south-bound train pass through. On board there was a Japanese tradesman with his wife and family. That was the only disquieting indication I observed. Less than a fortnight before, when in Port Arthur, I recognized that the Japanese merchants were selling off their stocks at reduced prices and leaving the port--but there seemed no immediate hurry. This fresh evidence of the continuous withdrawal of the trading Japanese from Manchuria aroused my suspicions, and caused me to doubt whether it were wise just then to travel into the wilds of north-eastern Manchuria, where I should be cut off from all news for days and possibly weeks together, and leave Port Arthur uncovered, for I knew that no other _Times_ correspondent was likely to be there for some time. The evening I spent with one of the European staff of Messrs. Bush Brothers, of Newchwang, who was in Mukden on business, and would leave on the morrow. We had the usual Chinese dinner of chopped chicken and rice, sharks’ fins, sea-snails, giblets, frogs’ chitterlings, bean sprouts, sugar cane and monkey nuts. We talked of the probability of war, and of the Chinese of Fengtien province, who--according to my informant, and he of all men was most likely to know--showed no apprehension of war commencing at an early date, and were concerned chiefly with local happenings, such as Hunghus raids and highway robberies, the usual concomitants of commerce in that neighbourhood. He said nothing to alarm me, but before I reached my inn I had resolved to start on the morrow for Port Arthur instead of going in the directly opposite direction towards Kirin, as I had been ordered to do. Next morning I sought everywhere for evidence which would be enough to convince any one that I was warranted in adopting the course I intended to pursue, but I found nothing. On Monday no news of a disquieting nature reached Mukden; there were no indications that the usual course of things would not continue always. The little world of Mukden, with its swarming population, its Russian Commissary and executive, its Tartar General and Russian garrison, was totally absorbed with its local affairs. There was no moving of troops, no indication of change.