"It is hard to tell when things first began to go wrong," he said, "but it came about slowly and surely. All this political unrest to begin with. Then the General, once the power was in his hands, began to abuse it. He took over all the revenues of the province and gave no accounting for them; he began to train large bodies of troops, troops ha conscripted and paid off by loans from the local chambers of commerce. I say 'loans' but of course they were actually levies never meant to be paid. Then he stopped all the exportation of rice (rice, you know, is one of the chief products of the province), and made large sums out of kumshaw from the smugglers. Why, when I left he had actually collected all the taxes of the province up to 1930! Of course he did a few admirable things too. He kept strict order; he made expenditures on public works. Certainly the roads were never in better condition (he was fond of motoring), and unexpectedly he even endowed a few charities here and there. Well, as I said, all this happened gradually and in the meantime the political situation grew more and more acute. The Cantonese, or Nationalists, as they like to call themselves, were practically at his doors. It was about then he told me he was obliged to put in a Chinese as president of the college. He did not say who obliged him, but I got nothing out of argument except that I might remain, because of his friendliness to me, as adviser to the Board. Then he said the whole foreign staff would have to leave to make way for Chinese instructors, the instructors all men we had educated of course. So they left, but I hung on. The man he had selected for president was a fine fellow, I knew him well, I hoped to work through him, or at least to save our property and all our gear for better days. But the General had no intention of my remaining. He had just sold out to the Nationalists, not from conviction but from pure political expediency. He saw they would win anyway. He felt himself particularly strong, particularly successful. He ordered me to leave. There was no getting around him this time; I had to go. An armed guard escorted me to the train and we parted," the Doctor smiled bitterly, "with all the flowery speeches you could think of. And since then I have been waiting here to see what happens." "Well, I'm surprised," said Mrs. Jackson. "I thought the General was always a great admirer of yours." It seemed that Mrs. Jackson was gratified by the General's defection, whether because of a natural satisfaction in some one else's disappointment or because it illustrated some conviction of her own that the Chinese could not be depended upon. "I don't know," replied Strike. "Certainly I was once an admirer of his." "Well, what do you suppose caused him to turn on you?"