"My sentiments, also," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "By the way, I hope you're not incommoded in any way by my--er--odor!" "Good Heaven! What do you mean?" "The Chinaman smells quite different to the European, though not necessarily unpleasantly. It's taken me quite a lot of trouble to attain the essential perfume!" He grinned impishly as he said it, and there certainly was a sort of stale, camphory smell, now he mentioned it. "You're a great artist, Rolston, and I don't know what I should do without you, oh, Mandarin from Yuen-Nan!" "That's another point," he said quickly. "You wouldn't guess why I'm supposed to come from Yuen-Nan, where I actually did spend some years of my childhood?" "Not in the least." "It's the principal opium producing Province in China," he replied, with a quick look at me. "Now, Sir Thomas, I've let the cat out of the bag. You see how I propose to attract the Chinese here, and get into their confidence." A light flashed in upon me, and I took a long breath. "But it would never do," I said. "If we were to start an opium den in that room upstairs, we should have the police in in a fortnight, and then the game would be up entirely." He smiled superior. "There will never be a single pipe of opium smoked in the 'Golden Swan,'" he said. "Of that I can assure you. That will be the very strictest rule that I shall make, but I shall supply opium to the customers, in varying quantities, and at intervals, according to the need of each individual case. It is almost impossible to bribe a Chinaman with money--the better sort, that is, the picked and chosen men who will be around Mr. Morse himself. But opium is quite another thing, and besides they won't know they're being bribed. I sat hours and hours working this thing out and I'm confident it's the only way." When he said that I realized that he spoke the truth, but I confess that the idea startled and alarmed me. "We shall be breaking the law, Rolston. We shall be risking heavy fines and certain imprisonment if we're found out." "To that I would say two things, Sir Thomas. First of all, that no fine matters; and secondly, that I shouldn't in the least mind doing six months if necessary. This great game is worth more than that. But secondly, and you may really put your mind at ease, we shall _not_ be found out. I have worked the thing out to a hair's breadth and my system is so complete that discovery is utterly impossible." "I oughtn't to let you risk it, though of course I shall share equally if anything happens." He disregarded this entirely. "But the stuff," I said, "the opium itself, how will you get that?"