a small town of squalid native houses and proceeded through narrow and unsavoury lanes until we reached a low doorway in a high wall. Passing through, I found myself in a small courtyard. On the muddy ground were placed a number of rickety tables and rough benches. Here sat, with various liquors before them, groups of Cossacks and German soldiers, who stared with surprise at the unusual sight of a British officer in such a den. At the far end of the court was a tumbledown Chinese house, on the verandah of which sat the proprietor and his wife, evidently Italian or Austrian. The lady, a buxom person of ample proportions, was attired in a very magnificent, but decidedly _décolleté_ evening dress. Her wrists were adorned with massive bracelets, her fingers covered with rings. Altogether she looked a very haughty and superb beauty and more fitted to adorn a café in the Champs Elysées than a rough drinking‐booth in the heart of China. Her husband came forward to meet me; and on my stating my wants in imploring tones, he seemed at first in doubt as to whether he could supply them. My heart sank. He turned to consult the lady. To my intense astonishment this magnificent personage sprang up at once, called to a Chinese servant to bring her a chicken, and then, pinning up the skirt of her rich dress, plunged into a kitchen which opened off the verandah, and then and there, with her own fair hands, spatch‐cocked the fowl, and served me with a welcome and appetising meal. My hunger satisfied thus unexpectedly, I strolled back to the station in a contented frame of mind, indifferent to anything Fate had in store for me. Nothing could harm me; I had dined. I was quite ready to wrap myself in a blanket and sleep on a bench, or on the ground for that matter. But my star was in the ascendant. I found a comfortable camp‐bed of a Chinese pattern awaiting me, sent by the kind‐hearted employee. Placing it on the platform, I spread my bedding on it, undressed, and lay down to sleep.