“It seems Uncle Eric once did a favor of some kind for Sun Li when they were both young men. That was before he was governor, of course. I don’t know what it was—the favor, I mean—but Sun Li’s never forgotten. Uncle Eric was trying to learn some Chinese at the time, and in his efforts to pronounce his new friend’s long and very unpronounceable name—I’ve heard it, of course, myself, but I can’t say it, either; it takes a Chinese tongue—well, as I was saying, ‘Sun Li’ was the nearest Uncle Eric could twist his own tongue to it, and they kept the name going as a sort of friendly joke between them. Then came that time when you, Ricky, were born at sea and Aunt Cecily died just as Uncle Eric’s ship was nearing Canton. Sun Li’s own little son died the same day, and he sent the child’s nurse to take care of you on the voyage home. But you and Tommy know that part of the story. Only, of course, all that made the friendship closer than ever between the two men.” “Yes. Oh, Lis, go on, _quick_!” Erica breathed, her eyes shining. Mrs. Haven, her own face alight with interest, drew nearer and slipped a forgiving arm about Erica’s shoulders. “Well, to skip ahead to the night I went ashore from the _Spray_ to have a last look-see at the city of Canton,” Lis continued. “I had been paid that morning, and foolishly I took the money ashore with me in my pocket. Not that it was a big sum, of course, but any money looks big to those Chinese bandits. I had father’s gold watch on, too. I’ll know better another time. You can guess the rest. I wandered into a lonely-looking side street, quite far into the heart of the city, and that’s all I remember about it. Some thief, or thieves—I don’t know how many there were—must have jumped me from behind, out of one of those dark compound gateways. They got away with my money and the watch, but, luckily for me, they didn’t find Sun Li’s seal ring. It began to rain about that time, and I must have lain there in the street in the wet for maybe two hours, when a kind old, absent-minded Chinese scholar, jogging home in his sedan with his coolie bearers, found me and took me to his own house and nursed me like a Christian gentleman. I was out of my wits for days, what with the blow on my head the bandits had given me and a cold and fever I’d caught lying so long out in the rain.” Both Erica and Mrs. Haven uttered little cries of horror and pity, and Tommy clenched both fists fiercely, but made no other comment.