We drew opposite a small native wharf on the south side, then turned and ran straight in. 'Luckily,' said Philipson to me, 'I have good and discreet friends hereabouts. Otherwise it would be awkward. The boat will have to go up on the slips.' I gave him a look of surprise. 'Put your hand down here,' said Philipson quietly. He had stooped into the well and lifted out a small bit of bottom-boarding. I felt below it, and drew up my hand wet to the wrist. There were four or five inches of water inboard of us. 'It is obviously small,' he muttered, 'but we must overhaul the boat before we go on. It will never do to try the rapids higher up with a gap in our strakes.' The yard we had come to was capitally suited to our ends, being shut in on all sides except for a narrow water frontage; and even that was still further secluded by two timber partitions running out like the walls of a fives-court. The place, moreover, afforded easy and secret access to a native inn outside the city wall, where Philipson told us we were to spend the night. The proprietor of the yard had clearly had truck with Philipson before, since he greeted him with marked respect and more than a shade of fear. 'The good Charon seems to know you, Philipson,' said Poyning, as we stood together on the jetty, while three coolies hauled the launch out of the water with a small capstan of native pattern. 'He does,' replied our leader. 'I had the good fortune to save him from the headsman some years ago, under circumstances that will not bear repeating. He has shown his gratitude by helping me several times since. Now, to business. You two can be of no use to me here. You had better get along with Lo Eng to our quarters for the night. He will give you a meal, but do not wait for me. I shall possibly be late.' Philipson was. We had finished our meal and smoked many pipes before he arrived, a little after midnight. 'Rather worse than I thought,' he said, setting ravenously about a cold chicken and a bottle of hock. 'What's wrong with her?' 'A leak just under the forefoot. We must have started a plank when we struck the other boat in Whangpu River, and gradually opened it out while we drove up stream. There is a good deal of sunken driftwood in the river at most times--I expect you heard her bump against it?' 'Time and again, but never very hard.' 'Exactly. It would not hurt a sound boat, but with the strake already loose it is only a matter of keeping on long enough to develop a nasty hole. Luckily we spotted it in time.' 'All right now?'