We entered the sampan he had engaged, and were sculled out across the two miles of stream through a wonderful morning, fine and clear, with a fresh easterly breeze. Even as early as this there was a loud hum of activity abroad; the daily round of the great river port had already begun, and the bustle was still further increased by the arrival of a river steamer which had drawn up to her hulk just as we pushed in to the north bank. We saw the gangplanks swing down and a throng of native passengers surge across them. Philipson had been scanning the crowd, but he suddenly dropped his eyes to the bottom of the boat and muttered an order to the boatman. We turned up stream, taking advantage of any and every craft that lay there or passed, to keep ourselves hidden from the shore, and at last reached a jetty about a quarter of a mile from the point where we had originally purposed landing. Here my companion ordered the sampan to wait, and we sprang ashore and straight into two native "chairs"--capital conveyances for a furtive mission, since they were completely closed in--and were borne into the dense warrens of the native city of Hankow by a twisting route that soon robbed me of all sense of direction. I felt my chair set down, and stepping out found we were in a squalid courtyard walled in on three sides by native houses. Philipson took my arm and led me through a low doorway in one of the walls, thence along a narrow winding alley, from the end of which we ascended a flight of rickety wooden stairs. There was a door at the head of these, upon which Philipson knocked softly, and I noticed that the signal he gave was his own peculiar five taps. A house boy came, to whom my companion muttered something in the vernacular which I couldn't catch; then the servant took us through a bare ante room, and withdrew deeper into this queer, secret dive. Philipson put his mouth to my ear. 'Treat this man with the profoundest respect,' he whispered. 'He possesses ideas that would do credit to any European revolutionary. The Manchu Dynasty have had a price upon his head for years.'