The only one who desired to go ashore there, I made my way, when it was dark and the last load of steers was being transferred to shore, down below to the hold of the coaster. I stood in a corner, behind an iron ladder, so that the cattle couldn't crush me during the night ... for the Chinese had turned them loose, there, in a mass. * * * * * I stumbled ashore at Tongku, a station up a way on the banks of the Pei Ho river. My first night ashore in China was a far cry from the China of my dreams ... the Cathay of Marco Polo, with its towers of porcelain.... I crept, to escape a cold drizzle, under the huge tarpaulin which covered a great stack of tinned goods--army supplies. A soldier on guard over the stack, an American soldier, spotted me. "Come, my lad," lifting up the tarpaulin, "what are you doing there?" "--Trying to keep from the wet!" "--run off from one of the transports?" "Yes," was as good an answer as any. "You're pretty cold ... your teeth are chattering. Here, take a swig o' this." And the sentinel reached me a flask of whiskey from which I drew a nip. Unaccustomed as I was to drink, it nearly strangled me. It went all the way down like fire. Then it spread with a pleasant warmth all through my body.... "Stay here to-night ... rather uncomfortable bed, but at least it's dry. No one 'ull bother you ... in the morning Captain ----, who is in charge of the commissariat here, might give you a job." * * * * * That next morning Captain ---- gave me a job as mate, eighty dollars Mex. and a place to sleep, along with others, in a Compound, and find my food at my own expense.... Mate, on a supply-launch that went in and out to and from the transports, that were continually anchoring in the bay. Our job was to keep the officers' mess in supplies.... "And, if you stick to your job six months," I was informed, "you'll be entitled to free transportation back to San Francisco." My captain was a neat, young Englishman, with the merest hint of a moustache of fair gold. Our crew--two Chinamen who jested about us between themselves in a continuous splutter of Chinese. We could tell, by their grimaces and gestures ... we rather liked their harmless, human impudence ... as long as they did the work, while we lazed about, talking ... while up and down the yellow sweep of the Pei-ho the little boat tramped. * * * * * "It's too bad you didn't arrive on the present scene a few weeks, sooner," said my young captain ... "it was quite exciting here, at that time. I used to have to take the boathook and push off the Chinese corpses that caught on the prow of the boat as they floated down, thick ... they seemed to catch hold of the prow as if still alive. It was uncanny!" * * * * *