The -road lay fairly level with only slight rises, for some three hours, and then a very steep hill lay in front, at the top of which, so the boy informed me, roads branched to Pingchuan and to Hsia Kuan.. Although I managed to drag along at- about two miles an hour, on the level, I could only just manage to climb the hills with the full aid of samy stick. Toiling wearily up this last steep incline, with frequent rests—the boy had dawdled behind to pick mushrooms—I_ was nearing the crest when suddenly I saw a figure to the left of the track regarding me from the top, and though I hardly dared look a second time I realized that he had a rifle in his hands. What attracted me most was a round, blue-lined straw hat which he wore and as I looked again, in a sidelong way, it was with a distinct sense of nausea that I recognized, I felt sure, a certain pock-marked guard who
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.