Luckily for me, Mr. H. M. Brown of C.LM., happened to be staying at Loping and very' hospitably took in and gave me every assistance. On the next morning I sent my boy fo Nanchang: Thad already wired for mechanic to be sent, but having {foolishly omitted to state' the probable jeause of the break-down, a further day was wassied. "Loping is a decided ly backward and uninteresting inland town, As the magistrate, on whom Tealicd, sagely remarked, one would not find' much of interest toa tourist there. It consists chiefly of one narrow main street about two miles long: Jand T should not like to say how many times my kind host and 1 {ramped up and down its length from the mission'to the bus station and back Inthe course of those two days.
The mechanic who arrived. from chang soon found the fault: the worn, and we ore eirondy' hoping to reach, lent ichang late that night, when a fresh disaster was discovered, Inthe course of the various experlments—believe it or not—the needle valve of the carburetter had got lost. He very ingeniously fashioned, one out "of bamboo, but it was not anventire success; we simply poured at Petrol, As the Kiangsi bus people. refused {to sell me any on the following morn Ing we were again stuck, about 20 miles outside Nanchang. The mechanic, was sent In by bus to bring back supplies and a needle, while 1 Toft to sit in the cat by the roadside for five hours, Luckily the weather was fine; it was the last day that If was s9.
As 1 was sitting there trying to compose this article, three little children approached the car, and after they had overcome their shyness we entered Into. conversation. They asked me why I was sitting there and afler 1 had mode it clear with some dimeulty that the ear would not they pondered over this for a time, when one of them said "Way do you buy a car that won't go?" To this devastating question 1 found no effective answer.
When T triod to start again, the engine would not start, and.all efforts to make it do so. proved unavailing. "The cause was clear enough: the gas dene was not flowing. to the car-Durettor, though why this should be was not x0 clear, as alli the conneeions wore unobstructed, friendly lorry-drivers stopped, in the course of the next few hours, to try und find the fault, but, ' except {o take to pieces various parts, with further disastrous results, "hoy were no more successful than Thad been.
The last bus for Nanchang had tons since gone pastixo that iL was too late send my boy there, and as the, ity people who, needless to say, had gathered round in a large crowd, refused all my offers to tow the car back: to the bus station (Iwas informed that they did not trust me to! pay them when they gol there), it Tooked as if we should have to spas the rest of the afternoon and night by the roadside, "then suddenly three angels In dis ulse—they were certainly well dis-Buised—appeared from the blue, in the shape of three very raggedly dressed Tientsin men who had come down to work on the railway construction, but had thrown up their fobs in disgust and were walking: back "lo their Thad already heard much abort the appalling conditions of the labourers fon this construction work who all come from Hopel and Shantung, conditions which would have made a home-side Trade Unionist. sce. ved, Apart from the (terribly insanitary living conditions and the consequent high' death-rate, these labourers. are aid to receive practically mie wages.
osides their keep. Anyhow, whether: correct or "not, my three Tienlsin, coolies had thrown up the job and. referred the risk of walking penni-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.