NOTES BY AN OLD SPORTSMAN 29I 



intolerably long time, for they were the 

 four best hours of a really fine shooting day. 

 However, an end comes to all things as 

 it did to my incarceration, and I was not 

 sorry when a self-elected party of six hefty 

 countr)men said that they would accom- 

 pany me back to my boat. Meantime coolie 

 and gun remained unreleased. After a 

 tramp of 16 // — five miles or so — to my great 

 joy I discovered that my boat was anchored 

 quite close to a gunboat. I immediately 

 sent my boy armed with my card and pass- 

 port and an explanation of the affair. The 

 passport appeared to act like magic, for the 

 captain of the gunboat, redolent of a recent 

 pipe of opium, quickly donned his uniform, 

 and made a company of his crew row him 

 back to the scene of the trouble. What took 

 place there I shall never know, but in a 

 couple of hours time gun and coolie were 

 restored to me. The Captain explained to 

 me that the matter was of no importance 

 and that he had sealed it by the promise of 

 a dollar to the wounded man. I gave him 

 a couple of Mexicans which, doubtless, the 

 cripple never saw. 



On my return to Shanghai I laid the 

 particulars of this incident before my Consul 



