' PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING " 267 



and, what was more to the point, made them pay 

 for it. 



No case in which a Chinaman was concerned as the 

 accused, or plaintiff, or disinterested witness, but 

 Tsing Hi took, if not an official, an officious part. Every 

 new-comer from the Flowery Land passed through his 

 hands. He knew what personal property each possessed, 

 and the value of the gold of the lucky departing ones. 

 That he prospered exceedingly was evident. The fact 

 was expressed in his costume. Beyond the court fees 

 as interpreter, the merry, chirping little fellow had really 

 no lawful, visible means of support. Yet he glistened 

 and gleamed with emblems of riches. He was a dandy 

 from the soles of his shiny elastic-side boots to the crown 

 of his jaunty hard-hitter. Across a yellow waistcoat 

 hung a very aggressive chain, from which dangled a huge 

 masonic jewel in gold-and-blue enamel, and the fre- 

 quently consulted watch a big, bold-faced lever 

 ticked with snappy determination. Tsing Hi had much 

 more to live up to than the huge watch, the chain, and 

 the emblem; but they seemed to constitute special and 

 peculiar insignia. They were always to the front. 

 He was one of the men of his day and scene to be 

 admired, feared, and to be conciliated by his fellow- 

 countrymen all along the traffic-torn road. 



The dust from that tortuous road rose in an earth- 

 adhering cloud from out which honest, clean-souled men 

 came like pain-distorted spectres, wearing grey tear- 

 stained masks with pink-rimmed eyeholes and mud- 

 edged mouths. But the dust was less distressing than 

 that which Tsing Hi threw in the eyes of bewildered 

 mankind by this burst and gusts of speech. 



In the heyday of his fame and prosperity Tsing Hi 

 disappeared. His absences were customary, for did he 

 not flit here, there, and everywhere ? The police were 



