12 On the Plateau of Yunnan 
At the insignificant village of P‘u-p‘iao quite a disagree- 
able incident interrupted the monotony of the journey, for 
the villagers exhibited the curiosity of impudence to such 
a degree while I was putting up my tent, that I had a row 
with one of them. 
Meanwhile quite a crowd had collected to see the 
fracas, and it says much for the good sense and peacefulness 
of the Yunnanese that they did not take sides. Possibly a 
few, a very few, thought the man deserved what he got ; 
still fewer might have been really afraid of a foreigner ; but 
undoubtedly the vast majority were supremely indifferent— 
it was none of ¢ez7 business. 
In the night my tent was robbed. At the head of my 
bed stood a small table on which was a thermos flask full 
of hot tea, to be taken first thing in the morning while 
dressing, and a towel; I had left the front of the tent open 
for it was a warm night, and as I lay in bed I was thus 
able to watch the moon rise over the ebony range of 
mountains to the east. Next morning the table was bare ; 
my thermos flask and towel were gone. Whoever the 
thief was, he had simply put his arm through the tent 
opening and taken what he could reach without any trouble 
or noise. Suspicion pointed strongly to my friends of the 
previous afternoon, for it was unlikely that a casual tramp 
had come along and walked off with the things—his 
approach would be heralded by the barking of the village 
dogs; besides, a beggar could not go about in China with 
a towel over one arm and a thermos flask under the other 
without attracting considerable attention. 
It was all very annoying. The towel did not matter so 
much, for I had others, but the thermos flask being one of 
those small luxuries which add enormously to one’s comfort 
on such a journey was a serious loss ; nor was that all, for 
it had been a parting present to me from my boys at the 
Shanghai Public School, and I much resented losing it. 
However, nothing could be done till we reached Yung- 
ch‘ang that same evening, when having made myself 
respectable, 1 rode round to see the official, preceded by 
Ho-shing bearing my card and passport. Having ridden 
through the first two courtyards of the Yamen I dis- 
mounted before the closed inner gates and waited, while 
