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TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. Chap. XVII. 



I was not going to have a disturbance, and perhaps 

 lose my life, for a shilling, so I ordered him to pay 

 the money without further delay. 



This had the effect of restoring something like 

 quietness to the house. I now ordered Sing-Hoo 

 into my room and shut the door. The business, how- 

 ever, had gone too far, for the other men were 

 highly incensed at his conduct, and threatened to be 

 revenged upon him. For hours after this I could 

 hear them talking about the matter, even after they 

 had lain down in their beds. Sing-Hoo listened 

 eagerly to every word of their conversation, and was 

 evidently in a state of great alarm. He begged me 

 to allow a candle to be lighted and kept burning in 

 our apartment during the night. 



In the room next to mine, and only separated from 

 it by a wooden partition, about a dozen opium - 

 smokers had taken up their quarters. The soft, 

 sickening fumes of the drug found their way through 

 the chinks of the partition, and were most disagree- 

 able. In a short time the opium began to operate upon 

 the smokers ; they talked and laughed loudly, and 

 were evidently in their " heaven of bliss." Sing-Hoo's 

 affair was uppermost in their minds, and it seemed 

 as if they could think or talk of nothing else. What 

 madmen might do under the circumstances — for mad- 

 men they were while under the influence of the drug 

 — I could not possibly foresee. This kept me awake 

 for several hours. At last, however, I dropped off to 

 sleep, and did not awake until daylight was streaming 

 into our miserable apartment. All was perfectly quiet. 



