Chap. XVI. MIDNIGHT DISTURBANCE. 
249 
haps of taking our lives. Human life is not much 
valued in some parts of the country, and the province of 
Fokien does not bear a high character, and for aught I 
knew I might be in a den of thieves and robbers. Sing- 
Hoo, but a short time before, had been telling me of 
an occurrence which took place in the wild mountain- 
country between Hoo-chow-foo, the famous silk town, 
and Hwuy-chow, his native place. Four travellers, he 
said, took up their quarters one evening in an inn on 
the roadside. They called for a good dinner, and after- 
wards smoked opium and gambled until nearly midnight. 
Next morning three of them paid their bills of fare and 
took their departure, but the fourth was nowhere visible. 
His body was afterwards found in a pit near the house, 
doubled up in his own box, and from its appearance there 
was no doubt the man had met with a violent death 
from the hands of his companions. 
"With this story in my mind, I could not endure the 
suspense any longer, and, throwing on my clothes, I 
opened the door and walked into the place where the 
disturbance was. What I saw was quite sufficient to 
alarm a bolder man, and yet there was something in it 
laughable too. Eight or ten stout fellows, including the 
chair-bearers, were attacking my servant, who was stand- 
ing, like a tiger at bay, up against the wall of the house. 
He had a large joss-stick in his hand, which every now 
and then he was poking at the faces of those who threat- 
ened to close with him. The most adventurous some- 
times got a poke which sent them back cursing and 
swearing rather faster than they came. The whole scene 
brought vividly to my mind Baillie Nicol Jarvie's fight 
M 3 
