To the ordinary observer the Chinaman presents an inscrutable mystery.  His seemingly unemotional character and his racial inability to express his thoughts intelligibly in any European tongue stamp him as a creature apart, and one whom many are prone erroneously to classify very low in the human scale and not far above the ape.  Sir Lucien usually spoke to Sin Sin Wa in English, and the other replied in that weird jargon known as “pidgin.”  But the silly Sin Wa who murmured gibberish and the Sin Sin Wa who could converse upon many and curious subjects in his own language were two different beings—­as Sir Lucien was aware.  Now, as the one-eyed Chinaman resumed his seat and the one-eyed raven sank into slumber, Pyne suddenly spoke in Chinese, a tongue which he understood as it is understood by few Englishmen; that strange, sibilant speech which is alien from all Western conceptions of oral intercourse as the Chinese institutions and ideals are alien from those of the rest of the civilized world.

“So you make a profit on your rum, Sin Sin Wa,” he said ironically, “at the same time that you keep in the good graces of the police?”

Sin Sin Wa’s expression underwent a subtle change at the sound of his native language.  He moved his hands and became slightly animated.

“A great people of the West, most honorable sir,” he replied in the pure mandarin dialect, “claim credit for having said that ’business is business.’  Yet he who thus expressed himself was a Chinaman.”

“You surprise me.”

“The wise man must often find occasion for surprise most honorable sir.”

Sir Lucien lighted a cigarette.

“I sometimes wonder, Sin Sin Wa,” he said slowly, “what your aim in life can be.  Your father was neither a ship’s carpenter nor a shopkeeper.  This I know.  Your age I do not know and cannot guess, but you are no longer young.  You covet wealth.  For what purpose, Sin Sin Wa?”

Standing behind the Chinaman, Sir Lucien’s dark face, since he made no effort to hide his feelings, revealed the fact that he attached to this seemingly abstract discussion a greater importance than his tone of voice might have led one to suppose.  Sin Sin Wa remained silent for some time, then: 

“Most honorable sir,” he replied, “when I have smoked the opium, before my eyes—­for in dreams I have two—­a certain picture arises.  It is that of a farm in the province of Ho-Nan.  Beyond the farm stretch paddy-fields as far as one can see.  Men and women and boys and girls move about the farm, happy in their labors, and far, far away dwell the mountain gods, who send the great Yellow River sweeping down through the valleys where the poppy is in bloom.  It is to possess that farm, most honorable sir, and those paddy-fields that I covet wealth.”

“And in spite of the opium which you consume, you have never lost sight of this ideal?”

“Never.”

“But—­your wife?”