Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III IN WHICH DAUNT AND I FACE A STRANGE FOE ONE of the chief idiosyncrasies of my little master, Mr. Vigorous Daunt, which even rivalled his ineradicable dislike of every colour save brown, or his sentimental aversion for the fair sex, was the extraordinary tenderness and interest he at all times manifested for people of the Asiatic race. Many times had I wonderingly remarked this peculiar susceptibility, yet, strange to say, something had always prevented me from inquiring as to the cause of it, until one memorable night in the early autumn of the year 189?. We had dined and spent the earlier portion of that evening in company with several other notabilities at the house of a prominent politician. One of the people we had met at our host’s table was Prince Ming, of Burmah. My master had apparently conceived an instantaneous fancy for the Burmese Prince, and, as far as I could judge, the liking had been reciprocated. The two men had gravitated by mutual impulse; and after dinner had adjourned to a quiet corner andcarried on quite a cabinet confab until nearly eleven, at which hour Prince Ming bade us good-night. The Prince had not been gone more than five minutes when Vigorous Daunt also took his leave (and mine). My master decided to walk home.
It’s a fine night and we have been four hours seated, he explained. We fell into step, and our conversation turned upon our strange companion of the evening, Prince Ming, and my master’s strange predilection for the Yellow races. Vigorous Daunt suddenly stopped short. He peered into my eyes, a favourite trick of his, very sharply, but I saw (we stood beneath a street lamp) that he was intently preoccupied. All his faculties were strained to listen. Presently he swung round and stared in a particular direction….