Page:Tom Beauling (1901).pdf/182

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Chapter XVII

BEAULING had written to Dunbar from Brindisi. At Hong-Kong he received a cable saying, "Come when you have wound up your affairs." So that was all right. He could foresee nothing that could delay him again. The way home was pleasant. He knew the highroads of the East as a New York banker knows Wall Street, and all ports were full of friendly faces. But the homing was not without melancholy, for he was saying "Good-by" to many people whom he would never see again. At the ex-missionary's house in Hong-Kong he sang until the heat became endurable; then he kissed the five children, tipped the servants, and went down through the night to the Yacht Club. The young men looked older, but they were as free from care as ever, and still talked of Wareing week