Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
It was the first thing I saw that night as I swung into my chambers. Fact is, for the moment, it was the only thing I saw. Somehow, its splash of yellow there under the shaded lamp seemed to catch my eye and hold it.
I screwed my glass tight and examined the thing with interest. Nothing remarkable; just a tiny, oblong package, bearing curious foreign markings, its wrapper plainly addressed to me, but--
Somebody in far-off China sending me a present, with duties and charges prepaid evidently.
What the deuce was it? I shook it without getting any revelation; then I weighed it in my hand.
The thing was devilish light! In fact, so light that, allowing for outside wrapper and box, dashed if I could see how there was anything at all.
Then I had an awful thought: Suppose, by Jove, they had forgotten to inclose the thing--whatever it was! Jolly tiresome, that, if they had. I felt devilish annoyed.
Really, awfully provoking to do that sort of thing, you know; and I was jolly sure now the dashed thing had been wrapped up empty. I wondered what silly ass I knew in China who would be likely to do a thing like that. I couldn't think of any one at all I knew in China, so I rang for Jenkins.
"Anybody I know in China, Jenkins?" I asked. And to help him out, I added: "Fact is, some chap's sent me a package, you know."
"Name on box, sir, perhaps." Said it offhand, just like that--no trouble of thinking, dash it all--never even blinked. Just instinct, by Jove!
And there it was, nicely printed in the corner with a pen:
ROLAND MASTERMANN, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONG KONG, CHINA
I read it aloud--can't read anything, you know, unless I read it aloud--and looked at Jenkins inquiringly. But he came right up to the scratch; just seemed to get it from somewhere right out of the wall over my head:
"Beg pardon, sir; but think it's that London gentleman--entertained you at the Carlton when you were over the other side."
Mastermann! By Jove, so it was--I began to remember him now, because I remembered his dinner, several of them, in fact, during the three years I had lived over there, acquiring the English accent--manner, you know--and all that sort of thing!