"Yes," said he. "You are right, Yung How; only bad men smoke opium."
"Opium does harm," said Yung How, who, five minutes later, appeared in the hotel kitchen. Several coolies were eating rice upon a doorstep, and one of these was the engineer of Sir Thomas's river-launch. It is not pleasant to watch lower-class Chinese eat rice. They hold the bowl about two inches from their mouths, which they open very wide, and then they scoop up the rice with their fingers in much the same manner as one might brush pieces of fluff from the sleeve of a coat.
"Ah Su," said Yung How, to the engineer, "has the judge told you where we are going?"
"No," said Ah Su.
"The weather," said Yung How, "is very hot."
He then departed to the vestibule of the hotel, where he encountered the comprador. In China, the comprador knows everything.
"Are there any letters for the judge?" asked Yung How, in a lordly manner.
"He has them," said the comprador. "He himself took them into the breakfast-room."
"We leave to-day," said Yung How casually.
"So I understand," said the other.