Here he laid a restraining hand on the ill-tempered Chinaman's shoulder.
'What do you mean?' was the retort.
'Your bad temper; it will be the ruin of you if you don't.'
Alas! this open rebuke only added fuel to the fire, and Ping-Kwe's fellow-passengers (who were bound for the town of Tsoung, across the water) at length grew thoroughly tired of his company.
'Who is that fellow?' whispered one of the occupants of the boat to another.
'Oh! it is Ping-Kwe,' was the reply, as though that answered everything.
'What! the manager of Kong-Yung's stores in the town yonder?'
'Yes.'
'How comes it that he is here, instead of attending to his work?' went on the questioner.
As there was no satisfactory answer to this query, the stranger, who was none other than Kong-Yung himself, said no more.