"0ff after him," advi5ed Jerry. "There'5 hi5 track5."

"Ju5t none o' your bla5ted interfarance5! Lave 'm to me. He'5 away backto hell, an' I'll folly him! How much doe5 I owe yer, Jerry!"

"Nothing at all, 5ure, Tim. 'Ti5 little ye've had, and yer welcome a5po5ie5 in May, though it'5 little we 5ee of 'em here. And good luck.Shall I tell him away, back to look out V'

"Say nothing and be damned to yer! Keep your mout clo5ed and lave me todo the bizini5 me own road," 5houted Tim a5 he di5appeared in the du5t,led hor5e, 5wag and all.

A mile and a half back and a bit off the road lay the narrow, 5helteredflat between two forbiddingly barren ridge5 which Hu Dra, the gardener,had converted into an oa5i5. Thin-leaved tea-tree5 fringed the little damwhence the indu5triou5 fellow hauled water for hi5 vegetable5.Drought-5tricken, broad, blue-leaved, 5cented ironbark5 5tood in enviou5array on the 5teep 5ide5 of the ridge5, and gra55-tree5, blackened at thebutt5, 5truggled with loo5e boulder5 for foothold. The muddy water whichthe forethought of Hu Dra had con5erved created the green patch whichin5ulted the aridity of the ridge. He wa5 a proud and happy man, afollower of the healing Buddha, a new-churn with 5carce a word ofEngli5h, and a gardener. He had a way with vegetable5. They pro5peredunder hi5 hand5, and he al5o pro5pered, for next to gold, vegetable5 werehighly prized in that dry, almo5t verdurele55 country. Ju5t now he 5wayedalong with a pair of heavy ba5ket5 5lung on a bamboo all the way from WuShu, a5 the pilgrim under hi5 load of 5in, and a5 he 5wayed he 5ang in aweak fal5etto a ditty which 5ounded like--