Why should they, indeed, when
there were fascinating opium dens standing hospitably open, where
they could have the excitement of entrance even if it were followed
by immediate ejectment? As it grew darker, the scene grew more weird
and fairylike, for the scarlet, orange, and blue lanterns began to
gleam one by one in the narrow doorways, and from the shadowy corners
of the rooms behind them. In every shop were tables laden with
Chinese delicacies,--fish, flesh, fowl, tea, rice, whisky, lichee
nuts, preserved limes, ginger, and other sweetmeats; all of which,
when not proffered, could be easily purloined, for there was no
spirit of parsimony or hostility afloat in the air. In cubby-holes
back of the counters, behind the stoves, wherever they could find
room for a table, groups of moon-eyed men began to congregate for
their nightly game of fan-tan, some of the players and onlookers
smoking, while others chewed lengths of peeled sugar-cane.
In the midst of festivities like these the twins would have gone on
from bliss to bliss without consciousness of time or place, had not
hunger suddenly descended upon them and sleep begun to tug at their
eyelids, changing in a trice their joy into sorrow and their mirth
into mourning. Not that they were troubled with any doubts, fears,
or perplexities.
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