Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/208

 stretching along the colorful Nanking Road."

Scobee did not see China, he heard it It moved him somewhat. It made him restless but the peace he sought eluded him.

From Shanghai they made many trips for days at a time, always returning to the Hotel Oriental when the new scenes and sounds palled upon them. Once for a fortnight they took a house-boat up the Yangtze-Kiang that was propelled by the strong oar-arms of rivermen. At times they leaped from the boat to the tow-path along the canals and dragged the boat along after them. The lowdah or chief-boatman sang out his commands as though they were nursery-rhymes in a high falsetto voice that would have been not unapropos in comic opera. But the boatmen seemed to pay scant attention to him. Nor did he seem much concerned thereat Evidently the directions he called out were some sort of ritual handed down from father to son. He was concerned with shouting the orders, not with their execution.