"Another retreat, too hurried and very insulting. Dusk was descending as the automobile bore them away and soon deposited them at an airport. Dr Chang crammed them into a little airplane which was already waiting for them. Bobbie was so paralysed that there was no more kick left in him. They hovered over the immense city while the lights crept out below in the reddish haze. Bobbie flopped in his seat like a man shot dead. Helen had the sights pointed out to her.

The banks and skyscrapers along the Bund looked very small; Soochow Creek was only a thin, brown band between China and England. The French quarter nestled up to the International Settlement, and more and more lights twinkled out below. On the other side of the Creek lay Hongkew, a large expanse with its green patches of parks; Chapei, a maze of small streets in which the quadrangle of factories with their tall chimneys stood out. More facto on the other side of the Whangpoo in Pootung. Yangtze Po, following the bend of the Great River, with piers gripping the water like narrow clasps. A gray patch forming an irregular circle, ribbed with innumerable roofs, was the old Chinese town in the center, bounded by the dotted lights of a main street on the side of the International Settlement. Another watercourse separated Nantao in the southwest from the French quarter; new suburbs stood out vividly and with green garden plots and unbuilt sites. Far away to the southwest the city was lost in haze beyond the arsenal and airdrome. The innumerable junks on the river looked like sluggish brown beetles, between them the warships of all nations lay motionless, hung with delicate chains of light. By degrees the dusk sucked up every outline and left only the lights suspended in the haze."

All content is copyright unless otherwise indicated