Dragon’s Blood

Rudolph Hackh arrives in Port Said hoping to look like a man of consequence; a pack of Arab bootblacks takes one look and cries, “Nix! Alles!” Then, aboard the mail-boat east, one Englishwoman’s smile unsettles him more than the whole foreign world.

Bound from Port Said toward Shanghai, the young German clerk leaves the West behind for the heat, crowds, and baffling promise of China. Homesick and painfully self-conscious, Rudolph tries to borrow the grand air of famous exiles—until Miss Forrester, a charming Englishwoman traveling alone, sits beside him at dinner. His halting English and her amused kindness turn the voyage into a dizzying adventure of glances, conversation, and hopes he scarcely dares confess. Can Rudolph find his footing in this strange world—and keep his composure beside the woman who has made it suddenly matter?

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