AS THE VISITOR, WITH the soldier and the condemned man behind him, came up to the first buildings in the colony, the soldier pointed to one and said: "Here is the teahouse."
On the ground floor of the building was a deep, low, cavern-like area whose walls and ceiling were blackened with smoke. It was open all along the street side. Although the teahouse was hardly different from the other buildings of the colony, that apart from the palatial construction of the commander were all very shabby, it evoked historical souvenirs of the colony’s past for the visitor and he felt the force of the bygone times. He approached closer, followed by his attendants, passing between the unoccupied tables in the street in front of the teahouse, and breathed the cool, moist air that wafted out from the inte
