This steel tube slips into the pyrex glass focus tube, which is jacketed by a vacuum

Although they aspired, like all natural-born gamblers, to taking a flutter and beating that system (they all loved the idea of tips, of course), they were sufficiently cynical to know it's a mug's game and that it was largely bound to fail.

There was paperwork to sign and a weekend to contend with before a day of travel from Beijing to Dianbai, the town the orphanage was in. When the bus arrived in Dianbai the orphanage director got on the bus and said we should go to our hotel in Maoming and the girls would be brought to us.

The snow in April was unseasonable.