AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE
Everything went on well in both compounds. Chang came at the call of the
little red signal every day, and let An Ching know what he and Chi Fu
were doing. Nelly asked Chang if he thought that Chi Fu could tell her
the date, and Chi Fu sent her an almanac which had been given to him by
a missionary at the beginning of the year, but it was of no use to Nelly
until Chang told her that the longest day was only nine days off; so she
put a cross at the date which was nine days before the 21st of June,
and thus found out the exact date. In this way she knew when Sunday
came, and although there would be only one more for her to spend in Yung
Ching, she resolved to keep it in the best way she could, by saying over
to herself all the hymns she could remember and taking more time for her
prayers that morning; neither would she do any teaching or sewing.
The day before the one fixed for the moonlight adventure arrived. An
Ching had got permission to go and see her relatives the next day; the
old servant, who was better, was to go with her. It was very hot, almost
too hot to talk. Ku Nai-nai said there would be a thunderstorm. An
Ching, Nelly, and Little Yi were sitting on the bench in the small
court. They had just had a visit from Chang, who told them not to
expect him the next day, as he must go and fetch the mule in the
evening. He and Chi Fu would certainly be there the next night, he said,
and he cautioned the children to close the window after they had climbed
through. Little Yi was almost asleep, and was swaying to and fro as she
sat on the bench. Nelly had hold of An Ching's hand, and was telling her
how she should send her messages through Chang's mission. Nelly had got
over the excitement, and was quietly happy at the thought of going home.
How she longed to see her dear father and mother and Baby Buckle! She
thought of all this for some time, with her hand still in An Ching's;
and An Ching was thinking of her loneliness when the children would be
no longer with her, and of Hung Li's wrath when he returned. Then Nelly
too was overcome by the heat, and she nodded and bobbed about until at
last her head fell in An Ching's lap. An Ching stroked the pretty little
cheek, and felt as if her heart would break at losing her friend. She
was resolutely keeping back her tears, when all three gave a great
start, and the children were wide awake in a moment. There was a loud
rumbling sound.
'The thunder!' exclaimed Nelly.
But An Ching knew better. She realised that the noise came from a cart
passing under the archway into the outer court next to the street, and
that Hung Li had come back. She said nothing, and all three stood
listening. Sure enough, it was a cart, and the large gate was being
opened. The children heard it too, and although no one spoke a word,
each one knew that it must be Hung Li. There was no mistaking now; it
was his voice in the inner court talking to Ku Nai-nai.
'I must go,' said An Ching. 'We will talk it over again this afternoon.
You two must pretend to be glad that Hung Li has come back.'
An Ching left them, and was greeted by her husband with a command to get
him something to drink. Ku Nai-nai began to scold her for being out of
the way when needed. She did not mind though, for now, perhaps, she
thought, the children would not go away the next night.
Hung Li set about unharnessing the mule, and tied it to a post in the
court. He then partook of some food, which they had hastily prepared
for him, and flung himself down on the kang, where he was soon fast
asleep. When An Ching could get away, she took the children's bowls and
chopsticks into the small court, and they fetched their food from the
cook-house. Little Yi was the first to ask if they should still get out
of the window and be hauled up the wall in a basket, as arranged.
'It would be of no use,' said An Ching. 'Hung Li has the mule ready, and
would easily overtake your cart next morning.'
'But,' exclaimed Nelly, 'Chang says he has as much right to us as Hung
Li, and I don't see why we can't go.'
'Hung Li would kill me if you escaped while I am here to look after
you,' replied An Ching. 'If I go away to-morrow you might try to get
off, but we can't decide anything until we hear what he intends to do.'
Hung Li slept peacefully for a couple of hours. Then he got up, called
for Ku Nai-nai and An Ching, refreshed himself by wiping his face with a
rag dipped in hot water, and took a deep draught from the spout of the
tea-pot, after which he began to talk.
'We shall start to-night' he said. 'There are bills out all over Peking
offering 500 taels (L100) reward for the children. I shall take them
back at once. An Ching must go too, to look after them. The barber will
wait for us at the city gate, and send a message to the _ying kua jen_
(Englishman) as soon as we arrive. It is all settled.'
Ku Nai-nai grunted. She did not really care what became of the children,
but she told Hung Li she hoped he would make sure of the money, and that
too much of it would not stick to the barber's fingers.
An Ching was delighted, though she did not dare to show it. She left the
room, saying she must make ready. Her first care was to find the little
girls and tell them the news.
Although Nelly and Little Yi would rather have gone with Chang, they
were very pleased to hear that they were to start so soon, especially as
An Ching was to go with them.
'Then we shall not go over the wall in a basket after all,' said Little
Yi. 'I should have liked that.'
'We must write a letter at once,' said Nelly, 'and throw it into
Chang's compound.' 'Yes,' said An Ching, 'but who is to write it?'
This was a puzzle. An Ching, like nearly all Chinese women, could not
write at all, and Nelly could only do so in English.
'You know some characters, Little Yi,' continued An Ching. 'Suppose you
try.'
Little Yi felt very much flattered. 'All right,' she said. 'Give me a
piece of paper and I'll do it.'
An Ching tottered off to her room, and returned with a piece of the
rough tissue paper which the Chinese use for writing upon, a brush, a
piece of Indian ink, and a slate slab to mix it on, all tucked up her
sleeve.
Little Yi knelt down and spread her materials on the bench, while An
Ching stood ready to sit down on the letter in case Hung Li or his
mother came.
Little Yi could only make a few characters, and had never written a
letter, but she began boldly with a beautiful 'we.'
'Can not come,' said Nelly.
'I can't make "can,"' said Little Yi; so she wrote 'not' and as much as
she could remember of 'come.'
'Hung Li is here,' dictated Nelly.
'How can you expect me to know how to make "Hung" and "Li"?' objected
the scribe.
An Ching said that the character for 'Hung' was the same as that used
for the word 'red,' and she thought she could make the 'Li.'
She took the pen and did it, very badly and quite crooked.
Then Little Yi found she was not able to make 'is.' She missed that and
put 'here.'
The letter then read, 'We not come. Hung Li here.'
'That's enough,' said An Ching. 'Fold it up and put any character which
means Chang on the outside.'
Little Yi did so, and they screwed the bit of paper up with a pebble
inside and threw it over the wall.
The preparations for departure were very few and simple. They had no
luggage. An Ching had a small bundle with some extra clothing, comb,
etc., and a box was fastened on behind the cart with cups, a tea-pot, a
few cooking utensils, and some charcoal for cooking their food on the
way. Nelly could hardly believe that they were to start. They had only
been a few months in Yung Ching, but it seemed like years.
Ku Nai-nai was unusually pleasant at the last. She told Little Yi that
she should miss her, and said a few kind words to Nelly.
Just before sunset the party started. An Ching and the children were
inside the cart, with Hung Li as driver, sitting on the shafts. Hung Li
had forgotten to pull down the curtain in front of the cart, and just as
they turned out of the compound into the street they came face to face
with Chang.
Nelly and Little Yi both started and bent forward to greet him, but An
Ching held them back and whispered, 'Hush!'
Chang, after making sure that Hung Li was not looking, quickly put his
head forward and asked under his breath, 'To Peking?'
The children nodded vigorously, but An Ching said, in a low voice, 'I
don't know.'
Chang vanished, and the children looked questioningly at An Ching. She
motioned to them to keep silent, and they did so, greatly wondering.
When Hung Li, who was sitting with his back to the others, turned and
saw that the curtain was not drawn, he angrily pulled it down, whipped
up the mule, and they were off at a good pace. Nelly was quite pleased
to feel the jolting of a cart once more. 'But surely,' she thought,
'this one bumps more than others.' It seemed so to her because she had
not been in a cart for so long a time.
Just when they were getting outside Yung Ching, the thunderstorm which
they had been expecting came, and the rain fell heavily, so that they
were glad to keep well inside the cart. Hung Li tried to get under
shelter too, but he found that he must make up his mind to bear the
rain, if he meant to get any distance on the road before it became dark.
He was very cross, and no one dared to speak a word.