POOR MULE!
It was very uncomfortable for every one during the next couple of hours.
The cotton covering of the cart became soaked, and drops of water began
to fall through. Hung Li was in a dreadful temper because the mule had
gone slightly lame, and he was afraid that it would not be able to reach
the first stopping-place. How he did lash and scold the poor creature!
An Ching took the opportunity, when he was obliged to get down and lead
it, to explain why she had told Chang she was not sure that they were
going to Peking.
'I heard him say,' she jerked out, 'that if he were questioned about a
foreign child on the road, or if people seemed inquisitive, he should
branch off half way and go to some quiet country place. Ku Nai-nai told
him he would be very foolish to do so; but he is very obstinate, and if
he gets a little too much wine there is no knowing what he will do.'
'Dear me!' sighed Nelly, 'shall we ever get home?'
'To be sure you will,' replied An Ching. 'Chang will let the foreigners
in Peking know where you have been, and your letter will be sent.'
'Yes, and mother will know that I am well,' thought Nelly.
They went on until they came to the river, which it was too late to
cross, even if the mule had been able to do it. There was a small inn
close at hand. Hung Li knocked at the door, roused the inn-keeper, and
asked for one small room for his wife and children. He said that one of
them, a boy, had hurt his leg, and he should carry him in. Nelly found
that she was the boy. An Ching bundled her up well about the head, and
Hung Li carried her to the kang, where she was soon fast asleep.
'You will have to carry Little Yi too,' An Ching told Hung Li. 'If the
inn-keeper sees her feet he will never believe she is your child.' Hung
Li did so, pretending that he did not want her shoes to get wet. Then,
being afraid that the mule might die, he gave it a good feed and
comfortable quarters for the night.
Next morning the children were very stiff, and would have liked to run
about, but they were kept shut up in the room while An Ching fetched
their food, and as soon as the cart was ready they were carried back to
it, with the same excuses.
It was with great difficulty, in spite of the good food and rest which
had been given to the mule, that it was able to pull the cart up the
steep muddy bank after crossing the river. It stood panting hard for
some time when the task was finished, quite regardless of the blows
administered by the cruel driver.
'You'll never get to Peking with that mule,' called out the ferryman as
they started.
They went along very slowly. An Ching suggested, when they arrived at a
quiet, open part of the road, that the children should walk to lighten
the cart, and they were very glad to be out in the fresh morning air;
even An Ching got out when they came to a slight incline, but Hung Li
took care to make the children climb in again whenever he saw a human
being approach.
Now that Yung Ching was well behind them, Hung Li decided not to urge
the mule too much, in case it died before he was able to return it to
the man from whom he had hired it in Peking; so that morning passed
pleasantly enough. The children gathered flowers by the wayside, and the
sunshine made Nelly hopeful. It was a delight to be in the country, with
all so fresh and cool after the rain. At mid-day they passed through a
dirty village, where they bought some eggs and bread. When they were
well outside the village they cooked the eggs and took a meal, after
which the mule was unharnessed and fed, greatly to his surprise, and the
children had a sleep in the cart, while Hung Li and An Ching reposed on
some straw close by.
That afternoon they passed a funny little hut with a red dog painted on
the door, which Nelly remembered to have seen on the journey from
Peking. She wondered if they would go to any of the same inns they had
stayed at before, but Hung Li carefully avoided them, and took a
different road as often as possible.
When they put up at the inn that night the children were again carried,
with the same explanations, although the ground was not very wet this
time.
'To-morrow we shall be in Peking,' said Nelly delightedly.
'No,' replied An Ching. 'We have come very slowly; we shall be three
nights on the road this time.'
Nelly was disappointed, but made the best of it. She slept badly that
night, and had a headache the next morning.
An Ching was away a long time getting the breakfast, and when she
returned with her hands full she was very excited.
'One of the placards offering the reward for you two has just been stuck
on the wall of this inn,' she exclaimed. 'Hung Li is in a great rage. He
says he must be off at once. He intends to get another mule and hurry
off to Peking.'
'So he is not going to take us to some other place? I am so glad,' said
Nelly.
'No, he seems to have changed his mind. I am to get a small coat for
Little Yi, and she is to pretend to be a boy.'
'Why me?' exclaimed Little Yi. 'My ears are pierced. I could not be a
boy, and I won't. Nelly was the boy yesterday.'
'What does it matter? No one will notice the holes in your ears if you
take out the earrings, and then you can run about. Nelly must not be
seen at all, Hung Li says. It's no use objecting. You'll have to do it.
You naughty boy!' she shouted, as she heard Hung Li and another man
talking outside the door.
Little Yi and Nelly giggled. Then An Ching locked them in and went to
buy the coat. There was very little difference between it and the one
she was wearing. An Ching saw that Little Yi's queue was right, took out
her earrings, and then removed her bracelets.
Nelly was carried to the cart in a bundle, and Little Yi, in no amiable
mood at having lost her earrings and wooden bracelets, was hustled in
after An Ching.
Nelly was still feeling rather weak and tired, and so was the poor mule.
He dragged them wearily along the road for a couple of hours, and then
his troubles were all over, for he stopped quite still and dropped to
the ground, and before Hung Li could get him out of the shafts he was
quite dead.
Of course every one was obliged to come down from the cart. Little Yi
and An Ching helped to undo the harness and Hung Li dragged the mule out
of the way. Nelly shed a few tears over the poor dead animal which had
toiled on so bravely to the end.
Hung Li was in a worse temper than ever. He wished he had never seen the
little foreign imp and big-footed Manchu child; 'and I wish I could get
rid of you as well,' he said to An Ching. At last he set off to fetch
another mule, threatening all sorts of penalties to whoever stirred from
the spot or spoke to passers-by. Before going, he propped up the shafts
of the cart and made them all get inside. They were relieved when the
angry man had gone, and tried to settle themselves comfortably in the
cart; but when he was well out of sight, Little Yi, regardless of
consequences, got out and looked round. An Ching did not trouble much,
as she knew Hung Li could not be back very soon, but when after a time
she put her head outside and could not see Little Yi at all, she became
uneasy and herself got out. Nelly did the same. They called and ran in
every direction before they found her. An Ching thought she saw
something moving behind a clump of bushes some yards away. She asked
Nelly, who could walk much better than she, to go and see. Nelly went
behind the bushes, and sure enough she saw Little Yi a long way off,
running away as hard as she could towards two men, one of whom Nelly to
her great surprise and joy recognised as Chang. The other she thought
must be Chi Fu. She waited until they came near, then she rushed
forward, caught hold of Chang's hand and burst into tears.
Tears of joy don't last very long. Nelly's were soon gone, and there was
no trace of them when they all went to the other side of the bushes,
where they found An Ching, who stood as if spellbound when she saw them.
'However did you find us?' she asked Chang. 'But you must go away,' she
added; 'Hung Li may be back any moment. He will kill me if he finds you
here,' and she hurried the children into the cart and got in herself.
When they were safely in, Chang said: 'This is my son Chi Fu. He will
keep a good look-out and I will talk to you here. If Hung Li comes we
can walk quietly away. But he can't be back for a long time yet if he
has gone to get a mule; the next village is nearly as far as the one
you left this morning.'
Chang then told them how he and Chi Fu came to be there.
'When I saw you start,' he said, 'I at once went into my house and
consulted with my son, who said that he and I must certainly follow you.
He got two mules at once and we set off early next morning. We rode hard
and reached the river well before noon. At the inn near the river we
heard about a party which had crossed earlier, and although the
inn-keeper said the children were boy and girl, we felt sure that it
must have been you.'
Here Chi Fu came up and put in his word.
'Don't forget to tell the young foreign lady that her letter has been
sent off,' he said.
'No,' replied Chang; 'I'll tell her. You must go farther away and keep
a good look-out on the road the way Hung Li went.' And Chang turned to
Nelly and told her that a courier had started for the Peking mission two
days ago and taken her letter enclosed in one for the missionary from
Chi Fu.
'And did you get my letter?' asked Little Yi. 'We threw it over the
wall.'
Chang replied that his wife had picked up a piece of paper with some
writing upon it, but it was nearly all blotted out by the rain and could
not be read.
'It was of no consequence,' said An Ching, at which Little Yi was not
pleased. 'How did you manage to find us?'
'We rode on quickly, and very soon saw your cart in the distance; then
we followed by a side road too narrow for a cart. When you stopped to
rest at noon I got off my mule and came quite close. I saw the young Ku
Nai-nai as she lay asleep.'
An Ching did not much like this, but she said nothing.
Chang continued: 'It was easy to follow you and put up at the same inn
at night, especially as Hung Li did not know us. We rode after you this
morning, and when we saw that the mule had fallen we left ours with an
old man in a hut over there,' pointing beyond the bushes, 'and began to
walk towards you. Little Yi saw us coming, and here we are.'