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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sers-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.'

CHAPTER XIII

THE ROAD TO PEKING

'Now what are you going to do?' asked An Ching.

'We shall follow you to Peking or wherever Hung Li takes you, and then go at once and tell the English gentleman where you are. You have no need to fear now,' turning to Nelly, 'that you will not get home.'

'And can't An Ching come with us?'