'I dare not take her,' said Chang, 'but perhaps your father can arrange something. Now I will go and ask Chi Fu what we had best do.'

Chi Fu thought that all they could do for the present was to keep the party well in sight and put up at the same inn that night. Chang returned and told An Ching this, and said they would go and get their mules. He cautioned all three not to appear to know either of them, even if they came and spoke to Hung Li.

After Chang and Chi Fu went away it seemed a very long time before Hung Li returned with another mule. He was accompanied by a man who brought a cart and took away the dead animal. Hung Li told An Ching that he had only been able to get a mule to take them as far as the next village, and they must put up there. He had brought some food, and they prepared another meal by the roadside. The children ate sitting in the cart. As soon as they had finished, Hung harnessed the mule and then set off once more.

This was a good strong beast and took them along briskly to the next village, but as so much time had already been wasted it was late in the afternoon when they arrived.

Hung Li was now obliged to go in search of another mule and return the one he had to its owner. By the time this was done, it was too late to start again that day.

The inn was about a hundred yards from the main road. It stood in an open s.p.a.ce and was reached by a narrow winding path. All round and between the inn and the road was short gra.s.s and stubble. But on the opposite side of the road, a short distance on the way they had come, there was a hillock with a clump of trees at one side. The room which had been engaged for An Ching had its door, and also a small window, opening towards the road. Nelly and Little Yi could quite well see the hillock and clump of trees on the other side of the road from the window, and they had not been long in the room before they noticed that Chang and Chi Fu were there with their mules. Later in the evening they saw the two come over to the inn and heard them make arrangements to put up there for the night. An Ching went outside and pa.s.sed them quite close, but they took no notice of her. She heard Chang inquire of Hung Li if he were going to Peking next day.

'I am not sure,' said Hung Li, in a very surly tone.

Chang took no notice of his rudeness, but said politely:

'I hope you will permit my son and me to follow your party, as we are strangers to these parts and not very sure of the road.'

'You can if you like,' replied Hung Ching ungraciously, and walked away.

An Ching felt sure he had been drinking.

Nelly was still feeling far from well when she awoke next morning. She got up early, slipped the bolt, went out on to the dewy gra.s.s and looked up the road towards Peking. The fresh air revived her, although she was still very languid and depressed when she returned to the room. An Ching was awake, and reproved her for going out.

'You know how dreadfully angry Hung Li would be with me if he saw you,'

she said.

But she let Nelly stand at the open window, and Little Yi, being in boy's clothing, was not prevented from going in and out as she pleased.

An Ching went as usual to get the breakfast. Hung Li was still half tipsy. He said he was in a hurry to be off, although he did not appear to be making any preparations.

Chang and Chi Fu took their mules and went to the hillock to wait until Hung Li's party started. Nelly was sitting listlessly in the room, and Little Yi had gone outside to have a look round. Presently a cloud of dust began to rise from the road in the distance, and four riders came in sight. Little Yi looked intently, suddenly turned round, and ran back to the room where Nelly was, crying breathlessly:

'There's your father and another gentleman riding from Peking!'

Nelly jumped up, dashed through the door and into the gra.s.sy s.p.a.ce, paused a moment to look, and set off as fast as she could go. How she ran! but her legs felt weak, something thumped in her head, and her heart went pit-a-pat.

Mr. Grey rode with his head bent, and was looking at the ground.

'Father! father! father! do stop!' Nelly called out.

But her father did not see or hear, and there was An Ching shouting to her, and she knew that Hung Li might be after her directly.

'Father! father!' she wailed.

She thought she shouted loudly, but her voice was very weak and quite drowned by the clattering of the pony's hoofs.

Still he did not look up, and was going by without seeing her! It was too much for the poor child. She felt as though everything was turning upside down, and just as her father rode past she fell to the ground in a faint.

But Chi Fu had seen it all from the hillock; and as Nelly fell he dashed forward and stood with outstretched arms in the middle of the road, ready to stop Mr. Grey's pony. When it came up he caught hold of the bridle and turned the head right round, greatly to the astonishment of the rider.

'What does this mean?' exclaimed Mr. Grey angrily.

'Your daughter! your daughter!' replied Chi Fu, pointing to Nelly as she lay on the ground.

Mr. Grey asked no more questions, but spurred his pony and galloped back to where the little girl lay, Chi Fu running after him. He jumped off his pony and stooped anxiously over the little figure.

'It's Nelly,' he said, when he looked at the face, and he kissed her.

Mr. Grey soon saw that she was only in a faint, and taking her in his arms he carried her towards the inn, feeling very happy to have recovered his little girl. When Little Yi came up he recognised her in spite of her boy's clothing, and giving her a kindly pat on the head he told her to keep close to him and run to get some water as soon as they were at the inn. Little Yi showed him the room they were occupying and went for the water, while Mr. Grey sat with his child on his knee.

When her father bathed her head with the water Nelly soon recovered. Her happiness and delight when she found herself in her father's arms cannot be described. Let each girl who reads this imagine it for herself.

CHAPTER XIV

FATHER AND MOTHER

With the help of Little Yi, who talked sixteen to the dozen, Nelly soon told her father the whole story. Then came such a string of questions, about Nelly's mother and Baby Buckle, and all Nelly's Peking friends and Little Yi's as well! The talking was nearly all in Chinese. Nelly found it difficult to get back into English, she said.

'You will make Hung Li give up An Ching and take her with us, father, won't you?' asked Nelly.

'I'll see what I can do,' her father promised, 'but I am afraid it cannot be managed.'

'It can be done easily enough if you will buy her, Sir,' said Little Yi.

'Hung Li does not like her, and he loves money.'

This was a new idea to Mr. Grey. He thought he might be able to arrange it after all. 'We will go and see them and talk about it,' he said.

The courtyard of the inn was in a state of great confusion when Mr. Grey and the children entered it. Hung Li was raging and fuming in a dreadful way, while An Ching stood by with a frightened face. The two Changs were trying to explain things to the Legation student who had come with Mr.

Grey from Peking to go with him to Yung Ching in search of Nelly. They had started as soon as Nelly's letter reached the Legation. This young gentleman, who had been in China only a short time, understood very little Chinese, and Chang and Chi Fu were trying to talk to him by signs. It was funny to see them pointing to the wall, a basket, red paper and a rope. The poor student was hopelessly muddled, but the Chinese grooms who had come with him and Mr. Grey quite understood and were enjoying themselves thoroughly. The inn-keeper was shouting directions to every one, and his wife trying to question An Ching, who was in a terrible fright. A crowd of villagers began to collect, and every one was talking at once.

Leaving the children in charge of his companion, Mr. Grey pushed his way into the midst of the throng, shouting at the top of his voice:

'Where's the man who stole my daughter?'

The noise stopped at once. A dozen pair of hands seized Hung Li and An Ching and brought them face to face with Mr. Grey, while the crowd closed eagerly round.

Hung Li was dreadfully afraid. He had counted on the children being handed over by his friend the barber in exchange for a nice round sum of money, and had never thought the affair would bring him within arm's length of a fierce foreigner.

'Why did you do this?' asked Mr. Grey sternly.

'I did not,' said the coward. 'It was my mother who stole the child and hid her from me. I was taking her back to Peking.'

'Very well,' said Mr. Grey, 'I must hand you over to the magistrate.'

This was quite enough for Hung Li, who knew that if he were once inside a Chinese prison he might have to stay there a very long time.