The boy suddenly sat down with his knees drawn up against his chest in a characteristic att.i.tude which signified excitement which he wished to conceal. He was not as cold as he had been because he was so greatly excited. His cotton clothing was indeed beginning to dry from the heat of his body; and as he now stripped off his shoes and cloth socks he felt almost comfortable in spite of his hunger.

"These are frightening days," he exclaimed sententiously. "Truly one hears enough every hour to make one fear to live."

Now he sorted all he had heard out on a system based on an intimate knowledge of his fellow-countrymen's methods in the face of clamant danger. Probably these men, after their kind, had fled far from their village into the back country on the first inkling of trouble--they had certainly disappeared as soon as the first shots had been fired in the battle they had described. What they had related was mere hearsay which had become greatly exaggerated with the pa.s.sage of time. It was certain, of course, that the foreign army had retreated; otherwise the railway would never have been so completely destroyed. But he did not believe that all had been killed. That would mean that he would only find emptiness at the end of his journey. It had been rumoured that all foreign ships had been sunk or set fire to so as to remove all possibility of flight and to secure the death of all foreign men and women. Still he did not believe that any of these things had really happened. They had been tried perhaps. That was it--tried. Experience had taught him that the foreigners were far-seeing. They would never have allowed themselves to be trapped like that.

A sudden movement roused him from this brown study. In his fatigue he had nearly dozed off. Both the men had risen and were now standing at the doorway, calculating aloud their chances of getting home. The rain had certainly greatly slackened, and although it was still coming down heavily the worst was manifestly over. But in half-an-hour it would be completely dark: it was now or never for these two.

They suddenly made up their minds. Stripping themselves naked to the waist and rolling up their loose trousers to their thighs, they stepped out with a gruff word of farewell.

Once more the boy was left to his own devices.

The moment they were gone he peered into the corner where they had been sitting. Yes--they had been gra.s.s-cutting. Two large bundles of gra.s.s were stacked in the corner. Without compunction, he tore off the sweet-potato vine which bound the bundles; distributed the gra.s.s comfortably on the ground and then plunged luxuriously into it. He knew that they would not return until the morrow and by that time he would be far away. The steady fall of the rain and the warmth of the gra.s.s soon lulled him to sleep, and in spite of his hunger, he slept with that deepness which only comes to those who toil.

When he finally awoke, the stillness and clearness of the night made him creep to the doorway and look out. It had entirely stopped raining, and every cloud had vanished. The waning moon, lower than ever in the horizon, shed a pale light over the water-logged country out of which peered the tall _kaoliang_ in ominous black patches. As far as the eye could see it was like that; and as he stood and looked he knew that had it not been for the embankment he would have been as good as lost. It might be days before it was dry enough to travel more than short distances at a time on the roads. The sunken roads had become mere water-courses; and as for the mud in the fields that would be enough to defy the stoutest resolution.

He drew a deep breath. Certainly this was an undertaking such as he had never dreamed of. Yet he was not disheartened. He tightened his belt to lessen the gnawings of hunger and poked his fingers into his ribs which were sticking out of his thin body in a queer way. For the second time since he had started he had gone for nearly a day without food. Yet with the curious eastern pa.s.sivity, which can bear anything so long as it is a mere question of patience, he waited tranquilly until the first ray of dawn before he moved.

It came at last, at about four in the morning. Grasping his staff and his little bundle he started stumblingly along the embankment which ran as straight as an arrow to the sea. He knew that he must meet people very soon; for this being the only possible road, men from the villages would inevitably gravitate towards it.

It was hardly full daylight when he reached what remained of the nearest station. This was Langfang. The buildings had been burnt, and here and there were great gaps in the walls as from sh.e.l.l-fire. But it was not that which set him running: it was a long spiral of grey smoke rising from a lean-to of matting and boards which had been put up against one of the brick walls. Somebody was cooking--food was in sight....

He loosened a string of cash in his belt as he ran, forgetting everything in the immense desire to eat which overcame him. A woman appeared at the door of the lean-to. She was of the poorest cla.s.s, with dishevelled hair and of slatternly appearance; but behind her was a man with a bowl in his hand.

"_Ta-ko_ (elder brother)!" he exclaimed in the manner of the people. "I have not eaten since I lost my way yesterday morning. I have yet money for a meal. Give me to eat."

He handed over his diminutive holed coins as though they were all he had in the world. The woman took them and counted them carefully before she was satisfied. Then a bowl of little millet and a trifle of salted cabbage was set before him; and he ate as though he had never eaten before.

"I will have another," he said instantly, tendering the emptied bowl.

"What," cried the woman, "you would eat all our store for one small _tiao_ of money?"

Disdainfully he took more of the small coins from his belt and placed them in her hand.

"Give me as much as I can eat and I will pay at the rate demanded."

This time two rough flour-cakes were added to the bowl of millet for the price; and when he had finished he was given a cup of poor tea.

"The money is exhausted," said the woman when he tried to get more. But now his spirits had risen and his defiant manner had returned.

"See here," he exclaimed, taking out and ringing on a stone one of the small silver coins which the master had given him to show that it was not base metal. "I have a good coin and as I must reach Yangtsun this evening to find my uncle I will purchase enough to carry me there."

"Silver!" exclaimed the woman in the same covetous tones the priest had used. "You carry silver!"

The coin pa.s.sed from the hand of the man to the hand of the woman and then back again twice before a bargain was struck. But finally it was agreed that for the price he could take the sixteen small and very rough flour-cakes that were ready.

He ate four of them as he stood there, and stowed away the others, talking to the couple with his mouth full all the while. And when the woman's back was turned he nearly emptied the coa.r.s.e earthen tea-pot which she had prepared for the delectation of her man, feeling now that matters had been equalized. Then he scrambled up the embankment and hastened on.

The sun rose and he sweated just as the night before he had shivered.

Presently he overtook a party of men with heavy saddlebags on their shoulders who said that they were bound for Yangtsun. His heart leaped within him as he heard that and without further ado he attached himself to them. They were all timid and frightened, but they said that there was nothing for it but to push on since their business demanded it. Also they were too much concerned about themselves and the dangers they might encounter to ask him a single question--excepting the inevitable one as to whether he had seen soldiers.

"It is said all of them have left Yangtsun," they repeated again and again to him, apparently to rea.s.sure themselves. "Otherwise we should have never started. For ten days we have been waiting in a village and now that the rains have closed the roads we decided to risk the journey along the railway. Several have done it safely already."

"You were wise, you were wise," agreed the boy, "I, too, have been forced to travel owing to death in our family. I go to find my uncle who is employed in a wine factory."

"So small and yet not alarmed," commented one wonderingly.

"What would you," rejoined the boy, "when a house is on fire even the timid must act."

This sententious remark, which he had often heard his seniors use, and which his ready memory had stored for use, so favourably impressed the three that presently when they rested they invited him to share their food. His prodigious appet.i.te amused them--he ate everything that was offered down to the last crumb. But when one produced a leather bottle and a little pewter wine-cup and offered him a drink, his caution returned. He knew well from experience that drowsiness would rapidly come if he indulged himself.

"I am unable to use wine," he said in the set phrase of the native teetotaller.

"We trust that your uncle will reward you," they remarked approvingly.

"I am only a clumsy fellow unable to read and entirely untrained," he answered in the way which modesty and good manners demanded.

It was late afternoon before they saw the town of Yangtsun loom up in front of them. It was easy to make out, as a long low city wall flanked it. Several others had joined the party and the conversation was general, each trying to pick up something from his fellows which would rea.s.sure him.

"It is said that our soldiers are ma.s.sed, less than twenty _li_ from here, and that there is the remnants of a foreign army who have taken refuge in an a.r.s.enal opposed to them," said the latest arrival.

"Is that supposition true, do you think?" asked the boy in an undertone of the three men with the saddlebags.

"We fear so," they said in the same undertone, "for the seaport is closed to all. Our business is there and many bales of our wool are involved. Our plan is to remain in hiding in Yangtsun until it is possible to move. One way or another the fighting is sure to go. Then, by some path, we may be able to reach the seaport which we must do to save our interests from ruin."

The boy nodded.

"The soldiers are the only problem. If we avoid them all is well. There may be a way known in this town."

Now he determined to remain attached to this trio--for the time being at least--telling them when necessary that he was unable to find his uncle because he had fled.

CHAPTER XXIII

He worked ceaselessly in his head at a plan of action as they cautiously approached the township, which had once been a place of importance but had now fallen into the greatest decay. He wished to be fully provided with subterfuges against all possible contingencies. He had a deep feeling of excitement--the conviction that the great test of his ability was slowly coming nearer. For now there were but twenty miles of the journey left, and at any moment it might become imperative for him to risk everything in a quick forward rush. His intelligent eyes were here, there, and everywhere.

The others were likewise very much on the _qui vive_. They talked incessantly of all possible perils, commiserating with one another at being abroad in such times as these. Each step forward seemed to be taken more reluctantly than the last. Now that they were face to face with real danger, they had every wish to turn back.

A few hundred yards from the broken mud wall of the township the whole party halted as by a common impulse, wondering aloud what they should do. Then, very deliberately, they approached some country folks who had stood watching them from the distance, half-hidden behind some trees.

With friendly calls and waving hands they marched up, hoping that they would hear something rea.s.suring.

Nevertheless these people could tell them very little. They declared, however, that the reports that all the soldiers had gone for good were not quite true. Small detachments were constantly arriving and disappearing, every man in the provincial militia being mustered out to fight the foreign invader. Only that morning a body of infantry had pa.s.sed this way, but whether they were still in the township they had not heard. As for the foreign devils, they had not been driven into the sea. On the contrary they had become stronger. They held all the country round the seaport, and it was said that many thousands more were pouring in. In any case fighting would continue for a long time. The foreign army was determined to march on the capital. It was not known whether the provincial troops could entirely stop them. There were disagreements among the commanders already; and shots had been exchanged.

This news was so surprising to the three wool-dealers, that they sat down on a fallen tree-trunk and began talking to one another in deep undertones. The boy muttered angrily to himself at the stupidity of these peasants. He suspected that the wool-dealers were concerting a new plan whereby they might slip away round the contending armies and reach their destination by a totally new route. Their one and only interest was their stock of wool. They had already mentioned the feasibility of making a great detour to the south to gain the coast. Then, by embarking on a junk a hundred miles or so away, they could safely reach the harbour without seeing a single soldier. This would be no doubt wise for them, but for him it would mean a delay of many days--a disastrous delay. The boy cursed them under his breath for their cowardice and wondered whether he should not leave them at once. On the other hand, if he went on alone he would be stripped of protection. Masked by their presence, no one could suspect him of being a secret messenger.

"And is there security here?" inquired one of the dealers at last terminating this confidential discussion.