e 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 y