Wang the Ninth: The Story of a Chinese Boy

by B. L. Putnam Weale

As he scrambled over the mud wall he suddenly remembered that he might have been seen by a watcher of crops; and for a full five minutes he studied every inch of the ground within eye-sight. Crouching down beside the mud wall he picked out each little watch-tower unerringly. Communities living wholly by agriculture, and knowing nothing else, invariably look upon their fields as something sacred. So it happened here that all over the land, as the grain and fruit ripen, watch-towers of matting and poles are run up by the agricultural population. With ancient matchlocks in their hands, which they sometimes discharge to warn off trespassers, men sit in these watching day and night. The boy knew these things as well as he knew the shape of his hands; for they were as much a part of his world as street lighting and railways and other manifold inventions are in the West. Where now were the watchers of crops?

There were apparently none. Overcome with curiosity, very deliberately he made his way to the nearest tower; walked right under it, and peered up. Empty! He passed a second; it was the same thing. When he found that all were deserted and that the standing grain and ripe fruit was looking after itself he shook his head dolefully. There was on his face the pessimism only possible in a race of cultivators four thousand years old.

"This is a bad business," he murmured aloud. "The end has indeed come—"

Nothing that had occurred since he had been lowered down the city wall so depressed him. He felt completely abandoned. All the guarantees of life and order were gone. For if it were like this within the limits of the city administration, what must it not be in the open country.... He thought of the many miles he had to traverse and his heart sank.

Still he walked on as quickly as he could. He had a certain goal to attain. He meant to attain it. Frowning to himself he went quicker and quicker.

A low broken gateway at last announced the end of the outer city and the spot where he would pass into the open country. But the splotch of colour he saw in the shadow of the gate halted him instantly and changed the currents of his thoughts. He forgot all about the fear which had driven a whole population into hiding. His own business had become urgent again.

He stood casting about for a plan to enable him to pass this last egress safely. He could think of nothing. He had indeed forgotten all about the outer city gate. It had not occurred to him that there would be soldiers here just as there were soldiers at every other vital point.

The low brick wall ahead of him was so eroded by wind and rain that he thought how easy it would be for him to climb it. Still in the broad daylight he dare not make the attempt with guards on the alert.

Walking very slowly, he approached the gateway until he could see who were the men there. They were cavalry. A number of saddled ponies were cropping the scanty grass whilst their riders lay asleep beside them. Still some men were awake, for there were the figures in the gateway.

For a long time he watched. Nobody was passing either in or out of the gateway: he did not know what subterfuge to adopt. Then, as he stood there, Heaven sent him assistance. He suddenly caught sight of a small country-boy, about his own size, with a basket of manure and a manure-rake beside him, asleep behind some bushes. It was instantly plain to him that the boy had followed the troopers for the droppings of their horses. Now he made up his mind, and he approached the boy on the point of his toes. The basket was easy enough to pick up; but the rake was placed securely under the sleeping boy's legs—to prevent just such a catastrophe as was about to occur. Wang the Ninth, with a skill which a long apprenticeship had given him, very gently and insinuatingly braced up the legs inch by inch, and then deftly and swiftly pulled away the rake from under the luckless sleeper who stirred uneasily but did not awake. Now with the stealth of the Indian Scout he tip-toed away. He knew that he was fully armed with a passport—that is if the other boy did not awake and give the alarm.