'What can be done?' she said. 'The young woman is in the right, but mount that ladder again I will not. If she can find a ladder and climb up on her side, let her do so. If she can't, as she is trying to help a foreigner, she might adopt the foreign custom of talking to any one. You can go up again and tell the children what I say. When she knows what I've suffered on that ladder she will give in, I think.'

So Chang mounted once more and told the children, who had heard a good deal of the talk, about Chang Nai-nai's efforts to converse with An Ching. They both went to try and persuade her to come, and found her in her own room. She finally consented, and, half dragged by the children, appeared through the round hole. Chang, who was still at his post, took away all An Ching's embarrassment by greeting her with:

'Is the young Ku Nai-nai well?'

Then, after a few more formalities, he asked Little Yi to go and stand in the round gateway, so as to be able to warn them if any one came, and he began at once to discuss with An Ching ways and means for releasing the children.

The arrangements were very simple. In eight days' time there would be sufficient moonlight.

The children were to wait until they were sure that Ku Nai-nai was asleep, and then squeeze themselves through the window over their kang and come out into the court. Chang would be on his side with Chi Fu, and they would let down a large round basket, into which the children must get, one at a time, and be hauled over the wall. An Ching suggested that she should ask Ku Nai-nai to allow her to go and visit a relative on the day which would be arranged for the flight, and she would stay there all night, to avoid suspicion. She saw very well that Chang could not take her away too, but she begged him to aid her if she found any means of joining Nelly later. Chang promised to think about it. Then he threw Nelly the pencil and a sheet of paper, and took leave of them all for that day. Nelly at once began to consider what to say to her parents, and finally wrote the following letter:

'Dear Father and Mother—I am quite safe here in Yung Ching with the Kus, and so is Little Yi, but we want to come home. Chang, who lives next door and heard us singing, is going to try to help us to get away. Ku Hung Li, who stole us, says he will send us home with a barber, but I would rather go with Chang. There is a very nice girl called An Ching, who is very kind to us, and I want her to come and live with us in Peking, but her feet are very small, so she can't do much, though she can sew beautifully. How is Baby Buckle? and Bob and Bessie and Arthur, and all the other children? I wear Chinese dress now, but my hair has only been shaved once. There is no more room on this paper, and this is all I have. Chang gave me it; he is a Christian.

'Your loving daughter,
'Nelly Grey.'

This letter took Nelly more than a day to write. When it was done she threw it over the wall into Chang's compound.

Chang and Chi Fu were very busy during the next few days in making arrangements for a cart to be ready on the night fixed for the flight. Nelly and Little Yi on their side were all impatience for the day to arrive, and poor An Ching was despondent. She hunted over all her treasures, and gave each of the children a keepsake. Nelly's was a little square looking-glass with tassels, to hang from her belt, and Little Yi had a thick silver ring with an enamelled green frog in the centre. Nelly thought of plan after plan for An Ching's escape, but An Ching shook her head at each one. 'Oh, Nelly,' she said one day, 'how lucky you are not to have been born a China-woman!'