In the Yellow Sea

by Henry Frith

With a leap aside like a deer I darted away up the slope, and slightly turning my head I perceived that the coolie had got mixed up with the farmers, and was hindering them. Never were a few pieces of silver better bestowed, I thought, as I bounded up the hill, pursued by my two captors, while "Kinchow" rang in my ears—where or what Kinchow was, unless "Chincow" was meant, I did not care. I was free; free in the gathering darkness truly, alone and unarmed, but even so, unharmed and with a chance for life.

I was in dread lest the dangling rope would trip me up, and as I ran I tried to get it up higher. Luckily it trailed behind me and did not touch me. So I sprang up, leaped some small streams, not thinking of any definite direction but doubling like a hunted hare, disappearing behind rocks and again striking a new course, but always away from the twinkling lanterns which I could now distinguish below me, and I fancied I heard dogs barking.

This was most alarming. Though I had not heard of bloodhounds in China, the ordinary dog when accompanied by his master was quite unpleasant enough, and in bulk formidable; when at last I rested upon the hill, and listened intently, I felt assured that the alarm had been given, and that my captors had sent to the village for assistance. Then I girded up my loins indeed, and though terribly handicapped by the rope around my shoulders, I made a desperate effort, and kept through a wood and around the boulders near the summit of the hill. Kneeling down, I placed myself between two rocks facing the ascent from the village, and could distinguish nothing at all below me. After a while I saw a few roving lights descending, and then knew that until the morning pursuit had ceased. Fervently I thanked God for my escape, and, feeling rested, began to attempt release from the rope.

I do not know whether any of my readers have ever attempted the "rope trick" when bound by one of a sceptical audience, but my release was far more unlikely. The rope had been knotted with a will, and though "where there's a will there's a way," I could find no way save by rubbing my arms against the sharpest edge of the next convenient stone, and a nice way it was! Suffice it that I succeeded in cutting the bonds, and in scraping my shoulders, in a manner suggestive of the lash, or birch rather; but the relief was worth all the pain and exertion, and when I lay down to rest, not on my back, I fell asleep with a thanksgiving upon my lips.

Morning was hardly putting a candle in the east, when, stiff and numb, I attempted to rise. At first waking I was apprehensive whether I would be able to get up, but by degrees I unlocked my muscles, and extended my limbs. Then as soon as there was light I quitted my stony shelter, and proceeded through the wood. But when I came to an opening in the bushes I for the first time perceived what a terrible risk I had run. The rocks under which I had sheltered had fallen from above, and only paused in their descent over another precipice which ended in a stream strewn with boulders; beyond the stream lay the village deep in the millet-fields, lately harvested, bristling with stubble, and higher up the cliffs whence the rocks had fallen.

The situation reminded me, distantly, of Beatenberg in Berne, when once I lay beneath the cliffs, gazing below at the rocky mill-stream which makes its way to the lake of Thun through a narrow, precipitous gully. But what an escape I had had!

My first care was to put as great a distance as possible between the village and myself, and so I clambered up and across the hills, having seen no one and heard nothing to alarm me. I descended the rocky, not precipitous, slope on the other side, and struck into a side valley, but whither it would lead I did not care. It led me to water and refreshment, and then I hid the rope before resuming my journey to Kinchow.

For hours I wandered on, meeting no one, and fearing to encounter anyone. Some unpleasant-looking birds kept me company for a while, and gave me "the fidgets." I began to think of vultures, and shuddered when they seated themselves at a little distance and blinked, as I thought, at each other, nodding at me at intervals. I maintain now, in defiance of bulls of Ireland, these were the most "beastly birds" I ever saw! They laughed at the stones I threw at them, for they simply rose half a yard when I made good practice, and settled again at once, till I gave up stoning them, and disinterred the rope thinking to lasso them, or one of them.