Now, however, there seemed to be an opening, and he wrote to Errington the following note:--
"MY DEAR PIDGE,
"I've just heard that I owe the recovery of the old flier to you. Many thanks. I'm burning to know more about it, and would run up if I weren't too busy just now. When I can find time I shall come, and give you a call. I hope you like your new quarters.
"Yours ever, "THE MOLE."
Errington read the note with a curling lip.
"He thinks I've forgotten, does he?" he thought.
And he tore the note across, and threw it petulantly into the waste-paper basket.
CHAPTER IX
SU FING'S PRISONER
Four days after Burroughs dispatched his letter to Errington, when the lapse of time showed pretty plainly that it was not likely to get an answer, he received a visit from Mr. Ting. The merchant, though he had refused Errington's request for help, had not done so out of hard-heartedness or stinginess, but from a wish that the boy should learn a severe lesson, that would leave an enduring stamp. But when he had gone a few days' journey down the river his heart smote him. He was young enough himself to understand the racking anxiety which his old friend's son was suffering; and his knowledge of the desperate expedients to which harassed young fellows sometimes resorted, made him decide to return to Chia-ling Fu, so that he might be at hand to rescue Errington from the worst consequences of his folly.