"Yes," said Doris. "Or if we could get a message to him so he could know we are praying for him!"
One day Shen-si, the Chinese cook who had lived with them many years, said:
"I will carry your message to my master and bring his message to you."
"How can you find him, Shen-si?" asked Dorothy. "How will you get past the chief of the bandits?"
"I will face Yang Tien-fu and carry your message to my master and bring his message to you," said Shen-si quietly.
Mrs. Shelton and the girls wrote letters and Shen-si started out to find his master. All along the way he followed the robbers, asking questions until he reached the place where he was told his master was. He went boldly up to the guards.
"I come on important business," he announced. "I must speak to your chief."
The guards led him to Yang Tien-fu. Behind the chief he saw his master, so changed that he scarcely knew him. A long beard had grown over his smooth face, and he was so weak he could scarcely walk. Tears came into Shen-si's eyes.
Dr. Shelton was allowed to send a message back, and he handed Shen-si a copy of Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush to take to Mrs. Shelton. This he had had in his saddle-bags when the robbers captured him. On the margins he had written daily messages to his wife. One of the last was:
"I am tired to death; all I can say in my desolation is, 'Make Thy grace sufficient for me, O God.'"