The men had already gone on, so, taking Ruby with me, I set off down the road, which soon developed into a succession of sand hills, with many cart ruts in several places nearly two feet deep—anything but pleasant walking in the dark. It did not take me long to catch up to the men, but by this time I had been deserted by Ruby, the faithful companion of so many days' travelling. This troubled me little at the time, as I quite made up my mind that, not relishing the keen morning air, she had returned to the inn to put in as much more sleep as possible.
After going about thirteen miles I came to a small village, where I tried to get some bread, but my endeavours being unsuccessful, whether owing to some flaw in my Chinese or not I cannot say, I decided to walk on to the next place. On I went, following the cart tracks, which formed an apology for a road, down the bed of a narrow stream, and between high cliffs, till I at length emerged on the banks of what was undoubtedly our old friend the Yellow River. I knew I could not be mistaken in this, as there is no other river in this part of China with anything like the same volume of water. The tracks led me along the left bank of the river, till they eventually stopped abruptly at the water's edge. High above me I could see a track across some forbidding-looking sand hills, but to reach it one had a difficult piece of ground to negotiate which was utterly impracticable for carts. I knew there was no other road by which the carts could go, and, as far as I could see, there was no possibility of their getting any further. It was now about midday. We were all very hungry, and quite at a loss what to do, so, in default of any better plan, I made up my mind to wait where I was till Rijnhart and Malcolm should arrive; so, choosing a shady spot, I lay down, and was soon fast asleep.
It was about 5 p.m. when I woke, refreshed by sleep, but still very hungry, and anxious for the arrival of the carts, which, however, were nowhere to be seen; but just as it was getting dusk, a boat came round a bend of the river, being dragged up the far side by sturdy Chinamen. They went a short distance further up the river than where I was, and then dropped across to my side. This was evidently a ferry-boat, and was in the habit of meeting carts and travellers at intervals during the day, so, feeling sure it was certain to take me somewhere, I got on board with the men, expecting to be ferried across to some village on the far side, which was hidden by the curve of the bank, but to my astonishment we went straight down the river, about half a mile. Here the boat stopped, and out we all got. The boatmen moored the boat for the night, and then started off across some fields. I followed in silence, wondering what the upshot of it all was likely to be. There I was, a stranger in a strange land, destitute of money and food, and quite unable to speak the language, or make myself understood except occasionally by signs. And in this Shahzad Mir, Esau, and Lassoo, were of no help; they were indeed only extra mouths to feed, and no money to do it with. After walking about half a mile we came to a small group of houses, and one of the boatmen, a good sort of fellow, made signs for us to follow him into one of them. Here we found an old lady, evidently his wife, and to our great delight our demands for "momo" (bread) and "tsa" (tea) were promptly complied with. We had indeed fallen upon our feet, for in addition to these luxuries the room was clean and comfortable, but all efforts to make our host and hostess understand that we would like some eggs availed us nothing. Even when we all four sat in a row, each making the noise he imagined was most like a laying hen, our object never dawned upon them, and at last, when it became obvious that they thought this was only our way of enjoying ourselves, we gave up in despair and went to sleep.
ON THE ROAD FROM LANCHEO, CHINA.
Next morning, after more bread and tea, I went out and anxiously looked up the river for signs of the ferry-boat or the carts, but nothing occurred till about midday, when the carters arrived leading their animals, and now, for the first time I really grasped the meaning of the abruptly ending cart road, the steep track over the sand hills, and the ferry-boat. The carts are dragged down as far as possible by the animals, which are then unharnessed, led up the steep cliff and across the sand hills down to the village in which I had passed the night, and in the meanwhile the carts are shipped on to the ferry-boat and brought down until the road again becomes fit for wheeled traffic.
Soon after Rijnhart and Malcolm arrived with the carts in the boat, which this time came right down to the village, but, to my great sorrow, Ruby was not with them, nor had they seen her. It certainly seemed hard that, after travelling so many miles, she should be lost when comparatively near the goal. It appeared that the pony had not returned the previous morning till nearly seven, and that the carters had again struck work and insisted on stopping for the night at the village through which I had passed after my unsuccessful attempt to get bread. They had said that they could not possibly get to the ferry that night, and that, as they had no intention of sleeping in the open, they would go no further.
However, now that we were all united, our first care was to start off the men in the carts for Chong Wei, while we got a raft for ourselves to take us down the river. The whole party was in motion again by 2 p.m., and about half an hour before sunset we got down to our landing place, a sort of coal wharf about two miles from the city of Chong Wei.
We had previously agreed with our carters to go to a certain inn in the east suburb, so we made our way there as quickly as possible, expecting the carts to come in before night. In this, however, we were disappointed, but it was a matter of indifference to us, as our men had plenty of money and were perfectly safe. The innkeeper made us a capital supper of mutton and rice, and while we were discussing it, a Chinaman, who turned out to be an agent for one of the wool firms, with that easy familiarity characteristic of the race, came in and gave us all the news of the place; and from him we learnt that there was another foreigner living near the west gate of the city, so we made up our minds to visit him in the morning and find out the best way of getting on to Pao T'eo.