THE ESCAPE AND WHAT FOLLOWED
"Roy! Roy! Wake up!"
Peggy shook the shoulder of her brother, who had dozed off in a rough chair formed out of an old flour barrel. She glanced at her watch. It was almost midnight, and half an hour since the steady footfall of the sentry, who was keeping desultory watch on the captives, had passed the hut.
Roy was wide awake in an instant. He sat up staring wildly about, and then, casting sleep from him, he listened intently.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The three raps came against the back wall of the shack, and then:
"Missee all ledee. Man who watchee you him go sleep. Me got ponies, water, eblyting. Make um number one quick."
With quick, beating pulses the brother and sister slipped from the door and out into the valley. It was moonlight-that is to say, the moon had risen, but a peculiar haze overcast the sky and the light of the luminary of the night only served to make the darkness more visible. Back of the shack stood a vague figure holding two ponies by the bridles. It was Ah Sing.
"You give me lilly joss now, missee?" he asked eagerly.
Swiftly Peggy stooped and unfastened the little jade god from far-off China.