“What's he for?” I asked Tuan.
That worthy looked very grave. “Must take care,” he replied with due deliberation. “Plenty robber. She drive away robber. How many soldier Missie have?”
Well there was nothing for it but to face the danger, if danger there was. I don't know now if there was any. It is so difficult to believe that any unpleasant thing will happen to one. Again I reflected that there is no danger in China till the danger actually arrives, and then it is too late. What my guardian was to drive away robbers with I am sure I don't know, for I cannot see that the fly whisk would have been very effective. The “cartee men” were perfectly willing to go on, so I said I thought this warrior would be amply sufficient for all purposes, and we started.
Everybody in Pa Kou keeps a lark, I should think, and every one of those larks were singing joyously as we left the town. Never have I heard such a chorus of bird song, and the morning was delightful. My guardian rode ahead, and for three hours as we jolted over the track, I kept a look-out for robbers, wondered what they would be like, and what I should do when we met, but the only things I saw were bundles of brushwood for the kitchen fires of Pa Kou, apparently walking thitherward on four donkey legs. They reassured me, those bundles of brushwood, they had such a peaceful look. Somehow I didn't think we were going to meet any robbers.
Evidently Tuan and the “cartee men” came to the same conclusion, for, at the end of three hours, they came and said the soldier must be changed, did Missie want another? Missie thought she didn't, and the guard was dismissed, his services being valued at twenty cents. It was plenty, for he came, with beaming face, and bowed his thanks.
That was the only time I had anything to do with soldiers on the journey, and I forgot all about him, hieroglyphics, lampshade, fly whisk, and all, till I found entered in the accounts, Tuan was a learned clerk and kept accounts: “Cavalry, twenty cents.”
Then I felt I had had more than my money's worth.