The Pages and Ping Wang were among the first twenty to pass in at the town gates, and the latter at once crossed over to an inn and peeped in at the door. The glance he gave satisfied him, and he beckoned to Charlie and Fred to enter. It was not an attractive-looking place, but there was a smell of roast pork, that made the hungry travellers sniff with delight.
The dining-room into which Ping Wang led the way was very dirty, and until Charlie and Fred were told what the room was they had no idea that it was there that they were to breakfast. They sat down on a form at a little, bare wooden table, and before long were enjoying a hearty meal of roast pork and tea.
'And now,' Fred said, when they had satisfied their healthy appetites, 'I should like to lie down and sleep.'
'So should I,' Charlie declared. 'What kind of beds do they have here?'
'We can lie on the floor here if we like,' Ping Wang answered.
'I'll do so,' Charlie said, and down he went on the floor, turned his face to the wall, rested his head on his arm, and closed his eyes: Fred followed his example at once.
Ping Wang waited until his friends were asleep, and then, having satisfied himself that their pigtails were not slipping off, and that there was nothing about their appearance to attract attention, he lay down beside them.
All three slept soundly until the landlord came in and awoke Ping Wang, who had an argument with him about the price of roast pork.
'What is our next move?' Charlie asked, quietly, when the landlord had left the room.
'To go and see my cousin,' Ping Wang replied, 'to warn him of the danger which threatens his brother and all other Christians.'