We had a delightful dinner with Miss Morgan and the next morning as our
caravan wound down the long hill past her house she stood at the window to
wave good-by. She kept her head behind the curtains, and doubtless if we
could have seen her face we would have found tears upon it, for the evening
with another woman of her kind had brought to her a breath of the old life
which she had resolutely forsaken and which so seldom penetrated to her
self-appointed exile.

On our ninth day from Yuen-nan Fu we had a welcome bit of excitement. We
were climbing a long mountain trail to a pass over eight thousand feet high
and were near the summit when a boy dashed breathlessly up to the caravan,
jabbering wildly in Chinese. It required fifteen minutes of questioning
before we finally learned that bandits had attacked a big caravan less than
a mile ahead of us and were even then ransacking the loads.

He said that there were two hundred and fifty of them and that they had
killed two _mafus_; almost immediately a second gesticulating Chinaman
appeared and gave the number as three hundred and fifty and the dead as
five. Allowing for the universal habit of exaggeration we felt quite sure
that there were not more than fifty, and subsequently learned that forty
was the correct number and that no one had been killed.

Our caravan was in a bad place to resist an attack but we got out our
rifles and made for a village at the top of the pass. There were not more
than a half dozen mud houses and in the narrow street between them perfect
bedlam reigned. Several small caravans had halted to wait for us, and men,
horses, loads, and chairs were packed and jammed together so tightly that
it seemed impossible ever to extricate them. Our arrival added to the
confusion, but leaving the _mafus_ to scream and chatter among themselves,
we scouted ahead to learn the true condition of affairs.

Almost within sight we found the caravan which had been robbed. Paper and
cloth were strewn about, loads overturned, and loose mules wandered over
the hillside. The frightened _mafus_ were straggling back and told us that
about forty bandits had suddenly surrounded the caravan, shooting and
brandishing long knives. Instantly the _mafus_ had run for their lives
leaving the brigands to rifle the packs unmolested. The goods chiefly
belonged to the retiring mandarin of Li-chiang, and included some five
thousand dollars worth of jade and gold dust, all of which was taken.