it was early one morning, nearly
a fortnight after he had been taken ill, when, having bidden farewell to
their kind hosts, the three friends passed out of the town, and began
their six-mile journey along the muddy track which led to Kwang-ngan.

Before they had gone far they found a cart stuck in the mud. The owner
and his wife--the latter looking very comical with her tiny crippled
feet and black trousers--stood helplessly beside it.

'Noble brothers,' the man called out to the approaching travellers,
'your dog of a servant implores you to assist him to move his cart.'

'He wants us to help him get his cart out of that hole,' Ping Wang said
to the Pages, in an undertone. 'Shall we?'

'Certainly,' Charlie answered.

Charlie, Fred, and Ping Wang walked up to the cart, and putting forth
all their strength moved it, at the first attempt, out of the rut in
which it had stuck. The Chinaman thanked them profusely for their help.
His wife said nothing, but stared at Charlie in a way that made him feel
quite uncomfortable. He was much relieved when, in obedience to her
husband's call to come and take her seat, she toddled off towards the
vehicle.

'It's a wonder,' Charlie whispered to Fred, 'that she doesn't fall on
her nose. If she did it would not spoil it, for it's flat already.
Hallo, what's Ping Wang saying to the old man?'

In a few moments they knew. Ping Wang came over to them, and said,
quietly, 'These people are on their way to Kwang-ngan, and they will
drive us there for one hundred cash.'

A cash is a copper coin with a square hole in the middle. Its value is
about a fifth of an English farthing. These coins are carried strung
together, and their value being so small a man can have a heavy load of
coppers without being even moderately rich.

'It's cheap,' Fred answered. 'Let us accept.'

Ping Wang therefore informed his noble brother that the sons of dogs
would have the pleasure of riding in his magnificent carriage. Before
they had travelled far the Pages came to the conclusion that the ride
was by no means a cheap one, and that instead of paying to ride they
ought to have been paid, so frequently were they called upon to pull or
push the cart out of some rut in which it stuck fast. They felt that the
wily old Chinaman had made a very good bargain, and if they had been
able to speak Chinese they would have told him so. Charlie, however,
disliked the woman much more than he did her husband. She stared a