Wang replied. 'We must leave the horse. We must take that
track on the left, get round the town, and enter it by the gate on the
far side. To enter it by the one on this side would be very risky, as
the cartman and his wife will tell every one they meet that we are bound
for Kwang-ngan, and some of my more violent anti-foreign countrymen are
sure to start in pursuit of us.'

They left the main track and joined a little-used one which led round
the town. For half an hour they marched along in single file without
meeting or catching sight of any other human beings. Night came on, and
they were about a mile from the town, when they heard the shouts of an
advancing mob.

'We must hide: follow me!' Ping Wang exclaimed, and ran in the direction
of the town. The ground between the track and town wall was very uneven,
and abounded in little hollows which would have afforded ample
concealment, but Ping Wang did not halt until they had run fully half a
mile.

'Let's sit down here,' he said, panting.

They sat down in a hollow surrounded by shrubs, and listened to the
shouts of the men whom they had so nearly encountered.

'I imagine that they are the members of some society,' said Ping Wang.
'If they had discovered that Charlie and you were Europeans, they would
probably have killed us all.'

'The best thing we could do if we do meet them,' Charlie joined in, 'is
to pretend that we are deaf and dumb. We _are_ deaf and dumb as far as
Chinese is concerned. And, now, if you will give me that pigtail, I will
try to sew it to this skull-cap. I've never yet tried sewing with a pin,
and I fancy that it won't be an easy job.'

Charlie repeated that opinion several times during the next half-hour,
for, what with the difficulty of getting the head of the pin through the
cap, and the cotton constantly slipping off the pin, it was a most
irritating job. However, after working hard for a little more than half
an hour, he finished it.

'It doesn't look at all bad,' Fred declared.

Then they talked for some time of their journey, and of the treasure for
which they had travelled so far.

'There's somebody coming!' Fred exclaimed, stopping Ping Wang in the
middle of a sentence.

They listened. 'Let's get up and walk on,' Ping Wang said, quietly. 'I
fancy there are quite fifty men approaching. Probably they are some of
the men whom we heard an hour ago. There are more of them on the left,
and they're closing in on us. Remember that,