girl's game with Little Yi and her dolls.'

Chu Ma had not thought of Little Yi. She at once tottered off to the
girl's house, only to find that Lin Nai-nai, Little Yi's mother, was
wondering what had become of her.

Lin Nai-nai, seeing that Chu Ma was scarcely able to hobble any farther,
offered to go and look for both the children. She, being a Manchu, had
unbound feet, and soon inquired about the children at every house in the
compound, but she was obliged to return to Chu Ma without them. The two
women then went back to Mrs. Grey's house, and there made further
search and inquiries. Mrs. Grey was dressing to go to dine at the
American Legation with Mr. and Mrs. Bates. Chu Ma knocked at her room
door to see if Nelly were there. Of course she was not. Then Chu Ma told
Mrs. Grey that Little Yi could not be found either. Just then Mr. Grey
arrived and was told too. Remembering that Nelly had come out to meet
him the day before, he at once went to question the gatekeeper as to
whether the gate had been left open again. The man declared that it had
not, that he had never left it a moment, and that only Little Yi had
been near it that afternoon. She, he said, he had seen walking towards
her own home. This was not true, as we know, for the gatekeeper had left
the gate open while he went to buy some rice, and it was then that the
children had slipped out.

Mr. and Mrs. Grey became quite uneasy, for they knew that the children
could not be hiding such a long time, as Arthur Macdonald suggested.
Mrs. Grey declared that she could not think of going out to dine until
they were found, and Mr. Grey then went himself to each house in the
compound. After another hour's fruitless search, Mrs. Grey wrote a note
to Mrs. Bates, explaining why she could not come, and asking if by any
chance Bob and Bessie knew anything about Nelly. Bob persuaded his
mother to allow him to go back with the coolie who had brought the note
and help to look for Nelly. When he arrived at the British Legation, he
and Arthur Macdonald set to work to look in all the places that they
had ever hidden in when playing hide-and-seek together. They insisted
also upon going into all the Chinese and students' quarters, and looking
into places where it would have been impossible to hide.

'You forget, Arthur, that we are looking for girls, not a thimble,' said
Bob, when he saw Arthur rummaging in a small pigskin trunk of Chu Ma's.

And now it was quite dark, and sti