ll there was no news of the girls. Mr.
Grey went to all the Legation and Customs' people, but no one knew
anything about the missing ones. The search had to be given up for that
day, and Bob went back to Bessie, who was sitting up, anxious to hear
the news.

After a sleepless night Mr. and Mrs. Grey rose early and began the
search again. Mrs. Grey wrote notes to all the missionaries, and Mr.
Grey went out to inquire among the Chinese. Perhaps if he had turned to
the right up Legation Street, as Nelly and Little Yi had done, he might
have heard something about the foreign child who had gone with a woman
into a Chinese house near. But he went over the bridge in the other
direction.

That afternoon, when Bob Bates set out for his usual ride with his
ma-fu, he decided to make inquiries among the Chinese. The ma-fu
suggested that they should ask at some of the shops in Legation Street
near them, and sure enough they soon heard that a crowd had been seen
following a European and a Chinese child in the streets the evening
before. Bob was very persistent, and gave cash (small coins) for
everything which appeared to be reliable information. At length, by
means of questions and cash, he found some one who had seen Nelly and
Little Yi follow Ku Nai-nai into the native house. He at once left his
pony with the ma-fu, found the house, and knocked hard without any
result. He could get no answer at all. Then Bob went breathlessly to the
British Legation with the news that he believed that Nelly was shut up
in a house close by; but Nelly, as we know, was asleep in the cart on
her way to Yung Ching. Mr. Grey was still out, and Bob had to wait until
he returned. They went together to the house and knocked again. This
time the old woman of whom we have heard admitted them, and when
questioned, said:

'Yes, the children did step in here with a woman who comes to see me
sometimes, but they only stayed until the crowd had gone. Then they set
off home.'

This was all that old Ku Tai-tai would say. She declared she knew no
more, and did not know where the woman lived. Her name was Wang, she
said.

Mr. Grey was obliged to return to his wife with no news but this. He
went to the Chinese magistrate, who thought the children were being kept
in hiding until a sufficient reward was offered for their release, and
advised him to have bills printed and stuck up, announcing how much he
would pay to any one who brought back the little girls.

Whe