CHAPTER XIV

Summary

ONLY one brief hour was allowed us to recruit; at its termination, without changing our costume, we started off again to make another score of miles.

The time we had purposed accomplishing the journey in was very limited; we knew not what was before us, and the means of returning to Tien-tsin again were very doubtful. We wavered between taking the chance of meeting a small trading vessel ready to start from New-Chwang — one of the five northern ports opened to our trade — chartering there a junk, and trusting to wind and weather to find our way across the Gulf in about a fortnight, or having to ride back the way we were now going. We were afraid of overstaying our leave, and therefore thought it best to hurry on while progress was possible.

The way was dull enough and the evening was lowering; the villages looked very triste and lonely in the midst of so much water and sloppy ground, but in fine days they must have worn a much merrier aspect.

A large old-fashioned town—all Chinese towns are oldfashioned, but this one appeared more so than any we had yet seen — was passed through.

It looked as quiet as if all the inhabitants had gone to bed, but possessed good houses built of stone and brick, neatly finished off, and the almost flat roofs tiled or thatched with straw.