Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

Author:Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250119292
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Young Fu’s heart thudded; his skin turned to goose flesh. Five—ten—seconds elapsed, and then like a flash it came to him what to do. He not only knew where to hide the silver; he would hide himself as well! Without his presence, Tang could pass as an ordinary traveler, rather than as a successful merchant with an apprentice. A whisper, and Tang understood. He took the captain into the scheme and together they worked madly the remaining seconds before a torch flared over their end of the boat. When it did, it disclosed Tang and the captain crouched beneath a shelter of matting.

Two of the bandits guarded the crew, two held torches, while the fifth figure was evidently in command. He pushed forward.

Tang rose to his feet. “Is there anything I can do for you?” he inquired pleasantly.

“Who are you?”

“The passenger on this boat, and a citizen of Chungking.”

“What is your business anchored here?”

“Refuge from the tubsful of water being emptied on us from above.”

“A likely tale! From what place did you come?”

“Hochow.”

“Your business there?”

“Paying reverence to ancestral tablets.”

The other glared at him suspiciously. His glance swept from captain to crew. “Is what he says true?” he barked.

Under Tang’s watchful eye they nodded solemnly.

“Search all of them!” the chief ordered.

Little was found on the crew. The captain and Tang contributed the most, a trifle over eight dollars.

Young Fu, smothering beneath the heap of rags and matting at the side of the boat, hoped the affair would soon be settled. Anxiously he listened while the bandit spoke. “This is not enough,” the gruff voice said. “You look prosperous for one with so little money. With what did you intend to pay this boatman?”

The reply came without hesitation, “A Chungking check.”

“Give me the check.”

“You have it in your hand—that torn scrap of paper.”

The bandit looked at it wonderingly. It was plain he had not seen one before. He turned to the torchbearer. “Is this a bank check?” he asked.

The man admitted that he did not know.

One of the other guards came forward. After careful examination of the slip, he assured the chief that, if presented to the Chungking bank named upon it, silver would be received in exchange.

The chief handed it to Tang. “Write on this the sum of three hundred dollars.” Then moving to the gunwale, he sat down and lifted his feet to a resting place on the pile of rags under which the shivering apprentice and the silver lay hidden, while he watched Tang write the characters for three hundred dollars.

Young Fu flattened against the boat floor. His breath came in short gasps, each of which he feared might betray him to the heavy feet separated from his body and Tang’s silver by so flimsy a protection. Dirt from the rags tortured him with the desire to sneeze. His legs were already numb. A cramped hip seemed unendurable another second. He felt faint. Each second the pressure of the bandit’s feet increased. He bit his lip till the blood ran, to hold consciousness.

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