Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/246

182 that the man had been advised by his friends to accept no compensation for his cart, lest afterwards he should be charged with robbery at the yamen. Truly an instructive sidelight on the methods of the upper classes in China! So my attempt at British justice had after all miscarried: they feared the foreign devil—et dona ferentem.

For the rest of the day I toiled over range after range of brick-red mountain, relieved from complete desolation by scrub and pine-woods. The two chair-bearers who had fled earlier in the day turned up in the afternoon, and just as I was upbraiding them for their cowardice, a tremendous holloaing came echoing across the elevated plain over which I was travelling. Excitement number two! This time, however, the explanation was not a disagreeable one. As I looked up to see what was the matter, two great wolves came bounding over the plain not a hundred yards from where I stood. In hot pursuit came a dog, while just beyond was a shepherd with his flock, yelling like mad, in which he was joined cheerfully and vociferously by every one in