Lao Chang and I
resolved to go on, tired though we were. Before I resolved on this plan
I stopped to take a careful survey of the exact situation of the
sheltering hollow in which we meant to pass the night. The sun was fast
sinking; the dust of the road lay grey and thick about my feet; above me
the heavens were reddening in sunset glory; the landscape had no touch
of human life about it save our own two solitary figures; and the place,
fifteen li away, lay before me as a dream of a good night rather than a
reality.
Then on again we plodded, and yelled our intentions to the men behind.
From the brow of the hill we descended with extreme rapidity--down, down
into a valley which sent up a damp, oppressive atmosphere. Through the
trees I could see one lovely ball of deep, rich red, painting the earth
as it sank in a beauty exquisite beyond all else. Four men met us,
stared suspiciously, thought we were deaf, and yelled that the place was
twenty li away, and that we had better return to the brow of the hill.
But we left them, and went still farther down. In the hush that
prevailed I was unaccountably startled to see the form of a woman
gliding towards me in the twilight.
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