8 The Call of the Red Gods 
closely as to what I was doing. No mention was made of 
A-tun-tsi, for it is a safe thing in China not to ask too 
much of any man, but to go from one to the other, ap- 
proaching the more friendly officials and ignoring others 
according to circumstances. To the Taotai at T’eng-yueh, 
A-tun-tsi was probably a savage place where people were 
engaged in cutting each others’ throats and a European 
would infallibly be killed, whereas to the official at Wei-hsi 
it was the obvious place to make for. Once in Lichiang 
I was quite beyond the control of the Taotai, though not 
out of reach of the Consul, so that this concession was 
perfectly satisfactory as far as it went, though I had no 
intention of going to Lichiang. 
I spent twelve days in T’eng-yueh, waiting for my 
baggage, as the guest first of Mr Rose, then of Mr Howell, 
Commissioner of Customs, and delightful days they were— 
scampers over the grave-strewn downs on the spirited little 
Yunnan ponies, snipe shooting, and occasionally a game of 
rounders with the ‘boys,’ cooks, gardeners, and other 
members of the several households. Those games of 
rounders in a little dell surrounded by the necropolitan 
hills were great fun, for the Chinese were as keen as 
schoolboys on the game, many of them after a little practice 
showing surprising skill. But it was a little disconcerting 
in the middle of an exciting international match when 
seven o'clock came and the ranks of both sides were 
suddenly decimated by the defection of the cooks, and the 
cooks’ boys, and the cooks’ boys’ helps, who all rushed 
frantically away to prepare dinner. 
At this time there was a little flutter of excitement 
amongst the half-dozen Europeans at T’eng-yueh, owing 
to the forthcoming marriage of the ‘General’s’ daughter. 
The ‘ General’ was a man who had been sent to pacify the 
T’eng-yueh district during the great Mohammedan rebellion 
fifty years before, and had found it so pleasant that he had 
stayed there ever since. He was a great favourite with the 
Englishmen, who were amongst those who sent wedding 
presents, and it is sad to recall that he was one of the first 
victims of the rebellion seven months later. According to 
current gossip the sponsor for his daughter’s worldly goods 
was only accepting one thing in four, a course which while 
