Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

oneself and whatever presents itself. It’s like that
occasionally.”
    Like that occasionally ... of course. He was
nearly exhausted, he was trembling with cold and he hadn’t planned this at all,
but he had found a cave and now he had found X. My God, he thought, Mrs.
Pollifax is more flexible than I am, and I’m twenty-two. And with the
memory of her words a sense of her presence returned to him and he grinned:
Mrs. Pollifax would simply get on with the job, matter-of-factly.
    And so—matter-of-factly—Peter proceeded to get on with the job: he softly
called out Wang’s name.
    The man had just begun to turn away; he hesitated now, startled. Some
distance away his companions were huddled over a tiny fire, their faces turned
aside. Peter moved slightly away from the tree, just enough to expose his presence,
and then quickly popped back. But Wang had seen him; his face had turned
astonished and baffled. Peter extended one hand, thumb up. A moment later the
man shuffled over to the tree and stood in front of it, curious but perplexed.
    ”You’re Wong Shen,” Peter said from behind the tree.
    ”Who—?”
    ”Also Wang Shen.”
    ”Zhe shi shenme? What is this? Who are you? Where did you come from?”
    ”Wo jiang Peter—American, Meiguo ren —sent with papers to
take you out of the country. Can you decide quickly? Are you well enough? To go now?”
    ”You’re testing me,” the man growled. ”Long live the great and correct
Communist Party of China!”
    ”Ta ma de,” swore Peter, ”the time is now. I’ve a rope
across the river, it can be done before there’s too much daylight, there’ll
never be such a chance again.”
    ”Why?” he asked harshly. ”How is anyone interested in me?”
    Peter said impatiently, ”Because the Russians have learned who you are
and they’ll be after you next. Lai bulai —are you coming or aren’t you?”
    There was silence. Peter waited in suspense for the man’s friends to
call to him, or for Wang to call out to the group and betray him, and then
abruptly, calmly, the man moved around the tree to peer at him and his glance
was searching. He said, ”You look very young, with good food in you.”
    ”I hope I also look American—my eyelids are taped.”
    Studying Peter’s face the man’s gaze seemed to come from far away, as if
he drew on a part of him buried very deep, and then his eyes sharpened, he
returned to this cold misty dawn and to the moment. He said with infinite
dryness, ”If you have found me—if you have managed to cross that river—what
have I to lose? Let’s go!”
    Thank God, thought Peter. Wang glanced back once at the
clearing, bent over to look at a root, dropped to his knees and crept behind
the tree, his movements without haste, measured, as if he had long ago learned
the art of blending into backgrounds to avoid attention. Peter dropped to the
ground with him and they crawled together to the next copse of trees; reaching
it they stood up and raced to the stream.
    ”You can do this?” Peter asked X, pointing to the rope which the dawn
was illuminating now.
    Wang’s thin frame shivered in the cold. ”Shi,” he said, and
stepped forward. Testing the rope first—he seemed incredulous at its
lightness—he lowered himself into the icy river. Hand over hand, at times
almost submerged by the current, he propelled his body to the other side,
climbed out, shook himself, and stood up. Quickly Peter untied the rope from
the tree on his side—there must be no signs of their departure—and once again
knotted it around his waist. This time he leaped far out into the water and was
better able to control his entry into the rapids so that when the rope pulled
him up short he was within a maneuverable distance of the opposite shore. A
moment later he was out, and joining Wang upstream.
    ”We can talk later,” he said, pulling on socks, buckling on his sandals
and stowing flashlight, shoes, and compass into his Mao jacket. ”And the faster
we go the warmer we’ll be,” he added, trying to still the chattering of his
teeth, ”although I’ll say right now that your escape was planned for next week,
not today. We must be resourceful!”
    The man gave him a sharp glance but he said only, ”Let’s go then.”
    They reached the cave within the hour, losing only a few minutes
searching for it. Pulling aside the branches concealing it Peter said, ”This
was the first miracle, Wang, the second was coming practically face to face
with you when