Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

I was only reconnoitering.”
    Wang crept into the cave, amazed. ”Truly this is a miracle.”
    ”You’re not so strong as you seemed at first,” Peter said. ”You couldn’t
run.”
    Wang’s smile was kind. ”We’re given very little food.”
    Peter nodded. ”And I’ve little to offer you—look.”
    Wang only shook his head. ”What you have here—just to see fruit and
chocolate—looks a feast to me. I am also expert by now”—his tone was
humorous—”in foraging in the woods. What exactly is the situation?”
    Briefly Peter explained it. By now he had begun doing rapid calculations
for his own preservation, and he was worried and tried not to show it to Wang.
It had taken him four hours to reach the cave, for instance, and it would take
him at least another four hours to return to Urumchi... Already it was past
four in the morning and breakfast for the tour group was to be served at 8 a.m., with a departure for Turfan at
nine. He would be too late for breakfast and even his return by nine was now
problematic: how he was to explain his absence was beyond his capabilities at the
moment. He concluded his story to Wang by saying, ”And so you must rest and
grow stronger here, for the mountains. When the tour group returns from Turfan
late tomorrow I’ll bring you more food, but as you can see—”
    Wang had sat down on the cave’s floor and now he smiled for the first
time. ”Don’t worry please, I will enjoy extremely this release from jian ku
lao dong,” he said, using the word for hard physical labor. ”It is enough
to be free. Wo lei le —I’m tired.”
    ”Okay, but watch any tracks you leave in the woods when you go out,”
Peter counseled. ”Remember, they’ll be searching for you soon. When I return
I’ll whistle like this.” He gave a soft bird call and repeated it twice. ”Got
it?”
    Wang was looking happily around him. ”Yes, yes,” he said absently. ”Some
apricots first, I think, and then I will sleep. I may even sleep for days!”
    Peter said, ”Good. Only wish I could... ziajian!”
    ”Ziajian,” responded Wang, but by this time Peter was already
outside and beginning the long hike back to Urumchi, a trip made all the more
conspicuous and hazardous by the growing light of day.

Chapter Ten
     
    B y seven o’clock that morning Mrs. Pollifax had already guessed that
Peter wasn’t back—she had knocked early at his door, feeling obscurely troubled
about him —and when they assembled in the lobby at eight for breakfast and
Peter still didn’t appear her worry sharpened and she prepared for the worst.
They were to leave for Turfan in an hour, their luggage had already been
collected and Peter’s absence had become obvious and serious. The list of
horrors that might have happened to him seemed endless to her: he could have
been picked up by police as a local native for questioning; he could have been
picked up as an American with fake ID papers; he could have met with an accident
and be lying alone and helpless somewhere; he might have found the labor camp
only to be discovered himself. Whatever had gone wrong he was not here, and he
ought to be here.
    The door to the dining hall opened, they walked in to breakfast and Mrs.
Pollifax—feeling embarked on a roller-coaster ride whose end she couldn’t
foresee—sat down and without enthusiasm attacked a hard-boiled egg.
    Mr. Kan , hurrying in, said, ”I
have knocked and he doesn’t hear, the manager is to open his door with a key,
he may be ill.”
    ”Are you feeling okay?” Malcolm asked Mrs. Pollifax from across
the table.
    Jenny, seated next to her, turned and stared.
    ”Fine,” said Mrs. Pollifax and gave them each a forced bright smile.
    ”Oh he’ll turn up,” said Iris cheerfully, earning a bland smile from Joe
Forbes and an admiring one from George.
    Mr. Li stuck his head through the door to call to Mr. Kan ,
”He’s not in his room. He slept there but he’s not there.”
    ”Slept there,” murmured Mrs. Pollifax: that meant bed turned down and
sheets wrinkled... she was relieved to hear that Peter had thought of this,
except of what use was a turned-down bed if Peter didn’t reappear soon?
    ”But nobody has seen him,” added Mr. Li, coming in to join them, and he
did not laugh merrily; he looked anxious and puzzled.
    ”We don’t leave for Turfan without him, do we?” asked Jenny.
    The two guides launched an intense discussion in their own language
until Mr. Li shook his head. ”We must.