Made Only Of Desert Dust 107
MADE ONLY OF DESERT DUST
Tsaogien, too," said the three genially, lowering their guns and getting up for the road journey once more.
"They're brigands !" whispered Junia in Lisu to his frightened group, who huddled close to him.
"I know their clothes and their caps. The bunch that robbed the lairds last May wore these/
But the soldiers appeared very friendly, chatting and asking questions trying to find out if the Lisu had seen the fight. Junia was very guarded in his replies and purposely vague and stupid.
He soon saw that they understood no Lisu, so he felt relieved that he could talk to his friends without being understood. The Communists looked hungry and worn; obviously they had had nothing to eat for some time. They explained their presence as having been lost, separated from their regiment, and hoping to find it in the hills of Tsaogien. Junia took all this in and made up his mind.
"They're weak from hunger, I bet," he said in snatches to Mary and the others. "Let's walk fast and we will outstrip them without openly running from them. Who knows where the rest of their gang is and what would happen if we met a lot of them."
Now, no man, white or Chinese, can equal the tribesman's fast dog-trot on the hills. 1 On the plain we outstrip them easily, for they say their legs hurt when they walk on the horizontal.
But on the rolling hills or even the high mountains they are like the wild goats. Soon a distance began to come between the three soldiers and the small Lisu group.
"Wait for us ! Don't go so fast !" called out the Reds, beginning to see what was happening. Junia muttered some excuse and the Olives band sped silently on. The Communists tried to quicken their pace, even to run, but Junia had guessed correctly, hunger had weakened them and the distance between them and the Lisu grew every moment.
"Ah you're mean! You're hearts aren't good!" they called pantingly after the fast disappearing Lisu, but it was of no avail.
Chuckling, they sped out of sight. The hills gradually became lower, then fell away entirely into the mountain-girt little plain
1 The Lisu say that Brother Three can equal them, but certainly few could.
STONES OF
FIRE of Tsaogien, which is the usual stopping-place. The little stream wanders slowly through the middle, and tucked in against the foot of the western hills are a few mud-housed villages. At the far end of the plain Mary could see the tower which denoted the town from which the plain gets its name.
"We had better not camp here to-night," said Junia. "He said their group were in the mountains; probably he meant the mountains to the south, but we better not take a chance. Mary, can you go still further? Can you make the Hot Springs before eating?"
"Yes," she panted shortly. "Go on.
I can keep up." And so they sped on over the little plain and well into the mountains of the west toward the Salween canyon. Passing a few huts by the roadside, Junia stopped to ask, "Have you seen any soldiers lately?"
"No. Nothing since you passed by here a week ago. Everything's quiet" was the comforting reply. So by dark they had come to that little dell at the foot of the big climb, where both hot and cold water run out night and day from the bowels of the earth. No one was in sight. Dropping wearily on the ground, they stretched out for a few moments of luxurious relaxation, and then up with a spring to go and find firewood before night hid all from sight. Thirty miles they had walked that day and without daring to stop at noon for either food or rest.
"Mary, you just stay here and rest. We'll find the wood and cook the supper," said the ever-kind brethren, so she sat warming her hands gratefully as the red flames shot up, and the dry branches crackled merrily. One of the sweet joys of life is that grateful rest period when the day's labour is over and well done, and one just has to sit around the cosy warmth and chat.
But to-night Mary was uneasy. At each twitter in the wooded heights above them, at each crackle of a branch under some animal foot, she started and looked uneasily at the others. They tried to appear unconcerned, but Caleb said, "Don't you think we had better try to make the river crossing at Da-han tomorrow? I'd feel safer on our own side of the Salween." There was a chorus of acquiescence, only—could Mary make it?
It would be at least fifty miles, and the big climb over the pass
MADE ONLY OF DESERT DUST
was included. Mary was already asleep, wrapped in her blanket by the side of the fire; the comforting food, the pleasant warmth, the weariness had all combined and she was in dreamland for the night. Quietly the men chatted for a while, every now and again uneasily scanning the horizon, but as all seemed normal they were soon asleep.
Next day they did that fifty miles, Mary with them, though how she did it in her condition is nothing short of a miracle.
But on the evening of that day the group rolled up in the sand on their own side of the Salween River and went to sleep comforted. The next morning Mary could not walk; her ankles were swollen and it was obvious that she could never do thirty miles that day. Nothing daunted, the brethren got some poles and made a mountain chair; some took double loads, and those thus left free carried Mary in the chair, and that night they reached—Olives ! Oh the blessedness oihome. Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home.
When Ma-ma heard this story a month later she asked anxiously. "And was Mary ill from that awful experience?
It was enough to kill her—walking that distance !"
"Oh no," they replied. "After a few days' rest she was up and about her work as usual. She carried water and wove the cloth and was quite all right." m
The Communist Stone of Fire IT was already December before Ma-ma and Danny once again arrived home at Olives. Chungking had fallen to the Communists, and it was but a matter of time, in Ma-ma's judgment, before all China fell.
It was customary for the new regime to delay missionaries at the place where the new regime found them, so if Ma-ma had been found at Paoshan, it might have been difficult to get a travel permit to return to Lisuland.
Fearing this, she did not wait for Ma-pa to arrive from Kunming, but hurried home with Danny so that the new Government might find her in her rightful field. Ma-pa had already left Kunming, bringing the newly printed books with him, but how he would get across the Mekong now that the bridge was destroyed was a problem. He was bringing Eva Tseng with him. A graduate now from the Tali hospital, she had chosen to come back to do medical work among the Lisu, rather than accept any of the remunerative positions open to Chinese graduate nurses.
To her dismay, Ma-ma found Mary in bed.
"Ma-ma,"
Mary whispered, "I cannot retain any food.
That is my worst trouble/ "Well," said Ma-ma. "Rest is the best thing.
I will do all I can to help, and when Eva arrives she will doubtless be able to relieve you in other ways."
Christmas was approaching and still Ma-pa had not arrived; nor was there any word of what had happened to him and Eva.
Friday the 23 rd was fixed as the day of assembling, and once more the festival was to be held in Village of the Olives.
Monday of that week a small note was handed in to Ma-ma.
It read
THE COMMUNIST STONE OF
FIRE I37 "Dear Ma-ma,—We are coming down to 'liberate* Olives this week. Do not be afraid.
I will be there in person and I have my men under control. Do not try to run and do not hide your things. You will not be harmed at all, I promise you.
I hope to pass Christmas with you all. The writer is "Red Thomas."
Shortly afterwards Gaius arrived with an imperturbable expression on his face—one he often has when good reason demands keeping counsel and being discreet. He whispered he would appreciate seeing Ma-ma privately, so as soon as possible the opportunity was given him, Lu-seng alone being allowed to remain during their talk.
"Last night when at Lameh village on a trading deal," he said, "I saw Red Thomas and Communist troops there. He says he is coming down here this week, but I noticed he is bringing many Lo-zi-lo-pa (heathen robbers) with him, so I asked the reason, and he replied that as Laird Dwan is wily he needed to be well prepared. He said that Ma-ma was not going to be annoyed and that the Lo-zi-lo-pa were under his control, but I thought you ought to know." Lameh is only a day's journey from Olives.
As this was so important a matter, neither Gaius nor Lu-seng dared to be responsible for counselling Ma-ma, but she did the best thing—asked the Lord's counsel—and after a time on her knees with the open Word of God, she felt definitely that He had given her Mai.
: 17, 18: ".
. my jewels. ...
I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not."
"He led me to return here," Ma-ma said simply to her anxious friends, "And I feel His word to me is that we will be kept.
Except for hiding a few medicines and kerosene, I will do just as Thomas said—make no preparation but prayer."
Evening brought Brother Three, who had come to help prepare for the Christmas festival. He was disappointed that Ma-pa had not arrived, but quite agreed with Ma-ma in her stand. And so they awaited developments.