chop-chop teams to help me on a little job.’
The Chinese rocked back on the balls of his fret and nodded. ‘They’re very expensive to outsiders.’
‘Sui-ling will stand character reference for me, Johnny. I don’t know what or where the job will be exactly yet.’ He took out his wallet and peeled off five hundred dollar bills and put them on the table beside Fei’s right hand. ‘But I’ m prepared to put down this non-returnable deposit just for you to keep your top team of; say, half a dozen guys standing by ready at five minutes’ notice over the next couple of days.’
Fe i picked up the notes quickly and folded them away inside the breast pocket of his shirt. He glanced once more at Ketterman then sauntered casually back to the door. ‘If Su i -ling says it’s okay—it’s okay.’ He shrugged his elegant shoulders once and swaggered out through the door to join the scrofulous crowd at the fan tan table again.
Ketterman picked up the brandy bottle and slowly filled his own glass. He lifted it towards Tan Sui-ling and winked. ‘Sino - American co-operation—lips and teeth!’ He bared his gums in an exaggerated grimace and tapped his teeth then his top lip with his forefinger to emphasise their cl ose proximity. Then he drank the brandy straight down and, still grinning broadly walked out of the door.
Folio number four
Mongolia in its eastern half is mainly plain, circled about with mountains. But its western half is mainly mountains interspersed only intermittently with flatlands. By November, we had left the eastern plains and entered this western mountainous region. By then my fractured legs had mended sufficiently for m e to si t painfully astride a walking horse, and we had begun travelling by day and resting by night. Soon we reached the foothills of the mighty Altai range that provide, in the north-west corner of the country, both a natural barrier and the official border with the Soviet Union. In this region the shallow bowls of the mount a in- ringed flatlands are much smaller and the rims of the interve ni ng heights twist and interlock like irregular honeycombs. Here, while the herds grazed on the plains, we found shelter from the winds in narrow dales where patches of green, pleasant woodland stretch clown out of the dense mountain forests above. We rested in this region for the winter and gradually I recovered and grew strong again. It was there that I learned to live the simple life of old Tsereng and his family, and began helping with the daily domestic tasks.
It was there too that I began later to take my turn with the herds, holding a long rifle astride a horse through the night, guarding the livestock against the marauding bands of wolves that came down swiftly and silently out of the dark mountain forests. I felt at peace in that remote land. It was not very long before I decided that I wanted no more in life than to repay through such service the debt of gratitude to old Tsereng for delivering me from the holocaust of the Trident. After the constant turmoil an4 suspicion in China, the harsh, simple life was paradise.
Tser e ng’s wife and daughter spoke no Chinese and I needed only a very few words to assist them in the simple tasks of sus tai ning our lives through the bitter winter. But nevertheless, a warm unspoken sympathy grew up among us. His daughter, plump, heavy- h ipped and approaching middle-age, had once lived in the capital, Ulan Bator. But she had lost her husband and children in a terrible fire that gutted the worke r’s apartment block where they lived, so she had returned sadly to her family on the grasslands. A silent, inward-looking woman, she carried the tragedy with her always in her eyes. Sometimes at night I caught her unawares, staring at mc over the flickering flames of the hearth, and slowly I came to realise, without he r saying, that we shared an instinctive fellowship—because I t oo had escaped death by fire.
Nevertheless I was still astonished
The Chinese rocked back on the balls of his fret and nodded. ‘They’re very expensive to outsiders.’
‘Sui-ling will stand character reference for me, Johnny. I don’t know what or where the job will be exactly yet.’ He took out his wallet and peeled off five hundred dollar bills and put them on the table beside Fei’s right hand. ‘But I’ m prepared to put down this non-returnable deposit just for you to keep your top team of; say, half a dozen guys standing by ready at five minutes’ notice over the next couple of days.’
Fe i picked up the notes quickly and folded them away inside the breast pocket of his shirt. He glanced once more at Ketterman then sauntered casually back to the door. ‘If Su i -ling says it’s okay—it’s okay.’ He shrugged his elegant shoulders once and swaggered out through the door to join the scrofulous crowd at the fan tan table again.
Ketterman picked up the brandy bottle and slowly filled his own glass. He lifted it towards Tan Sui-ling and winked. ‘Sino - American co-operation—lips and teeth!’ He bared his gums in an exaggerated grimace and tapped his teeth then his top lip with his forefinger to emphasise their cl ose proximity. Then he drank the brandy straight down and, still grinning broadly walked out of the door.
Folio number four
Mongolia in its eastern half is mainly plain, circled about with mountains. But its western half is mainly mountains interspersed only intermittently with flatlands. By November, we had left the eastern plains and entered this western mountainous region. By then my fractured legs had mended sufficiently for m e to si t painfully astride a walking horse, and we had begun travelling by day and resting by night. Soon we reached the foothills of the mighty Altai range that provide, in the north-west corner of the country, both a natural barrier and the official border with the Soviet Union. In this region the shallow bowls of the mount a in- ringed flatlands are much smaller and the rims of the interve ni ng heights twist and interlock like irregular honeycombs. Here, while the herds grazed on the plains, we found shelter from the winds in narrow dales where patches of green, pleasant woodland stretch clown out of the dense mountain forests above. We rested in this region for the winter and gradually I recovered and grew strong again. It was there that I learned to live the simple life of old Tsereng and his family, and began helping with the daily domestic tasks.
It was there too that I began later to take my turn with the herds, holding a long rifle astride a horse through the night, guarding the livestock against the marauding bands of wolves that came down swiftly and silently out of the dark mountain forests. I felt at peace in that remote land. It was not very long before I decided that I wanted no more in life than to repay through such service the debt of gratitude to old Tsereng for delivering me from the holocaust of the Trident. After the constant turmoil an4 suspicion in China, the harsh, simple life was paradise.
Tser e ng’s wife and daughter spoke no Chinese and I needed only a very few words to assist them in the simple tasks of sus tai ning our lives through the bitter winter. But nevertheless, a warm unspoken sympathy grew up among us. His daughter, plump, heavy- h ipped and approaching middle-age, had once lived in the capital, Ulan Bator. But she had lost her husband and children in a terrible fire that gutted the worke r’s apartment block where they lived, so she had returned sadly to her family on the grasslands. A silent, inward-looking woman, she carried the tragedy with her always in her eyes. Sometimes at night I caught her unawares, staring at mc over the flickering flames of the hearth, and slowly I came to realise, without he r saying, that we shared an instinctive fellowship—because I t oo had escaped death by fire.
Nevertheless I was still astonished
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