“They aren’t staying in this village, are they?” Griffin scanned the surrounding hotels warily.
“Nope,” Rinchen reassured him. “We caught a break. They’re at a place on the northeast shore.”
The scrivener checked his watch. “Nearly three o’clock. Even though we took the early bus from Lijiang, it may not prove to be early enough.”
“Hurry!” Rou was shouting and waving at them from the stern of a pig-trough boat. Its owner was untying the mooring line.
The other three ran to catch up and climb aboard. Since the boat was long and narrow, only one person could fit on each bench. The boatman took the prow. Rou sat on the bench after him, followed by Cassie, Griffin, and Rinchen.
In a few moments, they were en route to the cableway across the lake.
Rou dug into her backpack and produced a set of binoculars. “I thought we would need these.” She immediately began scanning the opposite shore.
Cassie turned to face Griffin. “Is it my imagination or did she get amazingly fluent in English since we’ve been gone?”
The scrivener regarded their guide with a baffled air. “Her language skills do seem to have improved immensely.”
The pythia called out, “Rou, your English is really good now.”
The girl beamed at Cassie. “Rinchen said I have no need to be embarrassed. He told me my English is perfect.”
“Did he indeed?” Griffin swiveled his head toward the Arkana agent.
Rinchen blushed. “Well, it is,” he protested awkwardly. “She talks better than some American-born Asians I know.”
Griffin shifted forward to whisper in Cassie’s ear. “Apparently, she only needed the proper encouragement to come out of her shell.”
“Such as the brave young Arkana agent sent to protect her?” the pythia murmured archly.
The two lapsed into amused silence.
“Aiya!” Rou gasped.
“What!” the other three demanded at once.
She put down the binoculars. “Two men climbed into a boat across the lake. One is wearing a cowboy hat.”
“That’s not so unusual around here,” Rinchen countered.
“He is also wearing a denim jacket and a piece of string tied around his neck.”
“You mean a bolo tie?” Cassie asked tensely.
“Perhaps that is what you call it. See for yourself.” The girl pointed across the broad expanse of water toward a speck of a boat just leaving the dock.
Cassie raised the field glasses, scanning the distance until she brought the object into focus. “Rats! It’s Daniel and his evil sidekick.”
“Is anyone else with them?” Griffin asked.
“Just the two of them and the boatman.”
“We must go faster,” Rou muttered. She crept toward the prow to have a discussion in the local dialect with the man rowing their boat. It went on for several minutes.
Cassie watched the boatman’s expression. He seemed mildly surprised and made protests, but eventually gave a nod of grudging consent.
Rou moved back toward the others. “Rinchen, you row too.”
The agent carefully balanced his weight as he stepped over Griffin and Cassie to change seats with Rou. The boatman handed him an oar. It took a few minutes for the two men to synchronize their movements, but soon their craft began to gain speed.
“Too bad there’s not a second set of oars,” Griffin remarked. “I could have lent a hand as well.”
“I promised the owner we would pay double to get across the lake fast,” Rou informed them. “At first, he said we are on vacation and should relax. Then I told him we are meeting friends at the Goddess Cave and must not be late.”
Griffin’s startled expression mirrored Cassie’s own surprise at Rou’s resourcefulness. The pythia said, “You really do think fast on your feet. Your grandfather was right.”
The girl appeared not to have heard her. She’d reclaimed the binoculars and was keeping tabs on their enemies. After a few moments, she concluded, “I do not think they have seen us. They would need spy glasses for that.”
The combined rowing power of the boatman and Rinchen allowed them to pull ahead of the other skiff. As a result, they arrived in Nisai Village first. The minute the boat touched the dock, they all clambered off while Rou handed the owner a wad of bills. They didn’t wait to receive his thanks as they dashed off toward the cableway.
All the way up the mountain, they uneasily charted their enemies’ progress across the water. When they disembarked at the Buddhist temple, Rou used her binoculars to scan the area below.
“They are on the chair lift now,” she reported.
“We won’t have enough time!” Griffin exclaimed in dismay.
“Guys, we have to try anyway. If they see that hole in the wall, we’re done for.” Cassie made a dash up the stairs to the cave entrance with the others following.
***
Daniel trudged up the stone stairway leading to Gemu Goddess Cave.
Ahead of him, Leroy Hunt was voicing a steady stream of complaints. “‘Kingdom of Women,’ my ass! There ain’t no truth in advertisin’. Where’s all the loose females who live in these parts? That’s what I’d like to know. Ever since I got here, I been waitin’ for a proposition to do the horizontal bop with somebody of the feminine persuasion. And I’m still waitin’!” He paused to curse under his breath and kick a rock out of his path. “And here’s another thing. It sure would be nice for a change to go on a junket that don’t wreck my boots.”
“Shhh!” Daniel cautioned.
“Look around, son. Ain’t nobody hereabouts for miles.”
The scion paused to listen. “I don’t like this. I can’t help feeling that someone is watching us. Perhaps we should have brought Brother Yu along with us to the cave.”
The cowboy swung around on the stairs to stare down at him. “Brother Yu drove us here. He’s got his orders to sit tight at the hotel and watch out for them three suspicious characters in case they’re followin’ us. That’s as much as he needs to know about this salvage operation. The less folks that know, the less I’ll have to kill later.”
Daniel solemnly regarded his companion. “I wish I could believe you were joking.”
The cowboy
