Alice Mildred Cable () (21 February 1878 – 30 April 1952) was a British Protestant Christian missionary in China, serving with the China Inland Mission. Early life and career Born in Guildford. the daughter of John Cable, a prosperous draper in Guildford, Cable early decided to become a missionary and studied pharmacy and human sciences at London University. She was engaged to a man who had also declared his intention to become a missionary, but he changed his mind and said he would not marry her unless she abandoned her ambition. She broke off the engagement, declined to take her final examination to graduate, and joined the China Inland Mission in 1901, meeting Evangeline (Eva) French who was returning to China following her first home leave. They worked together for the rest of their lives. Cable and French were stationed in Huozhou, Shanxi, and often traveled in the surrounding area. Eva's younger sister, Francesca, joined them in 1910 (although some sources say 1908), and they became known as the "trio." After 20 years in Huozhou, they believed that the mission should be turned over to Chinese leaders and the three applied to work in relatively unknown, largely Muslim western China. Although there were doubts that women should be assigned to this region, their proposal was accepted in 1923. Travels in Central Asia For most of the next 12 years, in the words of Mildred Cable: "From Etzingol to Turpan, from Spring of Wine to Chuguchak, we ... spent long years in following trade-routes, tracing faint caravan tracks, searching out innumerable by-paths and exploring the most hidden oases. ... Five times we traversed the whole length of the desert, and in the process we had become part of its life." A reviewer said of Cable and French's book, The Gobi Desert, that "this may be the best of many good books about Central Asia and the old Silk Road through the deserts of Western China." In June 1923, all three set out for Central Asia from Huozhou. Traveling 1,500 miles (2,414 km) over the next eight months, evangelizing as they went, they reached Zhangye (then referred to as Kanchow). Zhangye was the last city inside of the Great Wall. A Chinese evangelist was working there and, at his request, they set up a Bible school over the winter. When summer came they were on the road again, following the Hexi Corridor