CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IIIIN DISGUISE“Well, what do you think of it, Ah Lo?”“If you have quite made up your mind, young master, I will go with you,” Ah Lo said quietly; “if I return with you the master will not say much, and certainly if you do not return I shall not.”“Thank you, Ah Lo! Now, let us settle at once how we shall go, for every hour is of importance. Which do you think would be best, to go as villagers or as Boxers?”“I think as villagers, master. We can go from village to village with the tale that we have been coolies working here, and that now there is no trade and no employment we are going to visit our family, who live near Chafui. We can carry with us clothes such as the Boxers wear, either red or yellow, so that when we get to Chafui we can put them on if we like. Of course we shall take swords and long knives.”“I have the two revolvers my uncle gave me when I came away,” Rex said; “we can each carry one of them. As we shall say that we come from Tientsin, the fact that we have revolvers would excite no suspicion. If we are questioned we could easily say that we took them secretly from our employerʼs house when we came away from here. I have got a good stock of cartridges. Of course many of the Boxers are armed with good rifles, but would a villager be carrying them?”“No, but a coolie from here might do so. Numbers of theBoxers have been killed near Tientsin, and there would be nothing improbable in the statement that as we left the town we had picked up two rifles. A good many rifles are still lying in the suburbs where the fighting went on; if you go out there this morning you might find a couple, for the streets are quite deserted, and then you might put them in a doorway where we could find them as we went along. You would also have to find some packets of cartridges. When shall we start, master?”“If we can be ready to start to–night all the better.”“There can be no difficulty about that. I know many native shops where I can get the clothes, and there are plenty of dead Boxers from whom I could take red suits. You could not get your head shaved here, but I will carry a razor and soap with me, and in the morning, first thing, will shave your head. I can buy a pigtail in the town, as many people who have not much hair use false pigtails, and I have no doubt that plenty of them are to be found in the empty shops in the native town.”“Shall we require to take any food with us?”“We can take enough rice for our journey, master, and we can get tea anywhere; but you will have to do without anything else.”“That makes no difference at all; I can do very well on rice, and I can take some of the condiments we use with it. Even if we are searched, these will be as natural as the rice.”“Is there anything else that you can think of, master?”“No, I cannot think of anything else at present, but I shall see you again later, and can then fix on the hour for starting.”During the time when the danger was at its greatest the house had never been so silent, or the face of Mr. Bateman so grave. His wife was absolutely prostrated. This added tothe resolution the lad had taken. At whatever risk he might incur, his aunt and cousins must be rescued if they were alive when he reached Chafui, and it were within the limits of possibility to do so. He did not think that the journey in itself really involved any risk, and should he find that all had been massacred he had but to return. He knew how precious his life was in the eyes of his parents, and he resolved to take every means possible to avoid risk. Even if the news he brought back were of the worst, it would be better for his mother than the terrible anxiety that she was now suffering as to the fate of his aunt and cousins.In the course of the day he wrote a letter to his father, which ran as follows:—“My Dear Father,“When you receive this I shall be miles away. As you know, as far as talking goes, I can pass anywhere as a native; and as I shall be thoroughly disguised, I feel sure that with Ah Lo I could go right through China without being suspected. Seeing how terribly anxious my mother and you are about the safety of Aunt and the girls, I have made up my mind to go to Chafui to gather news of them. I am sure that it would be better for Mother to know even the worst than to suffer this terrible anxiety. I do not think I shall run any risk whatever.“I must tell you that though Ah Lo is going with me it is very much against his will, because he thought that you would blame him if things went wrong, and it was only when I told him that if he did not go with me I should go alone that he consented to accompany me. It was not that he thought of the danger, but that he feared you would be displeased with him for undertaking this journey without your permission. I donʼt think that I should have carriedout the threat. Although I know the language well enough I do not know anything of the customs and the religion, and I felt that it would really be a hazardous enterprise if Ah Lo did not go with me. Now, however, that at last he has consented to accompany me, I have no fear whatever.“I should have asked your permission to undertake this expedition, but I was afraid that you would refuse, and I felt so sure of being able to accomplish my purpose without difficulty that I decided to go without telling you of my intention. You see, Father, it is evident that after what is going on every white man in China will be in peril for a long time to come, and as it is settled that I am going to stay here for at any rate a good many years, I shall have to run risks, and those risks will be greater than any I am likely to meet with now that I am going in disguise. I am quite prepared for emergencies, so I hope that you will not be angry, though I know you will be anxious until I return.“Ah Loʼs native village is only a few miles from Chafui, and his story that, as there was no longer work to be done in Tientsin, he was going for a time to see his friends is plausible. Indeed, we shall probably stay there among his friends and learn all that has taken place in the town, so that everything will be easy sailing. You must not expect me back for about a month. It will take us ten days to walk to Chafui, ten days to stay at Ah Loʼs village and get full information, and ten to return. That is as near as I can tell at present. There may be unexpected delays, but anyhow we shall not be back in less than a month. Should I find that I am likely to be much longer away, I shall, if possible, send one of Ah Loʼs people down with a message to you.“Of course, Father, you can, if you think best, tell Mother where I have gone, and why, or lead her to believe that I have gone down to the coast to make arrangements with shipsthat have arrived with goods for you, or to act as an interpreter to the troops as they come up.“I believe that if I had never gone to England I should not have thought of carrying out such a plan as this, but one gets to think for oneʼs self when one is at school. I feel sure that there was scarcely a fellow of my age there who, if he had the advantages in the way of speaking languages that I have, would not willingly have undertaken the job. Certainly I feel that the amount of risk to be run is very small compared with the importance of relieving Motherʼs mind and yours, and, of course, though it is some years since I have seen my aunt and cousins, I, too, am very anxious.”That evening he felt even more than before that the proposed expedition was excusable, for his father said: “I am terribly anxious, Rex. Your mother has been delirious all the afternoon, and the doctors are both feeling very anxious about her mind. You see, we have all gone through the strain of the last two months, and this blow coming on the top of it has had a very much greater effect than it would have had in ordinary circumstances. They think that if she had known for certain that her sister and the girls had been killed, the shock would have had less disastrous effects than this terrible uncertainty. It may be weeks, it may even be months, before the truth can be known and her mind relieved of the strain. They fear that when the present paroxysms have passed away she may settle down into a state of fixed melancholia, and if bad news came then it might simply deepen this melancholia, which would in that case become permanent.”“It is indeed terrible, Father, but I hope that the doctorsʼ view is a mistaken one.”Mr. Bateman shook his head and passed his handkerchiefacross his eyes, and if up to that time Rex had had any doubt that he was going to act wisely, he felt now that, even apart from his own anxiety about his aunt and cousins, he was fully justified by his motherʼs state in carrying out his plan.At eleven oʼclock that night he crept out of the house. He had dyed his skin with a mixture which Ah Lo had brought him, dressed himself in the native clothes, and put the sword, knife, and pistol in his belt. In a bundle he had three boxes of ammunition and the Boxer clothes, together with a pair of light boots to put on when there were no villages near, in case the Chinese shoes should gall his feet. Ah Lo was at the gate of the courtyard. He wore no disguise, but had put on coarse coolie clothes instead of those he wore as a trusted servant in the house.“Have you got everything, Ah Lo?”“Everything; ten pounds of rice, the box of clothes, the ammunition for the pistols, another bottle of the dye for your skin, some black dye for your eyebrows and eyelashes, and a little brown for the corners of your eyes. I have changed the piece of gold you gave me for dollars in cash, and I have got a pigtail and the razor and soap.”“I have bought a small compass,” Rex said. “It may be useful to us going across the country, for I know that the roads are mostly tracks between the villages and cross each other in all directions.”On leaving the premises they picked up Rexʼs rifle and bag of ammunition, and the rifle that Ah Lo had bought during the day and had hidden away outside the settlement. Then they made a detour to avoid the native town, and, when once fairly beyond this, struck out across the fields. They made a long detour to avoid the encampment of Chinese soldiers, and then struck into a steady walk.When a few miles from the town they saw fires burning, and made another detour to avoid these, knowing that they marked the position of parties of Boxers. They walked steadily all night, and in the morning reached a village, having made, as they calculated, at least thirty miles. Few people were about. Burnt cottages showed that the Boxers had passed that way and, as usual, had looted and destroyed everything they could lay hands on. Indeed, not being a regularly–organized body, they were forced to depend upon what they could take for subsistence, and were the scourge of the districts through which they passed.“So you are going to Chafui!” said an old man whom they had asked if there were any Boxers in the neighbourhood. “You will have to be very careful. Those who have been attacking Tientsin are still in that neighbourhood, but you may come across other parties marching down to join them. They are terrible people. If anyone refuses to give them all that they ask for, they will kill everyone in the house and burn it afterwards. They make most of the young men go with them to fight the whites in Tientsin. It is a terrible time. I can remember the Taiping rebellion, and this seems to me to be quite as bad. They all say that the Empress is in their favour, but I cannot believe it. They tell terrible tales about the missionaries; but I lived for some time at Chafui, and it seemed to me that they were good and peaceful people, and although I stay so near Tientsin I have not till of late heard a word against the merchants there. They have indeed done much good for the town; they pay those who work for them well and do no harm to anyone. A son of mine worked for them for ten years, and came back with enough money to live comfortably all his life. He was a good son, and helped me as a son should do, but the Boxers killed him a month ago because he ventured to say that sofar from doing harm the foreigners enriched the town and brought much trade into it.”“I shall take care to keep my mouth shut when I get home,” Ah Lo said. “I too have worked for them and found them good masters and just people, but after what you have told me I shall take care not to say a word in their favour.”“You will be wise not to do so. And now you say you wish to sleep, as you have walked all night. You can lie down in the room upstairs; no one will disturb you. We used to be glad to question strangers who came along, for further news, but now our own troubles are quite as much as we can think of. I fear that this will continue until the last of the sea–pirates is killed; after that who can say what will happen!”After cooking the rice they had bought, and eating a meal, they went upstairs and slept for many hours. As soon as night fell they continued their journey, and on the seventh morning after starting they arrived within a few miles of Chafui. They had met with no adventures on the way. Several times they went into the fields and hid among growing grain to avoid a party of the enemy, and once, just as they had arrived in a village, a band of Boxers came in, but they managed to slip out of the house unobserved and spent the night in the fields.They had agreed that they would not enter Chafui until they had first paid a visit to Ah Loʼs native village, where they would be able to learn the state of things in the town. They could then decide whether it would be best to put on their Boxer dresses or not. They had scarcely entered the village when Ah Lo was recognized. As one of his old friends shouted his name and a welcome, people ran out from all the houses to greet them, and by the time he reached his fatherʼs door he was surrounded by a crowd of friends and neighbours,and Rex understood for the first time how very close was the family bond in China.It was five years since Ah Lo had been there, and he was greeted as a wanderer returning to his parents, and bringing, no doubt, some of the proceeds of his labours. Indeed, the villagers had already benefited, for while he was in England he regularly forwarded a portion of his wages to his parents. Thus he bore a good name. He had never brought any trouble upon the village; he had never been called upon to pay a fine for his misdeeds; and his father and mother were considered fortunate people in having such a son. They too had come to the door, attracted by the loud talking outside, and their delight at his return was touching.When at last they had entered the house and closed the door the old man said: “We have been uneasy about you. The message telling us of your return, and your welcome present, gave us at first great joy; but when, two days later, the disturbances began we trembled for your safety, and have offered up many prayers to Buddha to preserve you for us. But I see that things have gone wrong with you. Last time you came you were well clad, and all said truly, ‘Ah Lo is making his fortuneʼ; but now your clothes are those of a common man.”“I have so clad myself, Father, in order to escape plunder on my way with my friend here. He too belongs to the white merchant for whom I have worked so long. Like myself he wanted to escape from the city where there was such fierce fighting, and as trade was at a stand–still we had no difficulty in getting away.”“He is welcome for your sake,” the old man said. “If he is your friend, assuredly he is our friend also, and he shall share with us all we have, which, indeed, we owe chiefly to you. And have you come to stay with us for good, Ah Lo?”“No, Father, I have come to gather news, and that partly on business; so my pay is still going on. As you know, the missionary at Chafui is the brother of my patron—at least his wife is sister of my patronʼs wife. News has reached him that there were bad doings at Chafui, and consequently he and his wife are greatly disturbed; so I said that I would come here and learn the truth of the reports that we had heard.”“It is true,” his father said. “The Boxers came to Chafui and stirred up the people of the town, and they ran together and attacked the praying–house and the people who have taken to the strange religion. The missionary fought hard when they attacked his house, but what could he and a handful of his followers do against many hundreds? The soldiers did not move to help him, and the house was taken and he was killed. The women of the family were carried to the governorʼs yamen. It was reported that his wife has died from grief and terror, but I cannot say whether that is true; of her daughters I have not heard.”This confirmation of his worst fears was a terrible blow to Rex, who with difficulty restrained himself from bursting into tears.“That is bad news indeed,” Ah Lo said gravely. “It will be a heavy blow to my patron and his wife, and I myself am sorely grieved, as is also Shen Yo, my companion; for we have both seen the lady and her children when they have been staying at our patronʼs house. They were good people and kindly, and assuredly never did anyone any harm.”“They were well spoken of,” Ah Loʼs father said: “no one had any harm to say of them. It was not until the Boxers stirred up the rabble of the town against these Christians that there was any disturbance here. It was always said that the governor was unfavourable to the Christians, but as they gave no cause of complaint things have always gone on quietlyenough, as the orders from Pekin always have been that they should not be molested. But for some weeks past we have heard reports that the Empress had turned her face against them, and that her counsellors were of opinion that these foreign people should be destroyed or driven from the country. We even heard that men were being drilled in Pekin; but people in general did not think much of these things until the Boxers grew numerous and began to create disturbances. Many of us were grieved, for the white people had shown much kindness and had given good medicines to people who were ill, and in other ways had done much good. But, of course, when the Empress and her counsellors had given the word to kill, no one would venture to withstand the Boxers and the rabble of the town. The governor knew the will of those in high places, and when word was sent to him of what was being done, he remained in his yamen and kept the soldiers quiet, so that no one dared to lift a finger to aid the whites. Many tales were told of their ill doings; how they stole little children and sacrificed them to their gods; but for myself I did not believe these things. We have always heard from you that the whites were good people, that they treated all natives well, and assuredly if you had heard of such doings as this you would not have remained with them. Therefore we did not believe these tales to their disadvantage, but we should only have thrown away our lives if we had ventured to express our feelings. Even in the village most people believed the tales, and said it was good that the foreign devils should be destroyed, so now that you have come back you must not speak in favour of these people or you will assuredly lose your life.”“I shall hold my tongue, Father. Who am I that I should disobey the orders of the Empress? Nevertheless, I tell you that these white people are good. Have I not lived amongthem for nearly four years? They are good people. Among them no one is ill–treated, or beaten, or put to death. None carry weapons; everyone respects the others. Although I was a stranger and a foreigner, no one molested me; I went and came as I chose. As to their offering sacrifices and killing children, the thing is absurd. They are anxious to do good to foreigners, and subscribe great sums to send their priests abroad that they may teach other people their religion. All these stories that are told about them are lies, and they have been told for the purpose of rousing ill–feeling against them. I am grieved that this trouble has come about, but assuredly it is no business of mine, except in so far as it concerns the friends of my patron. The ladies have stayed at his house, and they have spoken kindly to me and have given me money. I would do much for them for their own sake, as well as for that of my patron, who, as I have always told you, is the best man I have ever met. But I see that I can do nothing, and I can only grieve over the misfortunes that have befallen him. Of course I shall say nothing here as to my feelings, and shall even join in the cry against the foreigners. I have no wish to throw away my life and to bring disgrace and death upon you and my mother.”“That is right, Ah Lo. It would assuredly bring terrible misfortune upon you were you to say a word in favour of the Christians. There are many who share your feelings, but they dare not open their lips, and you too must hide your real sentiments. The order has come that the Christians must be destroyed, and that order must be obeyed. Most of the young men of the village have joined the Boxers, fearing that unless they did so evil would befall them. Now tell me something about the country where you have been living, and about these strange people, who are not content to live in their own island, but come here to turn the minds of thepeople against their god and to bring trouble on the land. Are there many of them?”“Very many; not so many as there are in China, but they are brave soldiers, and have arms altogether superior to ours. That, together with the way in which they are trained, gives them a great advantage over us. But though they can fight well, they do not wish to fight. They are great traders, and it is only when their trade is interfered with, or their people ill–treated, that they go to war. They have no enmity against people of other religions, and all the time that I was in England no one ever tried to turn me from my faith. No one said a word against Buddha, or interfered with me in any way. They think that their religion is right, just as we believe in ours, and they try to convert others, just as the Buddhists came to China and converted large numbers of our people. They think that they are doing good, and spend much money in trying to do so. It is strange to me that they cannot leave things alone, but it is their way, and certainly I have no ill–will towards them on that account. When my mother has got our meal ready, and we have eaten, I will tell you much about them and of the life that I led there; but the tale is so long that I dare not begin it fasting.”For two or three hours Ah Lo talked with his parents, and then went out into the village with Rex and chatted with the villagers. He learned a good deal as to the state of the town, and arranged to buy some vegetables, saying that he wanted to go in and see for himself what had taken place, and that he did not like going in empty–handed, as he might be ill–treated by the Boxers were he walking about idly.The great topic of conversation, however, was with regard to the fighting at Tientsin. Few particulars of this had been heard, and the villagers were astonished when they heard that the white devils had resisted all attacks upon them and hadrepulsed the Boxers with great slaughter, although the latter were no doubt much more numerous and had succeeded in destroying the greater portion of the town. Ah Lo, however, told his friends that the Boxers were still excited, and would no doubt renew their attacks with greater success, although some of the sailors from the ships were coming up to aid the whites.“I was glad to get away,” he continued, “for there was always shooting going on, and I feared that if the Boxers came in they would kill those who were in the employment of the whites. Most of these men managed to escape before I did, but I took the opportunity of the lull in fighting to escape at night.”It was not Until the old people had retired for the night that Ah Lo and Rex sat down to talk with each other. It had been a long and painful day for the lad; he had been compelled to appear at his ease, to answer innumerable questions, and to support Ah Lo in his various statements. But when at last he found himself alone with his faithful servant he exclaimed; “Thank God, Ah Lo, we can now talk and decide what is to be done! I feel almost mad at the news. It is bad enough to know that my aunt has died, but to think of my cousin in the hands of these fiends is enough to drive me out of my mind. Of course we must try to rescue them. How it is to be accomplished I have not the faintest idea at present, but I am quite resolved that if it is in any way possible it must be done.”“I am ready to do what I can, master, but if they are in the governorʼs yamen I do not see how we can manage to release them.”“No, nor do I; but there must be some way. There is always some way, Ah Lo, if one can but hit on it. I suppose the governorʼs yamen will be guarded by soldiers?”“It is certain to be,” Ah Lo said. “It would be in ordinary times, but now the watch is probably more strict than ever, because, although the governor has sided with the Boxers, it is probable that he is still afraid that they may attack him.”“Well, to–morrow we must have a good look at the place. It is certain that there is no time to be lost, for these two poor girls may at any moment be murdered. We may take it as certain that there is no possibility of releasing them by force. The people here are evidently so completely cowed by the Boxers that it would be hopeless to get any of them to aid us in that way. We can do nothing until we see the place. I suppose you know it?”“Yes, there is a large courtyard in front of it, with a guard–house at the gate, and a wall runs across the courtyard just about the middle of the house. In the front part are the public offices, in the back the governorʼs private apartments. Behind the building there is a large garden.”“And it is probable that the prisoners are kept at the back of the house?”“It may be so, master, but one cannot say. It is possible that the public may be permitted to stare at them, and in that case they might be in the front part of the house.”“That doesnʼt matter much. When we are in the town to–morrow we will go into the courtyard if the gates are open and the public are admitted; if not, we must try some other means to find them. Now, from what you say, I should think that it is by the garden that we must effect an entrance. Though there may be sentries in front of the house, it is hardly likely that any will be placed in the garden. But if sentries are there we ought to have no difficulty in settling them. Once into the garden, we ought easily to effect an entrance by a door or a window. Then, of course, we shouldhave to be guided by circumstances, for there will doubtless be a number of servants sleeping in the passages, and possibly some soldiers. You are going to help me, arenʼt you, Ah Lo?”“Certainly, master; I have come here to do so. My life is of little consequence to me. If it is my fate to die now I must die. Tell me what you want done and I will do it.”“Thank you, Ah Lo! I knew that I could rely upon you. If I could manage it by myself I would do so, but certainly I shall require assistance. We have to consider not only how to get the girls out, but also how we are to escape pursuit. Of course we shall need disguises, for there is sure to be a hot search, and the whole country will be scoured.”“Well, master, we may as well sleep now. We can talk matters over when we go to the town in the morning. A couple of great baskets of vegetables will be ready for us in the morning, and we shall have plenty of time to talk over our plans as we go along.”CHAPTER IVA RESCUEAn hour after dawn they started. Early as it was the vegetables had been cut and packed in three large baskets, and after paying for them they put the straps of the baskets across their foreheads and started. The loads were fairly heavy and although Ah Lo carried his without difficulty, Rex found the strap press very heavily on his forehead.“I was thinking it over in the night, master,” Ah Lo said, when they had gone a short distance.“Donʼt call me master, Ah Lo; you know that we agreed that you should always call me Shen Yo.”“I will try to do so. Well, I have been thinking it over, and I consider that if we succeed in getting the ladies away, we should at first go north. The search will be made for us chiefly on the roads to Tientsin and Pekin. The distance is about the same to both towns. They will scarcely suspect that we have gone north, and if we travel all night, hide in a rice–field during the day, and then again travel all night, we should be beyond the reach of searchers, and could then travel round to Pekin, which would, I think, be safer than Tientsin, where the Boxers will always be in numbers. Of course we must have disguises for the ladies. Their best plan would be to dress as boys. Chinese women do not travel about, and their doing so would at once give rise to suspicion. We must, of course, get some stain to give them theproper native colour. When we have turned our faces towards Pekin we must state that you and I are going to enlist in the Chinese army, that we have friends in Pekin, and that the boys are going with us to get any work they can. We can account for our guns by saying that we have obtained them from some of the Boxers who had brought them from Tientsin.”“Yes, we must stick to them if we can,” Rex agreed. “As they are magazine rifles we ought to be a match for any twenty of these villagers or a dozen Boxers; and at any rate, if the worst came to the worst, we could be killed fighting and not be put to death by slow torture.“I have been thinking too,” Rex added, “that the best thing to do will be to set the house on fire. If we take in with us a large can of spirit, sprinkle it over everything in one of the rooms, and then spill a lot in the passage and set it all alight, the sudden alarm will create such a tremendous confusion and panic that we may be able to seize the girls and carry them off without being noticed.”“That would be a very good plan,” Ah Lo agreed. “We shall have to carry a heavy sledge–hammer with us to break in the door of their prison, for they are sure to be locked up. A sentry will probably be stationed at their door, and of course we must stab him. If we set fire to the house, as you propose, we had better carry thick clothes with us to throw round them, as, in order to carry them off, we may have to run through the flames. The wrappings will protect them, and besides people wonʼt notice what we are carrying and will think that we are rescuing valuables from the flames. It will be well also, if possible, to seize porcelain jars or other valuables. I can carry the elder girl; and you can take the younger on one shoulder, and carry a jar or some other valuable on the other. We had better have cloaks and broadhats, like those of the soldiers. There would be no fear, in the confusion, of anyone noticing our faces.“I really think, Shen Yo, that we may be able to succeed. It did not seem possible at first, but I think now that with the aid of fire we may be successful.”“I certainly donʼt see why we shouldnʼt,” Rex said. “In such wild confusion as there would be, no one would notice anyone else. The great thing is to be quite sure where the girls are kept, and that we must find out to–day if possible. We will get rid of our vegetables as soon as we can, and then wander about with the empty baskets on our shoulders. We shall then see if people go in and out of the yamen. It is most likely that they will. Many will have petitions to make and some complaints to lay before the governor. Some, perhaps, will only go in to stare about. Possibly a little cash may induce one of the soldiers to point out the door of the room where the girls are confined, and that will be all that we shall want. When we have found that out we shall have to buy two suits of clothes for the girls, two cloaks and hats like those worn by the military, long lengths of rope for climbing the wall and getting down, a hook of some sort for catching the top of the wall, a sledge–hammer, a chisel for opening a door or a window, and a bottle holding a couple of gallons of spirit. Can you think of anything else?”“We must get some provisions and leave them at the bottom of the wall before we climb up, for we must not go anywhere to buy food for the first day or two after we start.”“Yes, that will certainly be a good plan.”When they approached Chafui they overtook some other peasants also carrying in vegetables, and, joining them, they entered the town together. Numbers of Boxers in their red jackets were in the streets, and a good many of the regular soldiers. The townspeople were moving about; some werelaughing and chatting with the soldiers, others moved quietly about, evidently feeling by no means sure that the Boxers would not, before they left the town, plunder the houses.Rex and Ah Lo were not long in disposing of the contents of their baskets, and they moved nearer and nearer to the yamen as they did so, getting rid of a large number of their goods within a short distance of the gate. They sat down for a while near the gate of the yamen and watched the people go in and out of the courtyard. Then, approaching the gate, they laid their blankets down a short distance from the soldiers standing at the gate, and entered. No questions were asked, and, crossing the courtyard, they entered the house. They saw two soldiers standing at a door and went up to them.“What do you want?” one of them asked.“Can we see the little white devils? We have come a long way to have a look at them.” And he slipped a few coins into the manʼs hands.“No, you canʼt see them,” the man said; “the orders of the governor are strict. They wonʼt be here much longer; the governor expects a message from the viceroy to–morrow, and then we shall put an end to them. It might just as well have been done at first. If it had, we should have been saved the trouble of keeping sentry over them for the past week.”This was serious news, but they had seen all they required. There was a door between the private apartment and the public rooms. This was closed, and the room occupied by the prisoners was next to it. Having ascertained this important fact, Rex and his follower left the house, took up their baskets, and walked off.“I think that is as well as we could expect,” Rex said. “We may take it for certain that no sentries will be placedin the private part of the house; so that if we enter on that side we can make our preparations and light our fire without fear of being disturbed. Now we had better take a turn round the place behind, to choose the spot where we will climb over, and see if any sentries are placed on that side.”The wall was about fourteen feet high, and there was a door at the back. All was quiet, and there was a piece of waste ground behind the garden. They examined the door carefully.“I think, Ah Lo,” said Rex, “it will be better to cut round this lock, if we cannot force it, instead of climbing over the wall. That would take us time; while if the door could be opened at once we should run straight down the garden, close the door behind us, and make off without a momentʼs delay.”“It would certainly be much better,” Ah Lo agreed. “We should have plenty of time to cut through the door after it gets dark. If we decide to do that we shall have to buy a saw and a tool for cutting a hole through which to thrust it. It would certainly be a relief to get rid of the ropes. We may as well get the other things at once, and then we can sit down in some quiet place, eat our food, and talk matters over.”When Ah Lo had bought all the various things they required, they sat down with their backs against a wall. All their purchases were stowed in the bottom of one of their baskets, the other being put into it so that no one might see what they were carrying.“Of course,” said Rex when they were seated, “it wonʼt be an easy job. In the first place, we have to make an entrance; I donʼt think that there will be much difficulty about that. Then, you see, we shall have to light a fire in two rooms, one on each side, and as the flames rush out of thedoors, we must open the door of communication. Probably it is fastened with a bar. There must be a sufficient blaze to cause a panic among the sentries. For a moment there will, no doubt, be a tremendous uproar, and anyone in the passage or rooms will rush out. Then we must seize the moment to break in the door. If the sentries should keep their place, which I should think is very doubtful, we must throw ourselves upon them at once. The door once open, the rest will be easy; we shall have but to wrap the girls in the blankets and run through the fire with them. The critical moment will be that at which we open the door; we must make perfectly sure that the two sentries are taken by surprise. I have every hope that the place will be burnt down, and in that case it is likely enough that they will never give the captives a thought beyond concluding that they have been burnt to death. I think it would be a good thing to take the hangings from some of the rooms, roll them up into a bundle, and soak them with the spirit. Then, when we have taken down the bar and have the door ready for opening, we will light that bundle, so that when we open the door there will be a great blaze close to the men and at the same time they will see the flames from the rooms farther down the passage. The scare is almost certain to make them bolt, and we can then break in the other door. The noise will merely sound to them as if something on fire had fallen down, and we shall have got the girls out through the door before they can open the gate of the yard and call the sentries from the guard–house.”“I think it ought all to go right,” Ah Lo agreed. “Now, master, I think that I will go back again. I must see my father and mother and tell them that I have to go away on urgent business, for that I hear the Boxers are coming to our village in the morning to search for every able–bodied man,and that, therefore, I must leave at once. What will you do?”“Can we return to the back of this yamen without passing through the town?”“Yes.”“Then I will go with you. We need not bring our baskets back with us; we can make the things up into a bundle. I would rather walk home with you and return than hang about here where I might be questioned.”Accordingly they again took their baskets on their backs and returned to the village, hiding their parcels before they entered. Hearing the news they brought, several young men, who had managed to escape the last search of the Boxers, at once made off into the country. Ah Lo and Rex remained with the two old people until dusk. The old people were much distressed to hear that their son had to leave them so soon. He promised to pay them a longer visit as soon as it was safe to do so, and having left a sufficient supply of money to last them for some time, he took a tender farewell of them and started once more with his companion.They arrived without adventure at the back of the yamen, and at once set to work on the lock, as it was now perfectly dark and the streets were already deserted except by parties of Boxers. In an hour they had cut round the lock, but then they found that the door was also held by bolts. It did not take them long, however, to enlarge the hole sufficiently for Rex to get his arm through and unfasten the bolts. They now waited until the lights in the house gradually disappeared, and then moved quietly up to it. They found, as they hoped would be the case, that the door of the house was unfastened.Having ascertained this, they waited another hour until they were sure that everyone was asleep. Then they entered,lit a lamp that they had bought for the purpose, and set to work. They soon piled mats and curtains near the doors of the rooms on both sides of the passage, and poured oil and spirit over them. When this was done they made up a roll six feet high and six feet long, and, saturating this with oil, carried it to the door. They then set a light to the great piles of inflammable materials in the two rooms. These flashed up instantly, and the flames came rushing through the doors. When they saw that the blaze had taken a good hold of the material they set fire to the bundle in the passage.As this blazed up they removed the bar and flung the door open. The two sentries gave a loud cry as they saw the flames rushing out at the end of the passage, and made a simultaneous rush for the front door. Running in, Rex and his companion found that the door of the girlsʼ prison was held by bars only. These they undid, and found to their satisfaction that the door opened, and that there was no occasion to break it down.The light of the flames was amply sufficient to enable them to see. The two girls lay in each otherʼs arms in one corner.“It is all right, girls!” Rex cried. “I am Rex, and I have come here to save you!”Then, lifting the girls to their feet, they wrapped the blankets round them. Each lifted one and sprang through the flames rising from the roll, and then through the sheet of fire at the end of the passage. When they reached the open air they released the girls from the wrappings, and, snatching up their rifles, which they had left leaning against the wall outside, ran down the garden. Once outside they felt that they were for the present safe.Already a babel of noises was arising from the yamen—shrieks of women and shouts of men.ill078REX RESCUES HIS COUSINS FROM THE BOXERS“I hope the women wonʼt be burned,” Rex said.“If they cannot get down the staircase they can jump from the windows,” said Ah Lo.“Thank God, girls, that we have got you out! We have some native clothes for you, but we must run for some little distance first; the fire will bring all the town out.”“Are we dreaming?” Jenny said. “Can it be really you, Rex?”“It is, dear; you can seize me and shake me, to make sure that you are awake. Are you strong enough to walk?”“Yes, if I am really awake.”The younger sister, however, could scarcely stand, and Ah Lo caught her up and they at once started, Jenny pouring question after question into Rexʼs ear as he hurried her along. When they were two or three hundred yards away they broke into a walk.“Now we can go on steadily,” Rex said. “We are absolutely safe till the morning, and by that time I hope we shall be a good many miles away.”When they had gone another mile Rex said: “We had better stop here and eat something, for we shall want all our strength for the journey.”“But how did you come to be here, Rex?”“Well, dear, we heard such terrible news of what was going on throughout the country that Ah Lo and I determined to come out in disguise to see if we could be of any assistance to you. Of course we have heard all that has happened, so do not pain yourselves by talking about it at present. We have got stain for you to colour your skin, and the dresses of Chinese boys in which you must disguise yourselves. It would not do for you to be travelling as girls. We shall try to make our way to Pekin. Of course we shall have difficulties, but I trust that we shall get through all right.We intend to give out that we are going to enlist in the army, and we shall have to invent some story to account for your going with us. We have got rifles, so that if we should be interfered with by any small party we shall be able to give a good account of them. We have got you out more easily than we had expected, and no one is likely to notice that you have escaped. They will have more than enough to do if they wish to save the house, and I doubt whether they will succeed in putting out the fire, for I think we set the place pretty well alight.”Indeed, it was already evident that the fire had got a great hold, for, from the point that they had now gained, the flames could be seen leaping out of all the windows on the ground floor at the back of the house. The fugitives went almost at a run for another mile, and when they stopped and looked round, the yamen was in a blaze from top to bottom. Ah Lo now set Mabel on her feet, and the two girls threw themselves into each otherʼs arms and burst into tears.“Now you had better eat something,” Rex said, after he allowed them a short time to recover themselves. “Did the brutes feed you well?”“We had enough to eat till to–day; they have given us nothing to–day, and we thought that that was a sign that the end had very nearly come.”“No doubt it was so. Now in the first place you must each eat and drink something.”“I donʼt feel as if I wanted anything.”“Never mind, it is absolutely necessary that you should eat. We must get as far away as we can before morning, and unless you eat you wonʼt be able to walk.”The girls ate slowly at first, but as their appetites came back they managed to eat a hearty meal. While they did so Rex told them about the fighting at Tientsin, and the way inwhich they had made their way into the yamen and set it on fire.“I can only just see the outline of your figure, Rex,” Jenny said, “but you seem to have grown tremendously since I saw you last.”“Yes, I have grown a good deal. Four years make a great difference at my age. You have grown a good deal too, Jenny; you were quite a small girl when I saw you last. How pleased my father and mother will be to see you both again!”“Did they send any messages?”“No, Jenny, and for a very good reason. They did not know that we were coming. We stole off quietly in the night, for I was not at all sure that they would let me try if I asked their permission. I left a letter for them saying where I had gone, and that, as I had Ah Lo with me, I felt pretty sure that it would come out all right. You see, I speak Chinese nearly as well as he does, and there was no real reason why anyone should suspect that we were not what we looked. Now, dear, if you have finished we will go on.”They went for some ten miles before the day began to break. Ah Lo carried Mabel for the last five, for both girls were weakened by the scenes they had gone through, the grief at the loss of their parents, and the fear as to their own fate. As day approached they went into a large field of standing corn, which rose some feet above their heads.“Now, girls, you go on a few yards and then change your clothes. Here is the stain. You must dye your whole skin and darken your eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair. You know a great deal better than I do how your hair must be plaited into pigtails and wound up under these hats. I think you will find the clothes all right; they are just jackets buttoning up in front, and loose trousers. You can put on your ownboots as long as we are walking in an open country and there is no one about, but when we are likely to meet anyone you must put on these Chinese shoes. After you have dressed yourselves you had better lie down and have a long sleep. We shall keep a look–out; but as we entered the field in single file, and raised the stalks after us, it is not likely that, even if the owner comes along, he will suspect that anyone is in hiding here. Before you try to go off to sleep you had better eat another meal.”“Are we on our way to Pekin, Rex?”“No, we have come north so far; for if a search is made it will be in the direction of Pekin or Tientsin. I do not think it at all likely, however, that they will trouble to look for us. They will not give you a thought at first; and when they do think of you the place will be in such a blaze that they wonʼt be able to get at your room, and will certainly conclude that you have perished in the flames. The only possible ground for suspicion will be that the door at the end of the garden may be found open; but no one may think of going round there for some days, and at the worst they will but fancy that robbers broke in there, and, while plundering the rooms, accidentally set the house on fire. At any rate, long before the idea can occur to them that it was an attempt to rescue you, we shall be a hundred miles away.”The day passed quietly. Ah Lo and Rex in turn slept and watched near the edge of the corn. Men could be seen working in some of the fields, but no one approached the edge of the field in which they were hidden. Late in the afternoon the girls joined them, looking their character so well that even Ah Lo said that he would not have suspected them of being anything but what they seemed. A hearty meal was then eaten, and an hour after dark they started again, this time making towards the east. They passed through manysmall villages during the night, and walked, they calculated, over twenty miles, Ah Lo, as before, carrying Mabel the last seven or eight miles. Again they hid during the day, and in the evening turned their faces towards Pekin. Their stock of provisions was now exhausted, and the next day Ah Lo went into a village and brought a fresh supply.They met with no adventure until they were half–way on their journey, when one evening as they were passing through a village, the door of one of the houses opened and three men whose dress showed them to be Boxers came out.“Hello!” one of them said, “who are you?”“We the travellers,” Ah Lo replied.“What makes you travel so late?”“We are anxious to push on to the next village.”“Come in here and let us have a look at you,” one of them said.“Shall we go in, master?” Ah Lo said in a whisper.“Yes, you had better; there is a large party of them. You go on, girls; stop by the side of the last house in the village on the right–hand side.”Rex and Lo then followed the men into the house. Inside were nine others, several of them smoking. “Now where are you going to?” demanded the Boxer who had before spoken, and who was apparently the leader of the party.“We are going to enlist in the army.”“You had better join us. I see you have a good gun; where did you get it from?”“I got it from some men who were fighting at Tientsin and returned home wounded.”“Well, you will get others there,” the man said; “you had better hand them over to us. You must stop here for the night and go on with us. It appears to me that there issomething suspicious about you. Where are the two boys who were with you?”“They have gone on. I told them to.”“Two of you run after them and fetch them back,” the man said angrily.Ah Lo and Rex both unslung their guns from their shoulders as if to hand them over. They were still standing in the doorway, and Ah Lo shoved one of the Boxers, who tried to pass him, and sent him staggering backwards. The captain, with an exclamation of fury, drew his sword. Ah Lo dropped his rifle against the manʼs chest and fired. The others at once sprang to their feet.“Donʼt throw away a shot!” Rex exclaimed. “Now it is begun we must finish them,” and he shot down the man next him. “Step back outside the door, then only one can get at us at a time.”The rifles rang out again, and three more of the Boxers fell. The others, seizing their arms, rushed in a mass towards them.“Fire by turns, Ah Lo,” Rex said as he fired, and then drove the muzzle of his rifle with all his force into the chest of the next man coming at him; the man fell as instantaneously as though he had been shot. Two or three of the Boxers were armed with guns, and these attempted to press forward so as to be able to use them. Rexʼs thrust had cleared the crowd a little back, and Ah Lo shot one of the men with a gun as he pressed forward. Almost at the same moment one of the others fired, and the ball passed along Rexʼs arm and came out in the shoulder. With a howl the man rushed forward again. Rex and Ah Lo fired at the same moment. There were now but four Boxers left, and these charged before they were ready to fire again. Ah Lo clubbed his musket; Rex, as before, used his gun as a spear, and as aBoxer rushed at him with uplifted sword, caught him full in the chest.“Hold the door while I load, Ah Lo,” he said.It took but a couple of seconds to discharge the cartridge and reload and close the breech, and then Rex shot one assailant just when Ah Lo struck down another. The last man threw down his weapon, but Ah Loʼs blood was up, and knowing that none of the party must be allowed to get away, he brought the butt of his musket down with all his strength upon the manʼs head.“That has been sharp work, Ah Lo,” Rex panted. “Now, we must be off.”“I donʼt think they are all killed,” Ah Lo said.“Well, most of them must be, and certainly none of the others can be in a position to take up the pursuit. We had better not wait another moment, or we shall have the villagers out on us.” So saying he started to run.“I will run,” Ah Lo said, “but there is no fear that the villagers will come out. When they hear the firing they will think that the Boxers are quarrelling among themselves, and certainly no one will venture out to see about it.”They found the girls waiting at the appointed place, and they gave a cry of joy as Rex ran up.“What has happened?” they asked together.“The Boxers were nasty and were sending two men off to catch you, so we stopped them, and we had a tough fight, but none of them got away.”“How many were there?”“Twelve.”“And you killed them all?”“We shot eight of them. Ah Lo broke the skulls of two, and I knocked the wind out of the other two. Whether I killed them or not I do not know, but it is quite certain thatthey cannot be in a fit condition to take up the pursuit. We can now go on again; only for the rest of the journey we must avoid villages.“You neednʼt grieve for the Boxers,” he said, as the girls uttered an exclamation of horror at what he had said. “As likely as not they have come from Chafui; but if not, no doubt they have taken part in some of these massacres and were making for Tientsin to join their fellows there.”“Oh, how could you do it, Rex? I am not sorry for the Boxers a bit, but it is wonderful that you two should have killed twelve of them in two minutes; I am sure the firing did not last longer than that.”“It was quick work certainly, Jenny; but with these breech–loaders one can fire all the shots in a magazine in less than a minute, and at such close quarters there was no possibility of missing oneʼs aim. If there had been a few more of them we should probably not have succeeded so well, for our magazines were nearly empty when we had finished. Still, holding the door as we did, so that only one man could really get at us at once, I think we should have given a good account of ourselves even if there had been five or six more.”They made an unusually long journey that night; the girls would not hear of stopping, although Rex assured them that there was no chance of being overtaken. When day dawned they were more than usually careful in hiding themselves among some very high grass. Rex and Ah Lo took turns to watch all day, but to their satisfaction they saw no one hurrying along the road as if carrying a message of importance.“I did not expect to see one,” Ah Lo said; “the villagers will be frightened out of their lives when they venture out in the morning and see what has happened. I think it likely that they will at once bury all the bodies, for they will beafraid that should a party of Boxers come along and see what has taken place, they would plunder and burn the village and kill all the inhabitants. No, I do not think there is any fear that the alarm will be given.”They continued their journey thus till they were within fifteen miles of Pekin. Here the road was no longer unfrequented during the day, bands of armed men and Boxers frequently passing along. The next day they made ten miles and then lay down to sleep. Soon after daybreak natives in carts, with vegetables and grain, came along. As soon as they had passed, the fugitives issued out, and presently overtaking one of the parties journeyed on in company with them until they reached the gates of the city. They wandered about for some hours before they found the quarter where the Legations were situated, for they did not like to ask directions, as that would have shown that they were strangers in the city. They came at last to a building where two marines were keeping guard. From these they heard that the British Legation was in the next street, and soon they were gladdened by the sight of an English uniform.They were stopped by the sentries, but on Rex saying in English that they were fugitives from one of the missions that had been destroyed they were allowed to enter.The Legation stood in a very large enclosure which had at one time been a palace belonging to a member of the imperial family. The gardens were charmingly laid out, and it contained several courtyards, each surrounded by buildings.They were conducted by one of the servants of the Legation to the house of the minister, Sir Claude Macdonald, and upon Rex sending in their names they were at once admitted.“We have made our escape, sir,” Rex said, “from Chafui, where the mission has been destroyed and all save these twoyoung ladies, daughters of the missionary in charge, murdered. I myself am the son of Mr. Bateman of Tientsin. These young ladies are my cousins, and with the aid of this faithful Chinaman, who has for many years been in my fatherʼs service, I have succeeded in rescuing them from the hands of the Boxers.”“I congratulate you indeed, sir. A considerable number of fugitives have already arrived here. I will hand the ladies over at once into the charge of Lady Macdonald, who will see that they are well cared for.”He rang a bell and told a servant to take the girls to Lady Macdonald, and then turned again to Rex:“We had heard reports of the massacre at Chafui, and were afraid that all had perished. I shall be glad to know how you and these young ladies escaped?”Rex gave a brief account of the incident.“I congratulate you most warmly on the success of your enterprise, and on the courage you displayed in undertaking it and carrying it out. It certainly seemed, on the face of it, to be a most mad–brained attempt, but it has been amply justified by the success that has attended it.“Our position here is very precarious, and although the court continue to give us assurances of the most friendly intentions, we have the best grounds for believing that the Empress and her advisers are bent upon our destruction. However, we are making every preparation for defence, and believe that we shall be able to hold out until assistance arrives. What are your own intentions?”“My intentions, sir, are to make my way at once down to Tientsin. My parents cannot but feel the most lively anxiety as to my safety, and my first duty is to go back to relieve their suspense. If any expedition is sent up here to your relief, I shall hope to accompany it in some capacity.I can speak Chinese like a native, and may be useful as an interpreter. I shall, of course, leave my cousins here if you will kindly permit them to stay, for although with my Chinese follower I might make my way without difficulty through any bodies of the Chinese who may be on the road, I could hardly do so if I were accompanied by two girls, however well they might be disguised.”“Certainly not,” the envoy said; “that would be quite impossible. There are, we know, a considerable number of the Chinese between us and Tientsin. They have already torn up the railway, and although my messengers do get through, direct communications are entirely interrupted. Still, as you have made the journey from Chafui here without difficulty, I should think that you might manage to accomplish the journey to Tientsin safely. Of course you will remain here a day or two. One of the members of my staff will lend you a suit of clothes.” He touched the bell. “Send Mr. Sandwich here. He is one of the student interpreters,” he said, turning again to Rex, “and is about your own height; and I have no doubt that his things will fit you well. I shall be glad if you will dine with me and afterwards give me more detailed accounts of your adventures.”In a few minutes the young man made his appearance. “Mr. Sandwich,” Sir Claude said, “I will hand over this gentleman, who has just arrived from Chafui, to your charge, He will only be staying here for a day or two, for he is going to try to make his way down to Tientsin. I shall be obliged if you will lend him a suit of clothes while he stays here.”“Certainly, I will do all I can to make him comfortable.”“I should be obliged, sir,” Rex said, “if you would allow a surgeon to dress my arm. A bullet entered just above the wrist and ran up to my shoulder. I think the wound isgoing on all right, but it is rather painful, and I should be glad to have it dressed properly.”“Certainly, I will send our doctor to the college at once. He will be there almost as soon as you. You did not tell me that you had been hit.”“It is not a serious wound, sir; the bullet only just went under the skin, and I fancy that when it has once been properly dressed it will give me no more trouble.”“You are well disguised,” Sandwich said as he left the room with Rex. “I am sure that I should not have had any suspicions, however closely I inspected you. How did you manage to get here from Chafui?”“I speak Chinese like a native. I was born in Tientsin, and was sent home to England four years ago; but as my father was most anxious that I should keep up Chinese, he sent with me one of the coolies who had always been my special servant, and so I came back speaking it as well as when I went.”“We heard that there had been a massacre at Chafui.”“Yes, I managed, with the aid of my man, to rescue my two cousins, who are the daughters of the missionary there. I was just in time, for they were to have been murdered on the following day.”“But how was it that you were not murdered yourself?”“For the simple reason that I was not there when the massacre took place. The news of the massacre came to us at Tientsin, and I set off with my man to see if any of them had survived and if possible to rescue them. This we effected by setting fire to the governorʼs yamen, where the girls were confined, and carrying them off in the confusion that ensued. The only adventure we met with on the road was that we were interfered with by a party of a dozen Boxers. We had a fight with them; but as we had breech–loaders,and they were jammed up in a room, we had no difficulty in disposing of them all.”“By Jove, that was a plucky thing,” Sandwich said; “and so you are going off again?”“Yes, I am in a hurry to get back to my people, who must be in great anxiety about me.”“Well, this is our college,” the young man said, stopping before a building of some size. “We are all trained here for the Chinese Consulate service. I will take you to my room first and rig you out. We shall be having a meal directly, and then I can introduce you to the fellows, when I promise you a hearty reception.”Half an hour later Rex went down in a suit of white clothes to the dining–room. He had already asked Sandwich to hand over Ah Lo to the proper quarter, where he could get rations and lodging. He was introduced to eight or ten young men who were studying at the college, and, after the meal was over, related the story of the rescue of his cousins. The narrative excited great interest, and he was warmly praised.

CHAPTER IIIIN DISGUISE“Well, what do you think of it, Ah Lo?”“If you have quite made up your mind, young master, I will go with you,” Ah Lo said quietly; “if I return with you the master will not say much, and certainly if you do not return I shall not.”“Thank you, Ah Lo! Now, let us settle at once how we shall go, for every hour is of importance. Which do you think would be best, to go as villagers or as Boxers?”“I think as villagers, master. We can go from village to village with the tale that we have been coolies working here, and that now there is no trade and no employment we are going to visit our family, who live near Chafui. We can carry with us clothes such as the Boxers wear, either red or yellow, so that when we get to Chafui we can put them on if we like. Of course we shall take swords and long knives.”“I have the two revolvers my uncle gave me when I came away,” Rex said; “we can each carry one of them. As we shall say that we come from Tientsin, the fact that we have revolvers would excite no suspicion. If we are questioned we could easily say that we took them secretly from our employerʼs house when we came away from here. I have got a good stock of cartridges. Of course many of the Boxers are armed with good rifles, but would a villager be carrying them?”“No, but a coolie from here might do so. Numbers of theBoxers have been killed near Tientsin, and there would be nothing improbable in the statement that as we left the town we had picked up two rifles. A good many rifles are still lying in the suburbs where the fighting went on; if you go out there this morning you might find a couple, for the streets are quite deserted, and then you might put them in a doorway where we could find them as we went along. You would also have to find some packets of cartridges. When shall we start, master?”“If we can be ready to start to–night all the better.”“There can be no difficulty about that. I know many native shops where I can get the clothes, and there are plenty of dead Boxers from whom I could take red suits. You could not get your head shaved here, but I will carry a razor and soap with me, and in the morning, first thing, will shave your head. I can buy a pigtail in the town, as many people who have not much hair use false pigtails, and I have no doubt that plenty of them are to be found in the empty shops in the native town.”“Shall we require to take any food with us?”“We can take enough rice for our journey, master, and we can get tea anywhere; but you will have to do without anything else.”“That makes no difference at all; I can do very well on rice, and I can take some of the condiments we use with it. Even if we are searched, these will be as natural as the rice.”“Is there anything else that you can think of, master?”“No, I cannot think of anything else at present, but I shall see you again later, and can then fix on the hour for starting.”During the time when the danger was at its greatest the house had never been so silent, or the face of Mr. Bateman so grave. His wife was absolutely prostrated. This added tothe resolution the lad had taken. At whatever risk he might incur, his aunt and cousins must be rescued if they were alive when he reached Chafui, and it were within the limits of possibility to do so. He did not think that the journey in itself really involved any risk, and should he find that all had been massacred he had but to return. He knew how precious his life was in the eyes of his parents, and he resolved to take every means possible to avoid risk. Even if the news he brought back were of the worst, it would be better for his mother than the terrible anxiety that she was now suffering as to the fate of his aunt and cousins.In the course of the day he wrote a letter to his father, which ran as follows:—“My Dear Father,“When you receive this I shall be miles away. As you know, as far as talking goes, I can pass anywhere as a native; and as I shall be thoroughly disguised, I feel sure that with Ah Lo I could go right through China without being suspected. Seeing how terribly anxious my mother and you are about the safety of Aunt and the girls, I have made up my mind to go to Chafui to gather news of them. I am sure that it would be better for Mother to know even the worst than to suffer this terrible anxiety. I do not think I shall run any risk whatever.“I must tell you that though Ah Lo is going with me it is very much against his will, because he thought that you would blame him if things went wrong, and it was only when I told him that if he did not go with me I should go alone that he consented to accompany me. It was not that he thought of the danger, but that he feared you would be displeased with him for undertaking this journey without your permission. I donʼt think that I should have carriedout the threat. Although I know the language well enough I do not know anything of the customs and the religion, and I felt that it would really be a hazardous enterprise if Ah Lo did not go with me. Now, however, that at last he has consented to accompany me, I have no fear whatever.“I should have asked your permission to undertake this expedition, but I was afraid that you would refuse, and I felt so sure of being able to accomplish my purpose without difficulty that I decided to go without telling you of my intention. You see, Father, it is evident that after what is going on every white man in China will be in peril for a long time to come, and as it is settled that I am going to stay here for at any rate a good many years, I shall have to run risks, and those risks will be greater than any I am likely to meet with now that I am going in disguise. I am quite prepared for emergencies, so I hope that you will not be angry, though I know you will be anxious until I return.“Ah Loʼs native village is only a few miles from Chafui, and his story that, as there was no longer work to be done in Tientsin, he was going for a time to see his friends is plausible. Indeed, we shall probably stay there among his friends and learn all that has taken place in the town, so that everything will be easy sailing. You must not expect me back for about a month. It will take us ten days to walk to Chafui, ten days to stay at Ah Loʼs village and get full information, and ten to return. That is as near as I can tell at present. There may be unexpected delays, but anyhow we shall not be back in less than a month. Should I find that I am likely to be much longer away, I shall, if possible, send one of Ah Loʼs people down with a message to you.“Of course, Father, you can, if you think best, tell Mother where I have gone, and why, or lead her to believe that I have gone down to the coast to make arrangements with shipsthat have arrived with goods for you, or to act as an interpreter to the troops as they come up.“I believe that if I had never gone to England I should not have thought of carrying out such a plan as this, but one gets to think for oneʼs self when one is at school. I feel sure that there was scarcely a fellow of my age there who, if he had the advantages in the way of speaking languages that I have, would not willingly have undertaken the job. Certainly I feel that the amount of risk to be run is very small compared with the importance of relieving Motherʼs mind and yours, and, of course, though it is some years since I have seen my aunt and cousins, I, too, am very anxious.”That evening he felt even more than before that the proposed expedition was excusable, for his father said: “I am terribly anxious, Rex. Your mother has been delirious all the afternoon, and the doctors are both feeling very anxious about her mind. You see, we have all gone through the strain of the last two months, and this blow coming on the top of it has had a very much greater effect than it would have had in ordinary circumstances. They think that if she had known for certain that her sister and the girls had been killed, the shock would have had less disastrous effects than this terrible uncertainty. It may be weeks, it may even be months, before the truth can be known and her mind relieved of the strain. They fear that when the present paroxysms have passed away she may settle down into a state of fixed melancholia, and if bad news came then it might simply deepen this melancholia, which would in that case become permanent.”“It is indeed terrible, Father, but I hope that the doctorsʼ view is a mistaken one.”Mr. Bateman shook his head and passed his handkerchiefacross his eyes, and if up to that time Rex had had any doubt that he was going to act wisely, he felt now that, even apart from his own anxiety about his aunt and cousins, he was fully justified by his motherʼs state in carrying out his plan.At eleven oʼclock that night he crept out of the house. He had dyed his skin with a mixture which Ah Lo had brought him, dressed himself in the native clothes, and put the sword, knife, and pistol in his belt. In a bundle he had three boxes of ammunition and the Boxer clothes, together with a pair of light boots to put on when there were no villages near, in case the Chinese shoes should gall his feet. Ah Lo was at the gate of the courtyard. He wore no disguise, but had put on coarse coolie clothes instead of those he wore as a trusted servant in the house.“Have you got everything, Ah Lo?”“Everything; ten pounds of rice, the box of clothes, the ammunition for the pistols, another bottle of the dye for your skin, some black dye for your eyebrows and eyelashes, and a little brown for the corners of your eyes. I have changed the piece of gold you gave me for dollars in cash, and I have got a pigtail and the razor and soap.”“I have bought a small compass,” Rex said. “It may be useful to us going across the country, for I know that the roads are mostly tracks between the villages and cross each other in all directions.”On leaving the premises they picked up Rexʼs rifle and bag of ammunition, and the rifle that Ah Lo had bought during the day and had hidden away outside the settlement. Then they made a detour to avoid the native town, and, when once fairly beyond this, struck out across the fields. They made a long detour to avoid the encampment of Chinese soldiers, and then struck into a steady walk.When a few miles from the town they saw fires burning, and made another detour to avoid these, knowing that they marked the position of parties of Boxers. They walked steadily all night, and in the morning reached a village, having made, as they calculated, at least thirty miles. Few people were about. Burnt cottages showed that the Boxers had passed that way and, as usual, had looted and destroyed everything they could lay hands on. Indeed, not being a regularly–organized body, they were forced to depend upon what they could take for subsistence, and were the scourge of the districts through which they passed.“So you are going to Chafui!” said an old man whom they had asked if there were any Boxers in the neighbourhood. “You will have to be very careful. Those who have been attacking Tientsin are still in that neighbourhood, but you may come across other parties marching down to join them. They are terrible people. If anyone refuses to give them all that they ask for, they will kill everyone in the house and burn it afterwards. They make most of the young men go with them to fight the whites in Tientsin. It is a terrible time. I can remember the Taiping rebellion, and this seems to me to be quite as bad. They all say that the Empress is in their favour, but I cannot believe it. They tell terrible tales about the missionaries; but I lived for some time at Chafui, and it seemed to me that they were good and peaceful people, and although I stay so near Tientsin I have not till of late heard a word against the merchants there. They have indeed done much good for the town; they pay those who work for them well and do no harm to anyone. A son of mine worked for them for ten years, and came back with enough money to live comfortably all his life. He was a good son, and helped me as a son should do, but the Boxers killed him a month ago because he ventured to say that sofar from doing harm the foreigners enriched the town and brought much trade into it.”“I shall take care to keep my mouth shut when I get home,” Ah Lo said. “I too have worked for them and found them good masters and just people, but after what you have told me I shall take care not to say a word in their favour.”“You will be wise not to do so. And now you say you wish to sleep, as you have walked all night. You can lie down in the room upstairs; no one will disturb you. We used to be glad to question strangers who came along, for further news, but now our own troubles are quite as much as we can think of. I fear that this will continue until the last of the sea–pirates is killed; after that who can say what will happen!”After cooking the rice they had bought, and eating a meal, they went upstairs and slept for many hours. As soon as night fell they continued their journey, and on the seventh morning after starting they arrived within a few miles of Chafui. They had met with no adventures on the way. Several times they went into the fields and hid among growing grain to avoid a party of the enemy, and once, just as they had arrived in a village, a band of Boxers came in, but they managed to slip out of the house unobserved and spent the night in the fields.They had agreed that they would not enter Chafui until they had first paid a visit to Ah Loʼs native village, where they would be able to learn the state of things in the town. They could then decide whether it would be best to put on their Boxer dresses or not. They had scarcely entered the village when Ah Lo was recognized. As one of his old friends shouted his name and a welcome, people ran out from all the houses to greet them, and by the time he reached his fatherʼs door he was surrounded by a crowd of friends and neighbours,and Rex understood for the first time how very close was the family bond in China.It was five years since Ah Lo had been there, and he was greeted as a wanderer returning to his parents, and bringing, no doubt, some of the proceeds of his labours. Indeed, the villagers had already benefited, for while he was in England he regularly forwarded a portion of his wages to his parents. Thus he bore a good name. He had never brought any trouble upon the village; he had never been called upon to pay a fine for his misdeeds; and his father and mother were considered fortunate people in having such a son. They too had come to the door, attracted by the loud talking outside, and their delight at his return was touching.When at last they had entered the house and closed the door the old man said: “We have been uneasy about you. The message telling us of your return, and your welcome present, gave us at first great joy; but when, two days later, the disturbances began we trembled for your safety, and have offered up many prayers to Buddha to preserve you for us. But I see that things have gone wrong with you. Last time you came you were well clad, and all said truly, ‘Ah Lo is making his fortuneʼ; but now your clothes are those of a common man.”“I have so clad myself, Father, in order to escape plunder on my way with my friend here. He too belongs to the white merchant for whom I have worked so long. Like myself he wanted to escape from the city where there was such fierce fighting, and as trade was at a stand–still we had no difficulty in getting away.”“He is welcome for your sake,” the old man said. “If he is your friend, assuredly he is our friend also, and he shall share with us all we have, which, indeed, we owe chiefly to you. And have you come to stay with us for good, Ah Lo?”“No, Father, I have come to gather news, and that partly on business; so my pay is still going on. As you know, the missionary at Chafui is the brother of my patron—at least his wife is sister of my patronʼs wife. News has reached him that there were bad doings at Chafui, and consequently he and his wife are greatly disturbed; so I said that I would come here and learn the truth of the reports that we had heard.”“It is true,” his father said. “The Boxers came to Chafui and stirred up the people of the town, and they ran together and attacked the praying–house and the people who have taken to the strange religion. The missionary fought hard when they attacked his house, but what could he and a handful of his followers do against many hundreds? The soldiers did not move to help him, and the house was taken and he was killed. The women of the family were carried to the governorʼs yamen. It was reported that his wife has died from grief and terror, but I cannot say whether that is true; of her daughters I have not heard.”This confirmation of his worst fears was a terrible blow to Rex, who with difficulty restrained himself from bursting into tears.“That is bad news indeed,” Ah Lo said gravely. “It will be a heavy blow to my patron and his wife, and I myself am sorely grieved, as is also Shen Yo, my companion; for we have both seen the lady and her children when they have been staying at our patronʼs house. They were good people and kindly, and assuredly never did anyone any harm.”“They were well spoken of,” Ah Loʼs father said: “no one had any harm to say of them. It was not until the Boxers stirred up the rabble of the town against these Christians that there was any disturbance here. It was always said that the governor was unfavourable to the Christians, but as they gave no cause of complaint things have always gone on quietlyenough, as the orders from Pekin always have been that they should not be molested. But for some weeks past we have heard reports that the Empress had turned her face against them, and that her counsellors were of opinion that these foreign people should be destroyed or driven from the country. We even heard that men were being drilled in Pekin; but people in general did not think much of these things until the Boxers grew numerous and began to create disturbances. Many of us were grieved, for the white people had shown much kindness and had given good medicines to people who were ill, and in other ways had done much good. But, of course, when the Empress and her counsellors had given the word to kill, no one would venture to withstand the Boxers and the rabble of the town. The governor knew the will of those in high places, and when word was sent to him of what was being done, he remained in his yamen and kept the soldiers quiet, so that no one dared to lift a finger to aid the whites. Many tales were told of their ill doings; how they stole little children and sacrificed them to their gods; but for myself I did not believe these things. We have always heard from you that the whites were good people, that they treated all natives well, and assuredly if you had heard of such doings as this you would not have remained with them. Therefore we did not believe these tales to their disadvantage, but we should only have thrown away our lives if we had ventured to express our feelings. Even in the village most people believed the tales, and said it was good that the foreign devils should be destroyed, so now that you have come back you must not speak in favour of these people or you will assuredly lose your life.”“I shall hold my tongue, Father. Who am I that I should disobey the orders of the Empress? Nevertheless, I tell you that these white people are good. Have I not lived amongthem for nearly four years? They are good people. Among them no one is ill–treated, or beaten, or put to death. None carry weapons; everyone respects the others. Although I was a stranger and a foreigner, no one molested me; I went and came as I chose. As to their offering sacrifices and killing children, the thing is absurd. They are anxious to do good to foreigners, and subscribe great sums to send their priests abroad that they may teach other people their religion. All these stories that are told about them are lies, and they have been told for the purpose of rousing ill–feeling against them. I am grieved that this trouble has come about, but assuredly it is no business of mine, except in so far as it concerns the friends of my patron. The ladies have stayed at his house, and they have spoken kindly to me and have given me money. I would do much for them for their own sake, as well as for that of my patron, who, as I have always told you, is the best man I have ever met. But I see that I can do nothing, and I can only grieve over the misfortunes that have befallen him. Of course I shall say nothing here as to my feelings, and shall even join in the cry against the foreigners. I have no wish to throw away my life and to bring disgrace and death upon you and my mother.”“That is right, Ah Lo. It would assuredly bring terrible misfortune upon you were you to say a word in favour of the Christians. There are many who share your feelings, but they dare not open their lips, and you too must hide your real sentiments. The order has come that the Christians must be destroyed, and that order must be obeyed. Most of the young men of the village have joined the Boxers, fearing that unless they did so evil would befall them. Now tell me something about the country where you have been living, and about these strange people, who are not content to live in their own island, but come here to turn the minds of thepeople against their god and to bring trouble on the land. Are there many of them?”“Very many; not so many as there are in China, but they are brave soldiers, and have arms altogether superior to ours. That, together with the way in which they are trained, gives them a great advantage over us. But though they can fight well, they do not wish to fight. They are great traders, and it is only when their trade is interfered with, or their people ill–treated, that they go to war. They have no enmity against people of other religions, and all the time that I was in England no one ever tried to turn me from my faith. No one said a word against Buddha, or interfered with me in any way. They think that their religion is right, just as we believe in ours, and they try to convert others, just as the Buddhists came to China and converted large numbers of our people. They think that they are doing good, and spend much money in trying to do so. It is strange to me that they cannot leave things alone, but it is their way, and certainly I have no ill–will towards them on that account. When my mother has got our meal ready, and we have eaten, I will tell you much about them and of the life that I led there; but the tale is so long that I dare not begin it fasting.”For two or three hours Ah Lo talked with his parents, and then went out into the village with Rex and chatted with the villagers. He learned a good deal as to the state of the town, and arranged to buy some vegetables, saying that he wanted to go in and see for himself what had taken place, and that he did not like going in empty–handed, as he might be ill–treated by the Boxers were he walking about idly.The great topic of conversation, however, was with regard to the fighting at Tientsin. Few particulars of this had been heard, and the villagers were astonished when they heard that the white devils had resisted all attacks upon them and hadrepulsed the Boxers with great slaughter, although the latter were no doubt much more numerous and had succeeded in destroying the greater portion of the town. Ah Lo, however, told his friends that the Boxers were still excited, and would no doubt renew their attacks with greater success, although some of the sailors from the ships were coming up to aid the whites.“I was glad to get away,” he continued, “for there was always shooting going on, and I feared that if the Boxers came in they would kill those who were in the employment of the whites. Most of these men managed to escape before I did, but I took the opportunity of the lull in fighting to escape at night.”It was not Until the old people had retired for the night that Ah Lo and Rex sat down to talk with each other. It had been a long and painful day for the lad; he had been compelled to appear at his ease, to answer innumerable questions, and to support Ah Lo in his various statements. But when at last he found himself alone with his faithful servant he exclaimed; “Thank God, Ah Lo, we can now talk and decide what is to be done! I feel almost mad at the news. It is bad enough to know that my aunt has died, but to think of my cousin in the hands of these fiends is enough to drive me out of my mind. Of course we must try to rescue them. How it is to be accomplished I have not the faintest idea at present, but I am quite resolved that if it is in any way possible it must be done.”“I am ready to do what I can, master, but if they are in the governorʼs yamen I do not see how we can manage to release them.”“No, nor do I; but there must be some way. There is always some way, Ah Lo, if one can but hit on it. I suppose the governorʼs yamen will be guarded by soldiers?”“It is certain to be,” Ah Lo said. “It would be in ordinary times, but now the watch is probably more strict than ever, because, although the governor has sided with the Boxers, it is probable that he is still afraid that they may attack him.”“Well, to–morrow we must have a good look at the place. It is certain that there is no time to be lost, for these two poor girls may at any moment be murdered. We may take it as certain that there is no possibility of releasing them by force. The people here are evidently so completely cowed by the Boxers that it would be hopeless to get any of them to aid us in that way. We can do nothing until we see the place. I suppose you know it?”“Yes, there is a large courtyard in front of it, with a guard–house at the gate, and a wall runs across the courtyard just about the middle of the house. In the front part are the public offices, in the back the governorʼs private apartments. Behind the building there is a large garden.”“And it is probable that the prisoners are kept at the back of the house?”“It may be so, master, but one cannot say. It is possible that the public may be permitted to stare at them, and in that case they might be in the front part of the house.”“That doesnʼt matter much. When we are in the town to–morrow we will go into the courtyard if the gates are open and the public are admitted; if not, we must try some other means to find them. Now, from what you say, I should think that it is by the garden that we must effect an entrance. Though there may be sentries in front of the house, it is hardly likely that any will be placed in the garden. But if sentries are there we ought to have no difficulty in settling them. Once into the garden, we ought easily to effect an entrance by a door or a window. Then, of course, we shouldhave to be guided by circumstances, for there will doubtless be a number of servants sleeping in the passages, and possibly some soldiers. You are going to help me, arenʼt you, Ah Lo?”“Certainly, master; I have come here to do so. My life is of little consequence to me. If it is my fate to die now I must die. Tell me what you want done and I will do it.”“Thank you, Ah Lo! I knew that I could rely upon you. If I could manage it by myself I would do so, but certainly I shall require assistance. We have to consider not only how to get the girls out, but also how we are to escape pursuit. Of course we shall need disguises, for there is sure to be a hot search, and the whole country will be scoured.”“Well, master, we may as well sleep now. We can talk matters over when we go to the town in the morning. A couple of great baskets of vegetables will be ready for us in the morning, and we shall have plenty of time to talk over our plans as we go along.”

IN DISGUISE

“Well, what do you think of it, Ah Lo?”

“If you have quite made up your mind, young master, I will go with you,” Ah Lo said quietly; “if I return with you the master will not say much, and certainly if you do not return I shall not.”

“Thank you, Ah Lo! Now, let us settle at once how we shall go, for every hour is of importance. Which do you think would be best, to go as villagers or as Boxers?”

“I think as villagers, master. We can go from village to village with the tale that we have been coolies working here, and that now there is no trade and no employment we are going to visit our family, who live near Chafui. We can carry with us clothes such as the Boxers wear, either red or yellow, so that when we get to Chafui we can put them on if we like. Of course we shall take swords and long knives.”

“I have the two revolvers my uncle gave me when I came away,” Rex said; “we can each carry one of them. As we shall say that we come from Tientsin, the fact that we have revolvers would excite no suspicion. If we are questioned we could easily say that we took them secretly from our employerʼs house when we came away from here. I have got a good stock of cartridges. Of course many of the Boxers are armed with good rifles, but would a villager be carrying them?”

“No, but a coolie from here might do so. Numbers of theBoxers have been killed near Tientsin, and there would be nothing improbable in the statement that as we left the town we had picked up two rifles. A good many rifles are still lying in the suburbs where the fighting went on; if you go out there this morning you might find a couple, for the streets are quite deserted, and then you might put them in a doorway where we could find them as we went along. You would also have to find some packets of cartridges. When shall we start, master?”

“If we can be ready to start to–night all the better.”

“There can be no difficulty about that. I know many native shops where I can get the clothes, and there are plenty of dead Boxers from whom I could take red suits. You could not get your head shaved here, but I will carry a razor and soap with me, and in the morning, first thing, will shave your head. I can buy a pigtail in the town, as many people who have not much hair use false pigtails, and I have no doubt that plenty of them are to be found in the empty shops in the native town.”

“Shall we require to take any food with us?”

“We can take enough rice for our journey, master, and we can get tea anywhere; but you will have to do without anything else.”

“That makes no difference at all; I can do very well on rice, and I can take some of the condiments we use with it. Even if we are searched, these will be as natural as the rice.”

“Is there anything else that you can think of, master?”

“No, I cannot think of anything else at present, but I shall see you again later, and can then fix on the hour for starting.”

During the time when the danger was at its greatest the house had never been so silent, or the face of Mr. Bateman so grave. His wife was absolutely prostrated. This added tothe resolution the lad had taken. At whatever risk he might incur, his aunt and cousins must be rescued if they were alive when he reached Chafui, and it were within the limits of possibility to do so. He did not think that the journey in itself really involved any risk, and should he find that all had been massacred he had but to return. He knew how precious his life was in the eyes of his parents, and he resolved to take every means possible to avoid risk. Even if the news he brought back were of the worst, it would be better for his mother than the terrible anxiety that she was now suffering as to the fate of his aunt and cousins.

In the course of the day he wrote a letter to his father, which ran as follows:—

“My Dear Father,

“When you receive this I shall be miles away. As you know, as far as talking goes, I can pass anywhere as a native; and as I shall be thoroughly disguised, I feel sure that with Ah Lo I could go right through China without being suspected. Seeing how terribly anxious my mother and you are about the safety of Aunt and the girls, I have made up my mind to go to Chafui to gather news of them. I am sure that it would be better for Mother to know even the worst than to suffer this terrible anxiety. I do not think I shall run any risk whatever.“I must tell you that though Ah Lo is going with me it is very much against his will, because he thought that you would blame him if things went wrong, and it was only when I told him that if he did not go with me I should go alone that he consented to accompany me. It was not that he thought of the danger, but that he feared you would be displeased with him for undertaking this journey without your permission. I donʼt think that I should have carriedout the threat. Although I know the language well enough I do not know anything of the customs and the religion, and I felt that it would really be a hazardous enterprise if Ah Lo did not go with me. Now, however, that at last he has consented to accompany me, I have no fear whatever.“I should have asked your permission to undertake this expedition, but I was afraid that you would refuse, and I felt so sure of being able to accomplish my purpose without difficulty that I decided to go without telling you of my intention. You see, Father, it is evident that after what is going on every white man in China will be in peril for a long time to come, and as it is settled that I am going to stay here for at any rate a good many years, I shall have to run risks, and those risks will be greater than any I am likely to meet with now that I am going in disguise. I am quite prepared for emergencies, so I hope that you will not be angry, though I know you will be anxious until I return.“Ah Loʼs native village is only a few miles from Chafui, and his story that, as there was no longer work to be done in Tientsin, he was going for a time to see his friends is plausible. Indeed, we shall probably stay there among his friends and learn all that has taken place in the town, so that everything will be easy sailing. You must not expect me back for about a month. It will take us ten days to walk to Chafui, ten days to stay at Ah Loʼs village and get full information, and ten to return. That is as near as I can tell at present. There may be unexpected delays, but anyhow we shall not be back in less than a month. Should I find that I am likely to be much longer away, I shall, if possible, send one of Ah Loʼs people down with a message to you.“Of course, Father, you can, if you think best, tell Mother where I have gone, and why, or lead her to believe that I have gone down to the coast to make arrangements with shipsthat have arrived with goods for you, or to act as an interpreter to the troops as they come up.“I believe that if I had never gone to England I should not have thought of carrying out such a plan as this, but one gets to think for oneʼs self when one is at school. I feel sure that there was scarcely a fellow of my age there who, if he had the advantages in the way of speaking languages that I have, would not willingly have undertaken the job. Certainly I feel that the amount of risk to be run is very small compared with the importance of relieving Motherʼs mind and yours, and, of course, though it is some years since I have seen my aunt and cousins, I, too, am very anxious.”

“When you receive this I shall be miles away. As you know, as far as talking goes, I can pass anywhere as a native; and as I shall be thoroughly disguised, I feel sure that with Ah Lo I could go right through China without being suspected. Seeing how terribly anxious my mother and you are about the safety of Aunt and the girls, I have made up my mind to go to Chafui to gather news of them. I am sure that it would be better for Mother to know even the worst than to suffer this terrible anxiety. I do not think I shall run any risk whatever.

“I must tell you that though Ah Lo is going with me it is very much against his will, because he thought that you would blame him if things went wrong, and it was only when I told him that if he did not go with me I should go alone that he consented to accompany me. It was not that he thought of the danger, but that he feared you would be displeased with him for undertaking this journey without your permission. I donʼt think that I should have carriedout the threat. Although I know the language well enough I do not know anything of the customs and the religion, and I felt that it would really be a hazardous enterprise if Ah Lo did not go with me. Now, however, that at last he has consented to accompany me, I have no fear whatever.

“I should have asked your permission to undertake this expedition, but I was afraid that you would refuse, and I felt so sure of being able to accomplish my purpose without difficulty that I decided to go without telling you of my intention. You see, Father, it is evident that after what is going on every white man in China will be in peril for a long time to come, and as it is settled that I am going to stay here for at any rate a good many years, I shall have to run risks, and those risks will be greater than any I am likely to meet with now that I am going in disguise. I am quite prepared for emergencies, so I hope that you will not be angry, though I know you will be anxious until I return.

“Ah Loʼs native village is only a few miles from Chafui, and his story that, as there was no longer work to be done in Tientsin, he was going for a time to see his friends is plausible. Indeed, we shall probably stay there among his friends and learn all that has taken place in the town, so that everything will be easy sailing. You must not expect me back for about a month. It will take us ten days to walk to Chafui, ten days to stay at Ah Loʼs village and get full information, and ten to return. That is as near as I can tell at present. There may be unexpected delays, but anyhow we shall not be back in less than a month. Should I find that I am likely to be much longer away, I shall, if possible, send one of Ah Loʼs people down with a message to you.

“Of course, Father, you can, if you think best, tell Mother where I have gone, and why, or lead her to believe that I have gone down to the coast to make arrangements with shipsthat have arrived with goods for you, or to act as an interpreter to the troops as they come up.

“I believe that if I had never gone to England I should not have thought of carrying out such a plan as this, but one gets to think for oneʼs self when one is at school. I feel sure that there was scarcely a fellow of my age there who, if he had the advantages in the way of speaking languages that I have, would not willingly have undertaken the job. Certainly I feel that the amount of risk to be run is very small compared with the importance of relieving Motherʼs mind and yours, and, of course, though it is some years since I have seen my aunt and cousins, I, too, am very anxious.”

That evening he felt even more than before that the proposed expedition was excusable, for his father said: “I am terribly anxious, Rex. Your mother has been delirious all the afternoon, and the doctors are both feeling very anxious about her mind. You see, we have all gone through the strain of the last two months, and this blow coming on the top of it has had a very much greater effect than it would have had in ordinary circumstances. They think that if she had known for certain that her sister and the girls had been killed, the shock would have had less disastrous effects than this terrible uncertainty. It may be weeks, it may even be months, before the truth can be known and her mind relieved of the strain. They fear that when the present paroxysms have passed away she may settle down into a state of fixed melancholia, and if bad news came then it might simply deepen this melancholia, which would in that case become permanent.”

“It is indeed terrible, Father, but I hope that the doctorsʼ view is a mistaken one.”

Mr. Bateman shook his head and passed his handkerchiefacross his eyes, and if up to that time Rex had had any doubt that he was going to act wisely, he felt now that, even apart from his own anxiety about his aunt and cousins, he was fully justified by his motherʼs state in carrying out his plan.

At eleven oʼclock that night he crept out of the house. He had dyed his skin with a mixture which Ah Lo had brought him, dressed himself in the native clothes, and put the sword, knife, and pistol in his belt. In a bundle he had three boxes of ammunition and the Boxer clothes, together with a pair of light boots to put on when there were no villages near, in case the Chinese shoes should gall his feet. Ah Lo was at the gate of the courtyard. He wore no disguise, but had put on coarse coolie clothes instead of those he wore as a trusted servant in the house.

“Have you got everything, Ah Lo?”

“Everything; ten pounds of rice, the box of clothes, the ammunition for the pistols, another bottle of the dye for your skin, some black dye for your eyebrows and eyelashes, and a little brown for the corners of your eyes. I have changed the piece of gold you gave me for dollars in cash, and I have got a pigtail and the razor and soap.”

“I have bought a small compass,” Rex said. “It may be useful to us going across the country, for I know that the roads are mostly tracks between the villages and cross each other in all directions.”

On leaving the premises they picked up Rexʼs rifle and bag of ammunition, and the rifle that Ah Lo had bought during the day and had hidden away outside the settlement. Then they made a detour to avoid the native town, and, when once fairly beyond this, struck out across the fields. They made a long detour to avoid the encampment of Chinese soldiers, and then struck into a steady walk.

When a few miles from the town they saw fires burning, and made another detour to avoid these, knowing that they marked the position of parties of Boxers. They walked steadily all night, and in the morning reached a village, having made, as they calculated, at least thirty miles. Few people were about. Burnt cottages showed that the Boxers had passed that way and, as usual, had looted and destroyed everything they could lay hands on. Indeed, not being a regularly–organized body, they were forced to depend upon what they could take for subsistence, and were the scourge of the districts through which they passed.

“So you are going to Chafui!” said an old man whom they had asked if there were any Boxers in the neighbourhood. “You will have to be very careful. Those who have been attacking Tientsin are still in that neighbourhood, but you may come across other parties marching down to join them. They are terrible people. If anyone refuses to give them all that they ask for, they will kill everyone in the house and burn it afterwards. They make most of the young men go with them to fight the whites in Tientsin. It is a terrible time. I can remember the Taiping rebellion, and this seems to me to be quite as bad. They all say that the Empress is in their favour, but I cannot believe it. They tell terrible tales about the missionaries; but I lived for some time at Chafui, and it seemed to me that they were good and peaceful people, and although I stay so near Tientsin I have not till of late heard a word against the merchants there. They have indeed done much good for the town; they pay those who work for them well and do no harm to anyone. A son of mine worked for them for ten years, and came back with enough money to live comfortably all his life. He was a good son, and helped me as a son should do, but the Boxers killed him a month ago because he ventured to say that sofar from doing harm the foreigners enriched the town and brought much trade into it.”

“I shall take care to keep my mouth shut when I get home,” Ah Lo said. “I too have worked for them and found them good masters and just people, but after what you have told me I shall take care not to say a word in their favour.”

“You will be wise not to do so. And now you say you wish to sleep, as you have walked all night. You can lie down in the room upstairs; no one will disturb you. We used to be glad to question strangers who came along, for further news, but now our own troubles are quite as much as we can think of. I fear that this will continue until the last of the sea–pirates is killed; after that who can say what will happen!”

After cooking the rice they had bought, and eating a meal, they went upstairs and slept for many hours. As soon as night fell they continued their journey, and on the seventh morning after starting they arrived within a few miles of Chafui. They had met with no adventures on the way. Several times they went into the fields and hid among growing grain to avoid a party of the enemy, and once, just as they had arrived in a village, a band of Boxers came in, but they managed to slip out of the house unobserved and spent the night in the fields.

They had agreed that they would not enter Chafui until they had first paid a visit to Ah Loʼs native village, where they would be able to learn the state of things in the town. They could then decide whether it would be best to put on their Boxer dresses or not. They had scarcely entered the village when Ah Lo was recognized. As one of his old friends shouted his name and a welcome, people ran out from all the houses to greet them, and by the time he reached his fatherʼs door he was surrounded by a crowd of friends and neighbours,and Rex understood for the first time how very close was the family bond in China.

It was five years since Ah Lo had been there, and he was greeted as a wanderer returning to his parents, and bringing, no doubt, some of the proceeds of his labours. Indeed, the villagers had already benefited, for while he was in England he regularly forwarded a portion of his wages to his parents. Thus he bore a good name. He had never brought any trouble upon the village; he had never been called upon to pay a fine for his misdeeds; and his father and mother were considered fortunate people in having such a son. They too had come to the door, attracted by the loud talking outside, and their delight at his return was touching.

When at last they had entered the house and closed the door the old man said: “We have been uneasy about you. The message telling us of your return, and your welcome present, gave us at first great joy; but when, two days later, the disturbances began we trembled for your safety, and have offered up many prayers to Buddha to preserve you for us. But I see that things have gone wrong with you. Last time you came you were well clad, and all said truly, ‘Ah Lo is making his fortuneʼ; but now your clothes are those of a common man.”

“I have so clad myself, Father, in order to escape plunder on my way with my friend here. He too belongs to the white merchant for whom I have worked so long. Like myself he wanted to escape from the city where there was such fierce fighting, and as trade was at a stand–still we had no difficulty in getting away.”

“He is welcome for your sake,” the old man said. “If he is your friend, assuredly he is our friend also, and he shall share with us all we have, which, indeed, we owe chiefly to you. And have you come to stay with us for good, Ah Lo?”

“No, Father, I have come to gather news, and that partly on business; so my pay is still going on. As you know, the missionary at Chafui is the brother of my patron—at least his wife is sister of my patronʼs wife. News has reached him that there were bad doings at Chafui, and consequently he and his wife are greatly disturbed; so I said that I would come here and learn the truth of the reports that we had heard.”

“It is true,” his father said. “The Boxers came to Chafui and stirred up the people of the town, and they ran together and attacked the praying–house and the people who have taken to the strange religion. The missionary fought hard when they attacked his house, but what could he and a handful of his followers do against many hundreds? The soldiers did not move to help him, and the house was taken and he was killed. The women of the family were carried to the governorʼs yamen. It was reported that his wife has died from grief and terror, but I cannot say whether that is true; of her daughters I have not heard.”

This confirmation of his worst fears was a terrible blow to Rex, who with difficulty restrained himself from bursting into tears.

“That is bad news indeed,” Ah Lo said gravely. “It will be a heavy blow to my patron and his wife, and I myself am sorely grieved, as is also Shen Yo, my companion; for we have both seen the lady and her children when they have been staying at our patronʼs house. They were good people and kindly, and assuredly never did anyone any harm.”

“They were well spoken of,” Ah Loʼs father said: “no one had any harm to say of them. It was not until the Boxers stirred up the rabble of the town against these Christians that there was any disturbance here. It was always said that the governor was unfavourable to the Christians, but as they gave no cause of complaint things have always gone on quietlyenough, as the orders from Pekin always have been that they should not be molested. But for some weeks past we have heard reports that the Empress had turned her face against them, and that her counsellors were of opinion that these foreign people should be destroyed or driven from the country. We even heard that men were being drilled in Pekin; but people in general did not think much of these things until the Boxers grew numerous and began to create disturbances. Many of us were grieved, for the white people had shown much kindness and had given good medicines to people who were ill, and in other ways had done much good. But, of course, when the Empress and her counsellors had given the word to kill, no one would venture to withstand the Boxers and the rabble of the town. The governor knew the will of those in high places, and when word was sent to him of what was being done, he remained in his yamen and kept the soldiers quiet, so that no one dared to lift a finger to aid the whites. Many tales were told of their ill doings; how they stole little children and sacrificed them to their gods; but for myself I did not believe these things. We have always heard from you that the whites were good people, that they treated all natives well, and assuredly if you had heard of such doings as this you would not have remained with them. Therefore we did not believe these tales to their disadvantage, but we should only have thrown away our lives if we had ventured to express our feelings. Even in the village most people believed the tales, and said it was good that the foreign devils should be destroyed, so now that you have come back you must not speak in favour of these people or you will assuredly lose your life.”

“I shall hold my tongue, Father. Who am I that I should disobey the orders of the Empress? Nevertheless, I tell you that these white people are good. Have I not lived amongthem for nearly four years? They are good people. Among them no one is ill–treated, or beaten, or put to death. None carry weapons; everyone respects the others. Although I was a stranger and a foreigner, no one molested me; I went and came as I chose. As to their offering sacrifices and killing children, the thing is absurd. They are anxious to do good to foreigners, and subscribe great sums to send their priests abroad that they may teach other people their religion. All these stories that are told about them are lies, and they have been told for the purpose of rousing ill–feeling against them. I am grieved that this trouble has come about, but assuredly it is no business of mine, except in so far as it concerns the friends of my patron. The ladies have stayed at his house, and they have spoken kindly to me and have given me money. I would do much for them for their own sake, as well as for that of my patron, who, as I have always told you, is the best man I have ever met. But I see that I can do nothing, and I can only grieve over the misfortunes that have befallen him. Of course I shall say nothing here as to my feelings, and shall even join in the cry against the foreigners. I have no wish to throw away my life and to bring disgrace and death upon you and my mother.”

“That is right, Ah Lo. It would assuredly bring terrible misfortune upon you were you to say a word in favour of the Christians. There are many who share your feelings, but they dare not open their lips, and you too must hide your real sentiments. The order has come that the Christians must be destroyed, and that order must be obeyed. Most of the young men of the village have joined the Boxers, fearing that unless they did so evil would befall them. Now tell me something about the country where you have been living, and about these strange people, who are not content to live in their own island, but come here to turn the minds of thepeople against their god and to bring trouble on the land. Are there many of them?”

“Very many; not so many as there are in China, but they are brave soldiers, and have arms altogether superior to ours. That, together with the way in which they are trained, gives them a great advantage over us. But though they can fight well, they do not wish to fight. They are great traders, and it is only when their trade is interfered with, or their people ill–treated, that they go to war. They have no enmity against people of other religions, and all the time that I was in England no one ever tried to turn me from my faith. No one said a word against Buddha, or interfered with me in any way. They think that their religion is right, just as we believe in ours, and they try to convert others, just as the Buddhists came to China and converted large numbers of our people. They think that they are doing good, and spend much money in trying to do so. It is strange to me that they cannot leave things alone, but it is their way, and certainly I have no ill–will towards them on that account. When my mother has got our meal ready, and we have eaten, I will tell you much about them and of the life that I led there; but the tale is so long that I dare not begin it fasting.”

For two or three hours Ah Lo talked with his parents, and then went out into the village with Rex and chatted with the villagers. He learned a good deal as to the state of the town, and arranged to buy some vegetables, saying that he wanted to go in and see for himself what had taken place, and that he did not like going in empty–handed, as he might be ill–treated by the Boxers were he walking about idly.

The great topic of conversation, however, was with regard to the fighting at Tientsin. Few particulars of this had been heard, and the villagers were astonished when they heard that the white devils had resisted all attacks upon them and hadrepulsed the Boxers with great slaughter, although the latter were no doubt much more numerous and had succeeded in destroying the greater portion of the town. Ah Lo, however, told his friends that the Boxers were still excited, and would no doubt renew their attacks with greater success, although some of the sailors from the ships were coming up to aid the whites.

“I was glad to get away,” he continued, “for there was always shooting going on, and I feared that if the Boxers came in they would kill those who were in the employment of the whites. Most of these men managed to escape before I did, but I took the opportunity of the lull in fighting to escape at night.”

It was not Until the old people had retired for the night that Ah Lo and Rex sat down to talk with each other. It had been a long and painful day for the lad; he had been compelled to appear at his ease, to answer innumerable questions, and to support Ah Lo in his various statements. But when at last he found himself alone with his faithful servant he exclaimed; “Thank God, Ah Lo, we can now talk and decide what is to be done! I feel almost mad at the news. It is bad enough to know that my aunt has died, but to think of my cousin in the hands of these fiends is enough to drive me out of my mind. Of course we must try to rescue them. How it is to be accomplished I have not the faintest idea at present, but I am quite resolved that if it is in any way possible it must be done.”

“I am ready to do what I can, master, but if they are in the governorʼs yamen I do not see how we can manage to release them.”

“No, nor do I; but there must be some way. There is always some way, Ah Lo, if one can but hit on it. I suppose the governorʼs yamen will be guarded by soldiers?”

“It is certain to be,” Ah Lo said. “It would be in ordinary times, but now the watch is probably more strict than ever, because, although the governor has sided with the Boxers, it is probable that he is still afraid that they may attack him.”

“Well, to–morrow we must have a good look at the place. It is certain that there is no time to be lost, for these two poor girls may at any moment be murdered. We may take it as certain that there is no possibility of releasing them by force. The people here are evidently so completely cowed by the Boxers that it would be hopeless to get any of them to aid us in that way. We can do nothing until we see the place. I suppose you know it?”

“Yes, there is a large courtyard in front of it, with a guard–house at the gate, and a wall runs across the courtyard just about the middle of the house. In the front part are the public offices, in the back the governorʼs private apartments. Behind the building there is a large garden.”

“And it is probable that the prisoners are kept at the back of the house?”

“It may be so, master, but one cannot say. It is possible that the public may be permitted to stare at them, and in that case they might be in the front part of the house.”

“That doesnʼt matter much. When we are in the town to–morrow we will go into the courtyard if the gates are open and the public are admitted; if not, we must try some other means to find them. Now, from what you say, I should think that it is by the garden that we must effect an entrance. Though there may be sentries in front of the house, it is hardly likely that any will be placed in the garden. But if sentries are there we ought to have no difficulty in settling them. Once into the garden, we ought easily to effect an entrance by a door or a window. Then, of course, we shouldhave to be guided by circumstances, for there will doubtless be a number of servants sleeping in the passages, and possibly some soldiers. You are going to help me, arenʼt you, Ah Lo?”

“Certainly, master; I have come here to do so. My life is of little consequence to me. If it is my fate to die now I must die. Tell me what you want done and I will do it.”

“Thank you, Ah Lo! I knew that I could rely upon you. If I could manage it by myself I would do so, but certainly I shall require assistance. We have to consider not only how to get the girls out, but also how we are to escape pursuit. Of course we shall need disguises, for there is sure to be a hot search, and the whole country will be scoured.”

“Well, master, we may as well sleep now. We can talk matters over when we go to the town in the morning. A couple of great baskets of vegetables will be ready for us in the morning, and we shall have plenty of time to talk over our plans as we go along.”

CHAPTER IVA RESCUEAn hour after dawn they started. Early as it was the vegetables had been cut and packed in three large baskets, and after paying for them they put the straps of the baskets across their foreheads and started. The loads were fairly heavy and although Ah Lo carried his without difficulty, Rex found the strap press very heavily on his forehead.“I was thinking it over in the night, master,” Ah Lo said, when they had gone a short distance.“Donʼt call me master, Ah Lo; you know that we agreed that you should always call me Shen Yo.”“I will try to do so. Well, I have been thinking it over, and I consider that if we succeed in getting the ladies away, we should at first go north. The search will be made for us chiefly on the roads to Tientsin and Pekin. The distance is about the same to both towns. They will scarcely suspect that we have gone north, and if we travel all night, hide in a rice–field during the day, and then again travel all night, we should be beyond the reach of searchers, and could then travel round to Pekin, which would, I think, be safer than Tientsin, where the Boxers will always be in numbers. Of course we must have disguises for the ladies. Their best plan would be to dress as boys. Chinese women do not travel about, and their doing so would at once give rise to suspicion. We must, of course, get some stain to give them theproper native colour. When we have turned our faces towards Pekin we must state that you and I are going to enlist in the Chinese army, that we have friends in Pekin, and that the boys are going with us to get any work they can. We can account for our guns by saying that we have obtained them from some of the Boxers who had brought them from Tientsin.”“Yes, we must stick to them if we can,” Rex agreed. “As they are magazine rifles we ought to be a match for any twenty of these villagers or a dozen Boxers; and at any rate, if the worst came to the worst, we could be killed fighting and not be put to death by slow torture.“I have been thinking too,” Rex added, “that the best thing to do will be to set the house on fire. If we take in with us a large can of spirit, sprinkle it over everything in one of the rooms, and then spill a lot in the passage and set it all alight, the sudden alarm will create such a tremendous confusion and panic that we may be able to seize the girls and carry them off without being noticed.”“That would be a very good plan,” Ah Lo agreed. “We shall have to carry a heavy sledge–hammer with us to break in the door of their prison, for they are sure to be locked up. A sentry will probably be stationed at their door, and of course we must stab him. If we set fire to the house, as you propose, we had better carry thick clothes with us to throw round them, as, in order to carry them off, we may have to run through the flames. The wrappings will protect them, and besides people wonʼt notice what we are carrying and will think that we are rescuing valuables from the flames. It will be well also, if possible, to seize porcelain jars or other valuables. I can carry the elder girl; and you can take the younger on one shoulder, and carry a jar or some other valuable on the other. We had better have cloaks and broadhats, like those of the soldiers. There would be no fear, in the confusion, of anyone noticing our faces.“I really think, Shen Yo, that we may be able to succeed. It did not seem possible at first, but I think now that with the aid of fire we may be successful.”“I certainly donʼt see why we shouldnʼt,” Rex said. “In such wild confusion as there would be, no one would notice anyone else. The great thing is to be quite sure where the girls are kept, and that we must find out to–day if possible. We will get rid of our vegetables as soon as we can, and then wander about with the empty baskets on our shoulders. We shall then see if people go in and out of the yamen. It is most likely that they will. Many will have petitions to make and some complaints to lay before the governor. Some, perhaps, will only go in to stare about. Possibly a little cash may induce one of the soldiers to point out the door of the room where the girls are confined, and that will be all that we shall want. When we have found that out we shall have to buy two suits of clothes for the girls, two cloaks and hats like those worn by the military, long lengths of rope for climbing the wall and getting down, a hook of some sort for catching the top of the wall, a sledge–hammer, a chisel for opening a door or a window, and a bottle holding a couple of gallons of spirit. Can you think of anything else?”“We must get some provisions and leave them at the bottom of the wall before we climb up, for we must not go anywhere to buy food for the first day or two after we start.”“Yes, that will certainly be a good plan.”When they approached Chafui they overtook some other peasants also carrying in vegetables, and, joining them, they entered the town together. Numbers of Boxers in their red jackets were in the streets, and a good many of the regular soldiers. The townspeople were moving about; some werelaughing and chatting with the soldiers, others moved quietly about, evidently feeling by no means sure that the Boxers would not, before they left the town, plunder the houses.Rex and Ah Lo were not long in disposing of the contents of their baskets, and they moved nearer and nearer to the yamen as they did so, getting rid of a large number of their goods within a short distance of the gate. They sat down for a while near the gate of the yamen and watched the people go in and out of the courtyard. Then, approaching the gate, they laid their blankets down a short distance from the soldiers standing at the gate, and entered. No questions were asked, and, crossing the courtyard, they entered the house. They saw two soldiers standing at a door and went up to them.“What do you want?” one of them asked.“Can we see the little white devils? We have come a long way to have a look at them.” And he slipped a few coins into the manʼs hands.“No, you canʼt see them,” the man said; “the orders of the governor are strict. They wonʼt be here much longer; the governor expects a message from the viceroy to–morrow, and then we shall put an end to them. It might just as well have been done at first. If it had, we should have been saved the trouble of keeping sentry over them for the past week.”This was serious news, but they had seen all they required. There was a door between the private apartment and the public rooms. This was closed, and the room occupied by the prisoners was next to it. Having ascertained this important fact, Rex and his follower left the house, took up their baskets, and walked off.“I think that is as well as we could expect,” Rex said. “We may take it for certain that no sentries will be placedin the private part of the house; so that if we enter on that side we can make our preparations and light our fire without fear of being disturbed. Now we had better take a turn round the place behind, to choose the spot where we will climb over, and see if any sentries are placed on that side.”The wall was about fourteen feet high, and there was a door at the back. All was quiet, and there was a piece of waste ground behind the garden. They examined the door carefully.“I think, Ah Lo,” said Rex, “it will be better to cut round this lock, if we cannot force it, instead of climbing over the wall. That would take us time; while if the door could be opened at once we should run straight down the garden, close the door behind us, and make off without a momentʼs delay.”“It would certainly be much better,” Ah Lo agreed. “We should have plenty of time to cut through the door after it gets dark. If we decide to do that we shall have to buy a saw and a tool for cutting a hole through which to thrust it. It would certainly be a relief to get rid of the ropes. We may as well get the other things at once, and then we can sit down in some quiet place, eat our food, and talk matters over.”When Ah Lo had bought all the various things they required, they sat down with their backs against a wall. All their purchases were stowed in the bottom of one of their baskets, the other being put into it so that no one might see what they were carrying.“Of course,” said Rex when they were seated, “it wonʼt be an easy job. In the first place, we have to make an entrance; I donʼt think that there will be much difficulty about that. Then, you see, we shall have to light a fire in two rooms, one on each side, and as the flames rush out of thedoors, we must open the door of communication. Probably it is fastened with a bar. There must be a sufficient blaze to cause a panic among the sentries. For a moment there will, no doubt, be a tremendous uproar, and anyone in the passage or rooms will rush out. Then we must seize the moment to break in the door. If the sentries should keep their place, which I should think is very doubtful, we must throw ourselves upon them at once. The door once open, the rest will be easy; we shall have but to wrap the girls in the blankets and run through the fire with them. The critical moment will be that at which we open the door; we must make perfectly sure that the two sentries are taken by surprise. I have every hope that the place will be burnt down, and in that case it is likely enough that they will never give the captives a thought beyond concluding that they have been burnt to death. I think it would be a good thing to take the hangings from some of the rooms, roll them up into a bundle, and soak them with the spirit. Then, when we have taken down the bar and have the door ready for opening, we will light that bundle, so that when we open the door there will be a great blaze close to the men and at the same time they will see the flames from the rooms farther down the passage. The scare is almost certain to make them bolt, and we can then break in the other door. The noise will merely sound to them as if something on fire had fallen down, and we shall have got the girls out through the door before they can open the gate of the yard and call the sentries from the guard–house.”“I think it ought all to go right,” Ah Lo agreed. “Now, master, I think that I will go back again. I must see my father and mother and tell them that I have to go away on urgent business, for that I hear the Boxers are coming to our village in the morning to search for every able–bodied man,and that, therefore, I must leave at once. What will you do?”“Can we return to the back of this yamen without passing through the town?”“Yes.”“Then I will go with you. We need not bring our baskets back with us; we can make the things up into a bundle. I would rather walk home with you and return than hang about here where I might be questioned.”Accordingly they again took their baskets on their backs and returned to the village, hiding their parcels before they entered. Hearing the news they brought, several young men, who had managed to escape the last search of the Boxers, at once made off into the country. Ah Lo and Rex remained with the two old people until dusk. The old people were much distressed to hear that their son had to leave them so soon. He promised to pay them a longer visit as soon as it was safe to do so, and having left a sufficient supply of money to last them for some time, he took a tender farewell of them and started once more with his companion.They arrived without adventure at the back of the yamen, and at once set to work on the lock, as it was now perfectly dark and the streets were already deserted except by parties of Boxers. In an hour they had cut round the lock, but then they found that the door was also held by bolts. It did not take them long, however, to enlarge the hole sufficiently for Rex to get his arm through and unfasten the bolts. They now waited until the lights in the house gradually disappeared, and then moved quietly up to it. They found, as they hoped would be the case, that the door of the house was unfastened.Having ascertained this, they waited another hour until they were sure that everyone was asleep. Then they entered,lit a lamp that they had bought for the purpose, and set to work. They soon piled mats and curtains near the doors of the rooms on both sides of the passage, and poured oil and spirit over them. When this was done they made up a roll six feet high and six feet long, and, saturating this with oil, carried it to the door. They then set a light to the great piles of inflammable materials in the two rooms. These flashed up instantly, and the flames came rushing through the doors. When they saw that the blaze had taken a good hold of the material they set fire to the bundle in the passage.As this blazed up they removed the bar and flung the door open. The two sentries gave a loud cry as they saw the flames rushing out at the end of the passage, and made a simultaneous rush for the front door. Running in, Rex and his companion found that the door of the girlsʼ prison was held by bars only. These they undid, and found to their satisfaction that the door opened, and that there was no occasion to break it down.The light of the flames was amply sufficient to enable them to see. The two girls lay in each otherʼs arms in one corner.“It is all right, girls!” Rex cried. “I am Rex, and I have come here to save you!”Then, lifting the girls to their feet, they wrapped the blankets round them. Each lifted one and sprang through the flames rising from the roll, and then through the sheet of fire at the end of the passage. When they reached the open air they released the girls from the wrappings, and, snatching up their rifles, which they had left leaning against the wall outside, ran down the garden. Once outside they felt that they were for the present safe.Already a babel of noises was arising from the yamen—shrieks of women and shouts of men.ill078REX RESCUES HIS COUSINS FROM THE BOXERS“I hope the women wonʼt be burned,” Rex said.“If they cannot get down the staircase they can jump from the windows,” said Ah Lo.“Thank God, girls, that we have got you out! We have some native clothes for you, but we must run for some little distance first; the fire will bring all the town out.”“Are we dreaming?” Jenny said. “Can it be really you, Rex?”“It is, dear; you can seize me and shake me, to make sure that you are awake. Are you strong enough to walk?”“Yes, if I am really awake.”The younger sister, however, could scarcely stand, and Ah Lo caught her up and they at once started, Jenny pouring question after question into Rexʼs ear as he hurried her along. When they were two or three hundred yards away they broke into a walk.“Now we can go on steadily,” Rex said. “We are absolutely safe till the morning, and by that time I hope we shall be a good many miles away.”When they had gone another mile Rex said: “We had better stop here and eat something, for we shall want all our strength for the journey.”“But how did you come to be here, Rex?”“Well, dear, we heard such terrible news of what was going on throughout the country that Ah Lo and I determined to come out in disguise to see if we could be of any assistance to you. Of course we have heard all that has happened, so do not pain yourselves by talking about it at present. We have got stain for you to colour your skin, and the dresses of Chinese boys in which you must disguise yourselves. It would not do for you to be travelling as girls. We shall try to make our way to Pekin. Of course we shall have difficulties, but I trust that we shall get through all right.We intend to give out that we are going to enlist in the army, and we shall have to invent some story to account for your going with us. We have got rifles, so that if we should be interfered with by any small party we shall be able to give a good account of them. We have got you out more easily than we had expected, and no one is likely to notice that you have escaped. They will have more than enough to do if they wish to save the house, and I doubt whether they will succeed in putting out the fire, for I think we set the place pretty well alight.”Indeed, it was already evident that the fire had got a great hold, for, from the point that they had now gained, the flames could be seen leaping out of all the windows on the ground floor at the back of the house. The fugitives went almost at a run for another mile, and when they stopped and looked round, the yamen was in a blaze from top to bottom. Ah Lo now set Mabel on her feet, and the two girls threw themselves into each otherʼs arms and burst into tears.“Now you had better eat something,” Rex said, after he allowed them a short time to recover themselves. “Did the brutes feed you well?”“We had enough to eat till to–day; they have given us nothing to–day, and we thought that that was a sign that the end had very nearly come.”“No doubt it was so. Now in the first place you must each eat and drink something.”“I donʼt feel as if I wanted anything.”“Never mind, it is absolutely necessary that you should eat. We must get as far away as we can before morning, and unless you eat you wonʼt be able to walk.”The girls ate slowly at first, but as their appetites came back they managed to eat a hearty meal. While they did so Rex told them about the fighting at Tientsin, and the way inwhich they had made their way into the yamen and set it on fire.“I can only just see the outline of your figure, Rex,” Jenny said, “but you seem to have grown tremendously since I saw you last.”“Yes, I have grown a good deal. Four years make a great difference at my age. You have grown a good deal too, Jenny; you were quite a small girl when I saw you last. How pleased my father and mother will be to see you both again!”“Did they send any messages?”“No, Jenny, and for a very good reason. They did not know that we were coming. We stole off quietly in the night, for I was not at all sure that they would let me try if I asked their permission. I left a letter for them saying where I had gone, and that, as I had Ah Lo with me, I felt pretty sure that it would come out all right. You see, I speak Chinese nearly as well as he does, and there was no real reason why anyone should suspect that we were not what we looked. Now, dear, if you have finished we will go on.”They went for some ten miles before the day began to break. Ah Lo carried Mabel for the last five, for both girls were weakened by the scenes they had gone through, the grief at the loss of their parents, and the fear as to their own fate. As day approached they went into a large field of standing corn, which rose some feet above their heads.“Now, girls, you go on a few yards and then change your clothes. Here is the stain. You must dye your whole skin and darken your eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair. You know a great deal better than I do how your hair must be plaited into pigtails and wound up under these hats. I think you will find the clothes all right; they are just jackets buttoning up in front, and loose trousers. You can put on your ownboots as long as we are walking in an open country and there is no one about, but when we are likely to meet anyone you must put on these Chinese shoes. After you have dressed yourselves you had better lie down and have a long sleep. We shall keep a look–out; but as we entered the field in single file, and raised the stalks after us, it is not likely that, even if the owner comes along, he will suspect that anyone is in hiding here. Before you try to go off to sleep you had better eat another meal.”“Are we on our way to Pekin, Rex?”“No, we have come north so far; for if a search is made it will be in the direction of Pekin or Tientsin. I do not think it at all likely, however, that they will trouble to look for us. They will not give you a thought at first; and when they do think of you the place will be in such a blaze that they wonʼt be able to get at your room, and will certainly conclude that you have perished in the flames. The only possible ground for suspicion will be that the door at the end of the garden may be found open; but no one may think of going round there for some days, and at the worst they will but fancy that robbers broke in there, and, while plundering the rooms, accidentally set the house on fire. At any rate, long before the idea can occur to them that it was an attempt to rescue you, we shall be a hundred miles away.”The day passed quietly. Ah Lo and Rex in turn slept and watched near the edge of the corn. Men could be seen working in some of the fields, but no one approached the edge of the field in which they were hidden. Late in the afternoon the girls joined them, looking their character so well that even Ah Lo said that he would not have suspected them of being anything but what they seemed. A hearty meal was then eaten, and an hour after dark they started again, this time making towards the east. They passed through manysmall villages during the night, and walked, they calculated, over twenty miles, Ah Lo, as before, carrying Mabel the last seven or eight miles. Again they hid during the day, and in the evening turned their faces towards Pekin. Their stock of provisions was now exhausted, and the next day Ah Lo went into a village and brought a fresh supply.They met with no adventure until they were half–way on their journey, when one evening as they were passing through a village, the door of one of the houses opened and three men whose dress showed them to be Boxers came out.“Hello!” one of them said, “who are you?”“We the travellers,” Ah Lo replied.“What makes you travel so late?”“We are anxious to push on to the next village.”“Come in here and let us have a look at you,” one of them said.“Shall we go in, master?” Ah Lo said in a whisper.“Yes, you had better; there is a large party of them. You go on, girls; stop by the side of the last house in the village on the right–hand side.”Rex and Lo then followed the men into the house. Inside were nine others, several of them smoking. “Now where are you going to?” demanded the Boxer who had before spoken, and who was apparently the leader of the party.“We are going to enlist in the army.”“You had better join us. I see you have a good gun; where did you get it from?”“I got it from some men who were fighting at Tientsin and returned home wounded.”“Well, you will get others there,” the man said; “you had better hand them over to us. You must stop here for the night and go on with us. It appears to me that there issomething suspicious about you. Where are the two boys who were with you?”“They have gone on. I told them to.”“Two of you run after them and fetch them back,” the man said angrily.Ah Lo and Rex both unslung their guns from their shoulders as if to hand them over. They were still standing in the doorway, and Ah Lo shoved one of the Boxers, who tried to pass him, and sent him staggering backwards. The captain, with an exclamation of fury, drew his sword. Ah Lo dropped his rifle against the manʼs chest and fired. The others at once sprang to their feet.“Donʼt throw away a shot!” Rex exclaimed. “Now it is begun we must finish them,” and he shot down the man next him. “Step back outside the door, then only one can get at us at a time.”The rifles rang out again, and three more of the Boxers fell. The others, seizing their arms, rushed in a mass towards them.“Fire by turns, Ah Lo,” Rex said as he fired, and then drove the muzzle of his rifle with all his force into the chest of the next man coming at him; the man fell as instantaneously as though he had been shot. Two or three of the Boxers were armed with guns, and these attempted to press forward so as to be able to use them. Rexʼs thrust had cleared the crowd a little back, and Ah Lo shot one of the men with a gun as he pressed forward. Almost at the same moment one of the others fired, and the ball passed along Rexʼs arm and came out in the shoulder. With a howl the man rushed forward again. Rex and Ah Lo fired at the same moment. There were now but four Boxers left, and these charged before they were ready to fire again. Ah Lo clubbed his musket; Rex, as before, used his gun as a spear, and as aBoxer rushed at him with uplifted sword, caught him full in the chest.“Hold the door while I load, Ah Lo,” he said.It took but a couple of seconds to discharge the cartridge and reload and close the breech, and then Rex shot one assailant just when Ah Lo struck down another. The last man threw down his weapon, but Ah Loʼs blood was up, and knowing that none of the party must be allowed to get away, he brought the butt of his musket down with all his strength upon the manʼs head.“That has been sharp work, Ah Lo,” Rex panted. “Now, we must be off.”“I donʼt think they are all killed,” Ah Lo said.“Well, most of them must be, and certainly none of the others can be in a position to take up the pursuit. We had better not wait another moment, or we shall have the villagers out on us.” So saying he started to run.“I will run,” Ah Lo said, “but there is no fear that the villagers will come out. When they hear the firing they will think that the Boxers are quarrelling among themselves, and certainly no one will venture out to see about it.”They found the girls waiting at the appointed place, and they gave a cry of joy as Rex ran up.“What has happened?” they asked together.“The Boxers were nasty and were sending two men off to catch you, so we stopped them, and we had a tough fight, but none of them got away.”“How many were there?”“Twelve.”“And you killed them all?”“We shot eight of them. Ah Lo broke the skulls of two, and I knocked the wind out of the other two. Whether I killed them or not I do not know, but it is quite certain thatthey cannot be in a fit condition to take up the pursuit. We can now go on again; only for the rest of the journey we must avoid villages.“You neednʼt grieve for the Boxers,” he said, as the girls uttered an exclamation of horror at what he had said. “As likely as not they have come from Chafui; but if not, no doubt they have taken part in some of these massacres and were making for Tientsin to join their fellows there.”“Oh, how could you do it, Rex? I am not sorry for the Boxers a bit, but it is wonderful that you two should have killed twelve of them in two minutes; I am sure the firing did not last longer than that.”“It was quick work certainly, Jenny; but with these breech–loaders one can fire all the shots in a magazine in less than a minute, and at such close quarters there was no possibility of missing oneʼs aim. If there had been a few more of them we should probably not have succeeded so well, for our magazines were nearly empty when we had finished. Still, holding the door as we did, so that only one man could really get at us at once, I think we should have given a good account of ourselves even if there had been five or six more.”They made an unusually long journey that night; the girls would not hear of stopping, although Rex assured them that there was no chance of being overtaken. When day dawned they were more than usually careful in hiding themselves among some very high grass. Rex and Ah Lo took turns to watch all day, but to their satisfaction they saw no one hurrying along the road as if carrying a message of importance.“I did not expect to see one,” Ah Lo said; “the villagers will be frightened out of their lives when they venture out in the morning and see what has happened. I think it likely that they will at once bury all the bodies, for they will beafraid that should a party of Boxers come along and see what has taken place, they would plunder and burn the village and kill all the inhabitants. No, I do not think there is any fear that the alarm will be given.”They continued their journey thus till they were within fifteen miles of Pekin. Here the road was no longer unfrequented during the day, bands of armed men and Boxers frequently passing along. The next day they made ten miles and then lay down to sleep. Soon after daybreak natives in carts, with vegetables and grain, came along. As soon as they had passed, the fugitives issued out, and presently overtaking one of the parties journeyed on in company with them until they reached the gates of the city. They wandered about for some hours before they found the quarter where the Legations were situated, for they did not like to ask directions, as that would have shown that they were strangers in the city. They came at last to a building where two marines were keeping guard. From these they heard that the British Legation was in the next street, and soon they were gladdened by the sight of an English uniform.They were stopped by the sentries, but on Rex saying in English that they were fugitives from one of the missions that had been destroyed they were allowed to enter.The Legation stood in a very large enclosure which had at one time been a palace belonging to a member of the imperial family. The gardens were charmingly laid out, and it contained several courtyards, each surrounded by buildings.They were conducted by one of the servants of the Legation to the house of the minister, Sir Claude Macdonald, and upon Rex sending in their names they were at once admitted.“We have made our escape, sir,” Rex said, “from Chafui, where the mission has been destroyed and all save these twoyoung ladies, daughters of the missionary in charge, murdered. I myself am the son of Mr. Bateman of Tientsin. These young ladies are my cousins, and with the aid of this faithful Chinaman, who has for many years been in my fatherʼs service, I have succeeded in rescuing them from the hands of the Boxers.”“I congratulate you indeed, sir. A considerable number of fugitives have already arrived here. I will hand the ladies over at once into the charge of Lady Macdonald, who will see that they are well cared for.”He rang a bell and told a servant to take the girls to Lady Macdonald, and then turned again to Rex:“We had heard reports of the massacre at Chafui, and were afraid that all had perished. I shall be glad to know how you and these young ladies escaped?”Rex gave a brief account of the incident.“I congratulate you most warmly on the success of your enterprise, and on the courage you displayed in undertaking it and carrying it out. It certainly seemed, on the face of it, to be a most mad–brained attempt, but it has been amply justified by the success that has attended it.“Our position here is very precarious, and although the court continue to give us assurances of the most friendly intentions, we have the best grounds for believing that the Empress and her advisers are bent upon our destruction. However, we are making every preparation for defence, and believe that we shall be able to hold out until assistance arrives. What are your own intentions?”“My intentions, sir, are to make my way at once down to Tientsin. My parents cannot but feel the most lively anxiety as to my safety, and my first duty is to go back to relieve their suspense. If any expedition is sent up here to your relief, I shall hope to accompany it in some capacity.I can speak Chinese like a native, and may be useful as an interpreter. I shall, of course, leave my cousins here if you will kindly permit them to stay, for although with my Chinese follower I might make my way without difficulty through any bodies of the Chinese who may be on the road, I could hardly do so if I were accompanied by two girls, however well they might be disguised.”“Certainly not,” the envoy said; “that would be quite impossible. There are, we know, a considerable number of the Chinese between us and Tientsin. They have already torn up the railway, and although my messengers do get through, direct communications are entirely interrupted. Still, as you have made the journey from Chafui here without difficulty, I should think that you might manage to accomplish the journey to Tientsin safely. Of course you will remain here a day or two. One of the members of my staff will lend you a suit of clothes.” He touched the bell. “Send Mr. Sandwich here. He is one of the student interpreters,” he said, turning again to Rex, “and is about your own height; and I have no doubt that his things will fit you well. I shall be glad if you will dine with me and afterwards give me more detailed accounts of your adventures.”In a few minutes the young man made his appearance. “Mr. Sandwich,” Sir Claude said, “I will hand over this gentleman, who has just arrived from Chafui, to your charge, He will only be staying here for a day or two, for he is going to try to make his way down to Tientsin. I shall be obliged if you will lend him a suit of clothes while he stays here.”“Certainly, I will do all I can to make him comfortable.”“I should be obliged, sir,” Rex said, “if you would allow a surgeon to dress my arm. A bullet entered just above the wrist and ran up to my shoulder. I think the wound isgoing on all right, but it is rather painful, and I should be glad to have it dressed properly.”“Certainly, I will send our doctor to the college at once. He will be there almost as soon as you. You did not tell me that you had been hit.”“It is not a serious wound, sir; the bullet only just went under the skin, and I fancy that when it has once been properly dressed it will give me no more trouble.”“You are well disguised,” Sandwich said as he left the room with Rex. “I am sure that I should not have had any suspicions, however closely I inspected you. How did you manage to get here from Chafui?”“I speak Chinese like a native. I was born in Tientsin, and was sent home to England four years ago; but as my father was most anxious that I should keep up Chinese, he sent with me one of the coolies who had always been my special servant, and so I came back speaking it as well as when I went.”“We heard that there had been a massacre at Chafui.”“Yes, I managed, with the aid of my man, to rescue my two cousins, who are the daughters of the missionary there. I was just in time, for they were to have been murdered on the following day.”“But how was it that you were not murdered yourself?”“For the simple reason that I was not there when the massacre took place. The news of the massacre came to us at Tientsin, and I set off with my man to see if any of them had survived and if possible to rescue them. This we effected by setting fire to the governorʼs yamen, where the girls were confined, and carrying them off in the confusion that ensued. The only adventure we met with on the road was that we were interfered with by a party of a dozen Boxers. We had a fight with them; but as we had breech–loaders,and they were jammed up in a room, we had no difficulty in disposing of them all.”“By Jove, that was a plucky thing,” Sandwich said; “and so you are going off again?”“Yes, I am in a hurry to get back to my people, who must be in great anxiety about me.”“Well, this is our college,” the young man said, stopping before a building of some size. “We are all trained here for the Chinese Consulate service. I will take you to my room first and rig you out. We shall be having a meal directly, and then I can introduce you to the fellows, when I promise you a hearty reception.”Half an hour later Rex went down in a suit of white clothes to the dining–room. He had already asked Sandwich to hand over Ah Lo to the proper quarter, where he could get rations and lodging. He was introduced to eight or ten young men who were studying at the college, and, after the meal was over, related the story of the rescue of his cousins. The narrative excited great interest, and he was warmly praised.

A RESCUE

An hour after dawn they started. Early as it was the vegetables had been cut and packed in three large baskets, and after paying for them they put the straps of the baskets across their foreheads and started. The loads were fairly heavy and although Ah Lo carried his without difficulty, Rex found the strap press very heavily on his forehead.

“I was thinking it over in the night, master,” Ah Lo said, when they had gone a short distance.

“Donʼt call me master, Ah Lo; you know that we agreed that you should always call me Shen Yo.”

“I will try to do so. Well, I have been thinking it over, and I consider that if we succeed in getting the ladies away, we should at first go north. The search will be made for us chiefly on the roads to Tientsin and Pekin. The distance is about the same to both towns. They will scarcely suspect that we have gone north, and if we travel all night, hide in a rice–field during the day, and then again travel all night, we should be beyond the reach of searchers, and could then travel round to Pekin, which would, I think, be safer than Tientsin, where the Boxers will always be in numbers. Of course we must have disguises for the ladies. Their best plan would be to dress as boys. Chinese women do not travel about, and their doing so would at once give rise to suspicion. We must, of course, get some stain to give them theproper native colour. When we have turned our faces towards Pekin we must state that you and I are going to enlist in the Chinese army, that we have friends in Pekin, and that the boys are going with us to get any work they can. We can account for our guns by saying that we have obtained them from some of the Boxers who had brought them from Tientsin.”

“Yes, we must stick to them if we can,” Rex agreed. “As they are magazine rifles we ought to be a match for any twenty of these villagers or a dozen Boxers; and at any rate, if the worst came to the worst, we could be killed fighting and not be put to death by slow torture.

“I have been thinking too,” Rex added, “that the best thing to do will be to set the house on fire. If we take in with us a large can of spirit, sprinkle it over everything in one of the rooms, and then spill a lot in the passage and set it all alight, the sudden alarm will create such a tremendous confusion and panic that we may be able to seize the girls and carry them off without being noticed.”

“That would be a very good plan,” Ah Lo agreed. “We shall have to carry a heavy sledge–hammer with us to break in the door of their prison, for they are sure to be locked up. A sentry will probably be stationed at their door, and of course we must stab him. If we set fire to the house, as you propose, we had better carry thick clothes with us to throw round them, as, in order to carry them off, we may have to run through the flames. The wrappings will protect them, and besides people wonʼt notice what we are carrying and will think that we are rescuing valuables from the flames. It will be well also, if possible, to seize porcelain jars or other valuables. I can carry the elder girl; and you can take the younger on one shoulder, and carry a jar or some other valuable on the other. We had better have cloaks and broadhats, like those of the soldiers. There would be no fear, in the confusion, of anyone noticing our faces.

“I really think, Shen Yo, that we may be able to succeed. It did not seem possible at first, but I think now that with the aid of fire we may be successful.”

“I certainly donʼt see why we shouldnʼt,” Rex said. “In such wild confusion as there would be, no one would notice anyone else. The great thing is to be quite sure where the girls are kept, and that we must find out to–day if possible. We will get rid of our vegetables as soon as we can, and then wander about with the empty baskets on our shoulders. We shall then see if people go in and out of the yamen. It is most likely that they will. Many will have petitions to make and some complaints to lay before the governor. Some, perhaps, will only go in to stare about. Possibly a little cash may induce one of the soldiers to point out the door of the room where the girls are confined, and that will be all that we shall want. When we have found that out we shall have to buy two suits of clothes for the girls, two cloaks and hats like those worn by the military, long lengths of rope for climbing the wall and getting down, a hook of some sort for catching the top of the wall, a sledge–hammer, a chisel for opening a door or a window, and a bottle holding a couple of gallons of spirit. Can you think of anything else?”

“We must get some provisions and leave them at the bottom of the wall before we climb up, for we must not go anywhere to buy food for the first day or two after we start.”

“Yes, that will certainly be a good plan.”

When they approached Chafui they overtook some other peasants also carrying in vegetables, and, joining them, they entered the town together. Numbers of Boxers in their red jackets were in the streets, and a good many of the regular soldiers. The townspeople were moving about; some werelaughing and chatting with the soldiers, others moved quietly about, evidently feeling by no means sure that the Boxers would not, before they left the town, plunder the houses.

Rex and Ah Lo were not long in disposing of the contents of their baskets, and they moved nearer and nearer to the yamen as they did so, getting rid of a large number of their goods within a short distance of the gate. They sat down for a while near the gate of the yamen and watched the people go in and out of the courtyard. Then, approaching the gate, they laid their blankets down a short distance from the soldiers standing at the gate, and entered. No questions were asked, and, crossing the courtyard, they entered the house. They saw two soldiers standing at a door and went up to them.

“What do you want?” one of them asked.

“Can we see the little white devils? We have come a long way to have a look at them.” And he slipped a few coins into the manʼs hands.

“No, you canʼt see them,” the man said; “the orders of the governor are strict. They wonʼt be here much longer; the governor expects a message from the viceroy to–morrow, and then we shall put an end to them. It might just as well have been done at first. If it had, we should have been saved the trouble of keeping sentry over them for the past week.”

This was serious news, but they had seen all they required. There was a door between the private apartment and the public rooms. This was closed, and the room occupied by the prisoners was next to it. Having ascertained this important fact, Rex and his follower left the house, took up their baskets, and walked off.

“I think that is as well as we could expect,” Rex said. “We may take it for certain that no sentries will be placedin the private part of the house; so that if we enter on that side we can make our preparations and light our fire without fear of being disturbed. Now we had better take a turn round the place behind, to choose the spot where we will climb over, and see if any sentries are placed on that side.”

The wall was about fourteen feet high, and there was a door at the back. All was quiet, and there was a piece of waste ground behind the garden. They examined the door carefully.

“I think, Ah Lo,” said Rex, “it will be better to cut round this lock, if we cannot force it, instead of climbing over the wall. That would take us time; while if the door could be opened at once we should run straight down the garden, close the door behind us, and make off without a momentʼs delay.”

“It would certainly be much better,” Ah Lo agreed. “We should have plenty of time to cut through the door after it gets dark. If we decide to do that we shall have to buy a saw and a tool for cutting a hole through which to thrust it. It would certainly be a relief to get rid of the ropes. We may as well get the other things at once, and then we can sit down in some quiet place, eat our food, and talk matters over.”

When Ah Lo had bought all the various things they required, they sat down with their backs against a wall. All their purchases were stowed in the bottom of one of their baskets, the other being put into it so that no one might see what they were carrying.

“Of course,” said Rex when they were seated, “it wonʼt be an easy job. In the first place, we have to make an entrance; I donʼt think that there will be much difficulty about that. Then, you see, we shall have to light a fire in two rooms, one on each side, and as the flames rush out of thedoors, we must open the door of communication. Probably it is fastened with a bar. There must be a sufficient blaze to cause a panic among the sentries. For a moment there will, no doubt, be a tremendous uproar, and anyone in the passage or rooms will rush out. Then we must seize the moment to break in the door. If the sentries should keep their place, which I should think is very doubtful, we must throw ourselves upon them at once. The door once open, the rest will be easy; we shall have but to wrap the girls in the blankets and run through the fire with them. The critical moment will be that at which we open the door; we must make perfectly sure that the two sentries are taken by surprise. I have every hope that the place will be burnt down, and in that case it is likely enough that they will never give the captives a thought beyond concluding that they have been burnt to death. I think it would be a good thing to take the hangings from some of the rooms, roll them up into a bundle, and soak them with the spirit. Then, when we have taken down the bar and have the door ready for opening, we will light that bundle, so that when we open the door there will be a great blaze close to the men and at the same time they will see the flames from the rooms farther down the passage. The scare is almost certain to make them bolt, and we can then break in the other door. The noise will merely sound to them as if something on fire had fallen down, and we shall have got the girls out through the door before they can open the gate of the yard and call the sentries from the guard–house.”

“I think it ought all to go right,” Ah Lo agreed. “Now, master, I think that I will go back again. I must see my father and mother and tell them that I have to go away on urgent business, for that I hear the Boxers are coming to our village in the morning to search for every able–bodied man,and that, therefore, I must leave at once. What will you do?”

“Can we return to the back of this yamen without passing through the town?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will go with you. We need not bring our baskets back with us; we can make the things up into a bundle. I would rather walk home with you and return than hang about here where I might be questioned.”

Accordingly they again took their baskets on their backs and returned to the village, hiding their parcels before they entered. Hearing the news they brought, several young men, who had managed to escape the last search of the Boxers, at once made off into the country. Ah Lo and Rex remained with the two old people until dusk. The old people were much distressed to hear that their son had to leave them so soon. He promised to pay them a longer visit as soon as it was safe to do so, and having left a sufficient supply of money to last them for some time, he took a tender farewell of them and started once more with his companion.

They arrived without adventure at the back of the yamen, and at once set to work on the lock, as it was now perfectly dark and the streets were already deserted except by parties of Boxers. In an hour they had cut round the lock, but then they found that the door was also held by bolts. It did not take them long, however, to enlarge the hole sufficiently for Rex to get his arm through and unfasten the bolts. They now waited until the lights in the house gradually disappeared, and then moved quietly up to it. They found, as they hoped would be the case, that the door of the house was unfastened.

Having ascertained this, they waited another hour until they were sure that everyone was asleep. Then they entered,lit a lamp that they had bought for the purpose, and set to work. They soon piled mats and curtains near the doors of the rooms on both sides of the passage, and poured oil and spirit over them. When this was done they made up a roll six feet high and six feet long, and, saturating this with oil, carried it to the door. They then set a light to the great piles of inflammable materials in the two rooms. These flashed up instantly, and the flames came rushing through the doors. When they saw that the blaze had taken a good hold of the material they set fire to the bundle in the passage.

As this blazed up they removed the bar and flung the door open. The two sentries gave a loud cry as they saw the flames rushing out at the end of the passage, and made a simultaneous rush for the front door. Running in, Rex and his companion found that the door of the girlsʼ prison was held by bars only. These they undid, and found to their satisfaction that the door opened, and that there was no occasion to break it down.

The light of the flames was amply sufficient to enable them to see. The two girls lay in each otherʼs arms in one corner.

“It is all right, girls!” Rex cried. “I am Rex, and I have come here to save you!”

Then, lifting the girls to their feet, they wrapped the blankets round them. Each lifted one and sprang through the flames rising from the roll, and then through the sheet of fire at the end of the passage. When they reached the open air they released the girls from the wrappings, and, snatching up their rifles, which they had left leaning against the wall outside, ran down the garden. Once outside they felt that they were for the present safe.

Already a babel of noises was arising from the yamen—shrieks of women and shouts of men.

ill078

REX RESCUES HIS COUSINS FROM THE BOXERS

REX RESCUES HIS COUSINS FROM THE BOXERS

REX RESCUES HIS COUSINS FROM THE BOXERS

“I hope the women wonʼt be burned,” Rex said.

“If they cannot get down the staircase they can jump from the windows,” said Ah Lo.

“Thank God, girls, that we have got you out! We have some native clothes for you, but we must run for some little distance first; the fire will bring all the town out.”

“Are we dreaming?” Jenny said. “Can it be really you, Rex?”

“It is, dear; you can seize me and shake me, to make sure that you are awake. Are you strong enough to walk?”

“Yes, if I am really awake.”

The younger sister, however, could scarcely stand, and Ah Lo caught her up and they at once started, Jenny pouring question after question into Rexʼs ear as he hurried her along. When they were two or three hundred yards away they broke into a walk.

“Now we can go on steadily,” Rex said. “We are absolutely safe till the morning, and by that time I hope we shall be a good many miles away.”

When they had gone another mile Rex said: “We had better stop here and eat something, for we shall want all our strength for the journey.”

“But how did you come to be here, Rex?”

“Well, dear, we heard such terrible news of what was going on throughout the country that Ah Lo and I determined to come out in disguise to see if we could be of any assistance to you. Of course we have heard all that has happened, so do not pain yourselves by talking about it at present. We have got stain for you to colour your skin, and the dresses of Chinese boys in which you must disguise yourselves. It would not do for you to be travelling as girls. We shall try to make our way to Pekin. Of course we shall have difficulties, but I trust that we shall get through all right.We intend to give out that we are going to enlist in the army, and we shall have to invent some story to account for your going with us. We have got rifles, so that if we should be interfered with by any small party we shall be able to give a good account of them. We have got you out more easily than we had expected, and no one is likely to notice that you have escaped. They will have more than enough to do if they wish to save the house, and I doubt whether they will succeed in putting out the fire, for I think we set the place pretty well alight.”

Indeed, it was already evident that the fire had got a great hold, for, from the point that they had now gained, the flames could be seen leaping out of all the windows on the ground floor at the back of the house. The fugitives went almost at a run for another mile, and when they stopped and looked round, the yamen was in a blaze from top to bottom. Ah Lo now set Mabel on her feet, and the two girls threw themselves into each otherʼs arms and burst into tears.

“Now you had better eat something,” Rex said, after he allowed them a short time to recover themselves. “Did the brutes feed you well?”

“We had enough to eat till to–day; they have given us nothing to–day, and we thought that that was a sign that the end had very nearly come.”

“No doubt it was so. Now in the first place you must each eat and drink something.”

“I donʼt feel as if I wanted anything.”

“Never mind, it is absolutely necessary that you should eat. We must get as far away as we can before morning, and unless you eat you wonʼt be able to walk.”

The girls ate slowly at first, but as their appetites came back they managed to eat a hearty meal. While they did so Rex told them about the fighting at Tientsin, and the way inwhich they had made their way into the yamen and set it on fire.

“I can only just see the outline of your figure, Rex,” Jenny said, “but you seem to have grown tremendously since I saw you last.”

“Yes, I have grown a good deal. Four years make a great difference at my age. You have grown a good deal too, Jenny; you were quite a small girl when I saw you last. How pleased my father and mother will be to see you both again!”

“Did they send any messages?”

“No, Jenny, and for a very good reason. They did not know that we were coming. We stole off quietly in the night, for I was not at all sure that they would let me try if I asked their permission. I left a letter for them saying where I had gone, and that, as I had Ah Lo with me, I felt pretty sure that it would come out all right. You see, I speak Chinese nearly as well as he does, and there was no real reason why anyone should suspect that we were not what we looked. Now, dear, if you have finished we will go on.”

They went for some ten miles before the day began to break. Ah Lo carried Mabel for the last five, for both girls were weakened by the scenes they had gone through, the grief at the loss of their parents, and the fear as to their own fate. As day approached they went into a large field of standing corn, which rose some feet above their heads.

“Now, girls, you go on a few yards and then change your clothes. Here is the stain. You must dye your whole skin and darken your eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair. You know a great deal better than I do how your hair must be plaited into pigtails and wound up under these hats. I think you will find the clothes all right; they are just jackets buttoning up in front, and loose trousers. You can put on your ownboots as long as we are walking in an open country and there is no one about, but when we are likely to meet anyone you must put on these Chinese shoes. After you have dressed yourselves you had better lie down and have a long sleep. We shall keep a look–out; but as we entered the field in single file, and raised the stalks after us, it is not likely that, even if the owner comes along, he will suspect that anyone is in hiding here. Before you try to go off to sleep you had better eat another meal.”

“Are we on our way to Pekin, Rex?”

“No, we have come north so far; for if a search is made it will be in the direction of Pekin or Tientsin. I do not think it at all likely, however, that they will trouble to look for us. They will not give you a thought at first; and when they do think of you the place will be in such a blaze that they wonʼt be able to get at your room, and will certainly conclude that you have perished in the flames. The only possible ground for suspicion will be that the door at the end of the garden may be found open; but no one may think of going round there for some days, and at the worst they will but fancy that robbers broke in there, and, while plundering the rooms, accidentally set the house on fire. At any rate, long before the idea can occur to them that it was an attempt to rescue you, we shall be a hundred miles away.”

The day passed quietly. Ah Lo and Rex in turn slept and watched near the edge of the corn. Men could be seen working in some of the fields, but no one approached the edge of the field in which they were hidden. Late in the afternoon the girls joined them, looking their character so well that even Ah Lo said that he would not have suspected them of being anything but what they seemed. A hearty meal was then eaten, and an hour after dark they started again, this time making towards the east. They passed through manysmall villages during the night, and walked, they calculated, over twenty miles, Ah Lo, as before, carrying Mabel the last seven or eight miles. Again they hid during the day, and in the evening turned their faces towards Pekin. Their stock of provisions was now exhausted, and the next day Ah Lo went into a village and brought a fresh supply.

They met with no adventure until they were half–way on their journey, when one evening as they were passing through a village, the door of one of the houses opened and three men whose dress showed them to be Boxers came out.

“Hello!” one of them said, “who are you?”

“We the travellers,” Ah Lo replied.

“What makes you travel so late?”

“We are anxious to push on to the next village.”

“Come in here and let us have a look at you,” one of them said.

“Shall we go in, master?” Ah Lo said in a whisper.

“Yes, you had better; there is a large party of them. You go on, girls; stop by the side of the last house in the village on the right–hand side.”

Rex and Lo then followed the men into the house. Inside were nine others, several of them smoking. “Now where are you going to?” demanded the Boxer who had before spoken, and who was apparently the leader of the party.

“We are going to enlist in the army.”

“You had better join us. I see you have a good gun; where did you get it from?”

“I got it from some men who were fighting at Tientsin and returned home wounded.”

“Well, you will get others there,” the man said; “you had better hand them over to us. You must stop here for the night and go on with us. It appears to me that there issomething suspicious about you. Where are the two boys who were with you?”

“They have gone on. I told them to.”

“Two of you run after them and fetch them back,” the man said angrily.

Ah Lo and Rex both unslung their guns from their shoulders as if to hand them over. They were still standing in the doorway, and Ah Lo shoved one of the Boxers, who tried to pass him, and sent him staggering backwards. The captain, with an exclamation of fury, drew his sword. Ah Lo dropped his rifle against the manʼs chest and fired. The others at once sprang to their feet.

“Donʼt throw away a shot!” Rex exclaimed. “Now it is begun we must finish them,” and he shot down the man next him. “Step back outside the door, then only one can get at us at a time.”

The rifles rang out again, and three more of the Boxers fell. The others, seizing their arms, rushed in a mass towards them.

“Fire by turns, Ah Lo,” Rex said as he fired, and then drove the muzzle of his rifle with all his force into the chest of the next man coming at him; the man fell as instantaneously as though he had been shot. Two or three of the Boxers were armed with guns, and these attempted to press forward so as to be able to use them. Rexʼs thrust had cleared the crowd a little back, and Ah Lo shot one of the men with a gun as he pressed forward. Almost at the same moment one of the others fired, and the ball passed along Rexʼs arm and came out in the shoulder. With a howl the man rushed forward again. Rex and Ah Lo fired at the same moment. There were now but four Boxers left, and these charged before they were ready to fire again. Ah Lo clubbed his musket; Rex, as before, used his gun as a spear, and as aBoxer rushed at him with uplifted sword, caught him full in the chest.

“Hold the door while I load, Ah Lo,” he said.

It took but a couple of seconds to discharge the cartridge and reload and close the breech, and then Rex shot one assailant just when Ah Lo struck down another. The last man threw down his weapon, but Ah Loʼs blood was up, and knowing that none of the party must be allowed to get away, he brought the butt of his musket down with all his strength upon the manʼs head.

“That has been sharp work, Ah Lo,” Rex panted. “Now, we must be off.”

“I donʼt think they are all killed,” Ah Lo said.

“Well, most of them must be, and certainly none of the others can be in a position to take up the pursuit. We had better not wait another moment, or we shall have the villagers out on us.” So saying he started to run.

“I will run,” Ah Lo said, “but there is no fear that the villagers will come out. When they hear the firing they will think that the Boxers are quarrelling among themselves, and certainly no one will venture out to see about it.”

They found the girls waiting at the appointed place, and they gave a cry of joy as Rex ran up.

“What has happened?” they asked together.

“The Boxers were nasty and were sending two men off to catch you, so we stopped them, and we had a tough fight, but none of them got away.”

“How many were there?”

“Twelve.”

“And you killed them all?”

“We shot eight of them. Ah Lo broke the skulls of two, and I knocked the wind out of the other two. Whether I killed them or not I do not know, but it is quite certain thatthey cannot be in a fit condition to take up the pursuit. We can now go on again; only for the rest of the journey we must avoid villages.

“You neednʼt grieve for the Boxers,” he said, as the girls uttered an exclamation of horror at what he had said. “As likely as not they have come from Chafui; but if not, no doubt they have taken part in some of these massacres and were making for Tientsin to join their fellows there.”

“Oh, how could you do it, Rex? I am not sorry for the Boxers a bit, but it is wonderful that you two should have killed twelve of them in two minutes; I am sure the firing did not last longer than that.”

“It was quick work certainly, Jenny; but with these breech–loaders one can fire all the shots in a magazine in less than a minute, and at such close quarters there was no possibility of missing oneʼs aim. If there had been a few more of them we should probably not have succeeded so well, for our magazines were nearly empty when we had finished. Still, holding the door as we did, so that only one man could really get at us at once, I think we should have given a good account of ourselves even if there had been five or six more.”

They made an unusually long journey that night; the girls would not hear of stopping, although Rex assured them that there was no chance of being overtaken. When day dawned they were more than usually careful in hiding themselves among some very high grass. Rex and Ah Lo took turns to watch all day, but to their satisfaction they saw no one hurrying along the road as if carrying a message of importance.

“I did not expect to see one,” Ah Lo said; “the villagers will be frightened out of their lives when they venture out in the morning and see what has happened. I think it likely that they will at once bury all the bodies, for they will beafraid that should a party of Boxers come along and see what has taken place, they would plunder and burn the village and kill all the inhabitants. No, I do not think there is any fear that the alarm will be given.”

They continued their journey thus till they were within fifteen miles of Pekin. Here the road was no longer unfrequented during the day, bands of armed men and Boxers frequently passing along. The next day they made ten miles and then lay down to sleep. Soon after daybreak natives in carts, with vegetables and grain, came along. As soon as they had passed, the fugitives issued out, and presently overtaking one of the parties journeyed on in company with them until they reached the gates of the city. They wandered about for some hours before they found the quarter where the Legations were situated, for they did not like to ask directions, as that would have shown that they were strangers in the city. They came at last to a building where two marines were keeping guard. From these they heard that the British Legation was in the next street, and soon they were gladdened by the sight of an English uniform.

They were stopped by the sentries, but on Rex saying in English that they were fugitives from one of the missions that had been destroyed they were allowed to enter.

The Legation stood in a very large enclosure which had at one time been a palace belonging to a member of the imperial family. The gardens were charmingly laid out, and it contained several courtyards, each surrounded by buildings.

They were conducted by one of the servants of the Legation to the house of the minister, Sir Claude Macdonald, and upon Rex sending in their names they were at once admitted.

“We have made our escape, sir,” Rex said, “from Chafui, where the mission has been destroyed and all save these twoyoung ladies, daughters of the missionary in charge, murdered. I myself am the son of Mr. Bateman of Tientsin. These young ladies are my cousins, and with the aid of this faithful Chinaman, who has for many years been in my fatherʼs service, I have succeeded in rescuing them from the hands of the Boxers.”

“I congratulate you indeed, sir. A considerable number of fugitives have already arrived here. I will hand the ladies over at once into the charge of Lady Macdonald, who will see that they are well cared for.”

He rang a bell and told a servant to take the girls to Lady Macdonald, and then turned again to Rex:

“We had heard reports of the massacre at Chafui, and were afraid that all had perished. I shall be glad to know how you and these young ladies escaped?”

Rex gave a brief account of the incident.

“I congratulate you most warmly on the success of your enterprise, and on the courage you displayed in undertaking it and carrying it out. It certainly seemed, on the face of it, to be a most mad–brained attempt, but it has been amply justified by the success that has attended it.

“Our position here is very precarious, and although the court continue to give us assurances of the most friendly intentions, we have the best grounds for believing that the Empress and her advisers are bent upon our destruction. However, we are making every preparation for defence, and believe that we shall be able to hold out until assistance arrives. What are your own intentions?”

“My intentions, sir, are to make my way at once down to Tientsin. My parents cannot but feel the most lively anxiety as to my safety, and my first duty is to go back to relieve their suspense. If any expedition is sent up here to your relief, I shall hope to accompany it in some capacity.I can speak Chinese like a native, and may be useful as an interpreter. I shall, of course, leave my cousins here if you will kindly permit them to stay, for although with my Chinese follower I might make my way without difficulty through any bodies of the Chinese who may be on the road, I could hardly do so if I were accompanied by two girls, however well they might be disguised.”

“Certainly not,” the envoy said; “that would be quite impossible. There are, we know, a considerable number of the Chinese between us and Tientsin. They have already torn up the railway, and although my messengers do get through, direct communications are entirely interrupted. Still, as you have made the journey from Chafui here without difficulty, I should think that you might manage to accomplish the journey to Tientsin safely. Of course you will remain here a day or two. One of the members of my staff will lend you a suit of clothes.” He touched the bell. “Send Mr. Sandwich here. He is one of the student interpreters,” he said, turning again to Rex, “and is about your own height; and I have no doubt that his things will fit you well. I shall be glad if you will dine with me and afterwards give me more detailed accounts of your adventures.”

In a few minutes the young man made his appearance. “Mr. Sandwich,” Sir Claude said, “I will hand over this gentleman, who has just arrived from Chafui, to your charge, He will only be staying here for a day or two, for he is going to try to make his way down to Tientsin. I shall be obliged if you will lend him a suit of clothes while he stays here.”

“Certainly, I will do all I can to make him comfortable.”

“I should be obliged, sir,” Rex said, “if you would allow a surgeon to dress my arm. A bullet entered just above the wrist and ran up to my shoulder. I think the wound isgoing on all right, but it is rather painful, and I should be glad to have it dressed properly.”

“Certainly, I will send our doctor to the college at once. He will be there almost as soon as you. You did not tell me that you had been hit.”

“It is not a serious wound, sir; the bullet only just went under the skin, and I fancy that when it has once been properly dressed it will give me no more trouble.”

“You are well disguised,” Sandwich said as he left the room with Rex. “I am sure that I should not have had any suspicions, however closely I inspected you. How did you manage to get here from Chafui?”

“I speak Chinese like a native. I was born in Tientsin, and was sent home to England four years ago; but as my father was most anxious that I should keep up Chinese, he sent with me one of the coolies who had always been my special servant, and so I came back speaking it as well as when I went.”

“We heard that there had been a massacre at Chafui.”

“Yes, I managed, with the aid of my man, to rescue my two cousins, who are the daughters of the missionary there. I was just in time, for they were to have been murdered on the following day.”

“But how was it that you were not murdered yourself?”

“For the simple reason that I was not there when the massacre took place. The news of the massacre came to us at Tientsin, and I set off with my man to see if any of them had survived and if possible to rescue them. This we effected by setting fire to the governorʼs yamen, where the girls were confined, and carrying them off in the confusion that ensued. The only adventure we met with on the road was that we were interfered with by a party of a dozen Boxers. We had a fight with them; but as we had breech–loaders,and they were jammed up in a room, we had no difficulty in disposing of them all.”

“By Jove, that was a plucky thing,” Sandwich said; “and so you are going off again?”

“Yes, I am in a hurry to get back to my people, who must be in great anxiety about me.”

“Well, this is our college,” the young man said, stopping before a building of some size. “We are all trained here for the Chinese Consulate service. I will take you to my room first and rig you out. We shall be having a meal directly, and then I can introduce you to the fellows, when I promise you a hearty reception.”

Half an hour later Rex went down in a suit of white clothes to the dining–room. He had already asked Sandwich to hand over Ah Lo to the proper quarter, where he could get rations and lodging. He was introduced to eight or ten young men who were studying at the college, and, after the meal was over, related the story of the rescue of his cousins. The narrative excited great interest, and he was warmly praised.

Back to IndexNext