As he went along Rex saw a Chinaman sitting down, weeping bitterly. “Hillo!” he said, “what is the matter with you?”
The man stood up.
“I only got in at twilight this morning, sir,” he said. “I came in by the north bridge. I managed to make my way there and lay down underneath it. Just as it was getting light I made a run to come in. Many shots were fired at me, but I was not hit.”
“Then what are you crying about?”
“I am crying, sir, for those I left behind me. There were twelve of us altogether, and we had been lying hidden since the people first rose. We were in a cellar. The house was burnt over us, but the cellars were in the back–yard, and though the houses were destroyed, and we were nearly smothered, we managed to live through it. A part of a wall fell across the entrance, and that saved us. There was some food stored in the cellar and we have lived upon it up to now, but it was nearly all gone when I left. We have known nothing that was passing outside. Yesterday we cleared away some of the bricks and I crawled out. We could hear the firing going on continuously, and knew that the people in the Legations must be fighting the Boxers, and it was agreed that I should try to make my way here[135] and ask them to send out a rescue party. Now I find that the Legations are so surrounded, and attacked so fiercely, that it is impossible for them to save my comrades. I have been speaking to one of your chief officers, and he tells me that it is quite impossible for them to do so, and all my friends must perish. I have an old father and mother there, and a wife, and three sisters, and the rest are all friends.”
“How far are they away?”
“More than a mile, sir.”
“I will think it over,” Rex said. “I am afraid nothing can be done, but I will see. If you are here at seven o?clock this evening I will tell you.”
As usual Ah Lo was not far off, and Rex went to him and told him what he had heard.
“It is bad,” Ah Lo said, “but what can be done, master? Many have been massacred; it is but twelve more.”
“Yes, but we could do nothing for the others. Indeed, most of them were massacred before we got in here. I mean to save these people if I can.”
“But how can it be done, master?”
“That is what I am thinking about, and I want you to think too, Ah Lo.”
“I am ready to die with you, master; and if you tell me to, I will try to get out and do all I can for these people, if you will but remain here.”
“No, Ah Lo, that I cannot hear of. You know we have done well together before, and it must be easier to get people out of a cellar than it was out of a governor?s yamen.”
“It might not be so difficult to get them out, master; the question is how to get them away.”
“I quite see that.”
“Of course they are Christians, and people can know Christians directly by their dress and other things, though it[136] is not so much by the dress as by something in their manner. Everyone can tell a Christian.”
“Well I must say I don?t see anything different between the people working here and those we meet everywhere else. I will take your word for it, however, and if there is anything different they must do their best to change it. It seems to me that if we get them out we must hide them in some empty house, near one of the gates if possible, so that it will be handy for the wall. There are not likely to be guards on the wall at the other side of the town, and we might at night get them up there and lower them into the ditch; I believe at most places there is no water in it. Then we must get them round this side and haul them up that part of the wall we hold, and where we could, of course, make our way out.”
“It doesn?t seem to me that there is anything very difficult about it,” said Ah Lo. “Of course we should put on Boxer clothes. The other day we got hold of lots of the cord they wear. Several Boxers have fallen near the north bridge, and lie there still; so we can take their coats. We can carry swords and pistols, but no rifles. If we should be discovered, the swords, of course, would be no good; we only want them to make us look like Boxers. Well, I don?t see why we shouldn?t be able to do it. Of course there is some risk in it, but if we could manage in the way you say, it ought not to be very great. Of course we must take with us the man who brought the news in, to show us the place, and we may as well get a Boxer coat and sword for him too. In fact if we can get half a dozen we will take them; the more we can dress as Boxers the better.”
Rex went to his room and wrote some letters, which he gave to Sandwich when they met at six o?clock.
“Look here, Sandwich,” he said, “I want you to take care of these letters. I have heard of a party who are shut up in[137] a cellar in the city. There are twelve of them, I believe, and they have exhausted their provisions, and must come out if not relieved in the course of a day or so. I mean to go out and try to bring them in here.”
“Eh? what? are you out of your mind, Bateman?”
“No, I don?t think there is much risk in it. I shall get the Americans to let me down over the part of the wall they hold, and of course I myself and Ah Lo, who will go with me, will dress in Boxer clothes. I shall go round the wall and get in again by one of the gates at the other end. I don?t suppose any guard will be posted there. At any rate if there is a guard they won?t interfere with me. Then I shall go and get these people out, and shall either let them down over the wall at once, or hide them till to–morrow night in some empty house close to it; all will depend on the time. It really seems a very simple thing.”
“It may seem a very simple thing, Bateman, but it strikes me as being a mightily dangerous one. Still, if I spoke Chinese as you do, I would volunteer to go with you.”
“It would be of no advantage, Sandwich. If we are detected it will make no difference whether there are twelve of us or a hundred and twenty; we should certainly be killed. It is simply a question of being found out, and therefore the fewer of us there are the better. Of course if only a solitary man detected us, we should cut him down without any hesitation, but at that time of night it is not likely that there will be anyone about to see us. They are so busy all day that I fancy all who are not engaged in worrying us at night would be glad enough to sleep. A good many dead Boxers are lying near the north gate, and I was thinking of sending my man to get the clothes of some of them. Now I think of it I remember that the Americans and Germans, when they captured the wall yesterday, threw the bodies of the men that[138] they had killed over the parapet into the moat, so we can get the things when we go out, without running any risk.
“I should not have said anything about this to you, only I have written letters to my cousins and my father and mother, so that you can hand the one to the girls in two or three days if I do not get back, and send the other down to my father after you are relieved. I do it as a measure of precaution, but I really do not think that there is any great chance of my coming to grief. Of course if the worst comes to the worst, and we are surprised, I shall bolt for it with Ah Lo. I am ready to run some risk to get these poor people out, but I don?t mean to throw away my life, and, as I say, shall make a bolt for it if we are found out. In those deserted streets, with no end of empty houses, I fancy we could soon throw them off our scent, and should then be able to find our way back again quietly to the foot of the walls.”
“Well, I hope you will do so, Bateman. I tell you fairly that I think you are running a very foolish risk. Still, it is a noble thing to attempt.”
“Oh, bosh!” said Rex, “it seems to me a very simple affair, and it is certainly well worth running certain risks to save the lives of those poor people.”
“When do you start?”
“As soon as it gets dark enough for us to move along near the wall without being seen. I want to go as soon as I can, because I should like to pass out through the gate of the China town before my doing so would excite any attention. I don?t think it is likely that they will have guards there. If we find that there are, and I see that they are watchful, I will hide up till the morning, when people are sure to go out to cultivate the fields.”
Rex now found Ah Lo and told him that he need not go[139] out to get the Boxer clothes as there were plenty to be had in the moat outside the wall.
“That will certainly be better, master.”
As it was getting dusk they started with the Chinaman who had brought in the report, made their way through the Russian Legation into the American, then climbed the wall. Rex was well known to the officer who commanded the party there.
“Good–evening, Mr. Bateman!” the officer said, “have you any message for us?”
“No, I am going out on my own account. This Chinaman with me is one of a party who have been hidden in a cellar since the massacre. They knew nothing of what had been going on, and he came to ask if a party would go out to their assistance. That, of course, is impossible, but it seems to me that there will be no difficulty in me and my man managing it. We have got ropes for letting ourselves down from the wall here, and at the other side of the town, where the fugitives are hidden. I hope to arrive at the foot of the wall here not later than to–morrow night.”
“It seems a very wild scheme, Bateman.”
“I don?t think so. When we get down to the wall we are going to dress up in the clothes of those Boxers you threw over after your recent fight, and I shall take four or five extra suits for the use of the fugitives. In that way we are likely to pass along without being questioned. The streets will probably be nearly deserted by eleven or twelve o?clock, and if we have luck we shall be able to get them over the wall without much loss of time. If there is no guard at the gate of the China wall we may possibly be here before daylight to–morrow morning.”
“Well, I wish you luck, but I can?t help thinking that you are acting very rashly[140].”
“You must remember that I and my man have already travelled some hundred miles in disguise, and by this means have already got in here twice, and out of Tientsin once. I really don?t see that there is any appreciable risk in the thing whatever. If it is after daylight when we arrive here, you and your men will be able to keep the people in the Chinese town from attacking us while we are coming up.”
“I think we can promise to do that,” the officer said; “we never see a soul pass along this road.”
“Very well, we shall be here in an hour?s time.”
Rex went to the storekeeper and obtained from him a length of rope sufficient for climbing the wall, and then with Ah Lo and the Chinaman he set out. It was dark when they got to the wall again, and they were without delay lowered down one after the other by the American marines.
“We shall keep a sharp look–out for you towards morning,” the officer said; “do you want to take this rope away with you?”
“No, I have another length with me.”
Their first step was to strip the garments from nine of the dead Boxers. Three of these they put on, and the rest they fastened in a bundle, which the Chinaman took. For a quarter of a mile they followed the road by the moat, and then turned into the town. They saw but few lights, and went ............