It was true; hideous yellow faces, with heavy pigtails and coarse black hair, were already crowding the entrance, and in the course of a few minutes they would be in the courtyard. There was nothing then to prevent their getting into the outer room in which Mr. Li and Wang were standing. The others were in the inner room prepared to await his orders.
At that moment the Chinese caught sight of Mr. Li and Wang, and a fiendish smile of triumph lighted up their faces. Mr. Li also smiled.
"Not so fast, my friends," he said, quietly; and as the first man landed on the ground he gently pushed Wang in front of him through the door leading into the inner apartment, and slid the bolt.
"That bolt will be no good, sir," said Wang; "they will force the door in a few minutes, and we shall all be tortured and killed."
"I must beg of you to be silent," said Mr. Li, sternly. "If you would like to join the party outside, there is still time to do so, but I think that you would probably prefer to remain with us."
Poor Wang protested most humbly that he had never meant anything by his words, and so great was his attachment to their persons that nothing in the world would induce him to leave them.
"That being the case," said Mr. Li, drily, "and your attachment to us being so great, you will do all in your power to help instead of hindering us. I cannot have these ladies alarmed. Now see," he said, turning to Lilian and Nina, who had turned a shade whiter, for though they placed unbounded confidence in Mr. Li, it was not pleasant to hear the sounds in the outer room.
"Now see: I touch this button, and look at the result!" As he spoke he pressed a spring in the wall, and a huge sliding door shot right across, protecting the door through which they had passed, and which the Chinese were forcing from the outer side.
As he spoke he pressed a spring in the wall.