The yellow man was on the point of blazing away at Gilbert’s ear.
Gilbert felt that he must fight as he had never fought before. His sword was in one hand and his pistol in the other. Crack! crack! went the smaller weapon; and then the larger was thrust forward, to find the shoulder of a Celestial beside him. The yellow man, his eyes almost staring from his head with excitement, was on the point of blazing away at Gilbert’s ear with his gun, when a bullet from the rear rank of the Americans killed him on the spot. Then the young lieutenant leaped over a dead body before him, hurling a little Asiatic flat, and reached a breathing-spot, where he might catch his second wind.
The Boxers had been carefully trained in their peculiar military tactics; but the average Chinaman loses his head easily, and soon the officers of the Celestials could no longer control them. Some continued to advance, while the majority retreated, and the din became even greater than before.
“Form a square!” was the command from Major Morris, as soon as he realized that the Boxers were bewildered and running around on all sides. The order was quickly obeyed, and then each of the four companies composing the sides of the hollow square was ordered to advance. They fired as rapidly as their guns permitted, and in less than ten minutes the Celestials were all in retreat.
In the mean time another pitched battle had been going on at the embankment, and here honors were about equally divided between the Chinese and the Russians. The latter had been fighting hard the day before; and the heat had all but exhausted them, for each man was heavily equipped.
As one division of the Celestials was fleeing from the Americans, they, or at least a larger portion of them, plumped straight into the others near the embankment, utterly demoralizing them. “The Americans are coming! They number thousands!” was the cry, in Chinese; and then began a retreat such as Gilbert had never before seen, the Boxers tumbling over each other in their haste, tearing their flowing uniforms, throwing down guns and swords, and all the while waving their beloved banners and shrieking as if to arouse the dead.
The Russians saw the turn of affairs, and were quick to take advantage of the move. In a twinkling they leaped over the embankment, and poured a hot fire into the retreating enemy. Soon they were beside the Americans, and then they did all in their power to outstrip them. The only time a Russian soldier would pause was when he saw some wounded Chinaman trying to escape, when the wretched fellow would immediately be despatched with a bayonet.
“That’s too much for me,” cried Gilbert, as he watched one of these performances. “Those poor fellows are out of the fight. Why not leave them alone?”
“I’m afraid you’ll see worse than that before we get through,” answered Captain Banner. “Some foreign soldiers are pretty brutal, I can tell you that; and even some of our own men can’t be held back at times.”