“They will kill us all!” he cried; “they will show us no mercy!”
“Quick! Help me to carry the body out at the back door, and to lay it down by the wall. The body will not be noticed there. Then I advise you and your wife to fly at once and hide in the jungle a few hundred yards away. There is no fear of their finding you, and in the morning you can come out again, if, as is most likely, they have gone.”
The old man seized the dead Boxer by the legs, while Rex took him by the head, and together they removed him from the house. Then the old couple hurried away, after Rex had thrust some money into the manʼs hand.
“That will go far to build up your cottage again,” he said; “but it is hardly likely that they will burn it when they find it empty.”
So saying he turned away and continued his journey. He had gone but a couple of miles when he came suddenly upon a group of peasants, who were anxiously watching a light in the sky.
“Who are you?” they shouted as they seized him.
“I am a stranger in these parts; I am on my way down from Pekin,” he said; “but I have come to warn you that the Boxers are near at hand.”
“That is a pretty tale,” one of them said derisively. “There is no doubt that you are a spy of the Boxers come on in advance to know whether our village is worth plundering. Besides, we know that the Boxers have not yet crossed the river.”
“I can assure you that they have. That light you see there comes from the village three miles away. They have plundered it and set it on fire.”
“A nice story!” the spokesman of the party said. “How then did you get away to give us word if you were not sent forward as a spy?”