“That I donʼt know; but it is horrible to sit here and do nothing when my aunt and cousins are, if they are alive, prisoners, and may be put to horrible tortures before they are killed.”
Ah Lo was silent.
“Do you think you and I could get there and try to rescue them?”
The Chinamanʼs eyes opened wide. “Do you really mean that, young master?”
“Yes; I do not see why we should not get there all right, though I donʼt say that we could rescue them. We could both dress up as villagers, or as Boxers if you like, and as I speak Chinese as well as you do, I donʼt see why we should not both make our way through. I could stain my skin just a little so as to get it just the right colour, and shave my head and put on a pigtail. Many Chinese wear spectacles, great things with thick rims.”
“Villagers do not often wear them, master, though the literati who wear their eyes out in staring at a book often do. You could not go as one of them, for you do not speak the same language.”
“Well, I should think that you might paint a little line in each corner of my eyes so as to make them look a little up and down like the Chinese eyes.”
“Ah Lo had better go alone,” the Chinaman said quietly.
“Not at all,” Rex said. “My aunt and cousins are a great deal to me, they are nothing to you, and I certainly wonʼt let you go alone.”
“The master would never let you go,” Ah Lo said positively.