“Certainly not,” the envoy said; “that would be quite impossible. There are, we know, a considerable number of the Chinese between us and Tientsin. They have already torn up the railway, and although my messengers do get through, direct communications are entirely interrupted. Still, as you have made the journey from Chafui here without difficulty, I should think that you might manage to accomplish the journey to Tientsin safely. Of course you will remain here a day or two. One of the members of my staff will lend you a suit of clothes.” He touched the bell. “Send Mr. Sandwich here. He is one of the student interpreters,” he said, turning again to Rex, “and is about your own height; and I have no doubt that his things will fit you well. I shall be glad if you will dine with me and afterwards give me more detailed accounts of your adventures.”
In a few minutes the young man made his appearance. “Mr. Sandwich,” Sir Claude said, “I will hand over this gentleman, who has just arrived from Chafui, to your charge, He will only be staying here for a day or two, for he is going to try to make his way down to Tientsin. I shall be obliged if you will lend him a suit of clothes while he stays here.”
“Certainly, I will do all I can to make him comfortable.”
“I should be obliged, sir,” Rex said, “if you would allow a surgeon to dress my arm. A bullet entered just above the wrist and ran up to my shoulder. I think the wound is going on all right, but it is rather painful, and I should be glad to have it dressed properly.”
“Certainly, I will send our doctor to the college at once. He will be there almost as soon as you. You did not tell me that you had been hit.”
“It is not a serious wound, sir; the bullet only just went under the skin, and I fancy that when it has once been properly dressed it will give me no more trouble.”
“You are well disguised,” Sandwich said as he left the room with Rex. “I am sure that I should not have had any suspicions, however closely I inspected you. How did you manage to get here from Chafui?”
“I speak Chinese like a native. I was born in Tientsin, and was sent home to England four years ago; but as my father was most anxious that I should keep up Chinese, he sent with me one of the coolies who had always been my special servant, and so I came back speaking it as well as when I went.”
“We heard that there had been a massacre at Chafui.”
“Yes, I managed, with the aid of my man, to rescue my two cousins, who are the daughters of the missionary there. I was just in time, for they were to have been murdered on the following day.”