“So we have heard, and they say that there is going to be fighting here?”
“Yes, but there is no doubt that we shall beat them off. You need not be uneasy.”
“Oh, we are sure of that! I feel quite different from what we did before. For the past three or four days I have been helping to make sacks, and even Mabel has done a little. And how are Uncle and Aunt?”
“They are all right. I believe my father will have his share of fighting, for a great force of Chinese has gathered outside the town, and they expect to be attacked. It is hoped, however, that the ships will destroy the Taku Forts, in which case the light craft will make their way up to Tientsin. Then, of course, every man that can be spared from the ships will join the relief column.”
“But I thought that they were on their way up now, and that we were expecting them here to–day?”
“I am sorry to say, dear, that I think there is very little chance of their coming at all at present. I came up with Ah Lo.”
The girls looked at each other in dismay.
“Then how long do you think it will be before they really come up?”
“I am afraid it will be many weeks. Large reinforcements of British troops are coming from India, Russians have been despatched from Port Arthur, and any number of Japanese, and French, and Germans are being sent forward; but it must be some time before they are all here, and we must make up our minds that we are going to hold our own.”
Then he changed the subject.