He stayed chatting with them for another half–hour, and then went down to the college.
“I have turned up again like a bad penny, Sandwich,” he said, as he met his friend, “and am quartered here.”
“We shall all be heartily glad to have you with us, and I regard you and your man as a valuable reinforcement. Have you heard that this morning the Boxers have begun to massacre the native Christians? I believe that great numbers have been killed.”
“They ought all to have come in here,” Rex said.
“No doubt we should have done the best we could for them,” Sandwich said, “but we should have had a lot of difficulty in feeding ten thousand of them. Though I am awfully sorry for the poor beggars, their presence here would scarcely be an advantage, for they would hamper us terribly in our defence. You will have to put up with bad cooking unless some of these Christians that are coming in turn out to be decent cooks, for the servants and coolies are all leaving. You should see Sergeant Herring talking to them as they go out!”
Rex laughed. He had already made the acquaintance of the sergeant, who had been twenty years at the Legation, and who was in general control of its arrangements. He was a big man, with a powerful voice and an authoritative manner, and ruled the coolies with a rod of iron. He was a well–known figure in the city, and was regarded by the populace as being only less important than the ambassador himself.
“I can quite fancy him,” Rex said, “and how the coolies would sneak off under the thunder of his voice. Well, I should say that we are just as well rid of the coolies. I donʼt suppose they could have been relied upon. They are not like the native Christians, who, knowing that their lives are forfeited if the Boxers get in, will certainly be faithful even if they are not very useful. By the way, I have not brought your clothes back. I came up in a suit of my own under my disguise, but I was afraid of carrying a bundle. They will come up, then, washed and ironed, when all this is over.”
Sandwich laughed. “All right, Bateman! I shaʼnʼt be able to get much washing done now, and shall hail the arrival of a clean suit when—that is a very vague word—when they come up.”
There was a good deal of excuse to be made for the coolies and servants. They were almost all drawn from the population of Pekin, and their families, according to the Chinese law, would assuredly suffer were they to remain at the Legation. This would account for the difference between their conduct and that of the native servants in the Indian Mutiny, for these, in the great majority of cases, remained true to their masters.