“I am afraid that tea would not sustain us long, but I agree with you that as long as the rice and flour hold out we can do so. We have, I believe, a pretty good stock of tinned food, sugar, tea, cocoa, and so on, and the pressure will come more upon the unfortunate coolies than upon us. It is only fair to them to say that they are working splendidly, and if we hold out it will be largely due to them, for almost all the barricade work has fallen on them. The fighting men are, of course, always on guard; the rest of us are all told off to work of some sort or other: sanitary work, the distribution of food and seeing to the wants of everyone, and, during the past two or three days, the erection of shell–proof shelters. The hard work falls to the Chinese. They are wonderfully patient, obedient, and hard–working, and expose themselves fearlessly everywhere. I am coming to have great respect for them. There is no giving way at all among them. They have lost everything they have in the world, but they show no signs of despondency. They take everything that comes as a matter of course, and sometimes, when I go among them when the fire is heavy, I hear them praying out aloud. Well, I must be off again.”
CHAPTER VIII
A PERILOUS ADVENTURE
As he went along Rex saw a Chinaman sitting down, weeping bitterly.
“Hillo!” he said, “what is the matter with you?”
The man stood up.
“I only got in at twilight this morning, sir,” he said. “I came in by the north bridge. I managed to make my way there and lay down underneath it. Just as it was getting light I made a run to come in. Many shots were fired at me, but I was not hit.”
“Then what are you crying about?”