“It may seem a very simple thing, Bateman, but it strikes me as being a mightily dangerous one. Still, if I spoke Chinese as you do, I would volunteer to go with you.”
“It would be of no advantage, Sandwich. If we are detected it will make no difference whether there are twelve of us or a hundred and twenty; we should certainly be killed. It is simply a question of being found out, and therefore the fewer of us there are the better. Of course if only a solitary man detected us, we should cut him down without any hesitation, but at that time of night it is not likely that there will be anyone about to see us. They are so busy all day that I fancy all who are not engaged in worrying us at night would be glad enough to sleep. A good many dead Boxers are lying near the north gate, and I was thinking of sending my man to get the clothes of some of them. Now I think of it I remember that the Americans and Germans, when they captured the wall yesterday, threw the bodies of the men that they had killed over the parapet into the moat, so we can get the things when we go out, without running any risk.
“I should not have said anything about this to you, only I have written letters to my cousins and my father and mother, so that you can hand the one to the girls in two or three days if I do not get back, and send the other down to my father after you are relieved. I do it as a measure of precaution, but I really do not think that there is any great chance of my coming to grief. Of course if the worst comes to the worst, and we are surprised, I shall bolt for it with Ah Lo. I am ready to run some risk to get these poor people out, but I donʼt mean to throw away my life, and, as I say, shall make a bolt for it if we are found out. In those deserted streets, with no end of empty houses, I fancy we could soon throw them off our scent, and should then be able to find our way back again quietly to the foot of the walls.”
“Well, I hope you will do so, Bateman. I tell you fairly that I think you are running a very foolish risk. Still, it is a noble thing to attempt.”
“Oh, bosh!” said Rex, “it seems to me a very simple affair, and it is certainly well worth running certain risks to save the lives of those poor people.”
“When do you start?”
“As soon as it gets dark enough for us to move along near the wall without being seen. I want to go as soon as I can, because I should like to pass out through the gate of the China town before my doing so would excite any attention. I donʼt think it is likely that they will have guards there. If we find that there are, and I see that they are watchful, I will hide up till the morning, when people are sure to go out to cultivate the fields.”
Rex now found Ah Lo and told him that he need not go out to get the Boxer clothes as there were plenty to be had in the moat outside the wall.
“That will certainly be better, master.”
As it was getting dusk they started with the Chinaman who had brought in the report, made their way through the Russian Legation into the American, then climbed the wall. Rex was well known to the officer who commanded the party there.