“What time is it now?” asked Rex.
“About one oʼclock.”
“Well, I am back sooner than I expected, and am happy to say that I have succeeded without any difficulty. On the way back with the refugees we had one encounter, and had to kill a couple of Boxers. The rest was easy.”
“You donʼt say so, Bateman! Well, I congratulate you most heartily. You have indeed done a good nightʼs work; tell us all about it.”
Rex gave them a short account of his adventure.
“I thought,” he said, “that there would be no great difficulty about it, and I am sorry that it was not accomplished without bloodshed, but we could not help ourselves in that respect. I am glad indeed that I brought the poor creatures in. The women were desperately done up by the time we got within the lines, which is not to be wondered at after all they had gone through. Well, I will lie down now, for I have had a very long day, and I must be up early to–morrow to see that these people get rations, for I fancy they are pretty nearly starved.”
In a few minutes all were asleep. Rex was up before six oʼclock in the morning, and at once ran down to the gentleman whose duty it was to see to the provisioning of the native Christians.
“I want you to put down thirteen more names,” he said.
“How is that, Mr. Bateman?”
“One of a party came in yesterday afternoon, and told me that there were twelve of them in hiding in a cellar near the burnt area, so I went out with my man last night and brought them in.”