“Why, my dear Bateman, you are doing as much good as anyone else,” Sandwich laughed. “Nobody else performs any out–of–the–way feats, and why should you be called upon to do so? You do as much as anyone else.”
“Yes, I know all about that; but, you see, every day our position gets a little worse. The French, the Americans, and the Germans are all hard pressed; the Japanese, the Italians, and the Austrians are gradually losing ground in the Fu; and I feel that something ought to be done, if I could but find out what that something is. If we had had some inventive sort of chap up here—a man like Edison, for instance—he would have hit upon fifty plans for annoying the enemy. He would have invented special electrical machines for startling them, would have contrived substitutes for cannon, would have peppered them with pneumatic machines; in fact there is no saying what he would not have done.”
“But even an Edison would have required a workshop. We havenʼt a machine of any kind, not even a simple lathe.”
“Well, he would have done without them,” Rex said positively. “It vexes me very much that no one here seems to have an inventive genius. Look at Archimedes, what wonderful dodges he invented for the defence of Syracuse!”
Sandwich and his two companions laughed loudly.
“I am afraid there is no Archimedes here, Bateman, and you must put up with the ordinary means of defence, which do not, after all, succeed so badly. We have held out for a month now, and at the end of another month we shall still be in possession of a good deal of ground; but by that time I should think relief must be at hand, even allowing for the fact that there will be troops of half a dozen nationalities in the relieving column and the consequent delays, for it is not to be expected that the different sections will work well together. Besides, it is evident, from the desultory manner in which they attack, that the Chinese are very much divided among themselves. Look at the way they get guns into good positions to annoy us, and then fail to use them. If they were to plant cannon all round us and keep up a steady fire, they could knock all the Legations to pieces in the course of a week. This must be due to disputes among the leaders, for we know that the Chinese soldiers are obedient as well as brave, and that if the guns are not used it can be from no fault on their part. I feel very confident, therefore, that even without the assistance of an Edison or an Archimedes we shall manage to hold out till relief comes.”
A day or two after this, Sandwich and Rex were chatting together in their own quarters, when the former said: “Those cannon will soon bring the whole place about our ears. They have already done terrible damage. To–day three men have been killed, and the house is little better than a ruin; it is impossible for men to stay in the upper floor.”
Rex sat silent for some little time, and then, without making a remark, got up and went to find Ah Lo.
“Ah Lo,” he said, “you know the damage those guns across the market have been doing?”
“Yes, master, very serious. Other guns not do so much harm; those very bad.”