Rex and Ah Lo sauntered quietly about among the soldiers, gradually getting nearer and nearer to the spot where the guns were placed.
“I suppose we can look at them,” said Ah Lo, who with several others was standing near them.
“Certainly you can,” the man said. “They are doing good work. In another couple of days we shall have the wall down, and then we shall finish off with the white devils.”
“That is good,” Ah Lo said.
“They have been here too long as it is, and ought to be cleared off without delay. When we have got rid of the last of them we shall be our own masters again. They are always meddling in our affairs, just as if they were our masters instead of only living here by permission of the Empress. They even venture to tell us what we should do, and their bishops get made mandarins, and then, if their people commit crimes, they will not have them punished. We have put up with it too long; now we are going to make an end of it once and for all.”
“Quite right!” Ah Lo said, as he lounged up to the gun, for at thatʼ moment Rex moved towards the other. While they pretended to be examining the guns, they quietly inserted the points of the spikes into the touch–holes. Then Rex looked round. The moment seemed favourable. Eight or ten soldiers were standing close to them, talking over the fighting of the day, and the prospect of making a breach in the morning. Farther back other soldiers were laughing, talking, and cooking their rice. He waited a minute, and then signalled to Ah Lo. On the instant two heavy hammers fell on the heads of the spikes. With three quick strokes they drove them up to the head in the touch–holes, then, throwing down the hammers, they started off at full speed.
The soldiers shouted as they saw the spikes being driven in, but the strikers had gone some thirty or forty yards before they had sufficiently recovered from their surprise to think of pursuit. Rex and Ah Lo increased their lead to fifty yards before their pursuers had fairly got up their pace. They turned down the first lane they came to and then down another. Glancing back, Rex saw that so far they were holding their own, except that two Boxers, swifter than the rest, were some yards ahead of the main body of their pursuers. The Chinamen, as they ran, set up a perpetual shouting, which did not improve their speed.
“We must get rid of these two men,” said Rex, speaking for the first time since they started. “Slacken your speed a little and let them come up to us, then suddenly turn round upon them.”
“All right, sir!” Ah Lo said.
“I shall use my revolver, Ah Lo, you can use either your revolver or your sword, whichever you like.”