That was, indeed, only too true. Very quietly, under their own officers, some hundred and sixty of the governor’s troops had formed in four detachments, going to the walls at the four sides of the compound and starting up the steps.
“I don’t know whether we can stop them, and I don’t know that they won’t be willing to fight with us and for us,” returned Darrin, perplexedly. “I’ll follow the commander’s orders and see the governor at once.”
Running down, and darting across the compound, Dave halted before the principal door of the main building, the door Sin Foo had used.
Knocking lustily with the hilt of his sword, Dave did not wait more than thirty seconds. Then reports from two more of the gunboat’s guns decided him. He seized the latch, trying to force the door, but only to find that barrier locked.
“Open!” ordered Dave, in his loudest quarterdeck voice. “Open!”
He waited another thirty seconds, but no one inside obeyed.
“Open,” he shouted, “or I shall order my men to batter the door down!”
Inside, instantly, he heard the murmur of voices.
“Well,” demanded the irate young officer, “will you open, or do you wish the door battered down?”
Preceded by a rattling of bolt chains, the great door was thrown open. Into the doorway breach stepped Sin Foo, calmly disdainful. Behind him stood fully a score of Chinese soldiers, each with rifle leveled ready to shoot.