"Thank you, Mr. Ah! that is a relief. For myself, I can only say that I will do my best to be worthy of your confidence."
"Now, is it not written, 'He that gives willingly is himself worthy of gifts'? I beg of you a favour in return; it is that you will continue to give my son lessons in your honourable language. And, further, I shall be grateful if you will deign to teach me something of the barbarian's art of war, the learning of which has made the Japanese so victorious."
"I will go on with Ah Fu with pleasure," said Jack, adding with a smile: "but I'm afraid I can't do anything in the other line. I have made no study of warfare; my father has trained me to a commercial career."
"But you have seen the barbarian armies at their exercise?"
"I admit that."
"Well, I am sure you can be of great service to me if it is your august pleasure."
"I will do what I can, Mr. Ah,—if your men will carry out instructions. I'm a 'foreign devil', after all."
"'In the world there are many men, but few heroes', as the proverb says. I know your worth; do I not remember the boar, and the saving of my son's life? surely it would ill become me to forget; and this late employment of fire against our enemies? Modesty is attended with profit; whereas arrogance courts destruction. My men, those that I place under you, will obey you. I will see to that."
Jack thus found himself lieutenant in a regiment of some twelve hundred men, armed for the most part with Mausers, and well mounted. Except for a wholesome dread of their chief, however, they had very little discipline, and but scant military cohesion. Although there was no lack of arms and ammunition, Ah Lum was not too well provisioned. He had been driven by the encircling Russian movement into a somewhat poor district, the hills being more fruitful in forest trees than in grain. The valley of his encampment was fertile enough, but its products would soon be exhausted, and it was separated from the grain-bearing plains to the west by a chain of barren heights. The bandits were being driven farther and farther into the mountainous regions, where it would become increasingly difficult to feed so large a force. Messengers had recently come in, reporting that Russian troops operating on the northern frontier of Korea were pushing reconnoitring parties into the hills in their rear with the object of locating them. There were many smaller parties of Chunchuses scattered over the country, but Ah Lum's was the only considerable band left in the angle between the two railway lines connecting Harbin with Kirin and Vladivostok respectively. The lull after the battle of Liao-yang had enabled the Russians to devote more attention than heretofore to clearing their flanks of these troublesome irregulars. Ah Lum was well served by scouts, the country people being anxious to purchase immunity by giving such information as they could without risk; and from them the chief had learnt that the largest force opposed to him was at this time about two marches away. Some days would probably pass before they came on his trail. It had been throughout the war the Russians' experience that the Chinese were very reluctant to give them news of any kind, and this reluctance had been still more marked since the unbroken success of the Japanese had become common knowledge through the country.
Day after day passed, and the bandits were still left unmolested. Jack, settling down to his new position, had his hands fully occupied. He gave Ah Fu lessons in English daily, to his father's great delight. But he had wider scope for his tutorial faculty. He had felt a little natural amusement at the idea of being placed—he, a civilian, with just as much military experience as his school drill-ground and some practice at the butts afforded—in command of a troop of warriors—a motley horde, indeed, but all seasoned, determined, fearless fellows. But, as was inevitable in a force indiscriminately recruited and entirely lacking in regular training, the men had much to learn; and Jack had not made a whole-hearted study of the Boer war without feeling that, civilian though he was, he was better acquainted with the general principles of warfare than possibly any other member of the band. The Chunchuses were little accustomed to organized movements on any considerable scale; they were most adept in sniping at single travellers or small bodies whom they could attack unawares from the vantage of cover. Something more was required if they were to defeat the serious attempts now being made to crush them, and Jack was determined to show himself worthy of Ah Lum's confidence by his manner of handling his own division of two hundred and fifty men.