"Thoroughly—driven from all their positions; we captured forty of their guns."
"Banzai! My country! She will win. I know it. We have crossed the Yalu: then we shall drive the enemy before us—from Kiu-lien-cheng to Liao-yang, from Liao-yang to Mukden, from Mukden to Harbin, from Harbin— Ah! why should we drive them farther? Dai Nippon shall come to her own."
"But yourself, sir; we must take you out of this. You will be more comfortable in Chang-Wo's room, and then, when you have rested and eaten, we will take you slowly into the Japanese lines, and you will live to see the triumph you have done so much to secure."
Kobo shook his head.
"I cannot stand," he said. "I shall die. But what is death?—Rest, peace, eternal quiet."
Bob felt a lump in his throat.
"Help me lift Kobo San," he said, turning to the Chinaman.
Tenderly they carried the slight figure between them down the stairs into Chang-Wo's room, where they laid him on the soft quilts that still bore the impress of his enemy's form. And then Bob saw that there was indeed no hope. Kobo was almost unrecognizable. He was haggard, emaciated to a shadow; but for his open eyes he would have seemed a corpse. At Bob's orders Ah-Sam hurriedly prepared some food, but after one or two mouthfuls Kobo refused to take any more.
"Rest," he said; "I want rest, that is all. I thank you."
His eyes roved round the room as though in search of something or someone.