"Are you hurt, Rob?"
"Nothing to speak of. Are you?"
"No."
"Then what do you say? Shall we take advantage of the confusion to light out? Things seemed to be getting pretty hot for us when that blessed old engine interrupted the proceedings."
"What do you mean? Run away? No, indeed!" replied Jo, earnestly. "Things are just as we want them now. Don't you remember that I was telling them what Yu-Hsien would do if they interfered with his plans? He is the head Boxer, you know, and just now the I-Ho-Chuan are credited with being masters of magic. Wait till I speak to these big men."
The official, or, as Jo called him, "the big man," who had been foremost in examining our lads, was excitedly chattering with one of his fellows when Jo and Rob stepped up to him.
"You are alive and not harmed?" he gasped at sight of them.
"Of course we are not harmed," replied Jo. "Did I not tell you that we are the servants of Yu-Hsien? and do you think he would harm his own?"
"Is this terrible thing the work of the great Boxer?"
"Certainly it is. I warned you how it would be. He has killed one who defied him, that you may have evidence of his strength; and if you still go against his wishes your own sons will shortly erect a new ancestral tablet."