And ever before them the Boxers slowly receded, stinging grievously as they moved. Sure were they that at last only dire calamity could await that slender column moving across the plains, led under a flag of red, white, and blue, with bands ever playing The Star-Spangled Banner, while from line on line rolled out that weird battle cry of “Rock Chalk! Jay Hawk! K U!” Sure were they that this stubborn little bands of soldiers foolishly following the receding Boxer must at last crush itself like dead-ripe fruit against the ancient and invincible walls of Peking.
On the evening of the sixth day from Yang-Tsun the twelve thousand men of the Allied Armies, flower of the world’s soldiery, stumbled into camp with their outposts in sight of the great walls of the City of Peking. This had been the longest and hottest of all the days, with the weariest length of march. A great storm cloud was rising in the west and the air hung hot and still before it.
Thaine Aydelot and his comrades threw themselves down, too exhausted to care for what might happen next.
“This is the hottest day I ever knew,” declared McLearn wearily, as he lay prone on the ground looking up at the hot sky with unblinking eyes. 381
“I reckon you never hit the National pike on an August day, out between Green Castle and Terre Haute down in Indianny,” Binford suggested.
“Nor St. Marys-by-the-Kaw,” Boehringer, a Kansas man, added. “There’s where you get real summery weather.”
“Oh, kill him, Aydelot, he’s worse than a Boxer. Don’t you know I’m from Boston originally, which is only a State of Mind?” Goodrich urged.
“No matter what state you are from originally, you are in China now, which is in a state of insurrection that we must get ready for a state of resurrection tomorrow. What are you thinking about, T. Aydelot? You look like Moses and the prophets.” McLearn half turned over with the question.
Thaine, who was lying on his side, supporting his head on his hand, quoted softly:
| “‘Oh, the prairies’ air so quiet, an’ there’s allers lots of room In the golden fields of Kansas, when the Sun Flowers Bloom.’” |