After a time the crowd began to disperse, some of the people wandering off to find lodgings for the night, and others sitting down by the roadside in the hope that, before long, the gates would be thrown open. Among the latter were the Pages and Ping Wang. They found a dark corner, and sat there almost entirely hidden from passers-by. Ping Wang sat in front of his friends, so that if any one did peer into their corner he would see him, and conclude that his companions were Chinamen. A long silence was at last broken by the shouts of an advancing mob.
'They've discovered their mistake,' Charlie declared, 'and are continuing the search for us.'
'Don't talk,' Ping Wang said, and once more they became silent, listening eagerly to distinguish what the mob was shouting. In a few minutes their suspicions were confirmed, for the cry which burst from hundreds of throats was one that there was no need Ping Wang to translate—Charlie and Fred understood only too well what it meant.
'Kill the foreigners!' Nearer each moment came the crowd, every man uttering the same cry. Soon it came in sight. At the head of the mob was Chin Choo in his palanquin, wearing the yellow head-cloth of the Boxers.
'They're Boxers,' Ping Wang whispered, 'and evidently they have no idea that we are alive.'
This was welcome news to Charlie and Fred, and remembering that they too were members of the Boxers' Society, they watched the crowd with great interest. Every Boxer wore his yellow head-cloth, and carried a weapon of some sort. A few only had rifles, the remainder being armed with swords, knives, bows and arrows, and sticks.
When the Boxers had arrived at the town gates, Chin Choo addressed his followers from his palanquin. He declared that the foreigners had come to the Middle Kingdom for the sole purpose of taking their country, and that, therefore, it was necessary to kill them all at once. If any were permitted to escape, they would return to their own land, and come back with many more. Then he declared that the Boxers would avenge all the cruelties which he said had been enacted by the foreigners, and finished up with the statement that the Boxers could not be wounded. Bullets would glide off their skin without making a scar, and swords, spears, and knives would make no impression.
Chin Choo saw that the people had doubts about the truth of his last assertion, and beckoned two of his officers to approach him. He talked with them for a few moments, and then declared, in a loud voice. 'Now you shall see that nothing can harm the men who wear yellow head-cloths.'
As he spoke six Boxers advanced, and stood with their backs to the town gates. Then twelve of the soldiers marched forward with their rifles at the trail, and halted about twenty yards in front of them. At the word of command they loaded their rifles and raised them to their shoulders. An instant later they fired a volley at the six Boxers, but, to the astonishment of the onlookers, not one of the men was injured.
'They used blank cartridges,' Fred declared.