saw was that he had sprung like lightning from his stolen pony, had
thrown his rifle to the ground, and was attacking a latticed window
with an old bayonet he had been carrying in his hand. With half a
dozen furious blows he sent the woodwork into splinters, and,
springing up with a lithe, tiger-like jump, he clambered through the
gap, big man as he was, with surprising agility. Then there was a dead
silence for a few seconds and we waited in suspense. But presently
oaths and protests came from far back and drew nearer and nearer,
until I knew that the some one who had refused to answer had been duly
secured. The gates themselves were finally flung open, and I saw that
an oldish man of immense stature had been driven to do this work--a
man who, so far from being afraid, was only held in check by a loaded
revolver being kept steadily against his back. The Shantung man's face
had become devilish with rage, and I could see that he was slowly
working himself up into that Chinese frenzy which is such madness and
bodes no good to any one. I was at a loss to understand this scene.

Our captured carts were driven in and the gates securely shut; and
then, driving his captive still in front of him, my man led us, with a
rapidity which showed that he knew every inch of his ground, to a big
building at the side. Then it was my turn to understand and to stare.
Within the building a big altar had been clumsily made of wooden
boards and draped with blood-red cloth; and lining the wall behind it
was a row of hideously-painted wooden Buddhas. There were sticks of
incense, too, with inscriptions written in the same manner as those we
had seen being scraped so feverishly from the door-posts a few minutes
ago. Red sashes and rusty swords lay on the ground also. Here there
could be absolutely no mistake; it was a headquarters of that evil
cult which had brought such ruin and destruction in its train. The
Boxers had been in full force here.