THE TIMELY EXPLOSION OF A BOILER
Greatly depressed by the unexplained disappearance of their Chinese
engine-driver, our lads, ignorant of everything connected with
machinery, set themselves the hazardous task of running a locomotive.
They got it started without difficulty, and ten minutes later were
running at tremendous speed over the level line that extended without
grade or curve as far as they could see. While Rob shovelled coal until
his back ached and his face was as black as that of a negro, Jo occupied
the engine-driver's seat and anxiously stared ahead. Neither of them
spoke, for the strain on their nerves was too great, since each knew
that at any moment they were likely to be blown up, flung from the
track, or sent plunging through some weakened bridge. They were facing
death in a dozen forms, but stuck to their posts without flinching, for
they knew that a like fate, absolutely certain, awaited the unprotected
foreigner who should be caught attempting to cross those plains on foot.
So they drove on, mile after mile, dashing past the station of Sing Yang
without a pause or even a slow-down, and shortly before sunset came
within sight of the gray walls of Pao-Ting-Fu.
[Illustration: "SO THEY DROVE ON, MILE AFTER MILE"]
"Shut her off, Jo. We've done the act so far all right," said Rob,
speaking jerkily and with ill-repressed excitement. "Now comes the real
danger. What a crowd there is about the station. There's an engine,
though, with a single car attached. See! Waiting up by the tank. Perhaps
our bluff has worked! Steady! Here they come!"
The stolen locomotive had come to a stop at the lower end of the station
platform, panting as though exhausted by its long run, and a group of
Chinese officials were hurrying to meet it.
"Where is his excellency, Yu-Hsien?" asked one of these, peering with an
expectant air into the cab.
"He is following on a special train," replied Jo, promptly; "but I
am his representative, sent ahead to prepare the way for him. Is the
track-repairing car ready, as the governor requested? If not he will
cause the officials of Pao-Ting to suffer the same 'bitterness' that has
gained him fame among the foreigners of Shan-Si."
"It has been prepared according to the most noble governor's desire,"
replied the official, hesitatingly, "but--"
"Let us, then, go to it," interrupted Jo, stepping from the locomotive
as he spoke and starting up the platform.
Rob followed him closely. As he left the cab he caught a glimpse of
a begrimed, dishevelled, and nearly naked man crawling from beneath
the tender. In an instant it flashed across him that this was their
lost engine-driver. Looking back a moment later he saw the same figure
following them.
They in the mean time were being conducted towards the agent's quarters
in the station-house, where refreshments had been prepared for Governor
Yu-Hsien.
"If he were but here," remarked the official spokesman, deprecatingly,
"of course, everything would be at his disposal; but we have been so
expressly ordered not to allow the passage north of any save troops or
mandarins of the highest rank, that we are at a loss how to act."
"Am I not a representative of one of the greatest mandarins of the
empire?" demanded Jo, fiercely, "and am I not come to prepare the way
for him? Has it not already been told to your dull ears that upon his
reaching the imperial city within two days depends the very life of the
Son of Heaven?" At this august name every one present, excepting Rob,
and including the speaker himself, made a deep reverence.
"The Emperor is no longer in danger, since the ocean-devil army has
been driven back, and now is being cut to pieces by his own invincible
troops," boasted the official.
"What do you mean?" asked Jo. "No such news has come to the ears of his
excellency the governor."
"It is nevertheless true that from the ships gathered off Taku bar
thousands of ocean men were landed to go to Pekin. They travelled by
the road of iron-fire, restoring the track, even as you now propose to
do. Slower and slower they moved, being beset on all sides by sons of
the Great Sword. Beyond An-Ting they could not go, for there they were
met by imperial cavalry from the South Hunting Park, and turned back in
disorderly flight. Hundreds were killed, and hundreds more are being cut
down at this moment. All their guns and banners are captured, and it is
certain that not one of them will escape alive. The ocean devils still
on their ships have threatened to fire on the Taku forts, but they dare
not do it. General Nieh has made answer that, with the firing of the
first shot, every foreign devil in Tien-Tsin and Pekin will be put to
death; for so commands an edict from the imperial city."
"What has all this to do with us?" inquired Jo, pretending not to be at
all affected by this startling news. "The governor of Shan-Si must pass
in spite of everything. Let him be delayed by so much as the fraction
of an hour, and those whom he will hold responsible may well tremble in
their shoes."
"Is not the man with the black face, standing by your side at this
moment, a foreign devil?" suddenly demanded the official, ignoring Jo's
threat and pointing an accusing, clawlike finger at Rob.
"No," answered Jo, stoutly. "He is a native of the Middle Kingdom; but
he comes from the far south, where he was born. Also, he is wise in
the science of iron-fire, and has been sent on in advance of the great
governor to make safe his way. If you should harm so much as a hair of
his head, the vengeance of Yu-Hsien would be swift and terrible as that
of Heaven itself."
"_He is yang-kwei!_" (foreign devil, northern dialect) cried a voice
from the back of the room, and Rob, turning quickly, caught a glimpse
of the begrimed engine-driver whom he had seen crawl out from under the
tender and who afterwards had followed them.
At the same instant he, together with every one in the room, was hurled
violently to the floor, the walls of the building were blown in as
though they were of card-board, and the city of Pao-Ting-Fu was shaken
by an explosion so terrific that its inhabitants ran shrieking from
their houses into the streets.
Some of the occupants of the station-agent's room fled from it unharmed,
while others, and among them our lads, more or less bruised by falling
bricks or tiles, crawled out from the débris and made exit more slowly.
Only one remained behind, crushed to death beneath a heavy roof-timber,
and he was the engine-driver, killed, in the very act of denouncing Rob,
by the blowing up of his own locomotive. It had been left with a roaring
fire behind its closed furnace door and very little water in its boiler.
"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."
"It is true, most honorable one," admitted the frightened official,
humbly; "and we are not so dense but that we can learn the lesson thus
plainly stated. Tell us, then, how we can serve you, and thus appease
the wrath of the mighty Boxer, that he may not visit further destruction
upon us."
"Give us the slight thing for which we asked: a few rails, a few
track-layers, and a fresh engine, that we may go about our work and
prepare the way for our master," replied Jo, boldly, "then shall all go
well with you and with this city of Pao-Ting, which otherwise might be
bereft of its walls by the next exhibition of Yu-Hsien's wrath."
So superstitious are the Chinese, so dreaded were the mysterious
incantations of the I-Ho-Chuan, and so unnerved were the officials of
Pao-Ting-Fu by the explosion of a few minutes before, that they yielded
to Jo's demands.
A locomotive attached to a car holding rails and a gang of coolies
had been made ready in anticipation of Yu-Hsien's coming. This train,
standing by the water-tank, at a distance from the scene of explosion,
had remained uninjured, and now was placed at the disposal of our lads.
They were told that for fifty li the track still was in good condition;
after that they could readily repair it with the means at their
disposal, until they came to the great bridge at Cho Chou, which had
been hopelessly destroyed.
So our young adventurers left the officials of Pao-Ting-Fu, promising
them that Yu-Hsien should be informed of their efforts in his behalf,
and were thankfully seen to disappear in the gathering twilight.
"Well!" exclaimed Rob, who had not spoken during all these negotiations,
heaving a great sigh of relief as they pulled out from the deadly
neighborhood. "Our bluff worked, after all. But, take it all around, it
was about as close a call as I ever want to experience."
"Yes," replied Jo. "I never expected to be saved from sudden death by
the blowing-up of a boiler."
That night they remained on board their new locomotive at the little
town of An-Su-Hsien, where Jo procured for each of them the red hats,
sashes, and shoes worn by Boxers. At daylight they again were under way,
and, though they were obliged to stop a dozen times to replace missing
rails, they had reached Cho Chou, only forty miles from Pekin, before
dark. Here they were able to hire horses that by late afternoon of the
following day had carried them within sight of the far-extended walls of
the great Chinese capital. Beyond the wall rolled dense clouds of smoke,
as though the whole city were on fire, while distinct above all other
sounds rose the sharp rattle of musketry, mingled with the deeper roar
of heavier guns.
At these evidences of strife our lads drew rein and looked inquiringly
at each other. After all, was the city of Pekin a good place for a young
American and a Chinese who had befriended him to enter at that moment?
"Yes," said Rob, at length, "I think we will keep on, only we will give
up our horses here. I don't see that we will be any worse off, in any
event, inside the city than where we are. There is fighting going on,
to be sure, but it must be between our friends and our enemies. If the
former are getting the worst of it, then they need our help; while if
the fight is going the other way, we have nothing to fear."
"I wonder," remarked Jo, bitterly, as they moved slowly forward on foot,
"which side will prove friendly to me, or will all prove enemies of the
Chinese who has befriended a foreigner?"