CHAPTER XXIV
THE TIMELY EXPLOSION OF A BOILER
Greatly depressed by the unexplained disappearance of their Chineseengine-driver, our lads, ignorant of everything connected withmachinery, set themselves the hazardous task of running a locomotive.They got it started without difficulty, and ten minutes later wererunning at tremendous speed over the level line that extended withoutgrade or curve as far as they could see. While Rob shovelled coal untilhis back ached and his face was as black as that of a negro, Jo occupiedthe engine-driver's seat and anxiously stared ahead. Neither of themspoke, for the strain on their nerves was too great, since each knewthat at any moment they were likely to be blown up, flung from thetrack, or sent plunging through some weakened bridge. They were facingdeath in a dozen forms, but stuck to their posts without flinching, forthey knew that a like fate, absolutely certain, awaited the unprotectedforeigner who should be caught attempting to cross those plains on foot.
So they drove on, mile after mile, dashing past the station of Sing Yangwithout a pause or even a slow-down, and shortly before sunset camewithin sight of the gray walls of Pao-Ting-Fu.
"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 realdanger. What a crowd there is about the station. There's an engine,though, with a single car attached. See! Waiting up by the tank. Perhapsour bluff has worked! Steady! Here they come!"
The stolen locomotive had come to a stop at the lower end of the stationplatform, panting as though exhausted by its long run, and a group ofChinese officials were hurrying to meet it.
"Where is his excellency, Yu-Hsien?" asked one of these, peering with anexpectant air into the cab.
"He is following on a special train," replied Jo, promptly; "but Iam his representative, sent ahead to prepare the way for him. Is thetrack-repairing car ready, as the governor requested? If not he willcause the officials of Pao-Ting to suffer the same 'bitterness' that hasgained 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 locomotiveas he spoke and starting up the platform.
Rob followed him closely. As he left the cab he caught a glimpse ofa begrimed, dishevelled, and nearly naked man crawling from beneaththe tender. In an instant it flashed across him that this was theirlost engine-driver. Looking back a moment later he saw the same figurefollowing them.
They in the mean time were being conducted towards the agent's quartersin the station-house, where refreshments had been prepared for GovernorYu-Hsien.
"If he were but here," remarked the official spokesman, deprecatingly,"of course, everything would be at his disposal; but we have been soexpressly ordered not to allow the passage north of any save troops ormandarins 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 theempire?" demanded Jo, fiercely, "and am I not come to prepare the wayfor him? Has it not already been told to your dull ears that upon hisreaching the imperial city within two days depends the very life of theSon 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 hasbeen driven back, and now is being cut to pieces by his own invincibletroops," boasted the official.
"What do you mean?" asked Jo. "No such news has come to the ears of hisexcellency the governor."
"It is nevertheless true that from the ships gathered off Taku barthousands of ocean men were landed to go to Pekin. They travelled bythe road of iron-fire, restoring the track, even as you now propose todo. Slower and slower they moved, being beset on all sides by sons ofthe Great Sword. Beyond An-Ting they could not go, for there they weremet by imperial cavalry from the South Hunting Park, and turned back indisorderly flight. Hundreds were killed, and hundreds more are being cutdown at this moment. All their guns and banners are captured, and it iscertain that not one of them will escape alive. The ocean devils stillon their ships have threatened to fire on the Taku forts, but they darenot do it. General Nieh has made answer that, with the firing of thefirst shot, every foreign devil in Tien-Tsin and Pekin will be put todeath; for so commands an edict from the imperial city."
"What has all this to do with us?" inquired Jo, pretending not to be atall affected by this startling news. "The governor of Shan-Si must passin spite of everything. Let him be delayed by so much as the fractionof an hour, and those whom he will hold responsible may well tremble intheir shoes."
"Is not the man with the black face, standing by your side at thismoment, a foreign devil?" suddenly demanded the official, ignoring Jo'sthreat and pointing an accusing, clawlike finger at Rob.
"No," answered Jo, stoutly. "He is a native of the Middle Kingdom; buthe comes from the far south, where he was born. Also, he is wise inthe science of iron-fire, and has been sent on in advance of the greatgovernor to make safe his way. If you should harm so much as a hair ofhis head, the vengeance of Yu-Hsien would be swift and terrible as thatof Heaven itself."
"_He is yang-kwei!_" (foreign devil, northern dialect) cried a voicefrom the back of the room, and Rob, turning quickly, caught a glimpseof the begrimed engine-driver whom he had seen crawl out from under thetender and who afterwards had followed them.
At the same instant he, together with every one in the room, was hurledviolently to the floor, the walls of the building were blown in asthough they were of card-board, and the city of Pao-Ting-Fu was shakenby an explosion so terrific that its inhabitants ran shrieking fromtheir 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 fallingbricks or tiles, crawled out from the debris 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 roaringfire 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 lightout? Things seemed to be getting pretty hot for us when that blessedold engine interrupted the proceedings."
"What do you mean? Run away? No, indeed!" replied Jo, earnestly. "Thingsare just as we want them now. Don't you remember that I was telling themwhat Yu-Hsien would do if they interfered with his plans? He is the headBoxer, you know, and just now the I-Ho-Chuan are credited with beingmasters of magic. Wait till I speak to these big men."
The official, or, as Jo called him, "the big man," who had been foremostin examining our lads, was excitedly chattering with one of his fellowswhen 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 weare 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 whodefied him, that you may have evidence of his strength; and if you stillgo against his wishes your own sons will shortly erect a new ancestraltablet."
"It is true, most honorable one," admitted the frightened official,humbly; "and we are not so dense but that we can learn the lesson thusplainly stated. Tell us, then, how we can serve you, and thus appeasethe wrath of the mighty Boxer, that he may not visit further destructionupon us."
"Give us the slight thing for which we asked: a few rails, a fewtrack-layers, and a fresh engine, that we may go about our work andprepare the way for our master," replied Jo, boldly, "then shall all gowell with you a
nd with this city of Pao-Ting, which otherwise might bebereft of its walls by the next exhibition of Yu-Hsien's wrath."
So superstitious are the Chinese, so dreaded were the mysteriousincantations of the I-Ho-Chuan, and so unnerved were the officials ofPao-Ting-Fu by the explosion of a few minutes before, that they yieldedto Jo's demands.
A locomotive attached to a car holding rails and a gang of coolieshad 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 theirdisposal, until they came to the great bridge at Cho Chou, which hadbeen hopelessly destroyed.
So our young adventurers left the officials of Pao-Ting-Fu, promisingthem 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 deadlyneighborhood. "Our bluff worked, after all. But, take it all around, itwas about as close a call as I ever want to experience."
"Yes," replied Jo. "I never expected to be saved from sudden death bythe blowing-up of a boiler."
That night they remained on board their new locomotive at the littletown 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 missingrails, they had reached Cho Chou, only forty miles from Pekin, beforedark. Here they were able to hire horses that by late afternoon of thefollowing day had carried them within sight of the far-extended walls ofthe great Chinese capital. Beyond the wall rolled dense clouds of smoke,as though the whole city were on fire, while distinct above all othersounds rose the sharp rattle of musketry, mingled with the deeper roarof heavier guns.
At these evidences of strife our lads drew rein and looked inquiringlyat each other. After all, was the city of Pekin a good place for a youngAmerican 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 giveup our horses here. I don't see that we will be any worse off, in anyevent, 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 theformer are getting the worst of it, then they need our help; while ifthe 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 theChinese who has befriended a foreigner?"