and the
men were executed. Similar attempts were made to enter into negotiations
with the brigands and in 1915 two hundred were trapped and beheaded after
pardons had been promised them. Naturally the robbers refused to trust the
government officials again.

The months which elapsed between this act of treachery and the spring of
1916, were filled with innumerable outrages. Many townships were completely
devastated, either by the bandits or the Chinese soldiers. Little will ever
be known of what actually took place under the guise of settling
brigandage, behind the mountains which separate Yuchi from the outer world.
It is well that it should not be known.

During the spring of 1916 a missionary visited Yuchi. Business called him
outside the city wall and just beyond the west gate he saw the bodies of
ten persons who had that day been executed. Among these were two children,
brothers, the sons of a man who was reported to have "sold rice to the
brigands." The smaller child had wept and pleaded to be permitted to kneel
beside his older brother further up in the row. He was too small to realize
what it all meant but he wanted to die beside his brother.

In the middle of the field lay a man whose head was partly severed from his
body and who had been shot through and through by the soldiers. He was
lying upon his back in the broiling sun pleading for a cup of tea or for
someone to put him out of his misery. The missionary learned the man's
story. It appeared that years ago a law suit in which his father had been
concerned had been decided in his favor. In order to square the score
between the clans, the son of the man who had lost the suit had reported
that he had seen this man carrying rice to the brigands. He had been
arrested by the soldiers, partially killed, and left to lie in the glaring
sun from nine o'clock in the morning until dark suffering the agonies of
crucifixion. Not one of those who heard his moans dared to moisten the
parched lips with tea lest he too be executed for having administered to a
brigand.

The missionary returned to the city that night vowing that he would make a
recurrence of such a thing impossible or he would leave China. He took up
the matter with the authorities in Peking in a quiet way and later with the
military governor in Foochow. He was well known to the brigands by
reputation and visited several of the chiefs in their strongholds. They
declared that they had confidence in him but