arrived a real battle could be
expected and it was very likely that the city would be partly destroyed.

We had a picnic supper on the Caldwell's porch and discussed the situation.
It was the opinion of all that the foreigners were in no immediate danger,
but nevertheless it was considered wise to be prepared, and we decided upon
posts for each man if it should become necessary to protect the compound.

Hundreds of people were besieging the missionaries with requests to be
allowed to bring their goods and families inside the walls, but these
necessarily had to be refused. Had the missionaries allowed the Chinese to
bring their valuables inside it would have cost them the right of Consular
protection and, moreover, their compound would have been the first to be
attacked if looting began.

On Monday morning while we were sitting on the porch of Mr. Caldwell's
house preparing some bird skins, there came a sharp crackle of rifle fire
and then a roar of shots. Bullets began to whistle over us and we could see
puffs of smoke as the deep bang of a black powder gun punctuated the
vicious snapping of the high-power rifles. The firing gradually ceased
after half an hour and we decided to go down to the city to see what had
happened, for, as no Northern troops had appeared, the cause of the
fighting was a mystery.

We went first to the mission hospital which lay across a deep ravine and
only a few yards from the quarters of the soldiers. At the door of the
hospital compound lay a bloody rag, and we found Dr. Trimble in the
operating room examining a wounded man who had just been brought in. The
fellow had been shot in the abdomen with a 45-caliber lead ball that had
gone entirely through him, emerging about three inches to the right of his
spine.

From the doctor we got the first real news of the puzzling situation. It
appeared that all the men who had arrived Sunday morning from Yuchi to join
the Yen-ping rebels were in reality brigands and, to save their own lives,
the Hunan soldiers quartered in the city had played a clever trick. They
had pretended to join the rebels but at a given signal had turned upon
them, killing or capturing almost every one. Although their sympathies were
really with the South, the Hunan men knew that the rebels in Yen-ping could
not hold the city against the Northern soldiers from Foochow and, by
crushing the rebellion themselves, they hoped to avert a bigger fight.

As we could not help the docto