half a dozen yards when the rebel guns crashed out, and their
contents went hurtling through the closely-packed ranks, leaving wide
lines of dead and wounded in their track, while immediately afterward
came the rattling report of volley-firing as the rebels discharged their
rifles. The Chinese troops seemed to be literally smitten to a halt
before that awful storm, almost as though they had charged up against a
solid wall, while the cries, shrieks, and groans that uprose into the
still evening air thrilled Frobisher with horror.

The check, however, was but momentary. The troops instantly rallied,
and before those cruel guns, or even all the rifles, could be reloaded,
the Chinese were among the rebels, the cold steel got to work, and a
scene of sanguinary, relentless, hand-to-hand fighting ensued, the
memory of which was to remain with Frobisher for many a long day.
Before the end was reached he could no longer bear to look on, but,
climbing down from his perch, seated himself on the floor and covered
his face with his hands.

For another ten minutes the fearful sounds continued unabated, and then
silence gradually fell; and a little later the moon rose over a scene of
carnage such as had seldom been witnessed even upon the blood-stained
soil of Korea. Of the rebels not a single man remained alive.

So completely overwhelmed was Frobisher by the horror of what he had
witnessed, that he sat motionless and so utterly oblivious to his
surroundings that he never heard the grating of the key in the lock of
his cell door, never heard that door open and close, and never knew that
he was not still alone until he happened to glance wearily up, and
beheld the Governor gazing down at him with a sardonic smile; while two
other men, with masks over their faces, stood at attention but a few
paces from him. One of them held a coil of stout rope in his hand, and
Frobisher stared at it apprehensively. It was then too late to put into
practice his resolves of the night before. The sword with which he had
meant to do so much execution was out of reach; and he knew that the
slightest movement to secure possession of it would mean a disabling
wound from a bullet of the revolver which the Governor held suggestively
in his hand. And he could not afford to take the risk, since with such
a wound all chance of escape would be at an end; although, as
appearances went, chances of escape appeared to be singularly scanty
just now. The pris