thers would permit no foreigner to enter. On these hoary old walls no
Christian would dare to stand. On three sides of the Imperial City these
walls were invincible. The fourth was equipped with six heavy gates.

In a council of the powers the impossibility of storming these gates
was fully made clear. The number of soldiers was carefully
estimated--American, Japanese, Russian, German, French, and Italian,
Sikh and Sepoy, Bengalese, Scotchman, Welsh, and Royal Englishmen. All
had suffered heavily in this campaign. None more grievously than the
American.

The decision of the council was overwhelming that the Imperial City could
not be taken by this little force outside its battlements. Only General
Chaffee protested against giving up the attempt.

"Can your men take those walls?" The query came from the leaders.

"My men can take hell," General Chaffee replied, with less of profanity
than of truth in his terms. And the attempt was given over to the
Americans.

One of the six gates stood wide open, a death-trap laid by the wily Boxer,
believing that the foreign forces would rush through it to be shot down
like rats in a hole. Beyond it was a paved court some five hundred yards
wide, reaching up to a second wall, equipped likewise with six great
gates.

Thaine's company was singled out to go inside the open gate and draw the
Boxer fire toward themselves while the American army stormed the closed
gates. The little group of men lay flat on the pavement, defending
themselves and harassing the enemy. They knew why they had been sent in,
but they were seasoned soldiers. Thaine looked down the line of less than
a hundred men, McLearn, and Boehringer, Tasker, Goodrich, and Binford, all
were in that line. He felt a thrill of soldier pride as he said to
himself:

"We are fit. They have chosen us for the sacrifice. We'll prove
ourselves." Then he thought of nothing else but duty all that day.

The capture of the first wall opened the way to a second with a paved
court beyond it, and beyond that lay a third, and a fourth, and a fifth;
wall and court, wall and court, through which, and across which the
American army forced its way by heaviest bombarding under heaviest fire,
leaving a clean rear for the other armies to follow in. Only the sixth and
last wall remained. General Chaffee's men had not failed. The flag of red,
white, and blue had led steadily on 'mid a storm of shells and a deluge of
bullets.

One more onslaught