work making sandbags, a task at which they had been busy since early
in the morning. Barton introduced the Pages and Ping Wang to them. In
spite of the anxiety which the fact of the mission being besieged caused
them, they were cheerful in their conversation, and insisted upon the
new-comers making a hearty meal. After supper Charlie, Fred, and Ping
Wang returned to their posts, relieving the missionaries, and enabling
them to have some rest.

The night was very cold, and the sentinels had great difficulty in
keeping themselves warm.

'I hope,' Fred said to Charlie, 'that the Boxers won't attack us while
my hands are numbed, for I'm sure I could not shoot just now.'

'It's my opinion,' Charlie answered, 'that the reception we gave them
has taken the pluck out of them, and that we shan't be troubled with
them for some days. Then, perhaps, they will screw up their courage to
make another assault.'

'Their silence strikes me as very suspicious,' Ping Wang declared. 'It's
my belief that they are planning a surprise.'

Ping Wang's opinion was at once communicated to Barton, with the result
that every man on duty was instructed to keep an extra sharp look-out.
The order was, as a matter of fact, not needed; for the sentries were as
alert as they possibly could be. Hour after hour they peered into the
darkness, but without seeing any signs of the enemy.

At daybreak Number One and his assistant cooks brought breakfast to the
shivering defenders. They enjoyed their breakfast thoroughly, and
thanked Number One for its excellence. He smiled, and sent his
assistants away with the crockery. He himself remained, without asking
permission, upon the platform. A spare rifle was there, and he took
possession of it. Barton was about to send him back to the kitchen when
Charlie suddenly exclaimed, 'What's that, just over there?'

'It looks to me uncommonly like an overturned wheelbarrow,' Barton
replied. 'We shall know when it gets a little lighter.'

'It is a wheelbarrow,' Fred declared, a few minutes later.

'Well,' Charlie exclaimed, 'this is the first time that I have heard of
a man coming into battle on a wheelbarrow!'

'I can see what it was used for!' Fred exclaimed. 'It carried the
ammunition. I can see the cartridges lying on the ground. We must have
those. I will go down and get them. Where's the ladder?'

'We certainly need more ammunition,' Barton admitted, 'but it would be a
dangerous job for you to get those cart