Noon passed before any inquietude was felt. After tiffin people began to crowd the square before the Administration buildings, and ask each other when the Japanese were coming. The Chinese crowded their house tops and gazed over the open country to the south, expecting to see there some sign of the conquering army. At last five scouts of the west wing of the army, who had been trying to get in touch with the Russian pickets by following the branch railway line from Tashichiao, reached the settlement from Niuchatun. They found the town ungarrisoned. That they did not expect; they rode in expecting sooner or later to find Russian soldiers, and they were prepared for them. This burden of a Russianless town was not entirely to their liking, but they were equal to the occasion. They knew the town, went through the by-paths of the settlement, and discovered and held up promptly two of the Russian military police. A third, behind the wall of a compound, tore off his shoulder straps, threw away his cap, and tried to pass as a civilian, but he surrendered to these five men--only five men, and they captured and held the town. They spake neither English, Chinese, nor Russian--they were scouts, and they went carefully hither and thither seeking. I have in memory now one of these, a man not five feet two inches high, mobbed by a crowd of Chinese and foreign residents curious to see him, and he disregarding every one and mounting a boundary stone in order to see over their heads. After five o’clock four Japanese scouts rode into the square. They were mounted on sorry tired horses, all mud spattered and rough. The men wore uniforms stained and torn by campaigning, one had tied the sole of his boot to the uppers with a straw band, but they were soldiers, and knew it. The people regarded them with interest, but without any display of emotion. They were not welcomed, nor was their intrusion resented. Then arrived four more, later another four, with a non-commissioned officer. To him came the chiefs of the Chinese guilds with greetings. The foreign residents held aloof for the expected army, the officers, and the General.