All was now easy. The events of the morning were carefully related, with the request that the police should be sent at once to rescue and bring back our people, reclaim our goods and arrest, if possible, the criminals. This he promised to do at once, and in fulfillment, immediately ordered up the hunters, a guild of brave men who know the woods and mountains for miles around, and who fear nothing. His spokesman then called out to them in loud tones, which thrilled through the clear starlit night, the order to go at once, find and arrest the robbers, and bring safely our attendants and goods in three days’ time, or lose their heads. To which they replied in a sort of chant in a minor key that they would so arrest, reclaim, and bring back in three days’ time or would lose their heads. The last syllable long drawn, rolled, rippled, and re-echoed, seeming to die away somewhere among the stars. The condition about the loss of their heads was, of course, merely for rhetorical effect, or very likely the echo of an old custom, the address and reply being probably a form hundreds of years old. At any rate, though they returned after three days had passed, their mission not fully accomplished, there was no talk of beheading, or thought of it in any quarter. It may be noted that not much has been told in this chapter of Christian work and its results, but it must be remembered that conditions were somewhat unfavorable. Owing to the fears of our American minister, Mr. Underwood had been forbidden to preach in the country at this time, so that his work was limited to studying the country and the people and their possibilities, laying plans for future work, examining, instructing and encouraging converts and supervising and testing the work of native helpers. As for me, the effort to make a favorable impression through the treatment of the sick and the distribution of tracts was the limit of my usefulness. CHAPTER V Our Stay in Wewon--We Give a Dinner--Our Guests--Magistrates Propose that we Travel with a Chain-Gang--Our Trip down the Yalu--The Rapids--Contrast between Korean and Chinese Shores--We Enter Weju--The Drunken Magistrate--Presents and Punishments--Unpleasant Experiences with Insincere People--Rice Christians--The Scheming Colporter--The Men Baptized in Weju--The Lost Passport--Another Audience at the Palace--Queen’s Dress and Ornaments--Korean Summer House--The Pocket Dictionary--Our Homes.