The Boxers facing the American troops numbered at least a thousand, the others having pursued the Russians at the embankment. They were well armed; and a second volley from their first rank brought down two of the Americans, both seriously wounded. The Celestials were making a tremendous din, and the combined noise was deafening, while the wild waving of banners was well calculated to destroy a marksman’s aim. But the command was again to go forward, coupled with the order to fire at will; and soon Gilbert found himself almost face to face with a crowd of Celestials. He fired his pistol, and saw his man tumble backward; and then, as if by magic, four or five of the Boxers hurled themselves at him. The fury of that onslaught cannot be described. The young lieutenant had been in several hand-to-hand encounters in Luzon; but no attack by Filipinos could equal this frenzied rush by fanatics, who thought by annihilating the “foreign devils” they would gain for themselves a superior place in the Hereafter. “_Cheri-chi-chi!_” was the battle-cry, as it sounded in Gilbert’s ears. “Kill! kill! kill!” was the word the Boxers used the most, repeated in several dialects. [Illustration: THE YELLOW MAN WAS ON THE POINT OF BLAZING AWAY AT GILBERT’S EAR.] Gilbert felt that he must fight as he had never fought before. His sword was in one hand and his pistol in the other. Crack! crack! went the smaller weapon; and then the larger was thrust forward, to find the shoulder of a Celestial beside him. The yellow man, his eyes almost staring from his head with excitement, was on the point of blazing away at Gilbert’s ear with his gun, when a bullet from the rear rank of the Americans killed him on the spot. Then the young lieutenant leaped over a dead body before him, hurling a little Asiatic flat, and reached a breathing-spot, where he might catch his second wind. The Boxers had been carefully trained in their peculiar military tactics; but the average Chinaman loses his head easily, and soon the officers of the Celestials could no longer control them. Some continued to advance, while the majority retreated, and the din became even greater than before. “Form a square!” was the command from Major Morris, as soon as he realized that the Boxers were bewildered and running around on all sides. The order was quickly obeyed, and then each of the four companies composing the sides of the hollow square was ordered to advance. They fired as rapidly as their guns permitted, and in less than ten minutes the Celestials were all in retreat. In the mean time another pitched battle had been going on at the embankment, and here honors were about equally divided between the Chinese and the Russians. The latter had been fighting hard the day before; and the heat had all but exhausted them, for each man was heavily equipped.