“By the way, there is an old friend of mine in China, a missionary named Martin Wells, who sailed with me on the _Columbia_. You’ll remember my telling you about him. He was stationed at Hong Kong at first, but later on went to Pekin; and I’ve read in a newspaper that he was trying to escape from the Boxers. If you can do anything for him, I wish you would. Have you seen or heard anything of the old _Columbia_? She must be somewhere around the Gulf of Pechili, unless the Chinese pirates have captured her. I hear that those rascals are taking advantage of the war. I must hurry, as the mail is closing. “Ever your friend, “LARRY RUSSELL.” “Dear Larry!” murmured Gilbert. “I don’t wonder Ben and Walter love him. Yes, I remember hearing about the Rev. Mr. Wells; and I’ll do all I can for him if we chance to meet.” Gilbert had looked for a few days’ rest, but in this he was mistaken. It was true there was no fighting; but preparations were continued for the advance on Pekin, and this gave him plenty of work to do. General Chaffee was now in command of all the American forces in Tien-Tsin and on the way; and these numbered in round figures five thousand men. The British troops numbered about the same, and the French and German about half as many. Of Russians there were at least ten thousand, and twice that many Japanese. Of course, all of these could not participate in the forward movement; and the actual army which struck out for the Chinese capital numbered only sixteen thousand men. Before the Allies left Tien-Tsin there were numerous heavy rains; and these caused the Pei-Ho to overflow its banks, and rush through the broken dikes the Chinese had left behind them. As a consequence, the marshlands were covered with water and mud for miles around, rendering the advance of the soldiers exceedingly slow and difficult. The rains continued; and, when it was not raining, the sun shone down so fiercely that many a man was prostrate by the heat. The water was so impure as to be unfit to drink, and the whole territory abounded in fever and malaria for the foreigners. By the last day of July all was in readiness for the advance; and the first movement was made by the Russian contingent, which advanced up the river a distance of several miles, and, after a slight resistance, captured some additional mud forts. This movement up the muddy stream was followed by the starting of the transports, which had to be poled along, for fear of running into the junks the Chinese had sunk in the channel. A few of the craft were towed by Chinese coolies, but their progress was not satisfactory.