They walked down the deserted street. The city gate to which they first came was shut and within its arch on the inner side was a group of soldiers of the retreating army. Stone Ponting was leaning against the shoulder of one of the more passive soldiers, watching the others. Stone was spitting, preparatory to inserting a new piece of gum. The soldiers seemed too busy arguing to resent Stone’s close inspection. “Bum soldiers, I’ll say,” said Stone when he saw Tam. “I’d like to see our doughboys act this way. Say listen, I saw a guy chasing off with a sack of silver and—by golly—it split. Gee, there was iron men all over the sidewalk and he didn’t stop to pick many ofum up. The soldiers did that forum. They should worry. What gets me’s that I came up too late.” The argument among the soldiers ceased suddenly as the gate was half opened. They filed through one by one. “Look as much like Chinese infantry as you can and we’ll go with ’em,” whispered Tam. They all three passed out among the soldiers and the man in charge of the gate did not challenge them. The mud beach between the city wall and the river was crowded with soldiers; by sheer force of numbers they were shouldering the beggars and the outcast women out of their heritage. They had one common desire—to get away. Every boat that could be commandeered was over-filled with soldiers the moment it could be brought to the beach. Each boat pushed away bristling like a porcupine with upright figures and with bayonets. As the current caught the boats and swung them down the river, desultory shouts came from a distant bank upstream. “Well, well,” said Tam. “It looks as if we shall have to wait till the end of the war to get across the river. I wish I could talk Chinese and then I would ask one of these soldiers what it feels like to be so much afraid. Do you know, it may sound vain, but I don’t know what fear is. I’ll tell you a yarn——” “We can get on board that boat,” said Edward. Some unexplained argument among the thronging soldiers was keeping half empty a boat which had just been brought to shore. Tam, with his arrogant Englishman’s manner, pushed the soldiers apart and led his companions into the boat. “Sailee acrossee, what?” he said in a bright charming voice to the nearest oarsman. Whenever Tam used that voice he obviously expected every face to light up with tolerance and smiles. He was accustomed to this result. His charm failed to work now. For the Chinese, boat space meant life and the lack of it death. A loud noise of protest arose from all the soldiers within earshot. Angry hands sawed the air in the direction of the three intruders. Hands pushed their shoulders. No-one was smiling. Edward jumped quickly ashore again. He had an exaggerated terror of finding himself unwelcome.