With that he allowed Talham to return to his work of putting the inn into a condition of defence. Talham had posted two sentries at the gate, and people were only allowed in two at a time. That there should be a big crowd before the foreigner’s quarters--a crowd of curious, peering, tip-toeing, interested Celestials, goes without saying, for the Chinese are tremendously curious. Every now and again the officer of the guard would come to Talham, busy with Tillizinni, working out calculations as to distances and depths, with the information that a stranger wished to see him. Talham would walk patiently to the gate, exchange a few words with the man who desired an audience, and, at a nod, the stranger would be allowed to pass. By the evening of the first day there were occupying the little compound some forty soldiers and some forty-five nondescript Chinamen who had turned up from nowhere in particular, and Talham’s estimate as to the sleeping capacity of the improvised barrack-room proved to be no exaggeration. He had made one wise provision, and that was that the arms of the escort, including even the sword and revolver of the officer commanding when he was not on duty, should be stacked in a smaller room. In addition, he had all the ammunition which he had brought with him similarly stored. It cramped the small apartment considerably and filled up every available piece of space, but Talham was insistent upon this, though the officer demurred. In the morning, when the new guard mounted, they took over the rifles of the men who had been on duty on the previous day. On the third day Talham went out to make an inspection of the problematic Mount Li. He left before daybreak and only halted at the city gates because they were not open at that hour. He did not return until near sunset, and when he did he was immensely hungry, not having, as he said, eaten since he set forth, save a couple of dubious eggs which he secured at a village en route. “I am satisfied we are on the right track,” he said, “and I am more satisfied because a farmer in the neighbourhood tells me that some men have been over from Tai-San quite recently exploring the mountain. “It isn’t a mountain really,” he went on. “As a matter of fact I have a theory that previous to the Emperor’s death, it had no existence at all.” He described the place. It lay in the neck or dip of two hills, and, apparently, had been filled up so that the top of the hill should offer an unbroken sky-line to the traveller in the valley beneath. “There is no doubt at all in my mind,” said Talham emphatically, “that this is the tomb. We have now to find the guarded entrance. You can see the slope of the hills before they were earthed up quite distinctly, and I think I have found the ruins of an old temple half buried near the crest of one of these.” He read again the Second Emperor’s description.