eign poster, and the following is what he read:--

'We publicly announce that the foreigners who entered our Middle Kingdom
many years ago have made plans to seize our territory. They ignore the
teachings of Confucius, and have already taught the people their false
religion, and have practised their sorceries upon them. Now the
right-minded and superior men of our land are boiling with rage at the
harm which the foreigners have done, and are determined to kill them.
Every foreigner must be killed, and every house, shop, and church which
they inhabit must be destroyed. Any one who shelters a foreigner will be
killed, and all converts to the foreign religion who do not recant
immediately will be executed. Kill the foreigners who are hoping to
seize our country and introduce their barbarian customs! Kill the men
who have made friends with them! Kill the foreigners! Kill the
foreigners!'

Ping Wang turned away. He knew that the placard would have the desired
effect of rousing the people to a state of frenzy. Already hundreds of
people were shouting, 'Kill the foreigners!'

The cry was, by this time, familiar to Charlie and Fred, and there was
no need for them to ask Ping Wang what was printed on the poster.

By a slight movement of his head, Ping Wang signed to the Pages to
follow him. He walked a few yards down the crowded street, fearing every
moment that his friends would be detected by the mob and killed before
his eyes, and then turned into a narrow lane, dark and almost deserted.
The people had evidently flocked into the main road. He sighed with
thankfulness, and, having glanced round and seen that the Pages were
following, he quickened his speed. It was some years since he had
traversed the bye-streets of his native town, but they were not changed
to any great extent, and he had no difficulty in finding his way. He led
his friends through street after street--gloomy and squalid places, but
happily deserted by the residents. At last they came into a main road
which led to the town-gates; not the ones at which they had entered
early that morning, but those on the other side. He could see them in
the distance. They were open, and he was tempted to lead his friends
straight out into the country, and away from the danger which threatened
them. At any rate, it seemed to him that he would be doing an unfriendly
action if he did not tell them that escape was still easy.

'There are the gates,' he said in an undertone. '