he better. I grasped the
forward end of our weapon, Ajax, being the heavier, took the other,
and we charged that door with such hearty goodwill that at the first
assault it yielded, lock and hinges being torn from the woodwork, and
the door itself falling flat with a crash like the crack o' doom.
Ajax, the log, and I rolled into the next room, and as we were
grovelling on the floor I saw that the room was full of Chinamen, and
that our late guide was in the middle of them. The light was so bad
that I was unable to see more than this. It was plain that we had to
deal with an organised gang of criminals. Thugs who practised their
trade as a fine art. Despite all proverbs the foreseen is what
generally happens; and our amazing advent in their midst created a
sort of panic whereby we took advantage. The Celestials carried
knives, but they dared not use them, because the light was so dim and
the room so crowded. The first thing that I saw when I scrambled to my
feet was the fat dull face of the guard shining like a harvest moon,
and presenting a mark for my fist as round and big as a punching-bag.
I hit him once--and that was enough. Then I began to hear the measured
thud of my brother's blows, the blows of a workman who knows how to
strike and where to strike.

At first they took their medicine without a whimper. Then they began
to squeal and chatter as the fear of the "white devils" got hold of
them. Very soon I saw "red," as our Tommies say, and remembered
nothing till I came to myself in the passage at the foot of the rotten
stairs. We scurried up these and through the warren above like rabbits
when the pole-cat pursueth, and finally found ourselves in the alley,
where we called a halt.

"By Jove!" said Ajax, "that was a ruction."

I looked at him and burst out laughing: then he looked at me and
laughed louder than I. Our clothes were in rags; our faces were red
and black with blood and grime; every bone and sinew and muscle in our
bodies ached and ached from the strain of strife.

"It is not time to laugh yet," said my brother; and we ran on down the
alley, out into a small by-street, and straight into the arms of a
policeman, who promptly arrested us.

* * * * *

The rest of the story was in the newspapers next day, although there
was no mention of our names. When the police reached the battlefield
they found one dead man--the opium-eating and smoking bar-tender. He
had died--so said the