Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-12-14

surance to attack merchant ship single
handed.
Ny second adventure was at town called
Kwei-Ling. had been there month, and
my business and social relations had been ex-
tremely pleasant. I went one night to sup
with and spend the night at the house of the
mayor, who was also our local agent. He
lived out in the suburbs, with a very fine gar
den about his house, and the room assigned
me was on the ground floor, 'front.' 1t had
two windows, and while not over eight feet
wide, was fully twenty-four feet long. Lying
III my bed, | could see the whole length of
the room, and as the night was very hot and
close, left the lower sash up. l had my re-
volver at hand, and being light sleeper I
knew that the slightest noise would arouse
me- We sat up to a late hour and it was
after midnight when l got to bed. l at once
fell asleep, and at 2 o'clock found myself sit
ting bolt upright in bed and man climbing
in at the window. had my revolver on him
before he was ON his feet in the room and I
called out to him in Chinese to stand where
he was or l would shoot him. My clothes
We're on chair between him and me, and if
he had been intent on robbery alone he might
have grabbed them and made off. But he
wanted to rob and kill, too; and although he
SOuio AeAfO SCOiA UHc SlSeiiIl VI MY revolver Ill
in the moonlit room he came for the bed on
run, brandisling the ugliest looking knife
ever set my eyes on. / pulled for him over
the footboard when he was only ten feet
away, and he fell. When lights and help
arrived we found that my bullet had glanced
around his skull and stunned him There
were six or eight of us at hand, but the fell
low fought like giant, and we could not Sc
cure him until had raped him over the head
with the butt of my pistol He was all right
again as an officer arrived, and 10! he ac-
tualiy followed the policeman to the station
house! | was stranger. The other was an
official. While he fought to murder me, he
was as humble as a dog in the presence of
official power.
1t turned out that the man coveted my
gold watch, and that alone, and, though he
had had several previous chances to rob me,
he let them slip, because he could not also
Kill me- The man was tried that self same
day, found guilty, and the next morning at
o'clock was led out and beheaded. He
walked before the cutoner, seemingly as
placid as the morning, and when ordered to
kneel down, he promptly obeyed and held his
neck in the best position to have his head
struck off. single blow decapitated him.
Near Siang-tian, q few months later, was
captured by two of mountain band of rob-
bers Their first thought was to slay me- l
was alone and on donkey, and they sprang
upon me so suddenly out of the bushes that l
had no time to prepare myself Both slashed
at me with their swords, but lodged them,
and called out that was an English official
OF great Importance, and that if they did me
harm the heads of twenty mandarins would
be demanded in payment. This cooled them
Off, ana, luckily for me, the leader of the
band came up. He was a native of Turkes-
tan-a wicked fellow, and one who delighted
to shed blood, but my reiteration of my i'm
portance had it's effect upon me- He rea-
soned with his fellow robbers as follows:
''Here we have prisoner 1t is plain that
he is an Englishman. He doesn't want to be
killed. If we kill him, the mandarin will
. send soldiers after us, and we shall have
trouble. We shall all be killed, and his
| friends will want large sum of money be-
Sides That will make so much trouble that
no one else will dare to rob. We will not kill
him, but as we have been to much trouble he
must pay us ransom"
''But want to cut his throatr' protested
one of my captors.
THAT is true, but we will spare his life
and kill four other men to pay for it.''
was taken up ravine into the mountain,
where we found three other members of the
band. But for the leader should have been
! murdered off hand. They took my watch,
money and trinkets, and then debated the
question of ransom. When they had fixed
the sum the leader said:
'You must pay us sum equal to e5 in
English money or we shall kill you at the
end of the week.
They seemed to think the sum an extrava-
ant one, and were considerably surprised
when l sent note in to our local agent and
the money was forthcoming. The Chinese
! still howled for my life, and as I departed
| for the town, cleaned out and on foot, the
leader was protesting:
| ''My children, it is sad that we cannot kill
him, but I am doing for the best. You may
kill the next eight men you meet, and if
some are Turks or Russians we will not
care New York Sun.