The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-12-07

IL
iuiiy as able general as Ki-Tsin. without
tne formers moderation aud humanity.
lie Is even more energetic than the present
commander. aud / have no doubt would
DC really more formidable antagonist
than ki-Tsin.u
But what can we dor This is doubtless
not the only dispatch. Others OF the same
tenor have probably been sent By different
routes confirming it The destruction of
the dispatch will not save your friends"
NO, 1t will not, said Haines. desmond
entity. General" he cried. suddenly.
after silence of some moments. give me
tnat dispatch. and let me have q few DAYS
leave of ABSENCE
What do you mean to do7n
La take the order to Yih-H Hun myself.
III succeed IN doing so no doubt he and
ms sister can induce their father to come
on 70 cur camp. Ii he would do so think
what We will gain. They know all the
Sninese plans and resources, the secrets
OF their mechanical ontrivances-everv-
tning. They are men of honor, but they
WIN surely feel themselves absolved from
All sheglance to an ungrateful tyrant, who
nas sentenced them to an undeserved
deatn, and their gratitude to me would
Also nave some weight with them.n
But do not these Orientals die passively
without circumstances. when their emperor
orders II, thinking that fate has so willed
it?'
some OF them may" said Haines: "but
hi-Tsin and Yih-Hun are men of too
broad minds and too high an appreciation
OF the value of life to throw it away at the
order of despot Besides, they would
not want Voice to have that triumph.
But what say you, generalf"
HOW will you get through their linesf"
Il have Chinese uniform, which Yih-
Hun gave me. can speak their language
sufficiently for my purposes, II it becomes
necessary. As to the rest, must rely on
fortune and my native wit"
Very well, Major" said the general at
length. ''yon may go. / consent because
can see that il the Chinese commander
and his son will come to us and will aid us
they will be very important allies. doub.
very much, however, whether they will
do either. They will probably out with
their swords as soon as they read the
mandate and commit hari-kari. But you
may go. The possible result is worth the
risk. When will you start2"
Immediately. There is no time to be
lost. Good by. General
GOOD by, Major. l wish you success,
but fear shall never see you again.
You will not. General, unless succeed.
Farewell And Haines, with the fatal
warrant in his hand, hurried to his tent to
make the necessary preparations for his
perilous enterprise.
An hour later man enveloped in long
military cloak stole through the pickets OF
the American army at a point where they
had purposeiy been stationed widely apart.
Reaching point some haIf-mile beyond
the lines he found horse saddled and
bridled, awaiting him in the charge of an
orderly. Throwing off his cloak and toss
ing II to the orderly, he appeared i'm the
uniform OF Chinese officer, sprang TO the
saddle and rode swiftly away in the direction
of the Chinese camp. An hours gallon
brought the night rider near his destina-
ton. And when at last the reflection on
the sky OF the electric lights of the Chinese
| camp showed it near at hand he dis
mounted, unbridled his horse, tied the bril-
| die to its saddle. and wheeling the animal
| in the direction from which he had come,
and saying word in Its ear, he sent it off
| at brisk canfer. The man then hastened
| cautiously forward until he had sur
mounted a little rise of ground from
which the enemy's camp could be plainly
| seen at a distance of some 5000
yards. 1t was brilliantly illuminated. and
| powerful search-lights. momentarily shifted
| TO bear upon the different parts OF the sur
| rounding plain. threatened to disclose his
| presence. even at that distance. He ac-
| cordingly threw himself upon the ground
| just in time to- escape q new danger from
an unexpected quarter. as troop of Tar
| tar horse swept BY. almost trampling upon
| him, in their customary rounds about the
| outside limits of the camp.
| Among the tents In the plain before him
| one far larger than any other caught the
watchers eye. 1t lowered in the center
| of the camp. Above it foaed the great
| dragon flag, while from lower staff hung
| smaller, swallow-tailed banner bearing
| the Indian tiger. the personal flag of
| the commander. 1t was not upon
| this tent, however. that the gaze of
| the watcher was fixed, but upon smaller
| one standing in the shadow of
| the commanders. at 1 can only
make that undiscovered T. he exclaimed, as
| he looked anxiously at the intervening
| ground. Suddenly he started with an ex-
clamation of pleasure. To his right, at a
distance of perhaps go yards, he saw cut
ting the plain thin black thread, which
| made its winding way from the point indi-
| Gated to the very center of the Chinese
| camp. His experienced eve recognized it
| as an arroyo or narrow tire lch, such as are
| cut by mountain torrents during the rainy
| season and when the SHOWS are melting, in
| the soft earth of the plain. These arroyos
are sometimes fifty feet deep and not
more than ten feet wide at the top. The
| man made his way slowly on his hands
| and knees to the brink of the arroyo and
peered down into ii. While in this attitude
| the soft earth which formed the bank be-
gan almost imperceptibly to give way. The
man, engfossed in estimating the depth of
| the crevasse, noticed nothing. Faster and
| faster the surrounding earth gave way, and
| then. with a sharp cry, man and earth were
swallowed up in the black depths of the
arroyo.
| An hour or more had passed since the
watcher of the Chinese camp had been en-
| quilted in the arroyo. At the expiration of
| that time q head peered carefully above the
| trench at a distance of not more than
| twenty yards from Yih-Hun's tent. Grad
ually the head was followed by the body
| of a man. The sen,inels around the tents
of the highest Chinese officers were
withdrawn that night from the inn
mediate vicinity of the same and formed
into a continuous GORDON about them at n
distance of fifty yards. This Gordon, on
| the side on which the man now appeared,
extended beyond the arroyo. Haines,
therefore, for ii was he, was inside the cor