As we stood on the verandah of the, mission house half an hour later looking out on the gloomy weather and waiting for the rain to sto a squad of some dozen soldier sauntered past, along the path leading from the town. Pao first noticed, after they had passed some 100 yards, that they had with them 'a man being led along with a rope! about his neck. It occurred to me at ence that it must surely be an Jexecution, and, grabbing up camera and tripod, we started after them. But the "squad of death had julrendy halted and before we reached the path were casually making the last preparations.
yards away it was evident When were still 80 executioner was about to stuff" acd I stopped to watch from where we were. It was a gruesome enough performance, and I felt! rather glad afterwards that I had not been nearer while it was carried out. The executioner apparently bungled badly on the first stroke, though the unfortunate victim fell from his kneeling to a prone posi tion, after which the swords ma taking all the time in the world, crossed to the other side and made two more hacks at the prone figure. On the last stroke the job was apparently consider: d—satisfactorily] finished, as the executioner handed the sword to an attendant (a mere boy) and the whole file turned away and strolled back again laughing and chatting as though the business just finished were no more than the butchering of a hog for mess. When they had passed wrt to the scene of the tragedy. It was a ghastly picture. The base of the skull had been gashed open in three places, Jone of which was well above the The head was not even half vered, but the man was unquesionably quite dead, and I like to) believe that he had no further consciousness after the first blow fell, Not the least revolting feature of the whole business was the casual matter-of-fact way in which he had been struck down and left by the soldiers where he lay brside the road for somebody else to dispose of. The man was unknown in the district and later the local branch lof the Red Cross took charge of his body for burial. He was said to be a southern spy, and I dare say that this may have been the truth, for, although dressed as a coolie, his' teeth were white ard apparently well cared for.
The General Reticent When I saw Gen. Li again at two o'clock he was more reserved in his statements and altogether rather reficent. He said that things were! going on satisfactorily but that it was impossible to say with any) certainty when the headquarters might move further to the front, ard that Gen. Meng was too busy with arrangements to see me as yet. He also asked me not to mention for the present the exact dis Position of the various northern: units or to make any met of the withdrawal of Gen. Bei Ba isan, I wanted particularly know when I might get further on to where the fighting was taking, place, and was told that I would be given military transport facilities as soon as headquarters moved or tha in the event of their remaining in Foyang, other: arrangements would!
made for me of which he would and that the General and his staff had gone to Hangchow by boat during the night, and they added that the place was "very dangerous;" that they were leaving immediately, land that we had better get out as ly as we could,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.