Revolt and Desertion of Arsenal Troops: Double Murder by Armed Robbers From Our Own Correspondent, Kaifeng, Ho., June 21.
Last. night about 10 o'clock the whole community in this south suburb was greatly alarmed intermittent but intense rifle firing. The sound of the firing was from the barracks just south of the mission compounds of the China Inland Mission and the Shengkunghwei. This kept up from that time till nearly midnight, the location of the sounds changing by times from south and west to east and slightly north.
At 10.20 p.m. a temple bell began to ring instructing the people in the neighbourhood that it was dangerous to stir abroad, and most assuredly no one would have much heart to go out far, for the whine of the bullets could be very distinctly heard while the firing was in_progress.
This morning it is leamed that the trouble was from one lien, about 100 men, of the company known as the Hwoh-yoh-chu (Arsenal Guard), who for some reason or other at present not known, rebelled and deserted. They took this means of intimidating thd local authorities and eventually took their way southward from Kaifeng. By this time, no doubt, they have joined up with some company of brigands or have in their own persons become a freebooting company. The inference is that they would have had every opportunity to equip themselves with ammunition, though that cannot now be verified.
The night before last there was a brazen robbery and a double murder in one of the city businiesd places. It was after the time when shutters had been put up, but the small doors were not yet closed. The manager of a certain store had gone out and down the street a few doors, leaving the place in charge of some assistants. No one thought of trouble, but suddenly it came uninvited. Two men stepped into the store, and, presenting revolvers, covered the inmates and demanded the day's money. Some bystanders immediately got away as fast as their legs would carry them. The intruders tham closed and locked the door and proceeded to investigate. While doing so they must have been given trouble by one of the assistants, for later corpse was found in the store.
While they were carrying on their operations the owner of the business returned to his store and, finding the door locked, began rapping for admittance. He did not know why the door should have been locked, and began to be vigorous. He was startled, however, to find the door opened by the strangers. He immediately sensed the situation, and on being challenged by the intruders, disclaimed any con nexion with the place and began
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.