Lukou, a busy town lying on the right bank of the Liling river at its junction with the Siang, was empty of soldiers. It is only 10 miles above Chuchow. Ten Ji above Lukou, there is a_ finely situated temple of the Goddess of Mercy on a mass of rock which overhangs the river. There we met the first of the Tan soldiers. They hardly.had the bearing of runaways, and I rather think they were direct from Changsha and had not been among the defeated men at the battle at T-chia-wan on the previous Tuesday. From them we had an uninterrupted run for the rest of the day, reaching Chuting, 70 7 from Hengshan just after dark. There we found the nerviness of the men who had actually fought and lost. While I was getting ashore a dozen or more got on to the boat. On shore, I found a number of men lying down with cocked rifles aimed at the boat. They gave me no answer when I asked to be taken to their officer, until after passing the! front rank, one of the men at once Ied me off to the far end of the street where I found the major gambling. I explained to him that I should like to be off before daybreak so that we should be ready to pass the first rapid we were to meet above about dawn; he promised to let the sentries know. We made the start before 4 a.m. without any attempt to hinder us. - When I got back to the boat, I had aggrieved nartatives of the unceremonious behaviour of the dozen men who had come on board to inspect. My soldier-servant was satirical at the way in which they kept thei rifles on the cock all the time they were on board—a thing in which he read the depth of the scare which had come to them in their fight. five days earlier. As we got to Hengshan, we were hailed from a launch which was full of soldiers. Gen. Hsieh had used this launch to go down to Chuchow on the Saturday, returning the next lay,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.