They did not proceed very far that night. After they had walked about two niiles the ladies were put in a cart and the whole com-"pany travelled about six miles. to' the village of Fengying where a halt was called. That was a terrible night for them; they had heard the. question, where will we put. the foreign ladies?" and had heard the answer, "put them with the idiot." To quote from the words of one of the captive ladies, ''We were put into a very filthy bed that was literally alive with vermin and were disturbed all night by the night by the idiot who was much disgruntled that we should %e occupying his bed. All through the night he kept leering and laughing at us in the light of a candle. We asked him-to go away but he would advance toward the bed, look at us, laugh wildly and jump, all the while munching pears which were stored in the room. As the lady on the outside of the bed fell into a doze she was startled by the clammy hand of the idiot touching her. Finally a brigand got him out but he returned again in the course of an boun"
There was a great sameness about the immediately succeeding days, the brigands went slowly East, looting as they went. Though the ladies did not realize it at that time, they were in the Chenchowfu area for severa. days. Movements were made in the night when the many bands would continue their pillaging of the villages passed bringing the loot to Fan's headquarters. In Dayuchin, the village of Yuan Shik-kai's relatives, the brigands pillage ed much of the goods of the Yuan home. They' were forced to flee from this village on account of an attack by the soldiers. In the middle of the night they were called out of° bed and the ladies were pub in the Yuan cart which was commandeered and the march started moving off without, lights, creeping through the night, no one allowed to utter a word. During the night they passed within one mile of a city, with lights along the wall which showed they were on the alert for a brigand -raid. They crept quiet-Jy amd passed this city without.. shot being fired on either side-.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.