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Rh on Major Morris, earnestly. "For myself I am thoroughly delighted. I am getting tired of hanging around Tarlac. We haven't had a brush with the Fillpino guerillas for three weeks, and that last engagement didn't amount to anything."

"Major, you are a fighting man through and through!" laughed the young lieutenant. "I believe you would rather fight than eat."

"Hardly that, Pennington; but I must confess to a weakness for an occasional engagement." The major of the first battalion twisted his mustache meditatively. "Between you and me, privately speaking, I think we have a long, hard campaign before us."

"I can't understand it. If the Chinese government isn't in with the Boxers, why doesn't it suppress the society, and protect our citizens and the citizens of other nations?"

"That's the conundrum, lieutenant. I was talking to the colonel about it; and he says his opinion is that the Chinese government, instead of suppressing the Boxers, is secretly aiding them. The Chinese don't want any foreigners in China, and this outbreak was bound to come sooner or later."