Page:On to Pekin.djvu/219

Rh door and then to the back. A low murmur of voices followed.

"Open that door, I tell you," went on Gilbert, rapping again. "If you won't, we'll batter it down."

"What you Amelicans wantee?" came a voice from the top of the door; and Gilbert saw that a small wicket had been opened.

"We want to see Chow Fun."

"Chow Fun no here. Chow Fun go to Taku."

"Where is Chow Ching?"

"He all go way, too."

"Then let us in, anyway," went on Gilbert, impatiently. "Be quick about it, too."

"No can come in. We alle right. We no makee Amelicans no trouble, not muchee," went on the Celestial, and closed the little wooden shutter in Gilbert's face.

"You won't open, eh?" muttered the young lieutenant. "Come, Hunter, let us see what we can do."

The dog now began to grow savage again, at which one of the citizens who had come along clubbed him over the head with his gun,