Page:On to Pekin.djvu/281

Rh one letter for him from Manila, and written by Larry Russell, that interested him very much. This ran as follows:—

"Dear Gilbert,—I suppose by the time this reaches you, you will be in the hottest of the fighting, and will be covering yourself with glory. Well, go in and win, and don't come out of the struggle with less than a colonel's commission.

"All still remains somewhat quiet here, and we boys expect to move very soon; but whether to China or to the United States nobody can tell. The rebels are lying low in the mountains, and Ben says he may get another go at them; but I don't think so.

"By the way, there is an old friend of mine in China, a missionary named Martin Wells, who sailed with me on the Columbia. You'll remember my telling you about him. He was stationed at Hong Kong at first, but later on went to Pekin; and I've read in a newspaper that he was trying to escape from the Boxers. If you can do anything for him, I wish you would. Have you seen or heard anything of the old Columbia? She must be somewhere around the Gulf of Pechili, unless the Chinese