'Food; give us food,' cried one of the men, not as if he were asking for a favour, but as if for something that he would as soon take by force.
'I will give you three bags of rice; that is all we can spare,' answered the Professor steadily.
'Hear him! Three bags of rice, when we know he has a pile. Hear the foreign devil, brother,' shouted one of the men, the one who had not previously spoken. 'Listen, foreign devil,' he bellowed, as if he wished to terrorise the Professor by the force of his voice, 'we will be satisfied with fifty.'
'Three is the allowance I will make; take it or leave it,' came the curt answer.
The Professor nodded coolly. 'We refuse more; we have to provide for our own needs.'
'Then we will take every sack you have, and strip you of all your possessions. You have had fair warning.'
Without the smallest indication of what he intended doing the rascal levelled a pistol, and fired point blank at the Professor, sending a bullet crashing against the ancient doorpost. Then the two men turned and swaggered up the stairs, calling loudly to their comrades. Nor was it long before the latter put in an appearance.
'They will attack us without fail,' said the headman, when appealed to by the Professor. 'In fact, you may say that they are bound to do so, for the next place where they can possibly obtain food is more than a day's march from here. Also, no doubt, they have learned that you have a goodly store, and fancying you to be an easy prey they will fight to take everything from you, thereby supplying the needs of all in the band till they arrive in the neighbourhood of Pekin.'
'What arms do they carry?' asked David, suddenly.
'A few have pistols and guns, but the majority carry knives or swords, and a few pikes. But it is their numbers which make them formidable.'
There was little doubt that that was the true aspect of the affair, for this army of people flying from Manchuria, and rendered desperate by their hunger were dangerous even if unarmed. Their huge numbers told wonderfully in their favour, while the ease with which they had wiped out other parties had given them confidence. The situation was, in fact, one of extreme danger.
'Hadn't we better block up every sort of place through which they could fire?' asked David. 'We can easily leave port-holes for ourselves, and if we place them properly we shall be able to command the stairway. I rather think, too, that it would be as well to set our diggers at work to discover a way out of this apartment. We may be so hard pressed that flight will be necessary.'