THE MOHAMMEDAN LEADER 231 



fighters than the Chinese. There are many people 

 who think that dreams ot a IMohaiTnnedan kingdom 

 in the west of China are not yet dead, and that 

 when the moment arrives there will be another 

 great rebellion. 'J'he rumour was current that 

 though jNIa-an-Liang had promised to aid the 

 ^'^iceroy personally, and had sent some of his men 

 to the capital to guard against rioting, he and all 

 the leading Chinese gentry had agreed to help the 

 revolutionists. 



He had called on the Viceroy and asked him in 

 a boasting manner how he would have Chang-i- 

 Chien, alive or dead ? "If dead," he exclaimed, 

 " I will bring you his head ; if alive, in a cage." 

 How^ever, on returning home he received rather a 

 shock. Between his own apartments and the guest 

 room lay a hall where hung a large picture of 

 himself. Across this, during his absence, had been 

 pasted the following legend : " Ma-an-Liang ! you 

 think you are very cle\'er in offering to bring 

 Chang-i-Chien to the Viceroy alive or dead. If 

 you go to Ping-liang (a place half-way between 

 Sian-fu and Lanchow, where the revolutionary 

 army was reported to be encamped) he will cut 

 you into mincemeat ! " 



The officials were all at loggerheads, and used 

 language to the ^''iceroy which, three months 

 before, would have called from that outraged 

 dignitary's lips the Duchess's famous exclamation 

 in " Alice in Wonderland." The Provincial 

 Treasurer was reported to have wired to Peking 

 that the \^iceroy was inefficient and should be 

 removed ; the Viceroy wired that the Provincial 

 Treasurer was a hopeless bungler who ought never 



