126 A TALE OF THE BORDER 



amongst the believers, whited sepulchres who used 

 the true religion for their own base ends ; wolves 

 among the sheep. " Even now," said he, " even 

 now in this very room there is a wolf amongst the 

 sheep," and he looked at Tsi. 



But Tsi refused to move, and sat stubbornly on. 

 As the preacher continued, there came a blow on 

 the door, and three men in the tattered uniform of 

 yamen underlings entered. 



They bowed to the preacher, who asked them 

 their business. " We have been sent," they 

 answered, "to arrest a bad man. Do you know 

 if he is here ? " " Yes," said the missionary ; " that 

 is the man ! " and he pointed to the trembling Tsi. 



Resistance was useless, for the soldiers were all 

 big men. They led him off, struggling at first, to 

 the yamen, loudly protesting his innocence. Here 

 he was tried, beaten, and finally imprisoned. 



Early in 1911 anti-foreign riots occurred in 

 Sining, a town on the Thibetan border of Kansu. 

 Placards were posted enumerating the eight deadly 

 crimes of foreigners, but the revolt was soon 

 suppressed and its leaders executed. Many of 

 their followers shared the same fate. 



So much the European papers told their readers. 



They did not mention a certain ruffian, one of 

 the last who fell beneath the executioner's sword. 

 His hatred of all foreigners, especially missionaries, 

 had marked him from the first, and he had been 

 loud in expressing, with awful curses, the fate he 

 intended for those who fell into his hands. 



His name was Tsi. 



