The Storyteller.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7898, 14 August 1905, Page 4

The Storyteller.

Hatso's Story.

Aftert Domngton, in the Sydney, Worker, has »mW story of the Boxer rebellion, supposol to be nictated by a Japanese >- The cane field was full of strange noises ; the" wtnd-VhrastKd lasseis swaying in the hot stfniigji-t was Kbe the teomul o( men's voices, tar-, lane, M* white planter, yras Ifc-ing in his hammock ou the homestead verandah.

Matsu Hayadi was Carlane's Japanese overseer. He carried the Ohiaa war medal on his breast. U was his custom to stand the cane-loadtd trolly, and repeat hi bis fenr voice how the Chinese forts crumbled to dust in lh.< Gehennas <rf Japanese shellfire. '■' l have not toH you of Ue, the Australian mist.,oner," said Matsu, addressing th«n. "TV big whilefaoed praying man who liVed on the Pekin road with his children and wife. The stood under the broken wall; It was a death trap, open to assault from every side. I was the servant of Lee, his coolie, bis dog, but I loved him. "All about us were temples and j black pagodas with broken bells and secret stsdrs, hid tog places for tbe; leper and the rotfber. There were long -wet roads through the milieti fieWs that led to Manchuria 1 , lie land Was full o( pain and silk and <HI, bat m that year came the Boxer nteitioa. Rifles enacted by pight across, the IxQids and tAe dittd lay ia heaps all along the Pekin road. "I was the servant of imssioner Lets Hu children were my friends ; my heart was (nil of veneration for Ma lady wife, wbo spent her tide mining the worthless sick and the coolie impostor. "The mandarin, Won Yah Boh, warned Lee that his wife was not worth a grain of salt. Lea smiled but the rebellion rushed upon as ; there was blood in the pagodas, carrion m the red sky. Each night the flaring Pekm road gave news of the Boxer army. 'There is time to go, O. master,' I feaid s.*rtly. 'I <trill make Chinese disguises for yourself and the children.'

*' 'Hayadi,' be answered, 'we are not afraid at death.

" 'But the children, O master,' 1 pleaded. 'Theyjhave not lived their lives.' He would not listen to me, and yet 1 loved the white fool and bis children. His lady wife spoke of ber duty to Ood and she would not listen.

*O/my .brothers, they were both mad; madness was in their eyes and ra iMr prayers. Who but fools wtt Idiots world come from afar to teach the Mongolian how to love Christ the Nazarene ?

"'The night of Hood came at last. The gates oC the Celestial Tombs were ablaze with loot ar.d murder* Tbe Dragon Bridge fell like a thousand toasts . into the river. V.>i beard a million voices urging on the army of fiends who cried for the hearts of the white barbarian and bis children.

"My master was away down the Pelam load atlcmlmg a sick man in bis last hoar. When the Dragon Bridge fell I heard the tramp of feet—armies, legions, too many tor the eye to sec. Lanterns swung, knives flashed, and they yapped like jackals tor the lives of L*e and his children. ''l could not debt that army with my single rifle. 1 might have passed through the army on my Chinese dress tut the children I could not leave them. "My lady sat in the darkened room with her little family arout.4 her. I thought at first that the army wtouM sweep past the mission boose, trot a coolip with the raw of a dog pointed it out. "I snatched at the children tore into the plantation with them, and a hundred Boxers cut- me oil. See where ttrir anger wrote the anger ob my breast ! Ar.d vet they would not kill toe.

"TTk( jmsston house was soon a mass of flame from end to end. Lei me not tell you, my brothers, how the pfcildrcn were flung into the taiWing,. and how >the while tody, watkid tnto the flames smiling, ami with ber bands crossed. ■ Peace to them. II "There was notiriTijj for me to do but to bhJt in the plantation. My rifle in hand, I held it so and Waited.

__A Kttto rata fdl at midnight J The bungalow smoked; its ashes grew white in the dawn. Then I hear! through the quietness of morning the sound of the mission bugEy drmng towards me. My master had wcapnl the mob! A great sorrow overcame me. I could not face him *wfcow| couM he fa« the white broken wall ? »yplty fbr him was great; it <Wwhe)med me. 1 saw his future. row* emply ' antl sor-

him ? rsfl PM nearer. I saw 4U? 0 the Dnsii " n bouse. I saw the names of his [wife and eta Wren on (bis iip s . and X r riDd the fu,,cral Mm hJV OVL ' ,nto * ne 1 »^t w and friend;