The thing was now interesting, if only from a psychological point of view....

The ku-ping advanced, without hesitation, and brought us to a high wooden paling which shut off one half of this immense hall from the other.  Inside the paling, as far as we could see, there were just mountains of empty sacks—­hundreds of thousands of them, even millions, I should think.

But the paling was impassable.  A small gate leading through it was still locked with a heavy Chinese padlock, and there was no key.  One of the officers gave a wave of his hand, and a couple of the soldiers went out and reappeared with axes.  In a few blows they had cleared a broad opening; the ku-ping sprang through, and, like bloodhounds that scent a trail, ran swiftly up the steep slopes of the great masses of empty bags, looking eagerly about them.  Then, finally calculating aloud, they marked down a spot.  They had located the exact place where they would have to begin to work.  They stripped themselves to the waist with great rapidity, and, feeling that their reputations were at stake, without any warning they were heaving away among those empty sacks like so many madmen.  Faster and faster they worked, throwing away the sacks.  Choking clouds of dust, now rising as if by magic, filled the whole vast hall and drove us back coughing and gasping for air, until, fairly beaten, we had to stand outside.  As if through a thick vapour we could dimly see those men still working more and more rapidly.  I wondered how they could breathe....

In very few minutes, however, they also had had enough, but as they sprang down, and quickly gasping, sought the open air, they brought with them the end of a rope.  They had evidently not only located the exact spot they were seeking, but had found the first trace which was necessary to make their search successful.  Still, it was impossible to continue work in this way.  It would take hours, at such a slow rate, to dig down beneath those mountains of old treasure-sacks.  It would take more hours to excavate or open up chambers beneath.  So we held a short consultation.  There was but one thing to do.  We must tear down one side of the building, so as to have more light, and to be able to put more men to work.  No sooner decided on, than the thing was done, for in this work the Russians are supreme.  They called in fatigue parties from the infantry companies in garrison, and telling them in simple language to break down one side of the building, in a few moments a wonderful scene began.  I had seen some rapid work at short intervals during the worst agony of the siege, but never have I seen men who could handle the axe and the crowbar like these rude infantrymen.  Everything went down under their blows—­brickwork, woodwork, stonework, iron stanchions, everything; and with a rapidity which seemed incredible, gaping spaces appeared.  Soon, standing outside, from a dozen different points, you could see the Chinese informants inside at work again, in those clouds of choking dust, thrashing up and down, like men possessed.