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[[underline]] Chapter I. [[/underline]]   14.

[[underline]] Bandit Activities. [[/underline]]
   Early in our examination of the Pai Ma Ssŭ and the nearer portions of the ancient city area---now entirely under cultivation---a lively fight had started a mile or so to the southward, just beyond the railway. A party of two hundred soldiers, I was told, were hotly engaged with several times their own number of bandits. A large village was in flames, its smoke filling the southern sky, and bullets kept falling about the temple and the adjacent fields. As the day wore on, the firing grew heavier. At length the subaltern in command of our escort---a most courteous and efficient young officer---told me that the Marshal held him personally responsible for my safety, and that he must insist that we withdraw. Accordingly we did so, pausing on our way back to our armored car long enough to examine and photograph the celebrated pagoda of the Pai Ma Ssŭ (pl. [[strikethrough]] X [[/strikethrough]] ^[[4, fig 1),]] built, I was told, in the Sung period; it stood in the fields just within the ancient city enclosure. The latter we crossed on foot, and found bounded on the east by another earthen wall like that on the west. The included area was of large extent. Its survey was in the circumstances out of the question; but I estimated its width at not less than a mile.
   Our visit to Lo-yang and its vicinity confirmed my opinion of the archaeological importance of the region, while at the same time it pretty clearly demonstrated the impracticability of field-work there under the disturbed conditions then prevailing.

[[underline]] Visit to Yün Kang in Company with the
American Minister. [[/underline]]
   On July 7th Mr. Tung and I were back in Peking. There I found a cablegram from Mr. Lodge directing me to go to Shanghai and meet Mr. A.G. Wenley, whom he was sending out from Washington to join our
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