by Guy Thorne
CHAPTER EIGHT
On the afternoon of the next day the potman summoned me from my privateroom with the information that there was a young fellow from the MileEnd Road to see me.
"Chinese?" I asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Then it must be the lad come in answer to the telegram I sent to myfriend this morning. Show him in."
In a few moments the applicant for the situation entered. He wore hisoily black hair fairly short, like most of the Chinamen employed at thetowers, and had no pigtail; he was dressed in European clothes. His highcheek bones, with little slits of eyes above them, the stolid yellowface and fine tapering fingers were typically Oriental as he glided in,and his European clothes seemed to accentuate that air of Easternmystery that even the commonest Chinaman carries about with him. Helooked about five or six and twenty and wore a thick gold ring in eachear which had had the effect of dragging them away from the head.
I examined him carefully as to his qualities and he answered in betterEnglish than most Chinamen attain to, though with the guttural, clickingaccent of his kind.
"Take him and let him wash up a few of the glasses, Stanley, and ask hima few questions if you like, and if you are satisfied with him I'llengage him."
In a quarter of an hour the Honest Fool returned to express himselfpleased with the young Asiatic's performances, and there and then Iengaged him, Stanley showing him the room in which he was to sleep. Itwas quite late that night before I could be alone with the newassistant, who, by the way, served in the saloon bar during the eveningand was spoken of with commendation by Mr. Carter, fish and greengrocer; Mr. Mogridge, our principal newsagent and tobacconist, and Mr.Abrahams, dealer in anything, whose shop was labeled--really with greatpropriety--"Antiques."
These gentlemen were my most constant patrons and their word had weight,and it was endorsed by Mr. Sliddim, who slipped in about nine and in theposition of a friend of the landlord, had been received into our bestcircle. It was Mr. Mogridge, a wit, who, just before closing time,christened Ah Sing, the name of the new potman, "Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling,"the name which he retained to the end of the chapter. I could hear myclients laughing for the twentieth time as they went home and Mr.Carter's rich bass: "Mogridge, I call that good. That's damned good,Mogridge. _Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling!_ Ha, ha, ha, ha!"
Ah Sing glided into my private room just as the upper portion of thehouse began to tremble with the snores of the Honest Fool. He put hisfingers into his mouth and withdrew two pads of composition such asdentists use, with a sigh of relief. Immediately the high cheek bonesand the narrowness of the eyes disappeared, though even then BillRolston would have passed for a Chinaman at a glance, though when heremoved the quills from his nose and it ceased to be flat and distended,the likeness was less apparent.
"It's wonderful, Rolston," I said, shaking him warmly by the hand. "Itwould deceive any one. Well, here we are and now we can begin."
The lad was all fire and enthusiasm. He did me no end of good, for thesordid environment, the appalling meals--principally of pork served ingreat gobbets with quantities of onions--which Mrs. Abbs provided forthe H.F., herself and me, and above all the overpowering, incrediblestructure at hand which seemed, in its strength and majesty, to laugh atthe ant-like activities of such an one as I, were beginning to depressand to tinge my hours with the quality of a fantastic dream.
But Rolston changed all that and we talked far on into the night,planning, plotting, and arranging all the details of our campaign.
"To-morrow," he said, "I'll paint the board to go over the side door, inblack and gilt Chinese lettering. As soon as it's done, we will make oneor two alterations to the upstairs room, buy a gas urn with constant hotwater and some special tea which I know where to get. When that's done,I'll start the game by going down to the 'Rising Sun' and meeting theChinese there."
"You are quite certain that you won't be discovered?"
"I think it's in the last degree improbable. Certainly no one could findme out owing to my speech. That I can assure you, Sir Thomas, and it'snearly all the battle. So very, very few Europeans ever attain to goodcolloquial Chinese that there would never be a doubt in any one but Iwas what I seemed to be. I not only know the language, but I know howthese people think and most of their customs. As far as disguise goes, Ithink it's good enough to deceive any one. When I was a prisoner withinthe inclosure, the Chinese who saw me were for the most part coolies andlaborers, engaged upon the works. All these have now gone away foreverand there's only the regular, selected staff. Some of these of coursemust have seen me as I was, but I don't think they will penetrate myget-up. You see the whole shape of the face is altered to begin with,and the coloring of hair and face has been done so well as to defydetection. I certainly was afraid about my ears," and he grinnedruefully, "but I saw the way out by having them pierced and these ringsput in. Most of the natives from the Province of Yuen-Nan, where I comefrom, wear these rings. The ones I have on at the present moment aremade of lead, and gilded. They have pulled my ears right out of theirordinary shape."
"Good Lord!" I cried, astounded at the length to which he had gone."You're torturing yourself for me."
"Not a bit of it, Sir Thomas," he replied. "I--I rather like it!"
"And you think you will be able to get us a Chinese clientele?"
"I am quite certain of it. First of all I don't suppose I shall get thebest class--I mean the upper and more confidential servants who ascendthe tower itself--for I understand there's a very rigid system ofgrades. But little by little they will come also. It will take us weeks,maybe months, but it will be done."
"If it takes me half a lifetime I'll go through with it," I saidsavagely.
"My sentiments, also," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "By the way, Ihope you're not incommoded in any way by my--er--odor!"
"Good Heaven! What do you mean?"
"The Chinaman smells quite different to the European, though notnecessarily unpleasantly. It's taken me quite a lot of trouble to attainthe essential perfume!"
He grinned impishly as he said it, and there certainly was a sort ofstale, camphory smell, now he mentioned it.
"You're a great artist, Rolston, and I don't know what I should dowithout you, oh, Mandarin from Yuen-Nan!"
"That's another point," he said quickly. "You wouldn't guess why I'msupposed to come from Yuen-Nan, where I actually did spend some years ofmy childhood?"
"Not in the least."
"It's the principal opium producing Province in China," he replied, witha quick look at me. "Now, Sir Thomas, I've let the cat out of the bag.You see how I propose to attract the Chinese here, and get into theirconfidence."
A light flashed in upon me, and I took a long breath.
"But it would never do," I said. "If we were to start an opium den inthat room upstairs, we should have the police in in a fortnight, andthen the game would be up entirely."
He smiled superior.
"There will never be a single pipe of opium smoked in the 'GoldenSwan,'" he said. "Of that I can assure you. That will be the verystrictest rule that I shall make, but I shall supply opium to thecustomers, in varying quantities, and at intervals, according to theneed of each individual case. It is almost impossible to bribe aChinaman with money--the better sort, that is, the picked and chosen menwho will be around Mr. Morse himself. But opium is quite another thing,and besides they won't know they're being bribed. I sat hours and hoursworking this thing out and I'm confident it's the only way."
When he said that I realized that he spoke the truth, but I confess thatthe idea startled and alarmed me.
"We shall be breaking the law, Rolston. We shall be risking heavy finesand certain imprisonment if we're found out."
"To that I would say two things, Sir Thomas. First of all, that no finematters; and secondly, that I shouldn't in the least mind doing sixmonths if necessary. This great game is worth more than that. Butsecondly, and you may really put your mind at ease, we shall _not_ befound out. I have worked the thing
out to a hair's breadth and my systemis so complete that discovery is utterly impossible."
"I oughtn't to let you risk it, though of course I shall share equallyif anything happens."
He disregarded this entirely.
"But the stuff," I said, "the opium itself, how will you get that?"
"I have made my plans here also. I shall have to pay a price so enormousthat I'm afraid it will stagger you, Sir Thomas, but it's the only wayin which I can get hold of the right stuff. For what it is intrinsicallyworth, about sixty pounds sterling, your east-end dealer will payfour-hundred pounds, and make a big profit on it. I shall have to paynearly a thousand and I shall want double that money--two thousandpounds."
He stared at me in anxiety.
"My dear Rolston," I said, "cheer up. My income is over twenty thousanda year, and in normal times I don't spend a third of it. Buy all thefilth you want, and Heaven send that it does the trick!"
"In two days," he said, "the 'Golden Swan' will house two cases of thebest 'red bricks' obtainable on the market anywhere, for it's as much bythe superior quality of what I shall supply, as well as the fact ofbeing able to supply it, that I depend. Of course, you'll get nearly allthe money back."
"Confound it, no, that's going too far. We'll send all the abominableprofits to the Richmond Hospital anonymously."
We talked until the fire was out and the gray wintry dawn began to stealin through the dirty windows of the bar beyond, and when all our planswere laid with meticulous care I went to bed but not to sleep, assailedby a thousand doubts and fears.
... In a week or two the upstairs room began to be frequented bysilent-footed yellow men, who came and went unobtrusively. Whenever anyof them chanced to meet me I was greeted with a profound obeisance whichwas rather disconcerting at first, but my conversation was limited to amere greeting or farewell. Most of these men spoke pigeon English, but Ihad little or nothing to say to them of set purpose. It had beenarranged between Rolston and myself that I was to be represented as agood-natured fool, who mattered very little in any way.
For his part, the pretended Ah Sing was up and down the stairs a dozentimes every evening. He was never once suspected, his influence andimportance in the lives of these aliens grew every day. But it was along business, a long and weary business, in which at first hardly anyprogress towards our aim could be discerned.
"It's no use being discouraged, Sir Thomas," Rolston would say, "we'regetting on famously."
"And the opium?"--somehow I wasn't very keen on discussing that aspectof the question.
"I'm employing it most judiciously, selling it in very small quantities,and of course not a grain is ever smoked or consumed in any way uponthese premises. That's thoroughly understood by every one, and you neednot have the slightest doubt but that the secret will be rigidly kept.At present the men frequenting the house are nearly all of the uppercoolie class. That is to say, they are the gardeners, stokers of thepower house, sweepers, and so forth. But, quite recently a better classof man has made his appearance. There's a young, semi-Europeanizedelectrician who has been once or twice. Moreover, I have gained a greatpoint. I have become acquainted with Kwang-su, the keeper of theinclosure gate."
"That's certainly something," I replied, recalling the figure of thegigantic Chinaman in question, which was familiar to most of theresidents beneath the wall. "He's a ferocious-looking brute."
"At one time he was headsman of Yangtsun, and they say a most finishedexpert with the sword," Rolston remarked with a grin. "All I know abouthim is that he'd sell his soul for the black smoke, and regards me as amost valuable addition to the neighborhood. In a fortnight or so, I ampretty certain I shall be able to pass in and out of the grounds prettymuch as I like, and then a great move in our game will have beenaccomplished. As an undoubted Chinaman and as a confidential purveyer ofopium, I shall soon have complete freedom below the towers."
"But what about the great prizefighter, Mulligan?"
"He has nothing to do with the park, as they call all the grounds aroundthe towers. Now that the building is finished his functions are up inthe air, and I gather that he lives on the third stage, just beneath theCity itself, as a sort of watch-dog. The Asiatics are entirely managedby their own leaders, appointed by Morse himself."
It was as Bill predicted. In a very short space of time he was away fromthe "Golden Swan" as much as he was in it, and every day he gatheredmore and more information about the tower and its mistress--informationwhich was carefully noted down in the silence of the night, so that nodetail should be forgotten.
Of course the fact that my hotel had become a haunt of the yellow menneither escaped the notice of the neighbors, nor of the police. Theformer were easily dealt with, and especially my patrons. Mr. Mogridge,having invented "Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling," was disposed to look upon the"Chinks" with genial patronage, and his self-importance was gratified bythe low bows with which they always greeted him as they passed to theirclub-room above. The lead of Mr. Mogridge was followed by others in thesaloon bar, and Sliddim tactfully kept everything running smoothly. Asfor the police, they paid me one visit or two, were shown everything andwere perfectly satisfied that the house was being conducted withpropriety--as indeed it was.
The yellow men neither gambled nor got drunk, that was perfectlyobvious. There was never a suspicion of opium from first to last, norwas there a single instance of a brawl or a fight. Indeed the localpolice-inspector, an excellent fellow with whom I had many a talk,expressed himself as being both surprised and delighted at the way inwhich I had the aliens in hand.
Nearly two months had gone by, and I was curbing the raging fires ofimpatience and longing as well as I could when two incidents occurredwhich greatly precipitated action.
Rolston came to me one day in a state of great excitement.
At last, he said, he was beginning to become acquainted with some of theactual officials of the towers--at last, quite separate from those whoworked below. They were interested, or beginning to be so, and he urgedme at once to open a smaller, inner room as a select meeting-place forsuch of them as he could inveigle to the "Golden Swan."
We did so at once, hanging the walls with a drapery of black worked withgolden dragons, which I bought in Regent Street, a Chinese lantern ofcopper hanging from the ceiling, and around the wall we placed lowcouches. Here, in twos and threes, but in slowly increasing numbers, adifferent type of Oriental began to assemble, Ah Sing attending to alltheir wants, ingratiating himself in every possible way, and keeping hisextremely useful ears wide open--very wide open indeed.
It was now that tiny fragments of personal gossip--more precious to methan rubies--began to filter through. I had established no communicationwith the City in the Clouds as yet, but I seemed to hear the distantmurmur of voices through the void.
One evening about eight o'clock I felt cramped and unutterably bored. Ifelt that nothing could help me but a long walk and so, with a word tothe Honest Fool, Sliddim and Rolston, I took my hat and stick andstarted out.
It was a brilliant moonlight night, calm, still, and with a white frostupon the ground, as I descended the terrace and made my way down to theside of the river. Here and there I passed a few courting couples; thehum of distant London and the rumbling of trains was like the groundswell of a sea, but peace brooded over everything. The trees made blackshadows like Chinese ink upon silver, and, in the full moonlight it wasbright enough to read.
When I had walked a mile or so, resisting a certain temptation as wellas I could, I stopped and turned at last.
There, a mile away behind me, yet seeming as if it was within a stone'sthrow, was the huge erection on the hill. Every detail of the lowerparts was clear and distinct as an architectural drawing, the intricatelattice-work of enormous cantilevers and girders seemed etched on theinside of a great opal bowl. I can give you no adequate description ofthe immensity, the awe-inspiring, almost terror-inducing sense ofmagnitude and majesty. I have stood beside the Pyramids at night, I havecrossed the Piazza o
f Saint Peter's at Rome under the rays of theItalian moon, and I have drunk coffee at the base of the Eiffel Tower inParis, but not one of these experiences approached what I felt now as Isurveyed, in an ecstasy of mingled emotions, this monstrous thing thatbrooded over London.
The eye traveled up, onward and forever up until at length, not hiddenby clouds now but a faint blur of white, blue, gold, and tiny twinklinglights, hung in the empyrean the far-off City of Desire.
Could she hear the call of my heart? God knows it seemed loud and strongenough to me! Might she not be, even at this moment, a lovelier Juliet,leaning over some gilded gallery and wondering where I was?
"Was ever a woman so high above her lover before?" I said, and laughed,but my laughter was sadness, and my longing, pain unbearable.
... There was a slight bend in the tow-path where I stood, caused bysome out-jutting trees, and from just below I suddenly heard a burst ofloud and brutal laughter, followed by a shrill cry. It recalled me fromdreamland at once and I hurried round the projection to come upon astrange scene. Two flash young bullies with spotted handkerchiefs aroundtheir throats and ash sticks in their hands were menacing a third personwhose back was to the river. They were sawing the air with their sticksjust in front of a thin, tall figure dressed in what seemed to be a sortof long, buttoned black cassock descending to the feet, and wearing askull cap of black alpaca. Beneath the skull cap was a thin, asceticface, ghastly yellow in the moonlight.
... One of the brutes lunged at the man I now saw to be a Chinese ofsome consequence, lunged at him with a brutal laugh and filthy oath. TheChinaman threw up his lean arms, cried out again in a thin, shrillscream, stepped backwards, missed his footing and went souse into theriver. In a second the current caught him and began to whirl him awayover towards the Twickenham side. It was obvious that he could not swima stroke. There was a clatter of hob-nailed boots and bully number onewas legging it down the path like a hare. I had just time to give bullynumber two a straight left on the nap which sent him down like a sack offlour, before I got my coat off and dived in.
Wow! but it was icy cold. For a moment the shock seemed to stop myheart, and then it came right again and I struck out heartily. It didn'ttake long to catch up with the gentleman in the cassock, who had comeup for the second time and apparently resigned himself to the worst. Igot hold of him, turned on my back and prepared for stern measures if heshould attempt to grip me.
He didn't. He was the easiest johnny to rescue possible, and in anotherfive minutes I'd got him safely to the bank and scrambled up.
There was nobody about, worse luck, and I started to pump the water outof him as well as I could, and after a few minutes had the satisfactionof seeing his face turn from blue-gray to something like its normalyellow under the somewhat ghastly light of the moon. His teeth began tochatter as I jerked him to his feet and furiously rubbed him up anddown.
I tried to recall what I knew of pigeon English.
"Bad man throw you in river. You velly lucky, man come by save you,Johnny."
I had the shock of my life.
"I am indeed fortunate," came in a thin, reed-like voice, "I am indeedfortunate in having found so brave a preserver. Honorable sir, from thismoment my life is yours."
"Why, you speak perfect English," I said in amazement.
"I have been resident in this country for some time, sir," he replied,"as a student at King's College, until I undertook my present work."
"Well," I said, "we'd better not stand here exchanging polite remarksmuch longer. There is such a thing as pneumonia, which you would do wellto avoid. If you're strong enough, we'll hurry up to the terrace andfind my house, where we'll get you dry and warm. I'm the landlord ofthe 'Golden Swan' Hotel."
He was a polite fellow, this. He bowed profoundly, and then, as thewater dripped from his black and meager form, he said something ratherextraordinary.
"I should never have thought it."
I cursed myself. The excitement had made me return to the manner ofPiccadilly, and this shrewd observer had seen it in a moment. I said nomore, but took him by the arm and yanked him along for one of thefastest miles he had ever done in his life.
I took him to the side door of my pub. Fortunately Ah Sing wasdescending the stairs to replenish an empty decanter with whisky--myyellow gentlemen used to like it in their tea! I explained what hadhappened in a few words and my shivering derelict was hurried upstairsto my own bedroom. I don't know what Rolston did to him, though I heardSliddim--now quite the house cat--directed to run down into the kitchenand confer with Mrs. Abbs.
For my part, I sat in the room behind the bar, listening to the HonestFool talking with my patrons, and shed my clothes before a blazing fire.A little hot rum, a change, and a dressing-gown, and I was myself again,and smoking a pipe I fell into a sort of dream.
It was a pleasant dream. I suppose the shock of the swim, the race upthe terrace to the "Swan," the rum and milk which followed had asoporific, soothing effect. I wasn't exactly asleep, I was pleasantlydrowsed, and I had a sort of feeling that something was going to happen.Just about closing time Rolston glided in--I never saw a Europeanbefore or since who could so perfectly imitate the ghost walk of theyellow men.
I looked to see that the door to the bar was shut.
"Well, how's our friend?" I asked.
"He's had a big shock, Sir Thomas, but he's all right now. I've rubbedhim all over with oil, fed him up with beef-tea and brandy and found himdry clothes."
"He's from the towers, of course?"
As I said this, I saw Bill Rolston's face, beneath its yellow dye, wasblazing with excitement.
"Sir Thomas," he said in a whisper, "this is Pu-Yi himself, Mr. Morse'sChinese secretary, a man utterly different from the others we have seenhere yet. He's of the Mandarin class, the buttons on his robe are of redcoral. In this house, at this moment, we have one of the masters of theSecret City."
I gave a long, low whistle, which--I remember it so well--exactlycoincided with the raucous shout of the Honest Fool--"Time, gentlemen,please!"
A thought struck me.
"The other Chinese in the large and small rooms, do they know this manis here?"
"No, Sir Thomas; I am more than glad to say I got him up to your ownroom when both doors were closed."
"What's he doing now?"
"He's having a little sleep. I promised to call him in an hour or so,when he wishes to pay you his respects."
He listened for a moment.
"The others are going downstairs," he said. "I must be there to see themout, and I have one or two little transactions--"
He felt in a villainous side pocket and I knew as well as possible whatit contained, and what would be handed to one or two of the moon-facedgentlemen as they slipped out of the side door on their way home.
Bill came back in some twenty minutes.
"Now," he said, "I'm going upstairs to wake Pu-Yi and bring him down toyou. You must remember, Sir Thomas, that I am only a dirty littleservant. I am as far beneath a man like Pu-Yi as Sir Thomas Kirby isabove Stanley Whistlecraft, so I cannot be present at your interview. Myidea was that I should creep into the bar--Stanley will have had hissupper and gone to bed--and lie down on the floor with my ear to thebottom of the door, then I can hear everything."
"That's a good idea," I said, for I was beginning to realize what anenormous lot might depend upon this interview. Then I thought ofsomething else.
"Look here, Bill, you must remember this too. I fished the blighter outof the Thames and no doubt he will be thankful in his overdone, Orientalfashion. But to him, a man of the class you say he is, I shall benothing but a vulgar publican, and I don't see quite what's going tocome out of _that_!"
He had slipped the gutta-percha pads out of his cheeks--an operation towhich I had grown quite accustomed--and I could see his face as itreally was.
"That's occurred to me also," he replied, "but somehow or other I'm surethe fates are on our side to-night."
He arose, turned
away for a moment, there was a click and a gasp, and hewas the little impassive Oriental again. He glided up to me, put hisyellow hand with the long, polished finger nails upon my shoulder, andsaid in my ear:
"Sir Thomas, he must see Her every day!"
He vanished from the room almost as he spoke, and left me with blood onfire.
I was to see some one who might have spoken with Juanita that very day!and I sat almost trembling with impatience, though issuing a dozenwarnings to myself to betray nothing, to keep every sense alert, so thatI might turn the interview to my own advantage.
At last there was a knock on the door, Bill opened it and the slimfigure of the man I had rescued glided in. They had dried his clothes,he even wore his little skull cap which had apparently stuck to his headwhile he was in the water, and I had the opportunity of seeing him inthe light for the first time.
Instead of the flat, Tartar nose, I saw one boldly aquiline, with large,narrow nostrils. His eyes were almond shaped but lustrous and full offire. About the lips, which had no trace of sensuality but werebeautifully cut, there was a kind of serene pathos--I find it difficultto describe in any other way. The whole face was noble in contour and inexpression, though the general impression it gave was one of unutterablesadness. Dress him how you might, meet him where you would, there wasno possibility of mistaking Pu-Yi for anything but a gentleman of highdegree.
The door closed and I rose from my seat and held out my hand.
"Well," I said, "this is a bit of orlright, sir, and I'm glad to see youso well recovered. To-morrow morning we'll have the law on them dirtyrascals that assaulted you."
I put on the accent thickly--flashed my diamond ring at him, inshort--for this might well be a game of touch and go, and I had a deepsecret to preserve.
He put his long, thin hand in mine, gripped it, and then suddenly turnedit over so that the backs of my fingers were uppermost.
It was an odd thing to do and I wondered what it meant.
"Oh, landlord of the Swan of Gold," he piped, in his curious, flute-likevoice, sorting out his words as he went on, "I owe you my unworthy life,which is nothing in itself and which I don't value, save only for acertain opportunity which remains to it, and is a private matter. But Iowe my life to your courage and strength and flowering kindness, and Icome to put myself in your hands."
Really he was making a damn lot of fuss about nothing!
"Look here," I said, "that's all right. You would have done as much forme. Now let's sit down and have a peg and a chat. I can put you up forthe rest of the night, you know, and I shall be awfully glad to do it."
He looked as if he was going to make more speeches, but I cut himshort.
"As for putting your life in my hands," I said, "we don't talk like thatin England."
He sat down and a faint smile came upon his tired lips.
"And do the public-house keepers in England have hands such as yoursare?" he said gently. "Sir, your hands are white, they are also shapedin a certain way, and your nails are not even in mourning for yourprofession!"
I cursed myself savagely as he mocked me. Bill had pointed out over andover again that I oughtn't to use a nail brush too frequently--it wasn'tin the part--but I always forgot it.
To hide my confusion I moved a little table towards him on which was abox of excellent cigarettes. Unfortunately, also on the table was alittle pocket edition of Shakespeare with which I used to solace thedrab hours.
He picked it up, opened it plump at "Romeo and Juliet"--the play which,for reasons known to you, I most affected at the time--and looked up atme with gentle eyes.
"'Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona,'" he said.
My brain was working like a mill. I could not make the fellow out. Whatdid he know, what did he suspect? Well, the best thing was to ask himoutright.
"You mean?"
He became distressed at once.
"You speak harshly to me, O my preserver. I meant but that I knew atonce that you are not born in the position in which I see you. Perhapsyou will give me your kind leave to explain. In my native country I amof high hereditary rank, though I am poor enough and occupy a somewhatmenial position here. My honorable name, honorable sir, is Pu-Yi, whichwill convey nothing to you. During the rebellion of twenty years ago inChina, my ancestral house was destroyed and as a child I was rescued andsent to Europe. For many years the peasants of my Province scraped theirlittle earnings together, and a sum sufficient to support me in mystudies was sent to me in Paris. I speak the French, Spanish and Englishlanguages. I am a Bachelor of Science of the London University, and myone hope and aim in life is, and has been, to acquire sufficient moneyto return to the tombs of my ancestors on the banks of theYang-tse-kiang, there to live a quiet life, much resembling that of anEnglish country squire, until I also fade away into the unknown, andbecome part of the Absolute."
There was something perfectly charming about him. Since he spotted Iwasn't a second edition of the Honest Fool, since he had somehow orother divined that I was an educated man, I felt drawn to him. You mustremember that for months now the only person I had had to talk to wasBill Rolston. And all the time, he was so occupied in our tortuouscampaign that we only met late at night to report progress.
For a moment I quite forgot what this new friend might mean to me, andopened out to him without a thought of further advantage.
I was a fool, no doubt. Afterwards, talking it all over with Pat Mooreand Arthur Winstanley, I saw that I ran a great risk. Anyhow, Ireciprocated Pu-Yi's confidence as well as I could.
"I'm awfully glad we've met, even under such unfortunate circumstances.You are quite right. I come of a different class from what the ordinaryfrequenter of this hotel might suppose, but since you have discovered itI beg you to keep it entirely to yourself. I also have had mymisfortunes. Perhaps I also am longing for some ultimate happiness ortriumph."
Out of the box he took a cigarette, and his long, delicate fingersplayed with it.
"Brother," he said, "I understand, and I say again, now that I can sayit in a new voice, my life is yours."
Then I began on my own account.
"Tell me," I said, "of yourself. Many of your fellow-countrymen comehere--the lower orders--and they're all employed by the millionaire,Gideon Morse, who seems to prefer the men of China to any other. Youalso, Pu-Yi, are connected with this colossal mystery?"
He didn't answer for a moment, but looked down at the glowing end of hiscigarette.
"Yes," he replied, with some constraint, "I am in the service of thehonorable Mr. Gideon Mendoza Morse. I am, in fact, his private secretaryand through me his instructions are conveyed to the various heads ofdepartments."
"You are fortunate. I suppose that before long you will be able tofulfill your ambitions and retire to China?"
With a quick glance at me he admitted that this was so.
"And yet," I said thoughtfully, "it must be a very trying service,despite that you live in Wonderland, in a City of Enchantment."
Again I caught a swift regard and he leant forward in his chair.
"Why do you say that?" he asked.
I hazarded a bold shot.
"Simply because the man is mad," I said.
His bright eyes narrowed to glittering slits.
"You quote gossip of the newspapers," he replied.
"Do I? I happen to know more than the newspapers do."
He rose to his feet, took two steps towards me, and looked down with atwitching face.
"Who _are_ you?" he said, and his whole frail frame trembled.
I caught him firmly by the arm and stared into his face--God knows whatmy own was like.
"I am the one who has been waiting, the one who is waiting, to help--theone who has come to save," I said, and my voice was not my own--it wasas if the words were put into my mouth by an outside power.
He wrenched his arm away, gave a little cry, strode to the mantelpieceand bent his head upon his arms. His whole body was shaken withconvulsive sob
s.
I stood in the middle of the room watching him, hardly daring tobreathe, feeling that my heart was swelling until it occupied the wholeof my body.
At length he looked up.
"Then I shall be of some use to Her after all," he said. "This is toomuch honor. The Lily of White Jade--"
He staggered back, his face working terribly, and fell in a huddled heapupon the floor. I was just opening my mouth to call for Rolston whenthere came a thunderous knocking upon the side door of the house.
I ran into the dimly lit passage and as I did so Rolston flitted out ofthe bar door and stood beside me.
"I have heard everything," he whispered, "but what, what is this?"
He pointed to the door, and as he did so there was again the thunder ofthe knocker and the whirr of the electric bell.
Hardly knowing what I did I shot back the bolts at top and bottom,turned the heavy key in its lock and opened the door.
Outside in the moonlight a figure was standing, a man in a heavy furcoat, carrying a suitcase in his left hand.
"What the devil--" I was beginning, when he pushed past me and came intothe hall.
Then I saw, with a leap of all my pulses, that it was Lord ArthurWinstanley.