Chinese Whispers

by Andrew Wareham

  “They may be kept safe that way, Magnus, provided they are very quick and are not delayed in Hong Kong. What of the man, Daubney, was it?”

  “I have told Mr Conger that he must be held clear of the girl, for her safety. He is to remain in Peking for some weeks.”

  She knew enough of China to be certain that was Daubney’s death sentence.

  “Is there no alternative, Magnus?”

  “None. I had to make that promise to the Prefect in Yanking to get the widow and children out.”

  “Better to protect the innocents, my love. A bad business. It should have been left to the Americans to look after their own, though I doubt they would have been able to negotiate a sensible compromise. They have little experience in the field, after all. Is their Captain Hall well now? Will he escort the Lakehams to their ship, or must you?”

  Magnus laughed, scornfully.

  “I do not doubt he will feel capable of that endeavour. He is probably a master of dancing attendance on unfortunate females.”

  “I have spoken to the wife of Mr Herbert Squiers, my love. She has said that her husband has some doubts of Captain Newt Hall. Apparently, there was a riot some few months ago that put an American citizen’s life in some danger. Captain Hall was unable to reach the scene before the crowd had dispersed.”

  Magnus was not surprised; he suspected that Captain Hall would commonly be unable to reach the scene of any trouble.

  “I wonder that he remains an officer. Could he not simply be persuaded to send in his papers? Have you heard anything from the Legation wives?”

  “Mrs Squiers suggested that Captain Hall wished to become a colonel before he did return to civilian life. His family had hoped that the war with Spain would afford him rapid promotion but were disappointed in that aim, possibly because he did not quite manage to display himself in the front ranks. He is to become a political figure, or so they intend, and a colonelcy is a useful adornment for a senator or governor. Very good for picking up votes, it would seem.”

  “That explains much, my love. Hopefully the Lakeham business will be put to bed within a very few days and will remain an American affair. I would be pleased to hear no more of it. And no more of Captain Hall, either. That is a man who will cause us trouble one day, I fear. He lacks the most elemental of manly attributes.”

  Ellen did not understand.

  “Put simply, my love, I fear he has no balls!”

  She was shocked by such a vulgar expression.

  “What if the servants hear you, Magnus! Your words would be reported all over the Legation Quarter within the day. And do not say they are mere Chinese – most of them speak some English and understand a lot more. How else could they spy on us?”

  That made simple common sense, he feared, tendering his apology.

  “I am tired and hence incautious in my utterances, Ellen. Two weeks with too few men and an impossible task have left me on edge, I fear. Two dozen marines are all very well, but they have little to say to as many thousands of armed Chinese. Had the Prefect been a younger man, and more inclined to take risks, then I should be dead now. I felt sorry for that poor old chap, you know, Ellen. More than sixty years old, I would guess, and having to deal with a delicate situation that could have plunged China into war. Add to that, a triad that had suffered gross insult and needed to regain face – for it must be known that Tsu Run was badly handled at the mission. The Prefect must have been under pressure to kill the menfolk, my party included, and hand the females over to the soldiery to die more slowly. That he resisted showed courage and great skill on his part, as well as a dedication to the best interests of China. They are not all greedy and corrupt, you know, even in the current state of the country.”

  She was much struck by Magnus’ words, so much so that she wrote a letter to her father, suspecting that he would pass it across to Mr Sia. In all probabilities the Green triad would consider itself obliged to the Prefect and would make him a substantial present. They would certainly contact Tsu Run and offer their thanks that he had spared their own gwailo from his righteous anger. It might be useful at some later date.

  “What comes next, husband?”

  He made an obvious and vulgar suggestion, not entirely to her surprise.

  “Apart from that, sir! Though that matter can also be dealt with, I do not doubt. I was more considering the demands of your function as attaché.”

  “I do not know, Ellen. I much suspect that I shall soon find it necessary to pay a visit to Shanghai, in your company. You may well find yourself obliged to remain there for a while. Talking with Jian in this past fortnight has led to the inexorable conclusion that there will be an uprising of some sort, and very soon.”

  “The Boxers?”

  “Have you heard anything?”

  “The Germans seem to have information that suggests the Boxers are to march on Peking. Much as the Taipings attempted in their day. The word that came to me was that they had to move or die – if they do not give their followers success, they will desert them.”

  That seemed entirely rational to Magnus.

  “Sir Claude, of course, is still convinced that the Boxers do not exist. Therefore, they cannot march. I shall seek leave of absence, probably for next week. Have you had a letter from your father recently? One that could perhaps have contained a request for you to come home to discuss family business?”

  “No need for that, husband. I shall return to Shanghai, which has superior European medical care, in the light of my probable condition.”

  “Good Lord, are you really?”

  “It would seem probable, my lord. I can only imagine that our honeymoon proved remarkably effective!”

  “What an excellent thing! A daughter in your image!”

  “A son to be your heir, I might prefer, my lord.”

  “Either will be welcome indeed. I shall inform Sir Claude tomorrow and shall arrange to escort you when convenient. Not this week, as I have no wish to enjoy the company of the Widow Lakeham, just in case there may be an attack by ‘bandits’ while she travels.”

  “Did not your Prefect guarantee her safety?”

  “As far as Peking, yes, specifically so. But he did not necessarily offer protection thereafter. I doubt he could do so. I hope that Tsu Run will realise that he would cause intolerable offence by attacking the family, but he may regard his loss of face as so great that he must take action that is appropriate in the eyes of his people. I hope he will be satisfied simply to take Daubney’s life.”

  Chapter Six

  The Earl’s Other Son Series

  Chinese Whispers

  “A leave of absence, Sir Claude. I need to be in Shanghai for a day or two and wish it to be known that I am escorting my lady to our house there. She is desirous of being in close contact with her physician, being in a promising condition – that is the reason to be made public.”

  Sir Claude was not unintelligent but knew what he knew and was open to learn very little else. He found it difficult to follow Magnus’ intention.

  “Ah, well… I am glad for you both of course, Eskdale, but I don’t quite understand why she must go to Shanghai, we have a perfectly good doctor here, you know…”

  The Legations shared the services of a Swiss gentleman, very capable in the quacking line, or so Magnus had gathered.

  “Yes, Sir Claude. I do not want the servants to know that I have an ulterior reason for going to Shanghai. I must meet with some of Captain Hawkins’ people there. They cannot be seen in Peking, particularly not in my company.”

  Sir Claude was aware, peripherally, that Captain Hawkins was spymaster for the Navy in China, and that the Army used his services as well, having none of their own in the East outside of India. What the Foreign Office did, he had not been told, but he had no informants of his own; none of the Legation staff reported to him. He was not upset by the absence of so-called intelligence – he had never needed it in Africa and could see no reason why he should require mere spies in China. He
knew that the Navy habitually used its attaches for the purpose of gathering information, and could not quite understand why, if that was so, he had one on his staff a hundred miles from the sea, and in China, of all places.

  “Oh! Well, if you must, then so be it, Eskdale. I don’t know why you make such a fuss about not permitting the servants to know what you are doing. I can’t imagine that their opinion is of importance to us.”

  “I would expect, Sir Claude, that the servants all report to the Tsongli Yamen at a minimum. Some of them will be in the pay of other masters in addition”

  “Oh, more of your triads, Eskdale?”

  “Yes, Sir Claude, among others. Captain Hawkins warned me that the German Legation was in receipt of your private correspondence the day after you received it, as an example. No doubt the Americans and French also have people among your staff.”

  Magnus did not add that as a result, Captain Hawkins carefully restricted the information that was sent to the Legation. He could not exercise control of telegrams sent from the Foreign Office, but he made quite sure that the Navy told Sir Claude very little about its policy and its actual doings in Chinese waters until well after the event.

  “Spies under the bed? One of the more undesirable traits of the intelligence services, Eskdale, is that they discover agents everywhere. To listen to them, one might believe that all of the denizens of China were in the employ of the Tsongli Yamen. I am not prepared to believe that our servants are anything other than loyal, Eskdale!”

  Magnus shrugged – what Sir Claude did or did not believe was his personal concern.

  “However, Eskdale, if you think it important, then I shall go along with your pretence. You may certainly escort your lady to Shanghai and remain there while you settle her in your house. I presume you have leased a place while you are on station, Eskdale? Unusual to do anything else, of course.”

  “My lady’s father insisted on a purchase, Sir Claude. Blantyre, you know.”

  Sir Claude did not know – he had heard of Blantyres but had not been aware that Lord Eskdale had made so very comfortable a marriage. He had been out of England for almost all of his adult life, was aware of nothing of the financial circumstances of Magnus’ family, although their poverty was commonplace knowledge in Society.

  “Oh! I see…”

  It was obvious that he did not, that he understood very little, and particularly could not comprehend why the heir to an earldom might have wed the daughter of a mere, albeit rich, tradesman.

  “Blantyres are one of the greatest concerns in the Empire, Sir Claude, as you will have been told by the Foreign Office. I was fortunate indeed to be permitted to wed my lady – I might not have been regarded as a great catch for that family!”

  Sir Claude was upset by that concept – mere tradesmen being inclined to regard the heir to an earldom as beneath them? Unheard of in his experience.

  “The world is changing, it would seem Eskdale, and those of us who serve in the outer reaches of the Empire are left behind, clinging to our outmoded concepts of honour and duty.”

  Magnus tried to show sympathetic. It was difficult.

  “Time have changed, Sir Claude. Now we must face a world in which the French are our ally, hard though that is to believe. Germany is probably to be our enemy, though that is easier to conceive, bearing in mind the Teutonic imbecilities of the Kaiser. As for Russia? What are we to say about that barbaric throwback to the Middle Ages? We must not be surprised that Society is in flux as well, Sir Claude, the more especially when bearing in mind that our dear Queen can remain with us for little longer, in the nature of things.”

  Magnus did not comment on the nature of her successor on the throne – one could always hope for a heart attack, after all. Sir Claude also remained quiet on the topic of the future king.

  “More than sixty years she has reigned over us, Eskdale. Our country is very different to the one she first knew. I wonder, Eskdale, have all of these changes been for the better? Have any of them? Would we not be happier without the monstrosities of steam, and now this internal-combustion engine they tell us of?”

  Magnus had little patience with the Romantics and their desire to return to a wholly imaginary agrarian paradise.

  “No, Sir Claude! We would simply be starving, for the factories depend upon steam and our daily bread is created from the wealth of their industry. China is largely free of steam, and that to a great extent accounts for the backwardness and poverty of this huge nation, though I sometimes feel that the countries of the civilised world act in concert to impoverish China even further to add to our own profits. As for opium, Sir Claude – a disgrace to any nation! A national shame, Sir Claude, worse even than the slave trade. Slavery occurred with the enthusiastic cooperation of those nations of West Africa who sold their fellow blacks to our traders. Opium was forced onto China against the strongest objections of the Qing. An appalling act of vicious immorality, Sir Claude, one that makes a mockery of our claim to be a Christian nation. As for the hypocrisy of using the profits of opium to finance mission stations in China – that is almost unbelievable! In answer to your question, Sir Claude, we might be happier as a more moral nation, but we would not be content as a poorer one.”

  Magnus was surprised at himself – he had not realised just how strongly he felt about the abuse of China by the nations of the West, and of the Orient as well, Japan now being an enthusiastic coloniser.

  Sir Claude could not be convinced that the importation of opium was other than a sin by the Chinese themselves – the sellers had not forced the Chinese to ingest the noxious narcotic. If the Chinese found opium to be intolerable, then the answer lay in their own hands: they should cease to use the drug.

  Magnus left the presence to inform Ellen that they were to return to Shanghai at their convenience.

  “The Imperial Moustachio has granted me permission to absent myself, my love. Necessary, but not what I wanted even so. You must go, of that I am convinced, but I do not want you to leave my side. I must return to Peking. You must not. I would wish to speak to Mr Sia while in Shanghai, little lady. I have heard nothing in the four days since my return from Yanking. He will know what is happening, I do not doubt, but I do not.”

  “Why, Magnus?”

  That was a good question – he should have heard something from the ordinary sources such as Jian’s family and the local merchants who sold to the Legations.

  “Orders, I must imagine. The triads do not wish us to know what they are doing. Tsu Run must be busy and will have requested his peers to say nothing. I fear for the Widow Lakeham and her family. They were due to leave Peking for Taku yesterday.”

  She hoped he was wrong.

  “Jian, have you word from the railway? Has anything happened in the last two days?”

  “No, my lord. The Lakeham family took train yesterday and, I am informed, reached Taku, under escort of the American Captain Hall and all of his Marines except for the sentries on his Legation. From Taku, they were put aboard the tender to the passenger ship to Hong Kong. That was confirmed to me this morning.”

  Magnus had sent a telegram to Captain Hawkins on his return to the Legation. It was fair to assume that the Lakehams would be protected when they reached the island.

  “The chances of a pirate attack on a steamer at sea are almost nil. The family must be safe.”

  “So I would assume, my lord. The man Daubney is therefore in even greater hazard. He must be the example.”

  “I can do nothing for him, Jian.”

  “You should make no attempt to do so, my lord. He was the price to be paid for the safety of the mad missionary’s family. We must not offer a price and then refuse to pay it, my lord.”

  Magnus accepted the rebuke – honest dealing was an essential if he was ever again to talk to any influential Chinese.

  “Agreed, Jian. But I do not have to like myself, even so.”

  “Liking has little to do with the needs of keeping the peace in a great Empire, my
lord.”

  “I stand corrected, Jian. When?”

  “Today, my lord. He was to disappear from his lodging this morning.”

  Magnus was not surprised that Jian knew what was happening. He had negotiated with Tsu Run and would, in the nature of things, have remained in contact with his people.

  “We are to take my lady to Shanghai next week, Jian. I shall remain there for two or at most three weeks. Is it better that you should stay here, or will you form part of my train? I am to speak with Mr Sia, and if possible with young Mr Ping while I am there. It could be to your advantage to meet them in my company.”

  “I would wish to stand at your side, my lord. It could be to our mutual advantage that I should, my lord.”

  Magnus wondered what Jian thought he would gain from his propinquity.

  Word reached them later in the day that the missionary Daubney had disappeared. Magnus was begged to come to the American Legation, where he did his best to muddy the waters, enquiring whether the Americans had checked at the railway station.

  “We know him to have been infatuated with the elder daughter of the Lakehams, despite her being a schoolgirl. Might he have tried to follow her?”

  Mr Conger was horrified at the suggestion but thought it not impossible.

  “I have formed a poor opinion of the man, my lord. It was necessary to meet with him and discuss his movements with him. The question especially of how he would return to the States was large in my mind. He has no tickets, and no money. I was forced to lend him sufficient to live on. I have sent a cable to his Mission Society in Chicago and expect them to provide the funds to travel back to his home, but I have heard not a word yet. He himself has little of value to offer, having used up this year’s income, he says, paying his way to China and making an offering to the mission station. I suggested that he might seek work with one of the hongs, but he felt unable to do so. It seems that his late father left him a sum sufficient to live on and he has not been in the habit of working.”