CHAPTER SIX.
IN THE PRISON CELL.
"By Jove!" exclaimed the prisoner to himself, as his eyes gradually tookin his dreadful surroundings, "I'm sadly afraid that all this means theend of Murray Frobisher, and a mighty unpleasant end it promises to be.No escape possible either," he went on, carefully making a tour of theapartment, and at intervals tapping on the walls with an iron tool whichhe had picked up, in an endeavour to obtain some idea of theirthickness, and so to judge as to the possibility of digging himself out,if he were left alone long enough. But the results were disheartening,to say the least of it. Every spot where he tapped gave back a dull,solid sound, indicating that the walls were quite unusually thick, andthat escape by means of excavation or anything of that kind wasabsolutely out of the question. The room was somewhat peculiarlyshaped, being evidently situated in one of the angles of the fort. Thewall containing the thick, oaken, iron-studded door through which he hadbeen thrust was evidently enormously thick, while the chamber itself wassome fifteen feet wide by about thirty-five feet long, the end wallopposite the door being curved somewhat in the form of an ellipse,meeting in a blunt angle exactly opposite the door. And high up in thisangle, about eight feet above the floor, was a small, iron-barredwindow, which might, but for the bars, have been large enough to permitof the egress of a man of ordinary size.
The total height of the chamber was about ten feet, and the walls werealmost entirely covered with weird and terrible-looking instruments.Some of these Frobisher recognised through having read about them inbooks, but of others he could not possibly guess the use. Their shapesand forms were, however, so dreadfully suggestive that he felt it to bea mercy that he was ignorant of the more subtle and refined forms ofOriental torture, otherwise he would soon lose his reason incontemplation of the frightful uses to which those instruments could beput.
Also, strewn about the floor, in such profusion as to leave little roomfor anything else, were larger implements, whose use Frobisher wasfortunately unable to guess at; while in the two corners of the roomthere were piles of variously-shaped knives and swords which he guessedthe torturers were wont to employ in the discharge of their ghastlybusiness, among which he recognised the long, razor-edged weapon usedfor administering the terrible "death of the thousand cuts", also asword with a saw, instead of smooth edge, and a big, broad-bladed, keenknife or short, heavy sword, used upon those victims who were luckyenough to be sentenced to a quick death by beheading. To Frobisher itseemed that merely to immure a prisoner in such a ghastly museum was initself an act of torture which might easily drive a less well-balancedman than himself mad within a very few hours.
One thing that rather astonished him was the fact of those swords beingleft lying loose in the cell. Surely, rather than submit to the tendermercies of a Korean torturer, any prisoner, however weak or timid, wouldarm himself with one of them and die fighting, or even put an end to hisown existence, rather than have his life wrung from him inch by inch andminute by minute in agony indescribable! At any rate it did not takeFrobisher a moment to determine that when the end should come he wouldtake the long weapon used for the "thousand cuts" and, standing in themiddle of the chamber where he could have a clear sweep for the sword,fight his enemies to the death.
He strode over to the corner and drew the weapon he had selected out ofits scabbard. It had a long handle, permitting two hands to beemployed, and the blade was made of very highly-tempered steel, as stiffand springless as an English razor, and as keen. It was about four feetin length and quite two inches wide, and the steel at the back was fullya quarter of an inch thick. There was a very slight curve in the blade,and the point was sharply curved round, similar to the points found onthe old Japanese swords; and in the hands of a powerful man like himselfit would undoubtedly prove a very terrible weapon. Indeed, it was soheavy that Frobisher wondered how it could be possible with so ponderousa blade to carry out the particular form of execution for which it wasdesigned. But it would serve his purpose admirably, the sailor toldhimself; and he sheathed the weapon and placed it at the far end of thechamber, where it might be ready to his hand if necessity arose for himto use it.
The next step in the examination of the cell was to get a glimpse, ifpossible, out of the little window, high up in the wall, to learnsomething concerning the whereabouts of his prison and how it wassituated. Then, in the somewhat improbable event of an opportunityoffering for escape, he would not be handicapped by ignorance withregard to his surroundings.
To this end he hunted about for something wherewith to construct aplatform, and presently managed to collect together a pile ofinstruments, pieces of ancient furniture, and odds and ends of lumberwhich, piled together, enabled him, assisted by his great height, tobring his eyes to the level of the bottom of the window; and havingclimbed up, using great care not to upset the pile in so doing,Frobisher seized the iron grating protecting the window and, thussupporting himself in position, looked out.
Narrow as was the window on the inside, the view which the youngEnglishman was able to obtain from it was quite extensive, for theembrasure which formed the opening was splayed widely outward on bothsides, in a manner frequently seen in old English castles in theconstruction of the "arrow slits" in the walls; and the first thing henoticed was that he had been correct in his estimation of the thicknessof the walls. They were at least six feet thick, and there wastherefore no hope whatever of being able to break out through them.
The fort itself was situated on the right bank of the river; and,judging from the open country in its neighbourhood, must be at somelittle distance from the town of Asan itself. Indeed, as Frobisherafterwards ascertained, the building was situated on a small peninsulaof land jutting out into Prince Jerome gulf, and was therefore nearlyfour miles distant from the town. The window embraced a view of part ofthe gulf, including the entrance, and a strip of jungle-clad countryrunning right down to the water's edge; while beyond these two pointsthe outlook was restricted by the outer edges of the splay in which thewindow was built. From the same cause, also, Frobisher was unable tosee the ground close enough to the wall to judge whether the fort wassurrounded by a moat or a dry ditch of any description, although fromthe general appearance of things he surmised that it was.
By estimating the angle at which his line of sight was cut off by theouter edge of the sill, he calculated that he must be confined in a roomsituated on the second story of the fort, and that there wouldconsequently be a considerable drop from the bottom of the window to theground, without taking into consideration the probable existence of aditch of fifteen or twenty feet deep running round the base of thewalls.
In any case, even if the iron bars could by some means be removed, itdid not appear as though it would be possible for him to squeeze his bigbody through the opening, so the question of the depth of the dropoutside was hardly worth worrying about. His one and only means ofegress seemed to be the door by which he had entered, and to that he nowturned his attention, with the view of ascertaining whether any hope layin that direction.
As has been mentioned, the door was constructed of timber very muchresembling oak, and its inner surface was reinforced by stout ironstraps some three or four inches wide, at least half an inch thick, andextending across the whole width of the door. The round heads of boltsstudded at intervals along the whole length of the straps indicated thatsimilar iron bands existed on the other side of the door, and that thestraps, inside and outside--of which there were no less than sevenpairs--were connected together, thus clearly indicating the immensestrength of the door. It was thus hopeless to think of cutting a wayout through it; the only manner in which it could be passed was byopening it in the usual manner.
Frobisher therefore set to work to examine the lock, to discover whetherthere existed any possibility of picking it. It was an old-fashionedpiece of mechanism, and, luckily, the iron case was on the inside of thedoor, the great keyhole being placed near the centre. Now for a pieceof stout wire, the stouter the
better! The young Englishman proceededat once to hunt about among the various machines and instruments in thedim corners of the chamber in search of what he required. For some timehe was unsuccessful, and he had reluctantly arrived at the conclusionthat the search must end in failure, when his eyes happened to fall uponthe very thing he needed.
Standing at the far end of the apartment, in that part of it enclosed bythe circular portion of wall, was a sinister-looking machine, and to thegearing of one of its handles was attached a short piece of iron rodwhich he thought he might disengage without much difficulty. Forthwithhe applied himself to the task, with such success that, half an hourlater, he found himself in possession of what he required. True, it wassomewhat stouter than it should have been for his purpose, but this wasone of those occasions upon which he found his exceptional strength veryuseful, and after a few experiments he succeeded in bending it to theshape he wanted.
He was experimenting with the bent rod in the lock when, fortunately,his quick ear caught the sound of footsteps hurrying down thestone-flagged corridor toward his cell.
Snatching the wire out of the lock, he hastily dropped it into thenearest available place of concealment, and sauntered toward theopposite side of the chamber. There would be no time, he knew, to takedown and redistribute the pile of articles he had used to enable him tolook out of the window, so he was compelled to leave them as they were,trusting that, in the dim light, the visitor, whoever he might be, wouldnot particularly notice the arrangement. A moment later there was asound of keys rattling outside, the lock clicked loudly, and the dooropened and closed behind a man carrying a lamp, which he set down on thefloor just inside the room, after carefully locking the door again.
The thought instantly flashed through Frobisher's mind that perhapsafter all there would be no need for him to go on with the manufactureof his skeleton key; for was not the actual key of the door in the roomat that very moment? True, it was in the possession of another man; butunless he happened to possess fire-arms, it would be queer indeed if adesperate prisoner could not overpower him, tie him up somehow, andsecure the key to obtain his liberty. Frobisher's eyes glistened at thethought, and his muscles braced themselves for a spring. But at thecritical moment the idea occurred to him that the other was in his poweranyhow, and that he could secure the key later on, just as well as now;and that, meanwhile, before he acted hastily, it might be well to hearwhether the fellow had anything to say. Perhaps this was an officialcome to set him at liberty, or perhaps--Well, he would wait a little, atall events, and see what developments ensued.
Having locked the door and pocketed the key, the visitor picked up thelantern and advanced into the room, holding the light high and glancingkeenly round until his eyes fell upon Frobisher, whereupon he gave ashort grunt of satisfaction and hung the lantern on a convenient peg.
By the additional light thus afforded, the Englishman was able toexamine his visitor more closely, and to estimate his chances of successif things came to a rough-and-tumble fight for possession of the key.
The stranger was tall, almost as tall as Frobisher himself, but notnearly so heavily built, and appeared to be about fifty-five to sixtyyears of age, so that the young Englishman did not anticipate anyserious difficulty in mastering him. He was very richly dressed ingarments of fine silk, elaborately decorated with embroidery, and woreround his neck a heavy gold chain, the centre of which was studded witha single enormous ruby. As a head-covering he wore a round Chinese cap,which was ornamented by a single magnificent peacock's feather, fastenedto the cap by a brooch of solid gold set with another huge ruby.
The man's whole appearance was indeed imposing and magnificent in theextreme, and Frobisher instantly guessed that he was in the presence ofa very important official indeed. This man, he told himself, couldsurely not be a Korean. No Korean ever attained to such a commandingstature, no Korean had ever been known to display so haughty a bearing,so dominant a personality; and as his eyes slowly travelled from thedetails of the man's costume to his face, the prisoner recognised thathis visitor was indeed not a Korean, but a Chinaman, and a Chinaman ofthe highest grade, too--without doubt, a mandarin. There was nomistaking the thin, ascetic, high-bred face, the prominent cheek-bones,the almond-shaped eyes; and the long but scanty moustache scarcelyconcealed a strong, resolute-looking mouth, the lips of which were,however, rather too thin, lending an expression of cruelty andrelentlessness of purpose which was anything but reassuring to theprisoner.
For a few moments the two men stood gazing at one another, each takingthe other's measure. Then the Chinaman spoke, using excellent English.
"I am the Governor of this fortress of Asan," he began coldly, "and havejust been informed of your presence here. You would have been broughtbefore me on your arrival, but it chanced to be the hour of my afternoonrest. Who and what are you?"
"My name is Murray Frobisher," answered the Englishman, "and I wasformerly a lieutenant in the British Navy."
"Ha!" exclaimed the Governor. "You say `formerly'. I take it, then,that you are no longer in your country's service, and that it is notknown to your Government that you have turned gun-runner in order tosupply arms to rebels against their lawful sovereign?"
"You are correct in both suppositions," answered Frobisher. "You tax mewith gun-running; and I plead guilty to the charge. I certainly wasbringing arms to the rebels, as you term them; but my conscience isquite clear upon that point. It is well known that the KoreanGovernment has been treating its subjects in a most outrageous manner;and if some of them with more pluck than the rest have made up theirminds to put an end to such tyranny, more power to them, say I, and maysomebody else be more fortunate than myself in providing them withweapons wherewith to uphold their liberties and rid themselves of therulers who are oppressing them."
The Chinaman looked at Frobisher for a moment, and then gave vent to aharsh, sneering laugh.
"Well spoken, my young friend!" he mocked. "You have told me somethingthat I wanted to know; and now perhaps you will answer a few morequestions. I would very strongly advise you to do so, since it may saveyou a good deal of--inconvenience, shall I say?"
"You may ask what you please," retorted Frobisher, "but I do not promiseto answer."
"I shall ask the questions, nevertheless," said the Governor; "and ifyou will not speak now, other means of obtaining replies can doubtlessbe found. First of all, what ship brought those arms; who was hercaptain; what quantity of arms and ammunition did the consignmentconsist of--some have been lost in transit, I understand--and, finally,how many more shiploads are being sent out here from your country?"
Frobisher laughed, but made no reply.
"Did you hear me?" demanded the Governor, and there was deadly menace inhis voice.
"Quite distinctly," answered Frobisher coolly. "But surely you cannothave already forgotten that I gave you to understand clearly, scarcely aminute ago, that I will tell you nothing whatever. And when I say athing, I mean it."
"Soh!" remarked the Chinaman. "Well, you shall have to-night to thinkmatters over; but if you have not altered that stubborn mind of yours bymorning, you shall make the acquaintance of some of these littleplaythings"--indicating the various machines and instruments with adelicate, long-taloned finger. "There are some here which are probablynew to you, but we, in this place, understand their use well. I willleave you this lantern, so that you may study them carefully during thenight, and decide what you prefer to do."
With an ironical bow, the Governor then turned toward the door, hisfingers seeking the pocket where he had placed the key.
This was the moment for which Frobisher had been waiting; and with aspring he hurled himself at the retreating figure of the Governor. Butthat individual was not to be caught so easily. He must have glimpsedthe prisoner's face out of the corner of his eye as he turned, for hewas round again in a moment, and, dodging the Englishman's furious leap,thrust a hand inside his jacket, and before Frobisher could get to gripswith him, h
e found himself confronted with the muzzle of a heavyrevolver, pointing straight at him, the Governor's forefinger alreadycrooked round and pressing the trigger.
"Not this time, my friend," smiled the Governor sardonically. "One stepfarther, and I shoot to wound--painfully. Do you want an immediatetaste of what is in store for you to-morrow, or--" And, leaving thesentence unfinished, the Chinaman slowly backed to the door, leavingFrobisher glowering helplessly in the middle of the room.
With his back against the door and the pistol still levelled, theGovernor felt behind him, inserted the key, and turned the lock. Then,with one swift movement he was outside; the door slammed, the keygrated, and the prisoner was alone once more.
"Well," he murmured, half-amused, despite his anger and disappointment,"the rascal was too smart for me that time. But,"--here he lifted theexecutioner's sword from its place in the corner--"things will be alittle different to-morrow, if that man is foolish enough to trusthimself here again alone."
Frobisher waited until the sound of his visitor's footsteps had diedaway along the corridor, and then, congratulating himself upon the factthat that worthy had left the light behind him, re-possessed himself ofhis piece of iron rod, and with the assistance of the lantern set towork upon the lock again, in the hope that he might be able to completehis skeleton key and let himself out before the Governor returned tocarry out his threat. But this was a more difficult matter than he hadanticipated; and after about two hours of ineffective tinkering he wascompelled to acknowledge himself defeated.
With a bitter objurgation he flung the useless and twisted rod into acorner, and, not being able to find anything else that would serve hispurpose, made up his mind that he would have to await developments, andrely upon his own strength of arm to get himself out whenever theGovernor or somebody else should visit the cell. Meanwhile, if he wereto be in good form for a possibly strenuous morrow, it was necessarythat he should sleep, seeing that nobody had thought it worth while toprovide him with any food; so, unsheathing the sword, with the help ofwhich he proposed to effect his deliverance, he flung himself down atthe far end of the chamber, laying the weapon beside him, and hadscarcely touched the floor before he was fast asleep. He had been moreworn out and weary than he had at all suspected.
It seemed as though he had just closed his eyes, when he was awakened bya thundering crash of sound, apparently close at hand. The chamber inwhich he was confined quivered perceptibly with the shock; while, rightupon the heels of the concussion, came the noise of a distant explosion.
"A heavy gun, by Jingo!" ejaculated Frobisher, springing to his feet;"and whoever fired it is using this place as a target! That shot musthave struck close outside here. What is in the wind now, I wonder?Anyway, if they are attacking this fort, they must, in a certain way, befriends of mine, for they are certainly the enemies of my enemies withinthe walls. Pound away, boys!" he exclaimed cheerfully, apostrophisingthe unseen gunners; "pound away! If you don't kill me first, you mayperhaps make an exit for me through that wall."
At that moment he heard the sound of voices raised in alarm, theshouting of orders, and all the indications of a suddenly-awakened andthoroughly-alarmed garrison. Men were rushing about here and there, therattle of arms sounded distantly through the iron-bound door; andpresently, from the battlements, apparently directly over his head,there boomed forth the crash of the Korean garrison's answering gun,followed almost immediately afterwards by still another tremendousshock, accompanied by the rumble and rattle of falling masonry asanother shot from the attacking force struck full upon the fortresswall, this time seemingly just above him. The foemen gunners seemed tohave waited for the flash of the gun on the battlements, and aimed forthat, and they appeared to be making pretty good practice.
The young Englishman looked at his watch--which had somehow escaped thefingers of his captors, and which he had kept wound regularly--and foundto his astonishment that it was close on half-past four o'clock in themorning, and that therefore daylight could not be very far distant. Itwould not be long before he could climb up to his perch at the window,and see who the attackers were. Meanwhile the explosions had increasedfrom the exchange of single shots to a general cannonade on both sides;and now the very atmosphere was vibrating with the deafeningconcussions, as the guns on the battlements roared and the heavy conicalshot from the attacking party plunged against the thick masonry of thewalls, toppling down great masses of stone, mortar, and debris at everyhit.
The gunners were evidently directing their fire mostly on that portionof the building wherein Frobisher was confined, and he told himself thatit would require but little more of their attention before the wallsbecame so shattered that the shot would come plunging right into thecell. He began to speculate on what would then happen first--whether hewould be blown to pieces or smashed into shapelessness, or whether anopening would be made by which he might be enabled to escape. If only ashot would strike directly upon the iron bars of the window, perhaps itwould enlarge the aperture sufficiently to allow him to crawl through.
Looking up at the window, as the idea entered his mind, he saw that thesky was already flushed pink, and knew that there would therefore belight enough outside to enable him to see what was going on; and he atonce climbed up on the pile which he had collected, and, hauling himselfup to the opening, looked out.
At the edge of the jungle he observed half a dozen big field-piecesdrawn up in line, and he could see the gunners busily loading andreloading from the piles of ammunition placed beside each gun; whilebehind, on the slightly-rising ground, and partly concealed by thejungle, it was possible to make out a large body of riflemen who, nowthat the light was increasing, were preparing to take their part in theattack. There was no doubt as to the identity of the attackers, forFrobisher could now distinguish several flags similar to those flown onthe boats of the rebel squadron a few days previously, during the fighton the river. That particular force had evidently been joined byanother contingent, and the two combined had decided to make anotherattempt to recapture the all-important cargo which now reposed withinthe walls of the fortress of Asan.
But suddenly, as the interested Englishman watched, he heard a loud,shrieking, whirring sound, somewhat resembling the very rapid exhaustfrom a locomotive, and a flash of flame leaped out close alongside oneof the guns, followed by a loud explosion and a great cloud of smoke anddust. And when this cloud had cleared away, he saw that one of thebesiegers' guns had been temporarily put clean out of action, for theright wheel was blown completely away, and the gun itself was lying onits side, half-buried in the sand; while, as for the crew who had beenworking it, so far as he could ascertain they had been blown completelyout of existence, for there was no visible sign of them.
That high explosive shell had obviously not come from the fort; where,then, had it come from? And what new surprise had fate in store?
A Chinese Command: A Story of Adventure in Eastern Seas Page 6