Dr. Neruda sat back and wiped the weariness from his eyes. Then he smiled to himself and told his hosts that at the very moment he told Jimmy Wu that he would protect him, the full moon suddenly appeared out of the clouds and brightly illuminated everything in sight. Jimmy Wu took this as a sign that the wizard had driven off all the demons, and he instantly agreed to accompany the doctor anywhere, as long as it led away from his tormentors.
After encouraging his patient to finish the wine, Dr. Neruda said he and the houseboy guided a stumbling and sleepy Jimmy Wu back to where the marshal was waiting. The poor man soon fell fast asleep in the Black Maria even before they started out for the jail in Monterey. The doctor rode with him all the way, and for safety’s sake saw to it that he was placed in a cell alone. The doctor informed Marshal Sanchez that he believed it might be best to keep the prisoner partially sedated until the court could make a medical disposition. It was obvious that Long Jimmy Wu could not possibly be prosecuted, thus the only alternative would be commitment to the state hospital for the insane.
When Dr. Neruda at last concluded his narrative, he slowly declared that it was all indeed very sad to acknowledge, especially after everything that had been done to save the man’s life, but based upon a cursory examination of Jimmy Wu’s initial head injuries, done while he was in a drugged sleep in the wagon, Dr. Neruda had come to believe that there was nothing that could possibly be done to save the man from his inevitably painful death, which, from all indications, would occur very soon.
Lady Yee at last spoke up, and with uncharacteristic emotion pleaded to know the reason why. After a sip of tea to moisten the tension in his throat, the doctor said he had found definite signs that beneath Jimmy Wu’s original skull injury, which had not healed correctly, there was now evidence of a large tumor pressing on the base of his brain and protruding down into the neck. Without further examination he couldn’t be certain, of course, but since there were no surgical procedures that could possibly deal with the problem one way or the other, he gave Long Jimmy Wu less than two months to live, and considering his mental state, that figure could prove generous.
After a few moments to allow this information to distill, Dr. Neruda rose from his seat, thanked his hosts, and said it was time he returned to his family. But in parting, he observed that despite the ethics of his profession and his religion, he now believed that perhaps a well-aimed bullet from a marshal’s gun might have saved suffering all around. Yet, with that said, he was still inspired by Lady Yee’s compassion to see that Jimmy Wu was cared for till the end. This, he said, had kept his instincts for empathy kindled, and he would look after his patient until the court directed otherwise. He was contracted to care for the Chinese of Monterey, and he would do his best to fit reality to the model set forth.
Before he departed, Dr. Neruda bowed to Lady Yee and generously attested that the Hammonds’ houseboy had been indispensable in bringing the whole affair to a peaceful conclusion. He suggested that his efforts be acknowledged. Lady Yee affirmed that those arrangements had already been seen to. However, upon the doctor’s kind recommendation, she determined to amplify the agreed compensation and reward her faithful servant with a new suit of clothes and a hat.
19
DESPITE THE CAPTAIN’S insistence that she no longer become embroiled in civic upheavals, social calamities, or police business of any kind, Lady Yee’s reputation as a person of influence, insight, and perspicacity still hung in the air like a battle flag. And in a town like Monterey, anonymity was a rare commodity usually reserved for drifters, saddle tramps, and seamen on shore leave. While she diligently sought to remain in the shadows, and was never seen out in public, Lady Yee’s repute and celebrity seemed to grow of their own accord. Anything remotely remarkable that transpired always brought with it the question of whether Lady Yee might be involved in one way or another, and for most people a lack of denial was as good as a yes vote. As a result, people slowly began to send her petitions for help with their problems, and it wasn’t just the Chinese who sought her wisdom and advice. Because of her exotic background, her beauty, and her great wealth, Lady Yee was not seen as occupying the same stratum as other Chinese. She was thought of as royalty, and therefore acceptable to all but the most socially rigid and racially intolerant denizens of the upper crust. Thankfully, they were few in number, mostly rich ranchers who prided themselves on pure and legitimate strains of everything from draft horses to children.
Even though he knew his wife had done nothing to personally encourage this tide of petitions and requests for help, Captain Hammond began to feel that something had to be done to stem the flow of expectations or there would most assuredly be trouble down the road. With this in mind the captain set about making his own plans.
Captain Hammond had recently purchased controlling interest in a newly launched steamship that had been purpose built on the River Clyde as a grain freighter. The owners had sailed the 230-foot ship all the way to San Francisco before running out of money and patience with each other. It was all a matter of being in the right place at the right time, but Captain Hammond knew a profitable and timely opportunity when it cleared the horizon. So with the help of a San Francisco investor as a junior and very silent partner, the captain purchased the ship at the asking price. His actions had been inspired by a burgeoning tragedy thousands of miles to the west.
Mainland China was at present suffering through a third year of widespread drought. Even the great rivers flowed at record low depths, making navigation all but impossible in some places. The suffering and privation soon spread to every level of Chinese society. The captain’s father-in-law, Master Yee, had written several letters describing the disaster, and said that for the first time in living memory the rich and the poor were eating from the same bowl, grateful for every noodle and grain of rice. He related that food imports were woefully inadequate and selling at black market prices, which only increased the suffering. Russian grain was neither easy to come by at the best of times nor easy to transport, and it only rarely made it all the way to the eastern cities. And while grains from the Americas were always of high quality, they were also too expensive after costs, and because the present political system was in tatters, importers demanded gold or silver paid on the barrelhead. As matters worsened, shipping costs had become almost predatory, leaving Master Yee, a respected grain factor in his own right, to heartily regret that so many swine were feeding at the trough of this calamity. He surmised that there had to be a way to break the cycle, but it was beyond his power of insight to come up with a solution.
Then, one rainy night a few weeks later, the captain awoke from the effects of a strange dream, and suddenly he knew the answer to Master Yee’s problem. After a little consideration, Captain Hammond was surprised that he hadn’t thought of it before. The next morning he informed his wife that Hammond, Macy & Yee was going into the grain-exporting business. The primary market would be China, of course, and their factor would be Lady Yee’s father. The captain pointed out that because of the close familial relationship, Hammond, Macy & Yee could easily afford to do something no other exporters and shippers could match: finance the cargo, sell it at reasonable market prices, and extend credit to Master Yee until such time as the cargo was liquidated. If in turn he could find brokers willing to pass on the savings to people of like mind, then more would benefit and perhaps other companies would find it necessary to modify their need for broad profits. Captain Hammond also added that, unlike the other companies, they could also afford to take their profits in goods like teas and silks and porcelains, with a full line of credit guaranteed by Master Yee’s company. The scheme had several advantages, but the most interesting one seemed to be that, with the ability to sell quality grains at reasonable prices, Master Yee would become a local hero, venerated for his honest dealings. Of course this would only attract more customers, but one way or another, Hammond, Macy & Yee would make reasonable profits as it always had in the past. But there was also the spiritua
l profit that comes from doing something necessary for the benefit of others.
LADY YEE was very impressed with her husband’s plan. And as a sign of her support, and to honor her father’s lifelong generosity, she insisted on financing the first cargo herself. So with approvals all in hand, Captain Hammond went looking for another ship, and found one.
The captain’s new ship had originally been christened The Baltimore Eagle, which considering her utilitarian lines, deck cranes, and bluff appearance, sounded rather pretentious and inappropriate to Captain Hammond. Waiting until certain modifications had been made to the vessel’s accommodations, and without bothering to inform Lady Yee, the captain rechristened the ship The Silver Macy. Though they were his children’s names, he knew everyone would ask him just what a Macy was, and why was it made of silver. The whole idea made him chuckle with the humorous possibilities, though he knew that Lady Yee would not be amused he had used her son’s nickname, yet he felt that The Nathanial Macy sounded almost as pretentious as The Baltimore Eagle, and only appropriate for an old Nantucket whaler.
Contracting a grain cargo proved no problem at all, and since it was all California grown, the costs were quite reasonable. The Sacramento delta was awash in rice, and plains-grown wheat was fat kernelled and abundant. Lady Yee recommended that spare cargo space, if any, might be filled with dried fruits, beans, peppers, and ginger, as well as shelled almonds, pecans, and pine nuts, all capable of withstanding long storage while still retaining their food value. Lady Yee also suggested they play fast and loose with the Chinese salt monopoly, just as it had been done for years by the local fishermen. She believed they should purchase a hundred cases of dried squid, which was traditionally packed in shore-panned sea salt. In China the product would be taxed a duty as dried squid, and a blind eye turned to the fact that the salt, now rosy-pink and flavored like dried squid, was a far more valuable and useful commodity than the squid itself. The two products were then sold separately on the general market, garnering a double profit. She also believed that a thousand gallons of purified peanut oil would find ready buyers. If these items were sold at normal prices it would cause a sensation, and Lady Yee’s father would garner public praise from all quarters as a man of modesty and generosity, for without a cash layout, he could also afford to allow his creditors time to profit first and pay later, thus increasing his reputation, customer lists, and client obligations.
Captain Hammond was persuaded that his wife’s cargo recommendations were truly insightful, until he learned that the original suggestions had come from her familiar, Ah Chu. However, this only confirmed that Lady Yee had consulted experts before voting, so he acted upon each detail to the best of his ability, knowing full well that if his cargos satisfied Chinese needs and tastes, profits and honor would soon follow.
But there was something Lady Yee didn’t know. Early in their deliberations, Captain Hammond had told his wife that he had no intention of commanding the ship himself. Despite his long experience at sea, he acknowledged that steamships were a queer breed that required the judgment of officers who were familiar with their capabilities, limitations, and in particular, their maintenance and fuel requirements. Just knowing how much coal to carry could make the difference between profit and loss, and the captain confessed that he was too old a dog to be learning that many new tricks in so short a period of time. On the other hand, the captain never said he wasn’t going on the journey, and this is where his secret plans to extricate Lady Yee from her growing web of obligations came into play. Aside from the captain’s cabin and the officers’ quarters, The Silver Macy had four generous staterooms to accommodate either supercargo or paying passengers. Captain Hammond ordered that the two portside staterooms be combined to make one large suite, while one of the starboard cabins was to be split in two and the other reconfigured to accommodate two very special bits of supercargo.
Despite the fact that he was always reasonable, accessible, and usually open to suggestions made by his wife, Captain Hammond came from a lifetime of command, and in that regard he remained jealous of his prerogatives. In small matters he was amenable, but when it came to important decisions he was still master of his own vessel, and Lady Yee had long since realized that objections were not only useless, but in a deeper sense disrespectful. Nonetheless, the captain wondered just how his wife would react when he presented her with his real plans.
After seeing the children to bed and telling them a story, Lady Yee retired to the parlor and found the captain, hands clasped behind his back, pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace with an unlit pipe clenched between his teeth. She knew from his posture that he had something important to announce, and the thoughtful furrow on his brow meant he was ordering his words. Lady Yee was perplexed, but she quietly sat down, picked up an open volume of poetry she’d been reading, and waited for her husband to surface from his ruminations. After a minute or two, the captain took the pipe from his mouth, turned to his wife, and without preamble of any kind announced that they had two weeks to pack their trunks and close up the house. Now that the children were old enough to travel, the captain believed it was appropriate for the family to return to Canton for an extended visit. He declared it was time for his wife to present her children to their grandparents and aunts, and he was sure the rest of the extended Yee clan would want to put their oars in the water as well.
Captain Hammond was not remotely prepared for his wife’s reaction to this sudden revelation. Lady Yee threw aside her book, leaped to her feet like a girl, produced a happy squeal like Macy at full gallop, and rushed into her husband’s arms. She kissed his cheeks repeatedly with little tears welling in her eyes. Finally, holding her husband close, Lady Yee enthusiastically professed that she loved him more than life itself, for he had just made manifest her fondest ambition and a dream that had haunted her for the past three years. She tearfully confessed that, considering her parents’ age, she secretly feared never seeing them again in this world, and that they would never hear their devoted daughter personally voice her sincere expressions of gratitude and fidelity for all the gifts they had given her. Lady Yee went on to admit she had wanted to speak of returning home for a visit on any number of occasions, but there always seemed to be affairs of more immediate importance to attend to.
The captain kissed his wife and said that pleasing her gave him boundless satisfaction, but he was also happy to note that the journey would serve so many other worthwhile purposes at the same time. And though it went unspoken, by this he also meant extricating Lady Yee from the net of public expectation that had bloomed in the wake of her civic transactions. Then the captain paused, thought of something, and smiled. He told his wife that perhaps it would be a good idea if she immediately wrote her father a letter to say they were coming. Otherwise, he said, there was a good chance that the Hammond clan might arrive in Canton before the letter. He was pleased to say that the new ship was quite fast, even fully burdened, and they would only stop for fuel twice on the most direct route possible. Ships carrying mail under contract stopped off in numerous ports.
Captain Hammond had been fortunate in his selection of a master for The Silver Macy. While in San Francisco, he had made the acquaintance of the well-known Captain Christopher Penn. This intrepid officer had begun his career as a nine-year-old powder monkey aboard a Confederate commerce raider. They had been at sea when Lee surrendered, so in the company of other Confederate naval officers and seamen, he escaped west into the Pacific aboard an unsurrendered cruiser. Knowing they could hardly escape notice for long, and needing to avoid close inspection, they disguised their cruiser as a Spanish warship, and flew the royal standard for good measure. Then, as if to thumb their noses at the Union ships that were doubtlessly out searching for them, they sailed their small warship all the way to the Philippines and sold it to the Spanish Navy. Though they dared not interfere during the rebellion, the Spanish had always been fairly sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Captain Penn had said that the Spanish al
so enjoyed the humorous aspects of the transaction, and even kept the ship’s original name, The Pensacola. For the next forty years, Captain Penn sailed to every corner of the Pacific and became famous in Asian waters as a man all self-respecting pirates should avoid like the pox.
Captain Penn had recently resigned his last ship due to a disagreement with the owners and was looking for a new berth. Captain Hammond was quite drawn to the man’s professional demeanor and good sense. His manners were chivalric, and his reputation for honor and decency irreproachable. He also possessed a robust sense of humor, and loved quoting long passages from the works of Mark Twain. Captain Hammond, who had a good eye, liked the man at once, and offered Captain Penn command of The Silver Macy. After inspecting the ship thoroughly, Captain Penn said he would take command on condition that he could hire his own crew and choose his own officers. When that was agreed, Captain Penn signed on for an initial three-year contract, with an option to renew if the position proved lucrative enough.
Before leaving Monterey, Lady Yee made sure that Dr. Neruda and Mr. Bishop were reading from the same text when it came to finances, so there would be no interruption in essential services or salaries. She made her houseboy the nominal caretaker, but hired a Chinese woman to cook and keep the house clean. She also made a point of keeping her three Japanese gardeners employed at full salary to look after her fruit orchards and extensive gardens. She placed Mr. Bishop in overall charge of all the property and, with the exception of Dr. Neruda, the infirmary, and its employees, power to hire and fire as he saw fit. She also ensured that there remained no outstanding debts owed to local tradesmen, and made certain her bank knew its obligations to be paid out on her behalf. She spent the rest of the time crating away special treasures for storage in the bank’s vaults and seeing that the family packed only those garments required for the journey west, for she strongly intended to have new and better clothing made for everyone once they were established in her father’s compound in Canton.
The Silver Lotus Page 26