‘I don’t see why we shouldn’t. We have known for the past fortnight, from P’ei’s confession, that Kâo gave him orders to kill her. But her circumstances are now very different; and forewarned is forearmed, so she should be quite safe with her husband and ourselves to protect her.’
‘That’s true; but is there any real point in taking her there now she is married?’
‘As far as I am concerned, no. There is no longer any reason why the Council should reward me for doing so; but I am quite prepared to buy a property there if they will let me. As far as Josephine is concerned, I feel that the risk to her is small and that she has everything to gain by going. She has no fortune of her own and Foo is in no position to support her. Life in either China or the United States must prove a hard struggle for a young couple with no money, particularly in view of Josephine’s disability. Whereas, since she is a daughter of the Imperial House, the Council are virtually bound to give her an honourable position, and there is still a possibility that they may yet decide to make her Empress.’
Gregory nodded. ‘It is certainly a gamble I would take myself, were I in her shoes; although I’ve a feeling that you underestimate the risk. Anyhow, in fairness to them I think we ought to put all the cards on the table and let them decide for themselves.’
‘To that I am quite agreeable,’ Tû-lai replied. ‘But the sooner we get there now the better our chance of upsetting Kâo’s applecart; so we must ask them to decide without delay. In the circumstances, I feel we should be justified in breaking in on their blissful solitude and putting the matter to them tomorrow afternoon.’
Accordingly, the following day Foo and Josephine came to confer with Gregory and Tû-lai. Gregory did most of the talking, and, having explained to them the implications of the passages in Lin Wân’s diaries, he summed the situation up by saying to Foo:
‘So you see, it is now clear beyond dispute that Kâo Hsüan is an evil and dangerous man. The fact that Josephine is now married, of course, greatly lessens the risk that he will attempt anything further against her; but one must not count on that. It depends largely on how far he has progressed with his plans when we reach the island. As he presumably left Tung-kwan on October the 11th, he should get home about November the 18th. We shall be able to make the journey considerably faster, as Tû-lai can provide papers which will enable us to travel from Tung-kwan to Shanghai by rail. But even so, as it is November the 4th today, if we start in four days’ time we can’t hope to get there before the first week in December. That means that Kâo will have had at least a fortnight in which to play around. A fortnight is not very much for a man who has been developing a long-term policy; all the same, it may have been long enough for him to strengthen his position in some way which would give him temporary jurisdiction over us. I think that is the only real danger; and it would be asking a bit much of the gods to expect to win a position of security and ease for life overnight, without taking some chances. Nevertheless, if you feel that you would prefer to shield Josephine from the least possibility of harm by remaining here, Tû-lai and I will perfectly understand, and not think any the less of you.’
Foo made a little bow. ‘Thank you for putting the position so fairly.’
Then Josephine, who had been following the whole conversation with her usual animated glances, wrote rapidly on the tablet she always carried and handed it to Gregory.
She had written, ‘May I ask what you think is the best we could expect if all went well?’
To that he replied: ‘It is just possible that they might make you Empress; although I think that very improbable. You see, to be frank, I don’t think they would accept you as their ruler now that you have a husband who is not of noble birth.’
‘Oh, but I am!’ Foo said quickly. ‘As I told you on our way back here, my real name is Feng Yu-ch’un; and although I did not mention it at the time, my great grandfather was Captain of one of the Eight Banner Corps under the Great Empress Mother Yehonala.’
‘That would certainly make a considerable difference to their regard for you,’ Tû-lai remarked. ‘I doubt if the Council would agree to anyone outside one of the Seven Families becoming Emperor; but your noble blood would make it possible for them to place Josephine on the throne with you as her Consort.’
‘Yes; I think they might do that,’ Gregory supplemented. ‘Because, although they observe the outward forms of Old China, the island is actually a Limited Monarchy. The real power has always been retained by the Council.’
For a moment Foo remained silent, and evidently a prey to conflicting emotions, then he said, ‘I am not ambitious for myself, and I would be quite content to work to support Josephine in a small house of our own; but her birth entitles her to expect much more, so it is a great temptation to attempt to secure for her at least a life of honourable ease on an allowance from the Council. Nevertheless, I will not make the attempt, because I could not bring myself to expose her wantonly to danger of any kind.’
Josephine again wrote on her tablet. She handed it to Foo, and when he had read it, signed that he should pass it on to Gregory.
Taking the tablet Gregory saw that she had written, ‘Beloved. Last spring the only remaining representatives of our ancient civilisation invited me to accept their throne. It is my right that I should present myself to them, and offer to serve them in any capacity they may wish.’
With a slow smile Gregory stood up, took her hand, kissed it and murmured, ‘Your Highness, the gods have always loved courage. In you I believe that I salute another Empress Yehonala.’
Tû-lai and Foo had also come to their feet. The strain of decision had now left the latter’s face, and it had taken on a look of resolution as he exclaimed:
‘So be it then! We will try for a throne!’
Four days later, with the blessings of Madame Fan-ti and all other members of the family, they left the great House of Lin. The journey down to the coast was uneventful, and although the weather was overcast for the first part of the voyage they encountered no storms. The only delay they met with was on approaching the Island, as its position was charted only approximately, and they had to cruise about for two days before they found it.
A little before three o’clock the ship dropped anchor outside the reef, opposite the forbidding cliffs through which a narrow canyon led to the harbour; and twenty minutes later the party was ready to go ashore. They had discussed at great length the procedure they should adopt on their arrival, and it had been mooted that they should take with them a bodyguard of armed sailors. But the idea had been ruled out; first because such a display of distrust and force might arouse the antagonism of the islanders; secondly because it seemed extremely unlikely that they would be offered violence; and thirdly because if they were, the whole ship’s company would have been insufficient to have any hope of rescuing them. It was, however, agreed that the ship should lie off shore until further orders, in case their reception proved so unfriendly that they felt the only sensible thing to do was to sail away in her; and, as a precaution against any personal vendetta that might be launched by Kâo, all four members of the party carried loaded pistols concealed upon them.
In those fortunate latitudes, although it was December the 5th the sea was a deep blue, the sky cloudless and, as the ship’s launch carried them ashore, the heady scent of tropical flowers was wafted to them on the balmy air.
When the launch entered the harbour they saw that quite a crowd had assembled along the wharf, as fishing junks had already reported the arrival of the ship. On their coming alongside, the majority of the watching crowd showed only curiosity, but several men ran forward and willingly assisted in securing the boat to a flight of stone steps. Jumping ashore first, Gregory ran up them to come face to face with a tall man, better dressed than the rest, who bowed courteously and said:
‘Honourable Sir. Permit me to inform you that this island is a leper settlement, and that to land upon it is forbidden unless you or your ship’s company are in distress.’
‘I have been here before,’ Gregory replied promptly. Then, with memories of the pompous individual who had daily strutted up and down the wharf, when he had been an inmate of the cage up on the hill opposite it, he asked, ‘Where is the Harbour-Master?’
The tall man gave him a surprised look, and answered, ‘I am the Harbour-Master. My predecessor had the misfortune to join his ancestors a week ago.’
Josephine, Foo and Tû-lai had meanwhile come up the steps and were now standing beside Gregory. In a loud voice, so that the crowd of fishermen and wharf-hands could hear, he cried:
‘Then, most honourable Harbour-Master, this is a great day for you. My friends and I have brought you Her Imperial Highness the Princess Josephine, whose arrival was expected here early last summer.’
The Harbour-Master’s eyes opened wide, a murmur of astonishment ran through the crowd, then it broke into loud cries of excitement and applause.
For a moment the new Harbour-Master remained dumbfounded; then, with a deep bow to Josephine, he stammered, ‘We … we believed Your Highness to … to be dead. I … I will send a runner immediately to inform the Council.’
‘Thank you,’ said Gregory. ‘And I would be glad if he could also apprise the lady A-lu-te of our arrival.’
The man nodded, but an uneasy expression had appeared on his face, and he muttered with a thin-lipped, slightly apologetic smile, ‘Her Imperial Highness must forgive me, but I have no accommodation down here in which it would be at all suitable for her to wait until a fitting reception can be arranged. The building up there on the hill, will, I fear, be considered by so illustrious a person a place of extreme squalor; but at least it has been fitted up as a rest house for unexpected guests. Permit me to send for a chair, so that she may be carried up there.’
‘By all means send for a chair,’ Gregory replied promptly, ‘but Her Imperial Highness will be quite happy to sit in it down here.’
With an acutely worried look, the Harbour-Master plucked at the sleeve of his jacket, drew him slightly aside, and whispered, ‘We have been told on excellent authority that the Princess was murdered nearly two months ago. I do not know you, and I have only your word that this is her. Perhaps I am being extremely foolish, and shall have to pay for my attitude later. But it is a regulation that all strangers arriving here should be accommodated in the guest house. I must enforce it; otherwise I may lose my position. Any trouble between my men and the crowd would be most regrettable. Please give me your assistance by allowing us to escort your party in an orderly manner up to the building on the hill.’
Gregory was loath to allow his friends and himself to be penned up in the cage, but he had visualised having to submit to it temporarily on landing as a definite possibility; and, as they were armed, he felt that, if the necessity arose, they could always shoot their way out again; so he said:
‘Very well, then; but send the runner off at once to let the Council know that the Princess is here.’ Then he told the crew of the launch that they might take it back to the ship.
Murmuring his thanks, the Harbour-Master turned away and began to rap out sharp orders to some of his men. A few minutes later a sedan-chair was produced, Josephine got into it and, accompanied by the entire crowd, they went round the inland end of the harbour and up the steep winding path to the guest house.
Its keeper, old Chung, was still there. Recognising Gregory at once he greeted him with surprise but obvious pleasure; then set about superintending the bestowal of the guests’ baggage, which had been carried up by a score of coolies who had fought for a share in the job.
The Harbour-Master bowed himself away, and, as Gregory observed with satisfaction, made no move to lock the gate of the cage after him. A portion of the crowd accompanied him back down the path; but the greater part of it remained outside the cage, staring goggle-eyed through the wire at Josephine, who had seated herself in one of the bamboo arm-chairs on the terrace.
As soon as Chung had got rid of the volunteer porters, he had returned to his small kitchen to make tea for his visitors. Gregory joined him there and said:
‘Well, Chung; how have things been going on the Island since I left it in June?’
‘I had here the crew of a native canoe, that had been caught up in a storm and blown several hundred miles, soon after the yacht’s departure,’ Chung told him, ‘but we got rid of them early in August. Since then we have had no excitements until the return of the yacht after her long voyage. She got back about a fortnight ago.’
‘And since then?’ Gregory prompted.
Chung frowned. ‘There has been a happening which has caused everyone in the Island much grief.’
‘Really,’ said Gregory, disguising his swiftly aroused interest by giving his voice a sympathetic tone. ‘I’m sorry to hear that. Tell me about it?’
Taking the boiling kettle off the stove, Chung replied, ‘Eight days ago, to celebrate his return, the Lord Kâo Hsüan gave a banquet. There were sixty guests, and afterwards nine of them died; it was said from food poisoning. Among those who went to greet their ancestors were the Lord Kâo’s brother, the Mandarin Li-chia Sung, the Chief of Police, Dr. Ho-Ping and our old Harbour-Master.’
For a second, Gregory held his breath. Chung’s words had instantly revealed to him that he and his friends had placed themselves in a highly dangerous situation. Before they set out he had felt certain that Kâo would not be content to await events, but would take some further step to bring his plans nearer fruition as soon as possible after he got home. It would not have surprised Gregory at all to learn that A-lu-te’s father had met with a fatal accident, and that Kâo had succeeded him on the Council. But that, in the brief space of a fortnight, a holocaust of this kind might have wrought such havoc among the ruling caste of the island was a possibility that had never entered his mind.
He had expected to have been met with the open enmity of Kâo as well as more subtle forms of attack; but he had counted on getting a fair hearing from the Council, and the support of both the Chief of Police and his old friend Ho-Ping, whom he knew to be honest men of influence. By their removal the scales had been weighted enormously in Kâo’s favour, and Gregory now had to face the grim thought that he was up against odds that might well prove too much for him.
After having said to Chung how distressed he was to learn of the tragedy, he left him, returned to the others, took Tû-lai aside, and told him what had happened. They discussed the possibility of getting Josephine back to the ship at once, but decided that for the time being it was out of the question. The news of her arrival was swiftly spreading all over the Island. More and more people were streaming up the hill to gaze through the wire at her with excited interest, and outside the cage there was now a crowd of two or three hundred. Friendly as the people appeared to be, Gregory and Tû-lai agreed that now the Princess, for whose reception such joyous preparations had been made six months before, had at last arrived, they would certainly not stand calmly by while she was taken down to the harbour and rowed away again to sea in one of the small boats.
The only course seemed to be to await events as though they had nothing to fear. Some comfort, at least, could be derived from the attitude of the crowd, as it was a guarantee that they could not be imprisoned for any length of time without trouble arising; and that no hole-in-the-corner method could be employed in dealing with them, as the people would expect the Princess to be received with honour, and would have to be given some explanation if she was not. For the rest, they could only pin their faith on their wits and weapons.
It was nearly five o’clock when they sighted a cavalcade approaching down the avenue of palms that led to the harbour. It consisted of a strong force of police, a great lacquered palanquin carried by twenty bearers, and a large sedan-chair. At the bottom of the hill Kâo was helped out of the palanquin and eased his bulk into the sedan; then six of his bearers hoisted its poles on their shoulders, and, streaming with sweat, carried him up the steep path.
At the gate
of the cage he alighted, waved back three police officers who were with him, and entered it alone. He did not bow to Josephine, or return the bows of the three men with her, but walked straight up to them. Then, his heavy face black as thunder, he said to Gregory:
‘You must be mad to have come back here!’
Feigning surprise, Gregory replied, ‘I cannot think why you say that, Sir. Surely you do not still believe that I killed that poor girl in Tung-kwan. In any case, whatever you believe, it should already be plain to you that I have since been employing myself most faithfully in the interests of the Island.’
‘You lying trickster!’ Kâo snarled. ‘Of course you killed her! And since you have returned you shall be made to pay for it.’
‘In view of the service I have rendered to the Council, I had expected a better reception,’ Gregory said with an injured air, ‘I can only suppose that your mind is embittered by jealousy, owing to Tû-lai and myself having succeeded where you failed. It was he who is mainly responsible for bringing Her Imperial Highness here. Be good enough to allow him to present you to her.’
For a moment Kâo stared at Josephine, his mouth working with anger; then he sneered, ‘She is no Princess! You know that well enough! You murdered the Princess yourself in Tung-kwan. As for your companions, I see you have with you the little rat who tried to kill me on the yacht, and Lin Tû-lai. His being in this party shows him to be as big a rogue as his father. It is clear that this girl is your tool, and you have brought her here in the hope of foisting her upon us as our ruler. How you expected such an ill-conceived plot to succeed, I cannot think.’
Breaking off for a second, Kâo cast a quick glance over his shoulder at the silent, staring crowd; then he turned right round and cried loudly to them:
‘This woman is no Princess! She is an impostor! These people are a gang of criminals, and they will be brought before the Council tomorrow morning. Now that I have been appointed its President, you may be sure that they will be made to pay in full for this wicked deception they have attempted to practise upon you.’
The Island Where Time Stands Still Page 39