Under the Chinese Dragon: A Tale of Mongolia

by F. S. Brereton

  CHAPTER XII

  Chang announces his Errand

  Never before had David or Dick been within a Chinese city, and from themoment of their arrival at Hatsu they were vastly interested with theirsurroundings.

  'Lidee light through de gate, Misser Davie,' advised Jong. 'Not take nonotice of de guards. Dey common fellows. Den Jong lead you to de houseof de mandarin; you have fine food and lodgin' dere.'

  But as it turned out, there was no easy admission to the city. A dozenquaintly dressed Tartar soldiers barred the way, bearing modern riflesacross their shoulders.

  'Who are you? Say where you come from!' demanded one, who seemed to bean under-officer. 'Do you come from the country where sickness rages?'

  Jong at once came forward as interpreter.

  'My masters come from the sea-coast,' he said, with an air of authority,which carried weight at once with the soldiers. 'There is no sickness inthe parts where they have been. They bear important letters to TwangChun, and passports for your governor.'

  'Show them,' demanded the Tartar under-officer, who seemed to bebursting with his own importance. 'Perhaps you are telling lies. Showthe letters.'

  He stepped up to David and seized his pony by the head. Then he closelyscrutinised our hero.

  'Bring a lamp,' he ordered one of his men. 'It's too plaguey dark tosee, particularly under this gateway. Bring a light; we shall then beable to look at these fellows.'

  He jerked at the bit, causing the animal to rear, and the man himself tolet go his hold. At once David put his heel to the pony's side, and senthim plunging in amongst the soldiers, upsetting the officer with acrash. At the same instant a lamp was brought, and the light showed theTartar picking himself up, while already he had drawn his sword. Then,fuming with rage, he advanced again and seized the pony.

  'Let us look closely at you, you who bear important letters,' he cried.And then he gave vent to a shout of astonishment. 'Mandarins ofimportance, did you say, rogue?' he shouted, turning on Jong. 'These areforeigners, white men, hated foreigners from the West.'

  He gripped at David's clothing and would have torn it from him, had notthe young fellow again set his mount plunging. Then Jong pressed his ownanimal forward; for whatever else he might be, however amusing andgarrulous, Jong was not a laggard where blows were being given andreceived, nor did he hang in the background when there was need forinstant action. He gripped the Tartar by the shoulder and shook him asa dog would shake a rat.

  'Fool! he growled, angrily. 'Who said that my masters were indeedmandarins? They are people of importance, and bear important letters.Are you so anxious then to incur the anger of Twang Chun, the Excellencywho commands the province, that you thus interfere with us? My masterswill show the letters, but you shall not read them. Bring the lamp; ifyou are not careful we will take you with us to His Honour who commandsin this city.'

  At a sign from the faithful fellow David produced the pouch in which theletters were carried, and showed them to the man, looking askance as hedid so at the soldiers, for it was evident that they were fully readyfor mischief. Indeed, had he but known it, Hatsu bore none too enviablea reputation. It appeared, indeed, that only some few months before anattack had been made in this city upon some European missionaries, andhad resulted in the death of one. As a consequence the commander of theplace had been dismissed, while a number of the delinquents had beenbeheaded; and the common people still smarted under what they imaginedwas a grievance. However, the magic name of Twang Chun carried the day.The Tartar officer drew back grudgingly, eyeing Jong as if he woulddearly have loved to kill him. Nor did he regard the disappearingfigures of David and his merry companion with any better favour.

  'Foreign devils in disguise!' he growled to his men. 'Why in disguise?Tell me that. Answer me that question. Why do foreign devils come toour city and demand entrance when the dusk has fallen? Why?'

  He held the lamp up to each face in turn, and receiving no answer badethem enter the guard-house with him. He caused the doors to be closed,and then spoke with no little show of excitement.

  'Why do foreign devils reach us when the evening has come, and attemptto pass us disguised as mandarins? I will tell you now. You who areignorant and do not gather news have heard only as a rumour, perhaps,the fact that death stalks through the provinces of Manchuria--blackdeath!'

  They recoiled from him at the words. Lethargic and eminently fatalistsas are the Celestials, their fatalism and their easy resignation to allthat is inevitable are not proof against the terrible epidemics thatsweep across the country at times. Even small-pox, which makes itsravages in different quarters practically the year through, and being,therefore, no new thing to the natives, scares them wonderfully when itmakes its appearance in any particular locality. But small-pox is not tobe compared with the black death, not to be mentioned in the same breathwith that hideous pneumonic plague, which decimates cities in a week,attacks both young and old, and once it has seized a victim, rarelyspares his life. Besides the Tartar officer was right. Pneumonic plaguehad appeared in Manchuria, and was stalking through the land. Cases hadeven been reported in the adjacent provinces of Russia, while thedisease was spreading in the direction of Pekin. Everywhere in theneighbourhood of the infected area distracted creatures were fleeing,carrying the disease with them, and spreading it across the land. Whatmore natural thing in a country of amazingly simple and ignorant peoplethan that the onset of this black death should here and there be putdown to some outside influence? The foreign devil was a target at whichto throw all the blame. And this Tartar under-officer, no doubt asbigoted and ignorant as his fellows, found in the coming of David andDick a subtle scheme to import the plague to Hatsu.

  'We have heard that there is great sickness,' said one of his men. 'Wehave been told that plague assails the people. It has even been reportedthat soldiers have been called to positions north and east of Pekin tohold the frightened people back.'

  'True, comrade, true, every word of these reports. Our commander hashimself been called away to receive orders with regard to the placing ofthe soldiers. But see how the foreign devils manage these things. Theycome to us in disguise. They enter our city with letters of introductionto his Excellency Twang Chun. With forged letters, you may be certain.'

  The gaping mouths of his audience showed how the news affected them.Give the Tartar soldier his due, he is one of the best soldiers Chinapossesses, but he is as ignorant and as bigoted as any of the people.Moreover, he is just as ready to run from the cry of plague as he isready to discover in a European the cause of his misfortune. Growls ofanger came from the men, disturbed, however, a moment later by a loudchallenge from the sentry. He was calling for men to help him to shutthe gates--for the hour for closing the city had arrived--and as he didso espied a figure creeping in through the archway. He brought the manto a stop with his bayonet within an inch of his breast.

  'Move not,' he commanded, 'else will I plunge the blade home and sendyou to converse with your ancestors. Son of a dog, what do you here atthis time?'

  Another shout brought the Tartar officer running out with his men, whileone carried the native lantern, a huge affair of oiled paper. They heldit up close to the stranger's face, while the officer approachedclosely.

  'Who are you?' he asked suspiciously. 'A follower of those foreigndevils?'

  'In their service, no,' came the emphatic answer. 'Take this; let ustalk.'

  The man pulled a handful of money from a bag suspended to his girdle,and gave it to the under-officer. 'Let us talk,' he repeated. 'I followthese foreign devils it is true, but not as their servant. I come tobring a warning.'

  'There! did I not say so?' declared the officer instantly, his sallowface flushing. 'I have but just told these comrades that Hatsu would bewell without such visitors. I have warned them of the plague.'

  Chang, for he it was--the rascal paid to proceed to China in search ofDavid, paid by Mr. Ebenezer Clayhill--beamed on the soldiers, andfollowed them into the guard-house eagerly. To speak th
e truth, theartful scoundrel knew something of the history of Hatsu, and recollectedthat certain of her people had received punishment for an attack onEuropeans. He had come to the city with the intention of stirring uppopular hatred of the foreigners, if that were possible, and of settingthe people on them. If not here, then elsewhere. And here, there wasalready a beginning with an excellent excuse for further action; for thefaces of the Tartar guard showed that even the mention of foreign devilscaused them to grunt with anger.

  'Then you have been speaking to them, friend,' said Chang, when he wascomfortably seated. 'Tell me their story.'

  'There is little in it I was suspicious of them on the instant my eyesfell upon them, in spite of the dusk. Mark you, these foreign devilscame in the gloaming, in disguise, and told of letters to Twang Chun,the Excellency who commands the province.'

  Chang's crafty features twisted at the mention of the high official, forhe recollected that it was he who would have executed him. But he toldhimself that absence and his change of name, to say nothing of the factthat it was supposed that he had been drowned, made him safe fromdetection. He laughed loudly at the story.

  'And you believed all this?' he asked, feigning incredulity.

  'I knew they lied. I was but just telling my comrades that they came tobring plague to us, no doubt to increase the punishment already sufferedby our people for the justifiable attack made on others of the samerace.'

  'Then you told them the truth. The foreign devils will scatter theplague in this city of a certainty if they be not removed. Listen,friends. Who knows of their arrival, who but you?'

  'None, none save the deputy-commander,' came the answer. 'They have goneto him to seek a lodging. Their letter to his Excellency Twang Chun willcommand attention. They will be handsomely lodged.'

  'And this deputy-commander; tell me of him.'

  Chang's eyes gleamed maliciously as he listened to the reply. He tuckedhis hands into his baggy sleeves and hugged himself with unrestraineddelight. Already he began to feel the weight of that thousand poundswhich his rascally employer had promised.

  As for the Tartar officer, he at once allied himself with this strangerwho had come so opportunely to warn the people of Hatsu. Not onlybecause in his ignorance he was genuinely a believer in the fable thatDavid and his friend, or any other Europeans for the matter of that,could at will bring a plague to the city. No, that was not the onlyreason for his instant decision to help this Chang. It was because hehimself, this Tartar under-officer, had suffered for the death of thatEuropean attacked some while before. Cunning alone had saved him hishead. He had been degraded and soundly thrashed, for in Chinapunishments are by no means half-hearted. People are still put to thetorture, wretched criminals still suffer penalties that have long sincedisappeared from the penal codes of other nations. The man had beendegraded and soundly thrashed, and the indignity and the sting of thelash were still fresh with him.

  'Listen,' he whispered hoarsely, his eyes glinting dangerously. 'Thisdeputy-commandant is no lover of the foreign devil. It is well known,though it is denied, mark you, that he it was who led the soldiery inthat affair when certain people of the west were attacked. He would havebeen governor here, but the suspicion that he was one of the attackerscaused him to lose the high post. Of a surety he is with us.'

  'And would dare to hang these wretches on the report we bring him?'asked Chang, his wicked face lit up with eagerness. 'He is bold enoughfor that?'

  The cunning smile on the face of his listener told its own tale. Whatneed had such a man as Chang to question further? For had he notarranged such little matters himself many a time? To a Chinaman wasthere any difficulty in such an affair, demanding cunning and intrigue?Let it be remembered that in all our dealings with the Celestial racecraft has been always met with. In business circles amongst the largecommercial firms of which China can now boast, it has come to be wellunderstood and believed in that a Celestial's word is as good as hisbond; that he does not depart dishonourably from an undertaking; butamongst the high officials such trust has not been gained. China's wordhas too often been broken. And here was this deputy-governor of Hatsu atthat very moment receiving David and Dick with every sign of deference,though, to speak the truth, the man's ugly face was heavy with scowlswhen his guests were not observing. Would he dare to attack theforeigners who were about to eat his salt and partake of hishospitality?

  'My brother,' declared the Tartar officer, becoming wonderfully friendlywith the stranger, 'his Excellency Tsu-Hi will defend his guests if needbe with his life. But----'

  'But, Yes----'

  'But he has other duties. He goes the rounds two hours after sundown,and repeats the visit once more before he goes to his repose. In hisabsence----'

  Chang grinned an expansive grin. This little Tartar was a man after hisown heart, and was proving a wonderful ally. He sat as immovable as astatue for some few minutes, his eyes shut, reviewing every side of thesituation.

  'No one knows of their arrival save these guards here,' he told himself,'and, of course, the servants employed by his Excellency. Now if a mobin the quarter of the city where his house is situated rises when he isabsent on the walls, and captures these foreign devils, how can hisExcellency be blamed? How can I be made to appear in the matter, whenthere is this lusty Tartar to do the work for me. It shall be done. Iwill proceed without delay.'

  Meanwhile David and Dick had been received by the deputy-governor of thecity, and had been shown to their rooms, which were plainly butbeautifully furnished. Then, as the governor excused his immediateabsence on the plea of duty, the two lads called upon Jong to supplythem with refreshment 'Not like dis,' said the faithful fellow, as hecame into David's room bearing a steaming dish with him. 'Dis notreceiving guests as a mandarin or high officer should do. Not at all.Not light. Him should stay and give a feast dat takes much time eating.He should put allee de best dat he have before de foleigners. He shouldbow allee de time, and ask what next he can do. Not go off as if he hatede sight of white men.'

  'Can't say I took a violent fancy to the fellow myself,' laughed Dick,who ate as if he were as hungry as a hunter. 'Can't say the beggar wasover handsome either. Seemed to wear a scowl on his face most of thetime, as if he particularly disliked foreign devils. But that don't makeany difference to a fellow's appetite, do it? Pass along that dishagain, David. My! Jong's a cook in a hundred.'

  The Chinaman grinned appreciatively, while David scarcely seemed to haveheard his friend. His brow was furrowed; he paused long and oftenbetween the mouthfuls.

  'Bothering again. Letting trouble come along and trouble you before it'stime to trouble?' laughed Dick. 'Here, David, I give you fair warning.This is my second go. If you're not pretty slippy the dish'll be empty.You'll be hungry when you go to your bed.'

  'I shall sit up to-night.'

  'What! sit up! Watch in the house of the governor of Hatsu? David,you're a bit mad I'm beginning to think,' cried Dick, still eatingheartily and quizzing his comrade. 'But, seriously,' he went on,'where's the need? The jolly old fellow didn't wear the most handsome offaces, as I've admitted; but then he's our host. Twang Chun--beg hispardon, his Excellency--seems to be the kind of boy it would be badpractice to fall foul of. Supposing this governor fellow, what's hisname?----'

  'Tsu-Hi, deputy-governor, I understand.'

  'Don't mind what sort o' governor he is any way,' laughed Dick, who wasfeeling wonderfully jolly and facetious. 'Let's call him Hi for short.This Hi, we'll suppose, hates foreign devils like poison; but there'salways Twang Chun, ain't there? There's always this jolly old boy Twang,who, we're told, is ready to wring the neck of any fellow who doesn'toffer us hospitality. _Bien!_ as Alphonse says. There we are, safe ashouses.'

  'Just so,' agreed David, curtly. 'All the same, I shall watch to-night.I've got a kind of feeling that something may happen.'

  'Indigestion!' cried Dick. 'Better let me dose you, my boy. One of thosepills of the Professor's'll make you feel as right as a hay-stack--A1,in fact. A good s
leep'll put you right by morning.'

  But though David enjoyed his friend's chaff, and indeed laughed heartilyat his last suggestion, he shook his head when invited to turn in. Why,he could not explain. But the fact remained, indigestion or noindigestion, the lad was filled with a sense of insecurity. Perhaps itwas the roughness of the Tartar under-officer, perhaps it was the soundsof brawling which had come lately to his ear--who knows? It may havebeen a genuine premonition. He saw Dick plump himself on the narrow_kang_ in his room, and bade him good-night. Then he lay down on hisown, his eyes wide open and staring.

  'Suppose it must be indigestion,' he said after a while, 'or is it theface of this Tsu-Hi? I didn't like him. I swear I caught him scowlingand muttering.'

  As is so often the case with those who lie awake in the silence, David'sbusy brain was occupied with a vast number of things--matters some oflittle moment, passed and done with, others of greater interest, his ownaims and ambitions in this country of China. He wondered what hisstepmother was doing, and sighed when he thought of how things mighthave been had she been a different woman. Then his mind branched off tothe sturdy sergeant of police who had lodged him, to his pleasant littlewife, and to Mr. Jones, staunchest of friends and solicitors. Then hegave his thoughts to the matter always uppermost in his mind, thefinding of his father's papers; perhaps the discovery of some evidencewhich would prove or disprove his death. Perhaps even an agreeablesurprise was awaiting him. Stranger things had occurred before. It mightbe even that Edward Harbor was still living. Ah! there was a noise ofshouting out in the street. David rose and went to the window. Gentlypushing back the wooden frame, with its oiled-paper covering in lieu ofglass, he stood in the moonlight listening.

  'Nothing,' he told himself. 'Some brawlers, perhaps. I suppose even inthis country of placid people, there are men who return late to theirhouses, and who make a noise in doing so. I'll leave 'em to it.'

  He lay down once more, his head on his hands, and gave himself again tothinking. It seemed but a minute later when he awoke with a start, forhe had been sleeping. There were men in the room, though none of themuttered so much as a syllable. Four or more gripped his hands and feet,while another thrust something between his teeth with decided roughness.Then David pulled himself together; he strained every muscle to throwoff his silent attackers. He struggled, kicking one man to the end ofthe room, and causing the _kang_ to topple over; but, in spite of hisstrength and the rage which added to it, he was helpless. The men heldhim as if he were in a vice. In a trice he felt ropes being tied abouthis hands and feet, while one of the attackers secured the gag in itsplace with a strip of linen, thereby almost smothering our hero. Aminute later he was being carried from the room, and before he couldrealise what was happening, was tossed like a bundle into what wasevidently a basket. And then how he kicked! He made the basket roll onits side with his efforts, while he himself was pitched half out of it;but a moment later he was hustled into the depths again, while somethingpricked his chest, causing him a twinge of pain.

  'Lie still, fool,' he heard in English, though the man who spoke wasdecidedly a foreigner. 'Lie still, else will I plunge the blade homehere and now. A dog of an Englishman deserves no mercy.'

  Bewildered and utterly confused by all that had happened, and not alittle exhausted after his efforts, David lay still as he was ordered,and presently the silent band lifted the basket and bore it betweenthem. A gust of cool air came through the wicker, while David fancied hecould see stars overhead. Or was it the light of the moon? He could notbe certain, for a length of cotton matting had been thrown over thebasket. He found himself counting the almost noiseless footfalls of hisbearers, then he eagerly strained his ears to catch the sound ofrescuers; but none came. The street was silent, silent but for theslither of the padded soles of the attackers, silent save for that andthe almost soundless tread of others following bearing a similar burden.

  'That fellow Tsu-Hi is responsible for this, I suppose,' groaned David,breathing as deeply as he could. 'But what is his object, and how is itthat they took us unawares?'

  Bitterly did he blame himself for his carelessness in falling asleep;for he realised now with a pang of remorse that that was what hadhappened.

  'Made a whole heap of fine resolutions,' he growled beneath his breath,'and then was weak enough to break them. I deserve to be trapped. Butwhy? What can be the meaning of this sudden attack?'

  Well might he ask the question, for there must be some reason. David hadno knowledge of that rascal Chang, hired with Mr. Ebenezer Clayhill'smoney. He had no idea that the sinister individual who had married hisstepmother was even then awaiting news from the Chinaman he had engagedto do his bidding, and that, with a cunning which matched that of theCelestial, Ebenezer had arranged that anything might be done if onlyDavid Harbor could be silenced and finished--anything at all. Yet, whenhis wife broached the subject, as she did with great regularity, once atleast every day, he would smile and answer her in a manner all his own.It was always his habit to take up a commanding position on thehearth-rug, and there, with a preliminary blast of his gigantic andexceedingly red nasal organ, to hold forth with a pomposity which suitedhim not at all.

  'Violence, my dear! Violence to be offered! Why do you harp soconstantly on such a matter? Of course there will be no violence. Thisman Chang goes in search of the will, not of the young pup you have themisfortune to own as a stepson. Don't be alarmed; no harm will come tohim through Chang.'

  But, once his wife's back was turned, the ruffian would tell himselfwith a chuckle that if anything did actually happen to David, why, itwould be at the hands of some others hired by the rascal he had sent toChina.

  'She'll never, know,' he said. 'As for me, I'd rather hear he was deadthan have the actual will sent to me; for that young pup is capable ofmischief. I'll not be comfortable till he's dead.'

  Seeing that David was ignorant of Chang's existence, what else could heput this sudden attack down to? Tsu-Hi's cunning and enmity? Why? Thento what? For in these days of slowly gathering enlightenment a Europeancan travel in China with some degree of safety, particularly when armedwith a letter to the powerful governor of a province. True, there aresudden fanatical attacks; but then, he reflected, in such cases there isalways a cause. Where was there a cause here? where the smallest excusefor this violence?

  However, no amount of wondering helped him. His indignation merely madehis breath come faster, and seeing that breathing was already a matterof difficulty, he soon lay quiet at the bottom of the basket, listeningdully to the footsteps of his bearers; and then he felt that he wasbeing carried up some stairs. A chilly sensation came to him, while thefaint light flickering in through the wicker was cut off entirely. Morestairs were mounted, the basket being borne at an angle that sent Davidinto a heap at the lower end. Then the bearers went through a doorway.Of that he was sure, for he heard the creak of the hinges and the rattleof bolts. An instant later the basket was tossed to the ground with asmuch ceremony, or lack of ceremony, as would have been devoted to a baleof clothes.

  'Bring him out,' he heard in guttural Chinese. 'Now cut his bonds; fetchthe light hither.'

  David was rolled out of the basket, jerked to his feet, and thenrelieved of his bonds, while the gag was dragged from between his teeth.It was a welcome relief. He breathed easily for the first time for someminutes.

  'Now,' said the same voice, but in broken English this time, 'you seeme, no doubt. You are David Harbor.'

  'Right,' nodded our hero.

  'I am Chang; I helped to kill your father.'

  'And will probably kill me,' answered David, somewhat bewildered, andinclined to look upon this fellow as a madman.

  'You are right. To-morrow evening you will be beheaded. I myself shallcarry out the sentence.'

  'But why?' asked David, cringing slightly, for the ordeal was trying.Indeed, the man standing over him, with the lamp shining in his face,looked a most heartless villain.

  'Why?' he repeated, mocking our hero. 'The answer is
simple. DavidHarbor has become a nuisance. There is a man of the name of EbenezerClayhill; he does not love David Harbor.'

  So there it was. Even in his lowest estimation of the man who hadmarried his stepmother, David could not imagine such a depth ofvillainy. But this fellow Chang was in earnest. He was undoubtedlyspeaking the truth. What answer could our hero give to him? He merelybowed his head, while a shiver of apprehension passed through him. Thenhe pulled himself together and faced the ruffian.

  'I hear you,' he said. 'What then?'

  'For you, nothing; for me, reward.'

  The Chinaman swung round on his heel, gave a swift order, and strode outof the place. Then one by one the bearers followed. The door was bangedto, the bolts shot home, and David was left alone, alone in his prison,with the moon staring in at him through a window high up in a stonewall, staring in inquisitively as if to ask how this young fellow wouldface the coming ordeal.

  'So it is like that? Ebenezer's hatred of me reaches even to Hatsu,'thought our hero. 'He has hired this rascal to kill me, and it looks asif the man would succeed. So he will if I don't move a little. But I'mnot dead by a long way yet; I've still got a kick or two left in me.'