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diff --git a/old/51974-8.txt b/old/51974-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 4c4c7e2..0000000 --- a/old/51974-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10099 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Red and Gold, by Samuel Merwin - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: In Red and Gold - -Author: Samuel Merwin - -Illustrator: Cyrus Leroy Baldridge - -Release Date: May 2, 2016 [EBook #51974] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN RED AND GOLD *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - - - - -IN RED AND GOLD - -By Samuel Merwin - -Frontispiece by Cyrus Leroy Baldridge - -A. L. Burt Company Publishers, New York - -1921 - -TO - -CHARLES B. TOWNS, NEW YORK AND PEKING - -IN RED AND GOLD - - - - -CHAPTER I--FELLOW VOYAGERS - -|ON a night in October, 1911, the river steamer _Yen Hsin_ lay alongside -the godown, or warehouse, of the Chinese Navigation Company at Shanghai. -Her black hull bulked large in the darkness that was spotted with -inadequate electric lights. Her white cabins, above, lighted here and -there, loomed high and ghostly, extending as far as the eye could easily -see from the narrow wharf beneath. Swarming continuously across the -gangplanks, chanting rhythmically to keep the quick shuffling step, -crews of coolies carried heavy boxes and bales swung from bamboo poles. - -During the evening the white passengers were coming aboard by ones -and twos and finding their cabins, all of which were forward on the -promenade deck, grouped about the enclosed area that was to be at -once their dining-room and "social hall." Here, within a narrow space, -bounded by strips of outer deck and a partition wall, these few -casual passengers were to be caught, willy-nilly, in a sort of passing -comradeship. For the greater part of this deck, amidships and aft, was -screened off for the use of traveling Chinese officials, and the two -lower decks would be crowded with lower class natives and freight. And, -not unnaturally, in the minds of nearly all the white folk, as they -settled for the night, arose questions as to the others aboard. For -strange beings of many nations dig a footing of sorts on the China -Coast, and odd contrasts occur when any few are thrown together by a -careless fate.... And so, thinking variously in their separate cabins -of the meeting to come, at breakfast about the single long table, and of -the days of voyaging into the heart of oldest China, these passengers, -one by one, fell asleep; while through open shutters floated quaint -odors and sounds from the tangle of sampans and slipper-boats that -always line the curving bund and occasional shouts and songs from late -revelers passing along the boulevard beyond the rows of trees. - -It was well after midnight when the _Yen Hsin_ drew in her lines and -swung off into the narrow channel of the Whangpoo. Drifting sampans, -without lights, scurried out of her path. With an American captain on -the strip of promenade deck, forward, that served for a bridge, a yellow -pilot, and Scotch engineers below decks, she slipped down with the tide, -past the roofed-over opium hulks that were anchored out there, past the -dimly outlined stone buildings of the British and American quarter, on -into the broader Wusung. Here a great German mail liner lay at anchor, -lighted from stem to stem. Farther down lay three American cruisers; -and below these a junk, drifting dimly by with ribbed sails flapping and -without the sign of a light, built high astern, like the ghost of a -medieval trader. - -"There's his lights now!" Thus the captain to a huge figure of a man who -stood, stooping a little, beside him, peering out at the river. And -the captain, a stocky little man with hands in the pockets of a heavy -jacket, added--"The dirty devil!" - -Indeed, a small green light showed now on the junk's quarter; and then -she was gone astern. - -After a silence, the captain said: "You may as well turn in." - -"Perhaps I will," replied the other. "Though I get a good deal more -sleep than I need on the river. And very little exercise." - -"That's the devil of this life, of course. Look a' me--I'm fat!" The -captain spoke in a rough, faintly blustering tone, perhaps in a nervous -response to the well-modulated voice of his mate, "Must make even more -difference to you--the way you've lived. And at that, after all, you -ain't a slave to the river." - -"No.... in a sense, I'm not." The mate fell silent. - -There were, of course, vast differences in the degrees of misfortune -among the flotsam and jetsam of the coast. Captain Benjamin, now, had a -native wife and five or six half-caste children tucked away somewhere in -the Chinese city of Shanghai. - -"We've gut quite a bunch aboard this trip," offered the captain. - -"Indeed?" - -"One or two well-known people. There's our American millionaire, Dawley -Kane. Took four outside cabins. His son's with him, and a secretary, -and a Japanese that's been up with him before. Wonder if it's a pleasure -trip--or if it means that the Kane interests are getting hold up the -river. It might, at that. They bought the Cantey line, you know, in -nineteen eight. Then there's Tex Connor, and his old sidekick the Manila -Kid, and a couple of women schoolteachers from home, and six or eight -others--customs men and casuals. And Dixie Carmichael--she's aboard. -Quite a bunch! And His Nibs gets on tomorrow at Nanking." - -"Kang, you mean?" - -"The same. There's a story that he's ordered up to Peking. They were -talking about it yesterday at the office." - -"Do you think he's in trouble?" - -"Can't say. But if you ask me, it don't look like such a good time to be -easy on these agitators, now does it? And they tell me he's been letting -'em off, right and left." - -The mate stood musing, holding to the rail. "It's a problem," he -replied, after a little, rather absently. - -"The funny thing is--he ain't going on through. Not this trip, anyhow. -We're ordered to put him off at his old place, this side of Huang Chau. -Have to use the boats. You might give them a look-see." - -"They've gossiped about Kang before this at Shanghai." - -"Shanghai," cried the captain, with nervous irrelevancy, "is full of -information about China--and it's all wrong!" He added then, "Seen young -Black lately?" - -The mate moved his head in the negative. - -"Consul-general sent him down from Hankow, after old Chang stopped that -native paper of his. I ran into him yesterday, over to the bank. He says -the revolution's going to break before summer." - -The mate made no reply to this. Every trip the captain talked in this -manner. His one deep fear was that the outbreak might take place while -he was far up the river. - -It had been supposed by all experienced observers of the Chinese scene, -that the Manchu Dynasty would not long survive the famous old empress -dowager, the vigorous and imperious little woman who was known -throughout a rational and tolerant empire, not without a degree of -affection, as "the Old Buddha." She had at the time of the present -narrative been dead two years and more; the daily life of the infant -emperor was in the control of a new empress dowager, that Lung Yu who -was notoriously overriding the regent and dictating such policies of -government as she chose in the intervals between protracted periods of -palace revelry. - -The one really powerful personage in Peking that year was the chief -eunuch, Chang Yuan-fu, a former actor, notoriously the empress's -personal favorite, who catered to her pleasures, robbed the imperial -treasury of vast sums, wreaked ugly vengeance on critical censors, and -publicly insulted dukes of the royal house. - -All this was familiar. The Manchu strain had dwindled out; and while an -empress pleased her jaded appetites by having an actor cut with the lash -in her presence for an indifferent performance, all South China, from -Canton to the Yangtze, seethed with the steadily increasing ferment -of revolution. Conspirators ranged the river and the coast. At secret -meetings in Singapore, Tokio, San Francisco and New York, new and bloody -history was planned. The oldest and hugest of empires was like a vast -crater that steamed and bubbled faintly here and there as hot vital -forces accumulated beneath. - -The mate, pondering the incalculable problem, finally spoke: "I suppose, -if this revolt should bring serious trouble to Kang, it might affect you -and me as well." - -The captain flared up, the blustering note rising higher in his voice. -"But somebody'll have to run the boats, won't they?" - -"If they run at all." - -His impersonal tone seemed to irritate further the captain's troubled -spirit. "If they run at all, eh? It's all right for you--you can go it -alone--you haven't got children on your mind, young ones!" - -The big man was silent again. A great hand gripped a stanchion tightly -as he gazed out at the dark expanse of water. The captain, glancing -around at him, looking a second time at that hand, turned away, with a -little sound. - -"I will say good night," remarked the mate abruptly, and left his chief -to his uncertain thoughts. - -The steamer moved deliberately out into the wide estuary of the Yangtze, -which is at this point like a sea. Squatting at the edge of the -deck, outside the rail, the pilot spoke musically to the Chinese -quartermaster. Slowly, a little at a time, as she plowed the ruffling -water, the steamer swung off to the northwest to begin her long journey -up the mighty river to Hankow where the passengers would change for -the smaller Ichang steamer, or for the express to Peking over the still -novel trunk railway. And if, as happened not infrequently, the _Yen -Hsin_ should break down or stick in the mud, the Peking passengers would -wait a week about the round stove in the old Astor House at Hankow for -the next express. - -A mighty river indeed, is the Yangtze. During half the year battle-ships -of reasonably deep draught may reach Hankow. In the heyday of the sailing -trade clippers out of New York and blunt lime-juicers out of Liverpool -were any day sights from the bund there. Through a busy and not seldom -bloody century the merchants of a clamorous outside world have roved the -great river (where yellow merchants of the Middle Kingdom, in sampan, -barge and junk, roved fifty centuries before them) with rich cargoes -of tea (in leaden chests that bore historic ideographs on the enclosing -matting)--with hides and horns and coal from Hupeh and furs and musk -from far-away Szechuen, with soya beans and rice and bristles and -nutgalls and spices and sesamum, with varnish and tung oil and vegetable -tallow, with cotton, ramie, rape and hemp, with copper, quicksilver, -slate, lead and antimony, with porcelains and silk. Along this river -that to-day divides an empire into two vast and populous domains a -thousand thousand fortunes have been gained and lost, rebellions and -wars have raged, famines have blighted whole peoples. Forts, pagodas and -palaces have lined its banks. The gilded barges of emperors have drifted -idly on its broad bosom. Exquisite painted beauties have found mirrors -in its neighboring canals. Its waters drain to-day the dusty red plain -where Lady Ch'en, the Helen, of China, rocked a throne and died. - -The morning sun rode high. Soft-footed cabin stewards in blue robes -removed the long red tablecloth and laid a white. By ones and twos the -passengers appeared from their cabins or from the breezy deck and took -their seats, eying one another with guarded curiosity as they bowed a -morning greeting. - -Miss Andrews, of Indianapolis, stepped out from her cabin through a -narrow corridor, and then, at sight of the table, stopped short, while -her color rose slightly. Miss Andrews was slender, a year or so under -thirty, and, in a colorless way, pretty. Shy and sensitive, the scene -before her was one her mind's eye had failed to picture; the seats about -the long table were half filled, and entirely with men. She saw, in -that one quick look, the face of a young German between those of two -Englishmen. A remarkably thin man in a check suit looked up and for an -instant fixed furtive eyes on hers. Just beyond him sat a big man, with -a round wooden face and one glass eye; he turned his head with his eyes -to look at her. A quiet man of fifty-odd, with gray hair, a nearly -white mustache that was cropped close, and the expression of quiet -satisfaction that only wealth and settled authority can give, was -putting a spoonful of condensed milk into his coffee. Next to him sat -a young man--very young, certainly not much more than twenty or -twenty-one--perhaps his son (the aquiline nose and slightly receding but -wide and full forehead were the same)--rubbing out a cigarette on his -butter plate. He had been smoking before breakfast. She remembered these -two now; they had been at the Astor House in Shanghai; they were -the Kanes, of New York, the famous Kanes. They called the son, -"Rocky"--Rocky Kane. - -Unable to take in more, Miss Andrews stepped back a little way into the -corridor, deciding to wait for her traveling companion, Miss Means, of -South Bend. She could hardly go out there alone and sit down with all -those men. - -But just then a door opened and closed; and across the way, coming -directly, easily, out into the diningroom, Miss Andrews beheld the -surprising figure of a slim girl--or a girl she appeared at first -glance--of nineteen or twenty, wearing a blue, middy blouse and short -blue shirt. Her black hair was drawn loosely together at the neck and -tied with a bow of black ribbon. Her somewhat pale face, with its thin -line of a mouth, straight nose, curving black eyebrows and oddly pale -eyes, was in some measure attractive. She took her seat at the table -without hesitation, acknowledging the reserved greetings of various of -the men with a slight inclination of the head. - -It seemed to Miss Andrews that she might now go on in there. But the -thought that some of these men had surely noticed her confusion was -disconcerting; and so it was a relief to hear Miss Means pattering -on behind her. For that firmly thin little woman had fought life to a -standstill and now, except in the moments of prim severity that came -unaccountably into possession of her thoughts, found it dryly amusing. -They took their seats, these two little ladies, Miss Means laying her -copy of _Things Chinese_ beside her coffee cup; and Miss Andrews tried -to bow her casual good mornings as the curious girl in the middy blouse -had done. The girl, by the way, seemed a very little older at close -view. - -Miss Andrews stole glimpses, too, at young Mr. Rocky Kane. He was a -handsome boy, with thick chestnut hair from which he had not wholly -succeeded in brushing the curl, but she was not sure that she liked -the flush on his cheeks, or the nervous brightness of the eyes, or the -expression about the mouth. There had been stories floating about the -hotel in Shanghai. He plainly lacked discipline. But she saw that he -might easily fascinate a certain sort of woman. - -A door opened, and in from the deck came an extraordinarily tall man, -stooping as he entered. On his cap, in gilt, was lettered, "1st Mate." -He took the seat opposite Mr. Kane, senior, next to the head of the -table. It seemed to Miss Andrews that she had never seen so tall a man; -he must have stood six feet five or six inches. He was solid, broad of -shoulder, a magnificent specimen of manhood. And though the hair was -thin on top of his head, and his grave quiet face exhibited the deep -lines of middle age, he moved with almost the springy-step of a boy. If -others at the table were difficult to place on the scale of life, this -mate was the most difficult of all. With that strong reflective face, -and the bearing of one who knows only good manners (though he said -nothing at all after his first courteously spoken, "Good morning!") he -could not have been other than a gentleman--Miss Andrews felt that--an -American gentleman! Yet his position.... mate of a river steamer in -China....! - -The atmosphere about the table was constrained throughout the meal. The -Chinese stewards padded softly about. The one-eyed man stared around the -table without the slightest expression on his impassive face. The girl -in the middy blouse kept her head over her plate. Miss Andrews once -caught Rocky Kane glancing at her with an expression nearly as furtive -as that of the thin man in the check suit. It was after this small -incident that young Kane began helping her to this and that; and, when -they rose, followed her out to her deck chair and insisted on tucking -her up in her robe. - -"These fall breezes are pretty sharp on the river," he said. "But say, -maybe it isn't hot in summer." - -"I suppose it is," murmured Miss Andrews. - -"I've been out here a couple of times with the pater. You'll find the -river interesting. Oh, not down here"--he indicated the wide expanse of -muddy water and the low-lying, distant shore--"but beyond Chinkiang -and Nanking, where it's narrower. Lots of quaint sights. The ports are -really fascinating. We stop a lot, you know. At Wuhu the water beggars -come out in tubs." - -"In tubs!" breathed Miss Andrews. - -Miss Means joined them then, book under arm; and met his offer to tuck -her up with a crisply pointed, "No, thank you!" - -He soon drifted away. - -Said Miss Andrews: "Weren't you a little hard on him, Gerty?" - -"My dear," replied Miss Means severely--her Puritan vein strongly -uppermost--"that young man won't do. Not at all. I saw him myself, one -night at the Astor House, going into one of those private -dining-rooms with a woman who--well, her character, or lack of it, was -unmistakable!... Right there in the hotel.... under his father's eyes. -That's what too much money will do to a young man, if you ask; me!" - -"Oh....!" breathed Miss Andrews, looking out with startled eyes at the -gulls. - -It was mid-afternoon when Captain Benjamin remarked to his first mate: -"Tex Connor's got down to work, Mr. Duane. Better try to stop it, if you -don't mind. They're in young Kane's cabin--sixteen." - -Number sixteen was the last cabin aft in the port side, next the canvas -screen that separated upper class white from upper class yellow. The -wooden shutters had been drawn over the windows and the light turned on -within. Cigarette smoke drifted thickly out. - -They were slow to open. Doane heard the not unfamiliar voice of the -Manila Kid advising against it. He had to knock repeatedly. They were -crowded together in the narrow space between berth and couch, a board -across their knees--Connor twisting his head to fix his one eye on the -intruder, the Kid, in his check suit, a German of the customs and -Rocky Kane. There were cards, chips and a heap of money in American and -English notes and gold. - -"What is it?" cried Kane. "What do you want?" - -"You'd better stop this," said the mate quietly. - -"Oh, come, we're just having a friendly game! What right have you to -break into a private room, anyway?" - -The mate, stooping within the doorway, took the boy in with thoughtful -eyes, but did not reply directly. - -Connor, with another look upward, picked up the cards, and with the -uncanny mental quickness of a practised _croupier_ redistributed the -heap of money to its original owners, and squeezed out without a word, -the mate moving aside for him. The German left sulkily. The Kid snapped -his fingers in disgust, and followed. - -Doane was moving away when the Kid caught his elbow. He asked: "Did -Benjamin send you around?" - -Doane inclined his head. - -"Running things with a pretty high hand, you and him!" - -"Keep away from that boy," was the quiet reply. - -The thin man looked up at the grave strong face above the massive -shoulders; hesitated; walked away. The mate was again about to leave -when young Kane spoke. He was in the doorway now, leaning there, hands -in pockets, his eyes blazing with indignation and injured pride. - -"Those men were my guests!" he cried. - -"I'm sorry, Mr. Kane, to disturb your private affairs, but--" - -"Why did you do it, then?" - -"The captain will not allow Tex Connor to play cards on this boat. At -least, not without a fair warning." - -The boy's face pictured the confusion in his mind, as he wavered from -anger through surprise into youthful curiosity. - -"Oh...." he murmured. "Oh.... so that's Tex Connor." - -"Yes. And Jim Watson with him. He was cashiered from the army in the -Philippines. He is generally known now, along the coast, as the Manila -Kid." - -"So that's Tex Connor!.... He managed the North End Sporting in London, -three years ago." - -"Very likely. I believe he is known in London and Paris." - -"He's a professional gambler, then?" - -"I am not undertaking to characterize him. But if you would accept a -word of advice--" - -"I haven't asked for it, that I'm aware of." An instant after he had -said this, the boy's face changed. He looked up at the immense frame of -the man before him, and into the grave face. The warm color came into -his own. "Oh, I'm sorry!" he cried. "I needn't have said that." But -confusion still lay behind that immature face. The very presence of this -big man affected him to a degree wholly out of keeping with the fellow's -station in life, as he saw it. But he needn't have been rude. "Look -here, are you going to say anything to my father?" - -"Certainly not." - -"Will the captain?" - -"You will have to ask him yourself. Though you could hardly expect to -keep it from him long, at this rate." - -"Well--he's so busy! He shuts himself up all day with Braker, his -secretary. The chap with the big spectacles. You see"--Kane laughed -self-consciously; a naively boyish quality in him, kept him talking more -eagerly than he knew--"the pater's reached the stage when he feels he -ought to put himself right before the world. I guess he's been a great -old pirate, the pater--you know, wrecking railroads and grabbing banks -and going into combinations. Though it's just what all the others -have done. From what I've heard about some of them--friends of ours, -too!--you have to, nowadays, in business. No place for little men or -soft men. It's a two-fisted game. This fellow spent a couple of years -writing the pater's autobiography:--seems funny, doesn't it!--and -they're going over it together on this trip. That's why Braker came -along; there's no time at home. The original plan was to have Braker -tutor me. That was when I broke out of college. But, lord!...." - -"You'll excuse me now," said the mate. - -Meantime the Manila Kid had sidled up to the captain. - -"Say, Cap," he observed cautiously, "wha'd you come down on Tex like -that for?" - -"Oh, come," replied the captain testily, not turning, "don't bother me!" - -"But what you expect us to do all this time on the river--play -jackstraws?" - -"I don't care what you do! Some trips they get up deck games." - -"Deck games!" The Kid sniffed. - -"You'll find plenty to read in the library" - -"Read!...." - -"Then I guess you'll just have to stand it." - -For some time they stood side by side without speaking; the captain -eying the river, the Kid moodily observing water buffalo bathing near -the bank. - -"Tex has got that Chinese heavyweight of his aboard--down below." - -"Oh--that Tom Sung?" - -"Yep. Knocked out Bull Kennedy in three rounds at the Shanghai Sporting. -Got some matches for him up at Peking and Tientsin. Taking him over to -Japan after that. There's an American marine that's cleaned up three -ships'." He was silent for a space; then added: "I suppose, now, if we -was to arrange a little boxing entertainment, you wouldn't stand for -that either, eh?" - -"Oh, that's all right. Take the social hall if the ladies don't object. -But who would you put up against him?" - -"Well--if we could find a young fellow on board, Tex could tell Tom to -go light." - -"You might ask Mr. Doane. He complains he ain't getting exercise -enough." - -"He's pretty old--still, I'd hate to go up against him myself.... Say, -you ask him, Cap!" - -"I'll think it over. He's a little.... I'll tell you now he wouldn't -stand for your making a show of it. If he did it, it 'ud just be for -exercise." - -"Oh, that's all right!" - -Miss Means awoke with a start. It was the second morning out, at -sunrise. The engines were still, but from without an extraordinary -hubbub rent the air. Drums were beating, reed instruments wailing in -weird dissonance, and innumerable voices chattering and shouting. A -sudden crackling suggested fire-crackers in quantity. Miss means raised -herself on one elbow, and saw her roommate peeping out over the blind. - -"What is it?" she asked. - -"It looks very much like the real China we've read about," replied Miss -Andrews, raising her voice above the din. "It's certainly very different -from Shanghai." - -The steamer lay alongside a landing hulk at the foot of broad steps. -Warehouses crowded the bank and the bund above, some of Western -construction; but the crowded scene on hulk and steps and bund, and -among the matting-roofed sampans, hundreds of which were crowded against -the bank, was wholly Oriental. From every convenient mast and pole -pennants and banners spread their dragons on the fresh early breeze. A -temporary _pen-low_, or archway, at the top of the steps was gay with -fresh paint and streamers. In the air above were scores of kites, -designed and painted to represent dragons and birds of prey, which the -owners were maneuvering in mimic aerial warfare; swooping and darting -and diving. As Miss Means looked, one huge painted bird fell in shreds -to a neighboring roof, and the swarming assemblage cheered ecstatically. - -Soldiers were marching in good-humored disorder down the bund, in the -inevitable faded blue with blue turbans wound about their heads. It -appeared as if not another person could force his way down on the hulk -without crowding at least one of its occupants into the water, yet on -they came; and so far as our two little ladies could see none fell. -Fully two hundred of the soldiers there were, with short rifles and -bayonets. Amid great confusion they formed a lane down the steps and -across to the gangway. - -Next came a large, bright-colored sedan chair slung on cross-poles, with -eight bearers and with groups of silk-clad mandarins walking before and -behind. Farther back, swaying along, were eight or ten more chairs, each -with but four bearers and each tightly closed, waiting in line as the -chair of the great one was set carefully down on the hulk and opened by -the attending officials. - -Deliberately, smilingly, the great one stepped out. He was a man of -seventy or older, with a drooping gray mustache and narrow chin beard of -gray that contrasted oddly with the black queue. His robe was black with -a square bit of embroidery in rich color on the breast. Above his hat -of office a huge round ruby stood high on a gold mount, and a peacock -feather slanted down behind it. - -Bowing to right and left, he ascended the gangplank, the mandarins -following. There were fifteen of these, each with a round button on his -plumed hat--those in the van of red coral, the others of sapphire and -lapis lazuli, rock crystal, white stone and gold. - -One by one the lesser chairs were brought out on the hulk and opened. -From the first stepped a stout woman of mature years, richly clad in -heavily embroidered silks, with loops of pearls about her neck and -shoulders, and with painted face under the elaborately built-up -head-dress. Other women of various' ages followed, less conspicuously -clad. From the last chair appeared a young woman, slim and graceful even -in enveloping silks, her face, like the others, a mask of white paint -and rouge, with lips carmined into a perfect cupid's bow. And with -her, clutching her hand, was a little girl of six or seven, who laughed -merrily upward at the great steamer as she trotted along. - -Blue-clad servants followed, a hundred or more, and swarming -cackling women with unpainted faces and flapping black trousers, and -porters--long lines of porters--with boxes and bales and bundles swung -from the inevitable bamboo poles. - -At last they were all aboard, and the steamer moved out. - -"Who were all those women, in the chairs, do you suppose?" asked Miss -Andrews. - -"His wives, probably." - -"Oh....!" - -"Or concubines." - -Miss Andrews was silent. She could still see the waving crowd on the -wharf, and the banners and kites. - -"He must be at least a prince, with all that retinue." - -Miss Andrews, thinking rapidly of Aladdin and Marco Polo, of wives -and concubines and strange barbarous ways, brought herself to say in a -nearly matter-of-fact voice: "But those women all had natural feet. I -don't understand." - -Miss Means reached for her _Things Chinese_; looked up "Feet," - -"Women," - -"Dress," and other headings; finally found an answer, through a happy -inspiration, under "Manchus." - -"That's it!" she explained; and read: "'The Manchus do not bind the feet -of their women.'" - -"Well!" Thus Miss Andrews, after a long moment with more than a hint -of emotional stir in her usually quiet voice: "We certainly have a -remarkable assortment of fellow passengers. That curious silent girl in -the middy blouse.... traveling alone..." - -"Remarkable, and not altogether edifying," observed the practical Miss -Means. - - - - -CHAPTER II--BETWEEN THE WORLDS - -|TOWARD noon Miss Means and Miss Andrews were in their chairs on deck, -when a gay little outburst of laughter caught their attention, and -around the canvas screen came running the child they had seen on the -wharf at Nanking. A sober Chinese servant (Miss Means and Miss Andrews -were not to know that he was a eunuch) followed at a more dignified -pace. - -The child was dressed in a quilted robe of bright flowered silk, the -skirt flaring like a bed about the ankles, the sleeves extending down -over the hands. Her shoes were high, of black cloth with paper soles. -Over the robe she wore a golden yellow vest, shortsleeved, trimmed with -ribbon and fastened with gilt buttons. Over her head and shoulders was -a hood of fox skin worn with the fur inside, tied with ribbons under -the chin, and decorated, on the top of the head, with the eyes, nose and -ears of a fox. As she scampered along the deck she lowered her head and -charged at the big first mate. He smiled, caught her shoulders, spun her -about, and set her free again; then, nodding pleasantly to the eunuch, -he passed on. - -Before the two ladies he paused to say: "We are coming into T'aiping, -the city that gave a name to China's most terrible rebellion. If you -care to step around to the other side, you'll see something of the -quaint life along the river." - -"He seems very nice--the mate," remarked Miss Andrews. "I find myself -wondering who he may have been. He is certainly a gentleman." - -"I understand," replied Miss Means coolly, "that one doesn't ask that -question on the China Coast." They found the old river port drab and -dilapidated, yet rich in the color of teeming human life. The river, -as usual, was crowded with small craft. Nearly a score of these were -awaiting the steamer, each evidently housing an entire family under its -little arch of matting, and each extending bamboo poles with baskets -at the ends. As the steamer came to a stop, a long row of these baskets -appeared at the rail, while cries and songs arose from the water. - -The little Manchu girl had found a friend in Mr. Rocky Kane. He was -holding her on the rail and supplying her with brass cash which she -dropped gaily into the baskets. The eunuch stood smiling by. After -tiffin the child appeared again and sought her new friend. She would sit -on his knee and pry open his mouth to see where the strange sounds came -from. And his cigarettes delighted her. - -It was the Manila Kid himself who asked Miss Means and Miss Andrews -if they would mind a bit of a boxing: match in the social hall. They -promptly withdrew to their cabin, after Miss Means had uttered a -bewildered but dignified: "Not in the least! Don't think of us!" - -Shortly after dinner the cabin stewards stretched a rope around four -pillars, just forward of the dining table. The men lighted cigarettes -and cigars, and moved up with quickening interest. Tex Connor, who had -disappeared directly after the coffee, brought in his budding champion, -a large grinning yellow man in a bathrobe. The second mate, and two of -the engineers found seats about the improvised rings. Then an outer door -opened, and the great mandarin appeared, bowing and smiling courteously -with hands clasped before his breast. The fifteen lesser mandarins -followed, all rich color and rustling silk. - -The young officers sprang to their feel and arranged chairs for -the party. The great man seated himself, and his attendants grouped -themselves behind him. - -Into this expectant atmosphere came the mate, in knickerbockers and a -sweater, stooping under the lintel of the door, then straightening -up and stopping short. His eyes quickly took in the crowded little -picture--the gray-bearded mandarin in the ringside chair, backed with -a mass of Oriental color; that other personage, Dawley Kane, directly -opposite, with the aquiline nose, the guardedly keen eyes and the quite -humorless face, as truly a mandarin among the whites as was calm old -Kang among the yellows; the flushed eager face of Rocky Kane; the other -whites, all smoking, all watching him sharply, all impatient for the -show. He frowned; then, as the mandarin smiled, came gravely forward, -bent under the rope and addressed him briefly in Chinese. - -The mandarin, frankly pleased at hearing his own tongue, rose to reply. -Each clasped his own hands and bowed low, with the observance of a -long-hardened etiquette so dear to the Oriental heart. - -"How about a little bet?" whispered Rocky Kane to Tex Connor. "I -wouldn't mind taking the big fellow." - -"What odds'll you give?" replied the impassive one. - -"Odds nothing! Your man's a trained fighter, and he must be twenty years -younger." - -"But this man Doane's an old athlete. He's boxed, off and on, all his -life. And he's kept in condition. Look at his weight, and his reach." - -"What's the distance?" - -"Oh--six two-minute rounds." - -"Who'll referee?" - -"Well--one of the Englishmen." - -But the Englishmen were not at hand. A friendly bout between yellow and -white overstepped their code. One of the customs men, an Australian, -accepted the responsibility, however. - -"I'll lay you a thousand, even," said Rocky Kane. - -"Make it two thousand." - -"I'll give you two thousand, even," said Dawley Kane quietly. - -"Taken! Three thousand, altogether--gold." - -The mate, turning away from the mandarin, caught this; stood motionless -looking at them, his brows drawing together. - -"Gentlemen," he finally remarked, "I came here with the understanding -that it was to be only a little private exercise. I had no objection, of -course, to your looking on, some of you, but this...." - -"Oh, come!" said Connor. "It's just for points. Tom's not going to -fight you." - -Young Kane, gripping the rope nervously with both hands, cried: "You -wouldn't quit!" - -The mate looked down at these men. "No," he replied, in the same gravely -quiet manner, "I shall go on with it. I do this"--he made the point -firmly, with a dignity that in some degree, for the moment, overawed the -younger men--"I do it because his excellency has paid us the honor -of coming here in this democratic way. He tells me that he is fond of -boxing. I shall try to entertain him." And he drew the sweater over his -head, and caught the gloves that the Kid tossed him. - -The elder Kane shrewdly took him in. The authority of the man was not to -be questioned. Without so much as raising his voice he had dominated -the strange little gathering. Physically he was a delight to the eye; -anywhere In the forties, his hair thin to the verge of baldness, his -strong sober face deeply lined, yet with shoulders, arms and chest that -spoke of great muscular power and a waist without a trace of the added -girth that middle age usually brings; of sound English stock, doubtless; -the sort that in the older land would ride to hounds at eighty. - -Dawley Kane looked, then, at the Chinese heavyweight. This man, though -not quite a match in size for the giant before him, appeared every -inch the athlete. Kane understood the East too well to find him at all -surprising; he had seen the strapping northern men of Yuan Shi K'ai's -new army; he knew that the trained runners of the Imperial Government -were expected, on occasion, to cover their hundred miles in a day; in -a word, that the curious common American notion of the Chinese physique -was based on an occasional glimpse of a tropical laundryman. And he -settled back in his comfortable chair confident of a run for his money. -The occasion promised, indeed, excellent entertainment. - -The mate, still with that slight frown, glanced about. Not one of the -crowded eager faces about the ropes exhibited the slightest interest in -himself as a human being. He was but the mate of a river steamer; a man -who had not kept up with his generation (the reason didn't matter)--an -individual of no standing.... He put up his hands. - -Tom Sung fell into a crouch. With his left shoulder advanced, his chin -tucked away behind it, he moved in dose and darted quick but hard blows -to the stomach and heart. Duane stepped backward, and edged around him, -feeling him out, studying his hands and arms, his balance, his footwork. -It early became clear that he was a thoroughgoing professional, who -meant to go in and make a fight of it.... Doane, sparring lightly, -considered this. Conner, of course, had no sportsmanship. - -Tom's left hand shot up through Doane's guard, landing clean on h.-S -face with a sharp thud; followed up with a remarkably quick right -swing that the mate, by sidestepping, succeeded only in turning into a -glancing blow. And then, as Doane ducked a left thrust, he uppercut with -all his strength. The blow landed on Doane's forearms with a force that -shook him from head to foot. - -A sound of breath sharply indrawn came from the spectators, to most of -whom it must have appeared that the blow had gone home. Doane, slipping -away and mopping the sweat from eyes and forehead, heard the sound; -and for an instant saw them, all leaning forward, tense, eager for a -knockout, the one possible final thrill. - -The yellow man was at him again, landing left, right and left on his -stomach, and butting a shaven head with real force against his chin. For -an instant stars danced about his eyes. Elbows had followed the head, -roughing at his face. Doane, quickly recovering, leaped back and dropped -his hands. - -"What is this?" he called sharply to Connor, whose round expressionless -face with its one cool light eye and thin little mouth looked at him -without response. "Head? Elbows? Is your man going to box, or not?" - -The eyes that turned in surprise about the ringside were not friendly. -These men cared nothing for his little difficulties; their blood was -up. They wanted what the Americans among them would term "action" and -"results." - -Tom was tearing at him again. So it was, after all, to be a fight. No -preliminary understandings mattered. He felt a profound disgust, as by -main strength he stopped rush after rush, making full use of his greater -reach to pin Tom's arms and hurl him back; a disgust however, that was -changing gradually to anger. He had known, all his life, the peculiar -joy that comes to a man of great strength and activity in any thorough -test of his power. - -The customs man called time. - -Rocky Kane--flushed, excited, looking like a boy--felt in his pockets -for cigarettes; found none; and slipped hurriedly out to the deck. - -There a silken rustle stopped him short. - -A slim figure, enveloped in an embroidered gown, was moving back from a -cabin window. The light from within fell--during a brief second--full -on an oval face that was brightly painted, red and white, beneath glossy -black hair. The nose was straight, and not wide. The eyes, slanted only -a little, looked brightly out from under penciled brows. She was moving -swiftly toward the canvas screen; but he, more swiftly, leaped before -her, stared at her; laughed softly in sheer delighted surprise. Then, -with a quick glance about the deck, breathing out he knew not what terms -of crude compliment he reached for her; pursued her to the rail; caught -her. - -"You little beauty!" he was whispering now. "You wonder! You darling! -You're just too good to be true!" Beside himself, laughing again, he -bent over to kiss her. But she wrenched an arm free, fought him off, and -leaned, breathless, against the rail. - -"Little yellow tiger, eh?" he cried softly. "Well, I'm a big white -tiger!" - -She said in English: "This is amazing!" - -He stood frozen until she had disappeared behind the canvas screen. Then -he staggered back; stumbled against a deck chair; turning, found the -strange thin girl of the middy blouse stretched out there comfortably in -her rug. - -She said, with a cool ease: "It's so pleasant out here this evening, I -really haven't felt like going in." - -With a muttered something--he knew not what--he rushed off to his cabin; -then rushed back into the social hall. - -The customs man called time for the second round. - -As Doane advanced to the center of the ring, Tom rushed, as before, head -down. Doane uppercut him; then threw him back, forestalling a clinch. -The next two or three rushes he met in the same determined but negative -way; hitting a few blows but for the most part pushing him off. The -sweat kept running into his eyes as he exerted nearly his full strength. -And Tom Sung's shoulders and arms glistened a bright yellow under the -electric lights. - -Rocky Kane, lighting a cigarette and tossing the blazing match away, -called loudly: "Oh, hit him! For God's sake, do something! Don't be -afraid of a Chink!" - -Doane glanced over at him. Tom rushed. Doane felt again the crash of -solid body blows delivered with all the force of more than two -hundred pounds of well-trained muscle behind them. Again he winced and -retreated. He knew well that he could endure only a certain amount of -this punishment.... Suddenly Tom struck with the sharpest impact yet. -Again that hard head butted his chin; an elbow and the heel of a glove -roughed his face.... Doane summoned all his strength to push him off. -Then he stepped deliberately forward. - -At last the primitive vigor in this giant was aroused. His eyes blazed. -There was no manner of pleasure in hurting a fellow man of any color; -but since the particular man was asking for it, insisting on it, there -was no longer a choice. The fellow had clearly been trained to this foul -sort of work. That would be Connor's way, to take every advantage, place -a large side bet and then make certain of winning. There was, of course, -no more control of boxing out here on the coast than of gambling or -other vice. - -When Tom next came forward, Doane, paying not the slightest heed to his -own defense, exchanged blows with him; planted a right swing that raised -a welt on the yellow cheek. A moment later he landed another on the same -spot. - -At the sound of these blows the men about the ringside straightened up -with electric excitement. Then again the long muscular right arm swung, -and the tightly gloved fist crashed through Tom's guard with a force -that knocked him nearly off his balance. Doane promptly brought him back -with a left hook that sounded to the now nearly frantic spectators as if -it must have broken the cheek-bone. - -Tom crouched, covered and backed away. - -"Have you had enough?" Doane asked. As there was no reply, he repeated -the question in Chinese. - -Tom, instead of answering, tried another rush, floundering wildly, -swinging his arms. - -Doane stepped firmly forward, swinging up a terrific body blow that -caught the big Chinaman at the pit of the stomach, lifted his feet clear -of the floor and dropped him heavily in a sitting position, from which -he rolled slowly over on his side. - -"What are you trying to do?" cried the Manila Kid, above the babel of -excited voices, as he rushed in there and revived his fellow champion. -"What are you trying to do--kill 'im?" - -The mate stripped off his wet gloves and tossed them to the floor. -"Teach your man to box fairly," he replied, "or some one else will." -With which he stepped out of the ring, drew on his sweater and, with a -courteous bow to the mandarin, went out on deck. There, after depositing -with the purser the winnings paid over by a surly Connor, Dawley Kane -found him. - -"Well!" cried the hitherto calm financier, "you put up a remarkable -fight." - -Doane looked down at him, unable to reply. He was still breathing hard; -his thoughts were traveling strange paths. He heard the man saying other -things; asking, at length, about the mandarin. - -"He is Kang Yu," Doane replied now, civilly enough, "Viceroy of -Nanking." - -"No! Really? Why, he was in America!" - -"He toured the world. He has been minister at Paris, Berlin, London, I -believe. He is a great statesman--certainly the greatest out here since -Li Hung Chang." - -"No--how extremely interesting!" - -"He is ruler of fifty million souls, or more." The mate had found his -voice. He was speaking a thought quickly, with a very little heat, as if -eager to convince the great man of America of the standing and worth -of this great man of China. "He has his own army and his own mint. -He controls railroads, arsenals, mills and mines. Incidentally, he is -president of this line." - -"The Chinese Navigation Company? Really! You are acquainted with him -yourself?" - -"No. But he is a commanding figure hereabouts. And of course, I--at -present I'm an employee of the Merchants' Line." - -"Oh, yes! Yes, of course! You seem to speak Chinese." - -"Yes"--the mate's voice was dry now--"I speak Chinese." - -A shuffling sound reached their ears. Both turned. The viceroy had come -out of the cabin and was advancing toward them, followed by all his -mandarins. Before them he paused, and again exchanged with the mate the -charming Eastern greeting. In Chinese he said--and the language that -needs only a resonant, cultured voire to exhibit its really great -dignity and beauty, rolled like music from his tongue: "It will give me -great pleasure, sir, if you will be my guest to-morrow at twelve." - -The mate replied, with a grave smile and a bow: "It is a privilege. I am -your servant." - -They bowed again, with hands to breast. And all the mandarins bowed. -Then they moved away in stately silence to their quarters aft. - -Kane spoke now: "How very curious! Very curious!" - -Doane said nothing to this. - -"They really appear to have charm, these upper class people. It's a pity -they are so poorly adapted to the modern struggle." - -Doane looked down at him, then away. As a man acquainted with the East -he knew the futility of discussing it with a Western mind; above all -with the mind of a successful business man, to whom activity, drive, -energy, were very religion. - -His own thoughts were ranging swiftly back over two thousand years, to -the strong civilization of the Han Dynasty, when disciplined Chinese -armies kept open the overland route to Bactria and Parthia, that the -silks and porcelains and pearls might travel safely to waiting Roman -hands; to the later, richer, riper centuries of Tang and Sung, after -Rome fell, when Chinese civilization stood alone, a majestic fabric -in an otherwise crumbled and chaotic world--when certain of the noblest -landscapes and portraits ever painted were finding expression, when -philosophers held high dreams of building conflicting dogma into a -single structure of comprehensive and serene faith. The Chinese alone, -down the uncounted centuries, had held their racial integrity, their -very language. Surely, at some mystical but seismic turning of the -racial tide, they would rise again among the nations. - -This giant, standing there in sweater and knickerbockers, bareheaded, -gazing out at the dark river, was not sentimentalizing. He knew well -enough the present problems. But he saw them with half-Eastern eyes; he -saw America too, with half-Eastern eyes--and so he could not talk at -all to the very able man beside him who saw the West and the world with -wholly Western eyes. No, it was futile. Even when the great New -Yorker, who had just won two thousand dollars, gold, spoke with -wholly unexpected kindness, the gulf between their two minds remained -unfathomable. - -"I want you to forgive me, sir--I do not even know your name, you -see--but, frankly, you interest me. You are altogether too much of a man -for the work you are doing here. That is clear. I would be glad to have -you tell me what the trouble is. Perhaps I could help you." - -This from the man who held General Railways in the hollow of his hand, -and Universal Hydro-Electric, and Consolidated Shipping, and the Kane, -Wilmarth and Cantey banks, a chain that reached literally from sea to -sea across the great young country that worshiped the shell of political -freedom as insistently as the Chinese worshiped their ancestors, -yet gave over the newly vital governing power of finance into wholly -irresponsible private hands. - -The situation, grotesque in its beginning, seemed now incredible to -Doane. He drew a hand across his brow; then spoke, with compelling -courtesy but with also a dismissive power that the other felt: "You are -very kind, Mr. Kane. At some other time I shall be glad to talk with -you. But my hours are rather exacting, and I am tired." - -"Naturally. You have given a wonderful exhibition of what a man of -character can do with his body. I wish I had you for a physical -trainer. And I wish the example might start my boy to thinking more -wholesomely... Good night!" And he extended a friendly hand. - -Mr. Kane's boy presented himself on the following morning as an acute -problem. He was about the deck, shortly after breakfast, playing with -the Manchu child. Then, after eleven, Captain Benjamin handed his mate -a note that had been scribbled in pencil on a leaf torn from a pocket -note-book and folded over. It was addressed: - -"To the Chinese Lady who spoke English last night." And the content was -as follows: "I shouldn't have been rude, but I must see you again. Can't -you slip around the canvas this evening, late? I'll be watching for -you." There was no signature. - -"Make it out?" asked the captain. "Old Kang sent it up to me--asks us to -speak to the young man. But how'm I to know which young man it is?" - -"Do you know how it was sent?" - -"Yes. The little princess took it back."' - -"It won't be hard to find the man." - -"You know?" - -"I think so." - -"Well, just put him wise, will you?" - -"I'll speak to him." - -"Wait a minute! You thinking of young Kane?" - -The mate inclined his head. - -"Well--you know who he is, don't you? Who they are?" - -Doane bowed again. - -"Better use a little tact." - -Doane walked back along the deck to cabin sixteen. A fresh breeze blew -sharply here; the chairs had all been moved across to the other side -where the sunlight lay warm on the planking. Within the social hall the -second engineer--a wistful, shy young Scot--had brought his battered -talking machine to the dining table and was grinding out a comic song. -Two or three of the men were in there, listening, smoking, and sipping -highballs; Doane saw them as he passed the door. Through the open -but shuttered window of cabin number twelve came the clicking of a -typewriter and men's voices, that would be Mr. Kane, discussing his -"autobiography" with its author. - -Before number sixteen, Doane paused; sniffed the air. A curious odor was -floating out through these shutters, an odor that he knew. He sniffed -again; then abruptly knocked at the door. - -A drowsy voice answered! "What is it? What do you want?" - -"I must see you at once," said Doane. - -There was a silence; then odd sounds--a faint rattling of glass, a -scraping, cupboard doors opening and closing. Finally the door opened -a few inches. There was Rocky Kane, hair tousled, coat, collar and tie -removed, and shirt open at the neck. Doane looked sharply at his eyes; -the pupils were abnormally small. And the odor was stronger now and of a -slightly choking tendency. - -"What are you looking at me like that for?" cried young Kane, shrinking -back a little way. - -"I think," said Doane, "you had better let me come in and talk with -you." - -"What right have you got saying things like that? What do you mean?" - -"I have really said nothing as yet." - -Kane, seeming bewildered, allowed the door to swing inward and himself -stepped back. The big mate came stooping within. - -"Your note has been returned," he said shortly; and gave him the paper. - -Kane accepted it, stared down at it, then sank back on the couch. - -"What's this to you!" he managed to cry. "What right.... what do you -mean, saying I wrote this?" - -"Because you did. You sent it back by the little girl." - -"Well, what if I did! What right--" - -"I am here at the request of his excellency, the viceroy of Nanking. You -have been annoying his daughter. The fact that she chooses, while in her -father's household, to wear the Manchu dress, does not justify you in -treating her otherwise than as a lady. Perhaps I can't expect you to -understand that his exellency is one of the greatest statesmen alive -to-day. Nor that this young lady was educated in America, knows the -capitals of Europe better, doubtless, than yourself, and is a princess -by birth. She went to school in England and to college in Massachusetts. -Take my advice, and try no more of this sort of thing." - -The boy was staring at him now, wholly bewildered. "Well," he began -stumblingly, "perhaps I have been a little on the loose. But what of it! -A fellow has to have some fun, doesn't he?" - -The mate's eyes were taking in keenly the crowded little room. - -"Well," cried Kane petulantly, "that's all, isn't it? I understand! I'll -let her alone!" - -"You don't feel that an apology might be due?" - -"Apologize? To that girl?" - -"To her father." - -"Apologize--to a Chink?" - -The word grated strangely on Doane's nerves. Suddenly the boy cried -out: "Well--that's all? There's nothing more you want to say? What are -you--what are you looking like that for?" - -The sober deep-set eyes of the mate were resting on the high dresser at -the head of the berths. There, tucked away behind the water caraffe, was -a small lamp with a base of cloisonné work in blue and gold and a small, -half globular chimney of soot-blackened glass. - -"What are you looking at? What do you mean?" - -The boy writhed under the steady gaze of this huge man, who rested a big -hand on the upper berth and gazed gravely down at him; writhed, tossed -out a protesting arm, got to his feet and stood with a weak effort at -defiance. - -"Now I suppose you'll go to my father!" he cried. "Well, go ahead! Do -it! I don't care. I'm of age--my money's my own. He can't hurt me. And -he knows I'm on to him. Don't think I don't know some of the things -he's done--he and his crowd. Ah, we're not saints, we Kanes! We're good -fellows--we've got pep, we succeed--but we're not saints." - -"How long have you been smoking opium?" asked the mate. - -"I don't smoke it! I mean I never did. Not until Shanghai. And you -needn't think the pater hasn't hit the pipe a bit himself. I never saw -a lamp until he took me to the big Hong dinner at Shanghai last month. -They had 'em there. And it wasn't all they had, either--" - -"If you are telling me the truth," said the mate. - ---"I am. I tell you I am." - -"--Then you should have no difficulty in stopping. It would take a few -weeks to form the habit. You can't smoke another pipe on this boat." - -"But what right--good lord, if the pater would drag me out here, away -from all my friends.... you think I'm a rotter, don't you!" - -"My opinion is not in question. I must ask you to give me, now, whatever -opium you have." - -Slowly, moodily, evidently dwelling in a confusion of sulky resentful -thoughts, the boy knelt at the cupboard and got out a small card-board -box. - -The mate opened it, and found several shells of opium within. He -promptly pitched it out over the rail. - -"This is all?" he asked. - -"Well--look in there yourself!" - -But the mate was looking at the suit-case, and at the trunk beneath the -lower berth. - -"You give me your word that you have no more?" - -"That's--all," said the boy. - -The mate considered this answer; decided to accept it; turned to go. But -the boy caught at his sleeve. - -"You do think I'm a rotter!" he cried. "Well, maybe I am. Maybe I'm -spoiled. But what's a fellow to do? My father's a machine--that's what -he is--a ruthless machine. My mother divorced him ten years ago. She -married that English captain--got the money out of father for them to -live on, and now she's divorced him. Where do I get off? I know I'm -overstrung, nervous. I've always had everything I want. Do you wonder -that I've begun to look for something new? Perhaps I'm going to hell. I -know you think so. I can see it in your eyes. But who cares!" - -Doane stood a long time at the rail, thinking. The ship's clock in the -social hall struck eight bells. Faintly his outer ear caught it. It was -time to join his excellency. - - - - -CHAPTER III--MISS HUI FEI - -|THE luncheon table of his excellency was simply set, with two chairs of -carven blackwood, behind a high painted screen of six panels. It was at -this screen that the first mate (left by a smiling attendant) gazed with -a frown of incredulity. Cap in hand, he stepped back and studied the -painting, a landscape representing a range of mountains rising above -mist in great rock-masses, chasms where tortured trees clung, towering, -lagged peaks, all partly obscured by the softly luminous vapor--a scene -of power and beauty. Much of the brighter color had faded into the -prevailing tones of old ivory yellow shading into some thing near -Rembrandt brown; though the original, reds and blues still held vividly -in the lower right foreground, where were pictured very small, exquisite -in detail yet of as trifling importance in the majestic scheme of the -painting as are man and his works in all sober Chinese thought when -considered in relation to the grim majesty of nature, a little friendly -cluster of houses, men at work, children at play, domestic animals, a -stream with a water buffalo, a bridge, a wayfarer riding a donkey, -and cultivated fields. The ideographic signature was in rich old gold, -inscribed with unerring decorative instinct on a flat rock surface. - -The mate bent low and looked closely at the brush-work; then stepped -around an end panel and examined the texture of the silk. - -"Ah!"--it was a musical deep voice, speaking in the mandarin -tongue--"you admire my screen, Griggsby Doane." The name was pronounced -in English. - -His excellency wore a short jacket of pale yellow over a skirt of blue, -both embroidered in large circles of lotus flowers around centers of -conventional good-fortune designs, in which the swastika was a leading -motive. His bared head was shaved only at the sides, as the top had long -been bald. He looked gentle and kind as he stood leaning on his cane -and extending a wrinkled hand; smiling in the fashion of forthright -friendship. The thin little gray beard, the unobtrusively courteous -eyes, the calm manner, all gave him an appearance of simplicity that -made it momentarily difficult to think of him as the great negotiator -of the tangled problems of statesmanship involved in the expansion of -Japan, the man who very nearly convinced Europe of American good faith -during the agitated discussion and correspondence that arose out of the -"Open Door" proposals of John Hay, a man known among the observant and -informed in London, Paris and Washington as a great statesman and a -greater gentleman. - -"I thought at first"--thus the mate, touched by the fine honor done -him (an honor that would, he quickly felt, demand tact on the -bridge)--"that it was a genuine Kuo Hsi." - -"No. A copy." - -"So I see. A Ming copy--at least the silk appears to be Ming--the heavy -single strand, closely woven. And the seals date very closely. If it -were woven of double strands, even in the warp alone, I should not -hesitate to call it a genuine Northern Sung." - -"You observe closely, Griggsby Doane. It is supposed that Ch'uan Shih -made this copy." His smile was now less one of kindness and courtesy -than, of genuine pleasure. "You shall see the original." - -"You have that also, Your Excellency?" - -"In my home at Huang Chau." - -"I have never seen a genuine panting of Kuo Hsi. It would be a great -privilege. I have read some of the sayings attributed to him, as taken -down by his son. One I recall--'If the artist, without realizing his -ideal, paints landscapes with a careless heart, it is like throwing -earth upon a deity, or casting impurities into the clean wind.'" - -"Yes," added his excellency, almost eagerly, "and this--'To have in -landscape the opportunity of seeing water and peaks, of hearing the -cry of monkeys and the song of birds, without going from the room.'" -Servants appeared bearing covered dishes. His excellency placed the mate -in the seat commanding the wider view of the river. A clear broth was -served, followed by stewed shell fish with cassia mushrooms, steamed -sharks' fins set red with crabmeat and ham, roast duck stuffed with -young pine needles, and preserved pomegranates, carambolas and plums, -followed by small cups of rice wine. - -The conversation lingered with the great Sung painters, passing -naturally then to the conflict during the eleventh and twelfth centuries -between the free vitality of Buddhist thought and the deadening -formalism of the Confucian tradition. - -And Doane's thoughts, as he listened or quietly spoke, dwelt on the -attainments and character of this great man who was so simple and so -friendly. His excellency had spoken his own full name, Griggsby Doane, -which would mean that the wide-reaching, instantly responsive facilities -for gathering information that may be set at work by the glance of a -viceroy's eye or a movement of his jeweled finger had been brought into -play within the twenty-four hours. - -"My heart is there in the Sung Dynasty," his excellency said. "I never -look upon the old canals of Hang Chow or the ruins of stone-walled lotus -gardens by the Si-hu without sadness. And Kai-feng-fu to-day wrings my -heart." - -"Truly," mused Doane, "it was in the days of Tang and Sung that the soul -of China so nearly found its freedom." - -"You indeed understand, Griggsby Doane!" The two English words stood out -with odd emphasis in the musical flow of cultured Chinese speech. "Had -that spirit endured, China would to-day, I like to think, have Korea -and Manchuria and Mongolia and Sin Kiang. China would not to-day wear -a piteous smile on the lips, turning the head to hide tears of shame, -while the Russians absorb our northern frontiers and the French draw -tribute from Annam and Yunnan, while the English control this great -valley of the Yangtze, while the Germans drive their mailed fist into -Shantung, and the Japanese send their spies throughout all our land and -stand insolently at the very gate of the Forbidden City. I could not, -perhaps, speak my heart freely to one of my own countrymen, but to you I -can say, Confucian scholar though they may term me, that since what you -call the thirteenth century there has been a gradual paralysis of the -will in China, a softening of the political brain.... You will permit an -old man this latitude? I have served China without thought of self -during nearly fifty years. To the Old Buddha I was ever a loyal servant. -If toward the new emperor and the empress dowager I find it impossible -to feel so deeply, my heart is yet devoted to the throne and to my -people. If while sent abroad in service of my country it has been given -me to see much of merit in Western ways, it is not that I have become a -revolutionist, a traitor to the government of my ancestors." - -There was a light in the kindly eyes; a strong ring in the deep voice. -He went on: - -"No, I am not a traitor. It is not that. It is that my country has -suffered, is now prostrate, with a long sickness. She must be helped; -but she must as well help herself. She is like one who has lain too long -abed. She must think, arise, act. With my poor eyes I can see no other -hope for her. Even though I myself may suffer, I can not, in truth to -my own faith, punish those who, loving China as deeply as I myself love -her, yet feel that they must goad her until she awakens from her pitiful -sleep of more than six centuries.... Nor am I a republican. China is not -like your country. In an imperial throne I must believe. Yet, she must -listen to all, study all, draw from all. Freedom of thought there must -be. We must not longer worship books and the dead. We must learn to look -about us and on before." - -Their chairs were drawn about to the window's. Slowly the wide river -slipped off astern. - -"But you, Griggsby Doane, why are you here? This is not the life for -which you so laboriously and so worthily prepared yourself. I knew of -you over in T'ainan-fu. You were a true servant of your faith. After the -dreadful year of the Boxers you returned to your task. And during the -trouble in nineteen hundred and seven, the fighting with the Great Eye -Society in Hansi, you conducted yourself with bravery. I was at Sian-fu -that year, and was well informed. Yet you gave up the church mission." - -The mate's eyes were fixed gloomily on the long vista of the river. For -a moment it seemed as if he would speak; and the viceroy, seeing his -lips part, leaned a little way forward; but then the lips were closed -tightly and the great head bent deliberately forward. - -"I knew," continued his excellency, "when the Asiatic Company of New -York was negotiating with me the contract for rebuilding the banks of -the Grand Canal in Kiang-su that you had gone from T'ainan, and that you -had, as well, left the church. You had even gone from China." - -"That was in nineteen nine," said Doane, in the somber voice of one who -thinks moodily aloud. "I was in America then." - -"Yes, it was in your year nineteen nine. For a time those negotiations -hung, I recall, on the question of the means to be employed in dealing -with local resentments. The trouble over the Ho Shan Company in Hansi, -of which you knew so much and which you met with such noble courage, had -taught us all to move with caution." - -"My position in that Hansi trouble has not been clearly understood, Your -Excellency. I was there only, a short time, and was ill at that." - -The viceroy smiled, kindly, wisely. "You went alone and on foot from -T'ainan-fu to So T'ung in the face of a Looker attack, and yourself -settled that tragic business. You then walked, without even a night's -rest, the fifty-five _li_ from T'ainan to Hung Chan. There, at the city -gate, you were attacked and severely wounded, and crawled to the house -of a Christian native. But while still weak and in a fever you walked -the three hundred _li_ to Ping Yang and made your way through the Looker -army into Monsieur Pourmont's compound...." - -He pronounced the two words "Monsieur Pour-mont" in French. What a -remarkable old man he was--mentally all alive, sensitive as a youth to -the quick currents of life! The accuracy of his information, like his -memory, was surprising. Though to the Westerner, every normal Chinese -memory is that. Merely learning the language needs or builds a -memory.... - -Most surprising was that so deep attention had been given to Doane's own -small case. The fact bewildered; was slow in coming home. For Kang was a -great man; his proper preoccupations were many; that he was a poet, and -had early aspired to the laureateship, was commonly known--indeed, Doane -had somewhere his own translation of Kang's _Ode to the Rich Earth_, -from the scroll in the author's calligraphy owned by Pao Ting Chuan at -T'ainan-fu. As an amateur in the art of his own land of fine taste and -sound historical background he was known everywhere; his collection of -early paintings, porcelains, jades and jewels being admittedly one -of the most valuable remaining in China. And he was reputed to be the -richest individual not of the royal blood (excepting perhaps Yuan Shi -K'ai). - -A contrast, not untinged with a passing bitterness, arose in Doane's -mind. Here before him quietly sat this so-called yellow man who was more -competent than perhaps any other to select his own art treasures and -write his own poems and state papers; whose journals, known to exist, -must inevitably, if not lost in a war-torn land, take their place as a -part of China's history; a man who was at once manufacturer, financier, -and statesman, on whom for a decade a weakening throne had leaned. While -in the cabin forward was a great white man as truly representative -of the new civilization as was Kang of the old; yet who hired men of -special knowledge to select the art treasures that would be left, one -day, in his name and as a monument to his culture, who even employed a -trained writer to pen the work that he proposed unblushingly to call his -"autobiography." For such a man as Dawley Kane, whatever his manners, -Doane felt now, knew only the power of money. Through that alone his -genius functioned; the rest was a lie. On the one hand was culture, on -the other--something else. The thought bit into his brain. - -But his excellency had not finished: - -"And there, my dear Griggsby Doane, while still suffering from your -wound, you learned that those in Monsieur Pourmont's compound were -cut off from communication with their nationals at Peking. You at once -volunteered to go again, alone, through the Looker lines to the railhead -with messages, and successfully did so.... Do you wonder, my dear young -friend, that knowing this, and more, of your honesty and personal force -from my one-time assistant, Pao Ting Chuan, of T'ainan-fu, I pressed -strongly on the gentlemen from New York who represented the Asiatic -Company my desire that they secure you to act as their resident -director? And do you wonder that I regretted your refusal so to act?" - -This statement came to Doane as a surprise. - -"They offered me a position, yes," he said, pondering on the -inexplicable ways in which the currents of life meet and cross. "But -they told me nothing of your interest." - -His excellency smiled. "It might have raised your price. They would -think of that. The sharpest trading, Griggsby Doane, is not done in the -Orient. That I have learned from a long lifetime of struggling against -the aggressions of white nations. During the discussion of the concerted -loan to China--you recall it?--they talked of lending us a hundred -million dollars, gold. To read your New York papers was to think that we -were almost to be given the money. It seemed really a philanthropy. But -do you know what their left hands were doing while their right hands -waved in a fine gesture of aid to the struggling China? These were the -terms. First they subtracted a large commission--that for the bankers -themselves; then, what with stipulations of various sorts as to the uses -to which the money--or the credit--was to be put, mostly in purchases of -railway and war material from their own hongs at further huge profits to -themselves, they whittled it down until the actual money to be expended -under our own direction, amounted to about fifteen millions. And -with that went immense new concessions--really the signing away of an -empire--and new foreign supervision of our internal affairs. For all -these privileges we were to pay an annual interest and later repay the -full amount, one hundred millions. It was quite unbearable." He sighed. -"But what is poor old China to do?" - -Doane nodded gravely. "I felt all that--the sort of thing--when I talked -with representatives of the Asiatic Company. Not that I blamed them, of -course. It is a point of view much larger than any of them; they are but -part of a great tendency. I couldn't go into it." - -"Why not?" The viceroy's keen eyes dropped to the slightly faded blue -uniform, then rested again on the strong face. - -"The past few years--I will pass over the details--have been--well, not -altogether happy for me. I have been puzzled. All the rich years of my -younger manhood were given to the mission work. But I had to leave the -church. At first I felt a joy in simple hard work--I am very strong--but -hard work alone could not satisfy my thoughts." - -"No.... No." - -"For a time I believed that the solution of my personal problem lay in -taking the plunge into commercial life. I had come to feel, out there, -that business was, after all, the natural expression of man's active -nature in our time." - -"Yes. Doubtless it is." - -"It was in that state of mind that I returned home--to the States. But -it proved impossible. I am not a trader. It was too late. My character, -such as it was and is, had been formed and hardened in another mold. I -talked with old friends, but only to discover that we had between us no -common tongue of the spirit. Perhaps if I had entered business early, -as they did, I, too, would have found my early ideals being warped -gradually around to the prevailing point of view." - -"The point stands out, though," said the viceroy, "that you did not -enter business. You chose a more difficult course, and one which -leaves you, in ripe middle age, without the means to direct your life -effectively and in comfort." - -"Yes," mused Doane, though without bitterness. "I feel that, of course. -And it is hard, very hard, to lose one's country. Yet...." - -His voice dropped. He sat, elbow on crossed knees, staring at the -ever-changing river. When he spoke again, the bitter undertone was no -longer in his voice. He was gentler, but puzzled; a man who has suffered -a loss that he can not understand. - -"All my traditions," he said, "my memories of America, were of simple -friendly communities, a land of earnest religion, of political -freedom. In my thoughts as a younger man certain great figures stood -out--Washington, Lincoln, Charles Sumner, Wendell Philips, Philips -Brooks and--yes, Henry Ward Beecher. I had deeply felt Emerson, -Longfellow, Lowell and Whittier. The Declaration of Independence could -still fire my blood. And it was such a land of simple faith that I tried -for so many years, however ineffectually, to represent here in China. -To be sure, disquieting thoughts came--church disunity, the spectacle -of unbridled license among so many of my fellow countrymen in the coast -ports, the methods of certain of our great corporations in pushing their -wares in among your people. But even when I found it necessary to leave -the church, I still believed deeply in my country." - -He paused to control a slight unsteadiness of voice; then went on: - -"May I ask if you, Your Excellency, after your long visits in Europe, -have not come home to meet with something the same difficulty, to -find yourself looking at your own people with the eyes of a stranger, -receiving such an impression as only a stranger can receive?" - -"Indeed, yes!" cried the viceroy softly, with deep feeling. "It is the -most difficult moment, I have sometimes felt, in a man's life. It is -the summit of loneliness, for there is no man among his friends who -can share his view, and there is none who would not misunderstand and -censure him. And yet, a country, a people, like a city, does present -to the alien eye, a complete impression, it exhibits clearly outlined -characteristics that can be observed in no other way. Even the alien -lose? that clear, true impression on very short acquaintance. He then -becomes, like all the others, a part of the picture he has once seen." - -"It is so, Your Excellency. My country, in that first, startled, clear -glance, affected me--I may as well use the word--unpleasantly. It was -utterly different from anything I had known, a trader's paradise, a -place of unbelievable confusion, of an activity that bewildered, rushing -to what end I could not understand." - -He was speaking now not only in the Chinese language but in the idiom as -well, generalizing rhetorically as the Chinese do. It was almost as if -the words came from a Chinese mind. - -They were silent for a time Then the viceroy asked, in his gently abrupt -way: "Why did you leave the church?" - -"Because I sinned." - -"Against the church?" - -"That, and my own faith." - -"Were you asked to leave?" - -"No." - -"They knew of your sin?" - -"I told them." - -"Yet they would have kept you?" - -"Yes. My own feeling was that my superior temporized." - -"He knew your value." - -"I can not say as to that. But he wished me to marry again. I couldn't -do that--not in the spirit intended. Not as I felt." - -"We are different, Griggsby Doane, you and I. I am a Manchu, you an -American. The customs of our two lands are very different. What -would seem a sin to you, might not seem so to me. Yet I, too, have a -conscience to which I must answer. I believe I understand you. It is, I -see, because of your conscience that you sit before me now, on this -boat and in this uniform, a man, as your great Edward Everett Hale has -phrased it, without a country." - -He paused, and filled again the little pipe-bowl, studied it absently as -his wrinkled fingers worked the tobacco. His nails were trimmed short, -like those of a white man. Doane thought, swiftly, of the man's dramatic -past, sent out as he had been to become a citizen of the world by a -nation that would in very necessity fail to understand the resulting -changes in his outlook. There was his daughter; she would be almost an -American, after four years of college life. And she, now, would be a -problem indeed! What could he hope to make of her life in this Asia -where woman, like labor in his own country, was a commodity. It would -be absorbingly interesting, were it possible, to peep into that -smooth-running old brain and glimpse the problems there. They were -gossiping about him. His stately figure was to-day the center about -which coiled the life and death intrigue of Chinese officialdom and over -which hung suspended the silken power of an Oriental throne.... Doane's -personal problem shrank into nothing--a flitting memory of a little -outbreak of egotism--as he studied the old face on which the revealing -hand of Age had inscribed wisdom, kindliness and shrewdness. - -Soft footfalls sounded; then, after a moment, a sharper sound that Doane -assumed, with a slight quickening of the imagination, to be the high -wooden clogs of a Manchu lady, until he realized that no clogs could -move so lightly; no, these were little Western shoes. - -A young woman appeared, slender and comely, dressed in a tailored -suit that could have come only front New York, and smiling with shy -eagerness. She was of good height (like the Manchus of the old stock), -the face nearly oval, quite unpainted and softly pretty, with a broad -forehead that curved prettily back under the parted hair, arched -eyebrows, eyes more nearly straight than slanting (that opened a thought -less widely than those of Western people), and with a quaint, wholly -charming friendliness in her smile. - -He felt her sense of freedom; and knew as she tried to take his huge -hand in her own small one that she carried her Western ways, as her own -people would phrase it, with a proud heart. She was of those aliens who -would be happily American, eager to show her kinship with the great land -of fine free traditions. - -And holding the small hand, looking down at her, Doane found his perhaps -overstrained nerves responding warmly to her fine youth and health. He -reflected, in that swift way of his wide-ranging mind, on the amazing -change in Chinese official life that made it even remotely possible for -the viceroy to present his daughter with a heart as proud as hers. -The change had come about during the term of Doane's own residence.... -America, then, was not alone in changing. It was a shaking, puzzled and -puzzling world. - -"This," his excellency was saying, "is my daughter, Hui Fei." - -"I am very pleas' to meet you," said Hui Fei. - -They sat then. The girl became at once, as in America, the center of -the talk. Though of the heedlessness not uncommonly found among American -girls she had none. She was prettily, sensitively, deferential to her -father. Somewhere back of the bright surface brain from which came the -quick eager talk and the friendly smile, deep in her nature, lay the -sense of reverence for those riper in years and in authority that was -the deepest strain in her race. She dwelt on things almost utterly -American: the brightness of New York--she said she liked it best in -October, when the shops were gay; the approaching Yale-Harvard football -game, a motoring tour through the White Mountains, happy summers at the -seashore. - -Doane watched her, speaking only at intervals, wondering if there might -not be, behind her gentle enthusiasm, some deeper understanding of her -present situation. He could not surely make out. She had humor, and when -he asked if it did not seem strange to step abruptly back into the old -life, she spoke laughingly of her many little mistakes in etiquette. -Her English he found charming. She was continually slipping back into -it from the Mandarin tongue she tried to use, and as continually, with -great gaiety, reaching back into Chinese for the equivalent phrase. She -had so nearly conquered the usual difficulty with the l's and r's as -to confuse them only when she spoke hurriedly. At these times, too, she -would leave off final consonants. The long _e_ became then, a short -_i_. Doane even smiled, with an inner sense of pleasure, at her pretty -emphasis when she once converted _people_ into _pipple_. She was, -unmistakably, a young woman of charm and personality. Despite the -quaintness of her speech, she was accustomed to thinking in the new -tongue. Her command of it was excellent; better than would commonly be -found in America. All of which, of course, intensified the problem. - -His excellency sat back, smoked comfortably, and looked on her with -frankly indulgent pride. - -A servant came with a message; bowing low. The viceroy excused himself, -leaving his daughter and Doane together. Doane asked himself, during the -pause that followed his departure, what the observant attendants beyond -the screen would be thinking. The situation, from any familiar Chinese -point of view, was unthinkable. Yet here he sat; and there, her brows -drawn together (he saw now) in sober thought, sat delightful Miss Hui -Fei. - -She said, in a low voice, while looking out at the river: "Mr. Doane, no -matter what you may think--I mus' see you. This evening. You mus' tell -me where. It mus' not be known to any one. There are spies here." - -Doane glanced up; then, too, looked away. There could be no question now -of the girl's deeper feeling. She was determined. Her tune was honest -and forthright, with the unthinking courage of youth. It would be her -father, of course... - -But his mind had gone blank. He knew not what to think or say. - -"Please!" she murmured. "There is no one else You mus' help us. Tell -me--father will be coming back." - -And then Griggsby Doane heard his own voice saying quietly: "The boat -deck is the only place. You will find a sort of ladder near the stern. -If you can--" - -"I will go up there." - -"It will be only just after midnight that I could arrange to be there." - -His excellency returned then. And Doane took his leave. He had been but -a few moments in his own cabin when two actors of his excellency's suite -appeared, each with a lacquered tray, on one of which was a small chest -of tea, wrapped in red paper lettered in gold and bearing the seal stamp -of the private estate of Kang Yu, on the other an object of more than a -foot in height carefully wound about with cotton cloth. - -Doane dismissed the lictors with a Mexican dollar each and unwrapped -the larger object, which the servant had placed with great care on his -berth. It proved to be a _pi_, a disk of carven jade, in color a perfect -specimen of the pure greenish-white tint that is so highly prized by -Chinese collectors. The diameter was hardly less than ten inches, and -the actual width of the stone from the circular inner opening to the -outer rim about four inches. It stood on edge set in a pedestal of -blackwood, the carving of which was of unusual delicacy. The pedestal -was, naturally, modern, but Doane, with a mounting pulse, studied the -designs cut into the stone itself. That cutting had been done not later -than the Han Dynasty, certainly within two hundred years of the birth of -Christ. - - - - -CHAPTER IV--INTRIGUE - - -|THE _Yen Hsin_ would arrive at Kiu Kiang by mid-afternoon. - -Half an hour earlier. Doane, on the lower deck, came upon a group of -his excellency's soldiers--brown deep-chested men, picturesque in their -loose blue trousers bound in above the ankles and their blue turbans and -gray cartridge belts--conversing excitedly in whispers behind the stack -of coffins near the stern. At sight of him they broke up and slipped -away. - -A moment later, passing forward along the corridor beside the engine -room, he heard his name: "Mr. Doane! If you please!" This in English. - -He turned. Just within the doorway of one of the low-priced cabins stood -a pedler he had observed about the lower decks; a thin Chinese with an -overbred head that was shaped, beneath the cap, like a skull without -flesh upon it; the eyes concealed behind smoked glasses. - -"May I have a word with you, Mr. Doane?" - -The mate considered; then, stooping, entered the tiny cabin. The pedler -closed the door; quietly shot the bolt; then removed his cap and the -queue with it, exposing a full head of stubbly black hair, trimmed, as -is said, pompadour. The glasses came off next; discovering wide alert -eyes. And now, without the cap, the head, despite the hair and the -seriously intellectual face, looked, balanced on its thin neck, more -than ever like a skull. - -"You will not know of me, Mr. Doane. I am Sun Shi-pi of Shanghai. I -was attached, as interpreter, to the yamen of the tao-tai. I left his -service some months ago to join the republican revolutionary party. I -was arrested shortly after that at Nanking and condemned to death, but -his excellency, the viceroy--" - -"Kang?" - -"Yes. He is on this boat. He released me on condition that I go to -Japan. I kept my word--to that extent; I went to Japan--but I could -not keep my word in spirit. My life is consecrated to the cause of the -Chinese Republic. Nothing else matters. I returned to Shanghai, and was -made commander there of the 'Dare-to-dies.' You did not know of such -an organization? You will, then, before the winter is gone. We shall be -heard from. There are other such companies--at Canton, at Wuchang--at -Nanking--at every center." - -Doane seated himself on the narrow couch and studied the quietly eager -young man. - -"You speak English with remarkable ease," he said. - -"Oh, yes. I studied at Chicago University. And at Tokio University I -took post-graduate work." - -"And you are frank." - -"I can trust you. You are known to us, Mr. Doane. Wu Ting Fang trusts -you--and Sun Yat Sen, our leader, he knows and trusts you." - -"I did know Sun Yat Sen, when he was a medical student." - -"He knows you well. He has mentioned your name to us. That is why I am -speaking to you. America is with us. We can trust Americans." - -Doane's mind was ranging swiftly about the situation. "You are running a -risk," he said. - -Sun Shi-pi shrugged his shoulders. "I shall hardly survive the -revolution. That is not expected among the 'Dare-to-dies.'" - -"If his excellency's soldiers find you here they will kill you now." - -"The officers would, of course. Many of the soldiers are with us. -Anyway, it doesn't matter." - -"What is your errand?" - -"I will tell you. The revolution, as you doubtless know, is fully -planned." - -"I've assumed so. There has been so much talk. And then, of course, the -outbreak in Szechuen." - -"That was premature. It was the plan to strike in the spring. This -fighting in Szechuen has caused much confusion. Sun Yat Sen is in -America. He is going to England, and can hardly reach China within -two months. He will bring money enough for all our needs. He is the -organizer, the directing genius of the new republic. But the Szechuen -outbreak has set all the young hotheads afire." - -"I am told that the throne has sent Tuan Fang out there to put down the -disturbance. But we have had no news lately." - -"That is because the wires are cut. Tuan Fang will never come back. We -will pay five thousand taels, cash, to the bearer of his head, and ask -no questions. We must exterminate the Manchus. It has finally come down -to that. It is the only way out. But we must pull together. Did you know -that the Wu Chang republicans plan to strike at once?" - -"No." - -"I have been sent there to tell them to wait. That is our gravest danger -now. If we pull together we shall win. If our emotions run away with our -judgment--" - -"The throne will defeat your forces piecemeal and destroy your morale." - -"Exactly. My one fear is that I may not reach Wu Chang in time. -But"--with a careless gesture--"that is as it may be. I will tell you -now why I spoke to you. We need you. Our organization is incomplete as -yet, naturally. One matter of the greatest importance is that our spirit -be understood from the first by foreign countries. There is an enormous -task--diplomatic publicity, you might call it--which you, Mr. Doane, are -peculiarly fitted to undertake You know both China and the West. You -are a philosopher of mature judgment. You would work in association with -Doctor Wu Ting Fang at our Shanghai offices. There will be money. Will -you consider this?" - -"It is a wholly new thought," Doane replied slowly. "I should have to -give it very serious consideration." - -"But you are in sympathy with our aims?" - -"In a general way, certainly. Even though I may not share your -optimism." - -"On your return to Shanghai would you be willing to call at once on -Doctor Wu and discuss the matter?" - -"Yes.... Yes, I will do that. I must leave you now. We are nearly at Kiu -Kiang." - -Sun, glancing out the window, raised his hand. Doane looked; two small -German cruisers, the kaiser's flag at the taff, were steaming up-stream. - -"They know," murmured Sun, with meaning. "I wish to God I could find -their means of information. They _all_ know. From the Japanese in -particular nothing seems to be hidden. Two or three of your American -war-ships are already up there. And the English, naturally, in force." - -"They must be on hand to protect the foreign colony at Hankow. The -Szechuen trouble would justify such a move." - -But Sun shook his head. "They _know_," he repeated. Then he clasped -Doane's hand. "However.... that is a detail. It is now war. You will find -events marching fast--faster, I fear, than we republicans wish. Good-by -now. You will call on Doctor Wu." - -The steamer moved slowly in toward the landing hulk. Doane, from the -boat deck, by the after bell pull, gazed across at the park-like -foreign bund, with its embankment of masonry and its trees. Behind -lay, compactly, the walled city. Everything looked as it had always -looked--the curious crowd along the railing, the water carriers passing -down and up the steps, the eager shouting swarm of water beggars. Below, -the coolies swung out from the hulk, ready to make their usual breakneck -leap over green water to the approaching steamer. Now--they were -jumping. The passengers were leaning out from the promenade deck to -watch and applaud.... Doane's thoughts, as he went mechanically through -his familiar duties, wandered off inland, past the battlements and -towers of the ancient city to the thousands of other ancient cities -and villages and farmsteads beyond; and he wondered if the scores of -millions of lethargic minds in all those centers of population could -really be awakened from their sleep of six hundred years and stirred -into action. - -Could a republic, he asked himself, possibly mean anything real to -those minds? The habit of mere endurance, of bare existence, was so -deep-seated, the struggle to live so intense, the opportunity so slight. -Sun Shi-pi and his kind were a semi-Western product. They were, when all -was said and done, an exotic breed. They were the ardent, adventurous -young; and they were the few. There had always been a throne in -China, always extortionate mandarins, always a popular acceptance of -conditions. - -The lines were out now. And suddenly a blue-clad soldier climbed over -the rail, below, balanced along the stern hawser, leaped to the hulk, -and was about to disappear among the coolies there when a rifle-shot -cracked and he fell. He seemed to fall, if anything, slightly before the -shot. Another soldier, following close, was caught by a second shot as -he was balancing on the hawser, and spun headlong into the water where -the propeller still churned. - -A few moments later, when Doane moved among the passengers, it became -clear that they knew nothing of the casual tragedy astern. They were all -pressing ashore for a walk in the native city, eager to buy the worked -silver that is traditionally sold there. The slim girl in the middy -blouse had apparently captured young Rocky Kane; they strolled off -across the bund together. But Dawley Kane remained aboard, stretched -out comfortably in a deck chair, listening thoughtfully to the stocky -little Japanese, one Kato, who was by now generally known to be his -_alter ego_ in the matter of buying objects of Oriental art. - -None of these folk knew or cared about China. Excepting this Kato. Him -Doane was continually encountering below decks, chatting smilingly -in Chinese with the good-natured soldiers. His work along the river, -doubtless, ranged over a wider field than his present employer would -ever learn. It would be interesting, now, to know what he was saying, -talking so rapidly and always, of course, smiling.... The rest of this -upper-deck white man's existence Doane dismissed from his mind as he -went about his work. It was all too familiar. Though later he thought of -Rocky Kane. The boy, wild though he might be, had attractive qualities. -It was not pleasant to see that girl get her hands on him. Just one more -evil influence. - -He thought, at this juncture, of the--the word came--appalling change -in himself. That he, once a fervid missionary, could stand back like -a sophisticated European, and let the wandering and vicious and broken -human creatures about him go their various ways, as might be, was -disturbing, was even saddening. Something apparently had died in him. -Sun had called him a philosopher. The Oriental, of course, even the -blazing revolutionist, admired this passive quality, this fatalistic -acceptance of the fact. He sighed. To be a philosopher was, then, to -be emotionally dead. The church had been taken out of his life, -leaving--nothing. A mate on a river steamer, in China. Life had gone -quite topsy-turvey. Even the amazing courtesy of his excellency--it -was that, when you considered--and this profound compliment from the -revolutionary junta seemed but incidents. Too many promises had smiled -at Doane, these years of his spiritual Odyssey--smiled and faded to -nothing--to permit an easy hope of anything new and beautiful. He was -beginning to believe that a man can not build and live two lives. And he -had built and lived one. - -Captain Benjamin found him; a dogged little captain with dull fright -in his eyes. "It's happened," he said, trying desperately to attain an -offhand manner. "Company wire. They're fighting at Wu Chang. What do you -know about that!" - -Doane was silent. It was extraordinarily difficult, here by this calm -old city, on a sunny afternoon, to believe that it was, as Sun had put -it, war. - -"We're to tie up," the captain went on, "until further orders. The -foreign concessions at Hankow were safe enough this noon, but with an -artillery battle just across the river, and an imperial army moving down -from the north over the railway, they stand a lot of show, they do." - -"I wonder if they'll send us on." - -"What difference will it make?" The captain's voice was rising. "You -know as well as I do that they'll be fighting at Nanking before we -could get back there. Here, too, for that matter. I tell you the whole -river'll be ablaze by to-morrow. This bloody old river! And us on a -Manchu-owned boat! A lot o' chance we stand." - -The sight-seers strolled across the shady bund, passed a stone residence -or two and a warehouse, and made their way through the tunneled gateway -in the massive city wall. Little Miss Andrews was escorted by young -Mr. Braker. Miss Means walked with one of the customs men. Two or three -others of the men wandered on ahead. Rocky Kane and the thin girl in the -middy blouse brought up the rear. - -As they entered the crowded city within the wall a babel of sound -assailed their ears--the beating of drums and gongs, clanging cymbals, -a musket shot or two, fire-crackers; and underlying these, rising even -above them, never slackening, a continuous roar of voices. The teachers -paused in alarm, but the customs man smilingly assured them that in a -busy Chinese city the noise was to be taken for granted. - -Nearly every shop along the way was open to the street, and at each -opening men swarmed--bargaining, chaffering, quarreling. The only women -to be seen were those in black trousers on a wheelbarrow that pushed -briskly through the crowds, the barrow man shouting musically as he -shuffled along. Beggars wailed from the niches between the buildings. -Dogs snarled and barked--hundreds of dogs, fighting over scraps of offal -among the hundreds of nearly naked children. - -A mandarin came through in a chair of green lacquer and rich gold -ornament, supercilious, fat, carried by four bearers and followed by -imposing officials who wore robes of black and red and hats with red -plumes. As the street was a scant ten feet in width and the crowds must -flatten against the walls to make way the roar grew louder and higher in -pitch. - -There were shops with nothing but oils in huge jars of earthenware or -in wicker baskets lined with stout paper. There were tea shops with high -pyramids of the familiar red-and-gold parcels, and other pyramids of the -brick tea that is carried on camel back to Russia. There were the shops -of the idol makers, and others where were displayed the carven animals -and the houses and carts and implements that are burned in ancestor -worship, and the tinsel shoes. There were shops where remarkably large -coffins were piled in square heaps, some of glistening lacquer with -the ideograph characters carven or embossed in new gold. There were -varnishers, lacquerers, tobacconists; open eating houses in which could -be seen rows of pans set into brickwork. There were displays of bean -cakes, melon seeds and curious drugs. - -Two Manchu soldiers sauntered by, in uniforms of red and faded blue; -fans stuck in their belts and painted paper umbrellas folded in their -hands. One bore a hooded falcon on his wrist. - -Miss Andrews sniffed the penetrating odor of all China, that was spiced -just here with smells of garlic cooking and frying fish and pork and -strong oil? and--like the perfume of a dainty lady amid the complex -odors of a French theater--an unexpected whiff of burning incense. She -looked up between the high walls, on which hung, close together, the -long elaborate signs of the tradesmen, black and green and red with -gold, always the gold. Across the narrow opening from roof to roof, -extended a bamboo framework over which was drawn coarse yellow matting -or blue cotton cloths; and through these the sunbeams, diffused, glowed -in a warm twilight, with here and there a chance ray slanting down with -dazzling brightness on a golden sign character. - -"It's all rather terrifying," murmured Miss Andrews, at Braker's ear, -"but it's beautiful--wonderful! I never dreamed of China being so human -and real." - -"And to think," said he eagerly, "that it has always been like this, and -always will be. It was just so in the days of Abraham and Isaac. The -one people in the world that doesn't change. It's their whole -philosophy--passive non-resistance, peace. And-do you know, I'm -beginning to wonder if they aren't right about it. For here they are, -you know. Greece is dead. Rome's dead. And Assyria, and Egypt. But here -they are. It's their philosophy that's done it, I suppose. Almost be -worth while to come out here and live a while, when our part of the -world gets too upset. Just for a sense of stability--somewhere." - -These two young persons, dreaming of stability while the earth prepared -to rock beneath their feet! - -Rocky Kane and the slim girl had dropped out of sight, lingering at this -shop and that. The party later found them at a silversmith's counter. -They had bought a heap of the silver dragon-boxes and cigarette cases; -and then devised a fresh little idea in gambling, weighing ten Chinese -dollars against other ten in the balanced scales, the heavier lot -winning. - -Young Kane had got through his clothing, somehow, there in the street, -to his money belt, for he held it now carelessly rolled in one hand. He -was flushed, laughing softly. He and the thin girl were getting on. - -"Come along, you two," remarked the customs man. "We stop only two hours -here." - -The young couple, gathering up their purchases and the heaps of silver -dollars, slowly followed. - -"That was great!" exclaimed Rocky Kane. The thin girl, he had decided, -was a good fellow. She was always quiet, discreet, attractive. In her -curiously unobtrusive way she seemed to know everything. The face was -cold in appearance. Yet she was distinctly friendly. Made you feel that -nothing you might say could disturb or shock her. He wondered what could -be going on behind those pale quiet eyes, behind the thin lips. The -men had remarked on the fact that she was traveling alone. She was -a provocative person--the curiously youthful costume; the black hair -gathered at the neck and tied, girlishly, with a bow--really an exciting -person. The way she had taken that little scene out on deck with the -gorgeous Chinese girl--Rocky knew nothing of the distinctions between -the Asiatic peoples--who spoke English; quite as a matter of course. -Though she took everything that way. This little gambling, for instance. -She loved it--was quick at it. - -"I'm wondering about you," he said, as they wandered along. -"Wondering--you know--why you're traveling this way. Have you got folks -up the river?" - -"Oh, no," she replied--never in his life had he known such self-control; -there wasn't even color in her voice, just that easy quiet way, that -sense of giving out no vitality whatever. "Oh, no. I have some business -at Hankow and Peking." - -That was all she said. The subject was closed. And yet, she hadn't -minded his asking. She was still friendly; he felt that. His feelings -rose. He giggled softly. - -"Lord!" he said, "if only the pater wasn't along!" - -"Does he hold you down?" - -"Does he? Brought me out here to discipline me. Trying to make me go -back to college--make a grind of me.... I was just thinking--here's a -nice girl to play with, and plenty of fun around, and not a thing to -drink. He gave me fits at Shanghai because I took a few drinks." - -"You have the other stuff," said she. He turned nervously; stared at -her. But she remained as calmly unresponsive as ever. Merely explained: -"I smelt it, outside your cabin. You ought to be careful--shut your -window tight when you smoke it." - -He held his breath a moment; then realized, with an uprush of feeling -warmer than any he had felt before, that he had her sympathy. She would -never tell, never in the world. That big mate might, but she wouldn't. - -She added this: "I can give you a drink. Wait until things settle down -on the boat and come to my cabin--number four. Just be sure there's no -one in the corridor. And don't knock. The door will be ajar. Step right -in. Do you like saké?" - -"Do I--say, you're great! You're wonderful. I never knew a girl like -you!" - -She took this little outbreak, as she had taken all his others, without -even a smile. It was, he felt, as if they had always known each other. -They understood--perfectly. - -If he had been told, then, that this girl had been during two or three -vivid years one of the most conspicuous underworld characters along the -coast--that coast where the underworld was still, at the time of our -narrative, openly part of what small white world there was out here--a -gambler and blackmailer of what would very nearly have to be called -attainment--he would have found belief impossible, would have defended -her with the blind impulsiveness of youth. - -It was said that the steamer would not proceed at the scheduled hour, -might be delayed until night. Disgruntled white passengers settled down, -in berth and deck chair, to make the best of it. There was, it came -vaguely to light, a little trouble up the river, an outbreak of some -sort. - -Rocky Kane, a flush below his temples, slipped stealthily along the -corridor. At number four he paused; glanced nervously about; then, -grinning, pushed open the door and softly closed it behind him. - -The strange thin Miss Carmichael was combing out her black hair. With a -confused little laugh he extended his arms. But she shook her head. - -"Sit down and be sensible," she said. "Here's the saké." - -She produced a bottle and poured a small drink into a large glass. He -gulped it down. - -"Aren't you drinking with me?" he asked. - -"I never take anything." - -"You're a funny girl. How'd you come to have this?" - -"It was given to me. You'd better slip along. I can't ask you to stay." - -"But when am I going to see you, for a good visit?" - -"Oh, there'll be chances enough. Here we are." - -"That's so. Looks as if we'd stay here a while, too. There's a battle -on, you know, up at Wu Chang and Hankow. Big row. We get all the -news from Kato. He's that Japanese that father has with him. The -revolutionists have captured Wu Chang, and are getting ready to cross -over. The imperial army's being rushed down to defend Hankow. Regular -doings. Shells were falling in the foreign concessions this morning. -Kato's got all the news there is. It's a question whether we'll go on -at all. You see the Manchus own this boat, and the republicans would -certainly get after us. There are enough foreign warships up there to -protect us, of course.... How about another drink?" - -"Better not. Your father will notice it." - -"He won't know where I got it." Rocky chuckled. He felt himself an -adventurous and quite manly old devil--here in the mysterious girl's -cabin, watching her as she smoothed and tied her flowing hair, and -sipping the potent liquor from Japan. "It's funny nothing seems to -surprise you. Did you know they were fighting up there?" - -"No." - -"Wouldn't you be a little frightened if we were to steam right into a -battle?" - -"I shouldn't enjoy it particularly." - -"Aren't you even interested? Is there anything you're interested in?" - -"Certainly--I have my interests. You must go--really.... No, be quiet! -Some one will hear! We can visit to-night--out on deck." - -"But you're--I don't understand! Here we are--like this--and you shoo me -out. I don't even know your first name." - -"My name is Dixie--but I don't want you to call me that." - -"Why not? We're friends, aren't we--" - -"Of course, but they'd hear you." - -"Oh!" - -"Wait--I'll look before you go.... It's all clear now." - -They visited long after dinner. He was brimming with later advices from -the center of trouble up the river. Mostly she listened, studying him -with a mind that was keener and quicker and shrewder in its sordid -wisdom than he would perhaps ever understand. - -Everything that Kato had told his father and himself he passed eagerly -on to her. He was a man indeed now; making an enormous impression; -possessor of inside information of a vital sort--the viceroy's priceless -collection of jewels, jades, porcelains and historic paintings, which -Kato was advising his father to pick up for a song while red revolution -raged about the old Manchu, the dramatic plans of the republicans, their -emblems and a pass-word (Kato knew everything)--"Shui-li"--"union is -strength"; the small meeting below decks ending in the death of two -soldiers. He dramatized this last as he related it. - -The girl, lying still in her chair, listened as if but casually -interested, while her mind gathered and related to one another the -probable facts beneath his words. She was considering his dominant -quality of ungoverned hot-blooded youth. Of discretion he clearly enough -had none; which fact, viewed from her standpoint, was both important and -dangerous. For the information he so volubly conveyed she had immediate -use. That was settled, however cloudy the details. But this further -question as to the advisability of holding the boy personally to herself -she was still weighing. Two courses of action lay before her, each -leading to a possible rich prize. If the two could be combined, well and -good; she would pursue both. But it was not easy to sense out a possible -combination. The obvious first thought was to go whole-heartedly after -the larger of the prizes and as whole-heartedly forget the other. As -usual in all such choices, however, the lesser prize was the easier to -secure. Perhaps, even, by working--the word "working" was her own--with -great rapidity she might make--again her word--a killing with this wild -youth in time to discard him and pursue the still richer prize. - -Because he was, at least, the bird in hand, she submitted passively when -his fingers found hers under the steamer rug. Twilight was thickening -into night now on the river. And they were in a dim corner. He was, she -saw, at the point of almost utter disorganization. He was sensitive, -emotional, quite spoiled. It was almost too easy to do what she might -choose with him. It would be amusing to tantalize him, if there -were time; watch him struggle in the net of his own nervously unripe -emotions, perhaps shake him down (we are yet again dropping into her -phraseology) without the surrender of a _quid pro quo_. That would -please her sense of cool sharp power. But he might in that event, like -the young naval officer down at Hong Kong, shoot himself; which wouldn't -do. No, nothing in that! - -This other larger matter, now, was a problem indeed; really, as yet, -only a haze in her sensitive, strangely gifted mind. It put to the test -at once her imagination, her instinct for dangerous enterprise, -her skill at organizing the sluggish minds of others. It would mean -dangerous and intense activity. - -She asked, in a careless manner, where the viceroy kept his treasures; -and fixed in her mind the place he named--Huang Chau. - -The fool was squeezing her fingers now; unquestionably building in his -ungoverned brain an extravagant image of herself; an image wrapped -in veils of somewhat tarnished but certainly boyish innocence, -sentimentalized, curiously less interesting than the complicated -wickedness and intrigue of actual human life as it presented itself to -her. - -When he tried to kiss her she left him. But lingered to listen to -his proposal that she should follow him to his own cabin; smiled -enigmatically in the dusk beneath the deck light; humming lightly, -pleasingly, she moved away; turned to watch him bolting for his room. - -She strolled around the deck then. Apparently none other was sitting -out. The teachers and the young men were spending the evening, she knew, -with Dawley Kane at the consulate. Rocky had got out of that. Tex Connor -was in his cabin; reading, doubtless, with his one good eye. For rough -as he might be, this gambler and promoter of boxing and wrestling -reveled secretly in love stories. He read them by the hundred, the -old-fashioned paper-covered romances and tales of adventure. A pretty -able man. Tex; useful in certain sorts of undertakings; certainly useful -now; but with that curious romantic strain--a weakness, she felt. And -a difficult man, strong, arrogant, leaning on crude power and threats -where she leaned on delicately adjusted intrigue. Had Tex known better -how to cover his various trails he would be in New York or London now, -not out here on the coast picking up small change. Approaching him would -be a bit of a problem; for a year or so their ways, hers and his, had -lain far apart. It was not known, here on the boat, that they were so -much as casually acquainted. They bowed at the dining table; nothing -more. - -The Manila Kid was in the social hall, rummaging through the shelf -of battered and scratched records above the taking machine. A quaint -spirit, the Kid; weak, oddly useless, gloomily devoted to music of a -simple sort, quite without enterprise. But.... by this time the delicate -steel machinery of her mind was functioning clearly.... he would -serve now, if only as a means of solving that first little problem of -interesting Tex. - -She paused in the doorway; caught his furtive eye, and with a slight -beckoning movement of her head, moved back into the comparative -darkness. Slowly--thick-headedly of course--he came out. - -"Jim," she said, "I'm wondering if you and Tex wouldn't like to pick up -a little money." - -"What do you think we are?" he replied in a guarded sulky voice. "Tex -dropped three thousand at that fight. There's no talking to him. He's -rough--that's what he is." - -"Jim--" she considered the man before her deliberately; his lank -spineless figure, his characterless, hatchet face: "Jim, send Tex to -me." - -"Why should I, Dix? Answer me that." - -"Don't act up, Jim. I've never handed you anything that wasn't more -than coming to you. I know all about you, Jim. Everything! I'm not -talking--but I know. This is a big proposition I've got in mind, and -you'll get your share, if you come in and stick with me? How about half -a million in jewels?" - -"I don't know's Tex would care to go in for anything like that. If it's -a yegg job--" - -"I'm not a yegg," she replied crisply. "Ask Tex to slip around here. I -don't want to talk on that side of the deck." - -"I suppose you wouldn't like young Kane to know what you are--er?" - -"That sort of talk won't get you anywhere, Jim." - -"Well--I've got eyes, you know." - -"Better learn how to use them. You hurry around to Tex's cabin. We may -have to move quickly." Sulkily the Kid went; and shortly returned. - -"Well"--this after a silence--"what did he say? Is he coming?" - -"He wants you to go around there--to his stateroom." - -"I won't do that. He's got to come here." - -This decision lightened somewhat the gloom on the Kid's saturnine -countenance. He went again, more briskly. - -The girl slipped into her own cabin and consulted a folding map of China -she had there. Huang Chau--she measured roughly from the scale with her -thumb--would be seventy or eighty miles up-stream from Kiu Kiang here, -perhaps thirty-five down-stream from Hankow. - -Tex was chewing a cigar by the rail At her step his round impassive face -turned toward her. - -She said, "Hello, Tex!" - -He replied, his one eye fixed on her: "Well, what is this job?" - -"Listen, Tex--are you game for a big one?" - -"What is it?" - -"The revolution's broken out at Hankow--or across at Wu Chang--" - -"Yes, I know!" - -"There's going to be another big battle near Hankow. The republicans are -moving over. Sure to be a mix-up." - -"Oh. yes!" - -"There'll be loot--" - -"Oh, that!" - -"Wait! I know where there's a collection of jewels--diamonds, pearls, -rubies, emeralds--all kinds." - -"Do you know how to get it?" - -"Yes. It's a big thing. We'd be selling stones for years in America and -Europe, Will you go in with me, fifty-fifty?" - -"What's the risk?" - -"Not much--with things so confused. Looks to me like one of those -chances that just happens once in a hundred years. Take some imagination -and nerve." - -"Where is this stuff?" - -"I'll tell you when we get there. You'll have to trust me about that. -I've never lied to you, and you have lied to me." - -"But--" - -"Listen! Here's the idea. There's a lot of nervous soldiers on this boat -that wouldn't mind a little loot on their own. Here's your boxer--what's -his name?" - -"Tom Sung." Connor's eye never left her face; and she, on her part, -never flinched. - -"To those soldiers he's the biggest man on earth. _He_ wouldn't mind a -little clean-up either. Oh, there's enough, Tex--plenty! You see what -I'm getting at. With your Tom for a leader you can pick up a few of -those soldiers, enough to get away clean--" - -"But they're shooting 'em!" - -"They shot two. They'd have trouble shooting forty. Make Tom do the -work--right now, to-night, while we're lying up here. They'll follow -him; and you won't have to stand back of him if he's caught. He'll just -be one of the rebels then. Get this right, Tex! It's a real chance. -You'll never get another like it. With the soldiers we can get a -launch--hire it, even, if you want to play safe--and go right up there -and get the stuff. Nobody'll ever know it wasn't just a case of soldiers -on the loose." - -"How're you going to get away? They'd know we weren't here, wouldn't -they?" - -"Don't try to tell me we couldn't slip out of China, if we had to. This -isn't England or America. I don't believe we'd even have to. Just a case -of playing it right--using your head." - -"Where is this place?" - -"It's there, and I'll take you to it." - -"You'll have to tell me." - -Quietly she moved her head in the negative. He would hardly know that -the viceroy was not going on through to Hankow and Peking; she had the -information herself only from Rocky Kane. Nor would he know, by any -chance, the situation of his excellency's ancestral home. For Tex was -not what they termed a "sinologue"; he knew white men and women and -yellow servants, the steamers and railways, the gambling clubs and race -tracks; little else. There was then, little reason why he should think -of the viceroy at all. - -"It's anything from a million or two up, Tex," she said coolly. "And -my information comes straight. I'll prove it by taking the chance with -you." - -He shook his head; half turned. "Where is it?" She smiled. - -He left her abruptly then. And coolly she watched him go. It would take -a little time for Tex's imagination to rise to it; and until the last -moment he would try to bluff her down. It was just poker; they had -played that game before, she and Tex. Once he had robbed her. But not -this time--not, as she phrased it, if she saw him first. - -The Kid came edging out of the social hall. "Will he do it?" he -whispered hoarsely. - -"He says he won't," replied Dixie. - -"Say--that's tough! I didn't think Tex would overlook a thing like that. -What's the matter?" Dixie now considered this curiously useless man. Or -useless he had always seemed to her. Now she was not so sure. "He makes -it a condition that I tell him where the stuff is." - -"Well--Dix, you'd tell him that, wouldn't you?" The Kid was whining. "If -you really knew yourself." - -"Of course I won't tell him, Jim. Not yet." - -His eyes sank before hers. He fumbled in a pocket; produced a tiny wrist -watch of platinum. "Look here. Dix," he remarked clumsily, "things ain't -always been's pleasant as they might be between you and I, but I was -wondering if you wouldn't put this on, for old times' sake, like." - -She took the gift, weighed in in her hand. "Thank you, Jim," she -replied. "That's awfully nice of you. Though perhaps I'd better not wear -it here on the boat." - -"I suppose young Kane might ask questions, eh?" - -"Nothing like that. I'll wear it. Here--you snap the catch, Jim." - -"I--I might wish it on, Dix, like the kids do." - -"All right. Have you wished?" - -"Sure, Say, Dix, you won't mind the little place where the initials got -scratched off inside the back cover. Nobody'll see that." - -"Surely not," said Dixie. - -At a little after midnight Griggsby Doane mounted to the boat deck and -walked quietly aft past the funnels and the engine room ventilators. A -half moon threw shadows along the bund and among the landing hulks and -the moored silent sampans, lorchas, junks. The mile-wide river shimmered -in a million ripples. - -A slight figure rose from a skylight. - -Hui Fei wore the black jacket and trousers of the lower class Chinese -women below decks. Her head was uncovered, and her hair waved prettily -down across the wide forehead. She should have oiled it flat, of course, -to complete her disguise; this careless arrangement was charming in the -moonlight but was neither Manchu nor Chinese. - -Doane found himself holding her small hand and looking gravely down at -her. He even slowly shook his head. "You must tell me quickly what you -have to say, Miss Hui. As soon as possible you must go back. This is -very unsafe." - -"Oh, yes," she said. "It will not be long. It is ver' har' to say. But I -am so alone. There is no one to tell me what I mus' do." - -She plunged bravely into her story. Her information had come from one or -another of her maids. And she had overheard gossip among the mandarins. -The throne had sent her father the silken cord. She could not discover -why. To be sure they called him a secondary devil, meaning one who -sympathised with the foreigners. The reactionary Manchus at Peking, -reveling and plotting within the sacred walls of the Forbidden City, -remembered nothing, it appeared, of the recent past. The eunuchs, always -the stormy petrels of China's darkest days, were again in power at -the palace; the great empress dowager, she whom all China termed, -half-affectionately, "the Old Buddha," had given them their head, and -now this new young empress with all the arrogance of the Old Buddha and -none of her genius for power or her profound experience, was running -wild. And as a consequence, Kang Yu, the statesman who more than any -other was equipped to counsel her wisely during this stormy time, was -returning to the home of his ancestors to die by his own hand. It -would be said at the Forbidden City that a gracious empress dowager had -"permitted" him to go.... Doane's disturbed thoughts darted back over the -bloodstained recent history of Manchu officialdom. The Old Buddha had -"permitted" Ch'i Ying, late Manchu Viceroy of Canton, to slay himself; -and had graciously extended the same privilege to others after the Boxer -trouble of the year 1900, among them an acquaintance of Doane's, Chao -Shu-ch'iao. Others she had decapitated--Yuan Ch'ang, Li Shan, Controller -of the Household, and Hsu Ching, President of the Board of War. She -killed, too, Hsu Ching-Ch'eng, who, like Kang, had held the post of -minister in more than one of the capitals of Europe. The only known -charge against this Hsu was that he had come to admire foreign customs. - -In her narrative the girl spoke only English. Her voice was deep -in quality, without heaviness; musical, like most voices among the -better-to-do in the Middle Kingdom, Chinese and Manchu alike. And, -colored now with deep emotion, it had an appealing quality to which -Doane found a response--difficult, at the moment, to repress--among his -own emotions. He sensed, too, with a pleasure that was, in his lonely -life, stirring, the naiveté of her Western feeling. Standing here in -simple native costume, in the heart of old China, gazing wistfully out -over the tangled hundreds of sleeping junks and sampans, this girl, -freshly out of a Massachusetts college, was pleading against hope that -her father might be spared the final jealous vengeance of the mightiest -remaining Oriental throne. - -The China that Doane had so long known, that had, indeed, for better -or worse, been woven into the fiber of his being, was turning suddenly -incredible. He stared, more intently than he knew, straight down at -the slim little figure--for beside his own huge frame this tall girl -appeared as hardly more than a child--at the unadorned face that was -softly girlish, at the Mack hair waving down over the pale forehead, -glistening in the moonlight. - -"They mean to confisca'"--she left off, in her eagerness to explain, -the final _te_--"all his property. Tell me, Mister Duane, can they do -that--all his property?" - -He reflected. There would be vast areas of tea-lands and rice lands, -almost innumerable shares in these new corporations, the famous -collections of jades, paintings, carvings and jewels. Finally he -inclined his head. - -"I'm afraid they could. It would be an outrageous act, but the -government now, I'm sorry to say, is in outrageous hands. If the empress -is determined, as apparently she is, there are ways enough of getting -at all his possessions. Even through the banks." His heart was full, his -voice tender; but he could not deceive her. He added a question: "Does -his excellency, your father, know all this?" - -She nodded. "I have tol' him. But I can no' make him see it like me. Oh, -we are so differen'. I am, you see, an American girl. I am free here," -she laid a pretty hand on her breast. "When I try to think of all these -dreadful things--of these wicked eunuchs an' the empress who is like -thousan' of years ago--blin', childish!--an' the people who can no' yet -see it differen'--I get bewilder'. You un'erstan'. You are an American, -too. I can speak with you. That is well, because there isn' anybody else -I can speak with. An' my father admires you. If you will only speak with -him--if you will only help me make him think differen'!" - -Doane wondered what he could do, what she imagined he could do, without -influence or money. He quite forgot, in this matter of influence alone, -the significance of the viceroy's courtesy, as of Sun Shi-pi's appeal -to him. For a little too long he had been a beaten man. It was becoming -dangerously near a habit so to consider himself. And now, to make active -dear thinking impossible, emotion flooded his brain. Gently he asked her -what she would have him do. - -"My father will no' listen when I speak, He is ver' kind, ver' generous. -He has made me an American girl. That is one of the things they say is -wrong. Even for tha' they attack his good name. But when I ask Him no' -to do this, no' to die so wrongly, he speaks to me like an ol' Manchu of -long ago." - -"He is between the worlds," mused Doane, aloud. - -"Yes, it is that. An' I, perhaps, am between the worl's." - -"And I." - -"But he mus' no' do it! It is so simple! The throne will no' live. Not -one year more. I know that. They are fighting now at Wu Chang." - -Doane inclined his head. "I know that, Miss Hui, but the revolution has -not yet gone so far that success is sure." - -"But it is sure. The people will everywhere rise. I know it--here!" - -"That is my hope, too. But to stir this great land means so much in -effort and education. You have changed, yes. Your father has changed. -Sun Yat Sen was educated in a medical school and has lived in America -and England; he has changed. But all China--I do not want to dash your -hopes, dear Miss Hui, but I fear China is not nearly so far along as you -and I would wish." - -"Then--even so--mus' my father die because a wicked empress has no -brains? It is no' right. Listen, please! If you, Mis'er Doane, would -jus' try to persua' my father! He will listen to you. Oh, if you woul' -stay with us, an' help us. We coul' take some money, some jewels, an' -escape down the river--to Shanghai--to Japan, or even America. My father -mus' no' die like this. There will be a few servan's we can trus'. You -speak to my father, sir, an' he will listen. I know that. He says you -have the mind of the ol' philosopher--of Lao-tze himself. He said that. -An' you have the Western strength that he admires. An' he says you -un'erstan' China. Oh, will you speak to him?" - -Doane stared out into the luminous night. This response in his breast -to her eager youth frightened him now. He had felt of late that life -mattered little; certainly not his own. But youth, and hope, and -faith--they mattered. - -He took her small hand in his own. His heart was beating high. It was -going to be hard now, to control his voice. He was, then, after all the -years, the struggles, the beatings, incurably romantic.... - -Stirred yet by the vibrant pulse of youth that in some men and women -never dies. He himself had thought this negative spirit of the past few -years a philosophy, but apparently, it was nothing of the sort. Or where -was it now? Tor he was suddenly all nervously alive, a man of vigor and -pride, a man of urgent emotional need.... - -"I will try," he said. - -She clung to his hand. "I have your promise?" - -He bowed. "I must think. I should not like to fail. There will be time. -He will"--it was hard to phrase this--"he will wait, surely, until he is -at home. But you must not stay longer here. And we must not meet again -like this. I will try my best to help you." - -It seemed a pitifully inadequate speech. But the wild impulse was upon -him to clasp her lovely person in his arms--claim her, fight for her, -live again a man's life through and for her. It was, he deliberately -thought, almost insane in him. A man with nothing to offer, not even the -great hope of youth, struggling against an emotion, a hunger, that it -was grotesque to indulge. He compressed his lips tightly. - -She seemed breathless. For a moment she pressed her hands to her cheeks -and eyes; then waved to him and went lightly down the ladder. - - - - -CHAPTER V--RESURGENCE - -|THE upper-deck passengers awoke in the morning to find the engines -still at rest, and the now familiar View of Kiu Kiang still to be seen -from port-side windows; the _Yen Hsin_ had merely been moved a hundred -yards or so below the landing hulk and anchored. There was grumbling -about the breakfast table. The captain did not appear. The huge mate was -preoccupied; explaining with grave courtesy that he had no further news. -He assumed that orders to proceed to Hankow would be forthcoming -during the day. It was understood now that the republican troops -were everywhere protecting white folk, and, in any event, the foreign -concessions up the river were well guarded by the war-ships. - -The outstanding fact was that they were to spend at least another night -on the river. The sensible thing to do, or so decided the younger men, -was to have a dance. Accordingly, before tiffin, committees were hard -at work planning decorations for the social hall. Miss Means proved a -fertile source of entertaining ideas. And it was agreed, during the day, -that Miss Andrews had a pretty taste at hanging flags. - -The Chinese day begins with the light. And little Mr. Kato, sitting -smilingly through breakfast, had already passed hours among his -below-decks acquaintance. After breakfast he sat outside with the Kanes, -senior and junior, talking rapidly. There Miss Carmichael observed them; -later, when Rocky stood by the rail throwing brass cash down into -the crowding, nosing sampans of the water beggars, she strolled his -way--looking incredibly young--carrying a book from the boat's library, -a thin finger between the pages as a mark. She smiled at the quarreling -beggars below. But he, at sight of her, grew sulky. - -"You didn't come last night," he said, very low, his voice thick with -suddenly rising feeling. - -"No, I couldn't. You can't always plan things." - -"Well, you said--" - -"Rocky, please! You mustn't talk like that. We can be seen." - -"Well--" he closed his lips. It was the first time she had called him -by his name. That seemed something. And she was right; they must keep up -appearances. He felt that she was extremely clever; living her own life -as a business woman, away out here, doing as she chose, like a man, -never losing her head for a moment. Well, he would show her that he -could be a sport. - -"Kato picked up some queer news this morning, prowling around. There's a -mutiny brewing below decks. He hasn't got all the facts, yet. He's down -there now. It's the viceroy's soldiers. First! thing we know they'll be -blowing up the boat." He was gloomy about it; boyishly tun ing his heavy -burden of self-pity and reproach into the new channel. - -"Well," said she, "we'll all have to take our chances, I suppose," and -moved away a step, pausing and balancing gracefully on the balls of her -feet and smiling at him. - -"Wait," he muttered--"don't go!" - -"It's better. No good in our being seen too much together--" - -"Too much?" - -"I'll save you some dances to-night." - -"A lot! All of them!" - -She smiled again at this outburst; said, "We can visit afterward, -anyhow," and moved away. - -On the other side of the deck she found the Manila Kid leaning in a -doorway, moodily chewing a match. His listless eyes at once sought her -wrist. - -"You're not wearing it," he muttered. - -"You know why, Jim." - -"Sure! Young Kane." - -"Oh, Jim, where are your brains? Don't try to tell me that Tex hasn't -seen that watch.... Well, do you want him to know there's something -between us--just now--" - -"I don't know's I--" - -Her pale cool eyes swept the deck. Then she leaned beside him; opened -her book, then looked out over it at the shipping and the dimpling river -beyond; smiled in her easy way. "Jim, why didn't you tell me that Tex -has started this thing without me?" - -"I've been watching for a chance to." - -She considered this. He went on: - -"Look here, Dixie, this is big stuff!" - -"Of course." - -"I've been trying to figure out how we stand. I didn't quite get you -last night. Tex and his boy Tom have got a bunch of the soldiers now. -But they're moving careful because there's another show been started. -One of the regular revolutionary crowd is below there stirring 'em up. -Some of 'em are full of this republic idea, want to die for it and all -that stuff, and Tex has to move cautious to buy 'em off. Say, what does -he want so many for?" - -"The more the better." - -"But how're you going to pay 'em?" - -"Let them loot." - -"But Tex--and Tom--are promising them part of the real stuff, jewels." - -"Oh, you'd probably have to promise. But when they get into it, with -plenty of loot and liquor and women, it'll be easy enough to get away -from them." - -"But how're you going to keep 'em in hand before that? Do you know what -some of 'em are whispering around now? They want to carve up the boat. -Come right up here and go through the viceroy's outfit." - -"But he hasn't much stuff here, Jim. We've got bigger game than that." - -"I know--and anyway it'd bring a gunboat down on us. That's what Tex is -trying to make Tom see. Tom's in Tex's room now. But my God, Dixie, when -I think of what you've started in that offhand way o' yours...." - -"Tex'll hold them down, Jim. That's one good thing about him, he's not -weak. You're nervous. Better go in and help the teachers hang flags. -That'll soothe you. You and I mustn't talk any more either. If there's -any news for me, better send me a chit by a boy." - -The Kid looked mournfully at her. He was a grotesque, this Jim Watson, -tall, angular, thin bony face under the tipped-back cap, bald salients -running up into his hair on either side the plastered-down front locks. -And as he gazed on this wisp of a girl who had slipped mysteriously -in among the adroit swindlers and adventuresses of the coast but a few -brief years back and had from the very beginning cleverly made her way, -his disorganized spirit yearned toward her. She had brains, and used -them. She knew how to be nice to a fellow, and the Kid hungered for -sympathy. And she was piquantly desirable: in part because men sought -her without success. Except perhaps that young naval officer at Hong -Kong, the name of no man had been seriously linked with hers; and -the fact that he was an eldest son of one of the richest and greatest -families in England in a measure removed the incident beyond the -confines of normal human experience. No, the Kid could hardly feel that -he ought to resent that. He knew, as he so moodily surveyed her, that -her sympathy--the word was his own--could be bought only at a high -price. The price, indeed, frightened him. He couldn't think along with -Dixie and Tex. Nor could he easily conceive of opposing Tex, for the man -was strong and merciless. Still.... - -"See here, Dixie, if I wasn't so fool crazy over you, do you think for -a minute I'd let you drag me into this kind of a mix-up? Why, my -God!--when I got to thinking about it last night--the risks you're -running--" - -"It's big stakes, Jim. You can't expect a million to fall into your lap. -Got to play for it. Tell me--does this Tom Sung understand English?" - -"Of course! He was a farm laborer in California, and a cook in the -United States Navy. Why?" - -"I may have to talk to him myself before we get through with it." - -"Of course you know Tex means to rob you?" - -"Of course," said she, smiling a little for the benefit of a customs man -who appeared up forward. "You run along now, Jim. This is no game for -weak nerves. Remember, I need you." - -"Well--just this--" - -"Careful!" - -"--You listen, now! You won't find me getting-cold feet--" - -"I'm sure of that." - -"And I ain't afraid o' Tex Connor, either! If you mean that I've got -to go up against him--Well, say, look here! If I go through--if I do -everything you say--how're we going to stand, you and me?" - -"I let you give me the watch, didn't I?" - -"Well--that's all right--but I asked you once to go to the Islands with -me, and you wouldn't." - -"Not over there. I know too many people." - -"Well, somewhere else, then! Tell me straight, now! If we pull this -off--shake down a real pile--will you go with me?" - -She looked thoughtfully at him for a brief moment; then turned again to -the river. "You know I'm fond of you, Jim." - -"It's a trade, Dixie? If I stick to you, you'll stick to me?" - -She considered this; finally, very quietly, barely parting her lips, -replied, simply: "Yes." - -He drew in his breath with a whistling sound. - -She added, then: "Careful, Jim! I know how you feel, but don't let -yourself talk." - -"I know, Dix, but my God! When I think of how you've kept me dancing -this year--and now--" - -"I'll say this, Jim. Just this. If you knew everything about Tex -Connor--" - -"You mean, he's tried to--" - -"I mean certain things he's said to me. If you're as fond of me as that -you'd understand why I've felt, once or twice, like killing him. That -man is a devil, Jim." - -Then she slipped away. - -Miss Carmichael sat deliberately through tiffin; discreetly quiet, as -always; apparently without nerves. The Kid ate rapidly, speaking not a -word, seldom looking up from his plate. Tex Connor was calmly wooden, as -always, though at intervals Miss Carmichael felt his eye on her as she -daintily nibbled her curry. - -After tiffin she was stretched comfortably in her deck chair, reading, -or seeming to, when Connor appeared, strolling along the deck, hands -deep in pockets, chewing the inevitable Manila cigar. He wore a neat -cap, and his large person was clothed in an outing suit of gray flannel. -On his feet were shoes of whitened leather with rubber soles. To any but -a shrewd student of physiognomy he might have passed for a prosperous -American business man or politician, of the bluff western sort. - -He paused at her careless nod; bent his face around and stared coldly -at her. Nothing of the real man showed; even his rough vulgarity was -concealed behind the mask and the manner. He ought to have a woman -to tell him, she thought, that he was altogether too stout to wear a -Norfolk jacket. - -"Sit down?" she asked. - -He dropped into the chair beside her. - -"Looks as if we'd be hung up here till night anyhow," he said gruffly. -"All foolishness, too. It's safe enough between here and Hankow. -The Jardine boat came down this morning. And we land at the -concessions--don't have to go clear up to the city." He drummed on the -chair; shifted his cigar. "I can't hang around here. Got to get up to -Peking before they close off the railroad." - -She listened quietly to this little tirade; then remarked: "Thought over -my proposition, Tex?" - -"What proposition?.... Oh, that scheme? Sure, I've thought it over. -Nothing in it, Dix." - -"Why not?" - -"Too complicated. Did you ever see a lot of soldiers on the loose--their -killing blood up? You could never handle 'em in the world." - -"Oh, of course," said she, "if you tried any coarse work. But I wouldn't -pin that on you, Tex." - -"It's easy to talk." Connor's voice rose slightly; he noted the fact -himself; paused and spoke with greater deliberation. "But I wouldn't -tackle a gamelike that. It ain't practical. Anyhow, Dix, I wouldn't go -it blind. I'd have to know where I was going every minute. If you wanted -to talk real business, it might be different. I might see a way to start -something. But even at that"--he got heavily to his feet...."No, thing -for me's to stick to my own line." - -He was moving slowly away when her slow light voice brought him up -short. "Tex," she said, "I see you're just a cheap liar, after all." - -Then she watched the color sweep over his face. It was something to stir -that wooden countenance with genuine emotion. She even found a perverse -thrill in the experience. - -He stood motionless for a long moment. Finally he said, none too -steadily: "You know what would happen to a man that said that to me." - -"What would you do? Shoot?.... Where would that get you? No, Tex, -listen! Sit down here." - -But he stood over her. - -"I know everything you're doing." - -"Oh--you do?" - -"You're crossing me. But you can't get away with it. You know where you -are--in China! And you're tampering with the troops of the viceroy of -Nanking. My God, Tex, haven't you _any_ brains? Did you really think I'd -show my hand?" - -He chewed the cigar in silence, staring down. - -"I'll give you your choice," she went on. "You can work with me. -fifty-fifty, or I'll have Tom Sung beheaded. And then you'll be out a -meal ticket. And all your expenses with Tom up to now. And the three -thousand you lost to the Kanes." - -"You don't know what you're talking about! I haven't even seen Tom Sung -in twenty-four hours." - -"That's another lie. He was in your room this morning." - -"How do you know that? Say, if Jim Watson's been talking...." - -"He hasn't, Tex. I've got my information--and there's a lot of if--from -Kato the Japanese. Go and talk to him, if you like. Or to your friends -the Kanes." - -Connor, the color gone from his face now, looked steadily down at her. -Slowly he drew from an inner pocket a gold-mounted case of alligator -skin and selected a fresh cigar, lighting it on the stump of the old -one. Finally he said: - -"Dix, I'm taking some rough talk from you. But never mind--now. You say -you know where the stuff is, but you won't tell me." - -"Not now. I'll keep that information to trade with, Tex." - -"Well and good. I'll tell you that you can't get it without a little -help from me. And you're not going to get it. Tell me where it is, and -I'll put it through and split with you. It'll have to be pretty quick, -too. If you won't, you don't get your loot. And you give up my boy -Tom--" - -"What'll you do, Tex?" She was faintly smiling. - -"Oh, I won't shoot you. I'll protect myself better'n that. But I'll run -you off the coast. You'll have turned your last card out here." - -To this she said simply nothing. For a moment her two eyes met his one -full. Then he strolled away. And the day passed. - -Doane stood by the rail in the dusk of early evening looking in through -the open doorway. The social hall was gay with flags, the dragon of -China hung flat over the talking machine with the American and British -colors draped on either hand. The little teachers had on their brightest -and best. Miss Andrews in particular, wore a pink party gown that might -have been made by a village dressmaker--or, more likely, by herself--and -flushed prettily as she chatted with young Braker. The men were all in -their dinner coats. - -Dixie Carmichael, in the inevitable blue middy blouse, sat quietly -reading in a corner. A strange creature, always imperturbably girlish. -Duane had observed her casually on the boat and about the Astor House -at Shanghai, and despite the curious tales that drifted along the -coast--already the girl had acquired an almost legendary fame--he had -never seen her other than discreetly quiet. Men who had observed her on -the steamer from Hong Kong after the outraged British wives as good as -drummed her out of town asserted that she exhibited not so much as a -ruffle of the nerves. A girl without emotion, apparently; certainly -without a moral sense. - -She had for a time managed a gambling house on Bubbling Well Road, -Shanghai, but this year seemed to be more active up Peking way. At least -she had made several trips to the north. There were moments when her -thin, nearly expressionless face bore a look of infinite age; yet she -was young. It would be interesting, he reflected, to know of her home -and her youth, of the remarkable deficiency (or the equally remarkable -gift) that had sent her out alone, with her hair down her back, to pit -her uncanny quickness of thought and her sordid purpose against the -desperately clever rascals of the coast. - -When again he passed the doorway they were dancing--a waltz. Dixie and -young Kane were together. Miss Means, primmer than ever, moved about -with a tall Australian. Braker was with little Miss Andrews. The others -of the younger men danced humorously with one another. The Manila Kid -stood lankily, gloomily, by the talking machine, sorting records. - -There was a bustling outside the farther door; musical voices; the -shimmering of satin in the light; and the viceroy came in, escorting his -daughter and attended by all his suite. At the sight of Miss Hui Fei -as she appeared in the doorway and stepped lightly over the sill Doane -caught his breath. She wore an American costume, a gown of soft material -in rose color trimmed with silver, the stockings and little slippers in -silver as well. A girl at any college or suburban dance back home might -have dressed like that. Her richly black hair was parted on the side; -masses of it waved carelessly down over her temples and part of the -broad forehead. Her color was high, her eyes were bright. The eagerly -Western quality he had sensed in her was dominant now, triumphant as -youth can be triumphant. - -Doane, for a moment, pressed a hand to his eyes. He could not relate -this radiantly Western girl with the quaintly Oriental figure he had -last seen by moonlight on the boat deck. It was difficult, too, to -understand her bright happiness. Had her insistently modern spirit -prevailed over her father's resolve to die? Or was she, after all, -carried away by girlishly high spirits at the thought of a party? On the -latter possibility Doane set his teeth; it raided thoughts of Oriental -fatalism and surface adaptability that he could not face. Surely the -girl who had talked so earnestly, who had so clearly exhibited a Western -view of her father's predicament, was more than Oriental at heart. - -The most deeply sobering thought, of course, was that he should so -poignantly care. The mere sight of her thrilled him, shook him. All -night and during this day he had been fighting the new shining sense of -her in his heart; it was clear now that the battle was a losing one. -It was true, then; the last broken shards of his elaborately built up, -wholly mental philosophy of life had crashed hopelessly about his ears. - -The pity of it seemed to him, even then, to be that he was possessed of -such abounding vitality of body and mind. He felt a young man. He was -never ill, never even tired. Only accident, he felt, could shorten his -life. Certainly he wouldn't take it himself; he had gone all through -that. He would have to go dully on and on; he was like an engine that is -using but a fraction of its proper power. He had not known that his need -was a woman until he met this woman. To no other, he felt, could he give -the rich upwellings of emotion in his heart; and vital emotion, he -had tragically learned three years earlier, can not be repressed -indefinitely. There was a breaking point... He was, even now, bringing -up favorable arguments. This young woman, as she had admitted, like -himself, stood between the worlds. She could never be happy in China; -hardly out of it. If.... If.... Thoughts came, bitter thoughts, of his -years, of his poverty. The thing had the grip of a demoniac possession. -He had seen other men mad over the one woman, and had pitied them; but -now he.... He called himself savagely, in his heart, a fool. Yet the -wild hopes mounted. - -The waltz was over. The Kid changed the records and ground the machine. -An interpreter left the group of mandarins and spoke with one of the -Australians; led the man back to his excellency. A moment later the -music sounded again, and the Australian danced lightly away with Miss -Hui Fei in what Doane had no means of knowing was the very new -one-step. He had never danced; plainly she loved it. She moved like a -fairy--light, utterly graceful, her oval face, when she turned, flushed -a little and soberly radiant. - -Hating the man who held her so close, he turned away. He did not know -that his excellency, glimpsing him outside there in the shadows, leaned -forward and bowed; he did not observe (or care) that Dixie Carmichael -was dancing with the German customs man, while Rocky Kane, suddenly -white, lighting one cigarette on another, stood in a corner devouring -with his eyes Miss Hui Fei. A little later, when the young man spoke, -there at his side, he started; for he had heard no one approach. Rocky -was hatless; hair rumpled as if he had been running nervous fingers -through it, cheeks deeply flushed, eyes staring rather wildly. He threw -his cigarette overboard and squarely faced the huge man in blue. - -"I don't know what you'll think of me--" he began, in a breathless, -unsteady voice; then his eyes wavered. - -Doane turned with him, Dixie Carmichael stood in the doorway, watching -them. Rocky, with a nervous gesture, as if he would brush her away, -looked up again into the stern older face. He was plainly lost in -himself, burning with the confused fires of youth. - -"I don't know what you'll think of me--" he came again to a stop. -Apparently the words, "Mr. Doane," would have completed the sentence, -but failed for some reason to find voice. Perhaps it was the habit of -his wealthy environment that restrained him even now from speaking with -more than casual respect to a uniformed employee of a river line; yet, -contradictorily, here he was, all boyish humility!.... "I'm a damn fool, -of course, I know that. But--you've seen her." - -Doane glanced again toward the door. Dixie Carmichael had disappeared. - -"No--not that one!" cried the boy hotly; then dropped his voice. "The -girl in there! The--princess, isn't she?" - -Doane inclined his head. - -"Then she'd be the one I--well, you remember." - -"She's the same. The Princess Hui Fei--" - -"Hughie Fay? Like that?" - -"Yes." - -"What a lovely name!.... You--I know you won't understand! It's so hard -to--I _am_ young, of course. I've been sort of in wrong. I guess -you think I'm a pretty wild lot. I seem to have been trying about -everything. But until to-night--oh, there's no use pretending I'm not -hit all of a heap. I am. I never saw anything like her--never in my -life. I don't know what the pater would say--me falling for a Manchu -girl--you think I'm crazy, don't you?" - -"No." - -"Perhaps I am. My head's racing. Just watching her in there makes my -pulse jump. I get bewildered. Tell me--she was all Chinese the--the -other time--all painted up. Big head-dress with flowers on it. Why did -she do that?" - -"Out of respect to her father. The rouge and the head-dress were -according to Oriental custom." He looked directly down at the boy, -and added, deliberately, "Veneration of parents is the finest thing in -Chinese life. I sometimes think we have nothing so fine in America." - -The boy's eyes fell. He mumbled. "Ouch! You landed there, I guess." Then -he raised his eyes. "I can't help myself--whatever I am--but I can start -fresh, can't I? That's what I'm going to do, anyhow--start fresh." He -squared himself. His lip quivered. - -"Will you take me in there to the viceroy, and translate my apology?" - -Doane stood a moment in silence. Then he replied, quietly, "Yes." And -led the way into the social hall. He found himself watching, like a -spectator, the little scene.... the viceroy rising, with a quiet smile, -a gentle old man, awaiting with perfect courtesy of bearing whatever -might be forthcoming; Rocky Kane, seeming younger than before, with, in -fact, the appearance of an excited boy, the wild look still in his eyes -but the face set with supreme determination. Doane observed now that -he had a good forehead, wide and not too high. The nose was slightly -aquiline, like his father's. The eyes, so dark now, were normally blue; -the mouth sensitive; the skin fine in texture. - -"Tell him"--thus the boy--"tell him I acted like a dirty cad, that I -know better, and--and ask his pardon." - -Doane translated discreetly. A dance was just ending, and curious eyes -were bent on the group. The mandarins stood behind the viceroy, all -gracefully at ease in their rich rubes. - -His excellency, without relaxing that smile, replied in musical -intonation. - -"What is it?" asked Rocky Kane, under his breath, all quivering -excitement; "what does he say?" - -"That he accepts your apology, with appreciation of your manliness." - -Young Kane's nervous frown relaxed at this. He was pleased. - -"Will you," he was saying now, "will you ask if I may dance with the -princess?" - -Doane complied. He felt now a strain of fineness in this ungoverned boy -that was oddly moving to his own emotion-clouded brain.... Hoi Fei was -approaching, the Australian at her side. - -"He suggests"--Doane found himself translating--"that you ask her. He -does not know what engagements she may have made." - -The boy bit his lip. And then the princess was greeting the mate. "It's -nice to see you, Mr. Doane," she was saying. "I wondered if you weren't -coming to the party." - -It seemed to Doane that he could feel young Kane's devouring eyes -fastened on her. The moment had come in which he must act. The -Australian, sensing a situation, thanked the princess and slipped away. -Quietly, Doane said: "Miss Hui Fei, this is Mr. Kane, who has asked -permission to meet you." - -She drew back a very little; Doane caught that; yet the courtesy of her -race did not fail her. She inclined her pretty head; even smiled. - -"Should I speak English?" asked the boy, out of sheer confusion; then: -"Miss Hui Fei"--he was white; the words came slowly, almost coldly, -between set teeth--"I am sorry for my rotten behavior the other night." - -That was all. He waited. Miss Hui's smile faded. - -No Oriental could have come out so bluntly with it. She seemed to be -considering him. Gradually the smile returned, and with it an air of -courteous dismissal. - -"I have forgotten it." - -Kane gathered his courage. - -"May I have a dance with you?" - -For a moment the silence was marked. Perhaps Miss Hui was gathering -herself as well. But it was only a moment; she spoke, smiling as if she -were happy, her manner gracious, even kind: "I am sorry. I have promise' -every dance. The ladies are so few to-nigh'." - -That was all. The boy seemed somewhat slow in comprehending it. He stood -motionless; then the color returned slowly to his face, flooding it. He -bowed to her stiffly, then to her father, and rushed out on deck. - -Miss Hui smiled up at the mate. "I have save' the dance you ask'," she -said pleasantly. "It is this nex' one, if you don' mind." - -The Manila Kid adjusted the needle and released the catch. - -"I'm sorry," said Doane, as they moved away, "I don't dance." - -The commonplace remark fell strangely on his own ears. It could hardly -be himself speaking. He was all glowingly warm with impulse, his logic -gone. - -"We'll sit it out," said Miss Hui pleasantly. - -And during the brief walk across the room, beside this buoyantly -graceful girl, even while aware of the eyes upon him, he felt the magic -wine of youth thrilling through his arteries. What a fairy she was! -Snatches of poetry came; one--= - -````"Were it ever so airy a tread...."= - ---and lingered fragrantly after they were seated and he found himself -looking down at her, listening with something of the gravity and -kindliness of long habit when she so quickly spoke. - - - - -CHAPTER VI--CONFLAGRATION - -|A BEWILDERED, crushed Rocky Kane stood tightly holding the rail; -staring down at the softly black water that ran so smoothly along the -hull beneath; muttering in whispers that at intervals broke out into -heated speech. This strange princess had humiliated him perfectly, -completely; there had been nothing he could say, nothing to do but go; -and she had let him go without a look or a further thought. He told -himself it was unfair. He had swallowed his pride and apologized. Could -a man do more? - -But pressing upward through this chaotic mental surface of hurt pride -and insistent self-justification came an equally insistent memory of -his outrageous conduct toward her. As the moments passed, the memory -intensified into a painfully vivid picture. His native intelligence, -together with the undeveloped decency that was somewhere within him, -kept at him with dart-like, stinging thoughts. He had insulted not only -herself but her race as well, in assuming a ruthless right to make free -with her. - -Then self-justification again; how could he know that she spoke English -and dressed like the girls back home? Was it fair of her to masquerade -like that? - -He was miserably wrong, of course. And his nerves were terribly -upset. That was at least part of the trouble, his nerves; he lighted -a cigarette to steady them. The match shook in his hand. This nervous -trembling had been increasing lately; he found it an alarming symptom. -Perhaps the trouble was inherent weakness. Ability like his father's -often skipped a generation; and character. Yes, he was weak, he had -failed at everything. His college career was a wreck; a monstrous wreck, -he believed, echoes from which would follow him through life. To his -incoherent mind it seemed that he had about all the vices--drinking, -gambling, pursuing helpless girls, even smoking opium. His one faith had -been money; but now he suddenly, wretchedly, knew that even the money -might fail him. It was as easy to toss away a million as a hundred on -the red or the black. And then young men who wasted themselves acquired -diseases from the terrors of which no fortune could promise release; a -thought that had long dwelt uncomfortably in a sensitive, deep-shadowed -corner of his brain.... a brain that was racing now, beyond control. - -Her unfairness lay in so publicly snubbing him. Her father knew the -facts, as did Miss Carmichael, and the big mate, that old preacher with -a mysterious past. Who was he, anyhow--setting up to regulate other -people's lives? - -Then rose among these turbulent thoughts a picture of the princess as -she was now, there in the social hall. Tears welled into his eyes; he -brushed them away, lighted a fresh cigarette and deeply inhaled the -smoke. He had rushed out; suddenly, wildly, he desired to rush back. -She was beautiful. She had quaintly moving charm. A rare little lady! It -seemed almost that he might compel her to listen while he explained. -But what was it that he was to explain? That he was some other than the -dirty sort they all knew him to be, that he had proved himself to be? - -The wild thoughts were like a beating in his brain. It was his father's -fault, this crazy nervousness, and his mother's.... He hated that big -mate. Self-pity rose like a tidal wave, and engulfed him. He stared and -stared at the softly dark water. Beginning with about his sixteenth year -he had wrestled often with the thought of suicide, as so many sensitive -young men do. Now the water fascinated him; it was so still, it moved -so resistlessly on to the sea. "A pretty easy way to slip out. Just a -little splash---I could climb down. Nobody'd know. Nobody'd care much -of a damn. Oh, the old man would think he cared, but he wouldn't. He'll -never make a bank president out of me. And that's all he wants." - -A voice, guardedly friendly, said, "Better not let yourself talk that -way." - -He turned with a start. Miss Carmichael was standing there by the rail. -So he had talked aloud--another unpleasant symptom. - -"You--you saw what--" - -She inclined her head. "What's the good of letting it upset you? Lie -down for a while. A pipe or two wouldn't hurt you. You're nervous as a -witch. It would soothe you." He stared at her. - -"Better lie down anyway," she said, taking his arm and moving him toward -his cabin. "You don't want them to see you like this." - -He yielded. His will was powerless. He dropped on the seat, while -she lingered, almost sympathetically, in the doorway, an unbelievably -girlish figure in the half light. Something of the influence she had -been exerting on him--which had seemed to die when Miss Hui Fei entered -the social hall--fluttered to life now. He found relief, abruptly, in -recklessness. - -"Come on in," he said huskily. "Have a pipe with me!" - -Quietly, wholly matter-of-fact, she closed and locked the door. "We'll -shut the window, too, this time," she said. - -"You needn't turn on the light." He was reaching for his trunk. "Excuse -me--a minute! I can see all right. I know just where everything is." - -"Leave the trunk out," said she. "And lay your suit-case on it. Then we -can put the lamp on that." - -Miss Hui Fei led Doane to a seat under the curving front windows. - -"We mus' talk as if ever'thing were ver' pleasan'." The question rose -again, but without bitterness now, how she could smile so brightly. "I -have learn' some more. It is ver' difficul' to tell you, but.... it is -difficul' to think, even.... so strange that at firs' I laugh'.".... -Yes, there were tears in her eyes. But how bravely she fought them back -and smiled again. He felt his own eyes filling, and turned quickly -to the window; but not so quickly that she failed to see. She was -sensitively observant, despite her own trouble. For a moment, then, -they were silent, lost in a deep common sympathy that was bread to his -starving heart. - -It was in that moment that their little conspiracy nearly broke down. -Had any of the others in the big room looked just then, gossip would -have spread swiftly; certainly sharp-eyed mandarins would have found -matter for consideration; for Hui Fei impulsively found his hand as it -rested between them on the seat, and was met with a quick warm pressure. - -And then, in another moment, she was speaking, quite herself. "My maid -has foun' out tha' they are sending the head eunuch from the Forbidden -C'ty to our home. An' that is agains' the law." - -"Of course," said he. "Even the Old Buddha never tried but once to send -out a eunuch on government business. That was the notorious An Te-hai. -And he never returned; he was caught in Shantung--in a barge of state -on the Grand Canal--and beheaded. Even the Old Buddha couldn't do that. -This woman is amazing. But of course there is really no government at -Peking now--only this strange anachronism." - -"He has orders to seize all father's beautifu' things the paintings an' -stones an' carvings." - -"The rebels may catch him. They'd make short work of him." - -"I ask' about that The rebels have cross' the river from Wu Chang to Han -Yang, but they have not yet reach' the railway. That comes into Hankow -from this side." - -"Even so," he mused, "the train service from Peking must have broken -down. Though they're running troop trains south, of course." - -"I haven't tol' you all of it." Her voice was low and unsteady. "This -eunuch, Chang Yuan-fu, is ordered, by the empress, to take me to Peking -too. They are all whispering about it. The empress is angry at my -foreign ways, and will marry me to a Manchu duke. She di'n' like it when -my father tol' her I mus' marry no man I di'n' choose myself.... I think -you ough' to smile." - -Mechanically he obeyed. - -"It seems almos' funny." murmured Miss Hui. "Sometimes I can no' believe -tha' such a thing could happen. When I think of America an' England and -all the worl' we know to-day, I can no' believe that such wicked things -can happen." - -It was anything but unreal to Doane. He knew too well that America -and England, even all the white peoples, make up but a fraction of -the inhabitants of this strange earth. His eyes filled again as he -considered the possible--yes, the probable fate of the lovely girl at -his side. In such a time of disorganization the reckless Manchu woman at -Peking could do much. Chang might lose his head at the sound of gunfire -in Han Yang and fly back to the capital, or he might not. A capable and -corrupt eunuch would run heavy risks to gain such a prize. For a huge -prize the viceroy's collection would indeed be; many of the priceless -stones and paintings would never reach the throne. - -The thought came of trying to persuade her to save herself; a thought -that was as promptly discarded. She would not leave her father while he -lived. He, of course, would not take his own life elsewhere than in -his ancestral home. And to that home, with his inevitable escort of -underlings and soldiers, was hurrying--if not already there--this Chang -Yuan-fu, one of those powerfully venomous creatures that have figured -darkly at intervals in the history of China. - -Doane spoke low and quickly: "Can you find out when Chang's train left -Peking, Miss Hui?" - -"No, I have try ver' har' to learn. I think they don' know that. It is -so importan' to know that, too, because my father"--Her voice faltered. -Doane once again, with a swift glance to left and right, took her hand -and, for a brief moment, gripped it firmly. "You haven' yet spoken to my -father?" - -"Not yet, dear Miss Hui.... you must smile!.... I have found it very -difficult to think out a way of approaching him. Your father is a great -viceroy. He might take it ill that I should venture to interfere in what -he would feel to be the supreme sacred act of his life. He might"--Doane -hesitated--"even for you he might feel that he couldn't turn back." - -"I know," she said, very low. "I have thought of tha', too. But they -shall never take me to Peking." - -He understood. The suicide of girls as a protest against unwelcome -marriage was a commonplace in China. It was, indeed, for thousands the -only way out. She knew that, of course. And she spoke there out of her -blood. - -"I will speak to-morrow," he murmured. "Before we reach Huang Chau. We -have nothing to lose. He can only rebuff me." - -He felt now that in this tragic drama was bound up all that might be -left to him of happiness. The guiding motive of his life was--there was -a divine recklessness in the thought--to save Hui Fei, to make her smile -again, with a happy heart. She whispered now: - -"Thank you." - -He asked her, abruptly changing his manner, almost distantly courteous, -about her life in an American college. Little by little, as she made -the effort to follow him into this impersonal atmosphere, her brightness -returned. - -The record was scraping its last. Applause came from the dancers, -in which she joined. The Manila Kid wound the machine again, and the -dancers swung again into motion. - -"I am asking too much of you," she murmured. "But I have been frighten'. -I coul'n' think wha' to do." - -He had to set his teeth on the burning phrases that rushed from his long -unpractised heart, eager for utterance. "I will take you back to your -father," he said. - -In his mind it was settled. Whatever strange events might lie before -them, they should not take her to Peking. His own life, as well as hers, -stood in the way. It had come to that with him. - -It was near to midnight when the _Yen Hsin_, on advices from Hankow, -headed again upstream. At the first throb of the engine the white -passengers stopped dancing and came out on deck. There was gaiety, even -a little cheering. - -It was perhaps two hours later when Doane, asleep in his cabin, heard -the shots, confused with the incidents of a dream. But at the first -screams of the women below decks he sprang from his berth. Some one -was banging on his door; he opened; the second engineer stood there, -coatless and hatless, a revolver in his hand, and a little blood on his -cheek. - -"All hell's broken loose below," said the young Scotchman. "Chief's -down there. I tried to get to him, but--God, they're all over the -place--fighting one another." - -"Who are, MacKail?" Doane hurriedly drew on trousers and coat, and -thrust his feet into his slippers. - -"The viceroy's soldiers. Revolutionary stuff." - -Doane got his automatic pistol from a drawer in the desk; quickly filled -an extra clip with cartridges; went forward. The Scotchman had already -gone aft. - -The engine was still running, the steamer moving steadily up the moonlit -river. The uproar below decks sounded muffled, far-away. It might have -been nothing more than a little night excitement in a village along the -shore. The shooting continued. Men were shouting. There were more shrill -screams; and then splashes overside. As he hurried forward, staring over -the rail, Doane caught a passing glimpse of a face down there in the -foam and a white arm. The white men were stumbling drowsily out of their -cabins; he saw one of the customs men, in pajamas, and Tex Connor. They -hurled questions at him but he brushed them aside. - -Captain Benjamin stood over the cringing pilot with a revolver. - -"Engine room don't answer!" he shouted coolly enough. "And we can't get -to it. Take MacKail and try to get through. I'll make this rat keep her -in the channel." - -Doane ran back. More of the men were out, talking excitedly together. He -paused to say: "Get any weapons you have, every man of you, and see that -none but women get up to this deck! Keep the men down!" - -MacKail stood at the head of the port after stairway, outside the rear -cabins, a big Australian beside him. - -"They're just naturally carving one another up," observed the -Australian. - -"Come," said Doane, and went down the steps. - -The noise and confusion were great down here. Women were crowding out of -the lower cabins, sobbing hysterically, tearing their hair and beating -their breasts, crowding forward and aft along the deckway or climbing -awkwardly over the rail and slipping off into the river. - -Doane shouted a reassuring word in their own tongue; pointed to the -steps; finally drew one girl forcibly back from the rail and started her -up. Others followed, screaming all the way. Still others clung to the -white men. - -Doane broke away and plunged into the dim interior of the boat. Most -of the lights were out. Dark figures were wrestling. There were grunts, -groans, savage cries of rage and triumph. A huge pole-knife caught -the light as it swung. Doane was aware of men breathing hard as they -struggled. - -He stumbled over an inert body; would have fallen had not the Australian -caught him. A tall soldier who lunged toward them with a dripping -bayonet was shot by MacKail.... There were no means here of -distinguishing the parties to this savage struggle, but in the inner -corridor it was lighter. Near at hand two of the republicans--queues cut -off, dressed in an indistinguishable but odd-appearing uniform of some -light gray stuff with a white cloth tied about the left arm, had heaped -bodies across the corridor and were shooting over them at a darker mass -just forward of the engine room. - -Doane shouted at the republicans, ordering them to withdraw. They shook -their heads angrily. One, even as he tried to reply, sank into a limp -heap with a dark stream trickling from a hole in his forehead. His -comrade bent low to reload his rifle. With the shouting of many hoarse -voices the dark mass up forward came charging down the corridor. Doane -was firing into them when MacKail and the Australian caught his arm -and drew him back through the doorway. From that position, however, -all three could shoot the blue-clad attackers as they plunged by the -opening. Then, however, they had to defend themselves. The soldiers came -on by dozens. Doane had his second clip of cartridges in his pistol. - -"Get back!" he shouted to the others. "Guard the steps--they'll be -coming up for loot!" - -They retreated. Two bodies lay huddled on the steps they had left but -a few moments earlier. A few dead women were on the deck and one or two -men. - -Even as they stepped over the bodies and mounted to the deck above, all -three men, their faculties sharpened to a supernatural degree by -the ugly thrill of combat, took in the details of what was evidently -accepted among these republican rebels as their uniform--a suit of -unmistakably American woolen underwear, the drawers supported by -bright-colored American suspenders; socks worn outside (like the -suspenders) with garters that bore the trademark name of an American -city, and finally, American shoes. So the enthusiasm of these young -revolutionists for the greatest of republics found expression! And -across the breast of each, lettered on a strip of white cloth, was the -inscription that Sun Shi-pi had so glibly translated as "Dare to Die." -Sun must have brought along these supposedly Western uniforms in his -pedler's trunks. - -It was never to be known what surprising incidents had preceded this -sudden slaughter. The chief engineer might have told, but his mutilated -body Doane found, on his second attempt to get through, lying just -across the sill of the engine room, as if he had been stepping out to -reason with them. - -The entire battle lasted barely half an hour. It was, for the white -folk, a period of confusion and terror. Toward the end, the blue men, -utter outlaws now, made rush after rush up the various stairways and -ladders, only to be fought back at every point by the white men and the -few surviving officers of his excellency's force. They were like the -most primitive savages, knowing neither fear nor reason. The blood-lust -that at times captures the spirit of this normally phlegmatic and -reasonable people drove them for the time to the point of madness. - -At last, however, they drew off below. Two of the boats were within -their reach. These they lowered, and despite the speed of steamer and -current, though not without evident loss of life, they got them over, -tumbled into them, and fell away into the night astern. Then for the -first and last time this night Doane saw the redoubtable Tom Sung. -He stood in the nearer boat, brandishing a rifle and screeching wild -phrases in Chinese. - -MacKail took the engine room. Captain Benjamin, still, grimly, pistol -in hand, held the pilot to his task. There was no crew to clean the -shambles below decks, yet with the few loyal soldiers who had managed -to hide away now at the furnaces, the steamer wound her way steadily -up-stream. - -Doane found what had once been the earnest Sun Shi-pi in the starboard -corridor, below. On his body were the uniform, white brassard and motto -of the "Dare to Dies." They had beheaded him. - -The passengers, clad and half clad, nervous, talkative, hung about the -decks. The two teachers, curiously self-possessed, sat side by side at -the dining table. From the quarters of his excellency, aft, came the -continuous sound of women moaning and wailing.... It was, to the eye, but -a river steamer plowing up-stream in the moonlight. But to the senses of -those aboard the situation was a nightmare, already an incredible memory -while sleep-drugged eyes were slowly opening.... To the mighty river -it was but one more incident in the vivid, often bloody drama of a -long-suffering, endlessly struggling people.... - -In his spacious cabin, his eyes shaded from the electric light by a -screen of jade set in tulip wood, dressed in his robes of ceremony, -wearing the ruby-crowned hat of state with the down-slanting peacock -feather, his excellency sat quietly reading the precepts of Chuang Tzü. - -"Hui Tzü asked," (he read) 'Are there, then, men who have no passions? -If he be a man, how can he be without passions?' - -"'By a man without passions,' replied Chuang Tzü, I mean one who permits -neither evil nor good to disturb his inner life, but accepts whatever -comes.... The pure men of old neither loved life nor hated death. -Cheerfully they played their parts, patiently awaited the end. This is -what is called not to lead the heart away from Tao.... The true sage -ignores God; he ignores man; he ignores a beginning; he ignores matter; -he accepts life as it may be and is not overwhelmed. If he fail, what -matters it? If he succeed, is it not that he was provided through no -effort of his own with the energy necessary to success.... The life of -man passes like a galloping horse, changing at every turn. What should -he do; what should he not do? It passes as a sunbeam passes a small -opening in a wall--here for a moment, then gone.... let knowledge stop -at the unknowable. That is perfection.'" - -It is to be doubted if even Doane gave regard at the moment to the -possible origin of the fire. It had spread through two or three of -the upper cabins by way of the ventilating grills and was roaring out -through a doorway by the time he heard the new outcry and ran to -the spot. The white men were rushing about. Rocky Kane, collarless, -disheveled, was fumbling ineffectually at the emergency fire hose; him -Doane pushed aside. But the flames spread amazingly; worked through -the grill-work from cabin to cabin; soon were licking at the walls and -furniture of the social hall. - -Doane left Dawley Kane and Tex Conner--an oddly matched couple--manning -the hose, others at work with the chemical extinguishers, while he went -forward through the thickening smoke to the bridge. - -Captain Benjamin said, huskily, almost apologetically--his eyes red and -staring, his face haggard: "I'm beaching her." - -And in another moment she struck, where the channel ran close under an -island. - -Lowering the boats without a crew proved difficult. Already the fire had -reached those forward. Doane, the other mate and MacKail did what -they could. The Chinese women crowded hither and thither, screaming, -rendering order impossible. In the confusion one boat drifted off with -only Connor, the Manila Kid, and Miss Carmichael. - -Captain Benjamin was cut off by the quick progress of the flames. The -whole forward end of the cabin structure was now a roaring furnace, -fortunately working forward on the down-stream breeze rather than aft. -The flames blazed from moment to moment higher; sparks danced higher -yet; the heat was intense. Doane sent the viceroy and his suite below, -aft, where the deck was still strewn with bodies and slippery with -blood. With three available boats, fighting back the crowding women and -the more excitable among his excellency's secretaries, he sent ashore, -first the women, then his excellency and the men. Hui Fei--she had -slipped hastily into the little Chinese costume she wore at their -midnight talk, and had thrown about it an opera cloak from New -York--went in one of the first boats; Doane himself handed her in. The -two teachers, pale, very composed, followed. At the oars were two of the -customs men, faces streaked with grime and sweat. - -To his excellency, as the last boats got away, Doane said: "I will -follow you soon. I must look once more for the captain." - -"I will send back a boat," said the viceroy. - -Doane ran up to the upper and promenade decks. There was no sound save -the roaring and crackling of the fire. There seemed no chance of getting -forward. In the large after cabin stood the six-fold Ming screen. -Quickly he folded it; there seemed a chance of getting it ashore. He -thought, with a passing regret, of the _pi_ of jade; but there was no -reaching his own cabin now. He stepped out on deck. There, clear aft, -leaning against the cabin wall, stood Rocky Kane, like a man half -asleep, rubbing his eyes; and crouching against his knee, clinging to -his hand, was the little princess in her gay golden yellow vest over the -flowered skirt and her quaint hood of fox skin. - -Doane caught the young man's shoulder; swung him about; looked closely -into the dull eyes with the tiny pupils. - -"So!" he cried, "that again, eh!" - -"I can't understand"--thus Rocky--"I don't see how it could have -happened. It couldn't have been my fault." - -Doane saw now that his head had been burned above one ear; and the hand -that pressed his face was blistered white. - -"It _wasn't_ my fault! I found myself out on deck. I tried to get the -hose." - -"Yes, I saw you. Quick--get below." - -Doane tenderly lifted the little princess. - -Rocky was still incoherently talking; promising reform; blaming himself -in the next breath after hotly defending himself. His voice was somewhat -thick. He was drowsy--swayed and stumbled as he moved toward the stairs. - -Doane, speaking gently in Chinese to the child, stood a moment -considering. The heat was becoming intolerable. It wouldn't do to keep -the little one here. He carried her down the stairs. - -Below, the boy faced him. "I'm no good," he whimpered. "I can't wake up. -Hit me--do something--I won't be like this." - -Doane considered him during a brief instant. They were standing under -a light, their feet slipping on the deck, bodies lying about. With the -flat of his hand, then, Duane struck the side of the boy's head that -was not burned; struck harder than he meant, for the boy went down, and -then, after sprawling about, got muttering to his feet. - -"It's all right!" he cried unsteadily. "I asked you to do it. I'm going -to get hold of myself. I've been no good--rotten. I've touched bottom. -But I'm going to fight it out--get somewhere." His egotism, even now -amazingly held him. Even as he spoke he was dramatizing himself. But his -pupils were widening a little; he was in earnest, crying bitterly out -of a drugged mind and conscience. And Doane, looking down at him, felt -stirring in his heart, though curiously mixed with a twinge of jealousy -for his youth and the hopes before him, something of the sympathy his -long deep experience had instilled there toward blindly struggling young -folk. Boys, after all, were normally egotists. And Heaven knew this boy -had so far been given no sort of chance! - -Doane led the way clear aft. The heat was terrific. From a row of fire -buckets he sprinkled the little princess; bathed her temples. The water -was warm, but it helped. - -Young Kane, with a nervous movement, suddenly picked up one, then -another, of the buckets and dashed them over himself. Distinctly he was -coming to life. "We may never come out of this, Mr. Doane," he said. -"It's a terrible fix." More and more, as he came slowly awake, he was -dramatizing the situation and himself. "But I want to say this. I've -never known a man like you. You're fine--you're big--you've helped me -as no one else has. I'll never be like you--it isn't in me. I've already -gone as close to hell as a man can go and perhaps still save himself--" - -"Can you swim?" asked Doane shortly. - -"I--why, yes, a little. I'm not what you'd call a strong swimmer." - -Doane was wetting the princess's face and his own. There would be -little time left. There was smoke now. He found a slight difficulty in -breathing; evidently the fire had eaten through, forward, to the lower -decks. - -"They won't be able to get a boat back here," he said, and quietly -pointed out the still blazing pieces of board that, after whirling into -the air, were drifting by. A terrific blast of heat swept about them, -indicating a change of wind. - -"Wait here a moment for me," he added. "I must make one more effort to -find Captain Benjamin. If that fails, we can swim ashore." - -He tried working his way forward when the heat proved too great in the -corridor, climbing out on the windward side of the hull. But the flames -were eating steadily aft; he could not get far. Beaten back, he returned -to the stem to discover that the child and Rocky Kane were gone. After -a moment he saw them in the water, a few rods away, first a gleam of -yellow that would be the jacket of the little princess, then their two -heads close together. - -He lowered himself down a boat-line and swam after them. In the water -this giant was as easily at home as in any form of exercise on land. -Within the year he had swum at night, alone, for the sheer vital -pleasure the use of his strength brought him, the nine miles from Wusung -to Shanghai--slipping between junks and steamers, past the anchored -war-ships and a great P. & O. liner from Bombay. The water was cool, -refreshing. He stretched his full length in it, rolling his face under -as one arm and then the other reached out in slow powerful strokes. - -Young Kane was having no easy time of it. He was clearly out of wind. -And the child whimpered as she clung tightly about his neck. - -"I gave you up," he sputtered weakly. Then added, with an evidence of -spirit that Doane found not displeasing: "No, don't take her, please! -Just steady me a little." He was struggling in short strokes, splashing -a good deal. "We ought to touch bottom now pretty quick." - -Sampans and the boats of the cormorant fishers were edging into the -wide circle of light about the steamer. Along the shore of the island -clustered the groups of mandarins, their silk and satin robes forming a -bright spot in the vivid picture. - -Doane found the sand then; walked a little way and helped the nearly -exhausted boy to his feet. - -"They're coming down the shore," said Rocky, trying, without great -success, to speak casually. - -Doane looked up and saw them running--white men, Chinese servants, -mandarins holding up their robes, women, and last, walking rapidly, his -excellency. - -It was Hui Fei, throwing off her cloak and running lightly ahead, -who took the frightened child from young Kane's arms and carried her -tenderly up the bank. There as the attendants gathered anxiously about -them, she tossed the child high, petted her, kissed her, until the tears -gave place to laughter. The tall eunuch wrapped the little princess then -in his own coat; and Hui Fei accepted the opera cloak that transformed -her again in an instant from a slimly quaint Manchu girl to a young -woman of New York. - -Doane stood by. Toward him she did not look. But to Rocky Kane, who -lay on the bank, she turned with bright eagerness. He got, not without -effort, to his feet. - -Smiling--happily, it seemed to the bewildered, brooding Doane--she gave -him her hand; led him to meet her father. - -"You have met Mr. Kane," she said. "It was he who save' little sister. -He risk' his life to bring her here, father." - -Rocky, throwing back his hair and brushing the water from his eyes, -stood, his sensitive face working nervously, very straight, very -respectful, and took the hand of the viceroy. - -There was, then, manhood in him. The viceroy recognized the fact in his -friendly smile. Hui Fei plainly recognized it as she walked, chatting -brightly, at his side, while he bent on her a gaze of boyish adoration. - -As for Doane, he moved away unobserved; dropped at length on a knoll, -rested his great head on his hands, and gazed out at the blazing -steamer. She would soon be quite gone. Poor Benjamin was gone already; -a strange little man, one of the many that drift through life without -a sense of direction, always bewildered about it, always hoping vaguely -for some better lot. It had been a tragic night; and yet all this horror -would soon seem but an incident in the spreading revolution. It had -always been so in China. In each rebellion, as in the mighty conquests -of the Mongols and the Manchus, death had stalked everywhere with a -casual terribleness. Life meant, at best, so little. Genghis Khan's -men had boasted of slaying twenty millions in the northwestern provinces -alone within the span of a single decade. The new trouble must -inevitably run its course; and what a course it might prove to be! -From the mere effort to face this immediate future Doane found his mind -recoiling; much as strong minds were to recoil, only three years later, -when the German army should march through Belgium. - -He gave up that problem, came down to the particular thought of this -swiftly growing new love that had stolen into his heart. The hope of -personal happiness had passed now. Self seemed, like the life to which -it so eagerly dung, not to matter. Instead that hope was growing into -a profound tenderness toward the girl. She was, after all--the thought -came startlingly--about the age of his own daughter, Betty, whom he -had not seen during these three strange years. Betty and her journalist -husband would be somewhere in Turkestan now; he was studying central -Asia for a book, she sketching the native types. For a long time no -letter had come.... It was a fine experience, this unbidden stir of the -emotions, this thrill. There was mystery in it, and wonder. Merely to -have that almost youthful responsiveness still at call within his breast -was an indication that life might yet hold, even for him, the derelict, -rich promise. And it was a reminder, now, to his clearing brain that his -life must be service. He must find terms on which to offer himself, his -gifts. His spirit had been molded, after all, to no lesser end. - -The viceroy drew away then from the group about the child; came -deliberately along the bank. The increasing tenderness Doane felt -toward Hui Fei reached also to her father, who was facing with such fine -dignity the grim ending of a richly useful life. Now, perhaps, he could -plead with him for the daughter's sake. Somehow, certainly, happiness -must be found for her. In pleading he would be serving her. - -His brain was swinging into something near balance; it was, after all, a -good brain, trained to function clearly, mellowed through patient years -of unhappiness. It would help him now to fight for the girl, to save -her, if he might, from the dark ways of the Forbidden City. She called -herself so naively an "American." The West had thrilled her. She must -not be given over to the eunuch, Chang. - -So, even as he contrived a sort of self-control, even as he determined -to forget his own little moment of romantic hopefulness, the lover -within him stood triumphant over all his other selves. - - - - -CHAPTER VII--THE INSCRUTABLE WEST - -|DOANE knew nothing of the dignified figure he presented as he took -the viceroy's hand, a profoundly sobered giant, his huge frame outlined -beneath his wet garments like a Greek statue of an athlete. - -"You have helped to save the life of my child, Griggsby Doane"--thus his -excellency, in what proved to be a little set speech--"and with all my -heart I thank you. I am old. Little time is left to me. But life follows -upon death. Death is the beginning of life. It has been said by Chuang -Tzü that the personal existence of man results from convergence of the -vital fluid, and with its dispersion comes what we term death. Therefore -all things are one. All vitality exists in continuing life. And I, when -what I have thought of as my self arrives at dispersion, shall live on -in my children. My words are inadequate. My debt to you is beyond my -power to repay. Command me. I am your servant." - -Doane bowed, hearing the words, catching something of the warm gratitude -in the heart of the old man, yet at the same moment flogged on to action -by the sense of passing time and present opportunity. It was no simple -matter, it seemed, to approach this seasoned, calmly determined mind -regarding the final personal matter of life and death. But he plunged -at it; stating simply that he had heard the gossip of the impending -tragedy, and that in conversing with the lovely Hui Fei, who was in -obvious difficulty in existing between the two greatest civilizations -without a solid footing in either, he could not bear to think of her -possible fate. - -Rang Yu listened attentively. - -"Your Excellency," Doane pressed on, "it is not right that you should -listen to the command of a decadent throne. Forgive my frankness, my -presumption, but I must say this! True, you are a Manchu. While this -revolution continues it will be difficult for you. But before -another year shall have gone by there will be a new China. The bitter -animosities of to-day will pass. Though a Manchu, your wise counsel -will be needed. Your knowledge of the Western World will temper the -over-emphatic policies of the young hot-heads from the universities of -Japan." - -The viceroy considered this appeal during a long moment; then, soberly, -he looked up into the massive, strongly lined face of the white man and -asked, simply: "But what would you have me do, Griggsby Doane?" - -"Your Excellency knows of the plan to seize your property?" - -Kang inclined his head. - -"If you go on to your home, it may be that everything will be taken, -even the money on your person." - -Kang bowed again. - -"Then, Your Excellency, why not now--while you yet have the means to -do so--escape down the river with your daughter and myself? Can you -not trust yourself and her in my hands? I will find means to convey you -safely to Shanghai--perhaps to Japan or Hong Kong--where you will be -secure until further plans may be laid." - -"Griggsby Doane," replied the viceroy with simple candor, "you speak -indeed as a friend. And I would be false to the blood that flows in my -veins did I not prize the friendship of man for man, second only to -the love of a son for a parent, above every other quality in life. -Friendship is most properly the theme of many of the noblest poems in -our language. It is to us more than your people, who place so strong -an emphasis on love between the sexes, can perhaps bring themselves to -understand. And therefore, Griggsby Doane. your feeling toward myself -and my daughter moves my heart more deeply than I can express to you. - -"It is not surprising that news of my sorrow--of this sad ending that -is set upon my long life--should have reached you. But since you know so -much, I will tell you, as friend to friend, more. Do you know why this -sentence has been passed upon me? It is because I could not bring myself -to obey the order of the throne that the republican agitator, Sun -Shi-pi who had sought sanctuary at my yamen in Nanking should be at once -beheaded. Instead I sent for Sun Shi-pi to counsel him. I permitted him -to go to Japan on condition that he engage in no conspiracies and that -he remain away. Instead of complying with my condition he hastened to -organize revolutionary propaganda. He returned to China, appeared in -disguise on the steamer that is burning out yonder, and is now dead, -there, in his republican uniform." - -So his information was complete! A picture rose in Doane's mind of the -headless trunk of Sun Shi-pi amid the horrors of the lower deck. - -His excellency continued: "I was denounced at the Forbidden City as a -traitor. The sentence of death followed, in the form of an edict from -the empress dowager in the name of the young emperor. Were I now to -follow Sun Shi-pi into exile in a foreign land I would mark myself for -all time as a traitor indeed; as one who, while sharing as an honored -viceroy the prosperity and dignity of the reigning dynasty, conspired -toward its downfall." - -"But, Your Excellency, the empress dowager and the young emperor no -longer speak with the voice of the Chinese people." - -"That could make no difference, Griggsby Doane. By edict of the Yellow -Dragon Throne of Imperial China I have been instructed to go to my -ancestors. My allegiance is only to that throne. I will obey.... -Already, Griggsby Doane, you have done for me more than one can ever -demand of a friend. And yet one more demand I must make upon you. There -is no other to whom I can turn. I have no other friend to-night. Within -a short time my secretaries will secure a launch or a junk to convey us -to my home near Huang Chau. Will you come with us there?" - -Doane, surprised, bowed in assent. - -"Thank you. The gratitude of myself and all my family and friends will -remain with you. You are a princely man.... Until later, then, good -night, Griggsby Doane." - -He was gone. - -Doane walked farther along the bank; stood for a time absorbed in -thought that led, at length, to what seemed a new ray of light in the -darkness that was his mind. And he strode back, hunting in this group -and that for Dawley Kane. That man had offered help. Now he could give -it. - -Dawley Kane, fully dressed, unruffled, quietly smoking a cigar and -looking through a pocket notebook by the light from the river, seemed -a note of sanity in an unbelievably confused world. To him, apparently, -the nightmare of fighting and slaughter on the steamer, like the fire, -were but incidents. The only evidence the man gave out of quickened -nerves was that he talked a little more freely than usual. To Doane he -presented a surface as clear and hard as polished crystal, impenetrable, -in a sense repelling, yet, as we say, a gentleman. - -They even chatted casually, as men will, standing there looking out at -the fire (which now had reached the stem and eaten down to the lower -decks, incinerating alike the bodies of men who had died for faith and -for lust) and at the wide circle of light on the rim of which floated -the vulture-the boats of the rivermen. Doane forced himself into the -vein of the man's interest; riding roughshod over a desperate sense -of unreality. For he knew that the great masters of capital were often -proud and even finicky men who must be approached with skill. They were -kings; must be dealt with as kings. - -Kane was interested to learn what relation the fight below decks might -have to the rebellion up the river. That, clearly, was characteristic -of the man--the impersonal gathering in and relating of observable data. -His interest was deeper in the agriculture and commerce of the immense -Yangtze basin, to which subject he easily passed. His questions came -out of a present fund of knowledge--questions as to the speed, -cargo-capacity and operation-cost of the large junks that plied the -river by thousands, as to the cost of employing Chinese labor and the -average capacity of the coolie. He knew all about the slowly developing -railroads of North and Central China; commented in passing on the -surprising profits of the young Hankow-Peking line.... He seemed to -Doane to have in his mind a map or diagram of a huge, profitmaking -industrial world, to which he added such bits of line or color -as occurred in the answers to his questions. But he gave out no -conclusions, only questions. Famines, other wide-spread suffering so -tragically common in the Orient, interested him only as an impairment of -trade and industrial man power. The opium habit he viewed as an economic -problem. - -Doane, settling doggedly to his purpose, found himself analyzing the -power of this quiet man. It lay of course, in the control of money. And -money would be only a token of human energy. The religion of his own -ardent years had taken no account of earthly energy or its tokens; it -had directed the eyes of the bewildered seeker toward a mystical other -world. Yet human life, in the terms of this earth, must go on. To this -point he always came around, of late years, in his thinking, just as -the church had always come around to it. Money was vital. The church was -endlessly begging for it; in no other way could it survive to continue -turning away the puzzled eyes of the seekers. - -And the immense energy created in the human struggle to live and prosper -must continually be gathering up, here and there, into visible power -that shrewd human hands would surely seize. He felt this now as a law. -Religion had not left him. He felt more strongly than ever before that -this miraculously continuing energy implied a sublime orderly force that -transcended the outermost bounds of human intelligence. Religion was -surely there: it only wanted discovering. It had, as surely, to do with -primitive energy, with the heat of the sun and the disciplined rush of -the planets, with the tragic struggle of human business, with work and -war and sex and money.... And then he indulged in a half-smile. For this -primitive undying energy could be no other than the Tao of Lao-tzu and -Chuang Tzü. And so, after all these groping years of his errant faith, -he had fetched up, simply in Taoism. - -But that law seemed to stand. The human struggle created power that -tended to gather at convenient centers. And here beside him, smoking a -cigar, stood a man whose uncommon genius fitted him to seize that power -as it gathered and administer it; a man to whom money came--the very -winds of chance heaped it about him. And to Doane, just now, money--even -in quantity that would be to Kane hardly the income of a day or -so--meant so much that the grotesque want of it (the word "grotesque" -came) stopped his brain. - -For it was coming clear to him how completely the throne could at will, -obliterate the worldly establishment of Kang Yu. That throne, however -politically weak, yet held the savage instruments of despotic power. -Kang's sad end would come within the twenty-four hours, perhaps; -certainly he would wait only to prepare himself and to write his final -papers. The eunuch's men would be everywhere about the household; -nothing could be hidden from them, or from the spies among the -servants.... With money--a little money--Hui Fei might be saved from an -end as tragic as her father's.... The thing, surely, could be managed. -For the moment it seemed almost simple. She could he spirted away. -There might he missionaries to escort her down the river on one of the -steamers. - -It was then, while Doane's thoughts still raced hither and thither, that -Kane himself broached the vital topic. - -"This viceroy"--thus Kane--"seems to be quite a personage. He's been a -diplomat, I believe. And Kato tells me has an excellent collection of -paintings." - -Doane felt himself turning into a trader. "You are interested in Chinese -paintings, are you not, Mr. Kane?" he asked guardedly. - -"Oh, yes. I have something of a collection. And now and then Kato picks -up something for me." - -"I don't know, of course, how far you would care to go with it Mr. -Kane"--Doane was measuring every word as it passed his lips--"but there -is a possibility that a bargain could be struck with his excellency at -this time." - -"Indeed?" - -"It would be advisable to act pretty quickly, I should say." - -"Well! This is interesting. You are informed about his collection?" - -"In a general way. It is very well known out here. His collection of -landscapes of the Tang and Sung periods is supposed to be the most -complete in existence, with fine works of Ching Hao, Kuan Tung, Tung -Yuan and Chu-jan. The best known paintings of Li Chang are his. He -has several by Kao Ke-ming, and, I know, an original sixfold landscape -screen by Kuo Hsi. Then there are works of the four masters of southern -Sung--Li Tang, Lui Sungnian, Ma Yuen and Hsia Kuai. You would find -nearly all the great men of the Academy represented." - -Doane stopped; waited to see if this list of names impressed the great -American. If he knew, in his own person, anything whatever about Chinese -painting he must exhibit at least a little feeling. But Dawley Kane said -nothing; merely lighted, with provoking deliberation, a fresh cigar. - -"It is commonly understood, too"--Doane could not resist pressing him a -little further--"that he has authentic paintings by Wu Tao-tzu, and Li -Lung-mien." Surely these two names would stir this man who seemed at -moments no more than a calculating machine with manners. But Kane smoked -on.... "And I understand that he has a fairly complete collection of -portraits by the men of the Brush-strokes-reducing Method." - -He finished rather lamely; fell silent, and looked out over the still -brilliantly lighted river; the river of a hundred thousand dramatic -scenes--battles and romances and struggles for trade--the great river -with its endless memories of gold and bloodshed--the river that for a -brief day was running red again. The fire out there, though red flame -and rolling smoke and whirling sparks still roared upward, was consuming -now the lower deck and the hull. Within the hour the _Yen Hsin_ would be -no more than a curving double row of charred ribs; one more casual -memory of the river. - -Still Dawley Kane smoked on. He clearly knew no enthusiasm. He was an -analyst, an appraiser, a trader to the core. He felt no discomfort, even -in friendly talk, in letting the other man wait. But Doane would say -no more. And finally, knocking the Ash off his cigar with a reflective -finger, Kane remarked; "You really think that this collection would be a -good buy?" - -"Unquestionably." - -"Have you any idea what he would ask?" - -"I don't even know that he would consider selling it." - -"But if he were properly approached.... there are reasons____" - -"You know of his predicament?" - -"I gather that there is a predicament." - -"Oh.... well, yes, there is. But I don't know how even to guess at the -value. Many of the paintings are priceless. In New York, at collector's -prices, and without hurrying the sale...." - -"A hundred thousand dollars?" - -"Many times more." - -"But if he is anxious to sell--must sell" - -"There is that, of course." - -"A hundred thousand is a good deal of money. If I were to place that -sum to his credit to-morrow, for instance, by wire, at a Shanghai hank, -don't you suppose it would tempt him?" - -"It might. Though Kang knows the value of every piece." Doane was -finding difficulty in keeping pace with the situation. Kane would shave -every penny, as a matter of principle. That, of course, explained him; -was the secret of his wealth and power. Paintings, after all, mattered -to him only in a remote sense; you could always buy them if you chose, -if people would, as apparently they did, think better of you for buying -them. It came down to the desirability of building up and solidifying -one's name, of what Doane had heard spoken of everywhere in America -during his last visit as "publicity." The word irritated him. -It suggested that other word, also heard everywhere in America, -"salesmanship." These words, to the sensitively observant Doane, had -connoted an unpleasant blend of aggressive enterprise with an equally -aggressive plausibility. - -But his wits were sharpening fast. If this man was a buyer, he would be -a seller. - -"His excellency has another collection that might or might not interest -you--the value of it would be only slightly artistic--his precious -stones." Doane threw this cut carelessly. "There is no estimating the -value of those. It might run into the millions...." He saw Kane's eyes -come to a sudden hard focus behind the veil of smoke. He was really -interested at last. And Doane, with mounting pulse, quietly added, -"He has historical jewels from many parts of Asia--head ornaments, -bracelets, ropes of matched pearls from Ceylon, old careen jade from -Khotan, quantities of the jewelry taken from Khorassan and Persia by -Genghis Khan and his sons, including a number of famous royal pieces, -and some of the jeweled ornaments brought from the temples of India by -Kublai Khan." - -This, Doane knew, was enough. He waited, now, himself. Waited and -waited. - -"Mr. Doane"--Kane, at last, was speaking--"I would be glad to have you -approach the viceroy for me. To-night, if you think best. I will be -glad, of course, to pay you a commission." - -"Shall I make a definite offer--for the paintings and the jewels?" - -"No." Kane considered. "Let him set a price. Then we will make our -offer." - -"It is safe to say, Mr. Kane"--Doane was remembering experiences of -men in church and educational work who had had to approach the great -capitalists for gifts of money--"that you could sell half the paintings -for what you might pay for the two collections at this time. That would -enable you to give the other half, as a collection bearing your own -name, to one of the art museums at home, at no cost to yourself." - -Kane smoked thoughtfully. "I presume, Mr. Doane," he said, "that the -predicament you spoke of can not interfere in any way with the safe -delivery of the collections." - -Doane considered. How much did this man know? That Japanese, behind his -mask of a smile, would be deep, of course. With a sudden sinking of the -heart, Doane perceived that Kane might easily know the whole story. But -even if he did he would admit nothing. He trusted no one; that was his -calm cynical strength. He would trade to the last.... Another swift, if -random, perception of this tense moment was that much of the common talk -regarding the "inscrutable" East was utter nonsense. Read in the -light of history and habit the Oriental mind was anything but deeply -mysterious; it was, indeed, very nearly an open book. Whereas the -Western mind, with its miraculous religion, its sentimentality and -materialism and (at the same time) its cynically unscrupulous financial -power, could be baffling indeed. - -Desperate now, seeing no other way through, Doane spoke out from his -tortured heart. "Mr. Kane, the simple fact is that his excellency has -been condemned to death, and his daughter to a fate that will -almost certainly end in death for her as well. They are seizing his -property...." - -"Who are they?" - -"The Imperial Government--the empress dowager and her crew. They are -sending the chief eunuch, Chang Yuan-fu, to take his paintings and -jewels, and his daughter, to Peking. Frankly, it may be necessary to -hurry matters--smuggle the things out. But the fan paintings can be -packed in parcels, the scrolls rolled small on their ivory sticks, the -jewels gathered in a few boxes. Once in white hands they would be safe. -I think. I believe I can arrange it. The porcelains and carvings you -would probably have to leave behind." - -His voice died out. Dawley Kane was coolly appraising him. Their minds -were not meeting. - -"As you are stating it now, it is a different situation altogether," -said Kane, the ring of tempered metal in his voice. "Obviously the man -to deal with is the eunuch, What's-his-name." - -"But--really--" - -"He would have the collections complete including the porcelains and the -carvings. I should want them all. He would be ignorant and corrupt, of -course; we could buy him for a song. And there would be no risk. Yes, -let him get possession. Then if you would like to approach him for me I -will be glad to see that you make something for yourself." - -Doane drew in his breath. Slowly he said: "But that, Mr. Kane, seems a -good deal like taking a profit out of the viceroy's misfortune." - -But he caught himself. To Kane, who had made enormous profits out of -wrecked railways, who had cornered stocks and produce and mercilessly -squeezed the short sellers, this would be sentimentality. - -Doane heard himself saying: "I'm sorry. I could hardly undertake it, Mr. -Kane." And walked away. His failure was complete. Worse, if there had -been any gaps in the information supplied by the ubiquitous little -Kato, they were filled now. The finely balanced machine that served so -smoothly as a brain in the head of the great American, would be working -on and on. Through the Japanese he could easily enough reach Chang -Yuan-fu from Hankow after the tragedy that now hovered so close over the -old viceroy and all that was his. He could make what he and his suave -kind would doubtless regard--the slang word came grimly--as a killing. - -The white men had made a small fire of dry rushes and thwarts from the -boats. There sat Hui Fei, the sleeping little princess in her arms; and, -beside her, Rocky Kane. Near by, where the men had spread coats on the -ground, Miss Means and Miss Andrews slept side by side. - -Doane walking toward the group--stopping, moving away only to turn -irresolutely back--saw young Kane reach over and take the child into his -own arms, and saw Hui Fei smile at him. He strode away then, struggling -to believe that she could do that. But she had.... After all, she knew -only that he had acted outrageously toward her, had then apologized -publicly, boyishly, and now had brought her little sister ashore, -himself falling exhausted on the bank. With those few facts, out of her -impulsively young judgment she could strike a balance in his favor. Even -at his worst he had bluntly admired her; for that she might, in the end, -forgive him. And his youth would call to her. - -Deane, indeed, forced himself to consider the boy dispassionately. The -wild oats of any spoiled youth with too much money at his disposal, -if brought together, and closely scrutinized, would make an appalling -showing. Wild young men did, of course, recover. There was in this boy a -note of intensity--passionate, eager--that was by no means all egotism. -And there was in the father a hard sort of character that had proved -itself indomitable, and that must be taken into account. Yes, it was a -simple fact, that many a young fellow had gone farther wrong than had -Rocky Kane without wrecking his adult life. You couldn't tell. And -there they were, the eager moody boy and the lovely girl, who was oddly, -quaintly conspicuous in her opera wrap, sitting very close, talking -in low tones while he walked alone. It was torture.... yet it wras an -awakening. He told himself that it was better so... Pacing back and -forth, dwelling on the quick changeableness of youth, its ardor and -sensitive hopefulness, he thought--reaching out for fellowship as -will always the hurt soul--of other lonely lives, of Abelard and Jean -Valjean, of St. Francis, even of Christ. It was odd--from his present -philosophical position of something near Taoism he felt the legendary -Christ as a profoundly human and friendly spirit, immeasurably more -tender, finer, gentler than the theological structure of thought and -conduct that had been erected in His name. He had thought himself very -nearly around the circle, back to essential good.... This process could -bring only humility. Life began to matter less. Love was a tormenting -problem of self; the mature soul must in some measure attain -selflessness if it were not to go down in the trampled dust of life. -Worldly success was an accident. It was hardly desirable; hardly -mattered. That he had within the hour pinned his hope to money, fairly -fought for it, began to seem incredible. - -The viceroy found hint standing quietly by the river, turning from the -slowly dying fire out there to the slowly spreading glow in the eastern -sky. - -"I like to think," remarked his excellency, smiling in friendly fashion, -"that when the first Buddhist patriarch, Bodhidharma, miraculously -crossed the river on a reed plucked from the southern bank, it was not -far from here, near my home." - -"Was not your city of Huang Chau the home of Li To?" asked Doane. - -"Indeed, yes!" cried his excellency. "In some of his excursions on the -river he undoubtedly passed the site of my home." - -Doane quoted from that most famous of rhapsodists in musical Chinese: -"'One who has hearkened to the waters roaring down from the heights of -Lung, and faint voices from the land of Ch'in; one who has listened to -the cries of monkeys on the shores of the Yangtze Kiang and the songs -of the land of Pa'.... That"--he was musing aloud, reflectively as the -Chinese do--"was written three full centuries before William of Normandy -first set foot on British soil.... Li Po so described himself." - -They talked on, of life and philosophy, in, language interwoven with -classical allusions. Friendship, the finest relationship in Chinese -civilization, as it stood, had come to them.... It brought a kind of -peace. Doane failed to recognize this sensation as in some degree but -a phase of his painful exaltation. It seemed to him then that his -struggle, no matter what atonement might lie before, was over. He forgot -again the Western vigor that was, and to the last would be, driving his -spirit. - -Meanwhile the swiftly growing acquaintanceship of Huj Fei and Rocky Kane -was weaving its bright-tinted weft in and out through the dark warp of -Rocky's ill-spent youth. His eyes followed the slightest movement of her -slim hands and rested dog-like on her finely modeled head about which -the shining wet black hair lay close. To his quick youth she was an -exquisite fairy. He felt her as perfume in the air he breathed. Her -voice, when she drowsily, prettily spoke, fell on his ear like music -in an enchanted land. He could say little; he had never before so lost -himself. - -She tried daintily to conceal a yawn. And he, clasping the child in both -arms, turned away to hide its brother. Then, very softly, she laughed -and he laughed. - -"You must try to sleep," he said gently. - -"I can no' let you keep my sister. You, too, are ver' tire'." - -"It's nothing. I love to hold her. Really! You see, my life hasn't been -this way. Maybe, if I'd had a sister..." He stopped; suddenly, vividly -sensing what he had been; a hot flush flooded his sensitive face. He -could only add then: "I want you to sleep. It may be hours before -the boat comes for you. It's been such a horrible night--such a -nightmare...." - -"But you mus' res', too. One of the servan's will take my sister." - -"No!" he cried, low, fiercely, "I won't let any one else have her!" -Sensing crudely that the child was a chord between them, he tightened -his hold. The little head rolled back on his arm; he bent over, tenderly -kissed the soft cheek, then looked over it at Hui Fei, staring. During -one brief moment their eyes met full in the flickering yellow light. - -She turned away; in lieu of speech looked about for a spot to lay her -head. - -"Here!" He laid the child on the ground; and, surprised to find himself -collarless and coatless, took off his waistcoat, rolled it up and placed -it for a pillow. "It's really pretty well dried out," he added, with an -embarrassed little laugh.... Then, as she still said nothing, went -on, "Do just lie down there. I'll keep awake. We can't count on the -servants; they're all scared to death." - -Still she hesitated. "I'm afraid I am ver' tire'," she finally remarked -unsteadily. "I can't think ver' clearly." - -"Listen!" said he, hardly hearing. "I've got to tell you something. I'm -not good enough so much as to speak to you." - -"Please!" she murmured. "I don' wan' you to talk abou'--" - -"I don't mean that. It's other things too." His voice broke, but after a -moment he pressed on, a determined look on his curiously youthful face. -"I've done every rotten thing I could think of. I'm--well, I guess I'm -just a criminal. No, listen--please! It's true. I'm to blame for this -awful fire--smoking opium in my cabin. It was my lamp--it must have -been. I fell asleep. But I knew better, of course.... Oh, God, it's -terrible! All those lives, all this suffering! And you--I've nearly -killed you--when it was you...." Here, creditably, he caught himself. -"Don't think I'm talking wildly. I'm getting at something. Seeing you, -meeting you--and now, this--well, I've never seen anybody like you. It's -bowled me off my feet. I know what love is, now--Oh, please! I've got -to get this out. I love you. I'm crazy about you. I can say that because -pretty soon that boat'll come and you'll go and I'll never see you -again. It's right, too! I've got to start again--alone and prove that -there's good stuff in me somewhere..." - -"I'm ver' tire'," she murmured wistfully; and resting her head on the -rolled-up waistcoat she lay still. - -If she had only let him finish! There had been something--some point--he -was getting at. He hadn't meant to tire her or hurt her.... When the tall -eunuch came for the little princess he angrily drove the fellow away. -For Hui Fei was sleeping now, peacefully, like the warm little child in -his arms. - -An English gunboat was the first relief craft to arrive; in the cool -dawn; a tiny craft, built for the river, with a white freeboard low as -a monitor's and bridge structure forward of the thin high funnel. The -small boat that came ashore made a number of trips, taking off the -passengers and the surviving white officers of the _Yen Hsin_. - -His excellency refused, with calm courtesy, to set foot on the English -gunboat that was built for the river; he would wait for the junk that -had been sent for. - -Dawley Kane found his son, nodding, with the picturesquely-clad child -in his arms. The boy, glancing at the sleeping Hui Fei whose head -rested comfortably on the rolled-up waistcoat, gave the child now to the -patiently waiting eunuch, then fairly dragged his father to the boat. -With the Japanese, Kato, and oddly distant to the big mate and the -suddenly exotic-appearing viceroy in his richly embroidered satins who -had been after all only casually, for a few days, in their lives, they -embarked. - -They had nearly reached the gunboat when those on the bank heard young -Kane's voice raised in hot protest. There was a moment of argument; then -a splash. The boy could be seen then swimming back to shore. And Dawley -Kane, turning his back, went on to the gunboat, stepped aboard, and -disappeared. Rocky clambered, dripping, up the bank; came straight to -Duane, a staring, exhausted youth, very white. - -"I can't do it." he panted. "They're just told me--Kato and the -pater--about this terrible trouble of the viceroy's and--and Miss -Hui Fei's.... The pater said it was time I--got clear of any new -entanglement. I quit him. Oh, I suppose you'll think me a--damn fool, -but"--at this point he nearly broke into tears--"but I love that -girl, Mr. Doane! If I can't be of some use to her--now, in this awful -trouble--I don't want to live. Will you--help me? And let me help?".... -And, all blind confidence, he offered his hand to the big mate; who took -it. - -The gunboat hoisted anchor and swung about, heading down-stream. Passing -her, upward bound, came a large junk, with the rig of a trader from -Szechuen, her single huge rectangular sail, brown-umber 'n tint and -closely ribbed with battens of bamboo, flat against the one mast that -towered clumsily amidships. The eight long sweeps, in the low waist and -forward, moved rhythmically in time with the syncopated, wailing chant -of nearly a hundred oarsmen. The _tai-kung_ crouched, bamboo pole in -hand, just within the prow. - -The hull was of cypress, stained from stem to stern with yellow orpiment -and rubbed to a polish with oil. The high after-deck structure, all of -fifty feet in length, terminating in a projecting gallery-twenty feet or -higher above the water, was carved everywhere in intricately decorative -designs; as were, also, the roof over the tillerman's stand on the -deck house and the gallery railing (just within which stood a row of -flowering plants in yellow and green pots). The many small windows along -the sides were glazed with opalescent squares of ground oyster shells -and glue; those across the stern (under the gallery) with stained glass. - -To no one aboard the gunboat or among the still waiting groups on the -bank did the thought occur that this craft might be engaged in other -than peaceable business. Her like were not an uncommon sight along the -always crowded river. The passing attention she drew was merely that -aroused by a richly decorative object moving beautifully (with a -remarkably detailed reflection) through the flat water, that itself -glowed under the red and gold of the early morning sky like a great -sheet of burnished old copper. It was not observed that three white -faces peered warily out of the shadow, behind as many opened windows; -nor could it easily be seen that the figure in blue, sitting, knees -drawn up, on the deck house just behind the _laopan_ who mercilessly -urged on the sweat-shining oarsmen, was none other than the redoubtable -Tom Sung. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII--ABOARD THE YELLOW JUNK - -|IN making their escape from the steamer, Tex Connor and the Manila -Kid seized one of the small boats, manning, one at either end, the -tackle-falls. Connor was quick, rough, profane. The Kid, breathless with -excitement, hesitant, glancing back over the rail for a thinly girlish -face that did not, then, appear, worked with ten thumbs at the ropes. -Connor's end, the boat, fell first, a short way, nearly pitching him -out. He cursed this futile man, his jackal, roundly; then clung to the -tackle as the stern fell.... The Kid moaned with pain as the slipping -hemp burned the skin off his fingers, but held it just short of -disaster. - -Hot red flames licked out overhead as the boat jerkily dropped. The -women were screaming up there. A white man, the second mate, leaned -over, swearing vigorously at them. They passed an open freight gangway, -where bodies lay. - -"Ready, now!" cried Connor. "Let go with me!" - -"Wait a minute, can't you?" whined the Kid. He was peering into the dark -interior of the steamer; grasping a moment more; wrapping a handkerchief -about his left hand. "My God! Can't a fellow tie up his hand." - -A thin blue figure appeared, stepped lightly over into the boat and -dropped on a middle thwart. - -"Dixie!" cried the Kid in falsetto. - -She wore a cap, and carried an oddly lady-like shopping bag. - -"Where'd you come from?" growled Connor. - -"I saw you start," said the girl casually. "Come on--let's get away." - -Connor stared at her; then turned back to his work. The boat struck the -water and drifted rapidly away down-stream. Connor, roaring angrily at -the Kid, got out an oar. - -"What are you doing?" asked Miss Carmichael very quietly. - -"Going ashore?" said Connor. - -"Oh, come, Tex!" said she. "Use your head." - -He looked sharply, inquiringly, doubtingly at her. - -"You two better row straight down-stream as hard as you can," she added. -"You can bet Tom Sung and that gang aren't going to show themselves at -Kiu Kiang. They've stopped somewhere below here." - -The Kid, who was nursing his hand, looked up; wrinkled his low forehead -that was hatless, and then softly whistled. Connor made no remark, but -continued studying the girl with his one eye. Finally, with an effort at -reasserting his authority, he growled: - -"Take an oar, Jim!" - -"But my hands! My God, that rope took all the--" - -"Do you expect me to do the rowing, Jim?" said Miss Carmichael. - -The Kid yielded then. The girl settled herself comfortably in the stem, -looking back at the fire. Soon they were out of the circle of light. - -Suddenly Connor drew in his oar; stowed it away. - -"Dixie," he remarked. "You've made up your mind to go through with this -business, eh?" - -"Certainly," she replied. - -"You'll have to come across if you want my help. I won't go it blind." - -Miss Carmichael glanced back at the red glow in the sky, then out toward -the slightly paling East. - -"I'll tell you by sunrise," she said. "The thing won't keep much longer -than that, anyhow. It'll have to be fairly quick work." - -"All right," said Connor. "That's an agreement. Now I'm going to take -a nap. This current's taking us down fast enough. When you sight Tom's -outfit, wake me up." With which he curled up in the bow, and soon was -snoring. - -The Kid stowed his own oar, and crept to the girl's side. - -"Careful!" she whispered. "If he should wake up...." She extricated -herself from an encircling arm. "Jim--sit still now!--It's time you and -I had an understanding. I need you, and I'm going to use you. I don't -propose to have you all steamed up, either. You'll need all the nerve -you've got. Perhaps more. I'm not at all sure that you're big enough for -what you've got to do. That's the difficulty." - -"You promised, Dixie." He was still absurdly breathless. "You said it -was a trade--if I'd stick to you, you'd stick to me!" - -"Certainly. But it's during the next eight or ten hours that you're -going to find out what sticking to me, means. You can have me, all -right, Jim, but you've got to earn me." - -"I guess I'll earn you, all right." - -"I wonder if you have the courage." - -"By God, for you, Dixie--" - -Her hand fell lightly on his; and her voice, very small and calm, broke -in with: "Supposing I told you to kill a man. Would you do it?" - -She heard, felt, his breath stop. Then he whispered, with one swift -glance at the sleeping Connor: "If I say yes, Dixie, will you kiss me? -Right now?" - -She pressed her lips slightly; then replied: "No. Not yet. And you -needn't kill anybody until I tell you to." - -"Is it--is it"--his whisper was huskier--"is it--him, Dixie?" He was -staring with less certainty now, at Connor. - -"No"--said she slowly--"nobody in particular. But anything may happen -to-night, Jim. And we can't falter. Not now." - -She let him press her hand during a brief moment; then made him resume -his seat. And from behind lowered lids she watched him. - -Once he came back, to ask hoarsely: "You said he was rough with you, -Dix. Did he--did you and he--my God, if I thought that Tex had--" - -She caught his shoulder and placed a hand over his mouth: held him thus -while she said: "If he catches you back here, Jim, he'll kill you. No -fear! Now you go back there and show me that you can play cards. You're -sitting in the biggest game of your life. Jim Watson." - -He crept back; puzzled, something hurt. There was a sting in her voice. -Could it be that the girlish Dixie was as cold-blooded as that? Treating -him like a child! Hadn't she any feelings? The question came around and -around in his muddy brain, confused with frantic uprushes of jealousy -against the big man who slept and snored in the bow.... hadn't she any -feelings?.... She was excitingly desirable. - -Just as a conquest, now; something to brag about. - -It was Dixie who sighted the soldiers, sitting in heated argument on the -bank not a hundred yards below a big junk that lay moored to stakes in -an eddy. She called sharply to Connor; they pulled straight in beside -the other two boats. - -Tom Sung came to the water's edge, a rifle (with set bayonet) in his -hand. Connor stepped out, holding the boat. The Kid, with a furtive, -glance at the big yellow fighter, and the abruptly silent shadowy group -on the bank, cautiously got out an automatic pistol and held it beside -him on the thwart. - -Dixie said sharply, for Connor's ears: "Put up that gun, Jim!" - -The Kid obeyed. - -She spoke then to Connor direct. - -"Tell your man we want that junk," she said. "Get out these other boats -and take it, quick. Then we'll start back up-stream." - -For a moment Connor was nonplussed. The girl's assumption of authority -was complete. Even the slow-thinking Tom Sung felt her presence and -turned abruptly from himself toward her. - -But, though angered, Connor controlled himself. She meant, after all, -business. Dixit wasn't a girl to make careless mistakes. She knew, none -better, what any success, little or big, might be worth in risks run. -So, speaking sharply, he gave his orders to Tom. - -Quietly the twenty or more outlaw soldiers came down to the boats and -pushed off. Rowing and paddling they crept up on the junk. A drowsy -watchman peeped over at the rail, forward. - -Then they were alongside. Catching at the mooring poles, the soldiers -stepped out on the wide sponson that curved down, amidships, nearly to -the water-line. Quickly, rifles slung on backs but revolvers at their -girdles and knives in their teeth, they went up the ropes hand over -hand, their bare feet dinging monkeylike to the smooth side. - -There were cries aboard now, and a confusion of running feet. The first -soldier to get a leg over the rail came tumbling back with a split -skull, bounding off the sponson into the water and sinking as he drifted -away. - -Connor and the Kid caught together at the sponson. Connor stepped -out; and calling on a belated soldier to give him a back, climbed -laboriously, puffing but determined, up over the rail, pausing at the -top only to call back for the Kid to follow. - -But that worthy hesitated, crouching, clutching at the boat painter. -"I've got to hold the boat here!" he shouted back; but Connor had -disappeared. - -There was much noise up there now--shouts, groans, appalling screeches, -shots, and that insistent pattering of feet. - -Dixie, watching critically the crouching figure on the sponson--for -the Kid was shivering and making little sounds, obviously caught in the -acute physical distress into which extreme sudden fear will at times -plunge a man--called abruptly: "Jim--look up!" - -A nearly naked Chinese was lowering himself in a deliberate gingerly -manner down a moving rope nearly overhead. - -"Kill him, Jim!" Dixie added. - -Singling out her clear voice from the tumult, the yellow man looked -fearfully down. - -The Kid, at the same moment, looked up; then, fumbling in a curiously -absent way for his pistol, glanced back at Dixie. - -"I'll hold the boat," said she. "Go on--kill him!" She sat quietly, one -thin arm reached out to the nearest mooring pole, looking steadily up. - -The Kid, nerving himself, suddenly burst into a storm of wild oaths and -shot three times into the body above him. At the first shot the mar. -slipped down a little way. - -"Push him away!" Dixie cried sharply. "I don't want him falling into the -boat!" - -He was shooting again; and then with an effort diverted the falling -body. - -Dixie got up, and stood steadying herself in the gently rocking boat; -and the Kid--quit; out of breath now, and muttering, as he fondled the -hot pistol, "Well, I did it, didn't I? I did what you said!"--found in -her eyes, shining through the dusk of early dawn, a bright white -light that was, to him, disconcerting and yet profoundly thrilling. He -shivered again as he felt the spell of her strange genius. What a woman, -he was thinking again, but wildly, madly, now, to conquer. - -And she was saying, "I guess your nerve's all right." - -Other shining yellow bodies were tumbling over the side and floating -away. - -"Help me up there, Jim!" she commanded. "Never mind tying the boat--let -it go! It's only a giveaway. Quick--give me a hand!" - -She was beside him on the sponson. He clasped her in his arms; but -before he could kiss her she slapped him sharply. "Keep your head!" she -commanded. "Put me up there!" - -He lifted her high; until she could kneel, then stand, on his shoulder. -She went over the rail as lightly as a boy. She found the soldiers in -small groups cornering one or another of the crew, torturing and hacking -at them with bayonets and knives, and during a brief moment looked -on with a curious keen interest. The master, or _laopan_, crouched, -whimpering, on the poop.... She saw Connor standing by the mast, just -above the well, amidships and forward, where were huddled the survivors -among the crew (their number surprisingly large); Connor was panting, -revolver in hand, and scowling about him. - -Dixie stepped to his side. - -"You've got to save enough of this crew to work the boat up the river, -Tex," she remarked. - -"I'm saving enough of 'em," he replied gruffly. "We've only killed a -dozen or so. There was more'n a hundred." - -The heavily evil-looking Tom Sung reluctantly detached himself from one -of the groups and came over, wiping his bayonet casually on his sleeve. -Him Connor roughly ordered to gather his men together and make ready to -get under way. To the Kid, who came awkwardly over the rail just then, -Connor gave merely a glance. Then to Dixie, he said: - -"Come up here!" - -He led the way up the steps with the carven hand rail to the poop; gave -the _laopan_ a careless kick; stepped around the steersman's covered pit -and out astern on the high projecting gallery. - -"Now," he said, fixing his one eye on Her, "where's this place?" - -She turned away to the pots of flowers that stood closely spaced just -within the elaborate woodwork of the railing. There were chrysanthemums, -white, yellow and deep Indian red; highly cultivated double dahlias; -red lotus blossoms; and tuberoses that filled the fresh morning air with -their heavy perfume. "Well?" Connor added explosively. - -"I said I'd tell you by sunrise, Tex," she said, coolly pleasant; and -hummed, very softly, a music-hall tune, bending over a spreading lotus -blossom with every appearance of ingenuous girlish interest. After a -moment, she went on, "The thing now is to get this junk up the river as -fast as it will go." - -"Where to?" He was controlling his voice, but his face, usually -expressionless, was brutally clouded...."Push me just a little farther, -Dix, and you'll go overboard. And there won't be any flowers at the -funeral. By God, I'm not sure I wouldn't enjoy it. You got me into this -business! Now if you--" - -"Better control yourself, Tex," said she; straightening up before -him. "I may have got you in, but it's a real job now. You've got to go -through. And you're going to need me. The place is a few miles this side -of a town called Huang Chau, on the north hank." - -"Beyond Hankow?" - -"No, below. It's only a matter of hours getting up there, if you'll just -get this junk started." - -"How'll we know it when we get there?" - -"All we've got to do is ask a native, anywhere along the bank, where -Kang Yu lives--his old home." - -"Who's he?" - -"The viceroy of Nanking. Why don't you use that eye of yours once in a -while, Tex--look around you a little?" - -Slowly his mind, so quick at the vicious games of his own race, picked -up and related the facts. His face relaxed, as he thought, into the -familiar wooden expression. - -"You're sure the stones are there?" he asked, quietly now. - -She nodded; hummed again; caressed the flowers. - -"All right, Dix," he said then, as he turned to go forward, "that sounds -square enough. I guess I can handle it all right. And I'll see that you -get your share all hunky dory." - -"What are you figuring my share to be?" she asked, glancing casually up -from a lotus blossom. - -"Oh," he cried without hesitation, almost playfully, "you and I aren't -going to have any trouble about that." - -He went then; and she lingered among the flowers. - -From beyond the long deck house came shouts and wailing. The great -sweeps were got overside. The mooring poles were hoisted out and lashed -along the sponsons. The clumsy craft swung out into the river and moved -slowly forward. - -At the sound of a hasty light step Dixie looked up into the haggard gray -face of the Kid. - -"What was it?" he whispered, glancing fearfully behind him. "Wha'd he -say to you?" - -She dropped her eyes; turned away. - -"Quick! Tell me, or by God, I'll--" - -She threw up a frail white hand. - -"Not now, Jim!" - -"When?" - -"He'll have to sleep. There's work ahead." - -"If you think _I_ can sleep--" - -"I can't either, Jim. It's dreadful. But I'm going to tell you -everything. You have a right to know. Wait till we're past the steamer. -We'd better get below now anyhow. We mustn't be seen. If we aren't, -they'll never suspect this junk. Then make sure he's asleep and come up -here. I'll be waiting." - -The Kid brought Dixie's breakfast of rice and eggs and tea to the -gallery. - -"The cook was only wounded a little," he explained. "Tom's got him -working now." - -Dixie was reclining on a Canton chair of green rushes over a bamboo -frame, her head resting languidly near the tuberoses. Now and again she -drew in deeply the rich odor. And beyond the fringe of flowers and the -carven railing she could see the river. Junks moved slowly by, sliding -down with the current--somber seagoing craft out of Tientsin and Cheefoo -and Swatow and even Canton. By a village were clustered open sampans, -and slipper-boats with their coverings of arched matting. The small -craft of the fishermen with suspended nets or with roosting, crowding -cormorants clustered here and there along the channel-way. Everywhere -farmers and their coolies were at work in the fields. A family--father, -mother, boys and girls--worked tirelessly with their feet a large -irrigating wheel at the water's edge. - -The Kid seated himself on the deck and mournfully looked on while she -ate. Perversely she delayed her narrative, playing with time and life. -In her oblique way she was happy, exercising her gift for gambling on a -scale new in her experience. Indeed, for the thrill she now experienced, -Dixie Carmichael would have paid almost any price. Life itself--the mere -existing---she held almost as cheaply as the Chinese. Deliberately, with -nerves steady as steel instruments, she finished her simple breakfast -and then put the bowls aside on the deck. - -Lying back, averting her face, gazing off down the river, she began -the narrative that she had framed within the hour. Her manner, calm at -first, soon offered evidences of deeply suppressed emotion. Her voice -exhibited the first unsteadiness the Kid had ever heard in it. She -drew out an embroidered handkerchief from the pocket of her blouse -and pressed it once or twice to her eyes, as, with an air of dogged -determination, she talked on. - -The narrative itself dealt with her girlhood near San Francisco, her -chance meeting with Tex Connor, then a well-known character on the -western coast of America, her girlish infatuation with him, and an -elopement that she had supposed would end in marriage. Instead she found -her life ruined. Connor had beaten her, degraded her, driven her into -vice. She ran away from him; reached the China Coast; settled down -with every intent to become what she termed, in his and her language, a -square gambler. - -"When I took up with you a little last year, Jim, it seemed to me that -at last I'd found a man I could tie to. You never knew my real feelings. -I'm not the kind that tells much or shows much. I guess perhaps my -life's been too hard. But--oh, Jim!--well, you're, seeing the real girl -now. I'm pretty well beaten down, Jim.... You're getting the truth from -me at last. I've got to tell it--all of it--for your own sake. You're -in worse trouble than you know, right now. The cards are stacked -against you, Jim. Your life even"--her voice broke; but she got it under -control--"I'm going to save you if I can." - -Moodily he watched her. - -"If it was anybody but Tex! He's merciless. He's strong. He never -forgets.... Listen, Jim! Tex came clear from London to find me. And -he found out about--us--you and me. That I was growing fond of you. He -never forgets and he never forgives. Oh. Jim, can't you see it! Can't -you see that that's why he took you on--so he could watch you, keep you -away from me? Can't you see what a game I've had to play? God, if you'd -heard what he said to me back here this very morning--Oh, it's too -awful! I can't tell you! He's so determined! He gets his way, Jim--Tex -gets his way!.... Oh, what can I do!" - -"No, wait--I've got to tell you the whole thing. You said he was -planning to cross me. He'll do that, of course. I don't think I care -much about that. But you, Jim--oh, you poor innocent boy! If you could -only see! You'll never get your hands on one of the viceroy's jewels." - -She turned her face toward him. Her eyes now were swollen and wet with -tears. - -Jim, gray of face, held in his two hands a Chinese knife, balancing -it. There were stains on the blade. He must have picked it up, she -reflected, here on the junk. For it wouldn't be like him to carry such -a weapon. It seemed to her then that he was holding his breath. She saw -him moisten his blue lips with the tip of an ashen tongue. He was trying -to speak. At least his lips parted again. She waited. When the voice did -finally come, it was so hoarse that he had evident difficulty in making -it intelligible. - -"Tex may be strong--but if you think I'm afraid--" - -"Oh, Jim.... no, I don't mean that! Not that! Oh, I don't know what I'm -saying-! It's only when I think how happy you and I might be--think of -it! really rich! able to go and live decently somewhere, like regular -folks!" - -Silently, with surprising stealthy swiftness, he got to his feet. His -right hand, with the knife, busied itself in a side pocket of his coat. - -"Say the word, Dixie"--his face was contorted with the muscular effort -necessary to produce this small sound--"say the word, and I'll kill -him." - -"Oh, no, Jim!" she covered her face with her thin hands, and sobbed, -very low. "Oh God, what can we do? Isn't there some other way?" - -"Say the word," he whispered. - -"Would it be"--she broke down again--"would it be--where a man's a -devil, where he's threatened--wouldn't it be like defending ourselves?" - -"Say the word!" - -"Oh, Jim---God forgive me!.... Yes!" - -Her lips barely framed the word. But he read it. She watched him as -he stepped around the huge coils of tracking rope on the roof of the -steersman's pit; watched until he dropped softly down and disappeared. - -Then, lying back, very still, she listened. But the oarsmen were -chanting up forward, the _laopan_ shouting; nearer, the steersman was -singing an apparently endless falsetto narrative (as if there had -never been bloodshed). The minutes slowly passed. She drew in the sweet -exhalation of the tuberoses.... still no unusual sound. She herself -exhibited no sign of excitement beyond the hint of a cryptic smile and -the white light in her eyes.... Her shopping bag lay on her lap. Opening -it, she looked at the bracelet watch, that nestled close to a small -triangular bottle of green corrosive sublimate tablets.... The gentle -wash of the current against the hull gave out a soothing sound. The -slowly rising sun beat warmly down, and the polished deck radiated the -heat. A sensation of drowsiness was stealing over her. For a short while -she fought it off; but then, deciding that no anxiety on her part could -be of value, she yielded, closed the bag on her lap, and drifted into -slumber. - -It was pleasantly warmer still. She felt her eyes about to -open--slowly--on a presence. This languor was delicious. As an almost -ascetic epicure in sensations she rested a moment longer in it, thinking -dreamily of priceless gems heaped in her hollowed hands; of luxurious -idleness in some exotic port--Singapore, or Penang (she had loved the -tropical splendor of Penang), or in Burmah or India--Rangoon say, or -even Lucknow, Lahore and Simla. They would know less about her there. -And with the means to operate on a larger scale she should be able to -add enormously to her wealth. She decided to dress and act differently; -make a radical change in her methods. - -Her lips parted. The presence before her--coatless, little cap pushed -back off the low forehead--was Connor. He had pushed aside a flower pot -to make a seat on the rail. - -She closed her eyes again. He still wore the gray flannels and the white -shoes with the rubber soles-It would be the shoes that had enabled him -to approach without awakening her. He was smoking a cigar And the face -was wooden again--save for his eye--He at stared oddly at her. And she -thought his breathing somewhat short, just at first. - -She opened her eyes again. - -"I've had a good nap," she said. - -He smoked, and stared. - -"Where's Jim?" she asked then; quite casually: raising herself on an -elbow. - -He made no reply; smoked on, still a thought breathless, fixing her with -his eyes. - -"He brought me some breakfast, just before I fell asleep.... What time -is it?" - -For what seemed a long space he did not even answer this; merely smoked -and stared. She had never, sensitively keen as were her perceptions, -felt so curious a hostility in Connor. She had hitherto supposed that -she understood him, short as had been their actual acquaintance---her -narrative of a past with him in America, as related to Jim, was -false--but the man before her now, sitting all but motionless on the -railing, smoking with an odd rapid intensity, holding that cold eye on -her, was wholly alien. - -Finally he replied: "It's afternoon." - -"No!" She sat up. "Have we been going right along?" - -"Right along." - -She stood erect; covered a yawn; then with her thin hands smoothed down -the wrinkled blue skirt about her hips. - -"I look like the devil," she remarked. The thin hands went to her hair. -"You haven't noticed any sort of a mirror in the cabin, have you, Tex?" - -He did not reply. - -Faintly through the still air came a faint sound--a boom--boom-bom. - -"What's that?" she asked sharply. - -"Fighting around Hankow." - -"We're not way up there?" She stepped to the side and looked out ahead. -"There's a city!" - -"Tom says it's Huang Chau." - -"Hello! We're there!" - -He inclined his head. - -"What are you going to do?" - -"Tie up here." - -She heard now other and more confused sounds. The junk was slowing down; -working in toward the yellow shallows. - -"Now listen!" said he. She glanced at him, then away, apparently -considering the quiet landscape; alien he was indeed, and hostile, his -manner that of an inarticulate man struggling with a set speech.... -"Listen! You're smart enough. But I want you to understand I don't trust -you.'' - -"Don't you, Tex?" - -"When I go ashore, you're to stay here--right here on this deck--where -you are now." - -"What's the big idea, Tex?" - -"There'll be men to see that you do stay here. I want you to get this -straight." - -"Of course," said she musingly, "you won't be able to rob me outright. -You'll have to give me enough of a share to keep me quiet afterward." - -He said nothing. - -"But what's to prevent the crew from getting away with the junk. I'm not -very keen about being carried off that way." - -"You needn't worry. I'm taking the master along with me." - -He stood then; looked meaningly at her; then went forward. She noted -that his two hip pockets bulged. - -Slowly the long narrow craft was worked in toward the land. Trackers -sculled ashore in sampans and made the great hawsers fast to stakes. -Then the crew, with a deal of shouting and many casual blows, were -assembled in the long well forward of the mast, where they huddled -abjectly. - -Keeping around the steersman's house, Dixie contrived to take in much -of the scene. There was quarreling among the soldiers. Tom Sung towered -over them, shouting rough orders. The two men that were told off (she -judged to guard her and the junk) appeared to be objecting to their part -in the affair. Obviously there would be small loot here. - -Connor came back over the deck house; stood angrily over her. She sensed -the mounting brutality in him. For that matter, his sort and their ways -with women were familiar enough to her. She had learned to take brutal -men for granted. But it had not occurred to her that Connor would strike -her. However, he did. Knocked her to her knees; then to her face; even -kicked her as she lay on the deck. He was suddenly loud, wild. - -"None o' this peeking around!" he cried. "Keep your eyes where they -belong!" And left her there. - -After a little she was able to creep to the rail and peer out through -the flowers. Frightened members of the crew were sculling the sampans -back and forth, until at length the whole party, every man except the -_laopan_ armed, fully assembled, set off inland. - -Beyond an unpleasant headache she felt no injury. She sat for a little -while; then again looked forward. The two guards were on the deck house, -talking excitedly together. While she watched they climbed down, shouted -at the huddled crew, fired a careless shot or two into the mass of them -that brought down at least one. At length two of the crew went over -the side, followed by the soldiers. A moment later the sampan appeared -moving toward the shore, the two soldiers loudly urging on the oarsmen. - -Dixie, swiftly then, rearranging her disordered hair as she walked, went -down into the cabin. - -A corridor extended along one side from the _laopans_ quarters under the -steersman's house--sounds of stifled weeping came from there, apparently -a woman or a girl--forward to the open space amidships. The rooms all -gave on this corridor, the doorways hung with curtains of blue cotton -cloth. Into one and another of these rooms she looked There was bentwood -furniture and bedding in each---the latter tossed about. On the walls -hung neat ideographic mottoes. The grillwork about the windows and over -the doors was of a uniform and quaint design. - -Connor had taken for himself the rear room There she found, beneath the -window a heap of matting and bedding. Thoughtfully, deliberately, she -lifted it off, piece by piece, exposing first a foot and leg, then a -bony hand, finally the entire figure of what had been Jim Watson, known, -of recent years, along Soochow Road and Bubbling Well Road as the Manila -Kid. His clothing was slashed and torn in many places. About his middle, -and about his head, were wide pools of blood that during a number of -hours, evidently, had been drying into the boards of the deck. The neck, -she observed, on closer examination, had been cut through nearly to the -vertebrae. - -During a swift moment she considered the grew-some problem; then -carefully replaced the matting and bedding. - -She went forward then to the end of the corridor; paused to look in her -shopping bag, open the triangular bottle and drop a few of the green -pills into the pocket of her middy blouse, under her handkerchief; -closed the bag and stepped out on the low midships deck. - -The sampan had just returned to the junk. The two soldiers were walking; -rapidly inland after Connor's party. She let herself quickly over the -side; stepped into the sampan; waved toward the shore. Meekly the cowed -oarsmen obeyed the pantomime order. - -She stepped out on the bank, very slim, almost pretty; tossed a Chinese -Mexican dollar into the boat, watched, with a faint, reflective smile, -the two primitive creatures as they fought over it; then walked briskly, -not without a trace of native elegance in her carriage, after the -soldiers, lightly swinging her shopping bag. - - - - -CHAPTER IX--IN A GARDEN - -|THE road--narrow, worn to a deep-rutted little canyon--circled a brown -hill, rose into a mud-gray village, where a few listless children played -among the dogs, and a few apathetic beggars, and vendors of cakes, -and wrinkled old women stared at the thin white girl who walked rapidly -and alone; wound on below the surface of the cultivated fields; came, -at length, to a wall of gray-brick crowned with tiles of bright yellow -glaze and a ridge-piece of green, and at last to a gate house with a -heavily ornamented roof of timbers and tiles. Other roofs appeared just -beyond, and interlacing foliage that was tinged, here and there, with -the red and yellow and bronze of autumn. - -The great gates, of heavy plank studded with iron spikes, stood open, -apparently unattended. Dixie Carmichael paused; pursed her lips. Her -coolly searching eyes noted an incandescent light bulb set in the -massive lintel. This, perhaps, would be the place. Almost absently, -peering through into tiled courtyards, she took two of the green tablets -from her pocket; then, holding them in her hand, stepped within, and -stood listening. The rustling of the leaves, she heard, as they swayed -in a pleasant breeze, and a softly musical tinkling sound; then a murmur -that might be voices at a distance and in some confusion; and then, -sharply, with an unearthly thrill, the silver scream of a girl.... Yes, -this would be the place. - -The buildings on either hand were silent. Doors stood open. Paper -windows were tom here and there, and the woodwork broken in. But the -flowers and the dwarf trees from Japan that stood in jars of Ming -pottery were undisturbed. - -She passed through an inner gate and around a screen of brick and found -herself in a park. There was a waterfall in a rockery, and a stream, -and a tiny lake. A path led over a series of little arching bridges of -marble into the grove beyond; and through the trees there she -caught glimpses of elaborate yellow roofs. On either hand stood -_pai-lows_--decorative arches in the pretentious Chinese manner--and -beyond each a roofed pavilion built over a bridge.... She considered -these; after a moment sauntered under the _pai-low_ at her right, -mounted the steps and dropped on the ornamented seat behind a leafy -vine. Here she was sheltered from view, yet her eyes commanded both the -main gate and the way over the marble bridges to the buildings in the -grove. - -She looked about with a sense of quiet pleasure at the gilded fretwork -beneath the curving eaves of the pavilion, the painted scrolls above -them, and the smooth found columns of aged nanmu wood that was in -color like dead oak leaves and that still exhaled a vague perfume. The -tinkling sound set up again as another breeze wandered by; and looking -up she saw four small bells of bronze suspended from the eaves.... She -sat very still, listening, looking, thinking, drawing in with a deep -inhalation the exquisite fragrance of the nanmu wood. It might be -pleasant, one day, to lease or even buy a home like this. So ran her -alert thoughts. - -The murmuring from the buildings in the grove continued, now swelling a -little, now subsiding. It was not, of itself, an alarming sound, except -for an occasional muffled shot. Her quick imagination, however, pictured -the scene--they would be running about, calling to one another, beating -in doors, rummaging everywhere. The drunkenness would doubtless be -already under way. There would be much casual but ingenious cruelty, -an orgiastic indulgence in every uttermost thrill of sense. It would be -interesting to see; she even considered, her nerves tightening slightly -at the thought, strolling back there over the bridges; but held finally -to her first impulse and continued waiting here. - -A considerable time passed; half an hour or more. Then she glimpsed -figures approaching slowly through the grove. They emerged on the -farthest of the little marble bridges. One was Tex Connor; the second -perhaps--certainly--Tom Sung. They carried armfuls of small boxes, at -the sight of which Dixie's pulse again quickened slightly; for these -would be the jewels. Tom appeared to be talking freely; as they crossed -the middle bridge he broke into song; and he reeled jovially.... Connor -walked firmly on ahead. - -They stopped by the gate screen. Connor glanced cautiously about; then -moved aside into a tiled area that was hidden from the gate and the path -by quince bushes. He called to Tom who followed. - -Miss Carmichael could look almost directly down at them through the -leaves. She watched closely as they hurriedly opened the boxes and -filled their pockets with the gems. Tom used a stone to break the golden -settings of the larger diamonds, pearls and rubies. - -A low-voiced argument followed. She heard Tom say, "I come back, all -light. But I got have a girl!" And he lurched away. - -Connor, looking angrily after him, reached back to his hip pocket; but -reconsidered. He needed Tom, if only as interpreter; and Tom, singing -unmusically as he reeled away over the marble bridges, knew it. - -Connor waited, standing irresolute, listening, turning his eye toward -the gate, then toward the trees behind him. The girl in the pavilion -considered him. She had not before observed evidence of fear in the man. -But then she had never before seen him in a situation that tested his -brain and nerve as well as his animal courage. He was at heart a bully, -of course: and she knew that bullies were cowards.... What small respect -she had at moments felt for Tex left her now. She came down to despising -him, as she despised nearly all other men of her acquaintance. Still -peering through the leaves, she saw him move a little way toward the -gate, then glance, with a start, toward the marble bridges, finally -turning back to the remaining boxes. - -He opened one of these--it was of yellow lacquer richly ornamented--and -drew out what appeared to be a tangle of strings of pearls. He turned it -over in his hands; spread it out; felt his pockets; finally unbuttoned -his shirt and thrust it in there. - -It was at this point that Dixie arose, replaced the green tablets in her -pocket, smoothed her skirt, and went lightly down the steps. He did not -hear her until she spoke. - -"Do you think Tom'll come back, Tex?" - -He whirled so clumsily that he nearly fell among the boxes and the -broken and trampled bits of gold and silver; fixed his good eye on her, -while the other, of glass, gazed vacantly over her shoulder. - -She coolly studied him--the flushed face, bulging pockets, protruding -shirt where he had stuffed in those astonishing ropes of pearls. - -He said then, vaguely: "What are you doing here?" - -"Thought I'd come along. Suppose he stays back there--drinks some more. -You'd be sort of up against it, wouldn't you?" - -"I'd be no worse off than you." He was evasive, and more than a little -sullen. She saw that he was foolishly trying to keep his broad person -between her and the boxes. - -"You couldn't handle the junk without Tom. Not very well.... Look here, -Tex, it can't be very far to the concessions at Hankow. We could pick up -a cart, or even walk it." - -"What good would that do?" - -"There'll be steamers down to Shanghai." - -"And there'll be police to drag us off." - -"How can they? What can they pin on you?" Connor's eye wavered back -toward the grove and the buildings. He was again breathing hard. "After -all this.." he muttered. "That old viceroy'll be up here, you know. -With his mob, too. And there's plenty of people here to tell...." He -was trying now to hold an arm across his middle in a position that would -conceal the treasure there. - -Her glance followed the motion, and for a moment a faintly mocking smile -hovered about her thin mouth. She said: "Saving those pearls for me, -Tex?" - -He stared at her, fixed her with that one small eye, but offered not a -word. A moment later, however, nervously signaling her to be still he -brushed by and peeped out around the quinces. - -"What is it?" she asked quickly; then moved to his side. - -Immediately beyond the farthest of the marble bridges stood a group of -ten or twelve soldiers in drunkenly earnest argument. Above them towered -the powerful shoulders and small round head of Tom Sung. In the one -quick glance she caught an impression of rifles slung across sturdy -backs, of bayonets that seemed, at that distance, oddly dark in color; -an impression, too, of confused minds and a growing primitive instinct -for violence. Tom and another swayed toward the bridge; others drew them -back and pointed toward the buildings they had left. The argument waxed. -Voices were shrilly emphatic. - -"Looks bad," said the girl at Connor's shoulder. "You've let 'em get out -of hand, Tex." Then, as she saw him nervously measuring with his eye -the width of the open space between the quinces and the gate screen, she -added, "Thinking of making a run for it, Tex?" - -He slowly swung that eye on her now; and for no reason pushed her -roughly away. "It's none of your business what I'm going to do," he -replied roughly. - -But the voice was husky, and curiously light in quality. And the eye -wavered away from her intent look. This creature fell far short of the -Tex Connor of old. She spoke sharply. - -"Come up into this summer-house, Tex!" she indicated it with an upward -jerk of her head. "They won't see us there, at first. You didn't see -me. You've got your pistols. You can give me one. We ought to be able to -stand off a few Chinese drunks." - -She could see that he was fumbling about for courage, for a plan, in a -mind that had broken down utterly. His growl of--"I'm not giving you any -pistol!"--was the flimsiest of cover. And so she left him, choosing a -moment when that loud argument beyond the bridges was at its height to -run lightly up the steps and into the pavilion. - -From this point she looked down on the thick-minded Connor as he -struggled between cupidity, fear and the bluffing pride that was so -deep a strain in the man. The one certain fact was that he couldn't -purposelessly wait there, with Tom Sung leading these outlawed soldiers -to a deed he feared to undertake alone.... They were coming over -the bridges now, Tom in the lead, lurching along and brandishing his -revolver, the others unslinging their rifles. The argument had ceased; -they were ominously quiet. - -Dixie got her tablets out again; then sat waiting, that faint mocking -smile again touching the corners of her mouth. But the smile now meant -an excitement bordering on the thrill she had lately envied the savage -folk in the grove. Such a thrill had moved those coldeyed women who sat -above the combat of gladiators in the Colosseum and with thumbs down -awaited the death agony of a fallen warrior. It had been respectable -then; now it was the perverse pleasure of a solitary social outcast. -But to this girl who could be moved by no simple pleasure it came as a -gratifying substitute for happiness. Her own danger but added a sharp -edge to the exquisite sensation. It was the ultimate gamble, in a life -in which only gambling mattered. - -Connor was fumbling first at a hip pocket where a pistol bulged, then at -a side pocket that bulged with precious stones. His eye darted this -way and that his cheeks had changed in color to a pasty gray. The girl -thought for a moment that he had actually gone out of his head. - -His action, when it finally came, was grotesquely romantic. She thought, -in a flash, of the adventure novels she had so often seen him reading. -It was to her absurd; even madly comic. For with those bulging pockets -and that gray face, a criminal run to earth by his cruder confederates, -he fell back on dignity. He strode directly out into the path, with a -sort of mock firmness, and, like a policeman on a busy corner, raised -his hand. - -Even at that he might have impressed the soldiers; for he was white, -and had been their vital and vigorous leader, and they were yellow and -low-bred and drunk. As it was, they actually stopped, just over the -nearest bridge; gave the odd appearance of huddling uncertainly there. -But Connor could not hold the pose. He broke; looked wildly about; -started, puffing like a spent runner, up the steps of the pavilion -where the girl, leaning slightly forward, drawing in her breath sharply -through parted lips, looked through the leaves. - -Several of the rifles cracked then; she heard bullets sing by. And -Connor fell forward on the steps, clawed at them for a moment, and lay -still in a slowly widening pool of thick blood. He had not so much as -drawn a weapon. Tex Connor was gone. - -They came on, laughing, with a good deal of rough banter, and gathered -up the jewels. Tom and another mounted the steps to the body and went -through the pockets of his trousers for the jewels that were there and -the pistols. As there was no coat they did not look further. And then, -merrily, they went back over the marble bridges to the buildings in the -grove where were still, perhaps, liquor and women. - -When the last of their shouts had died out, when laying her head against -the fragrant wood she could hear again the musical tinkling of the -bronze bells and the pleasant murmuring of the tiny waterfall and the -sighing of the leaves, Dixie slipped down to the body, fastidiously -avoiding the blood. It was heavy; she exerted all her wiry strength in -rolling it partly over. Then, drawing out the curious net of pearls she -let the body roll back. - -Returning to her sheltered seat she spread on her lap the amazing -garment; for a garment of some sort it appeared to be. There was even a -row of golden clasps set with very large diamonds. At a rough estimate -she decided that there were all of three thousand to four thousand -perfect pearls in the numerous strings. Turning and twisting it about, -she hit on the notion of drawing it about her shoulders and found that -it settled there like a cape. It was, indeed, just that--a cape of -pearls. She did not know that it was the only garment of its precise -sort in the world, that it had passed from one royal person to another -until, after the death of the Old Buddha in 1908 it fell into the hands -of his excellency, Kang Yu. - -She took it off; stood erect; pulled out her loosely hanging middy -blouse; and twisting the strings into a rope fastened it about her -waist, rearranging the blouse over it. The concealment was perfect. - -She sat again, then, to think out the next step Returning to the junk -was cut of the question. It would be better to get somehow up to the -concessions and trust to her wits to explain her presence there For Tex -had been shrewd enough about that. The concessions were a small bit of -earth with but one or two possible hotels, full of white folk and fuller -of gossip. She had had her little difficulties with the consuls as with -the rough-riding American judge who took his itinerant court from port -to port announcing firmly that he purposed ridding the East of such -"American girls" as she. Dawley Kane would surely be there, and other -survivors of the fire.... It all meant picking up a passage down the -river at the earliest possible moment; and running grave chances at -that But her great strength lay in her impregnable self-confidence. She -feared herself least of all. - -Another problem was the getting to the concessions. It was not the best -of times for a girl to walk the highway alone. To be sure, she had come -safely through from the junk; but it had not been far, and she hadn't -had to approach a native army. She decided to wait an hour or so, until -the plunderers there in the grove should be fully drunk; then, if at the -moment it seemed the thing, to slip out and make a try for it. - -And then, a little later, evidently from the road outside the wall, came -a new sort of confused sounds; music, of flageolets and strings, and -falsetto voices, and with it a low-pitched babel of many tongues. -Whoever these new folk might be, they appeared to be turning in at the -open gate. The music stopped abruptly, in a low whine of discord, and -the talk rose in pitch. Over the brick screen appeared banners moving -jerkily about, dipping and rising, as if in the hands of agitated -persons below; a black banner, bearing in its center the triple imperial -emblems of the Sun, the other two yellow, one blazoning the familiar -dragon, the other a phoenix. - -A few banner men appeared peeping cautiously about the screen; Manchu -soldiers of the old effete army, bearing short rifles. They came on, -cautiously into the park, joined in a moment by others. An officer with -a queue and an old-fashioned sword and a military cap in place of a -turban followed and, forming them into a ragged column of fours, marched -them over the marble bridges and into the grove, where they disappeared -from view. - -Then a gorgeously colored sedan chair came swaying in, carried by many -bearers walking under stout bamboo cross-poles. Others, in the more -elaborate dress of officials, walked beside and behind it. Then came -more soldiers, who straggled informally about, some even dropping on the -gravel to rest their evidently weary bodies. - -The chair was opened in front and a tall fat man stepped rather -pompously out, wearing a robe of rose and blue and the brightly -embroidered insignia and can button of a mandarin of the fourth rank. At -once a servant stepped forward with a huge umbrella which he opened and -held over the fat man. And then they waited, all of them, standing or -lying about and talking in excited groups. Several of the officials -hurried back around the screen as if to examine the deserted apartments -just within the gate, and shortly returned with much to say in their -musical singsong.... An officer espied the body of Connor lying on the -steps of the pavilion, and came with others, excitedly, to the foot -of the steps. The key of the confused talk rose at once. There was -an excited conference of many ranks about the tall fat man under the -umbrella. - -Then came, from the grove, that same sound of muffled shots, followed by -a breathless pause. More shots then, and increasing excitement here -by the screen. A number of the soldiers who had crossed the bridges -appeared, running. The man in the lead had lost turban and rifle; as -he drew near blood could be seen on his face. And now, abruptly, the -officials and the ragtag and bobtail by the screen--pole-bearers, -lictors, runners, soldiers--lost their heads. Some ran this way -and that, even into the bushes, only to reappear and follow their -clearer-headed brethren out to the gate. The umbrella-bearer dropped -his burden and vanished. The fugitives from the grove were among the -panic-stricken group now, racing with them for the gate and the highway -without; scurrying around the end of the screen like frightened rabbits; -and in pursuit, cheering and yelling, came many of the soldiers from the -junk. - -They caught the tall fat mandarin, as he was waddling around the screen, -wounded by a chance shot; leaped upon him, bringing him down screaming -with fear; beat and kicked him; with their knives and bayonets -performing subtle acts of torture which gave them evident pleasure and -of which the coldly observant Dixie Carmichael lost no detail. When the -fat body lay inert, not before, they took the sword of a fallen officer -and cut off the head, hacking clumsily. The head they placed on a pole, -marching noisily about with it; finally setting the pole upright beside -the first of the little marble bridges. Then, at last, they wandered -back into the grove and left the grisly object on the pole to dominate -obscenely the garden they had profaned. - -Dixie leaned against the smooth sweet surface of the nanmu wood and -listened, again, to the pleasantly soft sounds of waterfall and moving -leaves and little bronze bells. Her face was chalk white; her thin hands -lay limp in her lap; she knew, with an abrupt sensation of sinking, that -she was profoundly tired. But in her brain burned still a cold white -flame of excitement. Life, her instinct as the veriest child had -informed her, was anything, everything, but the simple copybook pattern -expounded by the naive folk of America and England. Life, as she -critically saw it, was a complex of primitive impulses tempered by -greeds, dreams and amazing subtleties. It was blindly possessive, -carelessly repellent, creative and destructive in a breath, at once warm -and cold, kindly and savage, impersonally heedless of the helpless -human creatures that drifted hither and yon before the winds of chance. -Cunning, in the world she saw about her, won always further than virtue, -and often further than force. - -She could not take her eyes, during a long period, from the hideous -object on the pole. Her over-stimulated thoughts were reaching quickly, -sharply, far in every direction. The feeling came, grew into belief, -that she was, mysteriously, out of her danger. She felt the ropes of -pearls under her blouse with an ecstatic little catch of the breath; and -(finally) letting her eyes drop to that other ugly object on the steps -beneath her, slowly opened her bag, drew out the bracelet watch (that -the Manila Kid had given her out of an absurd hope) and fastened it -about her wrist. And her eyes were bright with triumph. - - - - -CHAPTER X--YOUTH - -|THERE came for his excellency, as the sun mounted the sky, a large -junk of his own river fleet--great brown sails flapping against the five -masts of all heights that pointed up at crazily various angles, pennons -flying at each masthead, hull weathered darkly, mats and fenders of -woven hemp hung over the poop-rail, and a swarming pigtailed crew at the -sweeps and overside on the spunson and hard at the tracking ropes as -the _tai-kung_ screamed from the bow and the _laopan_ shouted from the -poop. - -They were ferried aboard in the small boat, Kang with his daughters and -his suite and servants, a handful of pitifully wailing women, young Kane -and Griggsby Doane. Then the trackers cast off from the shore and -the mooring poles, the sweeps moved, and with the _lao pan_ musically -calling the stroke the junk moved laboriously up-stream toward the home -of his excellency's ancestors. - -Crowded into the uninviting cabins the weary travelers sought a few -hours of rest Even the servants and the mourning women, under the -mattings forward, fell swiftly asleep. Only Rocky Kane, his eyes staring -widely out of a sensitively white face, walked the deck; until -the thought--a new sort of thought in the life of this headstrong -youth--that he would be disturbing those below drove him aft, out beyond -the steersman to the over-hanging gallery. Here he sat on the bamboo -rail and gazed moodily down at the tireless, mighty river flowing off -astern. - -The good in the boy--made up of the intelligence, the deep-smoldering -conscience, the fineness that were woven out of his confused heritage -into his fiber--was rising now like a tide in his spirit; and the -experience was intensely painful. It seemed to his undisciplined mind -that he was, in certain of his aspects, an incredible monster. There had -been wild acts back home, a crazy instinct for excess that now took on -distinctness of outline; moments of careless evil in Japan and Shanghai; -the continuous subtle conflict with his father in which any evasion had -seemed fair; but above all these vivid memory-scenes that raced like an -uncontrollably swift panorama through his over-alert brain stood out his -vicious conduct on the ship. It was impossible at this moment to realize -mentally that the Princess Hui Fei was now his friend; he could see her -only in the bright Manchu costume as she had appeared when he first so -uncouthly spoke to her. And there were, too, the ugly moments with -the strange girl known as Dixie Carmichael. That part of it was only a -nightmare now.... The racing in his brain frightened him. He stared at -the dimpling yellow river, at a fishing boat, and finally lifted his -hurt eyes to the bright sky.... He had been going straight to hell, he -told himself, mumbling the words softly aloud. And then this lovely girl -had brought him into confusion and humility. Suddenly he had broken with -his father; that, in itself, seemed curiously unaccountable, yet there -the fact stood.... Life--eager, crowding--had rushed him off his feet. -He felt wildly adrift, carried on currents that he could not stem.... -He was, indeed, passing through one of life's deepest experiences, one -known to the somewhat unimaginative and intolerant people whose blood -ran in his veins as conviction of sin. His own careless life had -overtaken and confronted him. It had to be a bitter moment. There was -terror in it. And there was no escaping; it had to be lived through. - -A merry voice called; there was the patter of soft-clad feet, and in a -moment the little princess in her yellow hood with the fox head on -the crown was climbing into his lap. Eagerly, tenderly, he lifted her; -cuddled her close and kissed her soft cheek. Tears were frankly in his -eyes now. - -He laughed with her, nervously at first, then, in the quick -responsiveness of youth, with good humor. She came to him as health. -Together they watched the diving cormorants and the wading buffalo. -Then he hunted about until he found a bit of board and a ball of twine; -whittled the board into a flat boat, stuck a little mast in it with -a white sail made from a letter from his pocket, and towed it astern. -Together they hung on the rail, watching the craft as it bobbed over the -little waves and laughing when it capsized and lost its sail. - -She climbed into his lap again after that, and scolded him for making -the unintelligible English sounds, and made signs for him to smoke; and -he showed her his water-soaked cigarettes. - -At a low-pitched exclamation he turned with a nervous start. The tall -eunuch stood on the cabin roof; came quickly forward for the child. And -beside him was Miss Hu: Fei, still of course wearing the Chinese coat -and trousers in which she had escaped from the steamer. She had, under -the warm sun, thrown aside the curiously modern opera wrap. She was -slim, young, delicately feminine. The boy gazed at her reverently. She -seemed to him a fairy, an unearthly creature, worlds beyond his reach. -In his excitement, but a few hours back--in what he had supposed to be -their last moment together, in what, indeed, had seemed the end of the -world--he had declared his love for her. That had been an uprush of pure -emotion.... He recalled it now, yet found it difficult to accept as an -occurrence. The actual world had turned unreal to him, as it does to the -sensitively young that suffer poignantly. - -To this grave young woman, oddly his shipmate, he could hardly, he felt -now, have spoken a personal word. Their acquaintance had begun at a high -emotional pitch; now it must begin again, normally. So it seemed to him. - -"We were looking for my li'l sister," she explained, and half turned. -The eunuch had already disappeared with the child. - -"Won't you sit out here--with me?" He spoke hesitantly. "That is, unless -you are too tired to visit." - -"I coul'n' sleep," said she. - -Slowly she came out on the gallery. - -"There aren't any chairs," said he. "Perhaps I could find--" - -"I don' mind." She sank to the floor; leaned wearily against the rail. -He settled himself in a corner. - -"I couldn't sleep either. You see--Miss Hui--Miss Fei"--he broke into a -chuckle of embarrassment--"honest I don't know what to call you." - -The unexpected touch of boyish good humor moved her nearly to a smile. -Boyish he was, sitting with his feet curled up, stabbing at the deck -with his jackknife, coatless, collarless, his thick hair tousled, -blushing pleasantly. - -"My frien's call me Hui," she replied simply. - -"Oh--really! May I--If you would--of course I know that--but my friends -call me Rocky. The whole thing is Rockingham Bruce Kane. But...." - -"I'll call you Misser Kane," said she. - -His face fell a very little; but quickly he recovered himself. - -"You must have wondered--I suppose it seems as if I've done a rather -crazy thing--it _must_ seem so..." She murmured, "Oh, no!" - -"Attaching myself to your party this way---at such a difficult time. I -know it was a pretty impulsive thing to do, but...." - -His voice trailed into silence. For a brief moment this wild act seemed, -however different in its significance to himself, of a piece with his -other wild acts. It was, perhaps, like all those, merely ungoverned -egotism. Her voice broke sweetly in on this moment of gloomy reverie. - -"We know tha' you woul' help us if you coul'. An' you were so -won'erful." - -"If I only could help! You see when I spoke that way to you--I mean -telling you I loved you--" - -"Please! We won' talk abou' tha'." - -"No. We won't. Except just this. I was beside myself. But even then, or -pretty soon afterward, I knew it was just plain selfishness." - -"You mus'n' say that, either. Please!" - -"No--just this! Of course you don't know me. What you do know is all -against me--" - -"I have forgotten--" - -"You will never forget. But even if you were some day to like me more -than you could now, I know it would take a long time. I've got to earn -the right to be really your friend first. I'm going to try to do -that. I've started all over--to-day---my life, I mean. I'm just simply -beginning again. There's a good long scrap ahead of me. That's all about -that! But please believe that I've got a little sanity in me." - -"Oh, I'm sure--" - -"I have. Jumping overboard like that, and swimming back to you--it -wasn't just crazy impulse, like so many of the things I've done. You -see, my father knows you and your father--yes, I mean the terrible -trouble you're in. Oh, everything comes to him, sooner or later. All the -facts. You have to figure on that, with the pater. He--well, he wanted -me to stop thinking about you. He was afraid I'd be writing to you, or -something. You see, he'd watched us talking there by the fire. And he -told me about this--this dreadful thing. And then I had to come back. -Don't you see? I couldn't go on, leaving you like this. Of course, -it's likely enough I'm just in the way here--" She was smiling wearily, -pathetically, now. - -"Oh, no--" she began. - -"It's this way," he swept impetuously on. "Maybe I _can_ help. Anyway, -I've got to try. If your father--really--" He saw the slight shudder -that passed through her slender body, and abruptly checked the rapid -flow of words. "We've got to take care of you," he said, with surprising -gravity and kindness. "You'll have to get back with the white people. -You mustn't be left with the yellow." - -"I know," said she, the strength nearly gone from her voice. "It always -seems to me that I'm an American. Though sometimes I ge' confuse'. It -isn' easy to think." - -"I'm simply wearing you out I mustn't. But just this--remember that I -know all about it. I've broken with my father, for the present, and I'm -happy about that. I have got some money of my own--quite a little. I've -even got a wet letter of credit in my pocket. I had just sense enough -last night to get it out of my coat. It's no good, of course, outside -of the treaty ports, but it's there. I'm here to help. And I do want to -feel that you'll call on me--for anything--and as for the rest of it--" - -He had thought himself unusually clear and cool, but at this point his -voice clouded and broke He glanced timidly at her, and saw that her -eyes were full of tears. He had to look away then. And during a long few -moments they sat without a word. - -Then the thought came, "I'm here to help!" It was a stirring thought. He -had never helped, never in his life that he could remember. And yet the -Kanes did things; they were strong men. - -He was moodily skipping his knife over his hand, trying to catch the -point in the soft wood. Abruptly, with a surprising smile, he looked up -and asked: "Ever play mumbletepeg?" - -Her troubled eyes for an instant met his. He chuckled again in that -boyish way. And she, nervously, chuckled too. That seemed good. - -"It's sort of hard to make the blade stick in this wood," he said -eagerly. "But we can do some of the things." - -Griggsbv Doane, too, was far from sleep. For that matter, he was of -the strong mature sort that needs little, that can work long hours and -endure severe strain without weakening. Moving aft over the poop he saw -them, playing like two children, and stepped quietly behind the slanting -short mast that overhung the steersman. - -They made a charming picture, laughing softly as they tossed the knife. -It hadn't before occurred to him that young Kane had charm. Plainly, -now, he had. And it was good for Hui Fei, in this hour of tragic -suspense. Youth, of course, would call unto youth. That was the natural -thing. He tried to force himself to see it in that light but he moved -forward with a heavy heart. - -The junk plowed deliberately against the current. The monotonous voice -of the chanting _lao pan_, the rhythmical splash and creak of the -sweeps, the syncopated continuous song of the crowded oarsman, an -occasional warning cry from the tai-kung--these were the only sounds. -Elsewhere, lying in groups about the deck, the castaways slumbered. - -But Doane knew that his excellency was awake, shut away in the -_laopan's_ cabin, for repeatedly he had heard him moving about. Once, -through a thin partition, had come the sound of a chair scraping. It -would mean that Kang was preparing his final papers. These would be -painstakingly done. There would be memorials to the throne and to -his children and friends, couched in the language of a master of the -classics, rich in the literary allusions dear to the heart of the -scholar, Manchu and Chinese alike. - -Doane found a seat on a coil of the heavy tracking rope. His own part in -the drama through which they were all so strangely living could be -only passive. He would serve as he might. His little dream of personal -happiness, with a woman to love and new strong work to be somehow begun, -was wholly gone. - -Slowly, foot by foot, the clumsy craft crept up the river. And strangely -the scene held its peaceful, intensely busy character. Everywhere, as if -there were no revolution, as if the old river had never known wreckage -and bloodshed, the country folk toiled in the fields. Junks passed. -Irrigating wheels turned endlessly. Fishermen sat patiently watching -their cormorants or lowering and lifting their nets. A big English -steamer came booming down, with white passengers out of bloody Hankow -(the looting and burning of the native city must have been going on just -then, before the reinforced imperial troops drove the republicans back -across the river). They layabout in deck chairs, these white passengers; -or, doubtless, played bridge in the smoking-room. And Doane, as so -often during his long life, felt his thoughts turning from these idle, -self-important whites, back to the oldest of living peoples; and he -dwelt on their incalculable energy, their incredible numbers, their -ceaseless individual struggle with the land and water that kept them, at -best, barely above the line of mere sustenance. - -It was difficult, pondering all this, to believe that any revolution -could deeply stir this vast preoccupied people, submerged as they -appeared to be in ancient habit. The revolution could succeed only if -the Manchu government was ready to fall apart from the weakness of sheer -decadence. It was nothing, this revolution, but the desperate work of -agitators who had glimpsed the wealth and the individualistic tendencies -of the West. And the hot-blooded Cantonese, of course. Most of the -Chinese in America were Cantonese. The revolution was, then, a Southern -matter; it was these tropical men that had come to know America. That -was about its only strength. The great mass of yellow folk here in the -Yangtze Valley, and through the coast provinces, and all over the great -central plain and the North and Northwest were peaceable at heart; only -those Southerners were truculent, they and the scattered handfuls of -students. - -And yet, China, in the hopeful hearts of those who knew and loved the -old traditions, must somehow be modernized. Sooner or later the Manchus -would fall. The vast patient multitude must then either learn to think -for themselves in terms of modern, large-scale organization or fall into -deeper degradation. The European trading nations would strike deep and -hard in a sordid struggle for the remaining native wealth. The Japanese, -with iron policy and intriguing hand would destroy their institutions -and bring them into a pitiful slavery, economic and military. - -His own life, Doane reflected, must be spent in some way to help this -great people. The individual, confronted by so vast a problem, seemed -nothing. But the effort had to be made. Since he was not a trader, since -he could not hope now to find himself in step with the white generation -that had passed him by, all that was left was to pitch in out here. The -call of the martyred Sun Shi-pi pointed a way. - -The personal difficulty only remained. The man who loses step with -his own people and his own time must submit to being rolled under and -trampled on. There is no other form of loneliness so deep or so bitter. -And seeing nothing above and about him but the hard under side of this -hard white civilization, the unfortunate one can not hope to retain in -full vigor the incentive to effort that is the magic of the creative -white race. Every circumstance now seemed combined to hold him down and -under. The philosophy of the East with which his spirit was saturated -argued for contemplation, submission, negation (as did, for that -matter, the gospel of that Jesus to whose life the peoples that called -themselves Christian, in their every activity, every day, gave the lie). -His only driving power, then, must come out of the white spark that was, -after all, in his blood. It was only as a discordantly active white -that he could help the yellow men he loved.... And the one great -incentive--love, companionship, for which his strong heart hungered--had -flickered before him only to die out. He must somehow, at that, -prove worthy. It was to be just one more great effort in a life of -prodigiously wasted effort.... He thought, as he had thought before, in -bitter hours, of Gethsemane. But he knew, now, that he purposed going -on. Once again he was to dedicate his vigor to a cause; but this time -without the hope of youth and without love walking at his side. - -And then, quaintly, alluringly, the picture of Hui Fei took form before -his mind's eye, as if to mock his laborious philosophy, charm it away. -Like that of a boy his quick imagination wove about her bright youth, -her piquant new-old worldliness, shining veils of illusion. It was, -then, to be so. He was to live on, sadly, with a dream that would not -die.... He bowed his head. - -Their play brought relief to the overwrought nerves of the two young -people. After a time they settled comfortably against the rail. - -"You lost all your things on the steamer?" said he. "Ever'thing." - -"So did I." He smiled ruefully. "Even part of my clothes. But it doesn't -matter." - -"I di'n' like to lose all my pretty things." said she. "But they're gone -now. All excep' my opera cloak. An' I'm jus' a Manchu girl again. It's -so strange--only yes'erday it seem' to me I was a real American. I los' -my books, too--all my books." - -He glanced up quickly. "You're fond of reading?" - -"Oh, yes. Aren' you?" - -"Why--no, I haven't been. The fellows and girls I've known didn't read -much." - -"Tha' seems funny. When you have so much. And it's so easy to read -English. Chinese is ver' hard." - -"What books have you read mostly?" - -She smiled. "Oh, I coul'n' say. So many! I've read the classics, of -course--Shakespeare an' Milton and Chaucer. Chaucer is so modern--don' -you think? I mean the way he makes pictures with words." - -"What would you think," said he, "if I confessed that I cut all those -old fellows at school and college?" - -"I've thought often," said she gravely, "tha' you Americans are spoil' -because you have so much. So much of everything." - -"Perhaps. I don't know. The fellows feel that those things don't help -much in later life." - -"Oh, bu' they _do!_ You mus' have a knowledge of literature an' -philosophy. Wha' do they go to college for?" - -"Well--" Inwardly, he winced. He felt himself, without resentment, -without the faintest desire to defend the life he had known, at a -disadvantage. "To tell the truth, I suppose we go partly for a good -time. It puts off going into business four years, you know, and once -you start in business you've got to get down to it. Then there's all -the athletics, and the friends you make. Of course, most of the fellows -realize that if they make the right kind of friendships it'll help, -later, in the big game." - -"You mean with the sons of other rich men?" she asked. - -"Why, no, not--yes, come to think of it, I suppose that's just what I -do mean. Do you know here with you, it doesn't look like much of a -picture--does it?" Thoughtfully she moved her head in the negative. "I -know a goo' deal about it," said she. "I've watch' the college men in -America. Some of them, I think, are pretty foolish." - -"I suppose we are," said he glumly. "But would you have a fellow just go -in for digging?" - -She inclined her head. "I woul'. It is a grea' privilege to have years -for study." - -He was flushing. "But you're not a dig! You--you dance, you know about -things, you can wear clothes...." - -"I don' think study is like work to me. I love it. An' I love -people--every kin', scholars, working people--you know, every kin'." - -His moody eyes took in her eagerly mobile face; then dropped, and he -stabbed his knife at the deck. - -"Of course, we know that all is no' right 'n America. The men of money -have too much power. The govemmen' is confuse', sometimes very weak and -foolish. The newspapers don' tell all the things they shoul'. But it -is so healthy, jus' the same! There is so much chance for ever' kin' of -idea to be hear'! An' so many won'erful books! Often I think you real -Americans don' know how' won'erful it is. You get excite' abou' little -things. I love America. The women are free there. There is more hope -there than anywhere else in the worl'. An' I wish China coul' be like -that." - -"I quit college," said he. "You see, I've never locked at things as you -do." - -"Bu' you have such a won'erful chance!" - -"I know. And I've wasted it. But I'm changing. I--it wouldn't be fair of -course to talk about--about what I was talking about--not now--but I -am seeing things--everything--through new eyes. They're your eyes. I'm -going at the thing differently. You see, the Kanes, when you get right -down to it, don't think about anything but money." - -"I like to think about beauty," said she. - -"I wonder if I could do that." - -"Why no'?" - -"Well--it's kind of a new idea." - -"Listen!" she reached out, plainly without a personal thought, and took -his hand. "I'm going to reci' some poetry that I love." - -Thrilled by the clasp of her hand, his mind eager wax to the impress of -her stronger mind, his gaze clinging to her pretty mouth, he listened -while she repeated the little poem of W. B. Yeats beginning:= - -```"All the words that I utter, - -````And all the words that I write..."= - -At first he stirred restlessly; then watching, doglike, fell to -listening. The disconcerting thing was that it could mean so much to -her. For it did--her dark eyes were bright, and her chin was uplifted. -Her quaint accent and her soft, sweet voice touched his spirit with an -exquisite vague pain. - -"It is music," said she. - -"I don't see how you remember it all," said he listlessly. - -"Jus' the soun's. Oh, it woul' be won'erful to make words do that. So -often I wish I ha' been bom American, so it woul' be my language too." - -She went on, breathlessly, with Yeats's--= - -```"When you are old and gray and full of sleep..."= - -And then, still in pensive vein, she took up Kipling's _L'Envoi_--the -one beginning--"There's a whisper down the field." Clearly she felt the -sea, too; and the yearning of those wandering souls to whom life is -a wistful adventure, and the world an inviting labyrinth of beautiful -hours. She seemed to know the _Child's Garden of Verses_ from cover to -cover, and other verse of Stevenson's. It was all strange to him, except -"In winter I get up at night." He knew that as a song. - -And so it came about that on a dingy Yangtze junk, at the feet of a -Manchu girl from America, Rocky Kane felt for the first time the glow -and thrill of finely rhythmical English. - -She went on, almost as if she had forgotten him. William Watson's -_April, April_ she loved, she said, and read it with a quick feeling for -the capricious blend of smiles and tears. It dawned on him that she -was a born actress. He did not know, of course, that the theatrical -tradition lies deeper in Manchu and Chinese culture than in that of any -Western people. - -She recited the beautiful _Song_ of Richard Le Galliene, beginning:= - -```"She's somewhere in the sunlight strong...."= - -And followed this with bits from Bliss Carman, and other bits from -Henley's _London Nocturnes_, and from Wilfred Blunt and Swinburne and -Mrs. Browning. She had a curiously strong feeling for the color of -Medieval Italy. She spoke reverently of Dante. Villon she knew, too, -and Racine and the French classicists. She even murmured tenderly de -Musset's _J'ai dis à mon coeur_, in French of which he caught not a word -and was ashamed. For he had cut French, too. - -And then, as the sun mounted higher and the gentle rush of the river -along the hull and the continuous chantey of the oarsmen floated, more -and more soothingly to their ears, they fell quiet, her hand still -pleasantly in his. Together they hummed certain of the current popular -songs, he thinking them good, she smiling not unhappily as her voice -blended prettily with his. And Griggsby Doane heard them. - -At last she murmured: "I think I coul' rest now." - -"I'm glad," said he, and drew down a coil of rope for a pillow, and left -her sleeping there. - -Doane heard his step, but for a moment could not lift his head. Finally -the boy, standing respectfully, spoke his name: "Mr. Doane!" - -"Yes." - -"May I sit here with you?" - -"Of course. Do." - -"I've got to talk to somebody. It's so strange. You see, she and I--Miss -Hui Fei--it's all been such a whirl I couldn't think, but...." - -That sentence never got finished. The boy dropped down on the deck and -clasped his knees. Doane, very gravely, considered him. He was young, -fresh, slim. He had changed, definitely; a degree of quiet had come to -him. And there could be no mistaking the unearthly light in his eyes. -The love that is color and sunshine and exquisite song had touched and -transformed him. - -Doane could not speak. He waited. Young Kane finally brought himself -with obvious, earnest effort in a sense to earth. But his voice was -unsteady in a boyish way. - -"Mr. Doane," he asked, "do you believe in miracles?" - -Thoughtfully, deliberately, Doane bowed his great head. "I am forced -to," he replied. - -"You've seen men change--from dirty, selfish brutes, I mean, to -something decent, worth while?" - -"Many times." - -"Really?.... But does it have to be religion?1' - -"I don't knew." - -"Can it be love? The influence of a woman, I mean--a girl?" - -"Might that not be more or less the same thing?" - -"Do you really think that?" - -Again the great head bowed. And there was a long silence. Rocky broke it - -"I wish you would tell me exactly how you feel about marriage between -the races." - -"Why--really--" - -"You must have observed a lot, all these years out here. And the pater -tells me that you're an able man, except that you've sort of lost your -perspective. He did tell me that he'd like to have you with him, if you -could only bring yourself around to our ways." Rocky, even now, could -see this only as a profound compliment. He rushed on: "Oh, don't -misunderstand me! She doesn't love me yet. How could she? I've got -to earn the right even to speak of it again. But if I should earn the -right--in time--tell me, could an American make her happy?" - -"I'm afraid I can't answer that general question." But Rocky felt that -he was kind. "The pater says I'd be wrecking my life. He says she'd -always be pulled two ways--you know! God! He seemed to think I had only -to ask her, and she'd come. He doesn't understand." - -"No," said Doane--"I'm afraid he couldn't understand." - -"You feel that too? It's very perplexing. I know I've spoken carelessly -about the Chinese and Manchus. I looked down on them. I did! But oh, -if I could only make it clear to you how I feel now! If I could only -express it! We've been talking a long time, she and I. I don't mind -telling you I'm taking a pretty bitter lesson, right now. She knows so -much. She has such fine--well, ideals--" - -"Certainly." - -"Oh, you've noticed that!.... Well, I feel crude beside her. Of course, I -am." - -"Yes--you are. Even more so than you can hope to perceive now." - -The youth winced; but took it. "Well, suppose--just suppose that I -might, one of these days, prove that I'm decent enough to ask her to be -my wife.... Oh, don't think for a minute that I don't understand all it -means. I do. I tell you I'm starting again. I'm going to fight it out." - -"That is fine," said Griggsby Doane, and looked squarely, gravely, -at the very young face. It was a white face, but good in outline; the -forehead, particularly, was good. And the blue eyes now met his. "I -believe you will fight it out. And I believe you have it in you to win." - -"I'm going to try, Mr. Doane. But just suppose I do win. And suppose I -win her. It's when I think of that, that I.... I'll put it this way--to -my friends, to everybody in New York, she'd be an oddity. A novelty, -not much more. You know what most of them would think, in their hearts. -Either they'd make an exception in her case--partly on my account, -at that--or else they'd look down on her. You know how they are about -people that aren't--well, the same color that we are. Probably I -couldn't live out here. The business is mainly in New York, of course. -And she's such an enthusiastic American herself--she'd want to be there. -Some, anyway. And she's got to be happy. She's like a flower to me, now; -like an orchid. Oh, a thousand times more, but.... What could I do? How -could I plan? Oh, I'd fight for her quick enough. But you know our cold -rich Americans. They wouldn't let me fight. They'd just...." - -"My boy," said Doane. quietly but with an authority that Rocky felt, -"you can't plan that. You can do only one thing." - -"What thing?" - -"Stay here in China a year before you offer yourself to that lovely -girl. Study the Chinese--their language, their philosophy, their art. A -year will not advance you far, but it should be enough to show you where -you yourself stand." - -"A year....!" - -"Listen to what I am going to try to tell you. Listen as thoughtfully -as you can. First I must tell you this--the Chinese civilization has -been--in certain aspects still remains--the finest the world has known. -With one exception, doubtless." - -"What exception?" - -"The Grecian. You see, I have startled you." - -"Well, I'm still sort of bewildered." - -"Naturally. But try to think with me. The Chinese worked out their -social philosophy long ago. They have lived through a great deal that we -have only begun, from tribal struggles through conquest and imperialism -and civil war to a sort of republicanism and a fine feeling for peace -and justice. And then, when they had given up primitive desire for -fighting they were conquered by more primitive Northern tribes--first -the Mongols, and later the Manchus. The Manchus have been absorbed, have -become more or less Chinese. - -"And now a few more blunt facts that will further startle you. The -Chinese are the most democratic people in the world. No ruler can -long resist the quiet force of the scores of thousands of villages and -neighborhoods of the empire. - -"They are the most reasonable people in the world. You can no more judge -them from the so-called Tongs in New York and San Francisco, made up of -a few Cantonese expatriates, than you can judge the culture of England -by the beachcombers of the South Seas. - -"They developed, centuries before Europe, one of the finest schools of -painting the world has so far known. There is no school of reflective, -philosophical poetry so ripe and so fine as the Chinese. They have had -fifty Wordsworths, if no Shakespeare. - -"You will find Americans confusing them with the Japanese, whom -they resemble only remotely. All that is finest in Japan--in art and -literature--came originally from China." - -"You take my breath away," said Rocky slowly. But he was humble about -it; and that was good. - -"But listen, please. What I am trying to make clear to you is that in -old Central China--in Hang Chow, and along this fertile Yangtze Valley, -and northwest through the Great Plain to Kai Feng-fu and Sian-fu in -Shensi--where the older people flourished--germinated the thought and -the art, the humanity and the faith, that have been a source of culture -to half the world during thousands of years. - -"But you can not hope to understand this culture through Western eyes. -For you will be looking out of a Western background. You must actually -surrender your background. It is no good looking at a Chinese landscape -or a portrait with eyes that have known only European painting. Can you -see why? Because all through European painting runs the idea of copying -nature--somehow, however subtly, however influenced by the nuances -of color and light, copying. But the Chinese master never copied a -landscape He studied it, felt it, surrendered his soul to it, and then -painted the fine emotion that resulted. And, remember this, he painted -with a conscious technical skill as fine as that of Velasquez or -Whistler or Monet." - -The youth whistled softly. "Wait, Mr. Doane, please.... the fact is, -you're clean over my head. I--I don't know a thing about our painting, -let alone theirs. You see I haven't put in much time at--" He stopped. -His smooth young brows were knit in the effort to think along new, -puzzling channels. "But she would understand," he added, honestly, -softly. - -"Exactly! She would understand. That is what I am trying to make clear -to you." - -"But you're sort of--well, overwhelming me." - -"My boy." said Doane very kindly, "you could go back home, enter -business, marry some attractive girl of your own blood who thinks no -more deeply than yourself, whose culture is as thinly veneered as your -own--forgive me. I am speaking blunt facts." - -"Go on. I'm trying to understand." - -"--And find happiness, in the sense that we so carelessly use the word. -But here you are, in China, proposing to offer your life to a Manchu -princess. You do seem to see clearly that there, would be difficulties. -It is true that our people crudely feel themselves superior to this fine -old race. As a matter of fact, one of the worthiest tasks left in -the world is to explain East to West--draw some part of this rich old -culture in with our own more limited background. But as it stands now, -the current will be against you. So I say this--study China. Open your -mind and heart to the beauty that is here for the taking. Try to look -through the decadent surface of this tired old race and see the genius -that still slumbers within. If, then, you find yourself in the new -belief that their culture is in certain respects finer than ours--as -I myself have been forced to believe--if you can go to Hui Fei -humbly--then ask her to be your wife. For then there will be a chance -that you can make her happy. Not otherwise." - -Doane stopped abruptly. His deep voice was rich with emotion. The -boy was stirred; and a moment later, when he felt a huge hand on his -shoulder he found it necessary to fight back the tears. The man seemed -like a father; the sort of father he had never known. - -"Don't ask her so long as a question remains in your mind. Defiance -won't do--it must be faith, and knowledge. I can't let you take the life -of that girl into your keeping on any other terms." - -The odd emphasis of this speech passed quite by the deeply preoccupied -young mind. - -"You're right," he replied brokenly. "I've got to wait. Everything that -you say is true--I really haven't a thing in the world to offer. I'm an -ignorant barbarian beside her." - -"You have the great gift of youth," said Doane gently. - -But a moment later Rocky broke out with: "But, Mr. Doane--how can I -wait? She--after her father--they're going to take her away--make her -marry somebody at Peking--somebody she doesn't even know--" - -"I don't think they will succeed in that plan," said Doane very soberly. - -"But why not? What can she do? A girl--alone--" - -"There are tens of thousands of girls in China that have solved that -problem." - -"But I don't see--" - -"You must still try to keep your mind open. You are treading on ground -unknown to our race." A breathless quality crept into Doane's voice; his -eyes were fixed on the distant river bank. "I wonder if I can help you -to understand. Death--the thought of death--is to them a very different -thing--" - -"Oh!" It was more a sharp indrawing of breath than an exclamation. "You -don't mean that she would do that?" - -Doane bowed his head. - -"But she couldn't do a cowardly thing." - -Doane brought himself, with difficulty, to utter the blunt word. -"Suicide, in China, is not always cowardice. Often it is the finest -heroism--the holding to a fine standard." - -"Oh, no! It wouldn't ever--" - -"Please! You are a Westerner. Your feelings are those of the -younger--yes, the cruder half of the world. I must still ask you to try -to believe that there can be other sorts of feelings." Again the great -hand rested solidly on the young shoulder; and now, at last, the boy -became slightly aware of the suffering in the heart of this older man. -Though even now he could not grasp every implication. That human love -might be a cause he did not perceive. But he sensed, warmly, the ripe -experience and the compassionate spirit of the man. - -"You have stepped impulsively into an Old-World drama," Doane went -quietly on--"into a tragedy, indeed. No one can say what the next -developments will be. You can win, if at all, only by becoming yourself, -a fatalist; You must move with events. Certainly you can not force -them." - -"But I can take her away," cried the boy hotly; finishing, lamely, with -"somehow." - -"Against her will?" - -"Well--surely--" - -"She will not leave her father." - -"But--oh, Mr. Doane...." - -He fell silent. For a long time they sat without a word, side by side. -Here and there about the junk sleepers awoke and moved about. A few of -the women, forward, set up their wailing but more quietly now. The craft -headed in gradually toward the right bank, passing a yellow junk that -was moored inshore and moving on some distance up-stream. At a short -distance inland a brown-gray village nestled under a hillside. - -"That junk passed us before we left the island," Rocky observed, -gloomily making talk. - -Doane's gaze followed his down-stream; then at a sound like distant -thunder, he turned and listened. "What's that?" asked the boy. - -Doane looked up into the cloudless, blazing sky. "That would be the guns -at Hankow," he replied. - -The lictors were landed first to seek carts in the village. Then all -were taken ashore in the small boat. His excellency smilingly, with -unfailing poise, talked with Doane of the beauties of the river; even -quoted his favorite Li Po, as his quiet eyes surveyed the hills that -bordered the broad river:= - -```"'The birds have all flown to their trees, - -````The last, last lovely cloud has drifted off, - -```But we never tire in our companionship-- - -````The mountains and I,'"= - -The line of unpainted, springless carts, roofed with arched matting, -yellow with the fine dust of the highway, moved, squeaking, off among -the hills. Following close went the women and the servants. The junk -swung deliberately out and off down the river. - -Doane, declining a cart, walked beside that of his excellency; Rocky -Kane, deadly pale, his mouth set firmly, beside Miss Hui Fei. And so, -through the peaceful country-side they came to the long brick wall and -the heavily timbered gate house by the road, and, pausing there, heard -very faintly the soft tinkling of the little bronze bells within. It -was late afternoon. The shadows were long; and the evening birds were -twittering among the leafy branches just within the wall. - - - - -CHAPTER XI--THE LANDSCAPE SCROLL OF CHAO MENG-FU - -|ROCKY KANE, the few hours that followed were to exist in memory as a -confused sequence of swift-pressing scenes, all highly colored, vivid; -certain of them touched with horror, others passing in a flash of exotic -beauty; while the fire of hot, unreasoning young love burned all but -unbearably within his breast. - -He would remember the crowded line of carts in the sunken narrow road, -the unruly mules that plunged and entangled their harness; the huddled -women; the yellow dust that clung thickly to the bright silks of the -mandarins; the confusion about the gate, and the handful of soldiers -that came hurrying forward to help in a strange business up there; the -trains of other carts that struggled to pass in the narrow way, while -tattered muleteers shouted a babel of invective. - -He would remember the sad face of Miss Hui Fei-drawn back within the -shadow of the cart and the faint smiles that came and so quickly went; -and the efforts he made, at first, to cheer her with boyishly bright -talk of this and that. - -He would remember how he made his way forward through the press, without -recalling what had just been said, or what, precisely, could have been -the impulse driving him on; past his excellency--sitting yet in his -cart, calmly waiting, while the drabbled man darins stood respectfully -by; and how he found the soldiers carrying oddly limp Bodies into one of -the gate houses, hiding them there. - -He would remember the picture on which he stumbled as he rounded -the inner screen of brick; Mr. Doane and an officer and two or three -soldiers standing thoughtfully about a fat body in spattered silks that -was hideously without a head; standing there in the half dusk--for the -shadows were lengthening softly into evening here under the trees--Mr. -Doane then bending over, the officer kneeling, to examine the embroidery -on the breast; and then two soldiers bringing up a pole on the end -of which grinned the missing head; and then the sound of his own -voice--curiously breathless and without body, asking, "What is it, Mr. -Doane? What terrible thing has happened?" And then, even while he was -speaking, four soldiers carrying another body by, this of a stout man in -shirt and flannel trousers, that he felt he had seen somewhere before. - -He would remember--when they had carried out the last awful reminder of -the bloodshed that had been, and while Mr. Doane pressed a hand to his -eyes as if in prayer--how he stood silent there on the gravel area, -looking up into the trees and about at the dim quaint _pai-lows_ on -either hand and at the pavilions behind them, each on its arch of -stone over placid dark water; and how the lightly moving air of evening -whispered through the trees, stirring, with the foliage, faintly musical -little bells; and how, into this moment of calm, appeared, light of -step, swinging her shopping bag as she descended the marble steps of the -pavilion at the right and came forward under the _pai-lows_, the pale -girl, Dixie Carmichael, who glanced respectfully toward Mr. Doane, and -at Rocky himself raised her black eyebrows while her thin lips softly -framed the one word, "You?" And then, after a few words--the girl said -that Tex Connor and the Manila Kid made her come; it had been a terrible -business; she thought both must have been, killed; she had contrived -to hide--how Mr. Doane asked him to take her back to the women; and -how they went, he and she, his heart beating hotly, out through the -darkening gate where paper lanterns now moved about. He felt that -for the first sharp blow at his new life. There would be other blows; -doubtless through this girl; for the old life would not give him up -without a fight. - -He was to forget what they said, he and this unaccountable, cool girl, -as he left her out there and hurried back; but would remember the -picture he found on his return--Mr. Doane striding off deliberately into -the darkness beyond the little white bridges, while the officer followed -with a lantern, and the few soldiers, also with lanterns, straggled -after. He would remember crowding himself past all of them, snatching -one of the lanterns as he ran, and falling into step at the side of the -huge determined man. - -There were broad courtyards, then, and buildings with heavily curving -roofs and columns richly colored and carved, with dim lights behind -windows of paper squares. There were drunken soldiers, who ran away, and -screaming women, and other women who would never scream or smile again. -There was litter and splintered furniture and a broken-in door here and -there. There was a familiar big soldier who plunged at Mr. Doane with a -glinting blade in his hand; and then a sharp struggle that was to last, -in retrospect, but an instant of time, for the clearer memory was of -himself binding with his handkerchief a small cut in Mr. Doane's forearm -while the soldiers carried out a wounded struggling giant, and then -shouts and shots from the courtyard when the giant escaped. And he would -remember picking up an unset ruby from the tiling and handing it to Mr. -Doane. There was the picture, then, of a melancholy procession winding -slowly through the grove with bobbing gay lanterns. - -And finally, to the boy incredibly, the place came into a degree of -order and calm. Women and men disappeared into this building and that. -Rocky sat alone on the steps of a structure that might have been a -temple, hands supporting his throbbing head. The moonlight streamed down -into the courtyard; he could see the grotesque ornaments on the eaves -of the buildings, and the large blue-and-white bowls and vases in which -grew flowering plants and dwarfed trees from Japan, and, in the farther -gate, a sentry lounging. Now and again faint sounds came from within the -largest of the buildings, voices and footsteps; and he could see lights -again dimly through the paper. He wondered what they might be doing.... -His thoughts were a fever. The spirit of Hui Fei hovered like an -exquisite dream there, but crowding in with malignant persistence came, -kept coming, pictures of Dixie Carmichael. He wondered where they had -put her. Perhaps she was already asleep. It would be like her to sleep. -She was so cold, so oddly unhealthy. Doubtless, surely, he would have to -speak with her. - -He must have dozed. Soldiers were dragging themselves sleepily about the -courtyard, rifles in hand. Two officers and a mandarin in a gown were -examining a paper by the light of a lantern. Then Mr. Doane came out and -read the paper. They talked in Chinese, Mr. Deane's as fluent as theirs. -Rocky thought drowsily about this; considered vaguely the years of study -and experience that must lie back of that fluency. - -Mr. Doane, indeed, seemed to be assuming a sort of command. With great -courtesy, but with impressive finality, he appeared to be outlining a -course to which the mandarin assented. The officers bowed and went -out through the gate. And when the mandarin and Doane then turned and -entered the largest building it was the white man who held the paper in -his hand. - -Rocky fell again into a doze; slept until he found Mr. Doane shaking -him. - -"Come with me now. You can help." Thus the huge grave man with the deep -shadows in his face. - -And Rocky went with him, guided by a servant with a lantern, through -corridors and courtyards, glimpsing dimly massive pillars and panels -in black wood and softly red silk and railings of marble carved into -exquisite tracery. - -With the paper that the boy had drowsily observed Doane sought his -excellency. Dominated by the white man the attendant mandarin tapped at -an inner door, then hesitatingly opened; and Doane alone stepped within. - -The room was long, plain, obscurely seen by the light of a single -incandescent lamp over the formal _kang_ or platform across the farther -end. Doane had not thought of electric light in here and found it -momentarily surprising. The walls were paneled in silk; the ceiling -was heavy with beams. Against either side wall, mathematically at the -center, stood a square small table and a square stool, heavily carved. -Seated on the _kang_, with papers spread about and brushes and ink pot -directly under the light, in short quilted coat and simple black cap, -was Kang; a serenely patient figure, quietly working. He had merely -looked up; a frail old man, quite beyond the reach of annoyance, whose -eyes gazed unafraid over the rim of mere personal life into the eternal, -tireless energy that would so soon absorb all that was himself. Then, -recognizing the stalwart figure that moved forward into the light, he -rose and clasped his hands and smiled. - -"Only an unexpected crisis would lead me to intrude thus," began Doane -in Chinese, bowing in courtly fashion and clasping his own hands before -his breast. - -"No visit from Griggsby Doane could be regarded as an intrusion in my -home," replied his excellency. - -"I will speak quickly, in the Western fashion," Doane went on. "His -Excellency, the General Duke Ma Ch'un, commanding before Hankow, writes -that he regrets deeply the violent death of the eunuch, Chang Yuan-fu -on your excellency's premises while dutifully engaged on the business of -her imperial majesty, and cordially requests that your excellency come -at once to headquarters as his personal guest to assist him in making an -inquiry into the tragedy. He supplements this invitation with a copy of -a telegram from His Excellency, Yuan Shih-k'ai, commanding him to guard -at once your person and property." - -The simple elderly man, who had been a minister, a grand councilor and -a viceroy, seemed to recoil slightly as his eyes drooped to the papers -about him; then he reached, with a withered hand that trembled, for this -new paper and very slowly read it through. - -"His Excellency, Duke Ma Ch'un." Doane added gently, "has sent a company -of soldiers to escort you fittingly to his headquarters. They are -waiting now at the outermost gate. I took it upon myself in this hour -of sorrow and confusion to advise them, through the mouths of your loyal -officers, that your excellency is not to be disturbed before dawn." - -Slowly, with an expressionless face, the viceroy folded the paper and -laid it on the _kang_. He sank, then, beside it; with visible -effort indicating that his visitor sit as well. But Doane remained -standing--enormously tall, broad, strong; a man to command without -question of rank or authority; a man, it appeared, hardly conscious of -the calm power of personality that was so plainly his. - -"Your Excellency is aware"--thus Doane said--"that to admit the -authority of Duke Ma Ch'un at this sorrowful time is to submit both -yourself and your lovely daughter to a fate that is wholly undeserved, -one that I--if I may term myself the friend of both--can not bring -myself to consider without indulging the wish to offer strong -resistance. It has been said, 'The truly great man will always frame his -actions with careful regard to the exigencies of the moment and trim -his sail to the favoring breeze.' Your Excellency must forgive me if I -suggest that, whatever value you may place upon your own life, we can -not thus abandon your daughter, Hui Fei." - -The viceroy's voice, when he spoke, had lost much of its timbre. It was, -indeed, the voice of a weary old man. Yet the words came forth with the -old kindly dignity. - -"I asked you, Griggsby Doane, to make with me this painful journey to my -home. We did not know then that we were moving from one scene of tragedy -to another more terrible. But motive must not wait on circumstance. -It need not be a hardship for my other children to live on in Asia as -Asiatics. As such they were born. They know no other life. They will -experience as much happiness as most. But with Hui Fei it is different. -She must not be held away from contact with the white civilization. I -did not give her this modern education for such an end as that. Hui Fei -is an experiment that is not yet completed. She must have her chance. -That is why I brought you here, Griggsbv Doane. My daughter must be got -to Shanghai. There she has friends. I have ventured to count on your -experience and good will to convey her safely there. Will you take -her--now? To-night? I had meant to send with her the jewels and the -paintings of Ming, Sung and Tang. Both collections are priceless. But -the gems are gone--to-night. The paintings, however, remain. Will you -take those and my daughter, and two servants--there are hardly more that -I can trust--and slip out by the upper gate, and in some way escort her -safely to Shanghai?" - -"She would not go," said Doane. "Not while you, Your Excellency, live, -or while your body lies above ground." - -The viceroy, hesitating, glanced up at the vigorous man who spoke so -firmly, then down at the scattered papers on the _kang_. In the very -calm of that shadowed face he felt the bewildering strength of the white -race; and he knew in his heart that the man was not to be gainsaid. His -mind wavered. For perhaps the first time in his shrewd, patiently subtle -life, he felt the heavy burden of his years. - -"I will send for her," he said now, slowly. "I will give her into your -keeping. At my command she will _go_." - -"No, Your Excellency, I have already sent word to her to prepare herself -for the journey. Again you must forgive me. Time presses. It remains -only to collect the paintings. You must have those, at the least We -start now in a very few moments. I have found here, a prisoner in your -palace, the master of a junk that lies at the river bank, and have taken -it upon myself to detain him further. He will convey us to Shanghai. It -is now but a few hours before dawn. Hostile soldiers stand impatient at -the outermost gate, eager to heap shame upon you and all that is yours. -You must change your clothing--the dress of a servant would be best." - -He waited, standing very still. - -"You will forgive indecision in a man of my years," began the viceroy. -After a moment he began again: "The world has turned upside down, -Griggsby Doane." - -"You will come?" - -The viceroy sighed. Trembling fingers reached out to gather the papers. - -"I will come." he said. - -Adrift in unreality, fighting off from moment to moment the drowsy sense -that these strange events were but a blur of dreams in which nothing -could be true, nothing could matter, Rocky found himself at work in a -dim room, taking down in great handfuls from shelves scrolls of silk -wound on rods of ivory and putting them in lacquered boxes. Mr. Doane -was there, and the servant, and a second servant of lower class, in -ragged trousers and with his queue tied about his head. Still another -Chinese appeared, shortly, in blue gown and sleeveless short jacket; -an older man who looked, in the flickering faint light of the single -lantern, curiously like the viceroy himself. The first servant -disappeared and returned with the short poles of bamboo used everywhere -in China in carrying burdens over the shoulder, and with cords and -squares of heavy cotton cloth. - -Every bit of woodwork that his hands touched in moving about, Rocky -found to be intricately carved and gilded and inlaid with smooth -lacquer. And dimly, crowded about the walls, he half saw, half -sensed, innumerable vases, small and large, with rounding surfaces of -cream-colored crackle and blood-red and blue-and-white and green which -threw back the moving light like a softly changing kaleidoscope. And -there were screens that gave out, from their profound shadows, the glint -of gold. - -They packed the boxes together, wrapped the large and heavy cubes in the -squares of cloth and lashed them to hang from the bamboo poles. Four of -them, then, Mr. Doane, Rocky himself and the servants, each balanced -a pole over his shoulders and lifted the bulky cubes. The old man, who -surely, now, was the viceroy, carried a European hand-bag. There were -other parcels.... They made their way along a nearly dark corridor -and out into the moonlight. Here, in a porch, stood four silent -figures--Dixie Carmichael he distinguished first; then Hui Fei, wearing -a short coat and women's trousers and a loose cloak. Her hair was parted -and lay smoothly on her pretty bead, glistening in the moonlight.... And -the little princess was there, clinging to the hand of her sister and -rubbing her eyes. They moved silently on, all together, following a path -that wound among shrubbery, over an arching bridge to a gate. - -Rocky could dimly see the timbers studded with spikes and the long -hinges of bronze. The servant, with a great key, unlocked the gate, -which closed softly behind them. - -The pole weighed heavily on Rocky's unaccustomed shoulder. There was a -trick of timing the step to the swing of the bales, that, stumbling a -little, he caught. He was to remember this--the little file of men and -women gathered from the two ends of the earth and walking without -a spoken sound down through a twisting, sunken Chinese road to the -Yangtze. And sensing the gathering drama of his own life, brooding over -it with slowly increasing nervous intensity, he found himself coming -awake. If this kept on he would soon be excitedly beyond sleep. But it -didn't matter. They were saving Hui Fei. Not a word of explanation had -been offered; but it was coming clear. As for the rest of it, he -asked himself how it could matter. The presence of Miss Carmichael, a -dangerous girl, an adventuress--he was thinking quite youthfully about -her--who might easily be capable of anything, who could in a moment -destroy the hope that was the only foundation, thus far, of his new -life, and perhaps would choose to destroy it--even this, he tried to -tell himself, couldn't possibly matter. Over and over, stumbling and -shuffling along, he told himself that; almost convinced himself that he -believed it. - -He was to remember most vividly of all the first glimpse, through a -notch in the hills, of the river. The viceroy paused at that point, and -turning back from the shining picture before him, where the moonlight -silvered the unruffled surface of the water, toward the home of his -ancestors over the hill, spoke in a low but again musical voice a few -lines in which even the American youth could detect the elusive vowel -rhymes of a Chinese poem. And he saw that Mr. Doane stood by with the -slightly bowed head of one who attends a religious ceremony. It was a -moving scene. But could he have understood the words the boy would have -been puzzled. For the poem--the _Surrendering_ of Po Chu-I. breathed -resignation, humility, the negative philosophy so dear to Chinese -tradition, but nothing of religion in the sense that he a Westerner, -understood the word, nothing of mysticism or romantic illusion or -childlike faith; rather a gentle recognition of the fact that life must -go as it had come, unexplained, without tangible evidence of a personal -hereafter; that, too, the individual is as nothing in the vast scheme of -nature. - -They were ferried out, shortly after this, to the great junk they had -twice seen within the twenty-four hours, her smooth sides curving yellow -in the moonlight, her decks now scraped and scrubbed clean, flowers -blooming in porcelain pots about a charming gallery that extended high -over the river astern. The crew, roused from slumber, came swarming out -from under the low-spread mattings. The _laopan_ stepped nimbly to his -post amidships on the poop. The heavy tracking ropes were hauled aboard, -and the craft swung slowly off down the current. - -Doane, with a lantern, escorted his excellency and Hui Fei, and the -whimpering little princess, to the rooms below; then returned and with -the same impersonal courtesy conducted Miss Carmichael down the steps. -But at the door he indicated she stopped short; wavered a moment, -lightly, on the balls of her feet. Then she accepted the lantern from -him, bit her lip, and let fall the curtain without replying to his -suggestion that she had better sleep if she could. - -Alone there, she held up the lantern. The floor had been lately -scrubbed; but, even so, she made out a faint broad stain in the wood. -And a bed of clean matting was spread where she had left a grisly heap. - -For a time Dixie stood by the square small window, looking out over the -shining river toward the dim northern bank with its hills that seemed -to drift at a snail's pace off astern. Her quick mind had never been -farther from sleep. Her thin hands felt through her blouse the twisted -ropes of pearls that were wound about her waist. Her lips were pressed -tightly together. These pearls represented a fortune beyond even Dixie's -calculating dreams. To keep them successfully hidden during the days, -perhaps weeks to come of floating down the river in close companionship -with these two strong observant men, and a half crazy American boy, and -clever Oriental women, would test her resourcefulness and her nerve. -Though she felt, ever, now, no doubt of the latter.... - -The thing was tremendous. Now that the confusion of the day and night -were over with, she found a thrill in considering the problem, while -her sensitive fingers pressed and pressed again the hard little globes. -There were so many of them; such beauties, she knew, in form and size -and color.... Never again would such an opportunity come to her. It was, -precisely, if on the grandest scale imaginable, her sort of achievement. -Tex was gone. The Kid was gone. No one could claim a share or a voice: -it was all hers--wealth, power, even, perhaps, at the last, something -near respectability. For money, enough of it, she knew, will accomplish -even that. While on the other, hand, to fail now, might, would, spell a -life of drab adventure along the coast, without even a goal, without a -decent hope; with, always, the pitiless years gaining on her. - -She searched, tiptoeing, about the room, lantern in hand, for a place -to hide her treasure; then reconsidered. In some way she must keep the -pearls about her person; though not, as now, looped around her waist. An -accidental touch there might start the fateful questioning. - -She put down the lantern; stood for a long time by the curtained door, -listening. From up and down the passage came only the heavy breathing of -exhausted folk. She slipped out cautiously; made her way to the sloping -deck above--how vividly familiar it was!--tiptoed lightly aft, past -the uncurious helmsman, around the huge coils of rope and the piled-up -fenders of interwoven matting, out to the pleasant gallery where the -flowers were. - -And then, as she stepped down and paused to breathe slowly, deeply, -again the heavy-sweet perfume of the tuberoses, a boyish figure sprang -up, with a nervous little gasp of surprise, from the steamer chair of -Hong Kong grass. - -She said, in her quiet way, "Oh, hello!" And then, with a quick sidelong -glance at him, accepted the chair he offered. He seemed uncertain as to -whether he would go or stay. Lowering her lids, she studied him. He was -standing the excitement well, even improving. His carriage was better; -he stood up well on his strong young legs. And he was quieter, better in -hand, though of course the never-governed, long overstimulated emotions -would not be lying very deep beneath this new, more manly surface. He -was very good-looking, really a typical American boy. - -He stood now, fingering the petals of a dahlia and gazing out astern -into the luminous night. She pondered the question of exerting herself -again to win him. The money was there, plenty of it. He would be as -helpless as ever in her experienced hands. And the mere use of her skill -in trapping and stripping him would be enjoyable.... He was lingering. - -She decided in the negative. He would surely become tempestuous. And as -surely, if she permitted that, he would discover the pearls. And--again -the thrill of mastery swept through her finely strung nerves--she had -those. They were enough. But they must be better hidden. There was her -problem still, a problem that aught at any instant become delicately -acute. She considered it, lying comfortably back in the chair, -luxuriating in the richly blended scent of the crowded blossoms, while -her nearly closed eyes studied the restless boy. - -Abruptly he turned. What now? Was he about to become tempestuous all on -his own? It would be anything but out of character. Her slight muscles -tightened, but her face betrayed no emotion, would have betrayed none -in a more searching light than this soft flood from the moon. He was -sentimental over the Manchu princess, now, of course. She hadn't missed -that. But in the case of an ungoverned boy, she well knew, the emotion -itself could he vastly more important than its immediate object But now -she was to meet with a small surprise. - -"Look here!" he began, crude, naive, as always, "there's -something--perhaps--I ought to tell you. I tried to carry on with you. -You've got a right to think anything about me--" - -At least he was keeping his voice down. She lay still; let him talk. - -"--But I've changed. Smile at that, if you want to!" - -She did smile faintly, but only at his clear, clean ignorance of the -insult that underlay his words. - -"--I _was_ on the loose. It's different now. I'm going to try to do -something with my life. Whatever happens--I mean however my luck may -seem to turn--" - -He could hardly go on with this. The next few words were swallowed down. -It was plain enough that he couldn't think clearly. And he couldn't -possibly know that he was giving her an opening through which, within -a very few moments, she was to see the outline of the policy she must -pursue during these difficult days to come on the junk. - -She lifted her head; leaned on an elbow. "Do you know," she said, in a -voice that seemed, now, to have a note of friendliness, "I'm sorry for -you." - -"Sorry for me!" - -"Don't think I can't see how it is. And you mustn't misunderstand me. -I'm older than you. I'm pretty experienced. My life has been hard. There -couldn't be anything serious between you and me. You've wakened up to -that." - -The new note in her voice puzzled him, but caught his interest. He stood -looking straight down at her. - -"I know you're in love," she went on. - -"But--" - -"Don't be silly. It's plain enough. She's very attractive. Nobody could -blame you." - -"She's wonderful!" - -"It's nice to see you feeling that way. It--it's no good our talking -about it, you and me. All I've got to say is--please don't think I'd -bother you. I may have led a rough life at times--a girl alone, who has -to live by her wits--but--oh, well, never mind that! Every man has -had his foolish moments. I understand you better than you will ever -know--and--well, here's good luck!" And she offered her hand. - -He took it, breathless, eager. He seemed, then, on the point of pouring -out his story to this new surprising friend. But a slight sound caught -his attention. He looked up, and slowly let fall the hand that -was gripped in his; for at the break of the deck, just above them, -hesitating, very slim and wan, stood Miss Hui Fei. - -The situation was, of course, in no way so dramatic as it seemed to the -boy. He, indeed, drew back, overcome; the habit of guilty thought was -not to be thrown off in a moment. Miss Carmichael, sensing that he -would begin erecting the incident into a situation the moment he could -clumsily speak, took the matter in hand; rising, and quietly addressing -herself to the Manchu girl. Breeding, of course, was not hers, could not -be; but her calm manner and her instinct for reticence could seem, as -now, not unlike the finer quality. - -"Do have this chair," she said. "I was going down." - -Miss Hui Fei smiled faintly. "I coul'n' sleep," she murmured. - -"There's one little article I suppose none of us thought to bring--" -thus Miss Carmichael, balancing in her light way on the balls of her -feet--"needle and thread." She even indulged in a little passing laugh. -"I think my maid--" began Miss Hui Fei. - -"Oh, no! I wouldn't bother you!" - -"Yes! Please--I don' min'." - -She turned; and the boy started impulsively toward her. Miss Carmichael -moved away, over the deck, but heard him saying, in a broken voice: - -"You'll come back? I've got to tell you something!" - -To which Miss Hui Fei replied, in a voice that was meant to be at once -pleasant and impersonal: "Why--yes. I think I'll come back. It's -so close down there." The two young women went below. Quietly Miss -Carmichael waited in the passage. - -The needle and thread were shortly forthcoming. The white girl smiled; -seeming really friendly there in the dim ray of light that slanted in -through a window. - -"It's good of you," she said. - -"Oh, no--it's nothing." - -"We're in for a rather uncomfortable trip of it. I hope you'll let me do -anything I can to help you. I'm more used to knocking about, of course." - -"We'll all make the best of it," said the Manchu girl, and turned, with -an effort at a smile, toward the stairs. - -Miss Carmichael entered her own room. The lantern still burned, but the -candle-end was low. She saw now an iron lamp, an open dish full of oil -with a floating wick. This she lighted with the candle. Next, moving -about almost without a sound, she fastened the swaying door-curtain with -pins. Then she slipped out of her blouse and skirt; untied the pearl -cape; and seated on the bed of matting, with her back to the door, began -patiently sewing the pearls into her undergarments. It was to be a -long task. Before dawn the lamp burned out, and fearful of being caught -asleep with the amazing treasure about her she stood at the window and -let the wind blow into her face until the faintly spreading light of -dawn made the work again possible. The drowsiness that nearly overcame -her now she fought off with an iron will. Nothing mattered--nothing but -success. Her thin deft fingers worked in a tireless rhythm. Only once, -very briefly, did she yield to the impulse to weigh the exquisite -lustrous globes in her hands; to hold them close to the light. Her -tireless reason told her that this wouldn't do. It brought an excited -throbbing to her weary head.... She settled again to her task; time -enough to gloat later. By way of a healthy mental occupation she -counted the pearls as she threaded them--up to a thousand--on up to two -thousand--then (the sun was redly up now; and folk were stirring about -the deck) three thousand. In all, a few more than thirty-seven hundred -pearls she threaded about her person; and then slipped back into -blouse and skirt before permitting herself a few hours of sleep. The -diamond-studded clasps she wrapped in a bit of cloth and stuffed into -her hand-bag. - -The Chinese maid woke her then, bringing food that had been cooked, she -knew, in the brick stove up forward, where the crew slept. She could -bring herself to eat but a few mouthfuls.... This didn't matter, either. -No hardship was of consequence in such a battle as hers; she would have -submitted coolly to torture rather than surrender her prize. But it -suggested fresh tactics. She had a knack at cooking. Quietly, later -in the day--she knew better than to try effusive friendliness; to play -herself to the last would be best--she spoke to Mr. Doane of that small -gift. A kitchen was improvised in the _laopan's_ cramped quarters, aft; -and Miss Carmichael, quite intent about her business, coolly cheerful -about it, indeed, began to prove her capacity. And she knew, then, that -she was winning. They would soon be respecting her, even liking her. - -Even so she would keep her distance; then they would have to keep -theirs. That was all she needed. - -To Rocky, the most elusive memory of all this eventful night was the -conversation with Miss Hui Fei. For she returned in a moment--so he -remembered it--and sank wearily into the steamer chair. The picture of -that scene was to vary bafflingly in his mind. At times he saw himself, -torn with an emotion now so great that it seemed the end of life, -standing over her, saying, passionately: - -"I know how it looked--you're finding us here like that! And you'd have -reason. I did flirt with her. I'm ashamed now. I hadn't seen you--felt -you--like this. But that's all over. I was telling her--Please! You've -got to know!--that I love you. Or telling her enough. She understood. -And she was awfully decent. She took my hand, wished me luck." - -There must have been a brief time then when the poor girl was -endeavoring pleasantly to turn aside this torrent of heavily freighted -words. Certainly he was talking feverishly on. He could remember pulling -down a coil of rope from the steersman's deck and sitting moodily beside -her; and there was a sensation in their minds, his and hers, of being -at cross-purposes. There was something about her, back of the weary -smile--a smile that was long to haunt him, dim in the moonlight, -exquisite in its sensitive beauty--that eluded his pressing desire until -it seemed near to driving him mad. Kipling's _East is East, and West is -West_, slipped in among his thoughts; kept coming and coming until it -became a nerve-wracking singsong in his brain. - -There was one period, fortunately very short, when he seemed to be -almost forcing a quarrel. Why, he couldn't afterward imagine. That -part of it was dreadful in the retrospect. He had reached the point, -apparently, when he couldn't longer endure the failure to reach her. -There was simply no response. It was almost as if he were frightening -her away. Perhaps it was just that. - -But the most vivid memory was of the unaccountable force that suddenly -rose in him, seizing on his tongue, his brain, his very nerves. The -power of the Kanes was abruptly his, and it brought its own skill with -it. It was, distinctly, a possession. It simply came, at this very top -of his emotional pitch. There must have been preliminaries. He must -have said things that she must have answered. But these lesser moments -dropped out. Even a day later, he could see, could almost feel, himself -on one knee beside the steamer chair, saying those amazing things, -without a shred of memory as to how he got there. Never had he so -spoken, to girl or woman; for in the escapades of the younger Rocky -there had always been a reticence if seldom a restraint. It was -precocity; the blood that was in him. - -"You beautiful, wonderful girl!" he was breathing, close to her ear. -(He was never to forget this.) "How can you hide your feelings from me? -Can't you see it's just driving me mad?.... You're adorable! -You're exquisite! You thrill me so--just your voice; the way you -walk--your hands--your hair!.... Can't you understand, dear, it isn't -what they call 'love.'" (This with a divine contempt.) "It's the cry -of my whole being. I want to give you my life. I want to know _your_ -life--study it--come to understand the wonderful people that has made -you possible! I'm going to study it--history, art, everything!.... -I worship you! I dream so of you--all the time--daytimes! I just -half-close my eyes and then, right away, I can see you, walking. And I -see you as you were at the dance on the boat." He choked a little; then -rushed on. "And in those dreams I always take you in my arms--No, let me -say it! The angels are singing it, the wonderful truth!--I take you -in my arms and kiss your hair and your eyes. You always close your -eyes--oh, so slowly--and I press my lips on the lids. And your arms are -around my neck. I can feel your hands. But I never kiss your lips--not -in those dreams. Because that will mean that you have given me your -soul, and I always know I must wait for that.... - -"Please! You must listen! Can't you see I'm just tearing my heart out -and putting it in your hands--under your feet? There isn't any other -life for me. I can't live without you. I could give up my friends, my -home, my country, and be happy just serving you." - -He had captured her hand; had it tight in his two hands and was kissing -it tenderly. The thrill was unbelievable now. It was ecstasy. He -could hear himself murmuring over and over, "You're so exquisite! So -thrilling! I love the way your hair lies over your forehead. I love your -eyes, especially when you smile".... On and on. - -The tired sad girl in the steamer chair could not fail to respond in -some measure, in every sensitive nerve, to so ardent a wooing. Even when -she rose, and struggled a little to withdraw her hand, she couldn't be -angry. He was surprising; in his very boyishness, compelling. - -Then, a little later, he was sitting moodily on the extension front of -the chair, face in hands, plunged into a wordless abyss; she sat on the -edge of the steersman's deck, leaning against the rail, her face close -to a lotus plant, with one flower that looked a ghostly blue in the -fading moonlight, and just later, shaded through pink to deep red with -the first quick-spreading color of the dawn. His emotional outburst had -passed, for the moment, like a gust. He seemed to himself, already, -to have failed. His thoughts were turned, behind the gray half-covered -face, on death. For so swung the pendulum. He couldn't, in these depths, -draw significance from the remarkable fact that she had risen only to -drop down again and carry forward the talk that he let fall, and that he -had, for the time at least, swept away those mental obstacles. Certainly -Miss Hui Fei was not elusive now. - -The things she was saying, in a deliberate, matter-of-fact way, -bewildered him. - -"I don' want you to make love to me like tha'." - -"But how can I help it? You're so wonderful. You thrill me so. I tell -you it's my whole life. I can never live on without you--not any more. -It's got to be with you, or--or nothing." - -It was strange. This impulsive affection had grown very, very rapidly -within him; yet, even a day earlier he couldn't have pictured this -scene. Not a phrase of these burning sentences he was so fervently -uttering had been consciously framed in his mind. A part of the thrill -of the situation lay in the very fact that he was so wildly committing -himself. Now that it was being said, he felt no desire to take a word -back. He meant it all; and more--more. - -But she--still, even in the telltale morning light, quaint, charming, -adorable--was growing so practical about it. - -"You're a ver' romantic boy." - -"I'm not! This is real! Can't you understand that it's love--forever?" - -"Please!.... I don' want you to think I don' un'erstan'. It's ver' sweet -an' generous of you--" - -"I'm not generous! I want you!" - -"I do apprecia' all it woul' mean. You offer me so much--" - -"You dear girl, I offer you everything--everything I have or am! I don't -want to live at all unless it's with you always at my side." - -"But I don't think--Please! I woui'n' hurt you for anything. You've -helped so--helped saving my father's life an' mine. It's won'erful--but -I don' think life is like that. People mus' have so much in common to -marry in the Western way. They mus' love each other, yes. But in their -min's an' feelings they mus' share so much--their backgroun's...." - -He was out of the chair now; was beside her on the deck. - -"Listen!" he was huskily saying. "Well get married right away in -Shanghai. We've got to! I won't let you say no! And then we won't go -back. Well stay out here. There'll be money enough, in spite of the -pater. We'll study this East together. I'm going to devote all the rest -of my life to it. Well build our common interest. I shall never want -anything else!" - -"How do you knew that?" - -"Can you doubt me?" He had both her hands now. He seemed so young, so -eager. He would fight for what he greatly desired, as his father had -fought before him. However crudely, boyishly, he would fight. - -"No"--her own voice was, surprisingly, a little unsteady--"of course I -don' doubt you. But how can you know what you're going to wan'--years -from now. I don' un'erstan' that. It does seem pretty romantic to me. I -don't know for myself. I coul'n' tell." - -This, or perhaps it was her failure to rise to his ecstasy, plunged him -again into the depths. - -"It's you or nothing now," he repeated. "You or nothing." - -"Wha' do you mean by that?" - -"I've got to have you. If I can't, I'll--oh, I guess I'll just drop -quietly overboard. What's the use?" - -"Do you think it's fair to talk li' that?" - -"Perhaps not, but--I guess I'm beside myself." - -"Listen!" said she now: with a friendly, even sympathetic pressure of -his trembling hands, "I'll tell you what I think. I think the thing for -you to do is to go back to college." - -This stung him. "How can you talk like that," he cried, "when--" - -"I don' wan' to hurt you. But please try to think this as I wan' you -to." - -"Haven't you _any_ feeling for me?" - -"Of course, an' I'm ver' grateful." - -"For God's sake, don't talk like that." - -There was a pause. He withdrew his hands; plunged his feverish face into -them. - -She rose, wearily. Said: "I'm going to try to sleep." - -"And you could go? Leaving it like this?" - -"Please! I can't help--" - -"Oh, I understand--" he was on his feet before her; caught her arms in -his hands that now were firm and young--"I haven't moved you yet, that's -all. But I will. We Kanes aren't quitters. We don't give up. And I'm not -going to give you up. I'm going to win you. Can't you see that I've got -to? That I can't live.... Listen! You're the loveliest, daintiest little -girl in the world. You're exquisite. Your voice is music to me. I've got -to live my life to that music. It'll be beautiful! Can't you see that? I -don't care how much time it takes. I'll settle down to it. But I'll win -you. And we'll be married at Shanghai?" - -He was very nearly irresistible now. The power in him was real. She -broke away; then, a surprise to herself, lingered. Strangely to her, -this ardent, still somewhat impossible boy, with his vital, Western -force, had actually created an atmosphere of romance in which she was, -for the moment, and in a degree, enveloped. She knew, clearly enough, -that she must exert herself to escape from it: but lingered. - -He caught her hands again; covered them with kisses; held them firmly -while his eyes, suddenly radiant, sought hers and, during a moving -instant, held them. She went below then. And Rocky dropped into the -steamer chair and smiled exultantly as he drifted into slumber. - -When they met again, away from the others, after an excellent luncheon -of fowl and vegetables prepared by the surprising Miss Carmichael, his -mood was wholly changed. He had charm; consciously or unconsciously, he -made it felt. - -"I wasn't fair to you," he began. - -"If you don' min'," said she, "we jus' won' talk abou' that." - -"Can't help it." He smiled a little. "There's no use pretending I can -think about another thing. I'm madly in love with you--hopelessly gone. -It'll probably simplify things if you'll just accept that as a fact. -But last night--this morning--whenever it was!--after all we'd been -through--you know, it wasn't so unnatural that I got all fired up that -way." - -As this half-smiling, half-serious youth was plainly going to be even -more difficult to manage than the ardent boy of the glowing dawn, she -was silent. - -"Here's the thing," he went on. "I was too worn out myself to be -considerate of you. I meant every word, of course. You'll never know how -wonderful you seem to me." This rather wistfully. They were leaning on -the rail, gazing at the rocky hills along the southern bank. "It's all -wrong for me to be so impatient. I know I've got to make good. I've got -to earn you. That won't come all at once. But I am going to try not to -get stirred up like that again. God knows you've got enough to bother -you." - -"I'm ver' uncertain abou' my father," said she. "How do you mean?" - -"Oh--he stays in his room. He doesn' come out with us. An' he's always -working." - -"Well--does that mean anything? Wouldn't he naturally be busy?" - -"I don' think so. No, like this." - -"But I don't understand what--" - -"It isn' easy to say. When a man like father--what you call a -mandarin--feels that he mus'"--her voice wavered--"that he mus' go, -there is a grea' deal that he must wri' to his frien's an' to the -governmen'. He doesn' wan' to be disturb'. I can' tell wha' he's doing. -It worries me." - -Doane, during the sunny dreamy afternoon, heard them, now and again. -They were quite monopolizing the pleasant after gallery. And they were -drifting on into their love story. He could not restrain himself from -watching and listening. Despite the fact that his own dream was -over, Doane felt about it, in his heart, like a boy. The sight of -her quickened his pulse. Thoughts of her--mental pictures--came -irresistibly. And these, at times, puzzled his heart if never his -reason; the moment on the top deck of the steamer, when she climbed the -after ladder and first confided her tragic difficulty; the dance she -"sat out" with him. - -.... He called himself, often enough, a fool. But his spirit refused -to accept the words that formed in his mind. He was simply at war with -himself.... The sort of thing happened often enough in life, of -course. Every man lived through such periods. Men of middle age in -particular.... Thus he fell back, over and again, on reason. It was all -he could do. Plainly the experience would take a lot of living through. - -To hope that her quick youth could altogether resist Rocky's ardent -youth was asking too much, of course. The young people were almost -certain to find themselves helpless--their emotions stirred by what -they had been living through; thrown together here, romantically, on the -junk. Whatever small difficulties they might encounter in exploring each -other's nascent feelings would be softened by the very air they were -breathing. The young are often, usually, helpless when nature so works -upon them.... But Doane wasn't bitter. At times he nearly convinced -himself that he felt only concern lest they rush along too fast; -surrender their hearts, only to find too late that the necessary -affinity was not growing into flower. The boy must have some proving, of -course. That lovely girl mustn't be sacrificed. - -Late in the afternoon they were singing, softly, even humorously. Doane -caught snatches of _Mandalay_, and the college songs. That would seem -to them a fine bond, of course--the mere casual fact that both knew the -songs. For youth is quite as simple as that.... So they were rushing on -with it, while an older man pondered. Rocky hung unashamed on her every -word, every movement; waited forlornly about whenever she went below; -starting at sounds, sinking into moods, and shining with radiance -when she reappeared. He even had gentle moments.... What girl could be -insensible to all that? He himself was avoiding them, of course. There -was no helping that; certainly in this stage of the romance. - -His excellency appeared on deck during the second afternoon; greeted -Doane in friendly fashion--looking oddly simple in his servant costume; -blue gown, plain cloth slippers, skull-cap with a knot of vermilion -silk. They walked the deck together; later, they sat on a coil of rope. -In manner he was very nearly his old self; smiling a thought less, -perhaps, but as humanly direct in his talk as a Chinese. - -"We shall soon be parting, Grigsby Doane," he remarked, "and I shall -think much of you. Do you know yet where you shall go and what you shall -do?" - -"No," Doane replied. "All I can do now is the next thing, whatever that -may prove to be." - -"You will help China?" - -"I shall hope for an opportunity." - -"You are, first and last, a Westerner." - -"I suppose that is true." - -"I did think you a philosopher, Griggsby Doane. So you seemed to me. -Like our humble great, almost like Chuang Tzü himself. But in the moment -of crisis your nature found expression wholly in action. At such times -we of the East are likely to be negative. We are a static people. But -you, like your own, are dynamic." - -This shrewd bit of observation struck Doane sharply. Come to think, it -was true. - -"At the critical moment you wasted not one thought in reflection. You -weighed none of the difficulties; you ignored consequences. You took -command. You acted. As a result--here we are.... I suppose you were -right. At any rate, I yielded to your active judgment. It has saved my -daughter." - -"And you, as well, Your Excellency, if I may say so." - -"Very well--myself too.... I shall always think of you now as I have -twice seen you--once in that curious boxing match on the steamer; and -again as you took command of me and my own house. I regret that in -my position as a Manchu, however progressive, I can not be of any -considerable service to you with the republicans. It is in their camp -that your advice will help. Only there. Shall you go to them?" - -Doane found it impossible to mention the invitation of Sun-Shi-pi. That -would be a sacred confidence. So he replied in merely general terms: - -"I should like to sit in their councils. They seem to represent, at this -time, China's only material hope. Though I am not strongly an optimist -regarding the revolution. China is so vast, so sunken in tradition, -that the real revolution must be distressingly slow. Still, I have some -familiarity with the constitutional history of my own country, and, I -think, some acquaintance with yours. And I love China. Yes, I should -like to help." - -"You are a great man, Griggsby Doane. You have known sorrow and poverty. -To the merely successful American I do not look for much real guidance. -But China needs you. I hope she will find you out in time." - -They talked on, of many things. His excellency was gently, at times even -whimsically, reflective. At length he touched, lightly at first, on the -subject of Rocky Kane. A little later, more openly, he asked what the -boy's standing would be in New York. - -Doane thought this over very carefully. It was curious how that -confusing element of mere feeling reappeared promptly in his mind. -But he explained, finally, that while the boy was young, and had been -passing through a phase of rather adventurous wildness, still his father -was a man of enormous prestige in society as in the financial world. The -boy had nice qualities. Given the right influences he might, with the -wealth that would one day be his, become like his father, a powerful -factor in American life. - -"I find myself somewhat puzzled," remarked his excellency then. "He -seems devoted to my daughter. I can not easily read her mind. And I -would not attempt to direct her life as would be necessary had she been -merely a Manchu girl reared in a Manchu environment. Is she, do you -think, and as your people understand the term, in love with him? I find -their present relationship somewhat alarming." - -"It would be difficult to say, Your Excellency--" thus Doane, simply and -gravely. "The young man is, of course, in love with her." - -"Ah," breathed his excellency. "You are sure of that?" - -"Yes. She is undoubtedly accustomed to play about pleasantly with young -men as do the young women of America." Sudden, poignant memories came -of his own lovely daughter, as she had been; and of the puzzling romance -that had seemed for a time to injure her young life--a romance in which -he, her father, had played a strange part. But that was, after all, but -an echo from another life; a closed book. - -"Your daughter, I am sure," Doane continued, "can be trusted to form her -own attachments. She is a noble as well as a beautiful girl." - -"Indeed--you find her so, Griggsby Doane? That is pleasant to my ears. -For into the directing of her life have gone my dreams of the new China -and the new world. I would not have her choose wrongly now. But I do not -understand her. It is difficult for me to talk freely with her." - -"I am sure," said Doane slowly, "'that if you could bring yourself to do -so"--as once or twice before, in moments of deep feeling, he forgot -to use the indirect Oriental form of address--"it would make her very -happy." - -"You think that, Griggsby Doane?" His excellency considered this. Then -added: "I will make the effort." - -"If I may suggest--talk with her not as father with daughter, but on an -equality, as friend with friend." - -His excellency slowly rose; and Doane, also rising, felt for the first -time that the fine old statesman fully looked his age. He was, standing -there, smiling a thought wistfully, an old man, little short of a broken -man. And then his dry thin hand found Doane's huge one and gripped it in -the Western manner. This was a surprise, evidently as moving to Kang as -to Doane himself; for they stood thus a moment in silence. - -"My dearest hope, of late," said the great Manchu--the smoothest of -etiquette giving way, for once, before the pressure of emotion--"has -been that my daughter's heart might be entrusted to you, Griggsby -Doane." - -Again a silence. Then Doane: - -"That was my hope, as well." - -"Then--" - -"No. It is plainly impossible. All life is before her. The thought has -not come to her. It never will. I see now that she could not be happy -with me. And I think she ought to be happy. I must ask you not to speak -of this again. Let youth call unto youth. And let me be her friend." - -His excellency went below after this. Miss Hui Fei was also below, -sleeping. Rocky Kane had been playing with the little princess, out on -the gallery; but now, evidently watching his chance, he came forward to -the informal seat the mandarin had vacated. - -It was to be difficult--always difficult. The boy, plainly, couldn't -live through these tense days without a confidant. Doane steeled himself -to bear it, and to respond as a friend. There was no way out; would be -none short of Shanghai; just an exquisite torture. It was even to -grow, with each fresh contact, harder to bear. The boy was so curiously -unsophisticated, so earnest and honest an egotist. - -"--I've asked her," he said now. - -Doane could only wait. - -"She hasn't said yes. That would be absurd, of course--so soon." He was -so pitifully putting up a brave front. "But she does like me. And it's -something that she hasn't said no. Isn't it something?" - -That was hardly a question; it was nearer assertion--what he had to -think. Doane managed to incline his head. - -"But never mind that. God knows why I should bother you with it. You've -been so kind--such a friend. We--are friends, aren't we?" - -Doane felt himself obliged to turn and meet his eyes. And such eyes! -Ablaze with nervous light. And then he had to grip another hand--this -one young, moist, strong. But he managed that, too. - -"Listen! I do bother you awfully, but--I've been thinking--here we are, -you know. God knows when I'll find a man who could help me as you can. -And we brought all those wonderful old paintings aboard here. I've been -thinking--well, since I've got so much to learn of Chinese culture, -why not begin? Couldn't I--would they mind if I looked at some of -the pictures? And--if it isn't asking too much--you could tell me why -they're good. Just begin to give me something to go by. Isn't it as good -a way to make the break as any?" - -It was a most acceptable diversion. Doane, though several boxes of the -paintings were in his own rooms, sent a servant to ask a permission that -was cordially granted. And as there was a wind blowing, they went below, -and talked there in low voices in order not to disturb the sleeping -girl, while the elder man carefully opened a box and got out a number -of the long scrolls that were wound on rods of ivory, handling them with -reverent fingers. - -He chose one from the brush of that Chao Meng-fu who flourished under -the earliest Mongol or Yuan rulers, a roll perhaps fourteen or fifteen -inches in width, and in length, judging from the thickness, as many -feet, tied around with silk cords and fastened with tags of carven jade. -The painting itself, naturally, was on silk, which in turn was pasted on -thick, dark-toned paper, made of bamboo pulp, with borders of brocade. -The projecting ends of the ivory rollers, like the tags, were carved. - -At the edge of the scroll were, besides the seal signature of the -artist, and the date--in our chronology, A. D. 1308--many other -signatures in the conventional square seal characters of royal and -other collectors who had possessed the painting, with also, a few pithy, -appreciative epigrams from eminent critics of various periods. On that -one margin was stamped the authentic history of the particular bit of -silk, paper and pigment during its life of six full centuries; for no -hand could have forged those seals. - -There was no likelihood that the boy--lacking, as he was, in cultural -background--would exhibit any sensitive responsiveness to the exquisite -brush-work of the fine old painter or to his consciously subjective -attitude toward his art. But there is a way in which the simple Western -mind that is not preoccupied with fixed concepts of art may be led into -enjoyment of such a landscape scroll; this is to exhibit it as do the -Chinese themselves, unrolling it, very slowly, a little at a time, -deliberately absorbing the detail and the finely suggested atmosphere, -until a sensation is experienced not unlike that of making a journey -through a strange and delightful country. Doane employed this method--it -was surely what that old painter intended--and led the boy slowly from a -pastoral home, so small beneath its towering overhanging mountain -crags, that lost themselves finally in soft cloud-masses, as to appear -insignificant, out along a river where lines of reeds swayed in the -winds and boats moved patiently, across a lake that was dotted with -pavilions and pleasure craft--on and on, through varied scenes that yet -were blended with amazing craftsmanship into a continuous, harmonious -whole. - -The time crept by and by. When Doane finally explained the seal -characters at the end and retied the old silk cords with their hanging -rectangles of unclouded green jade, the sun was low over the western -hills. - -Rocky's face was flushed, his eyes nervously bright. "I don't get it -all, of course," he said; "but it makes you feel somehow as if you'd -been reading _The Pilgrim's Progress!_" - -Doane gravely nodded. - -"Shall we look at another?" said Rocky. - -"No. That is enough. The Chinese knew better than to crowd the mind with -confused impressions of many paintings. A good picture is an experience -to be lived through, not a trophy to be glanced at." - -"I wonder," said the boy, "if that's why I used to hate it so when my -tutor dragged me through the Metropolitan Museum?" - -"Doubtless." - -"And this picture has a great value, I suppose?" - -"It is virtually priceless--in East as well as West," replied Doane as -he replaced it among its fellows in the box. - -Thus began, late but perhaps not too late, what may be regarded as the -education of young Rockingham Kane. - - - -CHAPTER XII--AT THE HOUR OF THE TIGER - -|THEY passed, that evening, the region of Peng-tze where Tao Yuan-ming, -after a scant three months as district magistrate, surrendered his -honors and retired to his humble farm near Kiu Kiang, there to write -in peace the verse and prose that have endured during sixteen crowded -centuries; and on, then, moving slowly through the precipitous Gateway -of Anking and, later, around the bend that bounds that city on the west, -south and east. Those on deck could see, indistinctly in the deepening -twilight, the vast area of houses and ruins--for Anking had not -yet recovered from the devastations of the T'ai-ping rebels in the -eighteen-sixties--where half a million yellow folk swarm like ants; and -very indistinctly indeed, farther to the north, they could see: the -blue mountains. Slowly, quietly, then, Anking, with its ruins and its -memories fell away astern. - -Half an hour later the sweeps were lashed along the rail. The great dark -sails, with their scalloped edges between the battens of bamboo, seeming -more than ever, in the dusk, like the wings of an enormous bat, were -lowered; and with many shouts and rhythmic cries the tracking ropes were -run out to mooring poles on the bank. Forward the mattings were adjusted -for the night. The smells of tobacco and frying fish drifted aft. A -youth, sipping tea by the rail, put down his cup and sang softly -in falsetto a long narrative of friendship and the mighty river and -(incidentally) the love of a maiden who slipped away from her mother's -side at night to meet a handsome student only to be slain, as was just, -by the hand of an elder brother.... From the cabin aft drifted a faint -odor of incense. A flageolet mingled its plaintive oboe-like note with -the song of the youth by the rail.... From a near-by village came soft -evening sounds, and the occasional barking of dogs, and the beat of a -watchman's gong.... The greatest of rivers--greatest in traffic and in -rich memories of the endless human drama--was settling quietly for the -night. - -At the first rays of dawn the forward deck would be again astir. Sails -would be hoisted, ropes hauled aboard and coiled; and the shining yellow -craft would resume her journey down-stream, with carven and brightly -painted eyes peering fixedly out at the bow, with carefully tended -flowers perfuming the air about the after gallery, a thing of rich and -lovely color even on the rich and lovely river; slipping by busy ports, -each with its vast tangle of small shipping and its innumerable families -of beggars in slipper-boats or tubs awaiting miserably the steamers and -their strangely prodigal white passengers. T'ai-ping itself, of bloody -memory, lay still ahead; and farther yet Nanking the glorious, and -Chin-kiang, and the great estuary. Slowly the huge craft would drift -and sail and tie, moving patiently on toward the Shanghai of -the ever-prospering white merchants, the Shanghai that somewhat -vaingloriously had dubbed itself "the Paris of the East." And no one of -the thousands, here and there, that idly watched the golden junk as it -moved, not without a degree of magnificence, down the tireless current, -was to know that a Manchu viceroy, a prince hunted to the death by his -own blood, a statesman known to the courts of great new lands, was in -hiding within those timbers of polished cypress. Nor would they know -that a princess, his daughter yet strangely of the new order, voyaged -with him clad in the simple costume of a young Chinese woman. Nor would -they dream of certain inexplicable whites. Nor would they have cared; -for the voyage of the yellow junk was but a tiny incident in the crowded -endless drama of the river; to the millions of struggling, breeding, -dying souls along the banks and on the water, merely living was and -would be burden enough. So China merely lives--dreaming a little but -hoping hardly at all--with every eye on the furrow or the till; lives, -and dies, and--lives again and on. - -Late in the third afternoon, Rocky Kane, sitting, head forlornly in -hands, in his narrow room, heard a light step--heard it with every -sensitive nerve-tip--and, springing up, softly drew his curtain. But the -quick eagerness faded from his eyes; for it was Dixie Carmichael. - -Her thin lips curved in the faintest of smiles as she moved along the -corridor toward her own curtained door. But then, as she passed and -glanced back, her skirt, in swinging about, caught on a nail; caught -firmly; and as she stooped to release it, a string of pearls swung down, -broke, and rolled, a score of little opalescent spheres, along the deck, -a few of them nearly to Rocky's feet. He stooped--without a thought -at first--picked them up and turned them over in his fingers; then, -stepping forward to return them, observed with an odd thrill of somewhat -unpleasant excitement, that the girl had gone an ashen color and was -staring at him with something the look of a wild and hostile animal. -She turned then; glanced with furtive eyes up and down the corridor; and -swiftly gathering up the remaining pearls clutched them tightly in one -hand, extending the other and saying, in a quick half-whisper: "Give me -those." - -He hesitated, confused, unequal to the quick clear thinking he felt, -even then, was demanded of him. - -"What are you doing with them?" he asked. - -"Not so loud! Come here!" She was indicating her own doorway; even -drawing the curtain; while her head moved just perceptibly toward the -room immediately beyond her own where Miss Hui Fei, he knew, would be -resting at this time. - -"Where did you get them?" he asked, huskily, doggedly. - -There was a long pause. Again her subtle gaze swept the corridor. "You'd -better step in here," said she, very quiet. "I've something to say to -you." - -Sensing, still confusedly, that he ought to see the thing through, -struggling to think, he yielded to her stronger will. - -She followed him into the room and let the curtain fall. "Give me those -pearls," she commanded again. - -He shook his head. - -During a tense moment she studied him. She moved over by the translucent -window of ground oyster shells, itself, in the mellow afternoon light, -as opalescent as the pearls in her hand and his. Her gaze, for an -instant, sought the wide stain on the floor where the Manila Kid had, -so recently, wretchedly died; and her instant imagination considered the -incomprehensible mental attitude of these quiet Chinese who had, without -a word, disposed of the body and painstakingly cleansed the spot. No -one, observing them day by day, now, as they calmly pursued their tasks, -could suspect that the slanting quiet eyes had so lately seen murder.... -As for the youth before her she was, now that her moment of fright had -passed, supremely confident in her skill and mental strength. He was, -still, little more than an undeveloped boy. And his position, now that -he had set up his flag of reform, would be absurdly vulnerable. - -"Once more"--her low voice was cool and soft as river ice--"give them to -me." - -He shook his head. "Tell me first where you got them." - -"If you're determined to make a scene," said she, "I advise you to be -quiet about it. You wouldn't want--her--to know you're in here." - -"I--I"--this was the merest boyishness--"I've told her about--well, that -I tried to make love to you. I'm not afraid of that." - -"Still--you wouldn't want her to hear you now." This was awkwardly true. -And his hesitation as he tried to consider it, to work out an attitude, -ran a second too long. - -"The pearls are mine," she pressed calmly on. "The best advice I can -give you is to return them and go." - -"But--" - -"Do you think I want the people aboard this junk--anybody--to know that -I have them?" - -"I believe you stole them from the viceroy's place." - -"That, of course--Well, never mind! What you may believe is nothing to -me." - -"Will you tell Mr. Doane about them?" - -"Certainly not. And you won't." - -"Why shouldn't I?" - -"It's none of your business." - -"Perhaps it's my duty." - -"Listen"--he felt himself wholly in the right, yet found difficulty in -meeting her cold pale eyes--"it's my impression that I've been acting -rather decently toward you. Of course, I could have--" - -"What could you have done?" - -"For you own good, keep your voice down. I will tell you just this--you -were pretty wild in Shanghai for a week or two." - -"Well?" This was hurting him; but he met it. "And there's no likelihood -that you've told her all of it. Were you such a fool as to think you -could keep it all secret? Out here on the coast--and from a woman with -as many underground connections as I have?" - -"There's nothing that!--" - -"Listen! I'm not through with you. You've been a very, very rough -proposition. I know all about it. No--wait! There's something else. I -knew all about you when you were making up to me on the steamer. I could -have trapped you then--tangled your life so with mine that you could -never have got away from me, never in the world. But I didn't. I liked -you, and I didn't want to hurt you--then." - -"You do want to hurt me now?" - -"It may be necessary." - -"Since you're taking this position"--he was finding difficulty in -making his voice heard; there seemed to be danger of explosive -sounds--"probably I'd better just go to Mr. Doane myself with these -things." - -"If you do that I'll wreck your life." - -"You don't mean that you'd--" - -"You seem to be forgetting a good deal." - -"But you--" - -"I will defend myself to the limit. I've really been easy with you. You -see, you don't know anything about me. Least of all what harm I can do. -You'd be a child in my hands. Turn against me and I'll get you if it -takes me ten years. You'll never be safe from me. Never for a minute." - -He looked irresolutely down at the lustrous jewels in his hand. - -"You had these sewed in your skirt. There must be more there." - -"Are you proposing to search me?" - -"No--but".... His black youth was stabbing now, viciously, at his -boyishly sensitive heart; but still, in a degree, he met it. "I'm going -to Mr. Doane. I don't care what happens to me." - -He even moved a soft step toward the door; but paused, lingered, -watching her. For she was rummaging among the covers of her bed. He -caught a brief glimpse of a hand-bag that she meant him not to see. She -took from a bottle two green tablets. Then she faced him. - -To the startled question of his eyes she replied: "They're corrosive -sub mate. I shall take them now unless you--give me the pearls. If you -want to have my death on your hands, take them to Mr. Doane. But -it's only fair to tell you that if you do it--if you mix in this -business--your own life won't be worth a nickel. They'll get you, and -they'll get the pearls. You're caught in a bigger game than you can -play. - -"Get out, while you can"--as the low swift words came she reached out and -took the pearls from his nerveless hand--"and I'll protect you. You can -have your pretty Manchu girl. You can ride around in a rickshaw and -look at old temples and buy embroideries. Just don't mix in affairs that -don't concern you." - -"I"--he was pressing a hand to a white forehead--"I've got to think it -over." - -"Remember this, too"--she laid a hand on his arm--"you could never -fasten anything on me. The proof doesn't exist. Nobody can identify -unmounted pearls As a matter of fact I got these".... during a brief but -to her perverse imagination an intensely pleasing moment she closed -her eyes and lived again through that strange scene on the steps of the -pavilion; again in vivid fancy rolled over the inert body that had been -Tex Connor, took the amazing cape of pearls from his shirt and rolled -the body heavily back...."I got these from a man I knew--an old friend. -Just mind your own business and no one will harm you. But remember, -you're walking among dangers. Step carefully. Keep quiet. Better go -now." - -He found himself in the corridor; walked slowly, uncertainly, up to the -deck; sat by the rail and, head on hand, moodily watched the river and -the hills. He asked himself if he had, by his very silence, struck a -bargain with the girl; but could find no answer to the question, only -bewilderment. Could it be that she was only a daring thief? It could, of -course, but how to get at the truth? Abruptly, then his thoughts turned -inward. His wild days had seemed, since his change of heart, of the -remote past; but they were not, they had still been the stuff of his -life within about a week. It was unnerving. He thought, something -morbidly, as the sensitive young will, about habits.... The day had gone -awry, too, in the matter of his love. A reaction had set in. Hui Fei -was keeping much to herself. It had become difficult to talk with her -at all. And that had bewildered him.... He was all adrift, with neither -sound training nor a mature philosophy to steady him, life had turned -unreal on his hands; nothing was real--not Hui or her father, certainly -not himself, not even Mr. Doane. His background, even, was slipping -away, and with it his sense of the white race. This, it seemed, was a -yellow world--swarming, heedless, queerly tragic. His soul was adrift, -and nobody cared. Toward his father and mother he felt only bitterness. -There were, it appeared, no friends. - -He thought, it seemed, confusedly, excitedly, of everything; of -everything except the important fact that he was very young. - -Early on the following morning Doane found the little princess playing -about the deck, and with a smile seated himself beside her. She settled -at once on his knee, chattering brightly in the Mandarin tongue of her -play world. - -He responded with a note of good-humored whimsy not out of key with her -alert clear imagination. It was pleasant to fall again into the little -intimacies of the language that had become, during these twenty years -and more, almost his own. He pointed out to her the trained cormorants -diving for fish, and the irrigating wheels along the banks; and then -told quaint stories--of the first water buffalo, and of the magic -rice-field. - -Soon she, too, was telling stories--of the simpleton who bought herons -for ducks, of the toad in the lotus pool, of the child that was born in -a conch shell and finally crawled with it into the sea, of the youngest -daughter who to save the life of her father married a snake, of the -magic melon that grew full of gold and the other melon that contained -hungry beggars, of the two small boys and the moon cake, and of the -curious beginning of the ant species. - -She scolded him for his failure, at the first, to laugh with her. Her -happy child quality stirred memories of old-time days in T'ainan-fu, -when his own daughter had been a child of six, playing happily about the -mission compound. They were poignant memories. His eyes were misty even -as he smiled over the bright merriment of this child, and in his heart -was a growing wistful tenderness. To be again a father would be a great -privilege. He was ripe for it now, tempered by poverty and sorrow, yet -strong, with a great emotional capacity on which the world about him -had, apparently, no claim to make. He was simply cast aside, left -carelessly in an eddy with the great stream of life flowing, bankful, -by. The experience was common enough, of course. In the great scheme -of life the fate of an individual here and there could hardly matter. -He could tell himself that, very simply, quite honestly; and yet the -strength within him would rise and rise again to assert the opposite. -The end, for himself, lay beyond the range of conscious thought; but -at least, he felt, it could not be bitterness. He seemed to have passed -that danger.... The little princess was soberly telling the old story of -the father-in-law, the father, and the crabs that were eaten by the -pig. At the conclusion she laughed merrily; and then Ending his response -somewhat unsatisfactory, scowled fiercely and with her plump fingers -bent up the comers of his mouth. - -He laughed then; and rolled her up in his arms and tossed her high in -the air. - -When Hui Fei came upon them they were gazing out over the rail. Mr. -Doane seemed to be telling a long story, to which the child listened -intently. She moved quietly near, smiling; and after listening for a few -moments seated herself on the deck behind them. - -The story puzzled her. She leaned forward, a charming picture in her -simple costume, black hair parted smoothly, oval face untouched with -powder or paint. She smiled again, then, for his story was nothing other -than a free rendering into Chinese of Stevenson's:= - -```"In Winter I get up at night - -```And dress by yellow candle-light..."= - -He went on, when that was finished, with a version of:= - -````"Dark brown is the river, - -````Golden is the sand...."= - ---and other poems from _The Child's Garden of Verses._ - -Hui Fei's eyes lighted, as she listened. Mr. Doane, it appeared, knew -nearly all of these exquisite verse-stories of happy childhood and -exhibited surprising skill in finding the Chinese equivalents for -certain elusive words. What a mind he had.... rich in reading as in -experience, ripe in wisdom, yet curiously fresh and elastic! It seemed -to her a young mind. - -The little princess was especially pleased with _My Bed Is a Boat_, and -made him repeat it. At the conclusion she clapped her hands. And then -Hui Fei joined in the applause, and laughed softly when they turned in -surprise. - -"Won't you do _The Land of Counterpane?_" she asked. - -It was later, when the child had run off to play among the flowers, that -he and she fell to talking as they had not talked during these recent -crowded days. There were silences, at first. Despite his effort to seem -merely friendly and kind, he felt a restraint that had to be fought -through. In this time, so difficult for her at every point, he felt -deeply that he must not fail her. Her greatest need, surely, was for -friendship. The excited youth who dogged her steps and hung on her most -trivial glance could not offer that. And melancholy had touched her -bright spirit; he sensitively felt that when the little princess -ran away and her smile faded. Sorrow dwelt not far behind those dark -thoughtful eyes. - -Early in the conversation she spoke of her father. Her thoughts, -clearly, were always with him. - -"I wan' to ask you," said she simply and gravely, "if you know what he -is doing." - -Doane moved his head in the negative. - -"He has been in his room for more than a day. When I go to his door -he is kin' but he doesn' ask me to come in. And he doesn' tell me -anything." - -"He is not confiding in me," said Doane. - -"I don' like that, either, Mis'er Doane. For I know he thinks of you now -as his closes' frien'. There is no other frien' who knows what you know. -An' you have save' his life an' mine. My father is not a man to fail in -frien'ship or in gratitu'." - -Doane's eyes, despite his nearly successful inner struggles, grew misty -again. Impulsively he took her hand gently in his. At once, simply, her -slender fingers closed about his own. It seemed not unlike the trusting -affection of a child; he sensed this as a new pain. Yet there was strong -emotional quality in her; he felt it in her dark beauty, in the curve of -her cheek and the lustrous troubled splendor in her eyes, in the slender -curves of her strong young body. She was, after all, a woman grown; -aroused, doubtless, to the puzzling facts of life; a woman, with an -ardent lover close at hand, who was--this as his wholly adult mind now -saw her--already at her mating time. And feeling this he gripped her -hand more tightly than he knew. But even so, he was not unaware of his -own danger. It wouldn't do; once to release his own tightly chained -emotions would be to render himself of no greater value to her in her -bewilderment than any merely pursuing male. He set his teeth on that -thought, and abruptly withdrew his hand. - -She did not look up--her gaze was fixed on the surface of the river. -The only indication she gave that she was so much as aware of this odd -little act of his was that she started to speak, then paused for a brief -instant before going on. - -"I ask--ask myself all the time if there is anything we coul' be doing." - -Doane's head moved again in the negative. - -"If not even his gratitu'--" - -"Gratitude," said Doane gently, "becomes less than nothing when it is -demanded." - -"True, it can no' be ask', but it can be given." - -"Sometimes"--he was thinking aloud, dangerously--"I wonder if any -healthy human act is free from the motive of self-interest. Generosity -is so often self-indulgence. Self-sacrifice, even in cases where it may -be regarded as wholly sane, may be only a culmination or a confusion of -little understood desires." - -She looked up at this; considered it. - -"Certainly," he went on, "your father owes me nothing." - -Her hand moved a little way toward his, only to hesitate and draw -back. She looked away, saying in a clouded voice: "He--and I--owe you -everything." It wouldn't do. Doane waited a long moment, then spoke in -what seemed more nearly his own proper character--quietly, kindly, with -hardly an outward sign of the intensely personal feeling of which his -heart was so full. - -"Your father has spoken to me of you as an experiment." - -"You mean my life--my education." - -"Yes. He feels, too, that the experiment has not yet been fully worked -out. I often think of that--your future. It is interesting, you know. -You have responded amazingly to the spirit of the West. And of course -you'll have to do something about it." - -"Oh, yes," said she, musing, "of course." - -"Whatever personal interests may for a time--or at times--absorb your -life".... this was as close as he dared trust himself to the topic of -marriage__"I feel about you that your life will seek and find some -strong outward expression." - -"Yes--I have often fel' that too. Of course, at college I like' to -speak. I went in a good 'eal for the debates, an' for class politics." - -"You have an active mind. And you have a fine heritage. Knowing--even -feeling--both East and West as you do, your life is bound to find some -public outlet. Something." - -"I know." She seemed moody now, in a gentle way. Her fingers picked at -a rope. "But I don' know what. I don' think I woul' like teaching. -Writing, perhaps. Even speaking. That is so easy for me." - -"There is a service that you are peculiarly fitted to perform." She -glanced up quickly, waited. "It is a thought that keeps coming to my -mind. Perhaps because it will probably become the final expression of my -own life. For my life is curiously like yours in one way. You remember, -that--that night when we first talked--on the steamer--" - -"I climb' the ladder," she murmured, picking again at the rope. - -"--And we agreed that we were both, you and I"--his voice grew -momentarily unsteady--"between the worlds." - -"Yes. I remember." He could barely hear her, "It is true, of course." - -"It is true. And for myself, I feel more and more strongly every day -that I must pitch into the tremendous task of helping to make the East -known to the West." - -"Tha' woul' be won'erful!" she breathed. - -"I have come to feel that it is the one great want in Western -civilization, that the philosophy, the art, the culture, indeed, of -China has never been woven into our heritage. It is strange, in a -way--we derived our religion from certain primitive tribes in Syria. But -they had little culture. The Christian religion teaches conduct but very -nearly ignores beauty. And then there is our insistent pushing forth -of the Individual. I have come to believe that our West will seem less -crass, less materialistic, when the individual is somewhat subdued." -He smiled. "We need patience--sheer quality of thought--the fine art -of reflection. We shall not find these qualities at them best, even in -Europe. They exist, in full flower, only in China. And America doesn't -know that. Not now." - -A little later he said: "That work has been begun, of course, in a small -way. A slight sense of Chinese culture is creeping into our colleges, -here and there. Some of the poetry is bring translated. The art -museums are reaching out for the old paintings. The Freer collection -of paintings will some day be thrown open to the public. But traditions -grow very slowly. It will take a hundred years to make America aware -of China as it is now aware of Italy, Egypt, Greece, even old -Assyria.... and the thing must be freed from Japanese influence--we can't -much longer afford to look at wonderful, rich old China through the -Japanese lens." - -"An' you're going to make tha' your work," observed Hui Fei. - -"I must. I begin to feel that it is to be the only final explanation of -my life." - -There was a silence. Then, abruptly, in a tone he did not understand, -she asked: "Are you going to work for the Revolution?" - -"That is the immediate thing--yes. I shall offer my services." - -"Coul' I do anything, you think? At Shanghai, I mean? Of course, I'm a -Manchu girl, but I can no' stand with the Manchu Gover'ment. I am not -even with my--my father there." - -"It is possible. I don't know. We shall soon be there." - -"Will you tell me then--at Shanghai?" - -He inclined his head. Suddenly he couldn't speak. She was holding to -him, as if it were a matter of course; yet he dared not read into her -attitude a personal meaning of the only sort that could satisfy his -hungry heart. The difficulty lay in his active imagination. Like that of -an eager boy it kept racing ahead of any possible set of facts. All -he could do, of course, was to go on curbing it, from hour to hour. -It would be harder seeing her at Shanghai than running away, as he had -half-consciously been planning. But it was something that she clung to -him as a friend. He mustn't, couldn't, really, fail her there. - -All of the last day they sailed the wide and steadily widening estuary. -The lead-colored water was roughened by the following wind that drove -the junk rapidly on toward her journey's end. But toward sunset wind and -sea died down, and under sweeps, late in the evening-, the craft moved -into the Wusung River and moored for the night within sight of a line of -war-ships. - -A feeling of companionship grew strongly among those fugitives, yellow -and white, as the evening advanced. They had passed together through -dangerous and dramatic scenes. Now that danger and drama were alike, -it seemed, over, with the peaceable shipping of all the world lying just -ahead up the narrow channel, with, in the morning to come, a fresh view -of the bund at Shanghai, where hotels, banks and European clubs elbowed -the great trading hongs, with motor-cars and Sikh police and the bright -flags of the home land so soon to be spread before their weary eyes, -they gathered on the after gallery to chat and watch the flashing signal -lights of the cruisers and the trains on the river bank, and dream each -his separate dream. Even Dixie Carmichael, though herself untouched by -sentiment, joined, for reasons of policy, the little party. Hui Fei -was there, between Doane and the moodily silent Rocky Kane. The Chinese -servants smilingly grouped themselves on the deck just above. And -finally--though it is custom among these Easterners to sleep during the -dark hours and rise with the morning light--his excellency appeared, -walking alone over the deck, smiling in the friendliest fashion and -greeting them with hands clasped before his breast. - -Doane felt a little hand steal for a moment into his with a nervous -pressure. His own relief was great. - -For this smiling gentleman could hardly be regarded as one about to die. -They placed him in the steamer chair of woven rushes from Canton. And -pleasantly, then, their last evening together passed in quiet talk. - -His excellency was in reminiscent mood. He had been a young officer, it -transpired, in the T'aiping Rebellion, and had fought during the last -three years of that frightful thirteen-year struggle up and down the -great river, taking part in the final assault on Su-chau as a captain in -the "Ever Victorious" army of General Gordon. Regarding that brilliant -English officer he spoke freely; Doane translating a sentence, here and -there, for young Kane. - -"Gordon never forgave Li Hung Chang," he said, "for the murder of the -T'ai-ping Wangs, during the peace banquet. It was on Prince Li's own -barge, in the canal by the Eastern Gate of the city. Gordon claimed -that Li procured the murder. He was a hot-blooded man, Gordon, often too -quick and rough in speech. Li told me, years later, that the attack -was directed as much against himself as against the Wangs, and regarded -himself as fortunate to escape. He never forgave Gordon for his -insulting speech. But Gordon was a vigorous brave man. It was a -privilege to observe him tirelessly at work, planning by night, fighting -by day--organizing, demanding money, money, money--with great energy -moving troops and supplies. He could not be beaten. He was indeed the -'Ever Victorious.'" - -It was, later, his excellency who asked Hui Fei and young Kane to sing -the American songs that had floated on one or two occasions through his -window below. They complied; and Dixie Carmichael, in an agreeable light -voice, joined in. At the last Duane was singing bass. - -The party was breaking up--his excellency had already gone below--when -Rocky, moved to the point of exquisite pain, caught the hand of Hui Fei. - -"Please!" he whispered. "Just a word!" - -"Not now. I mus' go." - -"But--it's our last evening--I've tried to be patient--it'll be all -different at Shanghai--I can't let you." - -But she slipped away, leaving the youth whispering brokenly after -her. He leaned for a long time on the rail then, looking heavily at the -winking lights of the cruisers. It was a relief to see Mr. Doane coming -over the deck. Certainly he couldn't sleep. Not now. His heart was full -to breaking.... The fighting impulse rose. During this past day or so he -had seemed to be losing ground in his struggle with self. The startling -incident in Miss Carmichael's room had turned out, he felt, still -confusedly, as a defeat. It had left him unhappy. This night, out there -in the blossom-scented gallery, he had sensed the strange girl, close at -hand, cool as a child, singing the old college songs with apparent quiet -enjoyment, as an uncanny thing, a sinister force. Even when speaking to -Hui Fei, her influence had enveloped him.... This would be just one more -little battle. And it must be won. - -Accordingly he told Mr. Doane the story. The older man considered it, -slowly nodding. - -"It is probably the fact," he said, at length, "that she stole the -pearls at Huang Chau. She was with Connor and Watson. But it is also -a fact that she might have pearls of her own. And in traveling alone -through a revolution it would be her right to conceal them as she chose. -It is true, too, that unset pearls couldn't be identified easily, if -at all. And she is clever--she wouldn't weaken under charges.... No, I -don't see what we can do, beyond watching the thing closely. As for her -threats against you, they are partly rubbish." - -But Rocky cared little, now, what they might be. Once again he had -cleaned the black slate of his youth. His head was high again. He could -speak to Hui Fei convincingly in the morning. - -His excellency, alone in his cabin, took from his hand-bag the book of -precepts of Chuang Tzü; and seated on his pallet, by the small table on -which burned a floating wick in its vessel of oil, read thoughtfully as -follows: - -"Chuang Tzü one day saw an empty skull, bleached but intact, lying on -the ground. Striking it with his riding whip, he cried, 'Wert thou once -some ambitious citizen whose inordinate yearnings brought him to this -pass?--some statesman who plunged his country into ruin and perished -in the fray?--some wretch who left behind him a legacy of shame?--some -beggar who died in the pangs of hunger and cold? Or didst thou reach -this state by the natural course of old age?' - -"When he had finished speaking, he took the skull and, placing it under -his head as a pillow, went to sleep. In the night he dreamt that the -skull appeared to him and said: 'You speak well, sir; but all you say -has reference to the life of mortals and to mortal troubles. In death -there are none of these.... In death there is no sovereign above, and -no subject below. The workings of the four seasons are unknown. Our -existences are bounded only by eternity. The happiness of a king among -men can not exceed that which we enjoy.' - -"Chuang Tzü, however, was not convinced, and said: 'Were I to prevail -upon God to allow your body to be bom again, and your bones and flesh to -be renewed, so that you could return to your parents, to your wife and -to the friends of your youth, would you be willing?' - -"At this the skull opened its eyes wide and knitted its brows and said: -'How should I cast aside happiness greater than that of a king, and -mingle once again in the toils and troubles of mortality?'" - -He closed the book; laid on the table his European watch; and sat for -a long time in meditation. As the hands of the watch neared the hour of -three in the morning, he took from the bag a box of writing materials, a -small red book and a bottle of white pills. - -The leaves of the book were the thinnest gold. On one of these -he inscribed, with delicate brush, the Chinese characters meaning -"Everlasting happiness." Tearing out the leaf, then, he wrapped loosely -in it one of the pills--these were morphine, of the familiar sort -manufactured in Japan and sold extensively in China since the decline of -the opium traffic--and swallowed them together. He inscribed and took -another, and another, and another. - -Gradually a sense of drowsy comfort, of utter physical well-being, came -over him. The pupils of his eyes shrunk down to the merest pin-points. -His head drooped forward. His frail old body fell on the bed and lay -peacefully there as his spirit sought its destiny in the unchanging, -everlasting Tao. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII--HIS EXCELLENCY SPEAKS - -|IT was daybreak. Doane, standing in his cabin by the opened window, -looked out with melancholy in his deep-set eyes over the muddy low -reaches that border the Wusung. It was a familiar scene; indeed he knew -it better than any spot in his native land--the railroad along the -bank, the brick warehouses, the native village of Wusung, the inevitable -humble families in the fields gathering in the last crops of the season. - -Overhead the _laopan_ was shouting, tackle creaked, the crew half sang, -half grunted their chanties. From the cruisers, one after another, -floating musically on the still air, came the call of bugles--the -_reveille_ of the American navy. So these were ships from home. The -stars and stripes would soon, at "colors," be rippling from each gray -stem.... There was an ache in his heart. - -Then other noises came--a little confusion of them, somewhere here on -the junk--excited whispers, a sound that might have been sobbing, and -then--yes!--the low wailing of women. - -He turned; listened closely. Light feet came running along the corridor. -A familiar, lovely voice called his name, brokenly. Then Hui Fei drew -aside his curtain. Her cheeks were stained with tears. - -Quickly, his arm about her shoulders as she swayed unsteadily, but -without a word, he walked beside her along the corridor to the cabin of -his excellency.... There were the few servants, kneeling by the -inert body and bowing their heads to the floor as they mourned. Doane -straightened the body and closed the eyes.... It was Hui Fei who found -the roll of documents on the table and placed them in Doane's hands. -He saw then, through the mist that clouded his own eyes, that they were -addressed to himself: "To my dear friend, Griggsby Doane, I entrust -these my last papers." The name alone was in English; written in a clear -hand, not unlike that of a painstaking schoolboy, each letter carefully -and roundly formed. - -Hui Fei sent the servants to another cabin, but remained herself, seated -on the floor by the side of the huge strong man who was now without -question the head of the strangely assorted family. She was calmer. -Doane did not again hear her sob; he did not even see tears. During -that difficult moment when Rocky Kane appeared in the doorway and asked -huskily, sadly, if he could help, she even smiled, very faintly, very -gently, as she moved her head in the negative. And the youth, after a -hesitant moment, left them. - -Doane spread out the documents on the floor. The first, addressed -directly to himself, he laid aside for the moment. To the second, -addressed to the throne--"by the hand of His Imperial Highness, Prince -Ch'un, Regent, as soon as it may be possible to convey to him in -this hour of China's sorrow this inadequate expression of my last -thoughts"--was attached a paper requesting that "my closest friend, -Griggsby Doane" read it thoughtfully, "in order that he may understand -fully the circumstances in which I find myself at this the end of my -long life. - -"I, your unworthy servant,"--it read--"have learned with sorrow and -tears of the decree permitting me to withdraw from this troubled life -in solitude and peace without the painful consequences of a death by -the headsman's sword. And in bowing humbly to your will I, your unworthy -servant, recognize that my life lies wholly in your hands to be disposed -of as seems best to the imperial wisdom. But in thus proving my never -weakening loyalty to the imperial will I also must express the sober -thoughts of one who has pondered long over the evils that beset our land -and who has ventured at times, weakly, to hope that China might pay -heed to certain lessons of recent history and find a way to oppose -successfully the pressure of other powerful nations upon us. For it -has been my privilege, as a long-time servant of the throne, to observe -certain of these other nations at first hand and to learn a little of -their power, which is very great. - -"On another occasion I, your unworthy servant, wittingly incurred danger -of death or imprisonment, because, in the eagerness of my convictions, -I dared to suggest certain reforms to the throne. There is a saying that -the tree which bends before the gale will never be broken off but will -grow to a ripe old age, and my hope has always been for a great and -growing China. At that time princes and ministers about the throne -asked permission to subject me to a criminal investigation, but his late -majesty was pleased to spare me. Therefore my last years have been a -boon at the hand of his late majesty." - -There followed a clear, dignified statement of the urgent need for vast -reforms. His excellency recalled in detail his long years of service and -his decorations and honors. Quietly he called attention to the fact that -all, or nearly all, China was in revolt, that the throne tottered, that -to permit the government longer to be dominated by corrupt eunuchs was -an affront to modern as to ancient thought and morality. It was clear -to himself, he stated, that without a skilfully organized system of -gradual, perhaps rapid, modernization, China would soon crumble to -pieces under the heel of the greedy foreigners. And there was profound -pathos in the passing remark that perhaps his suicide, far from home, -his vast estate seized by government agents or despoiled by robbers, his -person, alone, beyond the reach of harm--safe, in fact, with the hated -foreigners--might stand as a final proof of his loyalty to the throne in -serving which his long life had been spent. - -"But at the moment of leaving this world I feel that my mind is not so -clear as I could wish. The text of this my memorial is ill-written and -lacking in clarity of thought. I am no such scholar as the men of olden -times; how, then, could I face the end with the calm which they showed? -But there is a saying, 'The words of a dying man are good.' Though I am -about to die, it is possible that my words are not good. I can only -hope that the empress and the emperor will pity my last sad utterance, -regarding it neither as wanton babbling nor the careless complaint of a -trifling mind. Thus shall I die without regret. I wish, indeed, that my -words may prove overwrought, in order that those who come after, perhaps -more happily, may laugh at my foolishness. - -"I pray the empress and the emperor to remember the example of our great -rulers of the past in tempering peace with mercy; that they may choose -only the worthy for public service; that they may refrain from striving -for those things desired by the foreigners, which would only plunge China -into deeper woe, but that by a careful study of what is good in foreign -lands they may help China to hold up her head among the nations and -bring us finally to prosperity and happiness. This is my last prayer, -the end and crown of my life." - -The junk was moving up the river as Doane finished reading, passing one -of the war-ships. The bugles were blowing again. A beam of warm sunlight -slanted in through the window of stained glass and threw a kaleidoscope -of color on the wall. - -Hui Fei sat motionless, her hands folded humbly in her lap, gazing at -the floor. Her face was expressionless. She seemed wholly Oriental. - -With a sigh, Deane rolled the memorial and tied it with the ribbon. The -one beneath it, he saw now, was addressed to Hui Fei. Without a word he -handed it to her and then settled to read his own. Hers was the shorter. -When she had finished she lowered it to her lap and sat motionless, as -before. - -Doane now took up the paper addressed to himself and read as follows: - -"My friend, Griggsby Doane, grieve not for me, and be sure that in the -manner of my end I have had no wish to bring evil upon you. It is in a -measure sad that this end should come upon a hired junk instead of on -a plot of hallowed ground, as I would have chosen. But there was no -choice. I have waited until assured of my daughter's safety. - -"Inform the magistrate at Shanghai of my death, and see that my Memorial -to the Throne is forwarded promptly. Give to my daughter Hui Fei the -letter addressed to her. It my wish that you also should read that -letter, and I have so instructed her. It is also my wish that she should -read this letter to you. Buy for me a cheap coffin, and have it painted -black inside. The poor clothes I wear must serve, but I wish that the -soiled soles of my shoes be cut off. Twenty or thirty taels will be -ample for the coffin. - -"I do not believe it will be necessary for the magistrate to hold an -inquest. Please have a coating of lacquer put on the coffin, to fill up -any cracks, and have the cover nailed down pending the throne's decision -as to my remains. Then buy a small plot of ground near the Taoist temple -outside of Shanghai and have me buried as soon as possible. There is no -need to consider waiting for an opportunity to bury me at my ancestral -home; any place is good enough for a loyal and honest man. - -"You will find about a thousand taels in my bag, also the few jewels we -found at my home. Sell the jewels and keep for yourself the balance that -will remain after my burial expenses are paid. The _laopan_ of this junk -has his money. This he will deny, and will cry for more; but do not heed -him. - -"Remember there is nothing strange or abnormal in my passing; death has -become my duty. It may be true that the historic throne of the Manchus -is rocking, is falling, but despite the understanding that has been -given to me of what is good in Western civilization I have never swayed -in my heart from loyalty to that throne and steadfast devotion to its -best interests as I can see them, and I do no less than obey the mandate -of my empress and my emperor. - -"Do not grieve unduly for me. It is my wish that all of you, my friends -and family, should live happily in the life that lies before you. To -you, Griggsby Doane, out of the gratitude and admiration of my proud -heart, I give and bequeath all the little that may be left of my worldly -goods, including the money, the pitiful handful of jewels, the historic -paintings and my daughter Hui Fei. It is my wish that you will marry -her at once, and that in your best judgment you sell any or all of the -paintings to provide what money you and she may need, and also that you -and she care lovingly for the younger child. It may be better to educate -her in the Western manner, but that will be as you may decide. In the -matter of this marriage with my daughter, Hui Fei, I have sought the -opinion of each of you regarding the other. I have your assurance that -it has been your own wish. And Hui Fei informs me that she respects and -admires no man more than yourself. You will see, therefore, that I have -approached this matter in the Western spirit, and as a result I see no -reason why the marriage should be delayed or that my beloved daughter -should be left alone at the mercy of an unscrupulous world. I have -informed her, also, of my decision. My gifts to you make a most -inadequate dowry, but they are all I have. I wish for you both great -happiness and many descendants. - -"And now, Griggsby Doane, my dear friend, I take my leave of you. I, at -seventy-four years of age, can claim an unsullied record. My family tree -goes back more than seven hundred years; for three centuries there have -been members of my clan in the Imperial Household or in the Government -Bureaus, and for four hundred years we have devoted ourselves to -husbandry and scholarship. For twenty-four generations my family has -borne a good name. I die now in order that a lifetime of devotion to -duty and loyalty to the throne may be consummated." - -Slowly Doane lowered the document. He could not speak; he could hardly -think. There beside him, still motionless, sat the young woman who was -now, by all the traditions of her people, abruptly his. - -Dutifully, observing that he had finished reading, she gave him her -own letter; and he, in exchange, handed her his. Thus they read on. And -then, again quietly exchanging the documents, they sat without a word by -the peaceful body. - -Little by little Doane's brain cleared. It was a time, he felt--_the_ -time, indeed--when all his experience, all his character and skill, must -come into use. Now, it ever, he must be wise and steady and kind. Very -gently he took her hand; it lay softly in his; she did not lift her -eyes. - -"We will not think of this matter now," he said. "Our only thought must -be to carry out his plans regarding the funeral. If it shouldn't seem -best, later, to fulfill quite all his last wishes, perhaps he, from -the other side of the barrier, will understand what he couldn't wholly -understand while on this earth. But this I must say now---whatever -direction your life may take, try to think of me as filling, the best I -can, your father's place. I shall hope to be your dearest friend. Lean -on me. Use me. And be sure I will understand." - -Her slim fingers tightened once again about his. - -"He was a won'erful father," she began, and choked a little. - -He left her there; sent in her maid to her; himself mounted to the deck. - -The sun was well up. Other junks sailed up and down the tide. A -bluff-bowed freighter, flying the Dutch flag, lay at anchor near one -of the Chinese torpedo boats that had gone over to the chaotic new -republic. The American steamers were far astern, but a motor launch -flying an officer's flag and with blue uniforms visible under the -awning, plowed by on her way up to the city. In the distance, up ahead, -beyond the crowding masts and funnels of the steamers that came from all -the world, could be seen the buildings and spires and the smoke-haze of -European Shanghai.... The bund there, within a few hours now, would -be crowded with pony-carriages and motor-cars and over-fed tourists -riding in rickshaws drawn by ragged coolies. The hotels would be -thronging with talkative young women and drink-flushed men, all eagerly -retailing confused and inaccurate news of "the revolution"; out at the -British country club on Bubbling Well Road blond men would be -playing tennis in flannels: and the gambling houses would be brightly -illuminated until late at night, and the Chinese shopkeepers in Nanking -Road would be selling their souvenir trinkets, their useless little -boxes of coinsilver and cloisonne and damascene work and their painted -snuff-bottles and green soapstone necklaces and blue-and-white pottery -quite as if no troubles could ever arise to disturb the destiny of -nations. - -Doane sighed again. The last letter of his excellency was in his hand, -held tightly; though he was not at this time aware of it. He glanced -aft, and saw Rocky Kane standing on the gallery, among the flowers, -gazing not forward toward the jangling, money-seeking, pleasure-mad city -that is the principal point of contact between the culture of the West -and that of the East, but off astern, as if endeavoring to see again the -lost Yangtze Kiang of his glowing romance. - -Doane went to him; aware, then, of the paper rolled so tightly in his -hand, said--a huge figure, towering over the boy, his face sad and more -than ever deeply lined, but with a grave kindliness about the eyes: - -"My boy, it is important that you and I have a talk. Suppose we sit -down." He indicated the steamer chair; but Rocky insisted that he take -it, himself dropping heavily down on the step of the deck. - -"How--how is she standing it?" he asked, his troubled eyes searching -that strong face before him. - -"As well as we could ask. It is bound to be very hard for -her--especially during these next few days. But she has courage. And -she knows he would wish her not to mourn.... A matter has come up that -concerns you, Rocky"--it was the first time he had used that familiar -name; the boy's moody eyes brightened momentarily, and a touch of color -rose in his cheeks--"and I don't feel I can delay telling you about it. -First, you had better let me read you this." - -He had not thought, before this moment, of the necessity that he himself -make the translation for the boy. It had to be difficult; he would have -given much if the thing could have been managed in some less directly -personal way; but for that matter, difficulties lay so thickly about -him now that there was no good in so much as giving them a thought. And -so--deliberately, with great care to find the nearly precise English -equivalent of every obscure phrase--he read the letter through. - -He dared not look at the boy's face, but could not but become aware of -the hands that twitched, clasping and unclasping, in his lap, and of the -feet that at times nervously tapped the deck. When the task was done he -quietly folded the paper and slipped it into a pocket. - -The silence grew long and trying. Doane searched and searched his own -still confused mind for the right, the clear word; but could not, during -these earlier moments, find it. The boy, plainly, was crushed; but -behind the clouded eyes and the knit brows an emotional storm was -gathering. Doane felt that. It had to come, of course. And it would have -to be handled. - -But the first words were almost calm. - -"So that"--thus the brooding youth--"so that's how it is!" - -Doane waited. After a little the boy sprang up. "But in God's name, -why didn't you tell me!" he cried. "You've let me come and talk to you! -You--This isn't fair! You've made a fool of me! You--" Doane rose too. -They stood side by side among the heavily scented blossoms. Doane felt -moved to put a kindly hand on the slender shoulder beside him; but a -following thought cautioned him that even a touch would be resented at -this moment. - -"I didn't tell you," he said, "because until I read this paper I didn't -know." - -"But you must have known! You told--him. Told him you loved her! -Probably you've been telling her, too--here under my eyes. Oh, God, what -a fool I've been.... If you'd only been square with me!" - -"This is not fair," said Doane, still very quiet. "We must talk this -out, but not now--not while you are angry." - -"Angry! What in heaven's name is the sense of talking it out! It's -settled, isn't it?" - -"I'm not sure." - -"That's not so!" The boy seemed to be recovering somewhat now from the -first shock of unreason. He turned away to hide the tears in his eyes. -"You've admitted to her father, if not to her, that you love her.... -Oh, why didn't I see it! Why did I have to be such an awful fool!... She -knows it now. And you know as well as I what she'll do. She'll never go -against her father's last wish--never. You know that!" - -"I recognize that she must be seeing it in that light now, but--" - -"Oh, what's the use of talk. You _know!_ For God's sake, let me alone, -can't you!" - -Doane's brows drew slowly together; but this and a note of something -near command in his voice, were the only outward indications of the -storm within his breast. - -"This is not a time for either you or me to be thinking of ourselves. -You may be sure that Hui Fei will not be thinking so. And it may help -you to realize that this situation is difficult for me, as it is for -you. It is true that Hui Fei's only thought, now, under the stress of -this sorrow, will be to submit to her father's every wish. But this -stress will pass. There is only one course to take--" - -"But--" - -"Listen to me! And try to meet the thing like a man. We will wait until -this sad business is over. We will at least try to give up thinking -of ourselves. I will see that Hui Fei and her sister are cared for by -friends." - -"But all the time you'll be seeing her, and--" - -"I must still ask you to listen and try to think clearly. As soon as -it seems wise I will lay the situation before Hui Fei. I will try to -persuade her that her own life is, in the last analysis, more important -than even her father's dying wish. I believe that she--would--be happier -with a young man like yourself than with an--older man. It is possible -that she can be led to see that her own happiness must be a factor in -her choice. Have you the patience and the courage to wait for that?" - -He extended his hand. The boy looked at it, then up at the stem, but -still kindly face; hesitated; then, with a quivering of the lip and an -explosive--"Oh God!"--rushed away; walked very fast, almost ran, the -length of the deck; made his way through the crowded waist and around -the cook's well; and stood, his bare head thrown proudly back, in the -prow, beside the quietly wondering _tai-kung_, staring toward the long -curving sweep of the tree-shaded bund of Shanghai as it came gradually -into view around the bend just below the city. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV--THE WORLD OF FACT - -|THE yellow junk was now abreast the landing hulks of the great -international shipping companies just below the city. Rocky left the -bow and made his way to the after cabins without once lifting his somber -gaze to the silent figures on the poop. Slowly--his eyes wild, his -thoughts beyond control, bitterness in his heart--he moved along the dim -corridor. - -A puff of wind found its way through an open window; a blue curtain -swung out, discovering, through a doorway, Miss Carmichael, seated in -a chair beneath the window. It was lighter in her cabin. She had laid -aside the familiar middy blouse and skirt, and appeared to be sewing -something on her petticoat. For an instant she looked up, her eyes -meeting those of the pale youth who stood motionless in the corridor. -The curtain swung back then; but as it swung the youth stepped through -the doorway and stood within the room. - -"I don't know that I asked you in," said she coolly. - -His eyes were intent on the amazing, glistening strings of pearls that -were looped everywhere about her clothing. - -Through narrowed lids she watched him, sitting very still, needle poised -just as she had drawn it through. On his young face was an expression of -firm decision that she had not before seen there. He looked oddly, now, -like his father. There was, apparently, a trace of the Kane iron in him. -The situation was of wholly accidental origin; he couldn't have planned -it; his first expression, out in the corridor, had been of startled -surprise; the decision to step within must have been instant; yet now, -suddenly, he meant business. She caught all that.... Here, after all, -was a young man who presented difficulties. - -"Take off those pearls," said he quietly. - -"You are in my room," said she as quietly. - -"I shall take the pearls when I go." - -"You'll have my life to answer for." - -"Your life is nothing to me." - -"Your own life is." - -"Never mind about that." - -"I've warned you fairly." - -"Stand up." - -"You propose to take them from me by force?" - -"Yes. Unless you choose to give them to me." - -"And you expect me to trust you with them." - -"Yes." - -There was a silence. - -"Of course you are stronger than I," she observed musingly. - -He offered no reply to this. - -Her thin mouth curved into the faint smile that was as cold as her -calculating brain. "So"--said she "we're enemies, then?" - -This evidently did not interest him. - -"I think," she went on, quietly desperate, "that I'll try crying and -screaming. I'm something of an actress." - -"Scream your head off," said he, the slang phrase sounding almost -courteous in this new quiet voice of his. - -"There's not a person--alive--that could prove these pearls aren't my -own." Her voice dwelt on that one telling word, "alive," with an almost -caressing note of satisfaction. - -He shook his head with a touch of impatience. And she was studying him, -her quick thoughts darting sharply about---darting in every conceivable -direction--for an avenue of escape. She knew, however, as the moments -passed and the pale youth stood his ground that there was only one. She -had supposed him weak. It hardly seemed that her judgment could have -gone so far wrong. - -"You're cruel to me," she said softly. - -"Stand up." - -Now she obeyed. He drew near. - -"I didn't think you'd turn out this sort, Rocky. You liked me at first." -She moved a hand, hesitatingly, within reach of his own. But he ignored -it. "Aren't we going to see each other at Shanghai? Are you just going -to be brutal with me--like this?.... I'd like to see you." - -"Will you take them off," said he, "or must I?" - -She turned to him, with curiously mixed passions coming to life in her -face. - -"Oh, my God, Rocky!" she cried very low, "haven't you any human -feelings? Can you just come in here--into my own room--and rob me, -without a decent word?.... Haven't I played fair with you? Haven't I kept -out of your way? Haven't I?...." She moved close against him, slid her -sensitively thin hands over his shoulders; looked straight up into his -eyes, almost honestly. "Rocky, don't tell me you're this kind!".... She -was clinging to him now. - -He caught her hands, and, without roughness but with his young strength, -removed them. She let them fall at her side. - -"I'm not going to wait much longer on you," he said. - -"You're hard as nails, Rocky." Her underlip was quivering; her pale eyes -were a little darker, and seemed full of feeling. She turned suddenly to -the rough bed, and reached under the cover for her shopping bag. Hiding -it from him with her body, she opened it and took out the triangular -bottle; then lingered an instant to look at the clasps of the pearl cape -that were set with large, perfectly cut diamonds. There were five of the -clasps, and perhaps fifty of the sparkling, glittering stones. In value -they would vary somewhat-: but in themselves, even without the pearls, -they represented a fortune. She quietly closed the bag and replaced it -under the covers. - -With the rough-edged little bottle in her hand she faced him. - -"I knew a girl," she said, with a far-away look in her eyes, "who took -five of these tablets and then lived two days. She suffered terribly, -of...." - -He caught the bottle from her hand and threw it against the wall, where -it broke. The green pills rolled about the floor. - -"Oh, well," she remarked--"I can take them after you've gone." - -"After I've gone you can do as you think best." - -"But something will have to be done about me. Rocky. You'll have to get -me ashore. And see about burying me.... And you'll have to explain me." - -This moved him not at all. Apparently he _was_ to be one of the -Kanes--strong, pitiless, destined for success and power. There would -be weak moments; but all that her uncannily shrewd eyes saw in him. -For that matter, Miss Carmichael had known many men of the sort that -in America are termed "big"--certain of them with an unpleasant secret -intimacy--and each had possessed and (at moments) been possessed by -strong passions. It had never been wholly a matter of what is called -brain; always there had been emotional force, with a dark side as well -as a bright. - -Overhead the great clumsy sails creaked. Soft feet pattered about -the deck. The nasal voices of the crew broke into a chantey. A chain -rattled. - -"We must be there," said she. "We're anchoring, I think." And she -glanced out the window at one of the roofed-over opium hulks that lay in -those days directly opposite the bund. Finally she looked again at him. - -"Very well," she said then; and raised her arms above her head. Swiftly, -at once, he began stripping off the festoons of pearls. The only other -thing said was her remark, in a casual tone: "It's understood that -you're using force. And you'll hear from it, of course." - -As soon as he had gone she slipped into her blouse and skirt. Once again -she looked thoughtfully at the radiant gems that were left to her; then -went, coolly swinging the little bag, up on deck, where certain of the -crew were already drawing around to the ladder at the side the sampan -that had been towing astern. - -Rocky had gone directly, on tiptoe, to Doane's cabin. The huge sad-faced -man was there; quick, however, with a kindly smile. - -Rocky said--"I beg your pardon, sir?"--stiffly, not unlike a proud young -Briton--and from a tied-up handkerchief and bulging pockets--even from -his shirt above his tightly drawn belt--produced enormous quantities of -perfectly matched large pearls; laid them on the bed in a heap; helped -Mr. Doane make a bundle of them in a square of blue cloth. - -"They are yours, sir," he explained. - -He withdrew then, with a coldness of manner that to the older man was -moving; and went out on deck to await his turn in the sampan. - -Doane found a temporary home for Hui Fei and her sister at the mission -compound of his friend, Doctor Henry Withery, in the Chinese city; -himself lodging with other friends. Rocky went to the Astor House, -across Soochow Creek, which was still, in 1911, a famous stopping place -for the tourists, diplomats, military and commercial men, and all the -other more prosperous among the white travelers that pour into -Shanghai from everywhere else in the world by the great ships that plow -unceasingly the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Yellow and China -Seas; to pour out again (in peaceful times) from Shanghai by rail and -by lesser craft of the river and the coast to Hong Kong and Manila -to Hankow, to Tientsin and Peking, to Nagasaki, Kobe, Yokohoma and -Tokio.... and Shanghai had never been so crowded as now, with its -thousands of travelers detained, awaiting news from this or that -revolutionary center; with the American Marines and the British -and German sailors; with Manchu refugees swarming into the foreign -settlements; with revolutionists, queueless, wearing unaccustomed -European dress, parading everywhere. - -Doane found time to call at the hotel and leave word regarding the -burial of his excellency; but was not to know that Rocky, himself, -immured in his room, gave the word that he was out and there awaited the -friendly chit that Doane sent up by the blue-robed servant. Nor was he -to know that the boy dressed carefully for the ceremony, only to -find the ordeal too great for his overstrung emotions. It was as an -afterthought, a day or two later that Doane sent him Hui Fei's address. - -It was after this sad experience that Doane, in accordance with his -promise to the late Sun Shi-pi, called on Doctor Wu Ting Fang and -offered his services to the revolutionary party. Another day and he was -hard at work, bending his strong, finely trained and experienced mind -to the great task of presenting the dreams and the activities of Young -China fairly and sympathetically to the press and the governments of the -Western World.... And so Griggsbv Doane, concealing--at moments -almost from his own inner eye--the ache in his heart, the unutterable -loneliness of his solitary existence, found himself once more fitting -into the scheme of organized human life. A grave man, with sad eyes but -with a slow kindly smile, always courteously attentive to the person and -problem of the moment, thinking always clearly and objectively out of a -comprehensively tolerant background that seemed to include all nations -and all men; a gently tactful man; a tireless, powerful figure of a man, -who could work twenty hours on end without a trace of fatigue, going -through masses of minor detail without for a moment losing his broad -view of the major problems--such was the Griggsby Doane one saw at -revolutionary headquarters during that late autumn of 1911.... Life had -caught him up. Whatever his private sorrow, the world needed him now. -Rapidly, in all that confusion, he was formulating policies, helping -to direct the current of one stream of destiny. In past years Griggsby -Doane had been discussed and forgotten. He had even been laughed at as -an unfrocked missionary by ribald, dominant, not infrequently drunken -whites along the coast. It occurred to no one to laugh at him now. - -These were the days when in half the provincial capitals of China the -Manchus that had ruled during nearly three centuries were hunted to -their death, men and women alike, like vermin. Bloody heads decorated -the lamp posts that had been erected in the Western fashion beside -freshly macadamized streets. Slaughter, as in other dramatic moments in -Oriental history, had become a pastime. Palaces and wealthy homes in a -hundred cities were looted and burned, and a vast new traffic started -up in the silks and paintings and pottery and objects of art suddenly -thrown into the market.... Hankow had been taken by the imperial troops, -but was to be recaptured as a charred, gutted ruin. General Li Yuan-hung -was now "president of the Republic of China," up at Wu Chang, by right -of military organization and popular acclaim. Admiral Sah, of the -Imperial Navy, was about to witness the unanimous mutiny of his fleet. -The great Yuan Shi-K'ai, himself a Chinese born, was in command of the -imperial troops while negotiating on either hand with the frantic throne -and the upsurging revolutionists. At Peking heads were falling and -great princes were fleeing or hiding pitifully within the walls of the -legations.... Within a few weeks Sun Yat Sen was to leave London on -his long journey eastward by way of Suez and Singapore, but without the -enormous golden treasure so confidently expected by the revolutionists. -Before his arrival, even, he was to be elected president of the new -China, in the recently captured Nanking--where a National Assembly -in cropped heads and frock coats already would be grinding out fresh -tangles of legislation.... The event was outrunning the mental -capacity of man. What was now tragic confusion would grow through the -swift-following years into tragic chaos, as the most numerous and most -nearly inert of peoples struggled out of the sluggish habit of centuries -toward the dubious light of modernity. - -But through the chaos Griggsby Doane was never for a moment to lose the -new vision that had finally cleared his long troubled mind. Behind the -crumbling of the empire, underlying the torn and bleeding surface of -Chinese life, lay a tradition finer, he was to believe until his -dying day, than any so far developed in the truculent West--a delicate -responsiveness to beauty in nature and art, a reflective quality, an -instinct for peace--it was all these at once, and more; a blend of art -in living and living in art; a finish that was exquisite in concept, a -sensitiveness that lifted the soul of man above the ugly fact. Even the -brittle perfection of Chinese etiquette--regulating every passing human -contact, clothing in silken manner the naked thought--was like a fine -lacquer over the knotted wood of life... America, he felt, with all its -earnestly insistent young virtues, worshiped the fact. To the Americans -must be preached the gospel of sensitive thought, of reflective -enjoyment of the beautiful. Those old master painters of Tang and Sung -breathed beauty; it was sweet air in their lungs; whereas in America -beauty was too often like a garment to be bought in a shop and worn for -show.... Yes, this revolutionary work was a gratifying opportunity for -service, of great momentary importance because the Chinese people must -be rescued from Manchu conquerors and their eunuchs, from disease and -famine, and from ignorance of the new world that had come amazingly, -brutally, into being while the old Middle Kingdom slumbered; but it was -not the main work. The aggressively greedy West, now, with its merchants -and war-ships and armies, was destroying the soul of China even while -teaching her a smattering of the materialistic new faith. There must be -a counter-influence; as the East now so strongly felt the West, so must -be the West made sensitively aware of the East. It was fair give and -take. It might yet help the world to find a stable balance.... This was -what the difficult life of Griggsby Doane was coming to mean. The East -had crept into his heart. So he must turn back to the West. - -For three days Mr. Doane's brief chit--with the address of Hui Fei in -the native city--burned in Rocky Kane's pocket; then, early in the third -afternoon, he went down to the Japanese steamship offices (for the keen -little brown people had already captured the Pacific traffic from the -Americans) and bought the second officer's room on a crowded liner -leaving at the end of the week for San Francisco.... On the fourth -afternoon he called a rickshaw and rode out beyond the American -post-office to the address the older man had given him. - -But Mr. Doane, it appeared, was not in; already he was established at -Doctor Wu's revolutionary headquarters. Rocky considered driving there; -even took the address and rode part of the way: but reconsidered, -returned to the hotel, and sent a messenger to Hui Fei with this chit: - -"_I'm sailing Saturday. Do you feel that you could see me for a few -moments?_" - -The reply, within the hour, bade him come. He found her in Western -dress---a tailored suit, very simple; her glistening black hair parted -smoothly--as he would always most vividly remember it--gently sad in -manner, yet able to smile. She would be like that, come to think of -it; not crushed by the tragedy, not sunken in the grief that, among -Westerners, is so often a sort of histrionic egotism.... They sat in a -tiled courtyard among dahlias. More than ever like a proud young Briton -was Rocky. - -"It is good of you to see me." Thus he began.... "I couldn't go without -a word." - -She murmured then: "Of course not." - -"I want you to know, too, that I am coming to see"--he had to pause; -in this new phase of sober young manhood he had not yet achieved steady -self-control. - -She broke the silence with a question about the revolution. It is to -his credit that he talked, stumbling only at first, clearly. And as the -strain of the meeting gradually relaxed, he became aware of her sobered -but still intense absorption in the struggle; aware, too, increasingly, -of her strong gift of what is called personality. Her mind was quick, -bright, eager--better, it seemed (he had to fight bitterness here) -than his own. And she was impersonal to a degree that he couldn't yet -attain--couldn't, in fact, quite understand. He had to speak slowly and -carefully; feeling his way with a dogged determination among uprushing -emotions, moved as never before by the charm of appearance and -manner and speech of which she was so prettily unconscious.... He had -come--perhaps with more than a touch in him of (again) that Western -histrionism, the intense overstressing of the individual and his -feelings--as a man who was effacing himself that the woman he loved -might be happy with another man. Confused with this wholly unconscious -call upon the sympathies, undoubtedly, was an unphrased incredulity that -she--so strongly a person, fine and courageous and outstanding as he -knew her to be--could accept this being almost casually left as part -of a legacy to that other man. It was incredible. Unless she loved -the other man.... So he came around again to the personal; unaware, of -course, that he was feeling inevitably with his strongly individualistic -race. Even when she dwelt on race, a little later in their talk, he -found no light. He couldn't have; for the American seldom can see what -lies outside himself. - -"I don' know yet what I can do," she was saying, very honestly and -simply (they hadn't yet mentioned Mr. Doane). "Of course I'm a Manchu, -after all. An' blood does coun'. I feel that. A good many people to-day -talk differen'ly, I know. We saw a good 'eal of Socialism at college. -The idealists to-day--the Jews an' Russians an' even some of our Chinese -students--the younger men--talk as if race doesn' matter. But of course -it does. It will ta' thousan's of years, I suppose, to bring the races -together. An' maybe it's impossible. Maybe it can' be done at all. I -think tha's the tragedy of so much of this beautiful dreaming.... An' -here you see I'm a Manchu, an' yet I wan' the Manchus put out of China. -Because they won' let China grow. An' China mus' grow, or die." - -He was moodily watching her; head bowed a little, gazing out under knit -brows. "Do you know," he said, "it's a queer thing to say, of course, -but sometimes you make me feel terribly young." - -She smiled faintly. "You are--rather young, Rocky." - -He closed his eyes and compressed his lips; his name, on her lips, was -dangerously thrilling music to him. After a moment he went doggedly on. - -"The crowds I've gone with at home haven't talked about these things. -They wouldn't think it good form." - -"I know," said she. "They woul'n'." - -"I'm beginning to wonder if we're--well, intelligent, exactly. You -know--just motors and horses and girls and bridge and 'killings' in Wall -Street." - -"Killings?" Her brows were lifted. - -"Oh--picking up a lot of money, quick." - -"That," she mused, "is what I sometimes worry about. You know, I love -America. I have foun' happiness there. I love the books an' the colleges -and the freedom an' all the goo' times. But it is true, I think--money -is God in America. Pipple don' like to have you say it, of course. But -I'm afraid it is true. Ever'-thing has to come to money--the gover'men', -the churches, ever'thing. I have seen that. That is the hard side of -America. I don' like that so well." Finally--coming down, helplessly, -on the personal, yet with a courageous light in Ins eyes--he said: "I -do want you to know this--Hui. You won't mind my speaking of my love for -you--" - -Her hand moved a very little way upward. "Please! I can't help that. -It's my life now. I'm full of you. And it has changed me. I'm--I'm -going back.... I'm going at things differently. I want you to know that. -Because if I hadn't met you it couldn't possibly have happened. And if I -hadn't--well, learned what it means to love a wonderful girl like you. I -want you to know how big the change is that you've made." - -"Rocky," she said gently--"will you do something for me?" He -waited...."I wan' you to go back to college." - -"I've already made up my mind to that," he replied, more quietly. "It's -the job for me now. It's the next thing." - -"I'm glad," said she. "An' I'd love it if you'd write to me sometimes." - -He inclined his head. - -Then, for a moment, his old turbulent inner self unexpectedly (even to -himself), lifted its head. - -"I tried to see Mr. Doane--that is, I thought perhaps I ought to tell -him that I was coming out here." - -She seemed slightly puzzled at this. Her lips framed questioningly the -words: "Tell him?" - -"I--I perhaps can't say much--but I'm sure you and he will be happy. -I--oh, he's a big man. He's terribly busy now, of course--you know what -he's doing--at Wu Ting Fang's headquarters?" - -She inclined her head rather wearily, saying: "He wrote me a ver' kin -note--jus' to say that he was busy." - -"They talk about him some at the hotel. All of a sudden he seems to be a -power here." - -She went without a further word into the house, returning with a slip -of paper. Into her manner had crept at the mention of Doane's name, -a gentler, more wistful quality that she seemed not to think of -concealing; it was even a confiding quality, intimately friendly. - -"I don' quite un'erstand it," she said. "A gen'leman called from the -Hong Kong Bank an' lef' this." - -Rocky read the paper; a receipt for a sealed parcel of pearls and for -other separate jewels and a sum of money. - -"Oh--he put it all there in your name," said he, while a sudden new hope -rose into his drying throat and throbbed in his temples. - -"Yes. It puzzle' me--a little." - -He turned the paper over and over in his fingers, once again struggling -to think.... She sat motionless, gazing at the dahlias. - -Blindly then he groped for her hands, found them and impulsively gripped -them. - -"Hui"--he whispered huskily--"tell me--if it's like this--if you--if -he.... All this time I've supposed you and he were.... I want you to come -with me to America. We both do love it there. I'll give up my life to -making you happy. I'll slave for you. I'll make of my life what you say. -just let us try it together...." - -She silently heard him out--through this and much more, leaving her -hands quietly in his. Finally then, when the emotional gust seemed in -some measure to have spent itself, she said, gently: - -"Rocky, I wan' you to listen to what I'm going to tell you. You said I -make you feel young. Well--can' you see why? Can' you see that I'm quite -an ol' lady?" - -"But that's nonsense! You--" His eyes were feasting on her soft skin and -on the exquisite curve of her cheek. - -"No--you mus' listen! First tel me how old you are." - -Unexpectedly on the defensive, Rocky had to compose himself, arrange his -dignity, before he could reply. "I was twenty-one in the summer." - -"Ver' good. An' I was twenty-five in the spring." - -"But--" - -"Please! I don' know what you coul' have thought--how young you thought -I was when I wen' to college. But tha's the way it is. I'm an ol' lady. -I have learn' to like you ver' much. I'm fond of you. I wan' to feel -always tha' we're frien's. But we coul'n' be happy together. Our -interes' aren' the same--they coul'n' be. Can' you see, Rocky? If there -is something abou' me tha' stirs you--that is ver' won'erful. But we -mus'n' let it hurt you. An' that isn' the same as marriage. Marriage is -differen'--there mus' be so much in common--if a man an' woman are to -live together an' work together, they mus' think an' hope an'...." - -Her voice died out. She was gazing again, mournfully at the dahlias. -When he released her hands they lay limp in her lap. - -With a great effort of will he wished her every happiness, promised to -write, and got himself away. - -This was on Thursday. Rocky walked at a feverish pace from the native -city to the European settlement that was so quaintly not Chinese--more, -with its Western-style buildings that were decorated with ornamental -iron balconies and richly colored Chinese signs, like a "China-town" in -an American city--and wandered for a time along Nanking Road; then out -to Bubbling Well Road; away out, past the Country Club to the almost -absurdly suburban quarter with its comfortably British villas; seeing, -however, little of the busy life that moved about him, threading his -way over cross-streets without a conscious glance at the motorcars and -pony-drawn victorias (with turbanned mafoos cracking their whips) and -bicycles and the creaking passenger wheelbarrow's on which fat native -women with tiny stumps of feet rode precariously. For those few hours -were to be recalled in later years as the quietly darkest in the young -man's life. There was no question now of dissipation; he knew with the -decisiveness of the Kanes that he had turned definitely away from the -morbid oblivion of alcohol and opium, as from the unhealthy if exciting -diversion of loveless women. But the bitterness would not down all at -once. Indeed it was savagely powerful, still, to cloud his reason. The -only evidence of victory over self of which he was aware was the fact -that he could now look almost objectively at himself, and could fight. - -He was back at the hotel between seven and eight, but couldn't eat. -For an hour he walked his room, locked in. Then, in sheer loneliness, a -little afraid of himself, he went down to the spacious lounge and sat -in a corner, behind a palm, staring at a copy of the _China Press_ and -listening, all overstrung nerves, to the cackle and laughter of the -self-centered tourists and the curiously bold and loud commercial men -from across the Pacific. He heard this, in his younger way, as Doane -would have heard it, even as Hui; it was all heedless, light-brained; -careless.... Confused with the bitterness (in a bewildering degree) was a -sense of the finely reflective atmosphere that had lately enveloped him -and that he was not to lose easily. He felt--sitting, all nerves, in -this babel--the fine old Chinese gentleman who had gone serenely to the -death that was his destiny. He felt--constantly, intensely--the princess -who had brought to her American college an instinct for culture the like -of which neither he nor any of his friends at home had brought or found -there. And he felt Mr. Doane--felt a spaciousness of mind in the man, a -patience, a tolerance--felt him as a gentleman--felt him while still, -in his heart, he was bitterly fighting him.... The thing had closed over -his head--the sheer quality of these remarkable folk. He was simply out -of a cruder world. He hadn't the right to stand with them--the simple -right of character and breeding. And no amount of determination, no -amount of storming at it could alter the fact. It would take years of -patient work. Ever, then he might miss it; for his environment soon -again would be that of the cackling tourists he now hated. Even at -college it would be all the dominant athletics, the parties and the -motors and girls and drinking, the association with those sons of -prosperous families who were all consciously cementing alliances -with the financial upper class that quietly ruled America while hired -politicians prated and performed without in the smallest measure -controlling or even altering the blatant facts.... He and his kind, at -college, despised the "grind." And you had to be a grind if you weren't -the other thing. Yet Hui Pei had managed it differently. She was neither -and both. It seemed to be a difference of mental texture.... - -A slim girl, richly dressed, with a sable wrap about her shoulders and -a pretty little hat, was threading her way among the crowding chairs and -tables and the talkative groups in the lounge. He glanced up: then looked -closely. It was Dixie Carmichael. She stood before him, wearing her icy, -faintly mocking smile. He rose. - -"How are you?" said she. - -He could only incline his head with a sort of courtesy, and contrive an -artificial smile. He seemed to have been dreaming, outrageously. Life -had begun now'. - -"I'm running down to Singapore," said she. "Friends there. And a -look-see?" - -"Oh," he murmured, "indeed." She looked out-and-out rich; and she was -surprisingly pretty, without a sign that she had ever known danger or -even care. - -"Staying here?" she asked. - -"No. I start back home Saturday." - -"So?.... Well, that'll be pleasant." With a final glance of what seemed -almost like triumph she sailed away. And he knew that in taking the -pearls he had not taken all from her. Apparently, too, she meant him to -know it. That would be her moment of triumph. And that was all; not -a word was spoken regarding his violence or her threats.... He saw the -yellow porters carrying out her luggage of bright new leather. - -He resumed his seat; twitched for a time with increasing nervousness; -got up and went aimlessly over to the desk; asked the Malay clerk for -mail. - -A smiling little Japanese appeared, rather officious about a great lot -of bags and a trunk or two that were coming in. He had a familiar look; -even raised his hat and stepped forward with outstretched hand. It was -Kato.... And then Dawley Kane came in--tall, quiet, neatly dressed, his -nearly white mustache newly cropped. - -To his pale son Dawley Kane said merely--"Well!"--as he took his hand; -and then was busy registering. That done, he asked: "Had dinner?" Rocky -shook his head. "I don't care for any." Daw ley Kane's quietly keen eyes -surveyed his son. "What's the matter? Not well." - -"I'm well enough." - -"Sit down with me, can't you?" And turning to the attending Japanese he -said: "You'll excuse me Kato. I'll be dining with my son. And tell Mr. -Braker, please.... Just a minute. Rocky, till I wash my hands." - -They were shown to a table in the great diningroom, where the cackling -was louder than in the lounge (they dine late on the coast)--where -blue-gowned waiters moved softly about as if there had never been a -revolution and wine glasses glistened and prettily bared shoulders -gleamed roundly under the electric lights. - -And Rocky, seated gloomily opposite this powerful quiet man--who took -him unerringly in of course; dishearteningly, Rocky felt--found himself -in a depression deeper than any he had known before. His father was so -strong and he brought back with him the enveloping atmosphere of the -mighty, splendidly successful white world in which they both belonged--a -world that crushed the heart out of weaker peoples while it blandly -talked the moralities. He felt it as a Juggernaut. It had the amazingly -successful racial blend of character and plausibility. That would be the -British quality; and, more roughly and confusedly, the American. - -"Getting rather interesting up the river." remarked Dawley Kane, over -his soup. "How'd you get down?" - -"On a junk." - -"Any trouble?" - -"Oh--some." - -"Been here long?" - -"Several days. I'm sailing Saturday." - -"Sailing?" Mr. Kane raised his eyebrows. "Where?" - -"Home." - -"You decided not to consult me?" - -"Oh.... Don't ride me, father! It's the next thing. I'm going back to -college." - -"Oh--I see." Mr. Kane looked over the menu, ordered his roast, and -selected a red wine, cautioning the waiter to set it near the stove for -five minutes. "It's wicked to heat Burgundy," he said, when the waiter -had gone, "but it's the only way you can get it served at the right -temperature. I discovered that when we were here before.... I gather, my -boy, that you've come to your senses in the matter of that little yellow -girl." - -Rocky did not wince outwardly; he merely sat still. But his mind, at -last, was active. And he knew--saw it in a flash--that no explanation -he could possibly make, would be intelligible. You can not--yet--talk -across the gulf between the worlds. It was his first intelligent glimpse -of the tremendous fact that Doane had so long and so clearly felt -and seen. So he merely--at last, when his father looked closely at -him--inclined his head and said, huskily: - -"I'm going to work out this college business'. That's my job clear -enough." - -This new attitude was to bring, later in the evening, confidences from -the father. - -"It's been an interesting journey for me, Rocky." Thoughtfully Dawley -Kane smoked his Manila cigar. - -"It's enabled me to understand somewhat the delicate international -situation out here. I couldn't see why our agents weren't accomplishing -more. The trouble is, of course, that every square foot of China's -staked out by the European nations. If you don't believe that, just get -a concession from the Chinese Government--for a big job--water power -development, mining, railway building, or an industrial monopoly--that -part of it isn't so hard--and then try to carry it through. You'd find -out fast enough who are the real owners of China. And those owners would -never let you start. Great Britain controls this great empire of the -Yangtze Valley as completely as she controls India. France owns the -south--Russia the northwest and the north--Japan, from Korea and -Lower Manchuria is penetrating the northwest, too; they're bound, the -Japanese, to tip Russia out one of these days, and they're very clever -and patient about slipping into the British regions. They've got -the Germans to contend with, too, in the Kiochow region. But -someday--either in the event of the final break-up of China or in the -event of the European nations coming to an out-and-out squabble (which -is almost a certainty, at that) Japan will be found to have pulled off -most of the big prizes for herself. We'll have to fight Japan someday, -I suppose--over the control of the Pacific--but in the meantime, those -little people are the best bet. They know the East as the rest of us -don't, they're clever, and their diplomats aren't hampered by the sort -of half-enlightened public opinion that's always tripping us up in the -West--sentimental idealism, that sort of thing--and they control -their press infinitely better than we do. They've got everything, -the Japanese, except money. And we've got the money. It'll be just a -question of security, that's all; and watching them pretty closely. I've -made up my mind to play it that way.... A survey of the actual conditions -out here makes our American diplomacy look pretty naive. We talk -idealism--open door and all--while all the rest of them are moving in -and setting up shop and getting the money." - -Later, in Dawley Kane's spacious suite overlooking the park-like street -where the colored lanterns of the rickshaws glowed pleasantly under -the trees, the father said, laying a hand affectionately on the boy's -shoulder: - -"I can't tell you how happy you've made me, Rocky. It looks as if you'd -turned your corner. Just don't go in for too much thinking about what -you've been through. There's nothing in remorse. As a matter of fact, -a little rough experience is a good thing for a boy. After you get your -balance you'll be all the closer to life for it.... Go ahead with your -college plans, get your degree, and then after a year or two in the New -York office I'll bring you out here. We shall be playing for big stakes. -And we shall need good men.... That's the whole problem, really--the -men. I had my eyes on this man Doane, but he turned out to be only a -sentimentalist after all." - -It was the hopelessness of it that drove Rocky out--after a respectful -good night--and over to the revolutionary headquarters. He knew that -Mr. Doane worked most of the night; and took what sleep he got on a cot -there. - - - - -CHAPTER XV--IN A COURTYARD - -|HE sent in his name, and waited for an hour in an outer office. For -even at this late hour in the evening headquarters was a busy place. -Chinese gentlemen crowded in and out, dressed, to a man, in the frock -coats and the flapping black trousers they didn't know how to wear. High -officers slipped quietly in and out--in khaki, with the white -brassard of the Revolution on their left arms; sometimes with merely -a handkerchief tied there Orderlies and messengers came and went. And -clerks of untiring patience sat at desks. - -It was a difficult hour. Rocky had only his confused emotions to guide -him, and his hurt heart There were moments, even, when he didn't know -why he had come. But he never thought of giving up. Whatever their -curious relations, he had to see Mr. Doane, who was now the only stable -figure in the rocking world about him. The man had been fine--square. -That he knew now. And his nervous young imagination was veering toward -hero-worship. He was utterly humble. - -Naturally he was boyish about it, when they finally led him into that -inner office. He said, flushing a little: - -"I know you're busy, Mr. Doane--" - -"Not too busy for you. I kept you waiting to clear up a lot of things." -The man's great size and calmness of manner--the question rose; had he -ever in his life known weariness?--were comforting. - -"I'm--sailing Saturday." - -This, for a brief moment, brought the kindly though strong and sober -face to immobility. - -"You see, sir, I've come to feel that the best thing for me is to go -back and---start clean." - -A slight mist came over Doane's eyes. What a struggle the boy had had -of it! And how splendidly he was working through!.... Thought came about -the children of the rich in America... the problem of it.... - -"I--couldn't go without seeing you. You see, sir, it's you, I guess, -that've put me on my feet. I sort of--well, I want you to know that -I _am_ on them. It's been a strange experience, all round. A terrible -experience, of course. It shakes you...." - -"It has shaken me, too," Doane observed simply. - -"I know. That is, I see all that more clearly now. I was going to speak -of it--it's one of the things, but first.... Mr. Doane, will you write to -me? Once in a while? I mean, will you--could you find time to answer if -I write to you? You see, it isn't going to be easy, over there. I've got -to go clean outside my own crowd. And outside my family. They won't one -of them understand what I'm up to. Not one. And--when you come right -down to it, I suppose it's a question whether the thing licks me or not. -But"--his shoulders squared; he looked directly into that kind, deeply -shadowed face--"I don't believe it will lick me!" - -"No," said Doane, "it won't lick you." - -"I shall never be able to shake China off now. It's got me. And I don't -know a thing about it yet Of course I shall be reading and studying it -up." - -"I'll send you a book once in a while." - -"And I know I'm coming back out here someday. But it won't be as my -father wants me to come. You see, I'll have money." - -"A great responsibility, Rocky." - -"I know. I'm beginning to see that. But--I know all this must sound -pretty young to you!--but I'm afraid I shall be leaning on you -sometimes--" - -"Write to me at those times." - -"All right. I will." - -"There is an amazing health in the American people." - -"Yes--that's so, of course." - -"It's a curiously blundering people, of course. And there's a hard, -really a Teutonic strain--that blend of practical hard-headedness, even -of cruelty, with sentimentality--" - -Rocky's brows came together. Mr. Doane and his father plainly didn't use -that word "sentimental" in the same sense, "--it comes down to a strain -of--well, something between the old Anglo-Saxonism and the modern -Prussianism. It's in us--in our driving business tactics, our narrow -moral intolerance, our insistence on standardizing vulgar ideas--forcing -every individual into a mold--in our extraordinary glorification of the -salesman. We seem to have a good deal both of the British complacency -and the rough aggressiveness of the German. But the health is -there--wonderfully. What America needs is beauty--not the self-conscious -swarming after it of earnest and misguided suburban ladies--but a quiet -sense of the thing itself. Beauty--and simplicity--and patience--and -tolerance--and faith. Prosperity has for the moment wrecked faith there. -Simply too much money. But you'll find health growing up everywhere. -Just let yourself grow with it. You've been deeply impressed by China. -But if I were you, I'd let all that take care of itself. Never mind what -you may come to feel next year or ten years from now. It may be mainly -China or mainly America. Just work, and let yourself grow." - -At the door they clasped hands warmly. And then, finally, Rocky got to -the point: - -"Mr. Doane--this is what I wanted to say--I saw Hui Fei this afternoon, -and--" - -Doane was silent; but still gripped his hand, "--and we talked things -all out. She knows I'm--knows I'm going back. And--this is it.... You -don't mind my.... I think you ought to find time to go over there and see -her. She seems puzzled about--I don't know quite how to say all this. -You know how I've felt--feel.... Of course, the thing is to look the -facts in the face. I hope I'm man enough to do that." His voice was -unsteady now. "I'm not the one. I never was. She was dear about it, -to-day, but... I think you ought to see her. Oh, I'm sure it isn't just -her father's will...." - -Rocky found himself, without the slightest sense of ungentleness on the -part of Mr. Doane, through the door and confusedly saying his good-by -before the patient clerks and the waiting crowd in the anteroom. He -walked back to the hotel with a warm glow of admiration and friendship -in his heart. There would be--he knew, even then--sad hours, probably -bitter hours, in the long struggle to come. But this talk was going to -help. - -On Doane the boy's announcement had an almost crushing effect. His -spirit was not adjusted to happiness. The terrific strain of the work -was a blessing. He framed, that night and during the following day, -innumerable little chits to Hui Fei--pretexts, all, for a visit that -needed no pretext. And the day passed. Self-consciousness was upon him; -and a constant mental difficulty in making the situation credible. And -there was the pressure of time; an awareness that to Hui Fei--perhaps -even to the Witherys--his silence would soon demand a stronger -explanation than the mere pressure of business. He had to keep reminding -himself that the girl was helpless, that he himself was the only -guardian whose authority she could recognize; his reason whispering from -moment to moment that she would not touch the money he had so promptly -put at her disposal. No, she would wait. - -It was his old friend Henry Withery who brought him to it; appearing -late on the Saturday afternoon, determined to drag him off for -dinner.... Withery, looking every one of his forty-eight years, patient -resignation in the dusty blue eyes, and a fine net of wrinkles about -them. His slight limp was the only reminder of tortures inflicted by the -Boxers in 1900, out in Kansuh. He had taken over the T'ainan-fu mission -for a year after Doane left the church in 1907; and during two years now -had been here in Shanghai. - -"There's no good killing yourself here, Grig," he said. "We've not had -ten minutes with you yet, remember. And we must talk over that girl's -affairs. She's very sweet about it, but it's plain that she's waiting on -you." - -His tone was genial; quite the tone of their earlier friendship, with -nothing left of the constraint that had come into their relationship -during Doane's difficult years on the river--the years that couldn't -be explained, even to old friends.... And Withery knew nothing of the -curious personal problem of his and Hui Fei's lives. His manner made -that clear.... It remained to be seen whether Mrs. Withery knew. - -.... Doane, it will be noted, was still struggling, as of settled habit, -with the thought of freeing the girl from the obligation laid upon her. - -But Mrs. Withery didn't know, didn't dream. She was quite her -whole-souled self. He might have been Hui Fei's father, from anything in -her manner. He felt a conspirator. - -Her father's tragic end accounted altogether for the girl's silence. She -met him naturally, though, with a frank grip of the hand. - -It was a pleasant enough family dinner. They talked the revolution, -of course. No one in Shanghai at the beginning of that November talked -anything else. Hui Fei quietly listened; her face very sober in repose. -She seemed--she had always seemed--more delicately feminine in Western -costume. She was more slender now; her face a perfect oval under -the smooth, deep-shadowed hair. Her dark eyes, deep with stoically -controlled feeling, rested on this or that speaker. Doane found them -once or twice resting thoughtfully on himself. - -After dinner Mrs. Withery, with a glance at her husband, laid a -sympathetic hand on Hui's shoulder. - -"My dear," she said, all friendly sympathy, "Mr. Doane's time is -precious, these days and nights. I know that you should take this -opportunity to talk over your problems with him. I shall be bustling -about here--suppose you take him out into the courtyard." - -Without a word they walked out there; stood by a gnarled tree whose -twisted limbs extended over the low tiled roofs. There was a little -light from the windows. The long silence that followed was the most -difficult moment yet. Doane found himself breathing rather hard. In Hui -Fei he felt the calm Oriental patience that underlay all her Western -experiences. She simply waited for him to speak. - -He looked down at her, quite holding his breath. She seemed almost frail -out here, in the half light. He was fighting, with all his strength and -experience, the warm sweet feelings that drugged his brain. - -"My dear--" he began; then, when she looked frankly up at him, -hesitated. He hadn't known he was going to begin with any such phrase as -that. He got on with it...."I'm wondering how I can best help you. If I -were a younger man there would be no question as to what I would have to -say to you." Utterly clumsy, of course; with little light ahead; just a -dogged determination to serve her without hurting her. - -"I think a good 'eal of wha' they tell me you're doing"--thus Hui Fei, -in a low but clear voice; not looking up now. "I've almos' envied you. -Helping li' that." - -"It must be hard for you--with all your mental interests--to sit quietly -here." - -"My min' goes on, of course," she said. "Yes, it isn' ver' easy." - -This was getting them nowhere. Doane, after a deep breath, took command -of the situation. Sooner or later he would have to do that. - -"Hui, dear," he said now--very quietly, but directly, "this is a -difficult situation for both of us. The only thing, of course, is to -meet it as frankly as we can. I learned to love your father--" - -She glanced up at this; her eyes glistened as the light caught them. - -"--but we can not blindly follow his wishes. He had seen and felt the -West, but he died a Manchu." - -Her soft lips framed the one word, "Yes." The softness of her whole -face, indeed, was disconcerting; it was all sober emotion, that she -plainly didn't think of trying to hide. - -"And I'm sure you'll understand me when I tell you that I can not accept -his legacy." - -She startled him now with the low but direct question: "Why not?" - -"My dear...." He found difficulty in going on. - -"I don' know what I ought 'o say." He barely heard this; stopped a -little. "I don' know wha' to do." - -"Can't you, dear--isn't there some clear vision in your heart--don't you -see your way ahead? Remember, you will always have me to help--if I can -help. It will mean everything to me to be your dearest friend." - -"I want 'o work with you," she murmured. - -"I haven't dared believe that possible," he said thoughtfully. - -"Do you wan' me to?" - -"Yes. But it has to be clearer than that." He was stupid again; he -sensed it himself. "There is so much of life ahead of you. It's got to -be clear that wherever your heart may lead you, child--that you shall -have my steady friendship. The rest of it can grow as it may." - -"I wan'...." He couldn't make out the words; he bent down close to her -lovely face. "I want 'o marry you." - -They both stood breathless then. Timidly her hand crept into his and -nestled there. - -"Tha's the trouble"--her voice was a very little stronger--"there isn' -anything else. It's ever'thing you think an' do--ever'thing you believe. -We're both between the worl's, so...." - -The noise in his brain was like the pealing of cathedral bells at -Christmas time. Yet in this rush of ecstatic feeling he suddenly saw -clearly. The fabric of their companionship had hardly begun weaving. -All his experience, his delicacy, his fine human skill, must be employed -here. Ahead lay happiness! It was still nearly incredible.... And -there lay--extending before them in a long vista--their intense common -interest. The thing was to make a fine success of it. Build through the -years. - -And happiness was greatly important. He had so nearly missed it.... -Looking up through the branches of the old tree, he smiled. - -Then he led her into the house. - -"Have you had your talk already?" asked Mrs. Withery pleasantly. - -"We've settled everything," said Doane. "We're going to be married." - -"Very soon," said Hui Fei. - - -THE END - - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In Red and Gold, by Samuel Merwin - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN RED AND GOLD *** - -***** This file should be named 51974-8.txt or 51974-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/9/7/51974/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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