Held by Chinese Brigands. Gilson Charles

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ part for which-on account of his cunning and secretive nature-he was eminently suited.

      It was an exceedingly well-arranged plot, which will be duly explained in the appointed place. There was some discussion in regard to what sum it would be possible to obtain; but in the end it was decided that twenty thousand dollars would be sufficient, allowing that Cheong-Chau would take the bulk of it himself.

      It was long past midnight when they came to the end of their deliberations. By then they were heavy with opium, and their eyes glazed from the drug. They threw themselves down upon the soft matted couches in the outer room, and slept and dreamed-as Chinese will-of things celestial, transcendental, such as cannot be expressed in words. For all that, the following morning Yung How presented himself at the breakfast-table of Sir Thomas Armitage in the Shamien Hotel.

      "Well, Yung How," said the judge, "did you see your brother in Canton?"

      "Yes, master," said Yung How, without moving a muscle of his face. "He makes bobbery with his wife."

      "You mean," said Sir Thomas, for the edification of Mr Waldron, "that he and his wife have quarrelled?"

      "Yes, master. She does not like that he smokes opium-once a week."

      The judge made a wry face. "A nasty habit," said he.

      "Yes, master," said Yung How; "only bad men smoke opium."

      Sir Thomas looked at Yung How's eyes. The pupils were shrunken to the size of little beads.

      "Yes," said he. "You are right, Yung How; only bad men smoke opium."

      "Opium does harm," said Yung How, who, five minutes later, appeared in the hotel kitchen. Several coolies were eating rice upon a doorstep, and one of these was the engineer of Sir Thomas's river-launch. It is not pleasant to watch lower-class Chinese eat rice. They hold the bowl about two inches from their mouths, which they open very wide, and then they scoop up the rice with their fingers in much the same manner as one might brush pieces of fluff from the sleeve of a coat.

      "Ah Su," said Yung How, to the engineer, "has the judge told you where we are going?"

      "No," said Ah Su.

      "The weather," said Yung How, "is very hot."

      He then departed to the vestibule of the hotel, where he encountered the comprador. In China, the comprador knows everything.

      "Are there any letters for the judge?" asked Yung How, in a lordly manner.

      "He has them," said the comprador. "He himself took them into the breakfast-room."

      "We leave to-day," said Yung How casually.

      "So I understand," said the other.

      "I suppose letters will be forwarded?"

      "The judge has given instructions. All letters and parcels are to be forwarded to the British Consulate at Wu-chau."

      "In Wu-chau," said Yung How, "I have a brother."

      He turned away and went upstairs, where he entered the bedroom of Mr Waldron. In one of the small drawers of the dressing-table he discovered the millionaire's cheque-book; and since he could read English tolerably well, he spent a pleasant five minutes studying the counterfoils. Then quite suddenly Mr Waldron came in.

      "Say," said he, "what are you doing here?"

      "Have cleaned hairbrushes," said Yung How, without a moment's hesitation.

      "Then, git!" cried Mr Waldron. "Guess I can fill my own grip-sack. When I want a slit-eyed son of Satan hanging around my boudoir, I'll send for him. So, git!"

      And Yung How "got." He walked gravely from the room with his head held proudly in the air, and his eyes fixed upon the ground. He appeared grossly insulted.

      He knew very well, however, that the great city of Wu-chau lies upon the West River, and is not so far-as the crow flies-from the town of Pinglo, where Cheong-Chau was in the habit of smoking opium.

      CHAPTER IV-HOW CHEONG-CHAU CAME FORTH OF THE TOWN OF PINGLO

      Mr Waldron appreciated the journey up the West River even more than the sights of Canton. Stretched comfortably upon his deck-chair, he surveyed through his binoculars the rich, prosperous landscape of Southern China. He interested himself in the straw-hatted peasants at work in the tea-gardens and the ricefields. As the launch steamed upon its way, he inspected river-side villages, temples, gateways and pagodas.

      The party arrived at Wu-chau, spent two or three days seeing the sights, and then proceeded up-river. A few days later, the launch arrived at the town of Pinglo-three days after Men-Ching, seated astride his little Mongolian pony, had ridden in from the East.

      Since there was little or nothing to see in Pinglo, Sir Thomas Armitage, Frank and Mr Hennessy K. Waldron, accompanied by Yung How and one other personal servant, set out on a journey across country towards the north. They carried knapsacks upon their backs, and proceeded by way of the narrow paths separating the ricefields. The heat was excessive, but as they progressed, and reached higher altitudes, it became cooler, and at the end of three days' march the Nan-ling Mountains stood out before them like a great wall.

      They found the Taoist temple, surrounded by trees, tucked away in the corner of a picturesque valley, where there were great numbers of birds of brilliant plumage.

      Mr Waldron was delighted. The temple was deserted, and appeared to have been neglected for centuries. The plaster had crumbled from the walls and lay in heaps upon the floor. The place consisted of one huge hall, with several smaller rooms on either side. Everything of value had been stolen; but the architecture remained, solid and fantastic, and of the greatest antiquity.

      Ranged around the walls were the figures of scores of gods and goddesses, chief amongst whom was Buddha. Sir Thomas was able to identify several of the images, one of whom he recognised as Mohammed, another as St Paul, and a third as Marco Polo. That Marco Polo should have risen in China to the dignity of a deity is conceivable, since this dauntless adventurer was the first European to reside in the ancient Tartar kingdom of Kublai Khan. But it was indeed remarkable that the fame of such great preachers as St Paul and the founder of the Mohammedan religion should have reached-across the whole of Asia-the heart of the Chinese Empire. This is no treatise on Chinese theology, else we could write much concerning the Taoist temple on the southern slopes of the Nan-ling Mountains, at the very back of the beyond. It is sufficient to say that the judge took copious notes, and Mr Hennessy K. Waldron was delighted. As a memento of the expedition he knocked off a stone gargoyle from above the porchway of the temple.

      In many ways the expedition resembled a delightful picnic, in a country that was charming and romantic. The ruined temple was surrounded by flowering shrubs and queer-shaped deciduous trees, and there were moss-grown banks upon which one could lie at ease during the heat of the day or sleep tranquilly by night, when thousands of frogs were croaking in the valley below, and crickets were singing in the longkiao-liang that grew upon the mountain-side.

      The place was a natural garden, scented with almond and mimosa. During the heat of the day there was shade in plenty; after sunset the temperature was cool and refreshing. Yung How and his assistant attended to their wants; gave them four-course luncheons and dinners, produced from a saucepan and a frying-pan by means of a small wood fire laid between two bricks. Neither Mr Waldron nor the judge himself showed the slightest inclination to return to the steaming valley of the river. As for Frank, he was happy all day long, exploring the neighbourhood, climbing to the crest-line СКАЧАТЬ