The Red Miriok Part 11

The _mutang_ had now been captured, but not until she had made such vigorous resistance that not only the clothing of the runners had been torn, but their faces also scratched.

In close company with the old _mutang_, and with the runners encircling them so that there could be no chance of escape, and a leering, hooting mob following them, the two girls were conducted along the street to the house of the _yangban_.

"Oh, Dorothy," said Helen, "this is dreadful!" and, in her pain and mortification, she sought to conceal as much of her face as she could with her hands.

"Yes," said Dorothy, on the verge of tears. "Oh, Helen, it would have been better, many times, to have let the _miriok_ go."

"No," said Helen, "no!"

It was now sunrise, but far too early for the magistrate. They were informed that they must wait an hour or more.

Dorothy and Helen were finally permitted to enter the women's apartments. They afterward learned that it was through the overwhelming curiosity of the _yangban's_ chief wife. At the entrance they were laid hold of by the serving-women and fairly dragged into the apartment.

There they had a trying experience which lasted nearly an hour. To them it seemed five times that length. Their clothing, their faces, and their hair in turn were inspected, and by each wife. They were bidden to take off their shoes, their wrappers, and other wearing apparel, and each wife in turn must try on each article. But the bulk of the curiosity was directed toward Helen's hair. It seemed that the women would never tire of handling it. They even wanted to cut it off, and but for Helen's heroic efforts, aided by Dorothy's quick ingenuity, would have succeeded.

At length they were summoned before the _yangban_, the wives, unable to restrain their curiosity, following them to the room, where they sat behind a screen.

The _yangban_, who was quite a young man, was lounging on his platform and smoking an immense cigar. He was dressed in a pea-green silk robe confined by a red girdle, and on each hand was a very showy paste-diamond ring.

He had ordered the outer door to be thrown open, and had allowed as many of the curious crowd to enter as could be accommodated within a certain s.p.a.ce. Near him stood his interpreter, for he had early been informed that two of the accused were foreigners. After smoking awhile in silence, he commanded the offenders to be brought before him for the usual form of questions. He began with Helen. As she stepped a little apart from the others, and nearer to the magistrate, in her earnestness to tell him her story, she happened to raise her eyes for a moment and let them rest upon the crowd gathered at her left. As she did so a little m.u.f.fled cry escaped her. There, standing almost in the front line, and with his dark eyes fixed mournfully upon her, was Choi-So. How had he come there? Afterward she learned that he had not been far away from the sampan, and, sleeping very lightly because of the thoughts that disturbed him, had been attracted by the sound of running feet and by Helen's calls to the old woman. He had overtaken them just as they had been arrested and started to the _yangban's_. He had heard Helen try to tell one of the runners the cause of the trouble. He had gleaned just enough to set him on fire with interest and excitement. For an instant Choi-So's presence at the magistrate's court so disconcerted Helen that she could not remember the words she had been on the point of uttering.

But soon more confidence returned, and she began bravely to tell her story.

The magistrate listened patiently, but he was evidently full of curiosity and deeply excited over the appearance of the two young girls.

Though he had seen the white foreigners on the streets of Seoul, yet he had never before been brought in such contact with them. The fearless, earnest manner of both girls impressed him and had much to do with his decision.

The _mutang_ should return the image, he declared. He had not asked to see it yet, and so was in no wise impressed by it. Helen and Dorothy had proved to be of such tremendous interest that all minor objects had been for the time obscured.

Yes, the _mutang_ should return the image, and the _yen_ that Helen had offered should go to himself.

This decision was barely rendered when there came a communication from his chief wife. He appeared to frown over it for a few moments, all the while smoking hard. Then he further announced, and in the most laconic manner, that Helen was to sacrifice her hair ere receiving the image.

A cry of dismay escaped Helen, while Dorothy, hot with indignation, began to pour out her protests, first to the magistrate, then to Helen.

"It can't be done! You can't think of such a thing! Don't! _Don't!_"

"Oh, yes," said Helen, who had now grown strangely quiet and calm. "It isn't such a dreadful sacrifice, dear. There are many far worse. I can endure it. My hair will grow out again. Oh, surely it is worth this when we remember what it means to get back the _miriok_!"

All the while she was speaking, though she was looking at Dorothy, yet Helen saw those mournful eyes that she knew were fixed upon her from the other side of the room.

"Take the scissors, Dorothy," she entreated. "I had forgotten until now that I had my folding ones here in the little case in my pocket. Oh, it will be so much better for you to do it, dear, for I couldn't bear any of those rude hands to touch me."

Dorothy took the scissors, but still making vigorous protest.

"Do, Dorothy, _do_, my dear," pleaded Helen.

With trembling hand Dorothy grasped the rich, shining braid. The scissors were raised; but ere the two gleaming blades could close on the glossy strand, a voice cried out authoritatively:

"_Stop! Stop!_"

Helen and Dorothy raised their eyes simultaneously. It was Mr. Kit-ze.

He had pressed to the extreme limit of the line of spectators, and with his hat gone, his clothing in wild disorder, his eyes gleaming like two globes of fire, was gesticulating frantically to the magistrate.

CHAPTER XI

"ONE SOUL"

Mr. Kit-ze continued to gesticulate and to cry out to the magistrate, although those near-by sought to restrain him. He even tried to pa.s.s the barrier, but was each time pushed back by the guards.

The magistrate at first appeared not to notice him, but after a while, overcome by his curiosity, he turned his head and called to Mr. Kit-ze: "What do you want, fellow? I'll put you in the _cangue_[3] if you don't cease that noise."

"A word!" cried Mr. Kit-ze. "A word with you, O most high and exalted!"

The magistrate eyed him a moment nonchalantly. Then he said to a runner: "Bring him here."

Mr. Kit-ze approached and, falling upon his heels, prostrated himself three times before the _yangban_, touching his forehead to the floor each time.

As he arose, there fluttered from his fingers a strip of yellow ribbon, and those who were near to him saw stamped upon it in red a dragon with four wings and tongue extended.

"See!" said Mr. Kit-ze, as he held it before the magistrate. "See! O renowned son of a renowned father. O most exalted, I claim the promise."

A look of intelligence began to dawn in the magistrate's eye. He looked closely at the streamer of yellow ribbon. "Go on," he said to Mr.

Kit-ze. "Go on, but keep your head above your shoulders, so as to make clear what you are trying to say."

"On a blessed day for your poor, miserable servant," began Mr. Kit-ze, "your exalted person came down the Han in a craft that went to grief in the rapids. Your polemen, losing their heads, deserted, and but for the a.s.sistance of the unworthy being now speaking to you and his poleman, there would have been neither craft nor cargo belonging to your exalted self to enter Seoul. You gave me _yen_, but you gave me this too,"

holding the ribbon nearer as he spoke, "and your most eloquent tongue, that always speaks straight, declared that if there was ever anything this miserable wretch desired of you that could be granted, it should be so."

"I remember," said the magistrate. "Go on."

"I ask you now, O renowned and honorable, to spare the hair of the daughter of him who is known as the exalted teacher," and here Mr.

Kit-ze turned toward Helen, who, ever since his sudden appearance, had been regarding him with a questioning if not puzzled wonder. How had he come there, and where were the others? Had he alone learned of their whereabouts, and how had it so happened?

"Take instead something of your wretched servant's," continued Mr.

Kit-ze to the magistrate, "and leave undisturbed the beautiful strands that are a happiness to her whom they adorn and a joy in the eyes of those who love her."

"Oh, Mr. Kit-ze," said Helen softly, a great, warm flood of feeling sweeping over her heart as she comprehended what he had asked and noted the deep earnestness in his eyes as he turned them upon her, "don't mind about my hair; please don't. It won't be so dreadful to me to lose it.

Don't get yourself into trouble for my sake," and now she laid her hand upon his shoulder in earnest pleading.

"I'll fear to suffer nothing if done for _you_, O daughter of the honorable teacher." And now his eyes were misty with feeling as their gaze lingered upon her.

"Come, is this all you want?" asked the magistrate impatiently and evidently resenting the conversation now going on between Helen and Mr.

Kit-ze.

"Yes, it is all your wretched servant has to ask of you," replied Mr.

Kit-ze. "O most honorable," he began to plead, "spare, I entreat you, the beautiful hair of her who is the daughter of the exalted teacher, and nothing more will I ask of you. Nothing!"

"But the _miriok_, Mr. Kit-ze, the _miriok_?" said Helen in an undertone and surprised that he had seemed to take no thought of it in his appeal to the magistrate. For he surely had heard enough of the proceedings to understand why she and Dorothy had been brought before the _yangban_.