Under the Chinese Dragon Part 25

He was not the one to waste time when the minutes were flying swiftly, and when there might be an interruption at any moment. David bundled the unconscious Tartar on to the _kang_, covered him with a faded quilt, and tied his own discarded clothing into a bundle. A dexterous heave sent it through the window, and if only he had known it, caused the faithful Jong the greatest consternation.

'What dat?' he asked, standing back in the dense shadow which hid him.

'Something come plump from de window. Not likee de look of him at allee, not at allee. Heart go plippee-plappee when ting like dat happen.

Suppose I go over and have a look.'

He was in the very act of stepping out on to the white highway, which gleamed in the pure rays of the moon, when his sharp ears caught a sound. Some one was treading the narrow path which ran beside the road; some one was approaching. Jong lay flat in the shadow, hugging the wall, and stared out into the open. Presently a man's figure hove in sight--a man dressed in elaborate military costume, his flowing robes blowing about his feet, the flat cap on his head surmounted by a wide b.u.t.ton.

Nor did it want two glances at the stranger to disclose the fact that this was Tsu-Hi, the deputy-governor of the walled city of Hatsu, an official with absolute powers for the moment of life and death; one who, discovering Jong where he lay, could, with one single nod, condemn him to instant execution. No wonder, therefore, that the Chinaman shivered, and squeezed his body still further into the shadow, wishing that the ground might rise in a friendly manner and cover him. He scarcely dared to breathe, while, so terrified was he, that his teeth almost chattered together. Then, quite by accident, his hand touched the hilt of the knife he carried in his belt. The sudden contact seemed to bring him courage. Jong gripped the weapon and drew it, his eyes fixed all the while on the figure of Tsu-Hi.

'He is alone; he is the cause of all this trouble,' he whispered. 'Let him show that he has seen me and I will send him to join his ancestors; yes, to join them with treachery in his heart.'

But the official made no sign. He came stepping down the path slowly, as if deeply engaged with his thoughts. His hands were tucked into the baggy sleeves he wore, while his eyes were dropped on to the roadway. He pa.s.sed the spot where Jong was secreted, advanced slowly to the steps which led to the door of the prison, and lifted a hand to summon those within. Jong heard the clang of a gong somewhere in the distance. And David heard it. He was at that very moment about to slide back the last of the two bolts that secured the door of the cell in which he imagined d.i.c.k to be when the deep, musical note of the gong sounded down the pa.s.sage, coming from a spot somewhere above, at the top of the flight of steps down which he had watched the Tartar descending. And then he heard a sharp rapping in the opposite direction.

'A visitor; perhaps Tsu-Hi,' he thought. 'What's to be done now? Who'll admit him?'

For one instant the mad idea occurred to him that he himself would go to the door and let the deputy-governor in.

'I could overawe him at once, and bring him in here,' he told himself.

Then he shook his head emphatically. 'Might spoil everything. I want help before I move any further; I must have d.i.c.k beside me.'

Clang! The gong sounded again, the note ringing down the pa.s.sage, and then there was silence. No one answered the summons; there was not so much as a step to be heard. David reflected that the gaoler was in bed, and fast asleep in all probability.

'While the fellow outside will be getting impatient, he'll make more and more noise, and we shall be having some of the Tartar soldiers. That won't suit my plans. There! he's hammering. I'll do it; I'll chance the whole thing. In for a penny in for a pound, isn't a bad motto on some occasions.'

He made up his mind in an instant, and pulled the door open. Listening for a few seconds, and hearing no sound from the interior of the prison, he hurried along to the left, where he guessed the door must be. And at the far end of the gallery, where the shadows lurked, he came upon it, and stood for a while listening to the rat-a-tat-tat of the impatient official outside.

'Open!' he heard the man call, angrily. 'Open for Tsu-Hi. Do not keep me waiting out here where folks may see me.'

David pulled the bolts back swiftly, and tugging at the door dragged it open, keeping himself well within the pa.s.sage.

'Dog! Why do you keep me so? Sleeping, eh? Sleeping when you should be on duty? Have a care. Though the governor is away from the city on important business, there are yet powers in the hands of his deputy which may make a servant sorrow. A head has been chopped for an offence even less than this.'

If he had expected an answer Tsu-Hi was disappointed, for David still held himself in the background, kow-towing as he judged the gaoler would do, and saying not a word.

'Mustn't open my mouth or he'll see that I'm not a Chinaman, nor even the Tartar officer. If he don't move in precious quick I'll take him by the neck and drag him into the pa.s.sage.'

Our hero's teeth were set fast together, while he was fully ready for any emergency. Now that matters had gone so far favourably for him, he was determined that this treacherous deputy-governor should not overthrow all his plans. That it was Tsu-Hi a swift glance had told him without error. His hands itched to get a grip of the ruffian, and silence him, but still he bent low, kow-towing humbly; and perhaps it was his silence and his apparent humility which appeased the governor.

He stepped into the pa.s.sage and waited there, his hands tucked out of sight again, while David pushed the door, and shot the bolts home.

'Now lead me to the room occupied by this Chang, who came so unexpectedly to the city.'

To say that David was in a serious dilemma was hardly to describe the situation correctly. He was desperate, for he judged that Tsu-Hi must have some knowledge of the prison, and was it likely that he would expect to discover Chang, a man considered already to be of some importance, in a cell ab.u.t.ting on this dreary pa.s.sage? Surely there must be guest chambers, guest apartments for the few who came to such a place as a prison for any other reason than to fill the cells?

'Can't help it if there are,' muttered David. 'He's got to come with me, and if he thinks that the place in which I found the Tartar fellow is not good enough, well I can't help it. I'll give him a crack that'll knock the wind out of his body.'

He lifted the scabbard of his sabre, fearful that its clanking might arouse the suspicion of his visitor, and then stepped in front of him down the pa.s.sage. At the open door of the room he had just vacated he came to a halt, kow-towing in that direction.

'In here! Why, fool, this is not a guest chamber.'

'In here, Excellency,' David murmured. 'He wished to be near his prisoners.'

Would the governor detect the broken accent? Did he already suspect that his companion was other than he imagined? For Tsu-Hi stood still regarding the man who had admitted him. Something about the accent undoubtedly attracted his attention. But he was thinking more of Chang than of anything or any one else, Chang and the foreign devils whom they, between them, had so cleverly captured. Then he put back his head and laughed, an almost silent laugh, in which there was a ring of triumph.

'He, he, he! So as to be near his prisoners,' he gurgled, opening a wide mouth between the thin lips of which an uneven and irregular row of yellow fangs were displayed. 'To be near his prisoners, as if he would take a tender farewell of them and see as much of their faces as possible before their hour comes. He, he, he! This Chang is a witty fellow.'

'What an old ruffian!' thought David, still, however, kow-towing.

'Little tenderness we may expect from him, or from Chang either. In a moment I'll make him laugh on the other side of his ugly mouth. Here, Excellency,' he murmured once more, pushing the door a little wider open. 'Enter.'

The gorgeously dressed official was still shaking with suppressed amus.e.m.e.nt as he pa.s.sed under the doorway. His hands were buried in his sleeves, and he was actually hugging himself.

'A right merry fellow, this Chang! Who is he? Whence does he come with such a timely warning? He will be an excellent fellow with whom to chat and pa.s.s a few hours while others are sleeping. And then, when this thing is finished, he will go. The Government will send urgent orders for his arrest, while I shall have already despatched men to search for him, men who are led by a blind officer unable to find the right track.'

It made him hug himself the harder when he considered how cunning he was, and how he would hoodwink every one; for the deputy-governor was a cunning rascal. Still smarting under the severe reproof he had had administered on a former occasion when Europeans were molested in this walled city of Hatsu, and by the loss of dignity which had resulted, the man, like thousands more of his countrymen, bore a lasting grudge against foreign devils. He was one of the many jacks-in-office who still help to sway the affairs of the celestial empire, clinging tenaciously and with great stubbornness to old methods, for a Chinaman is nothing if not conservative. The views his ancestors held are good enough for him, their education fills his needs, while the ancient system whereby a few live in luxury, and the vast majority in grinding poverty is a model of all that is required. Some there are, and their numbers are steadily increasing, who have gained much by contact with the outside world, for whom travel has relieved them of much arrogance. But the knowledge they possess of the superiority of western nations in many things is lost in the sea of ignorance, of bigotry, which is prevalent throughout the kingdom. One swallow does not make a summer. One enlightened mandarin does not result in the rising of a mighty nation, in the break-up of all its cherished customs, in its advancement in the paths followed by others privileged to live under wiser government.

'To-morrow this Chang shall go. I myself will direct him, and also those who shall set out in pursuit in the opposite direction. Greeting, my friend.'

Tsu-Hi stalked majestically into the room and stood beneath the swaying lantern, his eyes blinking in the light as he searched for the man he had come to visit. He had half-expected him to be there before him, kow-towing to the ground, for this jack-in-office loved humility in those who served him. Then he caught sight of the figure huddled beneath the patched and stained quilt spread over the _kang_, and chuckled loudly.

'He sleeps, worn out with his efforts to warn us, but he will welcome the deputy-governor. I will rouse him.'

He stepped across to the kang, and touched the figure lying there. He pulled the quilt back with a sharp jerk, disclosing the face of the Tartar under-officer. But even then he did not realise that this was not Chang, the man whom the Tartar had brought so secretly to him that evening. It was only when, hearing the door bang, and turning slowly he discovered the figure of the Tartar who had admitted him advancing swiftly that Tsu-Hi became alarmed.

'Insolence!' he cried. 'What is this? Who bade you follow in here?

Begone at once, else----'

Even then he had not penetrated the disguise of the youth before him, though his alarm increased seeing that David did not halt, but came on towards him. But, of a sudden, he grasped the real truth, for a revolver already grinned within two feet of him. He started backward against the _kang_ and fell upon it A second later he was up again, and running towards the door like a startled rabbit, but David stopped him in a manner to which this very important official must have been a stranger since his earliest boyhood. He gripped Tsu-Hi by the shoulder, and with a heave tossed him heavily into the corner. Then he dragged him to his feet again, and pressed the muzzle of his weapon hard against his head.

'Silence! Make a sound and you are a dead man. Strip off your garments.'

How Jong would have giggled had he been able to see what was pa.s.sing, for he would have enjoyed to the full the terror of this mandarin.

Tsu-Hi's eyes indeed threatened to start from his head, while he shook so violently that his limbs would hardly support him. But the revolver gave him some sort of strength, that and the threatening looks of this hated foreign devil. Rapidly, as if he longed to be rid of them, he dragged off his gorgeous garment.

'Boots, too,' commanded David fiercely. 'Now lie down on that _kang_.

You can push the man farther over. Not a sound, mind, or I'll rid this city of a deputy-governor.'

Little more than ten minutes later David emerged from the cell, leaving Tsu-Hi trussed like a fowl, bound hand and foot with strips torn from the quilt, and nicely muzzled with a ball of the same wedged between his teeth and secured in position. He pulled the door to, shot the bolts home, and strode along the pa.s.sage.

CHAPTER XV

d.i.c.k and David Turn the Tables

'd.i.c.k, it's time we were moving. Come along out of this hole, and give me a hand to get us out of the city.'

David had thrown back the bolts of the cell next to the one into which he had so boldly descended, and stood in the doorway holding a huge paper lantern before him. He had taken it but a minute before from the roof of the pa.s.sage, the operation being easy for the simple reason that there was a pulley and tackle, whereby the man who saw to the replenishing of the lanterns could gain access to them. Now he was staring into the cell, his eyes fixed on the figure of his old comrade.