A Chinese Command: A Story of Adventure in Eastern Seas

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  MUTTERINGS OF WAR.

  The single, and scarcely original, exclamation of "Oh!" was all thatCaptain Drake appeared to be capable of uttering for the moment. Hiseyes continued to bulge from their sockets, and he looked like asuddenly-awakened somnambulist. He was trying to realise the meaning ofwhat Frobisher had just told him, and was finding it altogether too muchfor him.

  At last Frobisher said, with a laugh: "Well, skipper, the money's here,sure enough; but so are we, and it remains to be seen whether or not wecan get out."

  "We'll get out all right, don't you trouble," returned Drakeconfidently; "but"--unable as yet to detach his mind from the subject ofhis suddenly-acquired fortune--"just now you mentioned the name of thegentleman who collected all this stuff--Jenkins Can, I think you said hewas called. Who was he, and how did he come to pouch such a pile ofloot? Was he one of those old buccaneers, like Morgan and Kidd, that weread about?"

  "Well," replied Frobisher, "he was not exactly a buccaneer, for he wasnot a sailor, but a landsman; and he operated in a much larger way thaneither Morgan or Kidd. As a matter of fact he was a Tartar chief in hisyoung days, many centuries ago, who gradually drilled and armed his owntribe, then other tribes, and still others, until he came, in course oftime, to have an enormous army under him. The idea then occurred to himto make use of this vast army; and he determined upon no less a taskthan that of conquering Asia. He did it, too; there's hardly a squaremile of this continent that has not echoed to the tread of his troops.Everywhere he went he was victorious. He took and sacked cities,destroyed them, and sowed the ruins with salt; and it is said that, tothis day, no grass will grow where Genghiz Khan's armies trod.Naturally, in the course of time, he accumulated a vast booty from thecities he captured, and it finally became too large and cumbersome forhim to carry about with him, so he determined to alter his tactics foronce, and, instead of destroying, to build a city for himself where hecould bury his hoard, and which he could make his head-quarters.

  "It is well known that he actually did this--various records state it,but those records do not say exactly where. The city, it is said, wasfounded somewhere in northern China--on the banks of a mighty river, isthe wording, I believe; but there are several rivers in China answeringthat description, so the place might be almost anywhere. Then, yearsafterward, this man determined to conquer Japan. He fitted out a greatarmada and sailed for Nippon; but, as in the case of the famous SpanishArmada, a storm arose, and the entire fleet was wrecked. Hundreds ofthousands of Chinese lost their lives, and Japan was saved. From thattime onward, Genghiz Khan and the records relating to his treasuredisappeared; and the city he founded, as well as the treasure, graduallypassed into legend, the story being handed down from father to son byword of mouth. The man himself is supposed to have been cast ashore inJapan, where he adopted the dress and customs of the Japanese, in courseof time becoming one of themselves, and winning great renown underanother name--which I forget for the moment. But antiquarians insistthat the name he assumed was but the Japanese rendering of his ownformer one of Genghiz Khan.

  "At any rate, he never returned to China to recover his treasure; andlegend has it that it still remained where it had been originallyhidden. From time to time, expeditions have been formed for the purposeof searching for this legendary deserted city; but it has remained forus, Drake, to discover it, and to secure Genghiz Khan's millions. Thismust be the town, this must be the treasure; for not otherwise can suchan enormous hoard be accounted for. Nobody but the conqueror of Asiacould ever have amassed so much."

  "That's very interesting, Mr Frobisher," said Drake, who had beenlistening intently; "and it's a very comforting thought that all thisbelongs to us, if we can only get out. I suppose, in any case, we hadbetter fill our pockets, lest we should not be able to get back here?"

  "It would not be at all a bad idea, skipper," returned Frobisher; andthe two men slipped a few handfuls of the jewels into their pockets, ascoolly as though they had been so many pebbles instead of gems worthseveral thousands of pounds.

  "And now," said Frobisher, "we had better turn our attention to gettingout of this. I shall not feel comfortable until I have satisfied myselfthat this place is not going to prove a living tomb for us."

  They closed the lids of all the chests, and passed through whatFrobisher called "the door-way of swords", carefully closing the doorbehind them by means of a stick, lest the closing should again set theswords in motion. But it did not; the mechanism was evidently soarranged as only to operate upon the opening of the door.

  "I do not think we need fear burglars here," said Drake with a smile, asthe door clanged shut.

  The two men then decided to explore the remainder of the corridors, forunless an exit from one of them could be found there was little doubtthat the treasure would prove as useless to them as it had been toGenghiz Khan himself.

  The first passage they explored ended in a blank wall, as the threeothers had done; but in the next, to their great relief, they foundanother passage branching away to the left. This they followed for somedistance, until they reached a spot where it branched into two. Asthere was no knowing which, if either, was the right one, they took theone on the left, as the previous opening had been on the left of thecorridor, and followed it for a considerable distance. But they weredoomed to disappointment; the corridor led nowhere. It simply came towhat seemed to be a dead end, like the others. Frobisher felt the dropsof sweat forming on his forehead, for it was beginning to lookremarkably as though there was but one entrance to the vault--thatthrough which they had come--and that all these other passages wereeither natural, or had been cut simply with the idea of mystifying andmisleading possible intruders.

  "Never say die" was, however, Frobisher's motto, and Drake's too, forthat matter, so they tried back and entered the right-hand branch. Butno better success attended them here, this ending in a blank wall also.There was now only one corridor untried, and with sinking hearts theyproceeded to explore it.

  No exit of any sort rewarded them here either, and hardly daring to lookeach other in the face, from fear of what they might see there, theyreturned to the main chamber, into which Drake had fallen headlong inthe first instance. Here they could still hear the distant shouts andtrampling of the pirates, who were evidently moving about in the chamberdirectly overhead, continuing the search for their prey; but even thethought that they were safe from those barbarous savages was now hardlysufficient to cheer them. It would have been almost better to have metdeath in the open, fighting, than to be compelled to watch his slowapproach in this dismal place, far below the level of the ground.

  Unable to remain still, Frobisher again most carefully examined theinside of the secret door in search of a hidden spring, but no sign ofit could he discover. It seemed evident that, unless the door wereactually propped open by the person entering the vault, there was nogetting back by that way; and Frobisher could not help thinking thatsurely some other exit must have been provided. The people accustomedto using the vault could not be expected always to remember to prop thedoor open when they entered; and it did not seem reasonable to supposethat the place had been so constructed that a mere lapse of memory wouldbe tantamount to a person signing his own death-warrant. An emergencyexit must have been made for use in case the main door became closedaccidentally or otherwise; but the question was, where was it situated?

  Drake suggested that there must undoubtedly be an opening somewhere,because the air in the vault was comparatively pure and fresh; at leastit had not the dead, stale, stuffy smell of air confined in ahermetically-sealed chamber. But Frobisher pointed out that the door bywhich they had entered, although an excellent fit, did not butt upagainst the jambs so closely as to exclude the air altogether; yet heacknowledged that the air in the vault certainly seemed sweeter thanmight have been expected, had the main door been the only channelthrough which it could filter in.

  Under the stimulus of the new glimmer of hope t
hus caught, everycorridor was once more explored, even more closely than before, but withno other result than that Frobisher completely satisfied himself thatthere was most certainly no exit from any of the passages. Even aconcealed door, opened by a spring, could hardly have evaded the closescrutiny of the two men; and it became more and more apparent that theyhad been caught in a trap from which there was no escape. Both werefeeling famished for want of food, and were parched with thirst; andFrobisher could not help wondering how long the agony of death fromstarvation and thirst would be prolonged before blessed unconsciousnesscame to their relief.

  Suddenly--they had both been sitting dejectedly on the floor--Frobisherjumped to his feet.

  "Look here, Drake," he exclaimed, "there is just one place that we neverthought of searching, and that's the treasure chamber itself. We weretoo deeply interested in the valuables we found to think of looking foran exit in there. Who knows?--the very thing we are hunting for may bein there all the time."

  The two men fairly raced down the passage leading to the chamber, openedthe latch, with all due caution, and re-entered the vault. At firstsight there appeared to be no semblance of a second door, and theirhopes dropped to zero once more. Then Drake proposed that, as a lastchance, they should remove the chests to the centre of the room and seewhether, possibly, there might be a door concealed behind any of them.They set to work feverishly, and in doing so spilled the jewels andcoins in heaps on the floor. But what did that matter? Unless theyfound a way of escape from their prison, jewels and coin would be of farless value to them than a loaf of bread and a jar of water.

  Then, at the very end, when their hopes were practically extinguished,the last chests removed disclosed a little oaken door set into the wall,not more than four feet high by three feet broad. Drake was about toopen it impulsively when Frobisher restrained him. He did not wanteither of them to be killed on the very threshold of success by someother hidden and fiendishly ingenious piece of mechanism. But whencautiously opened with the aid of one of the sticks, nothing happened inthis instance, and they crawled safely through into another passage,being careful to close the door behind them.

  This passage looked a good deal more promising, there being no less thanfour other corridors branching off it at right angles, each, curiouslyenough, leading away to the left. But they determined to go straightahead in the first instance, exploring the corridors afterwards, if notsuccessful in their present direction. They traversed so long adistance in a perfectly straight line, the ground rising gently all theway, that they soon became convinced that they were at last on the righttrack, as the passage must, some distance back, have passed from underthe foundations of the palace itself, and be leading, undoubtedly, tosome exit at a considerable distance from the building. It seemedprobable that it might have been constructed with a view to providing ameans of escape, should the palace ever be attacked and stormed.

  That they were correct in their surmise was proved shortly afterwardwhen, a little distance ahead, Frobisher caught sight of a pin-hole oflight. This presently resolved itself into sunlight shining through thekeyhole of another door; and they realised that, since it was now broaddaylight, they must have spent several hours in Genghiz Khan'streasure-house. The door did not open with a handle, as the others haddone, and there was no key hanging handily on the wall, as there hadbeen when Frobisher escaped out of the pirate fortress; so that, afterall, there was still a rather formidable obstacle to be overcome beforethey could actually stand in the blessed light of day again.

  "We must not let this stop us, Drake," exclaimed Frobisher; "though Idon't yet quite see what we are to do. If we had a big stone we couldburst the lock off, or out; but there isn't so much as a pebble to beseen anywhere about."

  "How far are we away from the palace, do you think?" asked Drake. "Ifwe are out of earshot of the pirates, I can easily manage it."

  "A good quarter of a mile, I should say," replied Frobisher. "You couldfire a rifle in here and they would never hear it."

  "I mean to do something like that," returned the other. He produced hisrevolver, the muzzle of which he thrust against the keyhole, and pulledthe trigger, turning his face aside at the same time.

  The explosion in that confined space sounded like the roar of atwelve-inch gun, and dust and splinters flew in clouds; but when the aircleared the lock was gone, and in its place a ragged hole appeared,through which a clenched fist could easily be thrust. One or two strongpulls, both together, while gripping the edges of the hole, sufficed toloosen the whole affair, and presently, with a rattle of falling piecesof broken iron and springs, the door grated open, and they once morebeheld the blessed light of day.

  On stepping outside, they found themselves in the midst of a thick clumpof bushes and vegetation which completely concealed the door fromoutside, and which had evidently not been disturbed for centuries, sothick and matted was the growth. Through this they pushed and broketheir way, coming out a few moments later into what was evidently theremains of a once-spacious and magnificent garden. There were stilltraceable the outlines of old walks and lawns; ruined fountains andmarble basins for gold-fish were scattered about; and there were eventhe remains of marble seats and couches whereon the warriors of GenghizKhan's retinue had been wont to take their ease during theirall-too-brief respites from fighting. Sundials, beautifully modelled inbronze, and statues, in bronze, copper, marble, and in some cases evensolid silver, were to be found in many of the corners. A few were stillon their pedestals, but most of them lay broken on the ground, thoughall gave evidence of the high level to which Chinese art had advanced,even in those far-off days.

  A quarter of a mile away was to be seen the palace the pair had recentlyvacated, and, peering cautiously from behind a screen of brushwood, theywere able to make out the figures of some of the pirates, stillapparently searching industriously; while the smoke of a fire, a littledistance away, showed that they had by no means given up the pursuit,but were cooking a meal preparatory to instituting a fresh search of thepalace precincts. They had not yet, apparently, thought of looking inthe gardens.

  "Think we dare risk it?" enquired Drake, voicing the idea uppermost inboth their minds, and pointing toward the groups of unconscious pirates.

  "Yes," replied Frobisher. "They seem to be pretty fully occupied withtheir own concerns just now, and are evidently under the impression thatwe are still hiding somewhere in the building, so I think we could nothope for a better opportunity. They must, without fail, eventuallydiscover that we are nowhere in the building, so we had better get awaybefore they take it into their heads to start searching in thisdirection. I expect both groups have joined forces by this time, toparticipate in that meal they are preparing, so we should be able to getclear of the town without being seen."

  This point settled, the pair made their way cautiously out of thegardens, and soon gained the streets, which they traversed slowly, tosave themselves as much as possible in case the pursuit should again betaken up. And in about half an hour, during which they had perceived nocause for alarm, they realised, by the gradual thinning of the houses,that they were approaching the outskirts of the city on its easternside.

  They were proceeding carefully, conversing, and noting the interestingrelics of a bygone civilisation, when, without a word, Drake suddenlyseized his companion's arm and hastily dragged him behind a convenientwall. Frobisher, too much astonished for words, could only look round,wonderingly, imagining that the pirates were after them again; and as hedid so, he perceived the cause of the skipper's alarm.

  The danger was not behind, but in front. The pirates had proved to bewider awake than either of the Englishmen had anticipated, and hadposted a sentry at the eastern gate. Fortunately for them, the manhappened to be looking in another direction at the moment when theyturned the corner, or discovery would have been inevitable. As it was,the question arose--how was this fresh obstacle to be overcome? Theymight possibly avoid the man by making a long detour to some other g
ate,but this plan appealed to neither of them, for even should they succeedin escaping by some other outlet, the ground outside the walls was sobare that the man must inevitably see them. The alarm would be raised,when of course the pursuit would at once be resumed, and their capturebecome certain.

  A few words between the two Englishmen sufficed to show that the sameplan--the only practicable one--had occurred to both; and, avoiding themain street, they made their way through side lanes and back alleysuntil they emerged at a spot only a few yards distant from theunsuspecting sentinel. Then, watching through a convenient cranny untilhis back was turned, they ran swiftly forward and concealed themselvesbehind a low stone wall which the man was passing and repassing on hisbeat.

  The next time he passed that wall the sentry experienced the unpleasantsensation of being jumped on from behind by two men, one small and theother very large and heavy; the latter kneeling on his chest andsqueezing his windpipe, while the other securely lashed his wrists andankles together with strips torn from his own robe, their operationsbeing completed by thrusting a gag made of the same material into hismouth and securing it there firmly. The Englishmen then carried himbetween them into one of the adjacent ruined houses, took him to anupper room, and left him there for his companions to find, if fateshould so decree.

  As a matter of fact, fate evidently decreed against the unhappy man, forseveral months afterwards the remains of a gagged and bound Chinamanwere found in that very house by a party of travelling nomads; but itwas a case of the pirate's life or those of the Englishmen, and it didnot take them long to decide which the world could best spare.

  The sentry having been thus disposed of, Drake and Frobisher struck offacross the desert, by the margin of the river, at a good round pace; forsince the pirates had posted a guard, it was probable that they wouldvisit him sooner or later, and the Englishmen wanted to be well out ofsight before anything of that sort should occur.

  A little later on they were fortunate enough to come to a village, mostof the inhabitants of which were away, as it happened, probably hunting,or fishing, or otherwise engaged upon their usual occupations. Herethey secured a hearty meal of rice, bread, cheese, and goats' milk;after which they found themselves marvellously refreshed, and thoughtthe meal cheap at the price of one of Genghiz Khan's gold pieces,specially cleaned up for the purpose of payment.

  It is unnecessary to relate in detail the incidents of the journey ofthe fugitives back to Tien-tsin, for nothing in the way of realadventure occurred after they had once left the ruined city behind. Onthe way Drake explained to Frobisher how he had come to attempt hisfriend's rescue; and, in a few words, this is how it came about.

  Drake had returned in the _Quernmore_ from England with his cargo, whichhe duly delivered. Then, as China was purchasing steamers for use astransports, and he was offered about twice his ship's actual value, hesold her, and so found himself at a loose end, without employment. Heregarded this as a favourable opportunity to commence enquiriesrespecting Frobisher, whom he believed to be still a prisoner in Korea;and, happening to encounter Wong-lih--who had by that time returned fromhis visit to southern China--he heard the whole of Frobisher's history,from the moment when the admiral found and rescued him at Asan, to thatof his expedition up the river after the pirates. He was also informedthat the expedition had failed, and that his friend was either dead or aprisoner. Wong-lih, said Drake, was greatly cut up at losing sopromising an officer, a man, too, of whom he had made a friend; but hecould not be induced to send a rescue party. He was altogether toobusily occupied with matters of moment to his country, and war was soimminent, that, as a matter of fact, the admiral found himselfabsolutely unable to spare a ship or a crew for such a purpose. Draketherefore determined to ascertain for himself if Frobisher were stillalive, and, if so, to attempt his rescue. And as he happened to be agood Chinese linguist, and possessed in a high degree the art ofdisguising himself, the attempt proved, as has been seen, completelysuccessful.

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  It was exactly two months after Frobisher's escape from the pirates'fortress when two very weary, very ragged Englishmen arrived inTien-tsin; and so bronzed and disreputable did they appear that theycould obtain accommodation nowhere until they had proved, by theexhibition of some of their gold, that they were not up-country robbers,but solvent citizens, of merely a temporarily unattractive exterior.

  This condition was soon altered, with the assistance of a few baths, ashave, and new drill suits; and, having made their toilets, Frobisherproposed starting immediately to report himself to Wong-lih, or whateveradmiral happened to be on the spot at the moment. Drake insisted onaccompanying him; and accordingly the two men sauntered off toward theNavy Buildings, where they were told that Admiral Wong-lih might befound at the dockyard, busily superintending the fitting out for sea ofseveral repaired and re-boilered cruisers.

  Upon enquiring the reason for all the bustle and confusion that wereeverywhere apparent, and the quite unaccustomed businesslike air of theport, Frobisher was informed by the officer to whom he applied forinformation that Japan had, a few days previously, perpetrated an actwhich could hardly be interpreted otherwise than as meaning war; andthat consequently all possible preparations were being hurriedly made tomeet the contingency. Guns were being mounted, ships were beingdry-docked, scraped, and painted, nucleus crews were being brought up tofighting strength, and, in short, everything that could be done wasbeing done to place China in a position to send her Navy to sea toencounter the Japanese squadrons; for it was plainly to be seen, saidthe officer, that, since the first acts of hostility had taken place, aformal declaration of war was merely a matter of a few days, and therewas a great deal to be done in the time. Frobisher thanked the man forhis information, and then he and Drake hurried on their way toward thedockyard. Truly, the air was full of mutterings and rumours of war.