When Nancy Calvin returned from the talk given by the Shanghai superintendent of missionaries she went immediately to Arthur’s room. Her intention was to leave him in no doubt what she thought about his absence from school that day.
When she entered the room it was in darkness. At first she thought he had still not returned but when she lit a candle she saw him lying in bed, asleep. There was a look of contentment on his face that took her back to the days when he had been a child, entirely dependent upon her and content with his lot.
She stood looking at him for a long time before blowing out the candle and leaving the room as quietly as she could.
Chapter 20
‘HAD I KNOWN how things were going to turn out I would never have brought you to Hong Kong. You’ve changed, Arthur. You’ve changed enough to break a loving mother’s heart.’
Arthur had just told his mother he would no longer be attending Chinese lessons or religious instruction at the Hong Kong mission. Her reaction was more or less what he had expected.
The decision to announce the news at the breakfast table was deliberate. The presence of Hannah Jefferies ensured that his mother would need to hold her anger in check.
‘I’ve not changed, Mother.’ Arthur spoke quietly but firmly, successfully hiding the turmoil he always felt when he opposed his mother. ‘It’s you who refuses to accept that I’ve grown up. I’m no longer a small boy. I’m a man now.’
‘I’ll believe that when you behave like one,’ snapped Nancy. ‘How are you going to live, have you thought about that? You’ll get no money from me, and Mrs Jefferies won’t have you living here. This is a mission house, not a poor house. I had hoped you would take advantage of your Christian upbringing and serve God as a missionary. Instead, you seem set upon throwing everything away and wasting your life. I just don’t know what people will think, I’m sure.’
‘It’s all right, Nancy.’ Hannah spoke soothingly in an attempt to head off yet another argument. ‘Arthur is right. He is a young man now. He must choose his own path in life. Like yourself, I hope he will choose the way of the Lord. But we are a Christian community here. Until Arthur decides what he wants to do, he must regard this as his home.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Jefferies. I hope to find some sort of work as soon as I can. Until I do I’ll be happy to help about the house and garden.’
Ignoring Nancy’s snort of derision, Hannah stood up. ‘Good. Now that’s settled we can all begin the business of the day. The superintendent of missions from Shanghai was telling me last night that they urgently need help there. He was asking me how well your Chinese lessons were coming along….
‘You really want find work?’ Kau-lin put the question to Arthur as she helped the two mission servants clear the breakfast table. She-she had gone to the kitchen.
‘What I really want to do is be able to spend more time with you.’
Arthur seemed to be everywhere that Kau-lin went. She felt that if she stopped moving for even a moment he would reach out a hand to touch her.
She stopped what she was doing and turned to face him. ‘You say you stop taking lessons because of me?’
‘No … well, not exactly. I’d had enough of being told what to do all the time. After last night … I want to be with you.’
‘You must work. Be own man.’
‘But if I leave the house to go to work I’ll never see you.’
‘You see me. All same last night, you see me. Find work, maybe find house too. Be very important man.’
Arthur had to admit that if by working he could have his own house, the prospect had infinite possibilities. Kau-lin might even consider coming to live with him.
‘How do I go about finding work? Where do I start? I can’t even think of anything I might be able to do.’
Kau-lin realised that although Arthur had taken the first step towards independence, it was likely to prove a long road. He would need to lean heavily upon others for a very long time yet. Perhaps, like his father, he would always need to have someone else make his decisions for him.
‘You speak Chinese not bad. Go see Cousin Chang. Everyone Hong Kong good friend Chang.’
‘All right.’ Arthur was once more almost within touching distance, but he came no closer. ‘Can we…? Will I see you when I come back?’
‘I stay this place. Here all time.’
‘All right. I … I’ll go and see Chang.’ Arthur left the room as though expecting, perhaps hoping, he might be called back by Kau-lin.
Chang was working on a translation of various Chinese letters for the Reverend Legge, but he assured Arthur it was work that could be put down or taken up at any time. He listened patiently to Arthur’s rambling explanation of why he wanted work, before asking, ‘What can you do?’
‘I’m good at figures, I write well – and I have a fair knowledge of Chinese.’
‘Ah! Then I might be able to help. A merchant, Pi Wang, has just begun trading in Hong Kong. He was telling me only the other day that he needs someone to help him trade with the British. Come, we will speak with him.’
Pi Wang was an ancient Chinese with a thin, straggly beard. He looked as though he should have retired from all forms of work many years before. His appearance was deceptive. The Chinese trader was a very shrewd businessman and unexpectedly decisive. Within an hour of meeting Arthur, the two were travelling out to a mooring in the harbour. They were on their way to negotiate with the master of a merchantman for the purchase of a portion of his cargo.
After Arthur had read the ship’s manifest and translated details of the cargo for his new employer, Pi Wang made offers for a great many items. Most were accepted and, on the way back to the island, Pi Wang expressed himself highly satisfied with his new assistant.
Arthur enjoyed his first day at work, but neither his mother nor Hannah Jefferies shared his enthusiasm. Nancy thought it was beneath her son’s dignity to be employed by a Chinese trader. Hannah’s reservations had a moral foundation.
‘Pi Wang is a notorious opium trader,’ she explained. ‘When he was a younger man the Chinese governor of Kwantung Province put a price on his head for smuggling opium up the river.’
‘But trade in opium is legal,’ said Arthur. ‘All the European traders deal in it. For many it’s their main merchandise.’
‘It may be legal,’ admitted Hannah, ‘that doesn’t make it morally right. The mission societies have been campaigning against its sale for many years. It’s a wicked trade.’
‘Of course it is,’ agreed Nancy, immediately. ‘Tomorrow you’ll tell this Chinese man you can no longer work for him.’
‘No, I won’t. I’ll work for him for as long as it suits me. I’ll decide what I’m going to do about helping him buy opium when the occasion arises.’
Arthur did not have long to wait. An opium ship arrived in the harbour the following day. He and Pi Wang were among the first of the merchants to go on board. With Arthur acting as interpreter the aged Chinese merchant offered a good price for the whole cargo and the ship’s master was happy to agree to a sale. If Arthur felt any qualms about his part in the deal, he said nothing.
When Arthur was paid for his first week’s work he spent most of the money immediately, buying a jade bracelet for Kau-lin. It was not as expensive as the one She-she sometimes wore, and which had been a present from Li Hung, the Canton Hoppo. Nevertheless, it was dainty and pretty and he felt very pleased with his acquisition.
He needed to wait for another three days before the right opportunity came along to present it to her. Another missionary had arrived in Hong Kong en route for a well-earned leave in London and was giving a talk about her work. This time the missionary was from Ning Po, a city about a hundred miles south of Shanghai.
The Calvins had gone to the talk with Hannah and Hugh Jefferies. Esme was still in the mission house but she was in her room trying to teach the art of embroidery to She-she.
Kau-lin went about the house lighting lanterns and Arthur helped her.
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br /> When they reached the corridor outside his room, he asked Kau-lin to wait for a few minutes and disappeared inside. Moments later he returned and without a word held out the bracelet to her.
She took it from him. Then, looking up at him in bewilderment, she asked, ‘Where you get this?’
‘I bought it. It’s a present.’
‘For me?’
‘Of course.’ After a few moments’ hesitation, he added, ‘It’s the first present I’ve ever bought for a girl.’
Kau-lin circled her wrist with the bracelet and fastened the clasp. ‘It beautiful! I go show She-she.’
She took no more than half-a-dozen paces before looking back. What she saw made her stop and turn around.
‘I show She-she later. In our room.’ Taking Arthur’s hand she said, ‘You want love me now?’
Not trusting his voice, Arthur could only nod his head.
‘Tonight we go your room. I never been in here.’ Holding his hand, Kau-lin led him through the open doorway into his bedroom.
The missionary from Ning Po had just travelled from a city in which cholera had been rife for much of the summer – but she had not left the disease behind her. She had not been feeling particularly well since transferring from the ship bringing her from her mission station and no more than ten minutes through her talk she collapsed.
There was a suggestion that someone else might wish to give a talk in her place, but by the time the missionary had been carried from the hall no one felt like sitting through an impromptu talk. Doctor Jefferies accompanied the sick woman to his hospital and Hannah returned to the mission house with Nancy and Ronald.
There were no lights on in Arthur’s room but Nancy could not find him in either the sitting room or the kitchen. Surely he would not have left the house at this time of night? Puzzled, she made her way to his room, thinking that he too might be ill.
Nancy’s angry shrieks were heard throughout the house and brought everyone hurrying to Arthur’s room. By the time the others arrived the screams had become an almost incoherent torrent of abuse. It was not necessary for her to explain her anger. The scene that met the eyes of the others was self-explanatory.
Kau-lin was shrugging a dress over her head. Arthur, his clothes strewn about the floor, sat up in bed. He held a sheet up to his chin and there was a frightened, glazed look in his eyes.
The debate in the mission house lasted well into the early hours of the morning. It involved everyone who lived in the house, including the unfortunate Doctor Jefferies. He had walked into his home at the height of the heated discussion after spending an exhausting couple of hours in a vain attempt to revive the Shanghai missionary.
Nancy Calvin insisted that Kau-lin must leave the house immediately. She accused the Chinese girl of being the chief culprit in the sorry affair. Nancy pointed out that a girl with Kau-lin’s background could not be trusted around men – any men!
In this instance, Hannah agreed with her. Even taking into account her instinct for Christian forgiveness, it would be impossible for Arthur and Kau-lin to remain beneath the same roof. She tentatively suggested that he might find somewhere else to stay in view of the fact he had now found employment elsewhere, but Nancy would have none of it. Arthur had been led astray. He needed to be brought under a mother’s influence once more. She would terminate his employment and bring him back under her protection.
Only Esme Pilkington took Kau-lin’s part. Arthur was some eight or nine years Kau-lin’s senior. If blame had to be apportioned for what had happened, then much of it had to be accepted by Arthur. He could not spend the whole of his life evading responsibility for all that happened to him.
Esme’s declaration almost brought a physical response from Nancy, but by three o’clock in the morning a solution was found that was acceptable to all five missionaries.
Shanghai had made a formal request for helpers at their understaffed station. The missionary superintendent himself was returning there that very afternoon. Esme would go as a volunteer missionary. Kau-lin and She-she would accompany her as helpers.
Once the decision had been reached the two Chinese girls were called to the room and the proposition put to them. For the one it would be a last chance to mend her ways and take up a Christian life-style. She-she would go too because she insisted upon remaining with her friend.
Hannah was sorry to see the younger Chinese girl leaving the Hong Kong mission. She had high hopes for She-she’s future within the Christian community. It was to be hoped that in their new surroundings she might prove a guiding influence on her friend.
No one deemed it necessary to call on Arthur to voice an opinion. No one even considered doing so. The unfortunate matter had been decided in a satisfactory manner by everyone who mattered. Nancy Calvin was once more making the decisions for her son.
As the anchor was raised on the steamship taking them to Shanghai, She-she said, ‘I am surprised Arthur did not come to say goodbye to you. He’s not even at the jetty to wave.’
‘I spoke to him earlier today.’ Kau-Iin did not say where, or how.
‘Did he ask you to stay?’
‘Yes, but I said that it would be no good for either of us while his mother was still in Hong Kong. I said if he wanted me he should leave her and come to Shanghai too.’
‘Wouldn’t he come?’
‘He could not make up his mind. Arthur is not yet a man. He is still his mother’s boy. I told him so.’
‘You shouldn’t have done that, Kau-lin. He is very fond of you.’
‘Perhaps.’ She fingered the jade bracelet. ‘But he is frightened of his mother more.’
Through the high window of his room, Arthur could see the steamer on which Kau-lin was sailing. He imagined her as he had so often seen her – excited and filled with the joy of living. He also remembered the scorn in her voice as she told him he was a boy and not a man. It had hurt him far more than any of the abuse or criticism hurled at him by his mother. The pain had not yet subsided.
In the harbour the steamship sounded a farewell blast on its steam-whistle and Arthur knew that Kau-lin was about to depart from his life forever.
Awkwardly, he kicked the chair from beneath his feet. His last thought was that he could not even do this properly. Suddenly the chair fell sideways, the rope attached to a lantern hook in the ceiling snapped tight about his neck and slowly Arthur Calvin’s brief unhappy life choked away.
Chapter 21
KERNOW WAS RETURNED to Hong Kong exactly a month after his capture. He and the sixteen sailors with him were passengers on a trading junk requisitioned by Shalonga. They arrived in the colony just in time.
A small fleet of men-o’-war had been assembled by Admiral Sir Michael Seymour. It was his intention they should sail up the Canton river carrying men of the 59th Regiment who were currently garrisoning Hong Kong. After destroying the Bogue forts en route, they would demand the surrender of Canton. Once it was in their possession they would hold the city until a satisfactory reply had been received about the fate of the missing men.
The arrival of Kernow brought this plan to a halt and caused a great stir in the colony. It also provoked considerable anger. Two of the sailors had not recovered from the treatment they had received at the hands of the Tao-tai. They had to be carried to the Royal Naval barracks, but were overjoyed to be back among their own people.
When news of their return reached Admiral Seymour, he sent for Kernow to report to him immediately.
Kernow was impatient to hurry to the mission to see She-she once more, but the admiral’s summons had to be obeyed. Upon his arrival at headquarters he was shown to the conference room where all the senior army and naval officers on the island had been hurriedly assembled.
After shaking him warmly by the hand and congratulating him upon his safe return, the admiral called upon him to tell the assembled officers the story of his four weeks in the hands of the Chinese.
His story was received in a respectful silence, but there wa
s an outburst of anger when Kernow spoke of the ordeal of the survivors of the frigate at the hands of the local Chinese magistrate.
When his story came to an end there was an eruption of talk among the senior officers.
Holding up a hand for silence, Admiral Seymour said, ‘I think we must all agree that Mister Keats has performed his duties admirably. Not only did he return without losing a single man from his own crew, but his actions resulted in the release of eight men who would otherwise most certainly have been put to death. The fate of their unfortunate companions must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. It was a series of barbaric acts against men who had just survived a shipwreck.’
There was another upsurge of anger among the assembled officers and a red-faced army colonel said to the admiral, ‘Lieutenant Keats did damned well, Sir Michael, but the behaviour of this Chinese magistrate was inhuman. I trust we’re still going upriver to teach him and those like him a lesson they won’t forget?’
The admiral saw Kernow’s puzzlement and explained, ‘I intend to carry out an attack on Canton city, Mister Keats. Colonel Talland and the 59th are waiting to embark on the few ships I have available.’
Sir Michael had lost more ships as a result of the typhoon than his great idol Admiral Lord Nelson had ever lost in an engagement with the enemy. Of those that remained to him more than half had severe damage that would take months to repair. Putting a fleet together had not been easy.
‘My men are so eager to get at the Chinese they’ll accept being towed upriver in open boats to Canton. When we’re done the Chinese will think twice before murdering English prisoners again.’
‘With all due respect, Sir Michael and Colonel Talland, I believe it would be a grave mistake to attack Canton at this time.’
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