“Will you follow his example?” asked Mai Lo, calmly. “I must know at once, as we are ready to start.”
We three boys, confronted by this trying emergency, glanced into one another’s eyes; but after exchanging this look I was prepared to answer Mai Lo.
“We are going to Kai-Nong,” I said, with an air of unconcern. “Whenever you are ready, we will begin the journey.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
MAI LO MAKES A DISCOVERY
Mai Lo looked at me a long time in silence. Then he said:
“The noble physician is old and wise.”
“And that means that we boys are young and foolish,” I retorted. “But listen to me, Mai Lo. We have traveled in many lands, young as we are. We have had adventures, and faced dangers. Some who decided to oppose us are lying buried in Alaska, Panama, and Egypt — and we are here to travel in your company to Kai-Nong.”
I am not given to boasting, but here was an occasion when a little bombast might count in our favor; so I looked Mai Lo squarely in the eye and took a step nearer to him as I spoke, that he might understand that I was not afraid. Moreover, the mandarin was assuming airs of superiority that I resented. It would never do to let him believe that we were in his power.
But no one could have told by Mai Lo’s expression whether my speech had impressed him or not. His eyes were like beads of glass, and I had begun to believe that there were no muscles in his face at all.
“What is your object in traveling to Kai-Nong?” he asked, after one of his irritating pauses.
“As a matter of fact, that does not concern you, my man,” I replied. “A higher authority than your own has given me a mission to perform, and if I have any trouble with you I shall use the letter and ring of Prince Kai to provide a separate escort to Kai-Nong.”
“I am your servant,” said Mai Lo, in his rasping voice.
“Please do not forget it,” I rejoined, curtly.
“I will put some of my own people on the elephant to guard the body of my illustrious master,” said he.
“No; I will ride there myself, and perform the doctor’s duties in preserving the body. I have assisted him so long that I understand the process perfectly, and I have a duplicate set of the keys in my pocket.”
Again the mandarin stared at me silently before he ventured to speak. Then he said:
“It is not necessary to continue that farce longer.”
It was my turn to stare now; and I heard Archie cough softly and Joe give vent to a low whistle.
“Farce!” I exclaimed indignantly.
“Yes. The body of the mighty and magnificent Prince Kai is by this time sufficiently preserved. Save yourself any further trouble concerning it.”
“Oh, I intend to carry out the contract,” I declared, hardly knowing how else to reply to this astounding statement.
“Do you intend to demand the ten thousand taels?” he asked.
“Certainly. We have earned it already.”
“You shall have it,” said Mai Lo, calmly. “This matter is between you and me, and I will pay you the money in Kai-Nong. But let the casket alone, hereafter, and save yourself trouble. Give me the keys.”
“In Kai-Nong, when I have the ten thousand taels.”
“Very well,” was the ready reply.
My easy victory assured me I was still master of the situation. For some reason Mai Lo, finding he could not bulldoze me, was afraid to oppose me openly.
I ordered Nux and Bryonia to ride upon the elephant bearing the casket of Prince Kai, and the mandarin made no objection to the arrangement. In their native language, which I understood to some extent, I told the blacks to keep their eyes open and their weapons handy, and at a signal from us to hasten to our assistance. Then Archie, Joe and I mounted the second elephant, while Mai Lo climbed the third one, followed by a little withered Chinaman in yellow dress, whom I had never seen before.
The escort mounted the mules, several of which bore our light baggage, and then the word was given to start.
Our mahout, or elephant driver, was a small Chinaman with an enormous head but a merry and even jovial face that formed a sharp contrast to that of the impassive Mai Lo. As we started I asked him a question, to determine if he understood English, and he replied with a flood of sing-song Chinese that formed a sentence a mile long.
We were well out of the city gates before the speech ended, and when our driver found we had ceased to pay any attention to him he threw back his head and laughed as heartily as a schoolboy.
Knowing that we could talk freely together in our howdah, we three began to discuss earnestly the desertion of Doctor Gaylord and its bearing upon our fortunes.
“I’d like to know what scared him out,” said Archie. “Doc wanted the money and the treasure as badly as any of us, and his ten thousand taels was a sure thing.”
“He was all right until he met that English friend at Ichang,” I said. “I believe he must have heard something from him about Mai Lo or the country between here and Kai-Nong that took away his courage.”
“Perhaps,” remarked Joe, thoughtfully, “Mai Lo himself has been talking to Doctor Gaylord, and warned him not to go farther. You see, Mai Lo knew all along about the imposture we practiced in regard to the body of the Prince, and it may be that when the doctor found that his trick was discovered he thought it time to dig out.”
“It’s a mystery,” I said, soberly, “and I’m rather sorry to lose the doctor. He had a pretty level head usually, and would have been a great help to us when we got to Kai-Nong.”
“Shall we get there, do you think?” asked Archie.
“Of course.”
“I thought the jig was up when Mai Lo discovered there was a dummy in the casket, instead of the body of Prince Kai,” he continued.
“Why so?”
“Because Mai Lo was so dead set against our tossing the body overboard while we were at sea. He would have defended it with his life, then. Why does he take the discovery so quietly now?”
“The explanation is very simple,” I answered. “Chinese customs are peculiar; and especially those that relate to ancestor worship. Should Mai Lo return to Kai-Nong without the body of his dead prince he would be eternally disgraced, and unless he at once committed suicide he would be killed by the other servants of the Prince. So it was a matter of life or death to him whether we tossed the body overboard or preserved it and brought it to China.”
“But we really did toss it overboard; and Mai Lo knows it now,” objected Archie.
“But no one else knows it,” I explained. “It was brought to Woosung and passed by the inspector as the mortal remains of Prince Kai. The Shanghai papers reported the arrival of the body of the Prince, in the care of his faithful servant, the noble governor, Mai Lo, and also gave an account of the accident that caused his death. So now all China knows that Mai Lo did his duty, and is escorting the remains of his master to the ancestral halls at Kai-Nong.”
“I see,” said Joe, nodding. “The secret is between Mai Lo and ourselves. That is why he frightened the doctor away, and tried to prevent us from continuing the journey to Kai-Nong.”
“Exactly,” I returned. “Mai Lo has been saved — for a time, anyhow — from committing suicide, by the very trick we played to deceive him. Perhaps he saw through our game from the beginning; I do not know. But we played into his hands, and so he let us go on. Now there is no further danger, for he knows we dare not betray the imposture and it will be easy for him to place the supposed body in the ancestral halls without its being examined by anyone. Yet he preferred not to have us with him when he should reach Prince Kai’s palace.”
“Naturally,” said Archie.
“But this knowledge is a protection to us, anyhow,” observed Joe. “Mai Lo is sharp enough to know that if he plays us any tricks we will explode the whole deception.”
“That idea is doubtless influencing him, even now,” I said. “What we have to fear is not open warfare, but trickery and secret assassi
nation. I don’t know how powerful the letter and ring of Prince Kai will be in his own province, of which Mai Lo is governor; but the Prince seemed to think they would command obedience. Time will have to determine that.”
“What did you mean by saying that Mai Lo would be saved from suicide for a time?” asked Archie.
“Why, according to the rules and regulations of ancestor worship, he’s got to commit suicide in a short time, and there’s no way of getting out of it — except to disappear from China forever. The Prince was the last of his royal line, and left no heir; so the rules oblige his chief representative to seal up his ancestral halls and destroy all traces of them, so that they will never be disturbed until the resurrection. Before doing this, Mai Lo must convert one-half the fortune of Prince Kai into gold, silver and jewels, and deposit the treasure beside his coffin. When all this is accomplished — and it will require a little time, although it must be done speedily — Mai Lo must commit suicide, in order that the secret of the entrance to the ancestral vaults shall perish from the knowledge of men. If he fails to kill himself, the other servants will kill him.”
“Suppose,” said Joe, slowly, “it was discovered that we shared the knowledge of the entrance to Prince Kai’s ancestral halls; what would happen then?”
“They would surely kill us,” I answered. “But the secret entrance of which the Prince informed me is unknown to any of his people — even to Mai Lo. I do not fear discovery.”
“What do you fear?” asked Archie.
“I fear for our personal safety while we remain in Kai-Nong, and I am not sure that we can find a way to remove the treasure to Shanghai, once we have secured it,” I answered. “But we have known all along that there would be risks to run, and there’s no need crossing these bridges until we come to them. Prince Kai said it would be a question of wit and courage; but he predicted that we would win.”
“So we shall!” declared Archie.
“Of course,” remarked Joe, easily. “Prince Kai ought to have known what he was talking about.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE ELEPHANT TRAIN
That overland journey of more than eight hundred miles by elephant train is well worth describing, yet it has so little real bearing upon this story that I shall pass it over as briefly as possible.
In spite of our fears, Mai Lo treated us with great respect during this journey, and the escort showed us the same consideration that they did the mandarin.
Elephant riding isn’t at all disagreeable when you get used to the swaying motion, and as we were sailors we quickly accustomed ourselves to the amble of the big beasts. But to ride day after day is decidedly tedious, and we were glad whenever a halt was called and we could stretch our legs.
During the first stage of our journey, which was through a densely settled country, we made little more than thirty miles a day. But when we reached Min-Kwa, which is on a shallow tributary of the Yang-tse, we exchanged our elephants for horses — fine, spirited beasts — which enabled us to make much better time.
We now headed directly northwest, on a bee-line from the Himalayas, and I noticed that as we proceeded not only the character of the country but that of the people changed. The placid, indifferent countenances of the peasants were replaced by darker, fiercer features; for here were the descendants of the Tartar horde that once overran and conquered the Chinese. Also the women, instead of being small and insignificant in appearance, and mild and docile in character, were handsome, powerful creatures whose every action displayed energy and grace. I could not help admiring them, although their glances denoted bitter hatred of the foreigners — a feeling common throughout the Empire.
The broad, smooth road — a magnificent thoroughfare, that would shame the best of our American boulevards — sometimes lay through dense forests of splendid trees, and again twined its way amid groves of bamboo; but usually we passed through fields that were under cultivation. It surprised me to observe the perfection of utility that pervaded the country on every hand, until I remembered that here was the most ancient civilization in the world. There were no waste places; the numerous population demanded that every acre be cultivated. Stately walls of excellent construction are used to divide the land, instead of the frail fences we set up, and the bridges over dry streams or gullies would excite the envy and admiration of our modern engineers. All the land required irrigation, and Mai Lo informed me during one of our conversations that the system of irrigation now employed dated back more than two thousand years, and was still so satisfactory that it could not be improved upon.
“When America adopts our plan,” said the mandarin, “irrigation will be a success there; but not before. I have seen your methods, and they are very imperfect.”
Chinese fruits were plentiful and cheap. Six big, delicious pears could be purchased for one cash — about one-tenth of a cent; and bunches of finger-shaped grapes as big as one’s head we bought for two cash. Mai Lo kept us well supplied with fruit, and indeed we fared luxuriously throughout the entire journey. Always at night the mandarin selected a native house and turned the inhabitants out that we might use it for our own accommodation. I suppose his authority as a governor allowed him to do such arbitrary things, for even the fierce Tartars humbly submitted to his will. Sometimes we passed the night at villages, where there may be always found comfortable inns; but wherever we slept Nux and Bryonia by turns guarded the slumbers of us three Americans, while the withered little imp of a Chinaman who rode with Mai Lo upon his elephant performed the duty of guarding the mandarin. Mai Lo seemed to trust us as little as we trusted him, yet we all realized it would be folly to come to open warfare at this time.
If anything happened to us, it would not be until we were at Kai-Nong; we were quite sure of that. So, for the present we slept as placidly as if on board our own beautiful Seagull.
Only one disagreeable incident occurred in this portion of our journey. Sometimes, when we camped early, our native escort amused themselves with games; perhaps to restore their circulation after long periods of riding. The most popular of these games was one called “shipsu.” In playing it two men had to grasp tightly a short bamboo rod with both hands and then try to throw one another without releasing hold of the bamboo. Any trick was allowable in this novel wrestling-match except taking the hands from the bamboo, and it was therefore a rough-and-tumble in which strength and skill were required. Usually our men played shipsu among themselves, but one evening in an inn yard where we were all watching the game, surrounded by a throng of villagers, a sturdy Manchu offered to cope with one of Mai Lo’s men and the challenge was accepted.
The struggle was long and interesting, and the combatants jostled the bystanders by abrupt turns and side leaps. Finally the Manchu hurled his antagonist to the ground, causing him to release his hold of the rod. With a shout of victory the Manchu whirled the rod above his head and then, happening to find himself near Bryonia, our tall South Sea Islander, who had been silently looking on, the fellow struck him a deliberate blow upon his head. Bry’s fist shot out and the Manchu went sprawling upon the ground, while a roar of rage went up from the bystanders. Knives glistened all around us and our Chinese escort promptly surrounded our little party and faced the natives expectantly. But Mai Lo waived his hand, and to my astonishment the escort melted away and left our black to face his enraged enemies alone.
“Why did you do that, Mai Lo?” I demanded, angrily, while the natives, perhaps suspecting some trick, hesitated to attack Bry.
“Your man has committed a crime; he must die, and perhaps the other black will die with him,” replied the governor, calmly.
While I stood dumfounded at this assertion I heard Joe say:
“Be careful, Mai Lo. Archie is behind you with his revolver pointed at your head. If anyone lays hands upon our black it will be the signal for your own death.”
Mai Lo did not look around. He did not shrink or pale or display fear. But he promptly waved his hand again and the escort once more clo
sed around us.
Then the governor addressed the crowd in Chinese, and talked volubly for a long time. In a language where it requires two hundred syllables to say “good morning” it is probable that Mai Lo’s address was brief and to the point; anyhow, the sullen crowd melted away and left us alone, and soon after we entered the inn and went to bed.
The incident was not referred to again on either side, but it proved to us how readily the governor was prepared to sacrifice any members of our party, and so weaken our numbers, and it warned us to be constantly upon our guard. I did not doubt but that Mai Lo had some plan in mind to circumvent us when we got to Kai-Nong, and doubtless he was confident of success; but we refused to be panic-stricken.
It looks as if we were in the dragon’s jaws,” remarked Archie, one day, with a yawn.
“I don’t mind that,” replied Joe, “if we can keep the dragon from biting.”
“Nor I. But sometimes it looks dubious to me. We’re about fifteen hundred miles in the enemy’s country, and the world has lost all track of us. Perhaps-”
“Perhaps, what?” I asked, impatiently.
Perhaps the noble physician was wise, after all.”
Look here, Archie. What’s the use of crying before you’re hurt?”
“It’s my only chance,” said he, with a grin. “If Mai Lo gets his work in, I shan’t be able to howl.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE CHIEF EUNUCH
About the middle of the seventeenth day we passed through a dark and gloomy teak forest and came to a place where two stone towers stood, one on either side of our road. Just behind these towers some fifty tents were pitched, and a herd of elephants and horses were browsing near them. The tents bore streamers with the Sacred Ape of Kai embroidered upon them, and a throng of natives in gay costumes stood in a group awaiting us.
“What’s up?” I called to Mai Lo, whose elephant was ambling close behind our own.
“These pillars,” said he “mark the boundary of Kwang-Kai-Nong. When we pass them I shall be in my own territory.”
Complete Works of L. Frank Baum Page 688
