The Island Where Time Stands Still

by Dennis Wheatley

  Had Gregory in fact been his rival he would have been at a further disadvantage from A-lu-te’s spending her days alone with the Englishman; and, believing him to be so, he began to make pretexts to neglect the business of searching for the Princess, so that he could accompany the two of them on their sightseeing expeditions and trips to the beaches.

  Gregory would not have minded that if only the Chinaman had not shown his jealousy so openly, and on two occasions he even suggested to A-lu-te that she should go shopping or bathing alone with her smitten compatriot. But unfortunately for Wu-ming his lack of success with her had made him nervous, gloomy and tongue-tied whenever they were together, so she had come to regard him as a bore, and would not hear of the idea.

  The situation was aggravated by her refusal when he asked her to spend a day alone with him on a trip down to Monterey Bay, and from that point a further deterioration in their relations followed. He was so dominated by his passion that he could not bring himself to stop going about with them, although she now made it plain that his presence was no longer welcome. His cringing desire to please brought out the very worst in her, and Gregory’s attempts to pour oil on the troubled waters earned him only angry looks from both parties. In consequence he was by no means sorry when circumstances enabled him to put an end to the three of them being throw together daily, at all events for a time.

  They had been in San Francisco for over a fortnight when one morning after breakfast Tsai-Ping asked Gregory to step into his cabin. On the rare occasions when they were alone together they always spoke German, as that was the European tongue in which the Mandarin was most fluent. Having waved Gregory to a chair, he said in that language:

  ‘Mr. Sallust, I am much worried by the lack of progress we make in our search for the Princess.’

  Gregory knew that the advertisement had produced only two replies both of which had been try-outs to secure a share of the reward by supplying bogus information, and that nothing of any value had emerged from any other source; so he nodded sympathetically.

  The Mandarin went on, ‘I have myself interviewed all the Chinese students of the law school who can be traced and are spending their vacation within two-hundred miles or so of this city, and drawn a blank with all of them. More than two months must elapse before the vacation is over and the others will return. My colleagues are not proving as helpful as I could wish. Mr. Kâo Hsüan told me that he had contacted all Madame Août’s acquaintances and tradespeople, yet learned nothing of value from them. Knowing his somewhat irresponsible disposition I felt entitled to doubt his perseverance in this matter; so I ordered my nephew to assist him. Perhaps between them they have fulfilled their assignment, but their conduct makes me inclined to doubt it. After the first week our friend Kâo no longer sought to disguise the boredom which afflicts him while making such inquiries. He takes a great delight in gambling and he makes no secret of the fact that for several nights past the dawn has found him still playing Faro with old cronies of his in the Chinese quarter. In consequence, he now spends most of each day in sleep. Young Wu-ming, as you must be aware, has found another and even more potent distraction, which renders him equally unhelpful in our quest. As far as possible I am now checking up on their results, but in certain cases my indifferent English proves a severe handicap, and to make sure that they have left no known activity of Madame Août’s uninvestigated will take me a considerable time.’

  As the earnest, bespectacled Chinaman paused, Gregory felt quite sorry for him, so he said: ‘Perhaps I could be of help as your interpreter. If so I will tell the lady A-lu-te that I intend to place myself at your disposal.’

  Tsai-Ping rose to his feet, and with his hands buried in the wide sleeves of his gown bowed from the waist. ‘Since this affair is no concern of yours, your offer does you much credit; but I will admit that it was not altogether unexpected. When I sponsored the lady A-lu-te’s request that you should accompany us on this mission, I did so in the belief that we could count on your goodwill and that if we came up against difficulties it might prove a valuable asset to us. However, I had in mind something rather more than your acting as an interpreter.’

  Gregory had begun to be intrigued, so he replied with a smile, ‘If you will tell me what you wish to do, providing it is nothing against my conscience I will willingly attempt it.’

  ‘I thank you.’ Tsai-Ping bowed again. ‘Although you have said little about yourself, it has become clear to us that you are a person of some consequence in your own country; also that you have paid previous visits to the United States. That being so it is reasonable to assume that you must have made contact while here with at least a few people who are not altogether without influence. For us, as private individuals, the police will make no further move; we are in no situation to invoke the help of Portuguese diplomats, or those who now misrepresent the Chinese people, and to employ private detectives would be to risk their learning something that might lead them to take a most unwelcome interest in affairs which we wish to keep secret. Do you think that, while continuing to respect the confidence we have placed in you to disclose nothing about our island, you could persuade friends of yours in the United States to exert sufficient pressure in official circles to have the Août case re-opened, and a nation-wide search instituted for this young woman who is of such importance to us?’

  ‘I can promise nothing,’ Gregory said slowly. ‘But I used to be on very friendly terms with several Americans who have quite a bit of pull. If I’m to do any good it would mean my contacting them personally, though; so I’d have to go to Washington.’

  The Mandarin’s thin lips drew back in one of his rare smiles, as he murmured, ‘Personal contacts in the capital itself were more than I dared to hope for, Mr. Sallust. I will have a seat booked for you on tomorrow’s aircraft. Even should your mission prove a failure we shall still owe you our gratitude for this endeavour.’

  Gregory had expected A-lu-te to show annoyance when he informed her that he would have to desert her, but when he told her the reason she took the matter quite philosophically, and said:

  ‘Were I not convinced that the Princess is living happily somewhere with her young student, I would not have shown such indifference to the search for her and given myself up entirely to selfish pleasures. But, of course, it is of great importance to our people that she should be found, and knowing the Mandarin Tsai-Ping’s persistent nature I felt certain that he would succeed in tracing her sooner or later. It has been my good fortune that he has not asked your help before, but now he has it is only right that I should endorse his request and wish you good fortune.’

  ‘Thanks.’ He smiled. ‘I’m glad you feel that way about it, although for the time being it will put an end to our jolly evenings, and I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with Wu-ming as an escort if you want to go ashore. Anyhow, this is a lucky break for him, and as I’ve told you several times you may find him much more entertaining with me out of the way.’

  She made a little grimace. ‘Perhaps. But knowing the time I had to enjoy myself here was limited, I should have been a fool to sacrifice any of it to him as long as you were available.’

  ‘That is a charming compliment.’

  ‘You may take it as one if you wish; but it is simply that I am never bored in your company whereas I always am in his. Still, rather than not bathe at all I shall let him take me to some of the beaches. How long do you expect to be away?’

  ‘Probably only for a few days. I shall return here as soon as I have succeeded in getting an inquiry going, and as the inquiry is bound to take some time you’ve no need to fear that your stay in San Francisco is likely to end for quite a while yet.’

  With this consolation A-lu-te, accompanied by Wu-ming who had suddenly become all smiles, saw him off at the airport the following morning.

  In Washington Gregory spent three nights, and thoroughly enjoyed the change of again being in the society of people of his own kind. He had rather dreaded that, and had not intended to look
up any old friends except those he would have to see in connection with his mission; but he ran into a couple he knew within a few minutes of landing at the airport, and with typical American hospitality they carried him off to their home in Rock Creek Park instead of letting him go to an hotel. As they had never met Erika he said nothing of his loss, and told them only that for some months past he had been living on a South Sea island to which he intended to return. Then, from that evening onward, he found himself involved in a succession of parties which gave him no time to brood over the past.

  On undertaking his mission he had realised at once that it was a matter for the F.B.I.; but his work had never brought him into contact with any of its senior officials, so he intended to make his request through one or other of his war-time associates in the O.S.S. His first choice was that famous chief of the United States cloak and dagger men, Colonel Bill Donovan, but he found that the Colonel was not in Washington; so he rang up the Secretary of State’s brother, Alan Dulles, whom he had known when the American was directing underground operations in Germany from Switzerland.

  Mr. Dulles gave him an appointment for next day and received him most cordially. Although Gregory did not actually say so he allowed it to be inferred that he was still acting as the confidential agent of very highly-placed persons in Britain; so Mr. Dulles tactfully refrained from asking his reasons for wishing to have Josephine Août traced, and said that he would take up the matter in the proper quarter. The following morning a note arrived for Gregory from the headquarters of the F.B.I., informing him that a Mr. Edgar C. Grace of their San Francisco office would be dealing with the matter in which he was interested; so after one more hectic evening in Washington he took a plane for the West.

  The day after his return he called on Mr. Grace, who had the appearance of a mild middle-aged professor, but proved to be brisk and business-like. As soon as Gregory was seated he tapped a folder on his desk, and said:

  ‘Mr. Sallust, this is the file on Josephine Août. Headquarters have instructed us to find her for you without prying into your personal affairs. That bars me from asking you any questions; but it would be to your own interest to put us wise about what’s cooking as far as you can. The more we know about her background, the sooner we’re likely to be able to hand you her present address.’

  To this sound sense Gregory readily responded, giving particulars of Josephine’s life as far as he knew it, and an account of the contents of the love letters found in her room. Then he gave the yacht as his address and returned to it.

  With the sole exception of Wu-ming, everyone had been pleased to see him back, and now he could report that the F.B.I. had actually taken matters in hand on instructions from the highest level, they all showered him with compliments and thanks. As nothing further could be done but await the result of the F.B.I. inquiry, the passengers in the yacht quickly reverted to the life they had been leading before Gregory’s trip to Washington.

  During the week that followed A-lu-te, Gregory and Wu-ming spent many hours each day together, often hardly separating from the time they came out of their cabins in the morning until well after midnight, but the relations between them were no easier. As A-lu-te had treated Wu-ming with a little more consideration during Gregory’s absence his return had the effect of still further increasing the Chinaman’s hostility towards him. At length a point was reached where Wu-ming, goaded by his unhappy passion, so far forgot his upbringing as to be actually rude, upon which Gregory told A-lu-te that unless her compatriot was prepared to mend his manners he would not accompany them ashore again. Since that would have meant an end to their dinners and dancing A-lu-te flew into a fine rage, and so scarified Wu-ming with her tongue about his ungentlemanly behaviour that he positively grovelled. After that he managed to conceal his feelings by a smooth civility, but Gregory felt certain that beneath it his humiliation had aroused in him the sort of fanatical hatred of which only an Oriental is capable.

  It was two days after this explosion that Gregory received a note from Edgar C. Grace, asking him to call. When he did so the F.B.I. chief said:

  ‘Well, Mr. Sallust, you certainly gave my boys a hard nut to crack. But I’ve news for you, although I’m afraid it’s not very good news. You’ll know what a Tong is, of course?’

  Gregory nodded. ‘Yes; it’s a Chinese secret society!’

  ‘That’s so. And some of them are so secret that the penalty exacted from a member who talks out of turn is death. Naturally those sort of rules make it difficult for us to keep abreast with their activities, and they are by no means always criminal ones at that. In their aspect as funeral clubs, benevolents, and that sort of thing they do quite a piece of good among their own people; so generally speaking, as long as they keep within reasonable limits we leave them alone. But we usually have enough stuff up our sleeves to crack down on them if necessary, and this may be such a time. Josephine Août was snatched within an hour of her mother’s death on the orders of a gentleman named Quong-Yü, and he’s the boss of the most powerful Tong in S.F.’s Chinatown.’

  ‘It looks then as if he is the wealthy man who wanted to marry her?’

  ‘Could be; but Quong has the pick of the girls in half a dozen tea houses. I’d say it’s more likely that some other old boy paid him handsomely to pull this young Josephine in.’

  ‘I take it you’ve no idea at all where she may be at present?’

  ‘No; none. But I don’t doubt Quong could tell us.’

  ‘What’s the drill now, then?’

  Edgar C. Grace stubbed out the butt of a very black cigar, before replying. ‘If you wish us to continue handling the matter, Mr. Sallust, we will. But the moment Quong learns that the F.B.I. is gunning for him he’ll move heaven and earth to cover up. He’ll fear we’re out to pin a kidnapping charge on him, and that is now a very serious matter in this State; so maybe he’d outsmart us and we’d get nowhere. If he’s got the girl himself in one of his houses, rather than risk us catching him with the goods he might kill her and feed her body to the sharks.’

  Having paused to light a fresh cigar the F.B.I. chief went on: ‘It’s common knowledge that on the yacht in which you are living everyone else is Chinese. You may take it as certain that some of them will know Quong-Yü, or anyhow all about him. My advice is that this is where you let me toss the ball back to you. Get these Chinese friends of yours to make a date for you with Quong. Maybe they are as interested in this girl as you are, but that’s not my affair. With or without you, they stand a much better chance of getting Quong to produce Josephine Août than I do. He has nothing to fear from them, and if he has handed her over to someone else all the odds are that he’ll be perfectly willing to have her snatched again for a good sum down in cash.’

  Gregory nodded. ‘I’m sure that’s sound advice, but there is just one snag we may come up against. Say he is the old boy referred to in the letters, then the fact that he was pressing the girl to marry him shows that he must have been pretty goofy about her. From that it follows that if he has got her he now regards her as the apple of his eye; so he wouldn’t part with her for all the tea in China.’

  ‘I doubt your premises, Mr. Sallust; but if they’re right you’ve certainly got something there. Say it does pan out that way, we’ve still got a shot in the locker. As I’ve already told you, we always keep enough stuff on the Tong bosses to make things mighty unpleasant for them if we want to. If Quong refuses to give—denies all knowledge of the girl—just tell him you’re a friend of mine and that if he continues to be uncommunicative I may have to take an interest in the use to which he is putting his lamp shop.’

  ‘Thanks a lot, Mr. Grace,’ Gregory grinned, as he stood up and shook hands. ‘Your help has been invaluable.’

  When he got back to the yacht he found the others all sitting on the after-deck waiting to hear the result of his interview. As soon as he had told them, Wu-ming said quickly, ‘I know Mr. Quong-Yü, so you had better leave this business in my hands. I will telephone this a
fternoon and ask when it will be convenient for him to see me.’

  Kâo raised a plump hand. ‘Young man, you go too fast. I have known Quong-Yü for many years so I am much better fitted to come to an amicable understanding with him.’

  ‘I at the interview must be,’ Tsai-Ping announced quietly.

  ‘Honourable One,’ Kâo said, turning towards him. ‘Permit me to observe that agreement is always easier to reach when each side is represented by only one person.’

  ‘Whoever goes, I go also,’ the Mandarin declared with a cold finality.

  ‘I have no wish to butt in,’ Gregory remarked. ‘But surely you don’t intend to offer Quong-Yü a whacking great ransom for the Princess when there is a good chance that you can frighten him into producing her for nothing. If he is to be threatened, though, as I am the only one among you who knows Mr. Edgar C. Grace only I can use threats effectively; so you’ll have to take me with you.’

  ‘That is good sense,’ A-lu-te commented. ‘And as the Honourable One desires to accompany either my Uncle Kâo or Wu-ming, why should not all four of you go?’

  As the bottom had already been knocked out of Kâo’s proposition that matters could best be handled by a single negotiator, her proposal was agreed to, and Tsai-Ping asked Kâo to arrange a meeting for them with Quong-Yü that evening if possible.

  All of them spent the afternoon in the city, but returned to the yacht at tea time to learn if Kâo had been successful. He was still absent and did not rejoin them till nearly eight o’clock. He then excused his lateness by saying that he had been unable to get Quong-Yü on the telephone until half-past seven; and added that Quong could not see them that night, but would receive them the following afternoon between four and five o’clock.