AN UNHEEDED WARNING.
The voyage of the _Seagull_ across the Pacific was safely accomplished
and with excellent speed. We crossed the Yellow Sea without incident and
in due time anchored at Woosung, which is at the mouth of the
Yang-tse-Kiang. This river is navigable for small steamers for several
hundred miles, but the yellow mud that it washes down from the foothills
of the interior mountain ranges forms a huge bar across the mouth, which
ocean steamships cannot cross. So passengers are obliged to disembark at
Woosung and take either the railway or a small steamer for the
twenty-five mile run up to Shanghai.
Mai Lo decided upon the steamer. As soon as we anchored we went ashore
and made arrangements, and on the following morning our little party
prepared to follow him, and start at once upon our strange adventure.
The Chinese Health Inspector for the port was curious and exacting. He
made us unlock the coffin of Prince Kai and when the swathed figure was
exposed he prodded it cautiously with his bamboo wand. Mai Lo was
indignant at this outrage, and protested so vigorously that the official
refrained from further investigation. He countersigned the doctor’s
certificate of death from accidental injury, and allowed us to proceed.
Until this time we had been uneasy lest Mai Lo should suspect the
imposture we had practiced. He had remained so stolid and indifferent
that, although we had allowed him at various times to see us saturating
the bandaged form with our rum, we could not feel really assured that he
believed the corpse of Prince Kai was still in our keeping. But the
mandarin’s genuine anger at the meddling official—if voluble and brusque
phrases in Chinese may be construed as anger—fully restored our
confidence.
The chest was solemnly rowed to the quay, just beneath one of the mud
forts, and placed aboard a smart little river steamer that was puffing a
cloud of black smoke from its funnel. Uncle Naboth came off with us in
another boat, for he was to accompany us as far as Shanghai and see us
started upon our real journey up the Yang-tse. We carried light baggage,
but concealed about our persons a plentiful supply of arms and
ammunition.
Less than half a day’s ride upon the winding yellow waters of the river
brought us to the important city of Shanghai—the most important in all
the Province of Chili.
The doctor and I insisted upon conveying the important casket to the
Astor House, where we were to stop, and the proprietor gave us a private
room for it in an outbuilding and appointed several Chinese servants to
guard the supposed corpse of the Prince.
Here, during the next few days, came several Chinese relatives of the
dead man to burn prayers for his peaceful repose before the little image
of a god and the wooden ancestral tablets which Mai Lo had set up at the
head of the casket. These prayers were printed in Chinese characters
upon rice paper, and when burned before the god were considered very
efficacious.
At times the doctor and I continued to treat the bandages with rum, for
although Mai Lo was not often present upon these occasions we feared he
might have spies set to watch us, and so dared not neglect our
functions.
The mandarin lived, during these days of our stay in Shanghai, in the
native city, and said he was busy perfecting arrangements for our long
trip to the Province of Kwang-Kai-Nong.
Shanghai consists of a native city and an European city, besides four
conceded districts occupied by Americans, French, English and Germans.
These grants or concessions have their own judicial courts and are
guarded by their national marines, so that we found our surroundings
wholly American, and plenty of American faces greeted us in our
country’s section of the city.
This was at first quite reassuring; but one had only to walk into the
European section, patrolled by the handsome and gigantic Indian Sikhs,
or into the dirty native city, to realize that we were indeed upon
foreign territory.
One of our first errands after our arrival was to visit the American
Consul, who received us very courteously. We told him of our contract to
escort the body of Prince Kai Lun Pu to the province of Kwang-Kai-Nong,
and that our agreement with Mai Lo provided for our safe return to
Shanghai. He shook his head dubiously and asked to see the contract.
This we produced, and waited patiently while the consul’s interpreter
translated it in writing. When reduced to English the paper read as
follows:
“Listen to the obligation which Mai Lo, High Mandarin and Governor of
the province of Kwang-Kai-Nong, in His Imperial Chinese Majesty’s
Domain, hereby voluntarily agrees to perform:
“Mai Lo will escort in honor and safety the person of the renowned
physician Gregory Gaylord, a subject of the Kingdom of England, from
the City of Shanghai, in the Province of Chili, to the City of
Kai-Nong in the Province of Kwang-Kai-Nong, and with him shall go the
Americans known as Sam Steele, Archie Ackley, and Joe Herring, with
their attendants, all in equal honor and safety.
“And if Doctor Gregory Gaylord shall conduct the corpse of His Royal
Highness the Revered Prince Kai Lun Pu, well preserved and cared for,
upon this journey to the City of Kai-Nong, then will Mai Lo pay to
this Doctor Gregory Gaylord the sum of ten thousand taels in genuine
money of the Empire of China.
“And if the Englishman and the Americans and their attendants before
mentioned do conduct themselves with honesty and faith, neither
stealing nor murdering upon the journey or while within the City of
Kai-Nong, then shall Mai Lo escort them each and every one in honor
and safety back again to the City of Shanghai and deliver them to the
American Consul in that city, unharmed.
“And this Mai Lo shall do as soon as the foreign guests shall together
or separately make request to return to Shanghai, and all of the
expenses of guards and of food and of transportation shall be defrayed
from the private purse of Mai Lo, as a part of his contract and
obligations.
“So Mai Lo, promising to be faithful in the names of his greatly
worshipped ancestors, agrees to do and will do, or forfeit his life,
his rank and his fortune. And that all men may know his intentions he
has here signed his name in witness.
“Mai Lo.”
The doctor and I each read this translation in silence, but afterward
glanced at one another with grim forebodings. But the consul, who was
studying another copy, said to us thoughtfully:
“This agreement is more frank and favorable than I feared it would
prove. Usually these unscrupulous mandarins insert such clauses in their
contracts that their subtle meanings may be construed in various ways,
thus giving them opportunities to violate the real meaning of their
promises. But here is a paper of a different sort, direct and concise
and with no subterfuges. I think you may trust yourselves to Mai Lo,
especially as he knows this document is in my possession; and I will
inquire carefully into the matter should any harm befall you. Without
the good-will of this powerful governor, however, I would advise you not
to undertake the dangerous journey into the far-away province of
Kwang-Kai-Nong. Indeed, I warn you that the City of Kai-Nong has
considerable evil repute, and is seldom visited by Americans or
Europeans. But Mai Lo is able to protect you even in that remote
capital.”
“We shall go,” replied the doctor, briefly. “But if we do not return by
the first of September you must make inquiries concerning us; and if——”
“If?” said the consul, with an amused glance.
“If you find we’ve disappeared, or anything has happened to us, please
see that Mai Lo is punished,” concluded the doctor.
“I will do all in my power,” responded the consul. “The Chinese
character is complex, and crafty beyond measure. But I am sure Mai Lo
would not have executed this document unless he meant fairly by you. I
shall lock the original up in my safe, and you may keep the translation
to refer to in case of necessity.”
We thanked him and went our way, rather more gloomy than the consul
suspected. For we could not tell the American representative that our
errand to Kai-Nong was to carry away the treasure from Prince Kai’s
ancestral halls, and that if we were caught doing this, Mai Lo might
easily construe our act as one of theft, and have us put to death. It
did not matter that we were acting according to the Prince’s expressed
wishes.
“Mai Lo must have suspected why we wanted to go to Kai-Nong, and so have
put in that dangerous clause,” I said to the doctor.
“True; the fellow has entrapped us very cleverly,” replied Doctor
Gaylord. “Yet he may be innocent of any intent to do so.”
“I’m not going to bank on that,” said I. “The consul knows the Chinese,
and he says they are crafty. Mai Lo seems to have no more intelligence
than a lump of putty, but for that reason he’s doubly dangerous. You
can’t tell how much he knows, or what he thinks.”
“If we object to that clause in the agreement, we shall acknowledge evil
intentions on our part,” remarked the doctor; “and, if we say nothing,
he may find a way to use that same clause to excuse himself for our
murder.”
“Well,” said I, grimly, “I’ve gone into this thing, and I’m going to
stay in—to the finish.”
“So am I,” replied Doctor Gaylord; but I did not like the way he said
it.