THE ROYAL CABINET.
When the governor had gone—and he returned along the path as silently as
he had come, after his passionless inspection of us—we arose and walked
to the palace, finding mighty little to say on our own account.
On the broad piazza that led into the main building of the palace we
found the Chief Eunuch, leaning heavily against a pillar. I had been
trying to communicate with Wi-to for several days, but Tun, who carried
our messages, always returned to say that his master was closely
occupied with his duties and begged to postpone the interview. During
these days we had neither seen nor heard of the Chief Eunuch, so I was a
little surprised to find him on the piazza. His face was haggard and
worn, his eyes puffy and bloodshot and his person untidy.
“Good morning, Wi,” said I, cordially. “Have you been ill?”
He smiled at me rather childishly, and replied:
“The Earth Dragon has had me in his coils—and nearly strangled me.
Ah—oh! how unhappy I have been! Who has such deep and dreadful sorrows
as poor Wi-to? Who suffers such horrible pangs? Who—but never mind. The
sun-god is smiling this morning, and the breeze is sweet and lovely. Are
my master’s guests wholly content? Have they any orders for their lowly
servant?”
I own this rambling, inconsequent speech somewhat puzzled me. Wi-to did
not seem himself; he was surely not at his best today. Ordinarily the
Chief Eunuch was the most intelligent, shrewd, courteous and agreeable
Chinaman we had met, save only Prince Kai Lun Pu.
But I pretended not to notice his peculiar bearing and asked him when he
could have the desk of Prince Kai moved into our rooms. I wanted to
begin my work of inspection at once, I told him; but really the only
reason I made the request at all was to allay any suspicions he might
harbor.
To my surprise he at once blew his whistle and brought a dozen eunuchs
running to answer the summons. Still leaning against the pillar Wi-to
chattered away in Chinese for a time until his men prostrated themselves
and hurried away to fulfil his commands.
“The cabinet will come to you, my master,” now answered the eunuch. “Is
there anything else I can do?”
“Why, as regards the selection of the gifts——”
“Don’t hurry,” he interrupted, rubbing one eye with his knuckles. “Tlake
it easy; much time; no hurry; only Mai Lo want you out of the way. Mai
Lo? Dlam Mai Lo! English dlam. Pah!”
Really, I couldn’t understand Wi-to in this peculiar condition, so we
left him still leaning against the post and went away to our own rooms.
Pretty soon there was considerable racket in the passageway, and we sent
Bry to see what it meant. He returned grinning from ear to ear, and said
the eunuchs were moving a house. So we looked out, and there were some
twenty or more of the palace servants, perspiring and struggling with
the immense cabinet that had been standing in the Prince’s bed-chamber.
How they ever moved it at all was a wonder; but move it they did, inch
by inch, and squeezed it through the great entrance door to our
reception-room. I had them place it against the wall nearest the door
and then they went away glad that the task was accomplished.
It was an absurd thing to do, and in all reason and common sense we
should have been permitted to examine the cabinet where it originally
stood; but oriental prejudices are difficult things to overcome, and
since it was forbidden strangers to enter the royal apartments, the
mountainous cabinet had to come to Mahomet Sam.
Now I had no right, as a matter of fact, to examine this private cabinet
of the royal line of Kai, and my request to do so was but a blind to
further our real plans. But since it was here, and since Wi-to had sent
me a bunch of keys to unlock the different compartments, the temptation
to look inside was irresistible.
“It’s this way,” I said to the boys; “if we don’t look over these
things, others who may not be as friendly to Prince Kai’s memory are
sure to do so. The estate and palace will shortly pass to the Emperor,
who will either retain it for himself or give it to some favorite. So I
believe we are justified in seeing what this old mystery-box contains.”
They agreed with me fully, so we began the examination. First we opened
the desk part and found many documents in Chinese, sealed, signed and
filed in a very business-like manner. These we could not read, and their
importance was all unknown to us. Also there were numerous letters. One
bunch of yellow missives bore the Imperial Vermilion Seal of the
Emperor.
In order to carry out our deception I tore up a number of the least
important looking papers and burned them in a brazier. At the bottom of
the heap of letters I found a book in which the Prince had written in
English a sort of diary, although the entries were seldom dated and
seemed to be whimsical sentences he had recorded merely to relieve his
mind. The poor fellow had had no one around him in whom he could
confide, as to an intimate friend; so he had made this little book his
confidant.
Believing that here, if anywhere we would be likely to find clews to
guide us in our undertaking, we read this book aloud, so that among the
three of us, to say nothing of Nux and Bry, we might catch whatever
ideas it contained that might be of service to us.
Many of the passages were sarcastic comparisons between the customs of
his own people and those of Europeans, and I must admit that, from
Prince Kai’s point of view, the Europeans did not always come out best.
One entry that interested us was as follows:
“What unselfish and responsible servants am I blest with! What competent
officials direct my affairs in my absence! Look upon them, oh my
ancestors, and pity me. At the head of my province is a man born to be
its governor who, lacking such birthright, would be unfit for the duties
of the humblest slave. Cold, unfeeling, ambitious and without honor,
this man works but for his own selfish interests, and lacks the strength
of intellect to ruin me for his own gain. Since I read him so truly he
cannot injure me; but what a farce is this hereditary right to govern a
great province such as Kwang-Kai-Nong! When Mai Lo lies with his
ancestors there will be his son to govern, a weak imbecile, helplessly
degenerate. I am quite certain I must find an excuse to behead both
father and son, that I may free myself of this incubus of the House of
Kai.
“The Fuh-yin of the city of Kai-Nong is even a worse scoundrel than Mai
Lo. I have proof that he murdered his own brother, in order to become
mayor and rob the city of its revenues. Some day when I have time I
shall accuse and condemn my Fuh-yin, and invent a horrible execution
worthy of his sins.”
“In the palace the one power is the Chief Eunuch, who might make things
very unpleasant for me were he not by nature faithful and obedient to
his master. I made him chief when old Koa-Ming-Dhu was stabbed by one of
my father’s wives, raising Wi-to from the ranks of the eunuchs. I
believe he is grateful, and so am willing to overlook his one weakness.
For Wi-to gets drunk periodically, and frequently stays drunk a week,
and while he is in this condition everything about the palace is
neglected.”
“I see,” said Joe, when I read this extract. “That was the trouble with
Wi-to today. He’s been on a drunk and is just coming ’round.”
“That is an unfortunate trait,” I said, musingly. “For if we happened to
need the services of the Chief Eunuch and he failed us, being on one of
his sprees, we might lose our lives.”
Presently we found another interesting item in the book. It said:
“I’ve been making a careful inspection of the riches contained in the
tombs of my ancestors. It seems strange that I am the first of our race
to abjure ancestor worship and look upon these dead effigies of my
forefathers as they really are—heaps of dust. Nothing could be more
foolish, according to the enlightened age in which I live, than burying
wealth in the tomb of its owner, where neither he nor any one else can
apply it to use. Yet so ingrained in my nature are racial prejudices
that it was long before I could induce myself to touch that wealth. When
finally I did so I took the contents of several jars in the chih of the
first Kai. The Jews to whom I sold the treasure in London robbed me, but
I obtained enough money to make a lavish display of wealth while I was
at college. But today I discovered a rare treasure indeed in the tombs
of my ancestors. It is in the chih of Kai-Abon, the seventh of our royal
race. The contents of his alcove seemed so unattractive that I had never
given the place much attention before; but today I discovered that the
great wealth of this prince was carefully arranged to deceive any one
who might be tempted by an open display. Turning over a heap of cheap
brass trinkets I uncovered a superb gem which has been known to the
world as the Beryl of Tartary. No one has ever known what became of this
family heirloom until now. I covered it up again, because the time has
not yet come when I can sell it or use it myself. In a corner was an old
scimitar with plaster and mud covering its surface. I rubbed away the
filth and found upon the handle the Seven Rubies of Persia, which one of
my ancestors won in battle. Each ruby is said to contain a drop of blood
from the heart of a king, and whoever wields this scimitar is considered
invincible, for the spirits of the seven kings fight for its champion.
This treasure I could not leave buried, so I have brought it to my
chamber and concealed it in the lower drawer of my cabinet. No one now
alive will know where I got it.”
“Hold on a minute,” cried Archie. “Let’s take a look at this wonderful
weapon.”
So we unlocked the lower drawer and at first could find nothing. But
Archie soon saw that the drawer was so deep that it must have a false
bottom. This was indeed the case, and when we had pried up this false
bottom with our knives, we came upon a chamois bag in which was the
famous scimitar. It had no sheath and the Prince had carefully polished
it. Its delicately tempered blade of blue steel was bright as a mirror.
The handle was of gold, and seven splendid rubies, blood-red in color,
were imbedded in the yellow metal.
Also in the drawer were a necklace of magnificent pearls and a single
emerald as big as a pigeon’s egg. These we gave to Bry to add to our
collection, but the scimitar we replaced in the top of the drawer, where
it could easily be obtained if required. Upon examination we found many
of the compartments of the cabinet empty. At a recent period
someone—probably the Prince—had evidently cleared it out.
There was more written about the wonderful treasures in the tomb of
Kai-Abon, which there is no need to repeat in these pages. Nor were any
of the other entries in the book of especial interest to my patient
reader, although we read them all and got a clearer idea of Prince Kai’s
inner nature than we had ever had before. Only once did he mention his
sister, Nor Ghai, and then it was merely to say that he intended some
day to send her to England or America to be educated according to modern
methods.
We passed the rest of the day in the examination of this wonderful
cabinet, and when evening arrived we were undecided whether or not to
make another trip that night to the underground vaults. Somehow I could
not get that inscrutable glassy stare of the mandarin out of my mind,
and the recollection of it seemed to trouble my comrades as it did me.
We finally decided to postpone our next trip through the underground
passage until we were prepared to carry away a portion of the treasure;
so we locked the cabinet, put the keys away and quietly went to bed.