THE VENGEANCE OF THE RUBY SCIMITAR.
I think we had all forgotten that the King Ape had been left imprisoned
in the vaults. But when we entered the first alcove from the tunnel and
heard the monster barking and growling in the recess at our right, the
presence of the beast was recalled to us very forcibly. We paid little
attention to the ape just then, however, for we were eager to discover
whether or not the governor was really in the ancestral vaults.
As we passed from behind the tapestry we put out our lamp, each of us
holding a few matches in our hands to use in case of emergency.
The blackness was now intense, and as we crept stealthily in single file
toward the gate the gloom seemed to press upon us and embrace us.
Likewise the silence of the immense vaults, which had been hewn out of
solid rock beneath the great mound, was oppressive; for while the
jabbering of the King Ape and his violent shaking of his grating at
times reverberated through the dome with a thousand echoes, the hush of
death that otherwise pervaded the place was but rendered the more
effective.
On the occasions of our former visits I had looked upon these chih as
mere treasure-houses; now, moving silently through the darkness, I
suddenly realized we were in a place of the dead, with many generations
of warriors, princes and imperial viceroys lying in state in their
heretofore inviolable tombs. Would not the spirits of these great
ancestors of Kai resent our intrusion? Spirits! I gave a start at the
recollection of a remark Kai Lun Pu had made on his deathbed: “If I find
that I possess a spirit I shall try to watch you, and enjoy the fun.”
I am not usually nervous, but I admit that when I recalled this
significant speech I shuddered and grasped the scimitar of Kai Abon more
tightly in my hand.
“What in thunder’s the matter with you, Sam?” growled Archie, who had
his hand on my shoulder.
I did not care to say; but just then Joe, who was in advance of me,
touched the grating and whispered:
“Here’s the gate—stop a minute.”
He unfastened the catch and we passed into the great domed hall.
On our right came a sudden rattling of the bars, where the monster ape
was still struggling to escape his prison. I reflected that he must be
getting hungry by this time, and hunger would make him more ferocious
than ever. But our first impulse was to peer anxiously around the great
chamber to discover if any light indicated the presence of Mai Lo.
There it was! a faint glimmer coming from one of the alcoves far to the
right.
“We’ve got him,” muttered Archie, triumphantly.
“Why, he’s here, all right,” I replied in a low tone, “but in order to
reach the place we must creep along the wall, so as not to get lost.”
“Come ahead, then,” said Joe, and started feeling his way by keeping one
hand on the tapestry hangings that separated the various alcoves.
Suddenly there came a violent rattling of metal near at hand and Joe
stopped so abruptly that I ran into him.
“Say, fellows; we can’t pass this alcove,” warned Joe. “That infernal
monkey might reach out and grab us if we came too near.”
“Light the lamp,” said I, “and hold it under your coat. Mai Lo is in an
alcove and he’s too busy to notice us at this distance.”
Joe obeyed. As the light of the wick illuminated our surroundings we
found we had halted none too soon. The huge ape had his body pressed
close to the grating, which, to our astonishment, we saw was now a mass
of twisted and bent metal, so loosened and displaced by the constant
wrenching of the powerful beast that only the chain and lock with which
we had fastened it seemed to hold the grating in place.
“He’ll be out of there before long,” remarked Joe, half fearfully.
“Then we must dive into some alcove,” I suggested. “But I guess the bars
will hold until we’ve had our talk with Mai Lo.”
Circling around the place so as to avoid the reach of the ape’s long
arms we came to the tapestries beyond his den and continued our
progress, extinguishing the light as we drew nearer to the alcove from
whence came the glimmer we had first observed.
We walked with stealthy tread and stood before the alcove without a
sound of our approach having been noted.
The grating had been set wide open and held from swinging to by a big
vase set against it. In the center of the alcove a light burned upon a
low taboret, and near it squatted Mai Lo, absorbed in selecting and
arranging a mass of jewels piled up before him.
So occupied was the governor with this pleasant task that he never
looked up until after we had entered and stood in a silent row before
him.
Then his body gave a twitch beneath his broidered robes, but his passive
face showed no expression at all. Perhaps it was incapable of
expression. Even the eyes had no more animation beneath their surfaces
than shoe-buttons.
“So you have escaped,” he said.
“Oh, there was nothing to escape,” I answered with a smile.
“My guards surrounded you.”
“They tried to, but there were not enough of them. And they are fewer in
number now than they were.”
He stared at us without reply; without altering his position. He even
rubbed the ruby that was in his hand against the satin of his sleeve as
if to polish it.
“Hasn’t all this nonsense gone far enough, Mai Lo?” I inquired. “Are you
not getting tired of opposing us when you know we can defy your power
and carry out our plans without your consent?”
He calmly lowered his gaze and began to polish the ruby again. From the
distant alcove where Fo-Chu was confined came the ape’s horrid growls
and the shaking of the bars; but the governor seemed little interested
in anything but the heap of plunder before him.
“You have tried in various ways to destroy us,” I went on. “You set your
eunuchs on us in the pavilion; you ordered your soldiers to cut us down
in the palace; you loosed the King Ape in these vaults to tear us to
pieces. But what is the result? We are here still, and free, and masters
of the situation.”
Mai Lo slipped the ruby in his pocket and took another from the heap
before him.
“How can you enter the Ancestral Chih?” he asked. “My soldiers guard
every avenue of approach.”
“There are some things it is not necessary for you to know,” I retorted;
“and that is one of them. But we did not come here to quarrel, but to
make peace with you.”
This seemed to interest him, for he transferred his beady gaze from the
gems to my face.
“This constant opposition is annoying,” I continued, “and while Prince
Kai Lun Pu gave to us the riches contained in these vaults, and showed
us how to secure them, we find there is more than we need, or can carry
back with us.”
“Prince Kai had no right to give you the wealth of his ancestors,” said
Mai Lo.
“Perhaps not. Neither have you any right to rob the Ancestral Halls.
Instead, you ought to seal them up, and commit suicide. But you won’t do
that. You want to escape with enough treasure to make you rich for the
rest of your life.”
He regarded me intently, but made no reply. So I went on:
“We do not care whether you escape or kill yourself, except that by
working together, instead of in opposition, we may all succeed in
getting away with the treasure. There’s more than enough for us all.”
Still he made no reply. From the dome came a sudden crash of metal and
the wild yelp of the giant ape. But we all stood motionless, wrapped in
the importance of the governor’s decision.
“Well, what is it to be—war or peace?” I asked, impatiently.
“War,” he said, quietly. “You are miserable foreign pigs, and I will
kill you. Not one gem of this treasure shall you carry away. Your
knowledge of these chih has sealed your doom.”
I felt like striking the rascal with the naked scimitar I held—the
scimitar for which the seven kings fought whose life-blood was contained
in the seven rubies. But I resisted the temptation, while Archie
exclaimed: “Don’t be a fool, Mai Lo!”
“Your obstinacy may ruin us all,” Joe added.
“We don’t intend to be killed,” I observed, bitterly; “and you ought to
know that by this time. We——”
I stopped short with a thrill of horror, for a sudden pattering of feet
reached my ears. The governor sprang up just as we three with one accord
shrank back against the wall, and the next instant the King Ape bounded
into the alcove, his eyes like balls of fire, his grinning teeth bared
viciously.
Mai Lo alone confronted the beast, who faced his victim chattering with
an almost human expression of cruel joy. I saw the mandarin feel in his
breast and draw out a glittering poniard, while his eyes fastened
themselves upon those of the ape. An instant more and the brute sprang
forward and caught Mai Lo in his embrace.
Once, twice, I saw the keen blade bury itself in the hairy breast of
Fo-Chu. Then the monster, with a shriek of mingled rage and agony,
thrust the man from him and bounded back against me, the sudden movement
sending me reeling against the wall. As I fell I extended my arm in
which I still clasped the ruby scimitar, and in a flash the ape had
snatched the weapon from my hand and with renewed screams swung it in a
gleaming circle around his head.
But his attention was distracted from us, who stood motionless with
fear, toward the form of the governor, who was rising from the place
where he had fallen. And Fo-Chu remembered that the great pain in his
breast had been caused by the weapon of Mai Lo. So with a wild cry he
leaped forward and swung the scimitar with tremendous power. It caught
Mai Lo just above the shoulders, and the rarely tempered blade sheared
through bone and muscle. The head toppled with a dreadful thud to the
pavement, while for an instant the body stood erect and swaying. Then it
fell in a heap, and with a screech that chilled my very blood with
horror, the monster threw himself upon the body and rent it limb from
limb with a fury that was absolutely devilish. The cracking bones and
tearing flesh sickened me so that for the first time in my life I
fainted, losing all sense of danger and surroundings as I sank limply to
the floor.