THE YELLOW ROBE
The man on the sand was silent, staring up at Gray in blank
amazement. It was Delabar, thinner and more careworn than before.
Shaven, all the lines of his face stood out, giving him the
appearance of a skull over which yellow skin was stretched taut--a
skull set with two smoldering, haggard eyes.
"Speak up, man," growled Gray. "And remember what I said about
giving the alarm. I don't know if this costume is a masquerade or
not, but--I can't afford to take chances this time."
Delabar did not meet his gaze. He lay back on the sand, fingers
plucking at his thin lips.
"I can't speak," he responded hoarsely.
"You can. And you will. You'll tell me what I want to know--this
time. You lied to me before. Now you'll deal a straight hand. This
is not an idle threat. I must have information."
Delabar glanced at him fleetingly. Then looked around. No one was
in sight, as they lay in a pocket in the sand.
"What do you want to know?"
"A whole lot. First--how did you get here? I thought all white men
were barred."
"Wu Fang Chien," said Delabar moodily. "He caught me the day after I
left you. He shot the coolie and had me brought here."
"What's the meaning of that?" Gray nodded contemptuously at the
yellow robe.
"Wu Fang Chien punished me. He forced me to join the Buddhist
priests who act as guards of Sungan. He did not want me to escape
from China. Here, I was safe under his men."
"Hm. He trusts you enough to post you as one of the sentries."
"With another man. The other left to attend a council of the
priests. My watch is over at sunset. In two hours."
Gray scanned his erstwhile companion from narrowed eyes. He decided
the man was telling the truth, so far.
"Will these Buddhist dogs come to relieve you at sunset, Delabar?"
"No. The priests do not watch after nightfall. Some of the lepers
we--Wu Fang Chien can trust make the rounds."
"Is Wu Fang Chien in control here--governor of Sungan?"
Delabar licked his lips nervously. Perspiration showed on his bare
forehead. "Yes. That is, the mandarin is responsible to the Chinese
authorities. He has orders to keep all intruders from Sungan--on
account of the lepers."
Gray smiled without merriment.
"You say the priests stand guard. Are they armed?"
"No. Not with guns. Any one who tries to escape from here is
followed and brought back by the outer guards--if he doesn't die in
the desert."
"I see." Gray gripped the shoulder of the man on the sand. "Did you
hear me say I wanted the truth, not lies? Well, you may have been
telling me the letter of the truth. But not the whole. Once you
said 'we' instead of Wu Fang Chien. Likewise, I know enough of
Chinese methods to be sure Wu wouldn't punish a white man by
elevating him to the caste of priest. You're holding something back,
Delabar. What is your real relation to Wu?"
Delabar was silent for a long time. Staring overhead, his eyes
marked and followed the movements of a wheeling vulture. His thin
fingers plucked ceaselessly at the yellow robe.
"Wu Fang Chien," he said at length, "is my master. He is the
emissary of the Buddhists in China. He has the power of life and
death over those who break the laws of Buddha. I am one of his
servants."
Delabar raised himself on one elbow.
"A decade ago, in India, I became a Buddhist, Captain Gray.
Remember, I am a Syrian born. I spent most of my youth in Bokhara,
and in Kashgar, where I came under the influence of the philosophers
of the yellow robe. I acknowledged the tenets of the Buddha; I bowed
before the teachings of the ancient Kashiapmadunga and the wisdom
that is like a lamp in the night--that burned before your Christ.
And I gave up my life to 'the world of golden effulgence.'"
A note of tensity crept into his eager words. The dark eyes
reflected a deeper fire.
"Earthly lusts I forswore, for the celestial life that is born by
ceaseless meditation, and contemplation of the _Maha-yana_. I was
ordained in the first orders of the priesthood. That was the time
when foreign missionaries began to enter China in force, in spite of
the Boxer uprising and the revolt of the Tai-pings. The heads of the
priesthood wanted information about this foreign faith, and the
peoples of Europe. They wanted to know why the white men sought to
disturb the ancient soul of China."
Gray whistled softly, as Delabar's character became clear.
"I was sent to Europe. At first I kept in touch with the priesthood
through Wu Fang Chien. Then came the overthrow of the Manchus, and
the republic in China. But you can not cast down the religion of
eight hundred million souls by a _coup d'état_. The priesthood still
holds its power. And it is still inviolate from the touch of the
foreigner."
Gray knew that this was true. The scattered foreigners who had
entered the coast cities of China, and the missionaries who claimed a
few converts in the middle kingdom were only a handful in the great
mass of the Mongolians. In the interior, and throughout Central Asia
and India, as in Japan, the shrines of Buddha, of Vishnu, and the
temple of the Dalai Lama were undisturbed. And here, not on the
coast, was the heart of Mongolia. Delabar continued, almost
triumphantly.
"Word was sent to me from Wu Fang Chien--who had heard the news from
a Chinese servant of the American Museum of Natural History--that an
expedition was being fitted out to explore Central Mongolia. I was
ordered to volunteer to accompany it."
"And you did your best to wreck the expedition," assented Gray.
"I liked you, Captain Gray. I tried to persuade you to turn back.
At Liangchowfu it was too late. When you escaped from Wu Fang Chien
there, he held me responsible for the failure. The priesthood never
trusted me fully."
"In my religion," said Gray grimly, "there is a saying that a man can
not serve two masters and save his own soul."
Delabar shivered.
"The priesthood," he muttered, "will not forgive failure. Wu Fang
Chien is watching me. You can do nothing here. Go back, before we
are seen together. Sungan is nothing but a leper colony. You were a
fool to think otherwise."
"And the Wusun?"
"Lepers! They are the only ones here except the priests."
Gray's eyes hardened.
"A lie, Delabar. Why should Wu Fang Chien kill a dozen men to keep
the English caravan and myself from Sungan?" He caught and held
Delabar's startled gaze. "Where is Mary Hastings?"
"I--who is she?"
"You know, Delabar. The girl who came with the caravan. She was
taken prisoner. Where is she?"
"I don't know."
Gray touched his automatic significantly.
"I want to know," he said quietly. "And you can tell me. It is more
important than my life or your miserable existence. _Where is Mary
Hastings?_"
Delabar cowered before the deadly purpose in the white man's eyes.
"I don't know, Captain Gray. Wu Fang Chien ordered that when the
caravan was attacked, she should be brought to him. Not killed, but
taken to him. Some of the priests seized her and took her to one of
the inner courts of the city. At the time, Wu Fang Chien was
directing the attack on the caravan. I have not seen her since."
"Where is this inner court?"
"You are a fool. You could not possibly get into the ruins without
being seen. Wu Fang Chien would be glad to see you. I heard him say
if the girl was spared, you would come here after her. He knew all
that happened at Ansichow----"
"Then she is alive!" Gray's pulses leaped. "So my friend Wu is
keeping the girl as bait for my coming. A clever man, Wu Fang Chien.
But how did he know Sir Lionel had told me what happened at Sungan?"
"The Englishman was followed, back to where he met you. If he had
been killed in the fighting here, I think Wu Fang Chien planned to
send me to bring you here----"
"Yes, he is clever." Gray studied the matter with knitted brows.
"So Wu wants to kill me off, now that I have come this far--as he did
the men of the caravan? Look here! Does he know I'm near Sungan?
Were you put here as--bait?"
"No," Delabar shook his head. "The men who were sent to attack
you--the Chinese soldiers hired by Wu Fang Chien--lost track of you.
Wu Fang Chien does not know where you are--yet. If he should find
you here talking to me, it would be my death. I--I have learned too
much of the fate of the Hastings. Oh, they were fools. Why should
your people want to pry into what is hidden from them? Go back! You
can do nothing for the girl."
Gray stared at the Buddhist curiously.
"You haven't learned much decency from your religion, Delabar. So
the outer guards failed to make good, eh? By the way, how is it that
they leave camel tracks in the sand?"
"They wear camels' hoofs instead of shoes. Hoofs cut from dead wild
camels that the Chinese hunters kill for our food--for the lepers.
It helps them to walk on the sand, and mystifies the wandering
Kirghiz. Why do you want to throw your life away----?"
"I don't." Gray sat down and produced some of his flour cakes. "I
want to get out of Sungan with a whole skin, and with Mary Hastings."
He munched the cakes calmly, washing down the mouthfuls with water
from his canteen. "And I'm going to get into the inner courts of
Sungan. You're going to guide me. If we're discovered, remember
you'll be the first man to die. Now, Delabar, I want a good
description of Sungan, its general plan, and the habits of your
Buddhist friends."