Silas Hemster was sitting in his wicker chair on deck just as I had
left him, so I drew up another chair beside him and sat down to give
him my report. He listened to the end without comment.
“What a darned-fool scheme,” he said at last. “There wasn’t one chance
in a thousand of those chumps picking any of us out alive if they had
once destroyed the yacht. Do you think they will attempt it again?”
“Well, it seems as if I had discouraged old Hun Woe, but a person never
can tell how the Oriental mind works. He stated that the precious plan
emanated from the Emperor, who wished at a blow to destroy your fleet,
as it were, and capture your daughter; but it is more than likely
the scheme was concocted in his own brain. He is just silly enough
to have contrived it, but I rather imagine our good captain overawed
the officers and crew to such an extent that they may be chary of
attempting such an outrage again. When two of us had no difficulty in
holding up the whole company, they may fear an attack from our entire
crew. Still, as I have said, no one can tell what these people will do
or not do. The Prime Minister himself, of course, is in a bad way, and
I should like to enable him to escape if I could.”
“You intend, then, to carry out the project you outlined to him?”
“I certainly do, with your permission.”
“Well, not to flatter you, Tremorne, I think your invasion of Corea at
the head of a band of Japanese is quite as foolhardy as his attempt to
run down the yacht.”
“Oh, no, Mr. Hemster; the Coreans are a bad people to run away from,
but if you face them boldly you get what you want. They call it the
Hermit Kingdom, but I should call it the Coward Kingdom. A squad of
determined little Japs would put the whole country to flight.”
“Well, you can do as you like, and I’ll help you all I’m able. Of
course you’re not responsible for the plight of the Prime Minister;
I’m the cause of the mix-up, and if you want the yacht you just take
it, and I’ll stay here in Nagasaki with the womenfolk till you return;
but if I had my way I’d clear out of this section of the country
altogether.”
“Why not do so, Mr. Hemster. I have entirely given up the notion
of taking the yacht, because the Chinese steamer will be much less
conspicuous and will cause less talk in Chemulpo than the coming
back of the yacht. Of course the Emperor will have spies down at the
port, and it will seem to them perfectly natural for the black ship
to return. Meanwhile, before his Majesty knows what has happened, I
shall be up in Seoul and in the Palace with my Japanese, and I think I
shall succeed in terrorizing the old boy to such an extent that in less
than ten minutes we shall be marching back again with Hun Woe’s whole
family and troop of relatives. ‘Once aboard the lugger’ they are safe,
for Corea has no ship to overtake them, and the whole thing will be
done so suddenly that the Chinese steamer will be half-way across the
Pacific, or the whole way to Shanghai, before the Coreans have made up
their minds what to do. I shall leave with the ship, and have them drop
me at Nagasaki or Shanghai, or whatever port we conclude to make for.
Then I can rejoin the yacht at any port we agree upon.”
“You appear to think you’ll have no trouble with your expedition, then?”
“Oh, not the slightest.”
“Well, you know, we had trouble enough with ours.”
“Yes, but this is a mere dash of twenty-six miles there and twenty-six
miles back. We ought to be able to do it within a day and a night, and
if old Hun Woe attends rightly to his coaling and his provisioning, all
Corea cannot stop him. I think he is badly enough frightened not to
omit any details that make for his safety.”
“Very well, we’ll stay right here till you return. I suppose that old
Chinese tub will take some time worrying her way to Corea and back
again, although I’ll confess she seemed to come on like a prairie fire
when she was heading for us. Now I guess everybody is just a little
tired of life on shipboard. I’ve noticed that when a lot of people are
cooped up together for a while things don’t run on as smoothly as they
might sometimes, so I’ll hire a floor in the principal hotel here and
live ashore until we see your Chinese steamer come into the harbour
again. I suppose the captain will prefer to live on the yacht, but the
rest of us will sample hotel life. I’m rather yearning for a change
myself; besides I think my daughter would be safer ashore than on board
here, for one can’t tell, as you said, what these hoodlums may attempt;
and as long as they’re convinced she’s on the yacht we’re in constant
danger of being run down, or torpedoed, or something. Now, you wouldn’t
mind telling my daughter what you’ve told me about the intentions of
this here Prime Minister? She’s rather fond of wandering around town
alone, and I guess she’d better know that until this Chinese steamer
sails away she is in some danger.”
“I suggest that she shouldn’t go sightseeing or shopping without an
escort, Mr. Hemster.”
“Well, a good deal will depend on what Gertie thinks herself, as
perhaps you have found out while you’ve been with us.”
He sent for his daughter, and I placed a third chair for the girl when
she arrived. She listened with great interest to my narration of the
events on board the Chinese steamer, and I added my warning that it
was advisable for her not to desert the frequented parts of Nagasaki,
and never to make any expedition through the town without one or more
masculine persons to protect her. She tossed her head as I said this,
and replied rather cuttingly:
“I guess I’m able to take care of myself.”
I should have had sense enough to let it go at that, but I was much
better aware of her peril then even her father was, for I knew
Nagasaki like a well-thumbed book; so I said it was a regular labyrinth
into whose mazes even a person intimately acquainted with the town
might get lost, and as the Prime Minister had plenty of money at his
command, he had the choice of all the outscourings of the nations here
along the port, who would murder or kidnap without a qualm for a very
small sum of ready cash.
“There is no use in saying anything more, Mr. Tremorne,” put in her
father, definitely; “I’ll see to it that my daughter does not go abroad
unprotected.”
“Well, Poppa,” she cried, “I like the hotel idea first rate, and I’m
going there right away; but I want a suite of rooms to myself. I’m not
coming down to the public table, and I wish to have the Countess and my
own maid with me and no one else.”
“That’s all right,” said her father, “you can have what you like. I’ll
buy the whole hotel for you if you want it.”
“No, I just wish a suite of rooms that will be my own; and I won’t have
any visitors that I don’t invite specially.”
“Won’t you allow me to visit you, Gertie?” asked the old gentleman with
a quizzical smile.
“No, I don’t want you or any one else. I’m just tired of people, that’s
what I am. I intended to propose going to the hotel anyhow. I’m just
sick of this yacht, and have a notion to go home in one of the regular
steamers. I’m going right over to the hotel now and pick my own rooms.”
“Just as you please,” concurred her father. “Perhaps Mr. Tremorne will
be good enough to escort you there.”
“I have told you that I don’t want Mr. Tremorne, or Mr. Hemster, or Mr.
Anybody-else. If I must have an escort I’ll take two of the sailors.”
“That will be perfectly satisfactory. Take as many trunks as you want,
and secure the best rooms in the hotel.”
Shortly afterward Miss Hemster, with her maid and the Countess, left
the yacht in the launch, the mountain of luggage following in another
boat. The launch and the boat remained an unconscionably long time at
the landing, until even Mr. Hemster became impatient, ordering the
captain to signal their return. When, in response to this, they came
back, the officer in charge of the launch told Mr. Hemster that his
daughter had ordered them to remain until she sent them word whether or
not she had secured rooms to her satisfaction at the hotel. Meanwhile
she had given the officer a letter to her father, which he now handed
to the old gentleman. He read it through two or three times with a
puzzled expression on his face, then handed it to me, saying:
“What do you make of that?”
The letter ran as follows:
“DEAR POPPA:
“I have changed my mind about the hotel, and, not wanting a fuss,
said nothing to you before I left. As I told you, I am tired to
death of both the yacht and the sea, and I want to get to some
place where I need look on neither of them. The Countess, who knows
more about Japan than Mr. Tremorne thinks he knows, has been kind
enough to offer me her country house for a week or two, which is
situated eight or nine miles from Nagasaki. I want to see something
of high life in Japan, and so may stay perhaps for two weeks; and
if you are really as anxious about my kidnapping as you pretend,
you may be quite sure I am safe where I am going,--much more so
than if I had stayed at the hotel at Nagasaki. I don’t believe
there’s any danger at all, but think Mr. Tremorne wants to impress
you with a feeling of his great usefulness, and you may tell him I
said so if you like. Perhaps I shall tire of the place where I am
going in two or three days; it is more than likely. Anyhow, I want
to get away from present company for a time at least. I will send a
message to you when I am returning.
“Yours affectionately,
“GERTIE.”
This struck me as a most ungracious and heartless communication to a
father who was devoting his life and fortune to her service. I glanced
up at the old gentleman; but, although he had asked my opinion on this
epistle, his face showed no perturbation regarding its contents. I
suppose he was accustomed to the young woman’s vagaries.
The letter seemed to me very disquieting. It had been written on board
the yacht before she left, so perhaps the country house visit had
been in her mind for some time; nevertheless there were two or three
circumstances which seemed to me suspicious. It was an extraordinary
thing that a Countess should take what was practically a servant’s
position if she possessed a country house. Then, again, it was no less
extraordinary that this Japanese woman should be able to speak Corean,
of which fact I had had auricular demonstration. Could it be possible
that there was any connection between the engaging of this woman and
the arrival of the Chinese steamer? Was the so-called Countess an
emissary of the Corean Prime Minister? A moment’s reflection caused
me to dismiss this conjecture as impossible, because Miss Hemster had
engaged the Countess on the day she arrived at Nagasaki, and, as our
yacht was more speedy than any other vessel that might have come from
Corea, all idea of collusion between the Corean man and the Japanese
woman seemed far fetched. Should I then communicate my doubts to Mr.
Hemster? He seemed quite at his ease about the matter, and I did not
wish to disturb him unnecessarily. Yet he had handed me the letter, and
he wished my opinion on it. He interrupted my meditations by repeating
his question:
“Well, what do you make of it?”
“It seems to me the letter of one who is accustomed to think and act
for herself, without any undue regard to the convenience of others.”
“Yes, that’s about the size of it.”
“Has she ever done anything like this before?”
“Oh, bless you, often. I have known her to leave Chicago for New York
and turn up at Omaha.”
“Then you are not in any way alarmed by the receipt of this?”
“No, I see no reason for alarm; do you?”
“Who is this Countess that owns the country house?”
“I don’t even know her name. Gertie went ashore soon after we came into
the harbour and visited the American Consul, who sent out for this
woman, and Gertie engaged her then and there.”
“Isn’t it a little remarkable that she speaks Corean?”
“Well, the American Consul said there wasn’t many of them could; but
Gertie, after being at Seoul, determined to learn the language, and
that’s why she took on the Countess.”
“Oh, I see. She stipulated, then, for one who knew Corean?”
“Quite so; she told me before we left Chemulpo that she intended to
learn the language.”
“Well, Mr. Hemster, what you say relieves my mind a good deal. If she
got the woman on the recommendation of the American Consul, everything
is all right. The coming of the Prime Minister, and the fact that this
Countess understands Corean, made me fear that there might be some
collusion between the two.”
“That is impossible,” said Mr. Hemster calmly. “If the Corean Minister
had come a day or two before the Countess was engaged, there might have
been a possibility of a conspiracy between them; but convincing proof
that such is not the case lies in the fact that the Prime Minister
would not then have needed to run us down, which he certainly tried to
do.”
I had not thought of this, and it was quite convincing, taken in the
light of the fact that Miss Hemster had frequently acted in this
impulsive way before.
We resolved not to leave the yacht that night, even if we left it
at all, now that Miss Hemster had taken herself into the interior.
Whatever she thought, or whatever her preferences were, I imagine her
father liked the yacht better than a hotel.
Hilda and I went on deck after dinner and remained there while the
lights came out all over Nagasaki, forming a picture like fairyland or
the superb setting of a gigantic opera. We were aroused by a cry from
one of the sailors, and then a shout from the bridge.
“That Chinese beast is coming at us again!”
Sure enough the steamer had left her moorings, rounded inside toward
the city, and now was making directly toward us without a light showing.
“Get into the boats at once,” roared the captain.
I hailed Hemster, who was below, at the top of my voice, and he replied
when I shouted: “Come up immediately and get into the small boat.”
By the time he was on deck I had Hilda in one of the boats, and Mr.
Hemster was beside her a moment later. Two sailors seized the oars and
pushed off. The next instant there was a crash, and the huge black bulk
of the Chinese steamer loomed over us, passing quickly away into the
night. I thought I heard a woman scream somewhere, but could not be
quite sure.
“Did you hear anything?” I asked Hemster.
“I heard an almighty crashing of timber. I wonder if they’ve sunk the
yacht.”
The captain’s gruff voice hailed us.
“They’ve carried away the rudder,” he said, “and shattered the stern,
but not seriously. She will remain afloat, but will have to go into
dry-dock to-morrow.”