With a face out of which all color had fled, and eyes filled with the
ghosts of a new horror, Miriam Kirkstone stood before Keith in the big
room in the house on the hill.
"He was here--ten minutes," she said, and her voice was as if she was
forcing it out of a part of her that was dead and cold. It was
lifeless, emotionless, a living voice and yet strange with the chill of
death. "In those ten minutes he told me--that! If you fail--"
It was her throat that held him, fascinated him. White, slim,
beautiful--her heart seemed pulsing there. And he could see that heart
choke back the words she was about to speak.
"If I fail--" he repeated the words slowly after her, watching that
white, beating throat.
"There is only the one thing left for me to do. You--you--understand?"
"Yes, I understand. Therefore I shall not fail."
He backed away from her toward the door, and still he could not take
his eyes from the white throat with its beating heart. "I shall not
fail," he repeated. "And when the telephone rings, you will be here--to
answer?"
"Yes, here," she replied huskily.
He went out. Under his feet the gravelly path ran through a flood of
moonlight. Over him the sky was agleam with stars. It was a white
night, one of those wonderful gold-white nights in the land of the
Saskatchewan. Under that sky the world was alive. The little city lay
in a golden glimmer of lights. Out of it rose a murmur, a rippling
stream of sound, the voice of its life, softened by the little valley
between. Into it Keith descended. He passed men and women, laughing,
talking, gay. He heard music. The main street was a moving throng. On a
corner the Salvation Army, a young woman, a young man, a crippled boy,
two young girls, and an old man, were singing "Nearer, My God, to
Thee." Opposite the Board of Trade building on the edge of the river a
street medicine-fakir had drawn a crowd to his wagon. To the beat of
the Salvation Army's tambourine rose the thrum of a made-up negro's
banjo.
Through these things Keith passed, his eyes open, his ears listening,
but he passed swiftly. What he saw and what he heard pressed upon him
with the chilling thrill of that last swan-song, the swan-song of Ecla,
of Kobat, of Ty, who had heard their doom chanted from the
mountain-tops. It was the city rising up about his cars in rejoicing
and triumph. And it put in his heart a cold, impassive anger. He sensed
an impending doom, and yet he was not afraid. He was no longer chained
by dreams, no more restrained by self. Before his eyes, beating,
beating, beating, he saw that tremulous heart in Miriam Kirkstone's
soft, white throat.
He came to Shan Tung's. Beyond the softly curtained windows it was a
yellow glare of light. He entered and met the flow of life, the murmur
of voices and laughter, the tinkle of glasses, the scent of cigarette
smoke, and the fainter perfume of incense. And where he had seen him
last, as though he had not moved since that hour nine days ago, still
with his cigarette, still sphinx-like, narrow-eyed, watchful, stood Li
King.
Keith walked straight to him. And this time, as he approached, Li King
greeted him with a quick and subtle smile. He nipped his cigarette to
the tiled floor. He was bowing, gracious. Tonight he was not stupid.
"I have come to see Shan Tung," said Keith.
He had half expected to be refused, in which event he was prepared to
use his prerogative as an officer of the law to gain his point. But Li
King did not hesitate. He was almost eager. And Keith knew that Shan
Tung was expecting him.
They passed behind one of the screens and then behind another, until it
seemed to Keith their way was a sinuous twisting among screens. They
paused before a panel in the wall, and Li King pressed the black throat
of a long-legged, swan-necked bird with huge wings and the panel opened
and swung toward them. It was dark inside, but Li King turned on a
light. Through a narrow hallway ten feet in length he led the way,
unlocked a second door, and held it open, smiling at Keith.
"Up there," he said.
A flight of steps led upward and as Keith began to mount them the door
closed softly behind him. Li King accompanied him no further.
He mounted the steps, treading softly. At the top was another door, and
this he opened as quietly as Li King had closed the one below him.
Again the omnipresent screens, and then his eyes looked out upon a
scene which made him pause in astonishment. It was a great room, a room
fifty feet long by thirty in width, and never before had he beheld such
luxury as it contained. His feet sank into velvet carpets, the walls
were hung richly with the golds and browns and crimsons of priceless
tapestries, and carven tables and divans of deep plush and oriental
chairs filled the space before him. At the far end was a raised dais,
and before this, illumined in candleglow, was a kneeling figure. He
noticed then that there were many candles burning, that the room was
lighted by candles, and that in their illumination the figure did not
move. He caught the glint of armors standing up, warrior like, against
the tapestries, and he wondered for a moment if the kneeling figure was
a heathen god made of wood. It was then that he smelled the odor of
frankincense; it crept subtly into his nostrils and his mouth,
sweetened his breath, and made him cough.
At the far end, before the dais, the kneeling figure began to move. Its
arms extended slowly, they swept backward, then out again, and three
times the figure bowed itself and straightened, and with the movement
came a low, human monotone. It was over quickly. Probably two full
minutes had not passed since Keith had entered when the kneeling figure
sprang to its feet with the quickness of a cat, faced about, and stood
there, smiling and bowing and extending its hand.
"Good evening, John Keith!" It was Shan Tung. An oriental gown fell
about him, draping him like a woman. It was a crimson gown, grotesquely
ornamented with embroidered peacocks, and it flowed and swept about him
in graceful undulations as he advanced, his footfalls making not the
sound of a mouse on the velvet floors.
"Good evening, John Keith!" He was close, smiling, his eyes glowing,
his hand still outstretched, friendliness in his voice and manner. And
yet in that voice there was a purr, the purr of a cat watching its
prey, and in his eyes a glow that was the soft rejoicing of a triumph.
Keith did not take the hand. He made as if he did not see it. He was
looking into those glowing, confident eyes of the Chinaman. A Chinaman!
Was it possible? Could a Chinaman possess that voice, whose very
perfection shamed him?
Shan Tung seemed to read his thoughts. And what he found amused him,
and he bowed again, still smiling. "I am Shan Tung," he said with the
slightest inflection of irony. "Here--in my home--I am different. Do
you not recognize me?"
He waved gracefully a hand toward a table on either side of which was a
chair. He seated himself, not waiting for Keith. Keith sat down
opposite him. Again he must have read what was in Keith's heart, the
desire and the intent to kill, for suddenly he clapped his hands, not
loudly, once--twice--
"You will join me in tea?" he asked.
Scarcely had he spoken when about them, on all sides of them it seemed
to Keith, there was a rustle of life. He saw tapestries move. Before
his eyes a panel became a door. There was a clicking, a stir as of
gowns, soft footsteps, a movement in the air. Out of the panel doorway
came a Chinaman with a cloth, napkins, and chinaware. Behind him
followed a second with tea-urn and a bowl, and with the suddenness of
an apparition, without sound or movement, a third was standing at
Keith's side. And still there was rustling behind, still there was the
whispering beat of life, and Keith knew that there were others. He did
not flinch, but smiled back at Shan Tung. A minute, no more, and the
soft-footed yellow men had performed their errands and were gone.
"Quick service," he acknowledged. "VERY quick service. Shan Tung! But I
have my hand on something that is quicker!"
Suddenly Shan Tung leaned over the table. "John Keith, you are a fool
if you came here with murder in your heart," he said. "Let us be
friends. It is best. Let us be friends."