“No,” I said; “never until you spoke the name in a momentary fit of
illness this evening.”
The doctor gave me a swift, searching glance, as if questioning what I
might have learned. Presently he went to the door and looked out into the
passage, apparently assuring himself no one was within hearing; then,
locking the portal, he returned to his seat and said:
“So you never heard of the Seuen-H’sin—‘The Sect of the Two Moons’? Then
I will tell you: the Seuen-H’sin are the sorcerers of China, and the most
murderously diabolical breed of human beings on this earth! They are the
makers of these earthquakes that are aimed to wreck our world!”
The astronomer’s declaration so dumfounded me that I could only stare at
him, wondering if he were serious.
“The Seuen-H’sin are sorcerers,” he repeated presently, “whose devilish
power is shaking our planet to the core. And I say to you solemnly that
this ‘KWO’—who is Kwo-Sung-tao, high priest of the Seuen-H’sin—is a
thousand times more dangerous than all the conquerors in history! Already
he has absolute control of a hundred millions of people—mind and body,
body and soul!—holding them enthralled by black arts so terrible that the
civilized mind cannot conceive of them!”
Dr. Gresham leaned forward, his eyes shining brightly, his voice
betraying deep emotion.
“Have you any idea,” he demanded, “what goes on in the farthermost
interior of China? Has _any_ American or European?
“We read of a republic superseding her ancient monarchy, and we meet her
students who are sent here to our schools. We hear of the expansion of
our commerce along the jagged edges of that great Unknown, and we learn
of Chinese railroad projects fostered by our financiers. But no human
being in the outside world could possibly conceive what takes place
in that gigantic shadow land—vague and vast as the midnight heavens—a
continent unknown, impenetrable!
“Shut away in that remote interior—in a valley so little heard of that it
is almost mythical—beyond trackless deserts and the loftiest mountains
on the globe—this terrible sect of sorcerers has been growing in power
for thousands of years, storing up secret energy that some day should
inundate the world with horrors such as never have been known!
“And yet you never heard of the Seuen-H’sin! No; nor has any other
Caucasian, except, perhaps, a chance missionary or two.
“But I tell you _I have seen them_!”
Dr. Gresham was becoming strangely excited, and his voice rose almost
shrilly above the roar of the train.
“I have seen them,” he went on. “I have crossed the Mountains of Fear,
whose summits tower as high as from the earth to the moon, and I have
watched the stars dance at night upon their glaciers. I have starved upon
the dead plains of Dzun-Sz’chuen, and I have swum the River of Death.
I have slept in the Caves of Nganhwiu, where the hot winds never cease
and the dead light their campfires on their journey to Nirvana. And I
have seen, too”—there was a strange, entranced look on his face as he
spoke—“I have seen the Shadow of God on Tseih Hwan and K’eech-ch’a-gan!
But in the end I have dwelt in Wu-yang!
“Wu-yang,” he continued, after a brief pause, “is the center of the
Seuen-H’sin—a wondrous dream city beside a lake whose waters are as
opalescent as the sky at dawn; where the gardens are sweet-scented with
a million blooms, and the air is filed with bird songs and the music of
golden bells.
“But forgive me,” sighed the doctor, rousing himself from his ecstatic
train of thought; “I speak in the allegories of another land!”
We were silent for a time, until finally I suggested:
“And the Seuen-H’sin—The Sect of the Two Moons?”
“Ah, yes,” responded Dr. Gresham: “In Wu-yang the Beautiful I dwelt among
them. For three years that city was my home. I labored in its workshops,
studied in its schools, and—yes; I will admit it—I took part in those
hellish ceremonies in the Temple of the Moon God—to save myself from
death by fiendish torture. And, as my reward, I watched those devils at
their miraculous business—_the making of another moon_!”
We smoked a moment in silence. Then:
“Surely,” I objected, “you do not believe in miracles!”
“Miracles? Yes,” he affirmed seriously—“miracles of science. For the
sorcerers of China are scientists—the greatest that this world has yet
produced! Talk to me of modern progress—our arts and sciences, our
discoveries and inventions. Bah! They are child’s play—clap-trap!—beside
the accomplishments of this race of Chinese devils! We Americans boast of
our Thomas Edison. Why, the Seuen-H’sin have a thousand Edisons!
“Think of it—thousands of years before Copernicus discovered that the
earth revolves around the sun, Chinese astronomers understood the
nature of our solar system and accurately computed the movements of the
stars. The use of the magnetic compass was ancient even in those days.
A thousand years before Columbus was born their navigators visited the
western coast of North America and maintained colonies for a time. In the
year 2657 B. C. savants of the Seuen-H’sin completed engineering projects
on the Yellow River that never have been surpassed. And forty centuries
before Christ the physicians of China practiced inoculation against
smallpox and wrote erudite books on human anatomy.
“Scientists? Why, man alive, the Seuen-H’sin are the greatest scientists
that ever lived! But they haven’t the machinery or the materials or the
factories that have made the Western nations great. There they are—shut
up in their hidden valley, with no commercial incentives, no contact with
the world, no desire but to study and experiment.
“Their scientific development through centuries beyond number
has had only one object, which was the basis of their fanatical
religion—the discovery of a means to split this earth and project
an offshoot into space to form a second moon. And if our train
stopped this minute you probably could feel them somewhere beneath
you—hammering—hammering—hammering away at the world with their terrible
and mysterious power, which even now it may be too late to stop!”
The astronomer rose and paced the length of the compartment, apparently
so deep in thought that I was loath to disturb him. But finally I asked:
“Why do these sorcerers desire a second moon?”
Dr. Gresham resumed his seat and, lighting a fresh cigar, began:
“Numerous legends that are almost as old as the human race represent
that the earth once had two moons. And not a few modern astronomers have
held the same theory. Mars has two satellites, Uranus four, Jupiter five
and Saturn ten. The supposition of these scientists is that the second
satellite of the earth was shattered, and that its fragments are the
meteors which occasionally encounter our world in their flight.
“Now, in the far, far distant past, before the days of Huang-ti and
Yu—even before the time of the great semi-mythical kings, Yao and
Shun—there ruled in China an emperor of peculiar fame—Ssu-chuan, the
Universal.
“Ssu-chuan was a man of weak character and mediocre talents, but his
reign was the greatest in all Chinese history, due to the intelligence
and energy of his empress, Chwang-Keang.
“In those days, the legends tell us, the world possessed two moons.
“At the height of his prosperity Ssu-chuan fell in love with a very
beautiful girl, called Mei-hsi, who became his mistress.
“The Empress Chwang-Keang was as plain as Mei-hsi was beautiful, and in
time the mistress prevailed upon her lord to plot his wife’s murder,
so that Mei-hsi might be queen. Chwang-Keang was stabbed to death one
evening in her garden.
“With her death begins the history of Seuen-H’sin.
“Simultaneous with the murder of the empress, one of the moons vanished
from the sky. The Chinese legends say the spirit of the great ruler
took refuge upon the satellite, which fled with her from sight of the
earth. Modern astronomers say the satellite probably was shattered by an
internal explosion.
“Now that the firm hand of Chwang-Keang was lifted from affairs of state,
everything went wrong in China—until the country reverted virtually to
savagery.
“At last Ssu-chuan aroused himself from his pleasures sufficiently to
take alarm. He consulted his priests and seers, who assured him that
heaven was angry because of the murder of Chwang-Keang. Never again,
they said, would China know happiness or prosperity until the vanished
moon returned, bringing the spirit of the dead empress to watch over the
affairs of her beloved land. Upon her return, however, the glory of China
would rise again, and the Son of Heaven would rule the world.
“Upon receiving these tidings, the legends relate, Ssu-chuan was consumed
with pious zeal.
“Upon a lofty mountain behind the city he built the most magnificent
temple in the world, and installed there a special priesthood to beseech
heaven to restore the second moon. This priesthood was named the
Seuen-H’sin, or Sect of the Two Moons. The worship of the Moon God was
declared the state religion.
“Gradually the belief that the Seuen-H’sin was to restore the second
moon—and that, when this happened, the Celestial Kingdom again would
enjoy universal rule—became the fanatical faith of a fourth of China.
“But finally, in a fit of remorse, Ssu-chuan burnt himself alive in his
palace.
“The empire of Ssu-chuan dissolved, but the Seuen-H’sin grew greater.
Its high priest attained the most terrible and far-reaching power in
China. But in the second century B. C., Shi-Hwang-ti, the great military
emperor, made war upon the sorcerers and drove them across the Kuen-lun
mountains. Still they retained great wealth and power; and in Wu-yang
they made a city that is the dream spot of the world, equipped with
splendid colleges for the study of astronomy and the sciences and magic.
“As astronomical knowledge increased among the Seuen-H’sin, they came to
believe that the moon once was a part of the earth, having been blown out
of the hollow now filled by the Pacific Ocean. In this theory certain
eminent American and French astronomers lately have concurred.
“The Chinese sorcerers conceived the idea that by scientific means the
earth again could be rent asunder, and its offshoot projected into space
to form a second moon. Henceforth, all their labors were directed toward
finding that means. And the lust for world domination became the religion
of their race.
“When I dwelt among them they seemed to be drawing near their goal—and
now they probably have reached it!
“But if we may judge from these demands of Kwo-Sung-tao, their plans for
world conquest have taken a new and simpler turn: by threatening to use
their mysterious force to dismember the globe they hope to subjugate
mankind just as effectively as they expected to do by creating a second
moon and fulfilling their prophecy. Why wreck the earth, if they can
conquer it by threats?
“If they are able to enforce their demands it will not be long before
civilization is face-to-face with those powers of evil that grind
a quarter of China’s millions beneath their ghastly rule—a rule of
fanaticism and terror that would stun the world!”
Dr. Gresham paused and peered out the window. There was an unearthly look
on his face when he again turned toward me.
“I have seen,” he said, “those hideous powers of the Seuen-H’sin—things
of horror such as the Western mind cannot conceive! When the beating of
my heart shall cease forever, when my body has been buried in the grave,
and when the Seuen-H’sin’s torture scars”—he tore open his shirt and
revealed frightful cicatrices upon his chest—“have vanished in the final
dissolution, then, even then, I shall not forget those devils out of hell
in Wu-yang, and I shall feel their power clutching at my soul!”
_CHAPTER IV._