"Why did you remove Hun Sun?"
Only a slight in-drawing of the lips followed my question, a twitch for
the fraction of a second passed over his expressionless features.
"You are aware, then, that his Excellency is dead?"
"Yes. Why did you murder him?"
"This is childish, madame, and outside the point at issue."
"Neither the one nor the other, Ling Wen, for because I know this you
are going to hand me that seal and conduct me to my carriage."
"You will be pleased to prove it, madame."
"Undoubtedly. Hun Sun was sent with a message to be delivered by word of
mouth to France. A message that dare not be written."
Ling Wen nodded ever so slightly.
"It may be so, madame; I do not know."
"A man who knew what Hun Sun did was too dangerous to be allowed to
return to China, for he might hold even the Emperor himself within the
hollow of his hand."
"I follow your reasoning, madame; it is excellent."
"The life of a man in China is always counted as insignificant. Is it
not so, Ling Wen?"
"Who could be so ungallant as to contradict you?" he suavely responded.
"Hun Sun was sent with the message, and you, Ling Wen, were to kill him
when he had delivered it."
"Well, madame?"
"Because I know this, you will give me the seal and conduct me to my
carriage."
Ling Wen shook his head.
"No, madame, the price is too high for a series of deductions, clever
though they be. His Excellency died from natural causes."
"You are sure the physicians will say so?"
"Their opinion will not be asked. The French government cannot insult
our illustrious dead. Hun Sun is dead. That is sufficient."
"But because of the part you have played, Ling Wen, I demand the seal as
the price of my silence."
He rose from his seat and paced the room, and when he spoke again his
voice, for a Chinaman, had grown strangely incisive.
"I should not be swayed by a threat, madame, but if I can grant you a
favor, I will."
"Call it by which name you please," I cried, seeing signs of his
wavering.
"Why do you want the seal?"
"Are you for France or Russia, Ling Wen?"
"I am for China," he answered, quietly; "even a heathen has patriotism.
Why do you want the seal?"
I sat and pondered. How much must I tell him, and how much hold back? I
looked anxiously at the seal as it lay upon the stool, and he
interpreted my glance.
"For the moment," he said, "it is on neutral ground, and shall remain so
until we have diplomatically solved the problem."
I still hesitated; but there was no other way, and so perforce I took
the only one open to me.
"It is to seal an alliance between France and China."
"Ah!" He smiled with delight, nodded his head approvingly, and spread
out his long fingers, as though he warmed them at a fire.