|A BEWILDERED, crushed Rocky Kane stood tightly holding the rail;
staring down at the softly black water that ran so smoothly along the
hull beneath; muttering in whispers that at intervals broke out into
heated speech. This strange princess had humiliated him perfectly,
completely; there had been nothing he could say, nothing to do but go;
and she had let him go without a look or a further thought. He told
himself it was unfair. He had swallowed his pride and apologized. Could
a man do more?
But pressing upward through this chaotic mental surface of hurt pride
and insistent self-justification came an equally insistent memory of
his outrageous conduct toward her. As the moments passed, the memory
intensified into a painfully vivid picture. His native intelligence,
together with the undeveloped decency that was somewhere within him,
kept at him with dart-like, stinging thoughts. He had insulted not only
herself but her race as well, in assuming a ruthless right to make free
with her.
Then self-justification again; how could he know that she spoke English
and dressed like the girls back home? Was it fair of her to masquerade
like that?
He was miserably wrong, of course. And his nerves were terribly
upset. That was at least part of the trouble, his nerves; he lighted
a cigarette to steady them. The match shook in his hand. This nervous
trembling had been increasing lately; he found it an alarming symptom.
Perhaps the trouble was inherent weakness. Ability like his father's
often skipped a generation; and character. Yes, he was weak, he had
failed at everything. His college career was a wreck; a monstrous wreck,
he believed, echoes from which would follow him through life. To his
incoherent mind it seemed that he had about all the vices--drinking,
gambling, pursuing helpless girls, even smoking opium. His one faith had
been money; but now he suddenly, wretchedly, knew that even the money
might fail him. It was as easy to toss away a million as a hundred on
the red or the black. And then young men who wasted themselves acquired
diseases from the terrors of which no fortune could promise release; a
thought that had long dwelt uncomfortably in a sensitive, deep-shadowed
corner of his brain.... a brain that was racing now, beyond control.
Her unfairness lay in so publicly snubbing him. Her father knew the
facts, as did Miss Carmichael, and the big mate, that old preacher with
a mysterious past. Who was he, anyhow--setting up to regulate other
people's lives?
Then rose among these turbulent thoughts a picture of the princess as
she was now, there in the social hall. Tears welled into his eyes; he
brushed them away, lighted a fresh cigarette and deeply inhaled the
smoke. He had rushed out; suddenly, wildly, he desired to rush back.
She was beautiful. She had quaintly moving charm. A rare little lady! It
seemed almost that he might compel her to listen while he explained.
But what was it that he was to explain? That he was some other than the
dirty sort they all knew him to be, that he had proved himself to be?
The wild thoughts were like a beating in his brain. It was his father's
fault, this crazy nervousness, and his mother's.... He hated that big
mate. Self-pity rose like a tidal wave, and engulfed him. He stared and
stared at the softly dark water. Beginning with about his sixteenth year
he had wrestled often with the thought of suicide, as so many sensitive
young men do. Now the water fascinated him; it was so still, it moved
so resistlessly on to the sea. “A pretty easy way to slip out. Just a
little splash---I could climb down. Nobody'd know. Nobody'd care much
of a damn. Oh, the old man would think he cared, but he wouldn't. He'll
never make a bank president out of me. And that's all he wants.”
A voice, guardedly friendly, said, “Better not let yourself talk that
way.”
He turned with a start. Miss Carmichael was standing there by the rail.
So he had talked aloud--another unpleasant symptom.
“You--you saw what--”
She inclined her head. “What's the good of letting it upset you? Lie
down for a while. A pipe or two wouldn't hurt you. You're nervous as a
witch. It would soothe you.” He stared at her.
“Better lie down anyway,” she said, taking his arm and moving him toward
his cabin. “You don't want them to see you like this.”
He yielded. His will was powerless. He dropped on the seat, while
she lingered, almost sympathetically, in the doorway, an unbelievably
girlish figure in the half light. Something of the influence she had
been exerting on him--which had seemed to die when Miss Hui Fei entered
the social hall--fluttered to life now. He found relief, abruptly, in
recklessness.
“Come on in,” he said huskily. “Have a pipe with me!”
Quietly, wholly matter-of-fact, she closed and locked the door. “We'll
shut the window, too, this time,” she said.
“You needn't turn on the light.” He was reaching for his trunk. “Excuse
me--a minute! I can see all right. I know just where everything is.”
“Leave the trunk out,” said she. “And lay your suit-case on it. Then we
can put the lamp on that.”
Miss Hui Fei led Doane to a seat under the curving front windows.
“We mus' talk as if ever'thing were ver' pleasan'.” The question rose
again, but without bitterness now, how she could smile so brightly. “I
have learn' some more. It is ver' difficul' to tell you, but.... it is
difficul' to think, even.... so strange that at firs' I laugh'.”....
Yes, there were tears in her eyes. But how bravely she fought them back
and smiled again. He felt his own eyes filling, and turned quickly
to the window; but not so quickly that she failed to see. She was
sensitively observant, despite her own trouble. For a moment, then,
they were silent, lost in a deep common sympathy that was bread to his
starving heart.
It was in that moment that their little conspiracy nearly broke down.
Had any of the others in the big room looked just then, gossip would
have spread swiftly; certainly sharp-eyed mandarins would have found
matter for consideration; for Hui Fei impulsively found his hand as it
rested between them on the seat, and was met with a quick warm pressure.
And then, in another moment, she was speaking, quite herself. “My maid
has foun' out tha' they are sending the head eunuch from the Forbidden
C'ty to our home. An' that is agains' the law.”
“Of course,” said he. “Even the Old Buddha never tried but once to send
out a eunuch on government business. That was the notorious An Te-hai.
And he never returned; he was caught in Shantung--in a barge of state
on the Grand Canal--and beheaded. Even the Old Buddha couldn't do that.
This woman is amazing. But of course there is really no government at
Peking now--only this strange anachronism.”
“He has orders to seize all father's beautifu' things the paintings an'
stones an' carvings.”
“The rebels may catch him. They'd make short work of him.”
“I ask about that. The rebels have cross the river from Wu Chang to Han
Yang, but they have not yet reach the railway. That comes into Hankow
from this side.”
“Even so,” he mused, “the train service from Peking must have broken
down. Though they're running troop trains south, of course.”
“I haven't tol' you all of it.” Her voice was low and unsteady. “This
eunuch, Chang Yuan-fu, is ordered, by the empress, to take me to Peking
too. They are all whispering about it. The empress is angry at my
foreign ways, and will marry me to a Manchu duke. She di'n' like it when
my father tol' her I mus' marry no man I di'n' choose myself.... I think
you ough' to smile.”
Mechanically he obeyed.
“It seems almos' funny.” murmured Miss Hui. “Sometimes I can no' believe
tha' such a thing could happen. When I think of America an' England and
all the worl' we know to-day, I can no' believe that such wicked things
can happen.”
It was anything but unreal to Doane. He knew too well that America
and England, even all the white peoples, make up but a fraction of
the inhabitants of this strange earth. His eyes filled again as he
considered the possible--yes, the probable fate of the lovely girl at
his side. In such a time of disorganization the reckless Manchu woman at
Peking could do much. Chang might lose his head at the sound of gunfire
in Han Yang and fly back to the capital, or he might not. A capable and
corrupt eunuch would run heavy risks to gain such a prize. For a huge
prize the viceroy's collection would indeed be; many of the priceless
stones and paintings would never reach the throne.
The thought came of trying to persuade her to save herself; a thought
that was as promptly discarded. She would not leave her father while he
lived. He, of course, would not take his own life elsewhere than in
his ancestral home. And to that home, with his inevitable escort of
underlings and soldiers, was hurrying--if not already there--this Chang
Yuan-fu, one of those powerfully venomous creatures that have figured
darkly at intervals in the history of China.
Doane spoke low and quickly: “Can you find out when Chang's train left
Peking, Miss Hui?”
“No, I have try ver' har' to learn. I think they don' know that. It is
so importan' to know that, too, because my father”--Her voice faltered.
Doane once again, with a swift glance to left and right, took her hand
and, for a brief moment, gripped it firmly. “You haven' yet spoken to my
father?”
“Not yet, dear Miss Hui.... you must smile!.... I have found it very
difficult to think out a way of approaching him. Your father is a great
viceroy. He might take it ill that I should venture to interfere in what
he would feel to be the supreme sacred act of his life. He might”--Doane
hesitated--“even for you he might feel that he couldn't turn back.”
“I know,” she said, very low. “I have thought of tha', too. But they
shall never take me to Peking.”
He understood. The suicide of girls as a protest against unwelcome
marriage was a commonplace in China. It was, indeed, for thousands the
only way out. She knew that, of course. And she spoke there out of her
blood.
“I will speak to-morrow,” he murmured. “Before we reach Huang Chau. We
have nothing to lose. He can only rebuff me.”
He felt now that in this tragic drama was bound up all that might be
left to him of happiness. The guiding motive of his life was--there was
a divine recklessness in the thought--to save Hui Fei, to make her smile
again, with a happy heart. She whispered now:
“Thank you.”
He asked her, abruptly changing his manner, almost distantly courteous,
about her life in an American college. Little by little, as she made
the effort to follow him into this impersonal atmosphere, her brightness
returned.
The record was scraping its last. Applause came from the dancers,
in which she joined. The Manila Kid wound the machine again, and the
dancers swung again into motion.
“I am asking too much of you,” she murmured. “But I have been frighten'.
I coul'n' think wha' to do.”
He had to set his teeth on the burning phrases that rushed from his long
unpractised heart, eager for utterance. “I will take you back to your
father,” he said.
In his mind it was settled. Whatever strange events might lie before
them, they should not take her to Peking. His own life, as well as hers,
stood in the way. It had come to that with him.
It was near to midnight when the _Yen Hsin_, on advices from Hankow,
headed again upstream. At the first throb of the engine the white
passengers stopped dancing and came out on deck. There was gaiety, even
a little cheering.
It was perhaps two hours later when Doane, asleep in his cabin, heard
the shots, confused with the incidents of a dream. But at the first
screams of the women below decks he sprang from his berth. Some one
was banging on his door; he opened; the second engineer stood there,
coatless and hatless, a revolver in his hand, and a little blood on his
cheek.
“All hell's broken loose below,” said the young Scotchman. “Chief's
down there. I tried to get to him, but--God, they're all over the
place--fighting one another.”
“Who are, MacKail?” Doane hurriedly drew on trousers and coat, and
thrust his feet into his slippers.
“The viceroy's soldiers. Revolutionary stuff.”
Doane got his automatic pistol from a drawer in the desk; quickly filled
an extra clip with cartridges; went forward. The Scotchman had already
gone aft.
The engine was still running, the steamer moving steadily up the moonlit
river. The uproar below decks sounded muffled, far-away. It might have
been nothing more than a little night excitement in a village along the
shore. The shooting continued. Men were shouting. There were more shrill
screams; and then splashes overside. As he hurried forward, staring over
the rail, Doane caught a passing glimpse of a face down there in the
foam and a white arm. The white men were stumbling drowsily out of their
cabins; he saw one of the customs men, in pajamas, and Tex Connor. They
hurled questions at him but he brushed them aside.
Captain Benjamin stood over the cringing pilot with a revolver.
“Engine room don't answer!” he shouted coolly enough. “And we can't get
to it. Take MacKail and try to get through. I'll make this rat keep her
in the channel.”
Doane ran back. More of the men were out, talking excitedly together. He
paused to say: “Get any weapons you have, every man of you, and see that
none but women get up to this deck! Keep the men down!”
MacKail stood at the head of the port after stairway, outside the rear
cabins, a big Australian beside him.
“They're just naturally carving one another up,” observed the
Australian.
“Come,” said Doane, and went down the steps.
The noise and confusion were great down here. Women were crowding out of
the lower cabins, sobbing hysterically, tearing their hair and beating
their breasts, crowding forward and aft along the deckway or climbing
awkwardly over the rail and slipping off into the river.
Doane shouted a reassuring word in their own tongue; pointed to the
steps; finally drew one girl forcibly back from the rail and started her
up. Others followed, screaming all the way. Still others clung to the
white men.
Doane broke away and plunged into the dim interior of the boat. Most
of the lights were out. Dark figures were wrestling. There were grunts,
groans, savage cries of rage and triumph. A huge pole-knife caught
the light as it swung. Doane was aware of men breathing hard as they
struggled.
He stumbled over an inert body; would have fallen had not the Australian
caught him. A tall soldier who lunged toward them with a dripping
bayonet was shot by MacKail.... There were no means here of
distinguishing the parties to this savage struggle, but in the inner
corridor it was lighter. Near at hand two of the republicans--queues cut
off, dressed in an indistinguishable but odd-appearing uniform of some
light gray stuff with a white cloth tied about the left arm, had heaped
bodies across the corridor and were shooting over them at a darker mass
just forward of the engine room.
Doane shouted at the republicans, ordering them to withdraw. They shook
their heads angrily. One, even as he tried to reply, sank into a limp
heap with a dark stream trickling from a hole in his forehead. His
comrade bent low to reload his rifle. With the shouting of many hoarse
voices the dark mass up forward came charging down the corridor. Doane
was firing into them when MacKail and the Australian caught his arm
and drew him back through the doorway. From that position, however,
all three could shoot the blue-clad attackers as they plunged by the
opening. Then, however, they had to defend themselves. The soldiers came
on by dozens. Doane had his second clip of cartridges in his pistol.
“Get back!” he shouted to the others. “Guard the steps--they'll be
coming up for loot!”
They retreated. Two bodies lay huddled on the steps they had left but
a few moments earlier. A few dead women were on the deck and one or two
men.
Even as they stepped over the bodies and mounted to the deck above, all
three men, their faculties sharpened to a supernatural degree by
the ugly thrill of combat, took in the details of what was evidently
accepted among these republican rebels as their uniform--a suit of
unmistakably American woolen underwear, the drawers supported by
bright-colored American suspenders; socks worn outside (like the
suspenders) with garters that bore the trademark name of an American
city, and finally, American shoes. So the enthusiasm of these young
revolutionists for the greatest of republics found expression! And
across the breast of each, lettered on a strip of white cloth, was the
inscription that Sun Shi-pi had so glibly translated as “Dare to Die.”
Sun must have brought along these supposedly Western uniforms in his
pedler's trunks.
It was never to be known what surprising incidents had preceded this
sudden slaughter. The chief engineer might have told, but his mutilated
body Doane found, on his second attempt to get through, lying just
across the sill of the engine room, as if he had been stepping out to
reason with them.
The entire battle lasted barely half an hour. It was, for the white
folk, a period of confusion and terror. Toward the end, the blue men,
utter outlaws now, made rush after rush up the various stairways and
ladders, only to be fought back at every point by the white men and the
few surviving officers of his excellency's force. They were like the
most primitive savages, knowing neither fear nor reason. The blood-lust
that at times captures the spirit of this normally phlegmatic and
reasonable people drove them for the time to the point of madness.
At last, however, they drew off below. Two of the boats were within
their reach. These they lowered, and despite the speed of steamer and
current, though not without evident loss of life, they got them over,
tumbled into them, and fell away into the night astern. Then for the
first and last time this night Doane saw the redoubtable Tom Sung.
He stood in the nearer boat, brandishing a rifle and screeching wild
phrases in Chinese.
MacKail took the engine room. Captain Benjamin, still, grimly, pistol
in hand, held the pilot to his task. There was no crew to clean the
shambles below decks, yet with the few loyal soldiers who had managed
to hide away now at the furnaces, the steamer wound her way steadily
up-stream.
Doane found what had once been the earnest Sun Shi-pi in the starboard
corridor, below. On his body were the uniform, white brassard and motto
of the “Dare to Dies.” They had beheaded him.
The passengers, clad and half clad, nervous, talkative, hung about the
decks. The two teachers, curiously self-possessed, sat side by side at
the dining table. From the quarters of his excellency, aft, came the
continuous sound of women moaning and wailing.... It was, to the eye, but
a river steamer plowing up-stream in the moonlight. But to the senses of
those aboard the situation was a nightmare, already an incredible memory
while sleep-drugged eyes were slowly opening.... To the mighty river
it was but one more incident in the vivid, often bloody drama of a
long-suffering, endlessly struggling people....
In his spacious cabin, his eyes shaded from the electric light by a
screen of jade set in tulip wood, dressed in his robes of ceremony,
wearing the ruby-crowned hat of state with the down-slanting peacock
feather, his excellency sat quietly reading the precepts of Chuang Tzü.
“Hui Tzü asked,” (he read) 'Are there, then, men who have no passions?
If he be a man, how can he be without passions?'
“'By a man without passions,' replied Chuang Tzü, I mean one who permits
neither evil nor good to disturb his inner life, but accepts whatever
comes.... The pure men of old neither loved life nor hated death.
Cheerfully they played their parts, patiently awaited the end. This is
what is called not to lead the heart away from Tao.... The true sage
ignores God; he ignores man; he ignores a beginning; he ignores matter;
he accepts life as it may be and is not overwhelmed. If he fail, what
matters it? If he succeed, is it not that he was provided through no
effort of his own with the energy necessary to success.... The life of
man passes like a galloping horse, changing at every turn. What should
he do; what should he not do? It passes as a sunbeam passes a small
opening in a wall--here for a moment, then gone.... let knowledge stop
at the unknowable. That is perfection.'”
It is to be doubted if even Doane gave regard at the moment to the
possible origin of the fire. It had spread through two or three of
the upper cabins by way of the ventilating grills and was roaring out
through a doorway by the time he heard the new outcry and ran to
the spot. The white men were rushing about. Rocky Kane, collarless,
disheveled, was fumbling ineffectually at the emergency fire hose; him
Doane pushed aside. But the flames spread amazingly; worked through
the grill-work from cabin to cabin; soon were licking at the walls and
furniture of the social hall.
Doane left Dawley Kane and Tex Conner--an oddly matched couple--manning
the hose, others at work with the chemical extinguishers, while he went
forward through the thickening smoke to the bridge.
Captain Benjamin said, huskily, almost apologetically--his eyes red and
staring, his face haggard: “I'm beaching her.”
And in another moment she struck, where the channel ran close under an
island.
Lowering the boats without a crew proved difficult. Already the fire had
reached those forward. Doane, the other mate and MacKail did what
they could. The Chinese women crowded hither and thither, screaming,
rendering order impossible. In the confusion one boat drifted off with
only Connor, the Manila Kid, and Miss Carmichael.
Captain Benjamin was cut off by the quick progress of the flames. The
whole forward end of the cabin structure was now a roaring furnace,
fortunately working forward on the down-stream breeze rather than aft.
The flames blazed from moment to moment higher; sparks danced higher
yet; the heat was intense. Doane sent the viceroy and his suite below,
aft, where the deck was still strewn with bodies and slippery with
blood. With three available boats, fighting back the crowding women and
the more excitable among his excellency's secretaries, he sent ashore,
first the women, then his excellency and the men. Hui Fei--she had
slipped hastily into the little Chinese costume she wore at their
midnight talk, and had thrown about it an opera cloak from New
York--went in one of the first boats; Doane himself handed her in. The
two teachers, pale, very composed, followed. At the oars were two of the
customs men, faces streaked with grime and sweat.
To his excellency, as the last boats got away, Doane said: “I will
follow you soon. I must look once more for the captain.”
“I will send back a boat,” said the viceroy.
Doane ran up to the upper and promenade decks. There was no sound save
the roaring and crackling of the fire. There seemed no chance of getting
forward. In the large after cabin stood the six-fold Ming screen.
Quickly he folded it; there seemed a chance of getting it ashore. He
thought, with a passing regret, of the _pi_ of jade; but there was no
reaching his own cabin now. He stepped out on deck. There, clear aft,
leaning against the cabin wall, stood Rocky Kane, like a man half
asleep, rubbing his eyes; and crouching against his knee, clinging to
his hand, was the little princess in her gay golden yellow vest over the
flowered skirt and her quaint hood of fox skin.
Doane caught the young man's shoulder; swung him about; looked closely
into the dull eyes with the tiny pupils.
“So!” he cried, “that again, eh!”
“I can't understand”--thus Rocky--“I don't see how it could have
happened. It couldn't have been my fault.”
Doane saw now that his head had been burned above one ear; and the hand
that pressed his face was blistered white.
“It _wasn't_ my fault! I found myself out on deck. I tried to get the
hose.”
“Yes, I saw you. Quick--get below.”
Doane tenderly lifted the little princess.
Rocky was still incoherently talking; promising reform; blaming himself
in the next breath after hotly defending himself. His voice was somewhat
thick. He was drowsy--swayed and stumbled as he moved toward the stairs.
Doane, speaking gently in Chinese to the child, stood a moment
considering. The heat was becoming intolerable. It wouldn't do to keep
the little one here. He carried her down the stairs.
Below, the boy faced him. “I'm no good,” he whimpered. “I can't wake up.
Hit me--do something--I won't be like this.”
Doane considered him during a brief instant. They were standing under
a light, their feet slipping on the deck, bodies lying about. With the
flat of his hand, then, Duane struck the side of the boy's head that
was not burned; struck harder than he meant, for the boy went down, and
then, after sprawling about, got muttering to his feet.
“It's all right!” he cried unsteadily. “I asked you to do it. I'm going
to get hold of myself. I've been no good--rotten. I've touched bottom.
But I'm going to fight it out--get somewhere.” His egotism, even now
amazingly held him. Even as he spoke he was dramatizing himself. But his
pupils were widening a little; he was in earnest, crying bitterly out
of a drugged mind and conscience. And Doane, looking down at him, felt
stirring in his heart, though curiously mixed with a twinge of jealousy
for his youth and the hopes before him, something of the sympathy his
long deep experience had instilled there toward blindly struggling young
folk. Boys, after all, were normally egotists. And Heaven knew this boy
had so far been given no sort of chance!
Doane led the way clear aft. The heat was terrific. From a row of fire
buckets he sprinkled the little princess; bathed her temples. The water
was warm, but it helped.
Young Kane, with a nervous movement, suddenly picked up one, then
another, of the buckets and dashed them over himself. Distinctly he was
coming to life. “We may never come out of this, Mr. Doane,” he said.
“It's a terrible fix.” More and more, as he came slowly awake, he was
dramatizing the situation and himself. “But I want to say this. I've
never known a man like you. You're fine--you're big--you've helped me
as no one else has. I'll never be like you--it isn't in me. I've already
gone as close to hell as a man can go and perhaps still save himself--”
“Can you swim?” asked Doane shortly.
“I--why, yes, a little. I'm not what you'd call a strong swimmer.”
Doane was wetting the princess's face and his own. There would be
little time left. There was smoke now. He found a slight difficulty in
breathing; evidently the fire had eaten through, forward, to the lower
decks.
“They won't be able to get a boat back here,” he said, and quietly
pointed out the still blazing pieces of board that, after whirling into
the air, were drifting by. A terrific blast of heat swept about them,
indicating a change of wind.
“Wait here a moment for me,” he added. “I must make one more effort to
find Captain Benjamin. If that fails, we can swim ashore.”
He tried working his way forward when the heat proved too great in the
corridor, climbing out on the windward side of the hull. But the flames
were eating steadily aft; he could not get far. Beaten back, he returned
to the stem to discover that the child and Rocky Kane were gone. After
a moment he saw them in the water, a few rods away, first a gleam of
yellow that would be the jacket of the little princess, then their two
heads close together.
He lowered himself down a boat-line and swam after them. In the water
this giant was as easily at home as in any form of exercise on land.
Within the year he had swum at night, alone, for the sheer vital
pleasure the use of his strength brought him, the nine miles from Wusung
to Shanghai--slipping between junks and steamers, past the anchored
war-ships and a great P. & O. liner from Bombay. The water was cool,
refreshing. He stretched his full length in it, rolling his face under
as one arm and then the other reached out in slow powerful strokes.
Young Kane was having no easy time of it. He was clearly out of wind.
And the child whimpered as she clung tightly about his neck.
“I gave you up,” he sputtered weakly. Then added, with an evidence of
spirit that Doane found not displeasing: “No, don't take her, please!
Just steady me a little.” He was struggling in short strokes, splashing
a good deal. “We ought to touch bottom now pretty quick.”
Sampans and the boats of the cormorant fishers were edging into the
wide circle of light about the steamer. Along the shore of the island
clustered the groups of mandarins, their silk and satin robes forming a
bright spot in the vivid picture.
Doane found the sand then; walked a little way and helped the nearly
exhausted boy to his feet.
“They're coming down the shore,” said Rocky, trying, without great
success, to speak casually.
Doane looked up and saw them running--white men, Chinese servants,
mandarins holding up their robes, women, and last, walking rapidly, his
excellency.
It was Hui Fei, throwing off her cloak and running lightly ahead,
who took the frightened child from young Kane's arms and carried her
tenderly up the bank. There as the attendants gathered anxiously about
them, she tossed the child high, petted her, kissed her, until the tears
gave place to laughter. The tall eunuch wrapped the little princess then
in his own coat; and Hui Fei accepted the opera cloak that transformed
her again in an instant from a slimly quaint Manchu girl to a young
woman of New York.
Doane stood by. Toward him she did not look. But to Rocky Kane, who
lay on the bank, she turned with bright eagerness. He got, not without
effort, to his feet.
Smiling--happily, it seemed to the bewildered, brooding Doane--she gave
him her hand; led him to meet her father.
“You have met Mr. Kane,” she said. “It was he who save' little sister.
He risk' his life to bring her here, father.”
Rocky, throwing back his hair and brushing the water from his eyes,
stood, his sensitive face working nervously, very straight, very
respectful, and took the hand of the viceroy.
There was, then, manhood in him. The viceroy recognized the fact in his
friendly smile. Hui Fei plainly recognized it as she walked, chatting
brightly, at his side, while he bent on her a gaze of boyish adoration.
As for Doane, he moved away unobserved; dropped at length on a knoll,
rested his great head on his hands, and gazed out at the blazing
steamer. She would soon be quite gone. Poor Benjamin was gone already;
a strange little man, one of the many that drift through life without
a sense of direction, always bewildered about it, always hoping vaguely
for some better lot. It had been a tragic night; and yet all this horror
would soon seem but an incident in the spreading revolution. It had
always been so in China. In each rebellion, as in the mighty conquests
of the Mongols and the Manchus, death had stalked everywhere with a
casual terribleness. Life meant, at best, so little. Genghis Khan's
men had boasted of slaying twenty millions in the northwestern provinces
alone within the span of a single decade. The new trouble must
inevitably run its course; and what a course it might prove to be!
From the mere effort to face this immediate future Doane found his mind
recoiling; much as strong minds were to recoil, only three years later,
when the German army should march through Belgium.
He gave up that problem, came down to the particular thought of this
swiftly growing new love that had stolen into his heart. The hope of
personal happiness had passed now. Self seemed, like the life to which
it so eagerly clung, not to matter. Instead that hope was growing into
a profound tenderness toward the girl. She was, after all--the thought
came startlingly--about the age of his own daughter, Betty, whom he
had not seen during these three strange years. Betty and her journalist
husband would be somewhere in Turkestan now; he was studying central
Asia for a book, she sketching the native types. For a long time no
letter had come.... It was a fine experience, this unbidden stir of the
emotions, this thrill. There was mystery in it, and wonder. Merely to
have that almost youthful responsiveness still at call within his breast
was an indication that life might yet hold, even for him, the derelict,
rich promise. And it was a reminder, now, to his clearing brain that his
life must be service. He must find terms on which to offer himself, his
gifts. His spirit had been molded, after all, to no lesser end.
The viceroy drew away then from the group about the child; came
deliberately along the bank. The increasing tenderness Doane felt
toward Hui Fei reached also to her father, who was facing with such fine
dignity the grim ending of a richly useful life. Now, perhaps, he could
plead with him for the daughter's sake. Somehow, certainly, happiness
must be found for her. In pleading he would be serving her.
His brain was swinging into something near balance; it was, after all, a
good brain, trained to function clearly, mellowed through patient years
of unhappiness. It would help him now to fight for the girl, to save
her, if he might, from the dark ways of the Forbidden City. She called
herself so naively an “American.” The West had thrilled her. She must
not be given over to the eunuch, Chang.
So, even as he contrived a sort of self-control, even as he determined
to forget his own little moment of romantic hopefulness, the lover
within him stood triumphant over all his other selves.