THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHINESE JAR
The events which succeeded upon my escape from the _Fair Haven_ of
Wapping have come to assume in my mind a significance and singular
quality of completeness that hath, therefore, moved me to bestow upon
them the name of the "Adventure of the Chinese Jar;" for, detached from
every circumstance, there yet stands out, clear and hard against my
background of memory, that odd, fantastic shape of a blue-painted jar,
with its dragon-guarded lid, its flowered panels, and a haunting
remnant scent of the spices it had once enclosed.
I left the ooze and filthy slime of the river-bank when I had gone some
furlong or so, and, turning inland up a row of squalid cabins, got at
length into the Minories, and entered through the wall by Aldgate.
Methought that some of the guard I encountered about the gatehouse
regarded me with looks of surprise and ill-will, which, indeed, the
disorderliness of my clothing necessarily invited, as well, perhaps, as
a no very restrained gait and behaviour, for I was in a fever to be
forward upon my errand, and dreaded the least hindrance therein.
However, none accosting me, I passed by into the City, and was already
proceeding at a great rate towards Tower Royal, when I came upon a
group of persons that were talking eagerly and in loud voices, so that
I could not but hear a part of their discourse.
"He will certainly be apprehended before nightfall," said one, a
merchant by his habit; "so close a watch do they keep in these days
upon all suspected malefactors."
"I know not the man by either the names he goeth by; neither Skene nor
Cleeve," said another.
"It is not likely you should," said the first, with a twinkle of his
grey eyes, "that are inquest-man of this wardmote, and brother to a
canon."
I stepped close to the man had spoken last, and, doffing my cap, said:
"Sir, I am but just arrived in this town, but overhearing something of
that hath been made mention of betwixt you, I imagined that I heard the
name of one Cleeve in question."
"You did," said the merchant; "Cleeve or Skene, for 'tis all one. But,
why? Do you know the fellow?"
"It is my own name," I replied modestly; "at least, Cleeve is, and so
if you were inquiring after me, I am here to serve you."
A great laughter moved the whole party at my seeming ingenuousness, and
the merchant replied--
"No, no, honest Mr. Cleeve; go your ways and keep your innocence. But
this other Cleeve is one grown old in treachery; a harbourer of Jesuits
and Spanish spies, against whom a writ runs for his immediate
attachment, and upon whose crafty head there is a price set."
"Is he escaped away then?" said I.
"He hath no settled habitation," replied one that held a paper in his
hands, upon which he continually looked, "but was last seen at a
certain great ruined house over against the Galley Quay, from which he
is now fled, no man knows whither. But from manifest evidence it
appeareth he is engaged in deep and secret designs against the State,
in which moreover he works not singly."
"Now, I marvel how, if his abode were so positively known and his
conduct anyways dubious, he came to be allowed such freedom to go in
and out, as the sequel shows was done," I returned with some study of
resentment.
"Why, as to that, it is but since he is gone that the case is proved
against him; for upon a search which was then made of all the chambers
of that house, there was discovered a very nest of those he was in
treaty with, whose names be here set down, and themselves are brought
to-day before the Council to be examined." He handed me the paper as
he spoke, wherein I read the list of them. There were three Spanish
men of high-sounding titles, and two or three alleged to be malignant
Papists. Here was answer enough to Master Malpas, I thought, and with
a vengeance! I returned the paper, and presently saluting, took my
leave.
Very full of thought, I went forward until I had come into that web of
mean streets I spoke of, below Tower Royal, which was where Idonia had
said her guardian should probably be found. But although I spent the
greater part of the afternoon in that quarter, I saw him not, nor any I
dared trust, to inquire after him. Indeed, the longer I stayed, the
more ill-considered and absurd did my precipitancy to this business
appear, so that at last I gave it over altogether, and being by then
got as far as to the Three Cranes Wharf, I stood idly there a great
while, watching the wharfingers at their task of ordering the heavy
goods that were there piled up and stored. Against the wharf lay a
barge or lighter moored, which I perceived had but lately discharged
the cargo of some great galley that rested below bridge in the fairway.
There is ever something that fascinates a man in this his own careless
regarding of other men at work; and I had already stayed upon the quay
no small while, before I bethought myself to return; though, when I had
so determined, it came upon me that 'twas one thing to get out of
prison (I mean mine Inn), but altogether a different matter to get in
again, and so fell to considering whether I should make my entrance
boldly by the ordinary door, or whether creep in after nightfall, by
the vent in the cellar-wall I had escaped by.
Now I had not altogether decided this matter, when I found myself in
that steep little lane I had inadvertently descended so many months
since in the fog, of which the houses upon both sides stood almost all
of them closed up and shuttered as though (to repeat what I then said)
the place had been visited by the plague; which deathlike and stealthy
character it yet maintained. There was nobody, man nor child, in the
street as I slowly mounted it, a strange sense of abhorrence and
foreboding gathering about my heart: while to this distress of my mind
was now added the annoyance of a smart squall of rain and wind, that,
suddenly breaking, had soon wetted me through, but for my crouching
close beneath the shallow porch of a door upon the right hand, where I
availed myself of such shelter as it afforded.
I had stood so about a quarter of an hour, as I suppose, and was
listening to a long roll of thunder that seemed to shake the very
foundations of these palsied buildings when, as if answering to the
call of the storm, there arose within the house behind me a cry so
agonized, so hopeless, and withal so horribly inhuman, as even now my
hair stirs to remember it. To avoid this cursed spot and begone was my
involuntary and half-acted purpose, checked, however, on the instant by
a blinding flash of lightning that seared my very eyes, while my brain
seemed all shattered in by the accompanying peal. Painfully wrought
upon as I have ever been by any loudness of sound, it was some moments
before I could recover myself, and indeed I was still reeling from the
shock, when the door was flung wide and the figure of a man
outlandishly clothed, and of a yellowness of skin such as I had never
before seen, hurried by me into the midst of the road, where it fell
quash in the kennel. The man was dead. It was evident from the mere
sight of him, and from the formless clutter of gaudy rags he was; I
turned about, and within the gap of the door ere it was shut-to, I saw
the delicate, handsome features of my uncle, Botolph Cleeve.
How the storm went thereafter I know not, but I know that for a full
half-hour I stood wrenching at the door that callous fiend had locked
in my face, but could nowise move it. Then, with a thrill of disgust,
I went to the dead outcast, where he lay all wet and smirched, and drew
from between his shoulders the long thin knife that was stuck there to
the haft. This I cleaned and put up in my jerkin. It was my only
weapon. The body was of a man stout and of great strength, though not
tall, and as well by the cast of his features as by his clothing I knew
him for one of them they name Cataians, or Chinese, that perhaps had
been led to this inhospitable asylum by rascally allurements of
adventurers upon some Eastward voyage; as I had once seen two Indians,
that sat huddled on the ground in the Exchange, with a ring of laughing
apprentices about them, and of whom I heard it said that they were
princes in their own land. But by what marches of fate this poor
Chinese had been defeated, and sent down from his home in the East to
death in our inexorable London, I could by no means conjecture; nor yet
could I determine (which imported me more) what course it were fittest
I should herein follow. Howbeit, a certain strange faintness then
assailing me, partly from sheer hunger, but more by reason of the
horror of this murder, I saw my dilemma settled for that while; and so,
staggering forth of the lane into Royal Street, where is a good tavern,
I there made shift to eat, but principally drank, until I had rid
myself at least of the extremity of distress into which I had fallen.
In that place I stayed a good hour, there being a merry company come
together of players and other (for which I was indeed glad, and it
cheered me more than all else), when the day beginning to fail, the
guests departed their several ways, and I also, upon my own.
"The watch will certainly have been notified by this time," I said to
myself, "for 'tis impossible that a dead body should lie so long in the
streets unperceived. Well, my uncle will have got hence scot-free, as
he is accustomed to do in despite of all justice, and of writs of
attachment, or of black Malpas either; which saveth my conscience a
toll, and so I hope there's an end of my dealings with him."
Nevertheless I could not refrain from going part way down the hill
again, to see whether the body were indeed removed. And so it was, as
I had looked that it should be; though it occasioned me some surprise
to note that the door of the house now stood wide, while a little
within the threshold two other Chinese hung wailing and wringing their
hands in the most abject misery.
Excited at this opportunity to learn the cause of the outrage I had
been so close a witness to, I went over to the men, and accosting them,
demanded whether the dead man were their friend; but to my question
they replied by never a word, at least not in English, but continued to
lament as before. I then made signs that I knew all that had befallen,
and at that they ceased, and soon nodded, making eager signs that I
should tell them more; whereupon I drew forth the knife from my bosom
and handed it to the man I stood closest to, who received it with an
exclamation of fury, passing it to the other with the one significant
word--_Skene_! The other Chinese now came forward, and in the intense
hatred that twisted his yellow face, I read the recompense that should
be meted out to the murderer if ever they two should meet. "Skene," he
repeated twice or thrice, tapping his long fingers upon the blade; and
then with a gesture, pointing inward to the house, whispered,
"Here--house;" by which I understood that this was a favourite
lurking-place of my uncle's, who no doubt hoped, upon any domiciliary
inquisition, to divert the vigilance of the officers by making parade
of these uncouth strangers as alone inhabiting there; or in the last
event, perhaps, intended to disguise himself in their clothing, and so
steal off. I could not but admire the ingenuity of the man, for all my
disgust of his countless villainies.
Meanwhile, the two Chinese were engaged upon a ceremony that at first I
could not come by the meaning of, though I soon perceived it to be a
solemn vow they made upon the dagger, to avenge their dead comrade.
Which concluded, they gave me back my knife, and seemed to wait my
further direction. All passion had left their faces, that now appeared
serene and patient, as I think the features of those of that nation do
generally, so that it quite overtasks an observer to guess their mood,
whether it be bloody or peaceable.
"Have you any English?" I asked after a pause, at which one shrunk up
his shoulders as meaning he had not; but the other replied with such
childlike boastfulness, "English--much--yes, yes--English," that I
could not forbear laughing.
"Do you propose to return home by ship?" I asked slowly, and made a
motion with my hands as of a ship sailing. But this neither seemed at
all to comprehend.
"China--Cathay," said I, somewhat at a loss how to suggest my meaning,
but immediately the one who had so much English, replied vehemently--
"Skene--yes, yes--kill!"
There could be no question then that it was to be revenge at all costs,
for the other Chinese, taking up the word, cried out too:
"Skene--kill," which he followed up with a peck of his own Romany cant
that I made no pretence to attend. However, the upshot was that they
stood upon the fulfilment of their vow, and fully expected I should
direct them therein. Now, that I was equally determined I would not;
for little as I cared how it should go with my uncle Botolph, I had no
stomach to set two bloodthirsty strangers at his throat, to dispatch
him in cold blood. So, turning to my interpreter, I bade him in the
simplest terms I might find, to have a care what he did, for that we
lived under a just and peace-loving Queen, whose constables and guards
were sworn to prevent such private revenges as they planned; in the
which if they proceeded, they would themselves certainly be brought
into confinement. But in truth I might have spared my breath, for I
saw that no intelligence of my warning reached them, though they had
evidently strained their apprehensions to the limit to receive it.
"Skene--kill," they said, when I had done, and without more ado went
into one of the rooms where they kept their stuff, and took each of
them a small curved sword with a marvellous long haft, which, though
they made no pretence to conceal them from me, they carefully hid
within the folds of their loose silken coats.
"This must be thwarted," I said to myself, and debated how it should
best be done. At length I hit on a plan that promised, I thought,
fairly, which was that I should contrive to divide their forces;
sending forth him that had no word of our language by himself, one way,
to search (and lose himself amidst) the streets thereabout; but as to
the other that was perhaps the more dangerous by reason of his capacity
to put such sloven-mumbled questions as might nevertheless lead to his
discovering Botolph Cleeve (though it was indeed hardly possible): that
I should take him with me as far as to Wapping, where I might easily
fob him off with any tidings of Skene I should profess then to gather;
and so be rid of him.
It needed no small skill of mine to put the case before them in such
sort as they should not guess the motive, but rather should approve the
advantage, of my design; and in the result I brought them to my view.
By this time it was perfectly dark without, though the room where we
remained was faintly illumined by a little bronze lamp fashioned like a
beast with a fish's tail, that one of the men had already lit. By the
uncertain light it afforded, I gazed in admiration of the scene, so dim
and vague, yet so deeply charged with purpose. We had left conversing
together, for the two men had things to do that needed no speech to
forward them. It was manifest that they would not return to the house,
and therefore they applied themselves silently to the selection of such
articles as seemed at once necessary and portable. So engaged, they
moved about the shadowed chamber, their silken dresses slightly
rustling, and their yellow, peering faces now and again bent towards
the lamp, as they examined some piece of worth that they would carry
away: caskets of sweet-smelling wood, or trinkets of silver, or else
some mere idle toy they had bought in an English shop, not of a groat's
worth but by them infinitely prized. What a satire was in this their
so contemptible a fardel, who would lightly toss away another man's
dear life! Amongst the many treasures they thus overlooked, and either
kept or rejected, was a jar of about fifteen or eighteen inches height,
six-sided, and very gay with painted devices of flowers and leaves; and
upon this jar one of the Chinese dwelt long in doubt, as it seemed,
whether it should be saved, for it was something cumbersome, although
not of any groat burden. However he took it up at last with the rest,
or rather exchanged it for some other trifles that might be of less
value, and so ended his preparation.
"Let us begone," said I, and holding open the door, signed to the one
of them to leave the house, which he did; and after, we, that is the
man with the jar and I, left it likewise, directing our course towards
Wapping and the _Fair Haven_ Inn.
For a considerable time we trudged along together in this way through
the deserted streets; I already more than a little weary of an
enterprise in which I had, as it were, enlisted under force and without
reason. The tumult of the storm, the murder, the strangeness of the
habits and Eastern features of the two men, the disability to converse
in a common tongue, by which one seemed to be pleading with the masked
presences of some horrid dream, all these circumstances combined to
deject my mind to a degree I have never since experienced; and I
deplored this new plan for my uncle's safety more even than I did the
one upon which I had set forth. I stole a glance or two at my
companion, but wrapped in his placid reserve he never so much as raised
his dull eyes to mine, nor showed himself scarce aware of my presence,
save by the precision with which he paced by my side. Once and again
he would shift the weight of the Chinese jar he carried in the slack of
his coat, or finger the hilt of his sword.
As we approached near to the gate in the City wall, I became suddenly
apprehensive of the danger we ran into, and cast about in my mind how
to avoid the guard that, howsoever in ordinary times one might look to
be passed through without much question, yet now in these times of
suspicion would be sure to detain so irregular a pair as we that were
thus about to present ourselves. Accordingly I turned off suddenly
upon the right hand towards the river, and coming to one of the quays
(I think Smart's Quay), was lucky enough to find a skiff there moored,
which I loosed, and motioning the Chinese to get in, followed him and
pushed off. The tide was again on the ebb, having passed its height
about an hour since, and so without use of oars we drifted easily down
stream, until in a pretty short while we got to Wapping, where I ran
the boat ashore and leapt out. I could see the _Fair Haven_ about a
hundred paces ahead, and, although there was no light in Idonia's
chamber, as in precaution she had doubtless left it dark, yet could I
see the dim square of the window frame, and pleased myself with the
hope that she was yet waking, and thought upon me.
A little path of turfs laid upon the piles that here restrain the
river-course led right forward to the Inn, and trusting to the security
which had so far attended us, I perhaps diminished something of the
wariness I should have used; but at all events, we had gone a bare
score of paces when I stumbled upon a man that lay crouched in the rank
grass of the turfs. Recovering myself speedily, for I had not quite
fallen, I accosted him angrily, who, without replying, but yet
obstructing the narrow path so that I could not get past him, drew
forth a lantern he held concealed in his cloak, and lifting it high,
regarded the pair of us, but me especially, closely.
"One at a time is better than neither," he said coolly, and I heard his
blade grate in the scabbard.
But even as he fetched it forth, the Chinese had his crooked short
sword out, and leaping past me with the swiftness of a cat, brought our
opponent down. Against the starry sky I could see his arm work forward
and back, as he plunged in and withdrew the steel. The lantern rolled
from the dead man's hand, but, not immediately extinguished, threw
exaggerated shadows of the grass-bents along the path.
Horrified at the fury of his onslaught, I flung myself upon the
grovelling heathen, crying out--
"This is not your man, you fool! This is not Skene."
"No, my nephew," he replied quietly enough and in perfect English, "but
it is that black thief, Malpas, that would have done the same for me."
And without awaiting my reply, he took up the Chinese jar, which in the
assault he had necessarily relinquished, and having carefully wiped it,
went whistling softly down the causeway to the silent Inn.