Blood of the Eagle/Chapter 6
VI
Two days passed quietly, during which time Florence Wemyss and Ardzrouni saw much of each other. The yellow folk were puzzled and disconcerted by the vigorous activity of their new ruler. They were accustomed to a son of heaven, who held himself aloof from all things earthly, while Ardzrouni quite reversed this manner of action.
During this time Wemyss remained in a continual poppy-dream, while the eunuch Liu Ku showed himself submissive to everything that Ardzrouni ordained. The dark man, in fact, delighted in making the eunuch feel his authority.
Upon the second evening after her visit to the treasury, Florence Wemyss sat beside Ardzrouni at the head of a long table. Near them Liu Ku and her father talked together in low tones. Down the length of the hall were the chief nobles of Ngong. Guards were ranged along the walls, and below the table a number of dancing girls were disporting.
Ardzrouni's vanity was for once thoroughly satiated. He was indulging in a royal feast. The table glittered with precious objects from the treasury, and he was taking the delight of a child in everything around him.
"I am sorry that you are leaving tomorrow," he said to the girl at his side. "Will not your father remain a little longer?"
She shook her head.
"He is anxious to get that gold to safety."
"Bah! I will undertake to deliver it for him in Yunnan."
Again she shook her head, and tasted of the strange dishes before her. They were at the thirty-fourth course, and the feast was not yet half ended; for it was a regal banquet in approved Celestial fashion. She glanced at Ardzrouni, with a lift of her brows.
"Why have you eaten nothing, my lord king?"
He chuckled.
"I do my eating in private, dear lady. I have learned how the late mandarin passed to his fathers, and I play safe, as the Americans say."
Her eyes clouded.
"Have you no regrets over the way you gained this throne?"
"Regrets? I?" Ardzrouni turned to her, unwontedly grave. "Believe me, lady, I know nothing about it. That devil of a fat frog murdered the French resident and the mandarin—poisoned them both in their sleep. I discovered the truth about that only yesterday."
"I believe you," said the girl, looking into his eyes.
He looked up and touched her hand.
"Ah! There come the wizards—look!"
They stared down the hall. The dancing girls had vanished. A silence had settled upon every one, and all eyes were fastened upon the string of fantastic figures now coming to view.
These fang shi were four in number, followed by a dozen attendants. All were masked, and their masks were symbolic but hideous things. All wore armor of the ancient style, and the wizards themselves carried the tasseled spears which betokened their dignity. With undulating step and clashing of gourd rattles, they filed into the hall. The four chiefs took position facing Ardzrouni, near the foot of the long table.
Then, in unison, they began to speak in high falsetto voices; and as they spoke, strange things happened. One of them flung down scraps of paper, and these paper scraps became pools of blood on the floor. Another threw his spear into the air, and the spear became a bird that dashed madly about the high ceiling. Another drew a dagger from his girdle and tossed it to the table; as it fell, it became a snake that crawled across the board and was gone. The fourth jerked the plume from his helmet, and it blazed up in a flame and fell to ashes.
Through all this legerdemain, the shrill falsetto voices and the clash of gourd rattles filled the hall.
Whether it were from the words or the acts, a frightful consternation settled upon all the yellow folk. The wizards began to file from the hall again, when Ardzrouni leaped up and roared at Liu Ku, ordering him to translate what had been said. The eunuch obeyed.
"Son of heaven, these men prophesied that within three days this place would be red with blood, and not ten of those who sit in this hall now will be alive."
Ardzrouni caught up a bronze wine beaker from the table and hurled it the length of the hall. It fell with a clang against the doors, as they closed upon the wizards. For an instant the man stood there, passion crimsoning his dark face. Then a burst of cries, and a man came running up the hall.
He was a courier, and he fell before the seat of Ardzrouni as exhaustion dragged him down. In his hand was a scroll. A soldier took it from him and extended it to Ardzrouni.
The latter untied the thong that bound the scroll, and opened it. Below a string of ideographs he found words written in French, and read them with amazed eyes:
Order me brought to Ngong, for your guards have detained me. If you do not know my name,you will remember me as the American who camped with you one night beside the river, and who warned you against the jungle fever. Now I warn you again. Do not let Liu Ku know of my arrival. I have full power to act as French resident.
Ardzrouni was an excellent actor. No sooner had he read this than with simulated rage he tore the paper across and across, until the scroll was in fragments. Then he summoned Colonel Chou, and spoke to him in so low a voice that Liu Ku could not catch the words.
"A white man is held at one of the frontier towers. Bring him to me. Guard him well. He comes to treat on behalf of the French. Go!"
Only Florence Wemyss caught these words. As Ardzrouni sank back into his great chair of red lacquer, she leaned forward and spoke.
"A white man?"
"A man named Smith." Ardzrouni frowned. "I do not understand him—he claims to represent the French."
"Oh! We met that man—a quiet, slow-spoken man who sought rhinoceros horn." The girl's eyes widened. "Ardzrouni, be careful! You are entangled in a net of intrigue."
A sudden laugh brightened the dark face of the man.
"And you wish me well?"
"Yes, yes! But be careful—"
Liu Ku rose and bowed, excusing himself from the feast on the plea of business. The eyes of Ardzrouni pierced into him like a flame as he left the hall. One noble after another followed; the feast was broken up in confusion, in frightened panic. Wemyss vanished, hungry for the pipe of jade and gold.
Florence was rising to follow, when Ardzrouni leaned forward.
"Meet me in half an hour at the palace gate," he said in English. "Put on a dark coat. We will go adventuring together—if you trust me!"
She looked into his eyes, startled, wondering. Then a smile broke over her face.
"I shall be there," she promised, and departed.
"What a woman!" said Ardzrouni to himself. "What a woman!"
Half an hour afterward, Florence Wemyss appeared at the palace entrance. She found Ardzrouni awaiting her, clad in a dark fur-trimmed robe such as merchants used. With him were two guards—one of them that same young captain whom he had saved from Liu Ku.
With a quiet word of greeting, Ardzrouni proffered his arm, which she accepted. The two guards led the way from the palace, through the streets of the inner city; and so they came to the Hsimen, the West Gate. This was closed for the night, but the captain showed a fish token to the guards, who opened a small postern. They walked out amid the tangle of buildings that constituted the outer city.
"Where are we going?" asked the girl calmly.
Ardzrouni laughed.
"To receive a message. Oh, you were right when you spoke of intrigue! Besides that, we are getting a breath of free air."
"Then I would advise that your royal highness should install a sewer system in your capital," she returned, shrinking from a garbage-filled hole in the street.
Ardzrouni chuckled again at this.
"Right; but remember that we are in the East. It is singular that when one is a common person, one longs for a throne. Sitting on the throne, one longs to wander the streets incognito. Such is human nature, my lady. We are never satisfied."
"It seems to me," she answered dryly, "that you are soon tired of your throne."
"No! But I desire to experience all the thrills of royalty, since I have a premonition that it is not to endure forever."
In a fashion that seemed aimless, they passed through the crooked streets of the town, unobserved in the thronging crowds. Everywhere blazed lights—lanterns, cressets, flaring candles of soft fat. The shops were open, and were full of buyers. Venders of fruits and sweets and foods were everywhere, and a shrill roar of voices ascended from the streets. All the temples were open, and the gambling houses were going full blast. The din of music mingled with drunken songs from taverns and wine shops and the street of the singing girls.
Here was none of the oppressive and stately formality of the inner city. Brown and yellow folk intermingled. Soldiers in their glittering brass-studded coats rubbed elbows with slaves and muleteers. There were not a few nobles, also, with fur collars hiding their faces, who went on errands having to do with wine or women. Among these, the four passed unobserved, for their faces were not prominently displayed. The sweetish reek of opium and the scent of hot rice wine mingled on the cold night air.
They drew at last from the crowds and went down a quieter street, where they dared to speak.
"There is our goal." Ardzrouni pointed to the lantern-studded outline of a temple ahead. "Are you afraid? It is dangerous, I warn you! Some of the wizards are there to-night."
"I am enchanted!" Florence Wemyss laughed softly. "Don't be anxious about me. I am armed, and I can take care of myself. How do you know so much about what is going on?"
"Oh, ho!" The dark man chuckled. "I do not speak the language, it is true; but plenty of these people speak French of a sort—and as you said, there is a net of intrigue about me. Some hate the wizards and fear them. Others hate and fear the fat frog, Liu Ku; so they all seem to trust in me, strangely enough! You are going to see a singular thing in this place."
They had reached the temple—a low, broad building with open front. There were shrines inside, and great prayer gongs, but few people. Lanterns burned with a dim light, and a few priests moved about.
Here, at the temple steps, a figure in the garb of a common soldier halted them. For an instant Florence caught a glimpse of its face—and she started. It was the thin, proud face of Colonel Chou, who was speaking rapidly to the young captain. Then the colonel vanished in the darkness, and Ardzrouni was urging her up the steps.
She mounted, with a thrill of mystery and intrigue tingling in her veins.
As the four came into the temple, a priest met them. He made a swift gesture and led them into a side chamber, then through a number of empty rooms. They halted at last in a small, bare apartment where a single lantern burned. The priest turned to them, and Ardzrouni removed the wide bonnet that half concealed his face. At sight of those proud, fierce lineaments the priest bowed low; then his hand went out to the lantern and the room was plunged into darkness.
The girl caught at Ardzrouni's arm, and he pressed her hand reassuringly. There was a slight noise, and before them appeared light. A section of the paper wall had been slid back. Before them appeared a thin, open lattice of carved wood, and beyond this a room that blazed with lights.
Florence Wemyss caught her breath sharply.
Seated about this room were half a dozen men. Their dark robes and scarified heads, and the magnificence of their temple chairs, showed that they must be the chieftains of the Taoist cult which provided Ngong with its religion. Whether any of them were wizards, it was impossible to say.
In the center of this group sat a naked brown man, tied hand and foot, his body gashed with wounds. He regarded the priests around him with defiance; and now he spoke to them in French, as if responding to a question.
"My message is not for dogs like you," he said in scorn. "It is for the ears of your ruler, him who is called the son of heaven!"
"He is seated yonder behind a screen." One of the priests pointed to a screen in one comer of the room. "Speak, for it is by his command—"
"You lie, dog!" snarled the brown captive. "I have looked upon his face, and I know he is no man to hide behind a screen."
At this Ardzrouni started.
One of the priests rose and went to a large incense burner of bronze, from which was curling a slow stream of gray sandalwood smoke. He picked this up somewhat gingerly by its long legs, for the body of the thing was well-nigh red-hot with the heat of the incense.
He placed this between the thighs of the brown man, who neither flinched nor moved.
"When you are ready," said one of the priests gravely, "deliver your message!"
From the brown man came a slow, taunting laugh.
"My message is for the ears of the son of heaven alone, you dogs! And if you say he skulks behind a screen, you lie, for my master knows him well."
"By the eagle!" whispered the voice of Ardzrouni. "I know that man! He was with Smith, there in the jungle!"
Suddenly Ardzrouni leaped to his feet, his fist burst the thin lattice of wood in front of him, and he sprang through the flinders into the room beyond.
"You say truth, brown man!" he cried out. "Ardzrouni skulks not behind a screen!"
He dashed the incense pot away from the scorched flesh of the Tais hunter, and came erect. One of the priests leaped to his feet, a knife flamed in the air, and the steel sheared a lock of Ardzrouni's hair as it passed; but Ardzrouni, laughing, snatched out a pistol and fired once, and that priest died.
"Now," he cried, while still the bursting echoes of the shot vibrated in the room, "do you know your master, wizards?"
They knew him indeed, and they were palsied with fear and impotent rage. Behind the broken lattice Florence Wemyss restrained the two guards, who would have joined him; and they waited to see what would happen.