Blood of the Eagle/Chapter 5

the following morning Florence Wemyss was strolling through the wondrous garden of the palace, when Ardzrouni approached her, followed by a number of nobles. These he waved back, and greeted her in smiling English. The man looked very handsome, wearing robes of pure royal yellow, upon which were broidered five-clawed dragons.

"Good morning!" he exclaimed. "No one here speaks English—it is safe. Come and walk with me; it is a royal command, dear lady!"

"I obey with humility," responded the girl, and laughed.

"Are your quarters satisfactory?" queried the Armenian with courteous solicitude. "Your food, your slaves—are they to your liking?"

"Everything is wonderful, thank you! And how does it feel to be a king?"

Ardzrouni gave her a quick glance. The question sobered him instantly.

"Ah, the reality is different from the dream, I assure you! Where is your father?"

"Playing with the stones you gave him last night." The eyes of the girl darkened. "Why did you give him that present? Were you afraid he would join Liu Ku against you?"

Ardzrouni stopped short. The look that he gave her was almost a look of fright.

"Lady! Such words on your lips—"

"Oh, I know my father!" she said bitterly. "And you did well, my friend. You and I need not mince words. I do not want my father to turn against you."

"Thank you," said Ardzrouni, almost humbly. He was startled and astonished.

"Tell me," she went on frankly, "what do you expect to do here? Loot the place, and then disappear?"

Ardzrouni lighted a cigarette. His face was troubled, disconcerted.

"Dear lady, shall I tell you the truth? That was my intent at first; but now—no! I am going to stay here. These people believe that the gods sent me."

"Liu Ku will tell them the truth."

"He will not dare, for his own sake. Besides"—Ardzrouni smiled thinly—"he has no proof of the story, and will not be believed. No, I intend to stay here and rule. These poor yellow folk need a real king, and I shall supply the want."

"You are confident," said the girl dryly. Then she broke out impulsively: "Oh, I felt like shaking you, last night! Just as soon as that dreadful eunuch pretended to be sorry and humble and meek, you accepted all he said at its face value. You took him back into your confidence and discussed all your plans before him."

Ardzrouni chuckled. Then the chuckle passed into a quick, light laugh which silenced Florence and left her wondering.

"Bah! That fat frog means to kill me as soon as he can do so, and put a real puppet in my place. I know his breed! Do not be anxious, dear lady—I trust him not at all. That is why I have made a friend of his bitterest enemy, Colonel Chou. Shall I tell you just how things stand here?"

He went on to tell her the things he had discovered—how Liu Ku ruled Ngong with a network of evil, like a spider whose web reached into far corners of the place; how the eunuch had a large but secret party of adherents, bound to him by the strings of corruption and greed.

"For the moment I dare not destroy him," went on Ardzrouni soberly. "I am still too insecure—the eagle is not yet perched strongly enough. I need advice and help in matters of ceremony and so forth. Besides, there are the French to think about. Sooner or later they will appear, and we must have a reckoning with them. If I can postpone the issue with Liu Ku until that is over, well and good. Otherwise, they would find Ngong divided, and—"

"Then you will not attempt to defy the French?" asked Florence.

"I am not quite a fool," answered Ardzrouni, and laughed. "Here is the issue in simple terms—this place must be ruled either by evil or by good. I shall rule by good; the eunuch would rule by evil."

"I hope that you may prevail," said Florence, low-voiced; "but I am afraid for you. This—this is so unreal! Your dreams can never come true, my friend. These things never fail to shatter and break on the rocks of reality."

"True; but consider!" Ardzrouni made a gay, reckless gesture. "While it lasts, I am a king, and that is worth the inevitable ending."

The girl regarded him with shining eyes. Before she could speak again, however, other figures appeared coming toward them—her father and Liu Ku. Ardzrouni flung away his cigarette and turned.

"Good morning!" He spoke now in French. "My friends, you come in a good hour. Liu Ku, may I count upon you to do me a service?"

"The son of heaven has but to order; I obey," responded the eunuch, with a bow.

If there was a deep irony beneath this exchange of courtesies, it was well hidden. The huge eunuch seemed very humble; the mandarin appeared very conciliatory. The open enmity which had existed between them on the preceding night was now entirely gone.

"You know the bargain that was made with Major Wemyss," went on Ardzrouni quietly. "I have no doubt that he would like some earnest of its fulfillment. Conduct him and his daughter to the treasury, and settle the bargain as you think best. Whatever you do will be confirmed by me."

As he spoke, he detached from his girdle one of a pair of small white jade fishes, symbol of royal authority and command, and extended it to the eunuch. Liu Ku received it reverently, then gave Wemyss a mute glance of inquiry.

"By all means, by all means!" responded Wemyss quickly. "Florence, my dear, will you accept my arm? Mr. Ardzrouni, I appreciate your thoughtfulness, I assure you! By the way, there'll be no trouble about leaving the country, I presume?"

"None," said Ardzrouni. "You shall have an escort to the Yunnan border, or beyond. After that, of course, I cannot answer for your safety."

"But I can!" Wemyss chuckled cannily. "I know those Yunnan officials—very well! Come, my dear! We are at your disposal, Liu Ku."

Florence exchanged a glance with Ardzrouni. Then the latter was left alone, looking after the three. For a moment the eyes of the dark man were stormy, sad, troubled; then he shook himself awake, as it were, put on his manner of gay bravado, and turned to his attendant nobles.

"Bring Colonel Chou here to me," he ordered.

It must be admitted that Ardzrouni put all the established notions of etiquette to flight. He did not know the Chinese court customs, and had no patience with them. On the other hand, he substituted for these things his own regal nobility. He had the "grand manner" to a degree, and his way of doing things had made a deep impression upon the Ngong nobles.

Florence Wemyss, meantime, accompanied her father and the eunuch to a small building in the midst of the gardens. Before this building were guards, who saluted respectfully at sight of the imperial fish which Liu Ku produced. The officer in command unlocked the doors of the treasury, and Liu Ku signaled his companions to enter with him.

"Here," said the eunuch to Wemyss, "you see the treasures of Ngong. As to the gold, which you so much desire, this is the very least; for we have no lack of that did we care for it. These other things, however, are historic, and many of them date from ancient times."

What followed left the eyes of Wemyss flaming with avaricious greed. Florence, who accompanied the two men, looked rather at the works of art than at the gold and stones; yet she knew that the things she saw were no less marvelous than the greatest treasure of Asia, which is in the royal palace at Hué.

The rooms of this treasury displayed a barbaric yet refined blaze of colorings. Here were ancient bronzes by the score, porcelains from the earliest days, glassware and wonders of cloisonné work; rack after rack of paintings and royal letters and decrees, each in its carven or lacquered case; jades innumerable, from yellow or brown relics of Han emperors to the finely carved and inscribed white jades of Manchu days. Here were trees and plants of precious stones, screens of ivory and gold and lacquer, artistic objects beyond number or price.

Not at these things did Wemyss look, however, but at the rows of great bronze jars filled to the brim with dust and nuggets of gold, and at the bars of gold stacked away in corners. If Florence expected that her father would go wild with greed at the sight of this treasure, she was agreeably disappointed. True, he trembled a little, and his eyes flamed with desire; but his voice remained cold and dispassionate.

"Make me up packs of these gold bars, Liu Ku," he said quietly; "as many as fifty mules can carry. Is that quite all right?"

"Whatever you ask," said the eunuch indifferently. "Do you seek nothing from these other rooms? Let the lady choose for herself a gift."

"One thing only would I have from this stuff," said Wemyss. "Come, I will show you. Florence, my dear, pick yourself a gift by all means—whatever you like."

She did not refuse, but returned eagerly to the precious things of art they had passed by so indifferently. Here she picked a tiny tree set in a small jar of lapis and gold. The leaves of the tree were of green jade, and it bore peaches of amber and rose quartz, with innumerable small objects on the coral ground below. Liu Ku nodded and smiled at her choice, and then halted before the object that Wemyss had chosen for himself. This was an opium pipe of dense green jade, heavily adorned with massive carved gold.

"Do not choose that," said the eunuch, his fat face looking slightly alarmed. "I wish you well, my friend; and there is no luck in gold and jade, for this combination is of evil augury."

Wemyss laughed harshly.

"I will risk that," he answered.

Then he spoke to Liu Ku in a low voice. The eunuch assented with a nod.

Florence turned away, heartsick. She knew well why her father had chosen this thing—not alone for its intrinsic value, but for its actual use. She knew, too, what the eunuch so carelessly promised her father. Wemyss had used all his opium and needed more.

From this instant she hated the eunuch.

"Within three days," said Liu Ku, as they left the treasury, "the packs will be made up and all will be ready. Do you wish to depart immediately?"

Wemyss nodded.

"Yes. You expect to have no more trouble with the mandarin?"

The fat moon face of the eunuch was creased in a bland smile.

"None," he said. "None at all."

The indescribable accent with which he pronounced these words caused Florence Wemyss to catch her breath. Suddenly she found Liu Ku regarding her intently. In his eyes she read a menace, a comprehension, which frightened her.

That afternoon the jade tree and the jade pipe were delivered to their quarters. With the latter came a small box of plain wood; and Wemyss smoked opium that night from the gold-adorned pipe of an emperor.

As he smoked, there were tears on the cheek of his daughter.