  The voyage of the Seagull across the Pacific was safely accomplished and with excellent speed. We crossed the Yellow Sea without incident and in due time anchored at Woosung, which is at the mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang. This river is navigable for small steamers for several hundred miles, but the yellow mud that it washes down from the foothills of the interior mountain ranges forms a huge bar across the mouth, which ocean steamships cannot cross. So passengers are obliged to disembark at Woosung and take either the railway or a small steamer for the twenty-five mile run up to Shanghai. Mai Lo decided upon the steamer. As soon as we anchored we went ashore and made arrangements, and on the following morning our little party prepared to follow him, and start at once upon our strange adventure. The Chinese Health Inspector for the port was curious and exacting. He made us unlock the coffin of Prince Kai and when the swathed figure was exposed he prodded it cautiously with his bamboo wand. Mai Lo was indignant at this outrage, and protested so vigorously that the official refrained from further investigation. He countersigned the doctor’s certificate of death from accidental injury, and allowed us to proceed. Until this time we had been uneasy lest Mai Lo should suspect the imposture we had practiced. He had remained so stolid and indifferent that, although we had allowed him at various times to see us saturating the bandaged form with our rum, we could not feel really assured that he believed the corpse of Prince Kai was still in our keeping. But the mandarin’s genuine anger at the meddling official—if voluble and brusque phrases in Chinese may be construed as anger—fully restored our confidence. The chest was solemnly rowed to the quay, just beneath one of the mud forts, and placed aboard a smart little river steamer that was puffing a cloud of black smoke from its funnel. Uncle Naboth came off with us in another boat, for he was to accompany us as far as Shanghai and see us started upon our real journey up the Yang-tse. We carried light baggage, but concealed about our persons a plentiful supply of arms and ammunition. Less than half a day’s ride upon the winding yellow waters of the river brought us to the important city of Shanghai—the most important in all the Province of Chili. The doctor and I insisted upon conveying the important casket to the Astor House, where we were to stop, and the proprietor gave us a private room for it in an outbuilding and appointed several Chinese servants to guard the supposed corpse of the Prince. Here, during the next few days, came several Chinese relatives of the dead man to burn prayers for his peaceful repose before the little image of a god and the wooden ancestral tablets which Mai Lo had set up at the head of the casket. These prayers were printed in Chinese characters upon rice paper, and when burned before the god were considered very efficacious. At times the doctor and I continued to treat the bandages with rum, for although Mai Lo was not often present upon these occasions we feared he might have spies set to watch us, and so dared not neglect our functions. The mandarin lived, during these days of our stay in Shanghai, in the native city, and said he was busy perfecting arrangements for our long trip to the Province of Kwang-Kai-Nong. Shanghai consists of a native city and an European city, besides four conceded districts occupied by Americans, French, English and Germans. These grants or concessions have their own judicial courts and are guarded by their national marines, so that we found our surroundings wholly American, and plenty of American faces greeted us in our country’s section of the city. This was at first quite reassuring; but one had only to walk into the European section, patrolled by the handsome and gigantic Indian Sikhs, or into the dirty native city, to realize that we were indeed upon foreign territory. One of our first errands after our arrival was to visit the American Consul, who received us very courteously. We told him of our contract to escort the body of Prince Kai Lun Pu to the province of Kwang-Kai-Nong, and that our agreement with Mai Lo provided for our safe return to Shanghai. He shook his head dubiously and asked to see the contract. This we produced, and waited patiently while the consul’s interpreter translated it in writing. When reduced to English the paper read as follows:
The doctor and I each read this translation in silence, but afterward glanced at one another with grim forebodings. But the consul, who was studying another copy, said to us thoughtfully: “This agreement is more frank and favorable than I feared it would prove. Usually these unscrupulous mandarins insert such clauses in their contracts that their subtle meanings may be construed in various ways, thus giving them opportunities to violate the real meaning of their promises. But here is a paper of a different sort, direct and concise and with no subterfuges. I think you may trust yourselves to Mai Lo, especially as he knows this document is in my possession; and I will inquire carefully into the matter should any harm befall you. Without the good-will of this powerful governor, however, I would advise you not to undertake the dangerous journey into the far-away province of Kwang-Kai-Nong. Indeed, I warn you that the City of Kai-Nong has considerable evil repute, and is seldom visited by Americans or Europeans. But Mai Lo is able to protect you even in that remote capital.” “We shall go,” replied the doctor, briefly. “But if we do not return by the first of September you must make inquiries concerning us; and if——” “If?” said the consul, with an amused glance. “If you find we’ve disappeared, or anything has happened to us, please see that Mai Lo is punished,” concluded the doctor. “I will do all in my power,” responded the consul. “The Chinese character is complex, and crafty beyond measure. But I am sure Mai Lo would not have executed this document unless he meant fairly by you. I shall lock the original up in my safe, and you may keep the translation to refer to in case of necessity.” We thanked him and went our way, rather more gloomy than the consul suspected. For we could not tell the American representative that our errand to Kai-Nong was to carry away the treasure from Prince Kai’s ancestral halls, and that if we were caught doing this, Mai Lo might easily construe our act as one of theft, and have us put to death. It did not matter that we were acting according to the Prince’s expressed wishes. “Mai Lo must have suspected why we wanted to go to Kai-Nong, and so have put in that dangerous clause,” I said to the doctor. “True; the fellow has entrapped us very cleverly,” replied Doctor Gaylord. “Yet he may be innocent of any intent to do so.” “I’m not going to bank on that,” said I. “The consul knows the Chinese, and he says they are crafty. Mai Lo seems to have no more intelligence than a lump of putty, but for that reason he’s doubly dangerous. You can’t tell how much he knows, or what he thinks.” “If we object to that clause in the agreement, we shall acknowledge evil intentions on our part,” remarked the doctor; “and, if we say nothing, he may find a way to use that same clause to excuse himself for our murder.” “Well,” said I, grimly, “I’ve gone into this thing, and I’m going to stay in—to the finish.” “So am I,” replied Doctor Gaylord; but I did not like the way he said it. |
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