“Then,” wailed Hun Woe, “my line is extinguished, and the deaths of myself and of my relatives lie at your door, who brought the accursed white woman to Seoul.”
His lamentations disturbed me deeply, because, for a wonder, he spoke the truth.
“I’ll tell you what I will do, Hun Woe, which will be far more effective than your ridiculous project of kidnapping the young lady. Has not your Emperor the sense to see, or have you not the courage to tell him, that if you succeeded in getting Miss Hemster to Seoul you would bring down on yourselves the whole force of America, and probably of England as well? Either country could blot Seoul, Palace and all, off the face of the earth within half an hour of surrounding it, and they would do it, too, if needs be. You know I speak the truth; why did you not explain this to the Emperor?”
“His Majesty would not believe me; his Majesty cares for nothing but the white woman; so any other plan but that of getting her is useless.”
“No, it isn’t. So far as you are concerned, Hun Woe, it would be useless for me to appeal to either the English or the American authorities. They will never interfere unless one of their own citizens is in jeopardy, but I can trust the Japanese. I am sure Mr. Hemster will lend me his yacht, and I will take a party of fearless Japanese with me to the capital and to the Palace. There will be no trouble. I shall return with your family and your kinsmen, escort them down to Chemulpo, and I shall deliver them to you here in Nagasaki. So long as you remain in Nagasaki you are safe.”
This brave offer brought no consolation to the Prime Minister of Corea: he shook his head dolefully, and told me what I already knew, that a man who fled from Corea to Nagasaki had been nearly murdered here by Coreans, then, thinking himself more safe under the British flag, he had escaped to Shanghai, where he was followed and killed in cold blood, his mutilated remains being taken to Seoul, and there exhibited. All his relatives and his family had already preceded him into the unknown.
“Nothing will suffice,” groaned the Prime Minister, “but the white woman, – may curses alight on her head!”
“Do not be so downhearted; my scheme is quite practicable, while yours is not. Mr. Hemster is the most generous of men, and I am certain he will see you and your family safe across the Pacific to the United States, and there I will guarantee no Corean will ever follow you. You have money enough if you can get your hands on it. Perhaps you have some here with you now.”
“Yes,” he replied simply, “I have my whole fortune on board this ship.”
“There you are. I see you did not intend to return to Corea if you could not get the white woman.”
“It was not that. I brought my fortune to give it away in bribes.”
“And that’s why you offered me a bribe?”
“Yes, Excellency,” he replied with childlike candour.
“Well, Hun Woe, take my advice. I think I shall be able to get you all clear away. You are in command here, and these Chinese would rather die than split on you, so perhaps, instead of taking Mr. Hemster’s yacht, we had better stick to this vessel, and I will bring my band of Japanese aboard. However, keep up your courage until I have seen Mr. Hemster, and then I will let you know what I am prepared to do. As this ship is now empty you had better spend your time and money in Nagasaki filling her with coal. We will go to Corea, get your family and relatives aboard, and then you can sail direct for San Francisco. It is a wild project, but with a little courage I make no doubt it can be carried out, and if you haven’t money enough I can help you. Indeed, now that I have considered the matter, I shall not ask Mr. Hemster for his yacht at all. This ship is the very thing. All you need is plenty of coal and plenty of provisions, and these you can get at Nagasaki without attracting the least attention. Mr. Hemster could not accommodate you all on his yacht even if he consented to do so. Yes, cheer up, my plan is quite feasible, while yours is impossible of execution. You can no more get the girl than you can get the moon for the Emperor of Corea.”
So, telling the Prime Minister that I would call upon him next day and discuss particulars, I left him there, asked the captain to release the patient crew and their officers, threw a rope ladder down the side, and so descended to our waiting naphtha launch, the crew of which had been rather anxious at the long silence following the two rapid shots; but they had obeyed orders and stood by without attempting to board.
CHAPTER XXII
Silas Hemster was sitting in his wicker chair on deck just as I had left him, so I drew up another chair beside him and sat down to give him my report. He listened to the end without comment.
“What a darned-fool scheme,” he said at last. “There wasn’t one chance in a thousand of those chumps picking any of us out alive if they had once destroyed the yacht. Do you think they will attempt it again?”
“Well, it seems as if I had discouraged old Hun Woe, but a person never can tell how the Oriental mind works. He stated that the precious plan emanated from the Emperor, who wished at a blow to destroy your fleet, as it were, and capture your daughter; but it is more than likely the scheme was concocted in his own brain. He is just silly enough to have contrived it, but I rather imagine our good captain overawed the officers and crew to such an extent that they may be chary of attempting such an outrage again. When two of us had no difficulty in holding up the whole company, they may fear an attack from our entire crew. Still, as I have said, no one can tell what these people will do or not do. The Prime Minister himself, of course, is in a bad way, and I should like to enable him to escape if I could.”
“You intend, then, to carry out the project you outlined to him?”
“I certainly do, with your permission.”
“Well, not to flatter you, Tremorne, I think your invasion of Corea at the head of a band of Japanese is quite as foolhardy as his attempt to run down the yacht.”
“Oh, no, Mr. Hemster; the Coreans are a bad people to run away from, but if you face them boldly you get what you want. They call it the Hermit Kingdom, but I should call it the Coward Kingdom. A squad of determined little Japs would put the whole country to flight.”
“Well, you can do as you like, and I’ll help you all I’m able. Of course you’re not responsible for the plight of the Prime Minister; I’m the cause of the mix-up, and if you want the yacht you just take it, and I’ll stay here in Nagasaki with the womenfolk till you return; but if I had my way I’d clear out of this section of the country altogether.”
“Why not do so, Mr. Hemster. I have entirely given up the notion of taking the yacht, because the Chinese steamer will be much less conspicuous and will cause less talk in Chemulpo than the coming back of the yacht. Of course the Emperor will have spies down at the port, and it will seem to them perfectly natural for the black ship to return. Meanwhile, before his Majesty knows what has happened, I shall be up in Seoul and in the Palace with my Japanese, and I think I shall succeed in terrorizing the old boy to such an extent that in less than ten minutes we shall be marching back again with Hun Woe’s whole family and troop of relatives. ‘Once aboard the lugger’ they are safe, for Corea has no ship to overtake them, and the whole thing will be done so suddenly that the Chinese steamer will be half-way across the Pacific, or the whole way to Shanghai, before the Coreans have made up their minds what to do. I shall leave with the ship, and have them drop me at Nagasaki or Shanghai, or whatever port we conclude to make for. Then I can rejoin the yacht at any port we agree upon.”
“You appear to think you’ll have no trouble with your expedition, then?”
“Oh, not the slightest.”
“Well, you know, we had trouble enough with ours.”
“Yes, but this is a mere dash of twenty-six miles there and twenty-six miles back. We ought to be able to do it within a day and a night, and if old Hun Woe attends rightly to his coaling and his provisioning, all Corea cannot stop him. I think he is badly enough frightened not to omit any details that make for his safety.”
“Very well, we’ll stay right here till you return. I suppose that old Chinese tub will take some time worrying her way to Corea and back again, although I’ll confess she seemed to come on like a prairie fire when she was heading for us. Now I guess everybody is just a little tired of life on shipboard. I’ve noticed that when a lot of people are cooped up together for a while things don’t run on as smoothly as they might sometimes, so I’ll hire a floor in the principal hotel here and live ashore until we see your Chinese steamer come into the harbour again. I suppose the captain will prefer to live on the yacht, but the rest of us will sample hotel life. I’m rather yearning for a change myself; besides I think my daughter would be safer ashore than on board here, for one can’t tell, as you said, what these hoodlums may attempt; and as long as they’re convinced she’s on the yacht we’re in constant danger of being run down, or torpedoed, or something. Now, you wouldn’t mind telling my daughter what you’ve told me about the intentions of this here Prime Minister? She’s rather fond of wandering around town alone, and I guess she’d better know that until this Chinese steamer sails away she is in some danger.”
“I suggest that she shouldn’t go sightseeing or shopping without an escort, Mr. Hemster.”
“Well, a good deal will depend on what Gertie thinks herself, as perhaps you have found out while you’ve been with us.”
He sent for his daughter, and I placed a third chair for the girl when she arrived. She listened with great interest to my narration of the events on board the Chinese steamer, and I added my warning that it was advisable for her not to desert the frequented parts of Nagasaki, and never to make any expedition through the town without one or more masculine persons to protect her. She tossed her head as I said this, and replied rather cuttingly:
“I guess I’m able to take care of myself.”
I should have had sense enough to let it go at that, but I was much better aware of her peril then even her father was, for I knew Nagasaki like a well-thumbed book; so I said it was a regular labyrinth into whose mazes even a person intimately acquainted with the town might get lost, and as the Prime Minister had plenty of money at his command, he had the choice of all the outscourings of the nations here along the port, who would murder or kidnap without a qualm for a very small sum of ready cash.
“There is no use in saying anything more, Mr. Tremorne,” put in her father, definitely; “I’ll see to it that my daughter does not go abroad unprotected.”
“Well, Poppa,” she cried, “I like the hotel idea first rate, and I’m going there right away; but I want a suite of rooms to myself. I’m not coming down to the public table, and I wish to have the Countess and my own maid with me and no one else.”
“That’s all right,” said her father, “you can have what you like. I’ll buy the whole hotel for you if you want it.”
“No, I just wish a suite of rooms that will be my own; and I won’t have any visitors that I don’t invite specially.”
“Won’t you allow me to visit you, Gertie?” asked the old gentleman with a quizzical smile.
“No, I don’t want you or any one else. I’m just tired of people, that’s what I am. I intended to propose going to the hotel anyhow. I’m just sick of this yacht, and have a notion to go home in one of the regular steamers. I’m going right over to the hotel now and pick my own rooms.”
“Just as you please,” concurred her father. “Perhaps Mr. Tremorne will be good enough to escort you there.”
“I have told you that I don’t want Mr. Tremorne, or Mr. Hemster, or Mr. Anybody-else. If I must have an escort I’ll take two of the sailors.”
“That will be perfectly satisfactory. Take as many trunks as you want, and secure the best rooms in the hotel.”
Shortly afterward Miss Hemster, with her maid and the Countess, left the yacht in the launch, the mountain of luggage following in another boat. The launch and the boat remained an unconscionably long time at the landing, until even Mr. Hemster became impatient, ordering the captain to signal their return. When, in response to this, they came back, the officer in charge of the launch told Mr. Hemster that his daughter had ordered them to remain until she sent them word whether or not she had secured rooms to her satisfaction at the hotel. Meanwhile she had given the officer a letter to her father, which he now handed to the old gentleman. He read it through two or three times with a puzzled expression on his face, then handed it to me, saying:
“What do you make of that?”
The letter ran as follows:
“Dear Poppa:
“I have changed my mind about the hotel, and, not wanting a fuss, said nothing to you before I left. As I told you, I am tired to death of both the yacht and the sea, and I want to get to some place where I need look on neither of them. The Countess, who knows more about Japan than Mr. Tremorne thinks he knows, has been kind enough to offer me her country house for a week or two, which is situated eight or nine miles from Nagasaki. I want to see something of high life in Japan, and so may stay perhaps for two weeks; and if you are really as anxious about my kidnapping as you pretend, you may be quite sure I am safe where I am going, – much more so than if I had stayed at the hotel at Nagasaki. I don’t believe there’s any danger at all, but think Mr. Tremorne wants to impress you with a feeling of his great usefulness, and you may tell him I said so if you like. Perhaps I shall tire of the place where I am going in two or three days; it is more than likely. Anyhow, I want to get away from present company for a time at least. I will send a message to you when I am returning.
“Yours affectionately,“Gertie.”
This struck me as a most ungracious and heartless communication to a father who was devoting his life and fortune to her service. I glanced up at the old gentleman; but, although he had asked my opinion on this epistle, his face showed no perturbation regarding its contents. I suppose he was accustomed to the young woman’s vagaries.
The letter seemed to me very disquieting. It had been written on board the yacht before she left, so perhaps the country house visit had been in her mind for some time; nevertheless there were two or three circumstances which seemed to me suspicious. It was an extraordinary thing that a Countess should take what was practically a servant’s position if she possessed a country house. Then, again, it was no less extraordinary that this Japanese woman should be able to speak Corean, of which fact I had had auricular demonstration. Could it be possible that there was any connection between the engaging of this woman and the arrival of the Chinese steamer? Was the so-called Countess an emissary of the Corean Prime Minister? A moment’s reflection caused me to dismiss this conjecture as impossible, because Miss Hemster had engaged the Countess on the day she arrived at Nagasaki, and, as our yacht was more speedy than any other vessel that might have come from Corea, all idea of collusion between the Corean man and the Japanese woman seemed far fetched. Should I then communicate my doubts to Mr. Hemster? He seemed quite at his ease about the matter, and I did not wish to disturb him unnecessarily. Yet he had handed me the letter, and he wished my opinion on it. He interrupted my meditations by repeating his question:
“Well, what do you make of it?”
“It seems to me the letter of one who is accustomed to think and act for herself, without any undue regard to the convenience of others.”
“Yes, that’s about the size of it.”
“Has she ever done anything like this before?”
“Oh, bless you, often. I have known her to leave Chicago for New York and turn up at Omaha.”
“Then you are not in any way alarmed by the receipt of this?”
“No, I see no reason for alarm; do you?”
“Who is this Countess that owns the country house?”
“I don’t even know her name. Gertie went ashore soon after we came into the harbour and visited the American Consul, who sent out for this woman, and Gertie engaged her then and there.”
“Isn’t it a little remarkable that she speaks Corean?”
“Well, the American Consul said there wasn’t many of them could; but Gertie, after being at Seoul, determined to learn the language, and that’s why she took on the Countess.”
“Oh, I see. She stipulated, then, for one who knew Corean?”
“Quite so; she told me before we left Chemulpo that she intended to learn the language.”
“Well, Mr. Hemster, what you say relieves my mind a good deal. If she got the woman on the recommendation of the American Consul, everything is all right. The coming of the Prime Minister, and the fact that this Countess understands Corean, made me fear that there might be some collusion between the two.”
“That is impossible,” said Mr. Hemster calmly. “If the Corean Minister had come a day or two before the Countess was engaged, there might have been a possibility of a conspiracy between them; but convincing proof that such is not the case lies in the fact that the Prime Minister would not then have needed to run us down, which he certainly tried to do.”
I had not thought of this, and it was quite convincing, taken in the light of the fact that Miss Hemster had frequently acted in this impulsive way before.
We resolved not to leave the yacht that night, even if we left it at all, now that Miss Hemster had taken herself into the interior. Whatever she thought, or whatever her preferences were, I imagine her father liked the yacht better than a hotel.
Hilda and I went on deck after dinner and remained there while the lights came out all over Nagasaki, forming a picture like fairyland or the superb setting of a gigantic opera. We were aroused by a cry from one of the sailors, and then a shout from the bridge.
“That Chinese beast is coming at us again!”
Sure enough the steamer had left her moorings, rounded inside toward the city, and now was making directly toward us without a light showing.
“Get into the boats at once,” roared the captain.
I hailed Hemster, who was below, at the top of my voice, and he replied when I shouted: “Come up immediately and get into the small boat.”
By the time he was on deck I had Hilda in one of the boats, and Mr. Hemster was beside her a moment later. Two sailors seized the oars and pushed off. The next instant there was a crash, and the huge black bulk of the Chinese steamer loomed over us, passing quickly away into the night. I thought I heard a woman scream somewhere, but could not be quite sure.
“Did you hear anything?” I asked Hemster.
“I heard an almighty crashing of timber. I wonder if they’ve sunk the yacht.”
The captain’s gruff voice hailed us.
“They’ve carried away the rudder,” he said, “and shattered the stern, but not seriously. She will remain afloat, but will have to go into dry-dock to-morrow.”
CHAPTER XXIII
The Chinese steamer, if indeed it were she, although we could not be sure in the darkness, had sent us to the hotel when we had made up our minds not to go. We in the boat hovered near the yacht long enough for the captain to make a hurried examination of the damage. The wreck certainly looked serious, for the overhang of the stern had been smashed into matchwood, while the derelict rudder hung in chains like an executed pirate of a couple of centuries agone. It was impossible at the moment to estimate with any degree of accuracy the extent of the disaster. The captain reported that she was not leaking, and therefore her owner need have no fear that she would sink during the night. The rudder had certainly been carried away, and probably one of the propellers was damaged. In any case the yacht would have to go into dry-dock; so, being satisfied on the score of immediate safety, Mr. Hemster gave orders to pull ashore, and thus we became guests of the Nagasaki Hotel.
Next morning the Chinese steamer was nowhere in sight, so it was reasonably certain she had been the cause of our misfortune. The yacht rode at its anchorage, apparently none the worse so far as could be seen from the town. Before noon the craft was in dock, and we learned to our relief that her propellers were untouched. She needed a new rudder, and the rest was mere carpenter work which would be speedily accomplished by the deft Japanese workmen. Mr. Hemster had his desk removed to a room in the hotel, and business went on as before, for there were still many details to be settled with Mr. John C. Cammerford before he proceeded toward San Francisco. I think we all enjoyed the enlarged freedom of residence on shore, and the old gentleman said that he quite understood his daughter’s desire to get away from sight of sea or ship. It struck me as remarkable that he was not in the slightest degree alarmed for the safety of his daughter, nor did he doubt for a moment her assertion that she was going to stop at the country house of the Countess. On the other hand I was almost convinced she had been kidnapped, but did not venture to display my suspicions to her father, as there seemed no useful purpose to be served by arousing anxiety when my fears rested purely on conjecture. Of course I consulted confidentially with Hilda, but a curious transformation had taken place in our several beliefs. When she spoke of the probability of the girl’s committing suicide or doing something desperate, I had pooh-poohed her theory. We had each convinced the other, and I had adopted her former view while she had adopted mine. She had heard no scream on the night of the disaster, and regarded it as a trick of my imagination.
But what made me more uneasy was the departure of the Prime Minister. His fears for himself and family were genuine enough, and he was not likely to abandon a quest merely because his first effort had failed. It meant death to him if he returned to Seoul without the girl, so, if he had not captured her, it seemed incredible that he should return the same night without a single effort to accomplish his mission. The second, – and, as far as he knew, successful, – essay to sink the yacht, must have been to prevent pursuit. He was probably well aware that the yacht was the fastest steamer in the harbour, and, if it were not disabled, would speedily overhaul him. He also knew that his officers and crew were no heroes, and that with half-a-dozen energetic Japanese in addition to our own crew we could capture his steamer on the high seas without the slightest effort being put forth to hinder us. He had now a clear run to Chemulpo, and, however resolute we were, there was no possibility of our overtaking him. I had offered him my assistance, which he had accepted in a provisional sort of way, yet here he had disappeared from the scene without leaving word for me, and apparently had returned to the land where his fate was certain if he was unsuccessful. Of course, he might have made for Yokohama or Shanghai, but I was convinced, after all, that he cared more for the safety of his family than for his own, and indeed, if he was thinking only of himself, he was as safe in Nagasaki as elsewhere. I could therefore come to no other conclusion than that the girl was aboard the Chinese steamer and was now a prisoner on her way to Seoul, but of this I could not convince Hilda Stretton, and Mr. Hemster evidently had no misgivings in the matter.
Obviously the first thing to do was to learn the antecedents of the so-called Japanese Countess, and with this intent I called at the American Consulate. The official in charge received me with the gracious good-comradeship of his nation, and replied with the utmost frankness to my questions. He remembered Miss Hemster’s visit of a few days before, and he assured me that the Countess was above suspicion. As for her knowledge of Corean, that was easily accounted for, because her late husband had been a Japanese official at Seoul a dozen years or so ago, and she had lived with him in that city. Corea, indeed, had been in a way the cause of the Countess’s financial misfortunes. Her husband, some years before he died, had invested largely in Corean enterprises, all of which had failed, and so left his wife with scarcely anything to live upon except the country house, which was so remote from Nagasaki as to be unsalable for anything like the money he had expended upon it. Exactly where this country house was situated the United States Consul professed himself ignorant, but said he would endeavour to find out for me, and so genially asked me to take a drink with him and call a few days later.
This conversation did much to dissipate my doubts. Of course, without Mr. Hemster’s permission I could not tell the Consul the full particulars of the case, or even make any reference to them. So far as that courteous official knew, I was merely making inquiries on behalf of Mr. Hemster about the woman engaged to be his daughter’s companion, and about the country house which the girl had been invited to visit. The Consul assured me that everything was right and proper, and that Miss Hemster would get a glimpse of the inner life of the Japanese not usually unfolded to strangers, and thus my reason was convinced, although my instinct told me there was something unaccountable in all this. The scream I had heard simultaneously with the crashing of the collision might of course have been the shrill shriek of one of the Chinese sailors, but at the time it had sounded to me suspiciously like the terrified exclamation of a woman. Then, again, the action of the Prime Minister remained as unaccountable as ever, unless my former theory proved correct. However, I got the name of the Countess, which none of us who remained had known before, and I promised to return and learn the situation of the country house. My visit, on the whole, was rather reassuring; for, after all, there was little use in attaching too much importance to the actions of any Corean, even though he were Prime Minister of that country; so the problem began to appear to be a self-conjured one, and I gradually came to recognize that I had been troubling myself for nothing.
The week that followed was one of the most delightful in my existence. The captain was superintending the repairs on the yacht, and the intricacies of Mr. Hemster’s business activity were such that I could not be of much assistance to him; so there was practically nothing to do but to make myself agreeable to that dear girl, Hilda, to whom I showed whatever beauties Nagasaki possessed, and surely no one knew the town better than I did. She took a vivid interest, not only in the place, but also in my own somewhat doleful experience there in former and less happy times, not yet remote, the recital of which experiences rendered the present all the more glorious by contrast.
On our tenth day ashore Hilda told me that the old gentleman was beginning to worry because he had heard nothing from his daughter, and Hilda herself expressed some uneasiness because of the long silence. This aroused all my old doubts, and I called a second time on the American Consul. He told me that the information I sought had been in hand several days. The villa was called “The House of the Million Blossoms,” and it was situated nearly ten miles from Nagasaki. He produced a sketch map, drawn by himself, which he said would guide me to the place, so I resolved to visit it without saying a word to anyone.
I found the villa of the Blossoms without the least difficulty, and a most enchanting spot it appeared to be. Situated inland, at the bottom of a sheltered valley, through which ran a trickling stream, the place had evidently been one of importance in its day; but now the entrance lodge showed signs of dilapidation, and the plantation itself was so marvellously overgrown as to be almost a wilderness, with foliage too thick for me to see anything of the house itself. The custodian of the lodge received me with great urbanity but no less firmness. He confessed that the ladies were there, but added that he had strict orders to allow no one to enter or even to approach the house. I asked him to take my card to the stranger lady, and, although at first he demurred, I overcome his reluctance by an urbanity which I flatter myself was a stage imitation of his own, and, what was more to the purpose, I induced him to accept a present in the coinage of the realm. Nevertheless he securely barred the gate and left me outside, showing that his trust in my good faith was either very weak, or that his politeness was confined to the flowery language of his country. After a long absence he returned, and handed to me a folded sheet of note paper which I recognized as belonging to the stationery of the yacht. It bore these words in English, and in Miss Hemster’s handwriting:
“I wish to remain here in seclusion, and I consider it very impertinent of you to have sought me out. I am perfectly happy here, which I was not on board the yacht, and all I wish is to be left alone. When good and ready I will write to the yacht and to the Nagasaki Hotel. Until that time it is useless for you to intrude.”
This was definite enough, and I turned away angry with myself for having played the busybody, not knowing enough to attend to my own affairs. I had intended to tell the young woman of the accident to the yacht, making that in some way the excuse for my visit; but in the face of such a message I forgot all about the information I desired to impart, and so returned in a huff to Nagasaki. This message set at rest all thoughts of kidnapping, although it left my honoured friend Hun Woe’s precipitate departure as much a mystery as ever.
On my arrival at the hotel I showed the note to Hilda, who averred there could be no doubt about its genuineness, and she asked my permission to give it to Mr. Hemster to allay his rapidly arising anxiety, which mission it certainly performed as completely as it had snubbed me.