Chapter 12

MAI LO MAKES A DISCOVERY.

Mai Lo looked at me a long time in silence. Then he said:

“The noble physician is old and wise.”

“And that means that we boys are young and foolish,” I retorted. “But listen to me, Mai Lo. We have traveled in many lands, young as we are. We have had adventures, and faced dangers. Some who decided to oppose us are lying buried in Alaska, Panama, and Egypt—and we are here to travel in your company to Kai-Nong.”

I am not given to boasting, but here was an occasion when a little bombast might count in our favor; so I looked Mai Lo squarely in the eye and took a step nearer to him as I spoke, that he might understand that I was not afraid. Moreover, the mandarin was assuming airs of superiority that I resented. It would never do to let him believe that we were in his power.

But no one could have told by Mai Lo’s expression whether my speech had impressed him or not. His eyes were like beads of glass, and I had begun to believe that there were no muscles in his face at all.

“What is your object in traveling to Kai-Nong?” he asked, after one of his irritating pauses.

“As a matter of fact, that does not concern you, my man,” I replied. “A higher authority than your own has given me a mission to perform, and if I have any trouble with you I shall use the letter and ring of Prince Kai to provide a separate escort to Kai-Nong.”

“I am your servant,” said Mai Lo, in his rasping voice.

“Please do not forget it,” I rejoined, curtly.

“I will put some of my own people on the elephant to guard the body of my illustrious master,” said he.

“No; I will ride there myself, and perform the doctor’s duties in preserving the body. I have assisted him so long that I understand the process perfectly, and I have a duplicate set of the keys in my pocket.”

Again the mandarin stared at me silently before he ventured to speak. Then he said:

“It is not necessary to continue that farce longer.”

It was my turn to stare now; and I heard Archie cough softly and Joe give vent to a low whistle.

“Farce!” I exclaimed indignantly.

“Yes. The body of the mighty and magnificent Prince Kai is by this time sufficiently preserved. Save yourself any further trouble concerning it.”

“Oh, I intend to carry out the contract,” I declared, hardly knowing how else to reply to this astounding statement.

“Do you intend to demand the ten thousand taels?” he asked.

“Certainly. We have earned it already.”

“You shall have it,” said Mai Lo, calmly. “This matter is between you and me, and I will pay you the money in Kai-Nong. But let the casket alone, hereafter, and save yourself trouble. Give me the keys.”

“In Kai-Nong, when I have the ten thousand taels.”

“Very well,” was the ready reply.

My easy victory assured me I was still master of the situation. For some reason Mai Lo, finding he could not bulldoze me, was afraid to oppose me openly.

I ordered Nux and Bryonia to ride upon the elephant bearing the casket of Prince Kai, and the mandarin made no objection to the arrangement. In their native language, which I understood to some extent, I told the blacks to keep their eyes open and their weapons handy, and at a signal from us to hasten to our assistance. Then Archie, Joe and I mounted the second elephant, while Mai Lo climbed the third one, followed by a little withered Chinaman in yellow dress, whom I had never seen before.

The escort mounted the mules, several of which bore our light baggage, and then the word was given to start.

Our mahout, or elephant driver, was a small Chinaman with an enormous head but a merry and even jovial face that formed a sharp contrast to that of the impassive Mai Lo. As we started I asked him a question, to determine if he understood English, and he replied with a flood of sing-song Chinese that formed a sentence a mile long.

We were well out of the city gates before the speech ended, and when our driver found we had ceased to pay any attention to him he threw back his head and laughed as heartily as a schoolboy.

Knowing that we could talk freely together in our howdah, we three began to discuss earnestly the desertion of Doctor Gaylord and its bearing upon our fortunes.

“I’d like to know what scared him out,” said Archie. “Doc wanted the money and the treasure as badly as any of us, and his ten thousand taels was a sure thing.”

“He was all right until he met that English friend at Ichang,” I said. “I believe he must have heard something from him about Mai Lo or the country between here and Kai-Nong that took away his courage.”

“Perhaps,” remarked Joe, thoughtfully, “Mai Lo himself has been talking to Doctor Gaylord, and warned him not to go farther. You see, Mai Lo knew all along about the imposture we practiced in regard to the body of the Prince, and it may be that when the doctor found that his trick was discovered he thought it time to dig out.”

“It’s a mystery,” I said, soberly, “and I’m rather sorry to lose the doctor. He had a pretty level head usually, and would have been a great help to us when we got to Kai-Nong.”

“Shall we get there, do you think?” asked Archie.

“Of course.”

“I thought the jig was up when Mai Lo discovered there was a dummy in the casket, instead of the body of Prince Kai,” he continued.

“Why so?”

“Because Mai Lo was so dead set against our tossing the body overboard while we were at sea. He would have defended it with his life, then. Why does he take the discovery so quietly now?”

“The explanation is very simple,” I answered. “Chinese customs are peculiar; and especially those that relate to ancestor worship. Should Mai Lo return to Kai-Nong without the body of his dead prince he would be eternally disgraced, and unless he at once committed suicide he would be killed by the other servants of the Prince. So it was a matter of life or death to him whether we tossed the body overboard or preserved it and brought it to China.”

“But we really did toss it overboard; and Mai Lo knows it now,” objected Archie.

“But no one else knows it,” I explained. “It was brought to Woosung and passed by the inspector as the mortal remains of Prince Kai. The Shanghai papers reported the arrival of the body of the Prince, in the care of his faithful servant, the noble governor, Mai Lo, and also gave an account of the accident that caused his death. So now all China knows that Mai Lo did his duty, and is escorting the remains of his master to the ancestral halls at Kai-Nong.”

“I see,” said Joe, nodding. “The secret is between Mai Lo and ourselves. That is why he frightened the doctor away, and tried to prevent us from continuing the journey to Kai-Nong.”

“Exactly,” I returned. “Mai Lo has been saved—for a time, anyhow—from committing suicide, by the very trick we played to deceive him. Perhaps he saw through our game from the beginning; I do not know. But we played into his hands, and so he let us go on. Now there is no further danger, for he knows we dare not betray the imposture and it will be easy for him to place the supposed body in the ancestral halls without its being examined by anyone. Yet he preferred not to have us with him when he should reach Prince Kai’s palace.”

“Naturally,” said Archie.

“But this knowledge is a protection to us, anyhow,” observed Joe. “Mai Lo is sharp enough to know that if he plays us any tricks we will explode the whole deception.”

“That idea is doubtless influencing him, even now,” I said. “What we have to fear is not open warfare, but trickery and secret assassination. I don’t know how powerful the letter and ring of Prince Kai will be in his own province, of which Mai Lo is governor; but the Prince seemed to think they would command obedience. Time will have to determine that.”

“What did you mean by saying that Mai Lo would be saved from suicide for a time?” asked Archie.

“Why, according to the rules and regulations of ancestor worship, he’s got to commit suicide in a short time, and there’s no way of getting out of it—except to disappear from China forever. The Prince was the last of his royal line, and left no heir; so the rules oblige his chief representative to seal up his ancestral halls and destroy all traces of them, so that they will never be disturbed until the resurrection. Before doing this, Mai Lo must convert one-half the fortune of Prince Kai into gold, silver and jewels, and deposit the treasure beside his coffin. When all this is accomplished—and it will require a little time, although it must be done speedily—Mai Lo must commit suicide, in order that the secret of the entrance to the ancestral vaults shall perish from the knowledge of men. If he fails to kill himself, the other servants will kill him.”

“Suppose,” said Joe, slowly, “it was discovered that we shared the knowledge of the entrance to Prince Kai’s ancestral halls; what would happen then?”

“They would surely kill us,” I answered. “But the secret entrance of which the Prince informed me is unknown to any of his people—even to Mai Lo. I do not fear discovery.”

“What do you fear?” asked Archie.

“I fear for our personal safety while we remain in Kai-Nong, and I am not sure that we can find a way to remove the treasure to Shanghai, once we have secured it,” I answered. “But we have known all along that there would be risks to run, and there’s no need crossing these bridges until we come to them. Prince Kai said it would be a question of wit and courage; but he predicted that we would win.”

“So we shall!” declared Archie.

“Of course,” remarked Joe, easily. “Prince Kai ought to have known what he was talking about.”