Chapter 28

THE VENGEANCE OF THE RUBY SCIMITAR.

I think we had all forgotten that the King Ape had been left imprisoned in the vaults. But when we entered the first alcove from the tunnel and heard the monster barking and growling in the recess at our right, the presence of the beast was recalled to us very forcibly. We paid little attention to the ape just then, however, for we were eager to discover whether or not the governor was really in the ancestral vaults.

As we passed from behind the tapestry we put out our lamp, each of us holding a few matches in our hands to use in case of emergency.

The blackness was now intense, and as we crept stealthily in single file toward the gate the gloom seemed to press upon us and embrace us. Likewise the silence of the immense vaults, which had been hewn out of solid rock beneath the great mound, was oppressive; for while the jabbering of the King Ape and his violent shaking of his grating at times reverberated through the dome with a thousand echoes, the hush of death that otherwise pervaded the place was but rendered the more effective.

On the occasions of our former visits I had looked upon these chih as mere treasure-houses; now, moving silently through the darkness, I suddenly realized we were in a place of the dead, with many generations of warriors, princes and imperial viceroys lying in state in their heretofore inviolable tombs. Would not the spirits of these great ancestors of Kai resent our intrusion? Spirits! I gave a start at the recollection of a remark Kai Lun Pu had made on his deathbed: “If I find that I possess a spirit I shall try to watch you, and enjoy the fun.”

I am not usually nervous, but I admit that when I recalled this significant speech I shuddered and grasped the scimitar of Kai Abon more tightly in my hand.

“What in thunder’s the matter with you, Sam?” growled Archie, who had his hand on my shoulder.

I did not care to say; but just then Joe, who was in advance of me, touched the grating and whispered:

“Here’s the gate—stop a minute.”

He unfastened the catch and we passed into the great domed hall.

On our right came a sudden rattling of the bars, where the monster ape was still struggling to escape his prison. I reflected that he must be getting hungry by this time, and hunger would make him more ferocious than ever. But our first impulse was to peer anxiously around the great chamber to discover if any light indicated the presence of Mai Lo.

There it was! a faint glimmer coming from one of the alcoves far to the right.

“We’ve got him,” muttered Archie, triumphantly.

“Why, he’s here, all right,” I replied in a low tone, “but in order to reach the place we must creep along the wall, so as not to get lost.”

“Come ahead, then,” said Joe, and started feeling his way by keeping one hand on the tapestry hangings that separated the various alcoves.

Suddenly there came a violent rattling of metal near at hand and Joe stopped so abruptly that I ran into him.

“Say, fellows; we can’t pass this alcove,” warned Joe. “That infernal monkey might reach out and grab us if we came too near.”

“Light the lamp,” said I, “and hold it under your coat. Mai Lo is in an alcove and he’s too busy to notice us at this distance.”

Joe obeyed. As the light of the wick illuminated our surroundings we found we had halted none too soon. The huge ape had his body pressed close to the grating, which, to our astonishment, we saw was now a mass of twisted and bent metal, so loosened and displaced by the constant wrenching of the powerful beast that only the chain and lock with which we had fastened it seemed to hold the grating in place.

“He’ll be out of there before long,” remarked Joe, half fearfully.

“Then we must dive into some alcove,” I suggested. “But I guess the bars will hold until we’ve had our talk with Mai Lo.”

Circling around the place so as to avoid the reach of the ape’s long arms we came to the tapestries beyond his den and continued our progress, extinguishing the light as we drew nearer to the alcove from whence came the glimmer we had first observed.

We walked with stealthy tread and stood before the alcove without a sound of our approach having been noted.

The grating had been set wide open and held from swinging to by a big vase set against it. In the center of the alcove a light burned upon a low taboret, and near it squatted Mai Lo, absorbed in selecting and arranging a mass of jewels piled up before him.

So occupied was the governor with this pleasant task that he never looked up until after we had entered and stood in a silent row before him.

Then his body gave a twitch beneath his broidered robes, but his passive face showed no expression at all. Perhaps it was incapable of expression. Even the eyes had no more animation beneath their surfaces than shoe-buttons.

“So you have escaped,” he said.

“Oh, there was nothing to escape,” I answered with a smile.

“My guards surrounded you.”

“They tried to, but there were not enough of them. And they are fewer in number now than they were.”

He stared at us without reply; without altering his position. He even rubbed the ruby that was in his hand against the satin of his sleeve as if to polish it.

“Hasn’t all this nonsense gone far enough, Mai Lo?” I inquired. “Are you not getting tired of opposing us when you know we can defy your power and carry out our plans without your consent?”

He calmly lowered his gaze and began to polish the ruby again. From the distant alcove where Fo-Chu was confined came the ape’s horrid growls and the shaking of the bars; but the governor seemed little interested in anything but the heap of plunder before him.

“You have tried in various ways to destroy us,” I went on. “You set your eunuchs on us in the pavilion; you ordered your soldiers to cut us down in the palace; you loosed the King Ape in these vaults to tear us to pieces. But what is the result? We are here still, and free, and masters of the situation.”

Mai Lo slipped the ruby in his pocket and took another from the heap before him.

“How can you enter the Ancestral Chih?” he asked. “My soldiers guard every avenue of approach.”

“There are some things it is not necessary for you to know,” I retorted; “and that is one of them. But we did not come here to quarrel, but to make peace with you.”

This seemed to interest him, for he transferred his beady gaze from the gems to my face.

“This constant opposition is annoying,” I continued, “and while Prince Kai Lun Pu gave to us the riches contained in these vaults, and showed us how to secure them, we find there is more than we need, or can carry back with us.”

“Prince Kai had no right to give you the wealth of his ancestors,” said Mai Lo.

“Perhaps not. Neither have you any right to rob the Ancestral Halls. Instead, you ought to seal them up, and commit suicide. But you won’t do that. You want to escape with enough treasure to make you rich for the rest of your life.”

He regarded me intently, but made no reply. So I went on:

“We do not care whether you escape or kill yourself, except that by working together, instead of in opposition, we may all succeed in getting away with the treasure. There’s more than enough for us all.”

Still he made no reply. From the dome came a sudden crash of metal and the wild yelp of the giant ape. But we all stood motionless, wrapped in the importance of the governor’s decision.

“Well, what is it to be—war or peace?” I asked, impatiently.

“War,” he said, quietly. “You are miserable foreign pigs, and I will kill you. Not one gem of this treasure shall you carry away. Your knowledge of these chih has sealed your doom.”

I felt like striking the rascal with the naked scimitar I held—the scimitar for which the seven kings fought whose life-blood was contained in the seven rubies. But I resisted the temptation, while Archie exclaimed: “Don’t be a fool, Mai Lo!”

“Your obstinacy may ruin us all,” Joe added.

“We don’t intend to be killed,” I observed, bitterly; “and you ought to know that by this time. We——”

I stopped short with a thrill of horror, for a sudden pattering of feet reached my ears. The governor sprang up just as we three with one accord shrank back against the wall, and the next instant the King Ape bounded into the alcove, his eyes like balls of fire, his grinning teeth bared viciously.

Mai Lo alone confronted the beast, who faced his victim chattering with an almost human expression of cruel joy. I saw the mandarin feel in his breast and draw out a glittering poniard, while his eyes fastened themselves upon those of the ape. An instant more and the brute sprang forward and caught Mai Lo in his embrace.

Once, twice, I saw the keen blade bury itself in the hairy breast of Fo-Chu. Then the monster, with a shriek of mingled rage and agony, thrust the man from him and bounded back against me, the sudden movement sending me reeling against the wall. As I fell I extended my arm in which I still clasped the ruby scimitar, and in a flash the ape had snatched the weapon from my hand and with renewed screams swung it in a gleaming circle around his head.

But his attention was distracted from us, who stood motionless with fear, toward the form of the governor, who was rising from the place where he had fallen. And Fo-Chu remembered that the great pain in his breast had been caused by the weapon of Mai Lo. So with a wild cry he leaped forward and swung the scimitar with tremendous power. It caught Mai Lo just above the shoulders, and the rarely tempered blade sheared through bone and muscle. The head toppled with a dreadful thud to the pavement, while for an instant the body stood erect and swaying. Then it fell in a heap, and with a screech that chilled my very blood with horror, the monster threw himself upon the body and rent it limb from limb with a fury that was absolutely devilish. The cracking bones and tearing flesh sickened me so that for the first time in my life I fainted, losing all sense of danger and surroundings as I sank limply to the floor.