*CHAPTER XXVI*
*A Double Quest*
Gabriele's Story--A Hasty Word--Lex Talionis--Bribery andCorruption--Cause and Effect--The Natural Man--The FilialObligation--The Choice of Routes--A Fair Pleader--In theCircumstances--Improving the Occasion
Jack's part was done. The way had been cleared for the passage of theChunchuses across the railway, and knowing Ah Lum's rapidity of movementhe felt tolerably sure that the crossing might easily be made. He couldnow afford to think of his own safety. He determined to run the trainback as near as he dared to Pei-su-ho, then to leave it standing on theline and make off in a northerly or north-westerly direction, trustingto join hands with Ah Lum at some distance north of the line. Therailway guards were amazed to see the train running swiftly backwards;but, whatever their suspicions, they were powerless. Jack came to a stopbetween two of the block-houses; in a few minutes his men alighted withBekovitch and Sowinski, Gabriele, and her nurse; and then Jack abandonedthe noble Alexander the Second that had served him so well, and startedon his northward march. Some distance above the line he instinctivelyturned for a last look. There was the short train, motionless on therails, a derelict in a vast solitude. But it represented activitiesthat had disorganized the whole traffic of the line for a hundred miles,nullified a military scheme, and saved hundreds of lives. It was notwithout a certain grim amusement Jack remembered that the final card inthat game had been played by the Russians themselves. "I only hope thestation-master won't be cashiered," he thought, as he turned his backupon the scene.
Not till now had he an opportunity of learning what strange fate hadentrusted Gabriele to his care. Some time after he had left themissionary's house the girl, unable to endure the separation from herfather, again ventured into Vladivostok. Acting on the knowledge thatJack had bribed a Russian official, she succeeded in persuading acolonist about to re-embark for Sakhalin to carry a letter from her toCount Walewski. She told him of her intentions, assuring him that inspite of her failure to gain permission to enter the island, she stillmeant to persevere. Several weeks later she received a reply, broughtby the same man, who had crossed the sea in probably the last boatbefore the ports became ice-bound. It was addressed in a strangehandwriting, and as she tore it open she was oppressed by the fear thather father was dead. But the first line of the letter, written inFrench, dispelled her anxiety. The count was ill in hospital, unable towrite; but he had availed himself of the ready help of afellow-prisoner--a political prisoner who had recently arrived in theisland. He thanked his daughter for her affectionate solicitude, butpled with her to abandon her purpose: Sakhalin was no place for a woman;she would only suffer without alleviating his lot. As for himself, untilthe arrival of his new friend he had despaired of ever regaining hisliberty. But the surprising news that the Japanese were winning victoryafter victory had sown a seed of hope. The prisoners on the island hadbeen fed with lies by the officials, who reported constant victories forRussia. But the new-comer had thrown a fresh light on the war; he couldnot foresee its end: the Russians had still enormous powers ofresistance; it was possible that the great fleet on its way eastwardmight break through to Vladivostok and change the aspect of things.Yet, if it should be defeated, the Japanese might capture Sakhalin;possibly the political prisoners would then be released if they had notbeen previously removed to the mainland. It was only a possibility, butsufficient to give new courage to a sorely-tried man.
Jack read all this himself, for Gabriele, immediately after explaininghow the letter came into her possession, handed it to him. The writingwas his father's. At the first moment he felt unutterable relief infinding that his father was alive; then rage burned within him as he sawbefore him, marching at some distance apart, each manacled to aChunchuse, the two men whose villainy had sent Mr. Brown to the bleak"island of the dead". Gabriele noticed his look.
"I understand," she said. "But if your anger is great, how much greateris mine! Your father's persecutor is a Russian, a foreigner; my fatherwas betrayed by one of his own countrymen,--one of his own house. Thetraitor there recognized me as I entered the saloon carriage; bound ashe was, he shrank from me as though expecting that I would kill him."
"But he did not recognize you when he saw you at Father Mayenobe's?"
"No. But something must have put him on my track, for it is through himthat I was a passenger on the train. I was arrested in Vladivostok andordered to go back to Europe. He was with the soldiers who arrested me:in fact, he pointed me out to them. I do not know how he came torecognize me after all."
At the moment no explanation occurred to Jack, who indeed did not give athought to it. But later he remembered that, on the well-rememberedevening in Moukden when he had got the better of Sowinski, he hadmentioned the man's true name, Streleszki. This had no doubt set thePole wondering how Jack could have learnt his name; and the chain ofincidents had led him to connect the disclosure with the European girlhe had met at the missionary's. So that Jack's almost inadvertentexplanation had ultimately led to this meeting with Gabriele at thestation, and to the end of his long search for his father's whereabouts.
The party marched as rapidly as possible, rising gradually towards thebarren hills. After two hours they stopped for a brief rest, and forthe first time since his capture at Mao-shan General Bekovitch waswithin arm's-length of the Chunchuse leader. Jack wondered whether hewould be recognized; but the change of costume, the hardening of hisfeatures and the development of his physique due to his active rigorouslife, made him a different being from the lad whom Bekovitch had seenfor five minutes at the Moukden railway-station. And the general wascertainly not in such a calm and collected mood as might quicken hismemory. He was indeed in a condition of boiling rage and indignation.
"Here, you--" he cried, seeing Jack so near to him. "Do you understandRussian?"
"Moderately well, sir."
His very voice had become more manly; its deeper tones did not awakenrecollection.
"Then what do you mean, confound you! by treating a Russian generalofficer thus? What do you mean, I say? Do you know what you are doing?Made to tramp over these hills--fettered to a filthyChinaman--why--why----"
The general could find no further words to express his indignation.
"Is it not the Russian custom to manacle prisoners?" asked Jack quietly.
The Russian's cheeks took a purple hue.
"An officer--a general! Do you know who I am, you--you----"
"You are General Bekovitch."
"Well--well--loose me at once, then; I insist on this indignity beingremoved; it is monstrous!"
"Possibly; but quite Russian. You are no worse treated than you treatyour prisoners. If a Chunchuse, myself for instance, had fallen intoyour hands, what would have been his fate?"
The mild reasonableness of the Chunchuse's reply, together with his firmattitude, seemed to suggest to the general that he should try anothertack.
"Come," he said, with sudden suavity, "I know you gentlemen; I supposeit is a matter of dollars. How much will you take to let me go?"
Jack looked at him.
"Say a thousand dollars--that's a very fair sum, more than you'd get inthe ordinary way of your--business. Eh?"
"Yes: our business, as you call it, is certainly not profitable, but wedo make a haul at times."
The general looked furious. Jack quietly continued:
"But you are making a mistake--you are treating me as you would aRussian and an official. I am merely a brigand--but we Chunchuses haveour code. Dirty though he is, General Bekovitch, the man you are boundto has cleaner hands than you: he at least is an honest man according tohis lights. It is he who should complain of contamination."
Bekovitch quivered with rage, but gulping down the indiscreet words hisanger prompted he returned to the point.
"I could make you a rich man. I said a thousand dollars; come, I willmake it two thousand. It will buy you a pardon,
and an official post aswell. Batiushki! no brigand ever had such a chance."
Jack laughed.
"We have our code, General Bekovitch, I repeat. There are some thingsbribery cannot effect. Your release just now is one of them. But forbribery you would not be here."
The general stared.
"What do you mean?"
"It is all very simple. If the Pole Sowinski yonder had not bribed you,General Bekovitch, you would not have conspired against Mr. Brown atMoukden, and you would not have needed to deport his son. If you hadnot deported his son, his son would not still be in Manchuria; and if hehad not been in Manchuria he could not have captured you, GeneralBekovitch, and you need not have attempted to bribe him."
The general stared incredulously at the speaker. Then it was as thoughthe Cossack uniform dropped away; as though the young man before himbecame again the lad he had been nine months before. The Russianrecognized him at last, and his jaw fell.
"You see now," pursued Jack, "the double uselessness of offering bribesto me--as the son of Mr. Brown, and as an Englishman."
"What are you going to do with me?"
All the bluster, all the silkiness, was now gone; the general wasanxious, almost suppliant.
"That I cannot say. You will be delivered to my chief, Mr. Ah. It islikely that you will be detained until my father is released. But Icannot answer for Mr. Ah. He is a Chinaman, with Chinese ideas. Muchmay depend on how my father has been treated."
Bekovitch became pale; his eyes looked anxiously around. Jack left himto his meditation. Passing the spot where Sowinski sat, manacled likeBekovitch, Jack noticed that the Pole's eyes met his with a hunted,terrified look. He had recognized his captor at once, and having alsoseen Gabriele he felt that he had to reckon with her as well; and hisimagination of what he himself might do, were he in their place, shookhim like the ague.
The march was resumed, and late in the day the party came in touch withAh Lum's scouts. The meeting between Ah Lum and Jack was very warm.
"Never was captain so nobly served," said the grateful chief. "I was atmy wits' end to escape the meshes of the net; and now not only have Iescaped, but I hold in my power the man who was to ensnare me. Trulythe poet Li T'ai-poh was right when he said, in his _Apology forFriendship_--
"'Never despair: the darkest Lot may mend; Call no Man lost that hath one faithful Friend'.
You will find the works of Li T'ai-poh worthy of perusal, my honouredfriend. They have been to me as a bright star to a wanderer in a darknight."
Jack thanked him for the recommendation; then changed the topic, andasked how the crossing of the line had been effected. He learnt that aslight skirmish had taken place at the line between the Chunchuses andthe energetic pursuers of the train; but the Russians, being hopelesslyoutnumbered, had been compelled to retire with loss. Ah Lum in his turnwas informed of the discovery of Mr. Brown's whereabouts.
"Nothing proceeds from the machinations of men," he said, "but the wholeof our lives is planned by destiny."
"Yes, Mr. Ah, and destiny has willed that my father's persecutor andyour hunter are the same man--the Russian general there."
"Ch'hoy! May his posterity be cut off! May the five thunders strikehim dead! May the village constable attend to his remains! May he beborn again as a hog! When we pitch our camp, I will cut out his tongue,fry him in a caldron of oil, rip----"
"Stay, stay, Mr. Ah!" cried Jack, aghast at this unwonted fury in hisscholarly friend. "You forget that he is a European, and I am anEnglishman; we don't do such things in my country."
"But it is an imperative duty. Your duty to your father demands thatyou should heap on the villain the direst curses, and inflict on him themost terrible torture."
"No, Mr. Ah, the books of our sages teach us differently. Besides, myfather would not approve: he would most strongly disapprove."
This was a new aspect, and one that Ah Lum took time to consider.
"That alters the case," he at length reluctantly admitted. "A son maynot act contrary to his father's wishes. What does the poet Tu Fu sobeautifully say?--
"'Happy the Father, yea, and doubly blest, Whose Son, though absent, doeth his Behest'.
Yes, it is a pity; but when inclination and the counsel of sages agree,there is but one course."
Considering that there would be plenty of time to levy a contribution onthe settlement at Shih-tou-ho-tzue, Ah Lum sent back 200 men for thepurpose of collecting supplies, and pushed on with the main body. A fewhours later the detachment rejoined, with a number of carts containinguseful stores of all kinds, and the march northward was resumed with allspeed. One of the carts was appropriated to the use of Gabriele and herservant; but the former soon declared that she preferred to walk; thespringless cart made riding anything but comfortable. The march wascontinued throughout the day. In the evening Ah Lum reached a spot farin the hills, where he might safely encamp.
Next morning Jack took the earliest opportunity of holding aconsultation with the chief. It was his fixed intention to get ifpossible to Sakhalin; he knew his father was there: to rescue him oughtnot to be difficult. As a Chinaman Ah Lum confessed that he could notoppose an enterprise of such piety; but as a practical man he thought ithis duty to mention the objections. He had never been to Sakhalin, buthe understood that it was a terrible place, visited by fierce storms,buried for the greater part of the year under snow and ice, covered withthick forests, infested by wild beasts, wilder men, and even hideousdragons. By the many forms of exorcism employed for generations past inChina, dragons had been driven out of the Celestial Kingdom; but theyhad crossed the sea and taken refuge, so Ah Lum had been informed, inthe dreary wastes of Sakhalin.
Jack brushed all these objections aside. Seeing that he was firm, thechief carefully considered the best means of helping him. The straitbetween Siberia and Sakhalin was at this time of the year frozen over;the ice would not begin to break up for several weeks. The nearestpoint at which it could be crossed was at least 1500 li from theChunchuses' present encampment, and not only would so long a journey beattended by many hardships, but Jack would be liable to arrest as soonas he came to any considerable Russian settlement. Jack at once saidthat he did not propose to make the long overland journey; his best planwould be to sail by junk from one of the Manchurian ports as soon as thecoast was clear of ice. To go to Vladivostok was too risky; Possiet Baywas the nearest point, and the most promising in all respects. It wassome hundreds of li distant, and there were high hills to be crossed;but Ah Lum offered to send with Jack a man who knew the country, and toissue orders to the headman of every important village, instructing himunder pain of his severest displeasure and drastic penalties to do allin his power to forward the journey.
This having been settled, the question of the disposal of the prisonersarose.
"I am not one to mistake a village headman for the emperor," said thechief; "but fishes, though deep in the water, may be hooked, and I knowI have a valuable fish in the Russian general. How many men think you ageneral is worth in exchanges?"
"That's a hard question, Mr. Ah. Some less than nothing: others aninfinite amount."
"Then it will be a matter of long bargaining. As for the other man, heis of little account. The mule is always attended by a flea. The twomen are companions: what does that prove? When the rat and the catsleep together, be sure that the larder will be empty in the morning.As the fishmonger throws a sprat into the scale to make the salmonappear cheap, so will I deal with the Pole when I dispose of theRussian. But there is another point, my honoured friend; what is tobecome of these women whom Destiny has sent to trouble me?"
"Yes, that has troubled me, too. I must go and hear what they say."
Jack found Gabriele listening gravely to Ah Fu's recitation of the "MayQueen".
"Mademoiselle, may I have a little serious talk with you? The chief issadly perturbed about your presence here."
"Well, Monsieur Brown, it was your train th
at brought me. Seriously, Isuppose I must go back to Father Mayenobe _en route_ to Sakhalin, forsooner or later I will get there--on that I am determined. They maydeport me, but I shall always return.--What will you do yourself?--notremain a Chunchuse?"
"No, indeed. I am going to find my father."
"To Sakhalin?"
"Yes."
"Oh! Monsieur Brown, cannot I come too? I may never get such a chanceagain. My poor father! he has been there six years. Take me with you."
"But, Mademoiselle----"
"I am very strong, really I am. Did I not walk for six hours yesterday?I will not delay your march."
"But think of the difficulties--a long mountain journey to begin with, avoyage in a junk at one of the worst seasons of the year, the danger ofbeing discovered and arrested at any moment, exposure, perhapshunger----"
"I am not afraid. And surely it will be better for me to face thesehardships in your company than alone!"
"Alone?"
"Yes, alone! I have as strong a motive as you; my father--oh! I cannotbear to think of him ill and wretched. I shall go to Sakhalin. If youwill not take me, and do not give me up to the Russians, I shall trampto the coast and cross on the ice--alone."
Jack hardly knew whether to be amused at the absurdity of such aventure, or to be impressed with the girl's determination. That shemeant what she said he had not the slightest doubt.
"But what about Masha?"
"Poor old thing! She declares she will never leave me. And she is quitestrong--stronger than I am, though she is getting on in years. We shallget through somehow; the Lord God will protect us."
In face of this spirit Jack felt helpless. It was arranged thatGabriele and the nurse should accompany him. Their destination was keptsecret from the band, lest by any mischance it should leak out. A weekafterwards, Jack took a cordial farewell of Ah Lum, asking him, if hehad any news to communicate, to write to him at the care of theHong-Kong and Shanghai Bank at Shanghai. The leave-taking was conductedwith due solemnity. There was no question as to Ah Lum's sincerity offeeling. He was unfeignedly sorry to lose the lieutenant who had donehim such yeoman service. When he had exhausted the resources of hislanguage to express his gratitude, he spent a few minutes in bestowingfatherly counsel on Jack, drawing lavishly from his well of proverbialwisdom. Jack found the draught a trifle turgid, but otherwise thequality was excellent.
"Difficulty and danger," began the chief, folding his hands and lookingbenignly over the rims of his spectacles--"difficulty and danger teachus to know the value of friendship; at the same time they winnow thetrue from the false, even as a husbandman winnows the grain from thechaff. I may never see you again; take from me a few words of counsel,learnt as well from life as from the works of the poets and sages. Whatsays Li T'ai-poh?--'A good rule of conduct is better than stout armouror a sharp sword'. When you are most happy, you should be most ready tomeet misfortune. Extreme joy is but a sign of grief to come. Insecurity, do not forget danger. Do not consider any vice as trivial,and therefore practise it; nor any virtue as unimportant, and thereforeneglect it. Let your words be few, and your companions select.Inattention to minute actions will ultimately be prejudicial to a man'svirtue. Past events are as clear as a mirror; the future as obscure aslacquer; yet, gazing into that mirror, I seem to see reflected a futureof great prosperity, high office, and a numerous progeny. Heaviness andcare will come upon you, as upon all men; at such periods the works ofLi T'ai-poh will prove a well of refreshment, a mine of solace. I haveno fears for you. As the sun's rays first gild the highest mountains,so the blessings of Heaven fall in richest measure upon the upright.You have shown yourself to be an excellent son: what says the poet WangWei in his _Address to Posterity_?--
"'To him who faithfully his Father's Will obeys, Heaven in its Bounty grants great Wealth and Length of Days'."