Under the Chinese Dragon Part 22

'Made a whole heap of fine resolutions,' he growled beneath his breath, 'and then was weak enough to break them. I deserve to be trapped. But why? What can be the meaning of this sudden attack?'

Well might he ask the question, for there must be some reason. David had no knowledge of that rascal Chang, hired with Mr. Ebenezer Clayhill's money. He had no idea that the sinister individual who had married his stepmother was even then awaiting news from the Chinaman he had engaged to do his bidding, and that, with a cunning which matched that of the Celestial, Ebenezer had arranged that anything might be done if only David Harbor could be silenced and finished--anything at all. Yet, when his wife broached the subject, as she did with great regularity, once at least every day, he would smile and answer her in a manner all his own.

It was always his habit to take up a commanding position on the hearth-rug, and there, with a preliminary blast of his gigantic and exceedingly red nasal organ, to hold forth with a pomposity which suited him not at all.

'Violence, my dear! Violence to be offered! Why do you harp so constantly on such a matter? Of course there will be no violence. This man Chang goes in search of the will, not of the young pup you have the misfortune to own as a stepson. Don't be alarmed; no harm will come to him through Chang.'

But, once his wife's back was turned, the ruffian would tell himself with a chuckle that if anything did actually happen to David, why, it would be at the hands of some others hired by the rascal he had sent to China.

'She'll never, know,' he said. 'As for me, I'd rather hear he was dead than have the actual will sent to me; for that young pup is capable of mischief. I'll not be comfortable till he's dead.'

Seeing that David was ignorant of Chang's existence, what else could he put this sudden attack down to? Tsu-Hi's cunning and enmity? Why? Then to what? For in these days of slowly gathering enlightenment a European can travel in China with some degree of safety, particularly when armed with a letter to the powerful governor of a province. True, there are sudden fanatical attacks; but then, he reflected, in such cases there is always a cause. Where was there a cause here? where the smallest excuse for this violence?

However, no amount of wondering helped him. His indignation merely made his breath come faster, and seeing that breathing was already a matter of difficulty, he soon lay quiet at the bottom of the basket, listening dully to the footsteps of his bearers; and then he felt that he was being carried up some stairs. A chilly sensation came to him, while the faint light flickering in through the wicker was cut off entirely. More stairs were mounted, the basket being borne at an angle that sent David into a heap at the lower end. Then the bearers went through a doorway.

Of that he was sure, for he heard the creak of the hinges and the rattle of bolts. An instant later the basket was tossed to the ground with as much ceremony, or lack of ceremony, as would have been devoted to a bale of clothes.

'Bring him out,' he heard in guttural Chinese. 'Now cut his bonds; fetch the light hither.'

David was rolled out of the basket, jerked to his feet, and then relieved of his bonds, while the gag was dragged from between his teeth.

It was a welcome relief. He breathed easily for the first time for some minutes.

'Now,' said the same voice, but in broken English this time, 'you see me, no doubt. You are David Harbor.'

'Right,' nodded our hero.

'I am Chang; I helped to kill your father.'

'And will probably kill me,' answered David, somewhat bewildered, and inclined to look upon this fellow as a madman.

'You are right. To-morrow evening you will be beheaded. I myself shall carry out the sentence.'

'But why?' asked David, cringing slightly, for the ordeal was trying.

Indeed, the man standing over him, with the lamp s.h.i.+ning in his face, looked a most heartless villain.

'Why?' he repeated, mocking our hero. 'The answer is simple. David Harbor has become a nuisance. There is a man of the name of Ebenezer Clayhill; he does not love David Harbor.'

So there it was. Even in his lowest estimation of the man who had married his stepmother, David could not imagine such a depth of villainy. But this fellow Chang was in earnest. He was undoubtedly speaking the truth. What answer could our hero give to him? He merely bowed his head, while a s.h.i.+ver of apprehension pa.s.sed through him. Then he pulled himself together and faced the ruffian.

'I hear you,' he said. 'What then?'

'For you, nothing; for me, reward.'

The Chinaman swung round on his heel, gave a swift order, and strode out of the place. Then one by one the bearers followed. The door was banged to, the bolts shot home, and David was left alone, alone in his prison, with the moon staring in at him through a window high up in a stone wall, staring in inquisitively as if to ask how this young fellow would face the coming ordeal.

'So it is like that? Ebenezer's hatred of me reaches even to Hatsu,'

thought our hero. 'He has hired this rascal to kill me, and it looks as if the man would succeed. So he will if I don't move a little. But I'm not dead by a long way yet; I've still got a kick or two left in me.'

CHAPTER XIII

In a Chinese Prison

If Chang, the man who had so unexpectedly and suddenly led an attack upon the little party journeying via Hatsu to interview Tw.a.n.g Chun, the governor of the province, imagined that he had left David in a condition of terror at the thought of the execution he had threatened for the evening of the morrow, he was very much mistaken, and showed therefore that he knew his prisoner very little indeed; for David was not the one to be long down-hearted. It was not in his nature to give in without a serious struggle. No sooner had the door of his prison been banged and barred, than his spirits rose wonderfully, while he set about seeking for a remedy to enable him to beat his enemies. And the first thing that caused him joy was a discovery he made within a couple of minutes.

'The fools!' he whispered to himself, chuckling. 'The fools! They took me because I was idiot enough to fall asleep, but they forgot to search my pockets. Why, here is my magazine shooter, and here the letters I was carrying. George! Mr. Chang, I shall have something to say when the time for execution comes along; but I ain't going to wait for it if I can help; let's have a look at this cage they've put me in.'

It was a long, narrow cell, with walls formed of hewn blocks of hard stone, and lit by a range of narrow windows placed close to the ceiling.

The openings themselves were innocent of gla.s.s, or of the Chinese equivalent, namely, oiled paper. Otherwise, the floor was of stone, the ceiling of a dusky white, while, save for himself and the basket in which he had been carried to the place, there was not another thing present. All was in darkness, except a wide stretch of floor on which the moonbeams played, as they crept up one of the walls till the bright patch of light ended at an abrupt edge, a faithful _silhouette_ of the range of windows above placed on the outside wall of the prison.

'Door as safe as houses; heard the bolts shot home,' David told himself.

'Then I've got to reach those windows. Should say they're a good twelve feet from the floor; perhaps the height's even greater. Couldn't reach 'em I fancy, even with a big leap. However, I'll try; nothing like trying.'

There was nothing like keeping up his pluck either, which David did with a vengeance. He was even smiling as he stared up at the range of windows, with their edges so unnaturally abrupt as the moonbeams streamed past them, while one hand went every now and again to the depths of the secret pocket in which his magazine pistol was lying. Then he walked over to the wall and felt the surface with his fingers.

'One could get a grip with these cotton-padded soles, I should say.

I'll try a running jump and see where it will land me.'

He went back to the opposite wall, and squeezed hard against it; then he sprang forward, and leaping at the far wall endeavoured to run up it. He succeeded in gaining a point within two feet of the windows, or perhaps it was less. Then he tried again and again till he was exhausted.

'No good; can't do it,' he told himself. 'I shall have to think of something else.'

He sat down on the basket and cudgelled his brains, but the more he thought and worried, the longer he stared at the range of windows, the more impossible the task seemed. Then he swung round swiftly. There was a clatter outside the door, the bolts were being pushed back from their sockets. A moment or two later the hinges creaked, while the door was thrown open. A coolie entered at once, while a second held a lamp behind him. There were half a dozen more just outside in a dimly lit pa.s.sage, while in their midst stood none other than the Tartar under-officer.

David rubbed his eyes, and wondered where he had seen the fellow before.

Then hearing him speak, he remembered.

'Put the food and water down,' he commanded, 'and leave. It is time that we were all in our beds. Do not go near the foreign devil. There is never any saying when he and his may do injury to one of our people.'

He eyed his prisoner with none too friendly a glance, and hurried the coolie from the room. David heard the bolts shot to again, and the faint slither of departing feet. Then he rose to his feet with flushed face and a new hope in his heart. Not a second thought did he give to the food and water, for who could say that it was not poisoned? If Ebenezer Clayhill could hire a ruffian to come all that way to molest him anything might be expected. No, the food and drink did not attract him.

Our hero was roused by the help which the lamp had brought him; for it had shone on the basket on which he was seated, and in a flash David realised that the affair was not merely a flimsy collection of wicker, but a well-made basket of considerable length, strengthened with pieces of bamboo, which, although light, kept the whole in shape, and gave it considerable power to resist weights placed within it. He picked it up with an effort, and running his fingers along it, came upon the holes left for the bamboo runners with which it was hoisted on the bearers'

shoulders. Then, with the utmost care, and in deadly silence, he propped it up on end against the wall, at the summit of which ran the range of windows. Would it reach high enough? David stepped back, and cast an anxious eye upward.

'Might,' he said, with a doubtful shake of his head. 'Might not; anyway, I'm going to reach those windows.'

He gathered his somewhat ample allowance of Chinese garment about his knees so as to free his legs, and began to clamber upward; and presently he had reached the summit. To stand there and balance himself on the end was no easy matter, and as if to persuade him of that fact the basket suddenly canted, bringing itself and our hero with a crash to the ground. Instantly his hand went to his pistol, while he crouched over the fallen basket, endeavouring to regain his breath, for the jar of the fall had driven it out of his body. But there was not a sound from the pa.s.sage; not a sound from outside his prison. Not a foot stirred; no alarm was given.

'Shows I'm in an out-of-the-way place, for that basket made no end of a clatter. When once beat, try again. Don't give up in a hurry.'

He propped up the basket again, but this time with greater care, and swarmed up it, finding little difficulty in that part of the task, for it was almost as easy as climbing a ladder, there being numerous gaps affording a foothold in the wicker. Then he steadily raised himself to his full height, and stretched his arms above his head. The window was within two feet of his fingers.

'And has to be reached. Can't get much of a spring here,' he thought, 'but it's worth trying. I'll chance the fall, for if I miss, there's a good chance of coming down standing.'

With a sharp kick he leaped at the window, and actually contrived to grip the edge with the fingers of one hand. But they slid off instantly, and within a second he was back on the floor of his prison, not so shaken or jarred on this occasion, but hot and desperate, exasperated at his want of good fortune. But as we have had occasion to remark before, David was nothing if not determined. It was that very characteristic in the lad which troubled his stepmother, and which had, no doubt, carried him safely and successfully through many an undertaking. He propped the basket into place again, ascending with all speed and caution, and drawing in a long breath, made a huge spring at the window. On this occasion the fingers of both hands obtained a grip of the edge, and retained it. He hung in mid-air, flattened against the wall of his prison, listening to the basket as it slid sideways, and finally came with a crash to the floor. Then he pulled himself up, flung one arm round a pillar dividing the window, and soon had himself hoisted higher.

After that it was easy enough to squeeze his body through the narrow opening, and to lie there securely while he regained his breath.

'And what now?' he asked himself, when he was again ready for further exertion. 'Outside here there's nothing that's very promising. We came up stairs. That is to say, I recollect that my bearers carried me up a flight before entering the prison. That makes the drop below me pretty big, bigger than I'm anxious to tackle. But there's nothing else.'

It did appear as if there were no other alternative, for as he cast his eyes downwards David could detect nothing that offered a foothold below him. The smooth stone wall descended sheer to the street, which ran along under the bright moonbeams some thirty or more feet under the window. It was not an impossible drop. On the other hand, it was none too easy, and might very well result in a sprained ankle, or something equally hampering and disagreeable. Then David did the wisest thing under the circ.u.mstances. Bearing in mind the old motto, perhaps, 'look before you leap,' he cast his eyes in all directions, first in front and then behind him, without obtaining any encouragement, and then up over his head. Ah! He could have shouted: the roof was within a few inches of his hand, a roof composed of large, flat tiles, with a deep channel at each side, and sloping so gradually that to walk upon it should be easy.