The Tomb of Ts'in E-Book

Edgar Wallace

• Herausgeber: Edgar Wallace
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

A MAN walked carelessly through Hyde Park with the air of one who had no destination. He was tall and straight, his shoulders were thrown back, his chin had that upward lift which seems part of the physiognomy of all who have followed a soldier's career. His face, lean and well-featured, was tanned with the tan of strong suns and keen cold winds, and though the day was chilly and a boisterous breeze swept across the bare spaces of the Park, he wore neither overcoat nor muffler. The upturned moustache and the shaggy eyebrows suggested truculence; the threadbare suit, for all its evidence of pressing and ironing, suggested that he had found patches of life none too productive.
A close examination might have revealed little darns at the extremities of his trousers, for he had a trick of brushing his heels together as he walked—a trick disastrous to garments already enduring more than their normal share of wear.
He walked carelessly, swinging his gold-headed malacca cane—incongruously magnificent—and whistling softly and musically as he moved.

Leseprobe

Edgar Wallace

The Tomb of Ts'in

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Table of contents

INTRODUCTION

I. — CAPTAIN TED TALHAM

II. — THE MAN IN THE DRAWER

III. — INTRODUCES MR. SOO

IV. — THE AMULET OF JADE

V. — MR. SOHO MAKES A DISCOVERY

VI. — A CRIME OF TILLIZINNI

VII. — AN AFTERNOON CALL

VIII. — THE CELESTIAL WAY

IX. — THE ABDUCTION

X. — THE ROOMS BY THE CANAL

XI. — CAPTAIN TALHAM'S PROGRESS

XII. — THE MESSAGE OF THE DEAD

XIII. — CAPTAIN TALHAM PROPOSES

XIV. — AND RECEIVES HIS ANSWER

XV. — SOO WHO CAME BACK

XVI. — IN THE CITY OF HOO-SIN

XVII. — THE TOMB LOCATED

XVIII. — IN THE CAVERN OF THE DEAD

XIX. — THE YAMEN OF T'SI SOO

XX. — SOO "SAVES-FACE"

INTRODUCTION

HAD Tillizinni written this story of the tomb of Ts'in Hwang Ti (the King of Ts'in who became Emperor literally) from the notes he had upon the case, it might have made a greater and a better book. You would have pardoned such extravagance of style as he displayed in his extraordinary narrative, remembering that he is of Italian birth and that English is too full of pitfalls to the foreigner for his liking. For of truth, though Tillizinni speaks and writes the three Arabics, Moorish (which I think is the purest), Turkish, and Russian, with considerable fluency, and though he knows at least seven dialects in the Chinese tongue, and can converse in most of the modern languages, yet English, with its bland and inviting simplicity, is a tongue which more than any other baffles and overawes him. They say of Nicolò Tillizinni, his predecessor in the chair of Anthropology at Florence, and the benefactor and more than father, whose name Tillizinni bears, that he spoke all languages save Welsh; but I have reason for believing that he never completely mastered the niceties of our tongue. Particularly did Tillizinni wish to write clearly in this story which I now tell (by his favour and at his request), for it is a story like none other I have ever heard or read. It concerns the tomb of the Great Emperor—the first Emperor of the Chinese, who died two centuries before the birth of Christ; it concerns that extraordinary genius and adventurer, Captain Ted Talham—surely the most talkative man in the world; it concerns, too, that remarkable woman, Yvonne Yale, and last but not least, The Society of Joyful Intention—the most bloodthirsty organisation the world has known. It concerns Tillizinni also, for Scotland Yard placed him on his mettle, set him a challenging task, which threatened at one time to bring ruin to the greatest detective in Europe. That it likewise brought him within an ace of losing his life, I should not think it worth while mentioning at this stage, but for the fact that scoffers might suppose that he held life dearer than fame. Tillizinni has never greatly interested himself in Chinese affairs, and though he had been instrumental in bringing many men to their doom, yet, curiously enough, none of these have been inmates of the Celestial Kingdom; so that he welcomed with the welcome which a blasé mind offers to anything in the shape of novelty, the invitation of Scotland Yard to make himself acquainted with the Society of Joyful Intention. The story proper which is set forth here, begins with the surrounding of the China Packet. On the 24th of November, in the year of the great storm, there went aground off the Goodwin Sands the China-Orient liner Wu-song. She was a modern steamer of six thousand tons, built by the Fanfield Company in 1900, and she traded between London and the China Sea. On the night in question she was homeward bound and was coming up the Channel at half speed, a precaution taken by her skipper as a result of a slight and patchy fog which lay on the Channel. Off St. Margarets, for some unaccountable reason, she shifted her course, and before anybody seemed to realise what was happening, she was aground. No sea was running at the time, the storm, it will be remembered, occurred a fortnight later, and with the aid of two Dover tugs she was refloated. That would seem rather a matter for the Trinity Masters than for Scotland Yard, but for the fact that in the natural excitement attendant upon the grounding, a very determined attempt was made to force the Stubb safe in the captain's cabin. Here again Scotland Yard might have dismissed the matter as a mere commonplace attempt to secure the safe's contents by some person or persons unknown, but for the fact that this was the third attempt which had been made during the voyage. Coming through the Suez Canal the captain had been on the bridge—as is usual when a ship is making progress through the great waterway. He had left his steward in charge of his cabin, with instructions not to leave the apartment until he (the captain) returned. Half way through the Canal, with the ship's searchlights showing, and a clear stretch of water before him, he had snatched a moment to go to his cabin to get a muffler, for the night was cold. The cabin was on the boat deck and inaccessible to passengers except by invitation. To his surprise he had found the big room in darkness and had put one foot over the weather board to enter the cabin, when two men rushed past him, knocking him over in their hurry. He called for a quarter-master, entered the cabin, and discovered his steward lying gagged and bound on the floor. The man had been sitting reading when he had found himself violently seized and gagged by two men, one of whom had switched out the light the moment the assault was made. The steward struggled, but he was powerless in the hands of his assailants, and for a quarter of an hour he lay upon the floor, his back to the intruders, whilst they attacked the safe. One cannot say, without reflecting upon an eminent firm of safe-makers, whether the burglary would have succeeded but for the captain's return, but certain it is that the strangers had gone to work in a most scientific manner, and had made amazing progress in the short space of time. The second attempt was made when the ship was two days out of Gibraltar, and was a half-hearted effort to blow open the door of the safe whilst the captain was conducting Church Service in the saloon. No guard had been left in the cabin, the captain thinking that the thieves would be scared at making any further attack, and, too, that they would hardly venture in broad daylight. Again they were disturbed and decamped unseen, leaving two pencils of nitro-glycerine to indicate their intentions. Nor was the third, and final, and—one may suppose—desperate attempt any more successful; but this time the thieves were nearly caught. Captain Talham had seized his revolver the moment the ship went aground, for his crew was in the main Chinese, and he took no risks of a panic. When going back to his cabin to secure a lifebelt, he met the two indefatigable thieves, and there was a sharp exchange of shots. This time the thieves were armed also. Again they evaded him and escaped in the fog. Scotland Yard sent Tillizinni to interview the captain at the London docks, and he found him an average type of British seaman, kindly and communicative. "The rum thing is," he explained, "that there was no money in the safe—not so much as a brass farthing." "What did the safe contain?" asked Tillizinni. He took up a sheet of paper from his desk and read: "Ship's papers in envelope—confidential report on the working of the new condenser—and a green mailbag," he said. Tillizinni was interested. "Green mailbag?" The captain nodded. "That's the Ambassador's bag and is brought from the Court of Pekin to the ship by special messenger, and taken from me in London by a man from the Embassy." "You see," he explained, "the Chinese Government always sends its mails like that—its Embassy mails, I mean. I bring 'em every trip. They don't trust the Embassy despatches over the Trans-Siberian Railway. They think that the Russians go through 'em." "I see," said Tillizinni. It was very clear what the objective had been. The green mailbag offered an irresistible temptation to somebody who knew its contents. "There was nothing else?" He shook his head. "Nothing," he said. There was little to do save to continue inquiries at the Chinese Embassy. Here, however, Tillizinni met with a check. A letter from the Embassy informed him that nothing of the slightest importance was contained in the bag. The letter continued:"In this particular mail there were no official documents whatever, the bag being made up of a number of his Excellency's personal effects. These were in the nature of rare Chinese documents which his Excellency had sent for from his home in Che-foo, to assist him in the writing of an article which he is preparing for the North American Review. As Signor Tillizinni may know, his Excellency is an enthusiastic student of Chinese history, and has the finest private collection of historical documents relating to China in the world." This letter came to Tillizinni at a moment when he had ample time to devote to the elucidation of the problem. Our Italian friend was and is a peculiar man. He credited thieves of persistent characters, such as these men undoubtedly possessed, with intelligence out of the ordinary. Whosoever made the attempt upon the safe of the China boat were well aware of the "worthlessness" of the safe's contents, and it was apparent that, worthless or not, the burglars had decided that to have them was worth the risk. The passenger list was a small one, but it took a week to sort them out and establish their innocence. For the most part they were Customs officials and British officers returning home on leave; and the week-end found me with only two "doubtfuls." The first of these was almost beyond suspicion. A Mr. de Costa, a ship-owner of sorts, was one, and Captain Talham was another. Mr. de Costa, whom Tillizinni visited was, I should imagine, descended from a Portuguese family. A short, stout man, rather yellow of face, and bearing traces of his descent. He seemed the last person in the world to be suspected of commonplace felony. Of Captain Talham, only fragmentary information was obtainable, He had apparently held a commission in a regiment of Irregular Horse during the South African war, and at the conclusion of hostilities he had gone to China in search of the adventure which at that time the great empire offered. Beyond the fact that he had gone to China as far inland as Lau-tcheu; that he had been arrested later at Saigon in Cochin China, over some dispute with a French naval officer, and that he had a few months in Kuala Kangsan in Perak, little could be learnt about him. Later Tillizinni was destined to meet him, and discover much at first hand, for just as there was none so perfectly acquainted with his life, so there was none as willing to talk so freely about Captain Talham—as Captain Talham. Here, then, with the conclusion of Tillizinni's unsatisfactory inquiries, the incident of the China Packet might have closed and have been relegated to the obscurity which is reserved for petty felonies, but for the events which followed the publication of the Ambassador's article. From hereon I tell the story, suppressing nothing save that which may appear too flattering to Tillizinni. Such of the events which Tillizinni did not actually witness, I have written from information afforded me by the principal actors in this strangest of modern dramas.

* * * * *

Here let me say one word about the title which heads this chapter. I have lumped together many acts of Signor Tillizinni and have described them as "Just Crimes," and I think that I have excellent reason for so describing them. Tillizinni has always been a law unto himself. He worked on the solid basis that society was a lamb which must at all costs be protected from the wolves of the world, and to afford that protection he invoked the law of that land in which he was residing. Sometimes the written law did not exactly cover a case, or presented a loop-hole through which an evil-doer might crawl unscratched. Tillizinni filled the hole—unlawfully. It was always better for a criminal to take his chance with the law than to take a chance with Tillizinni—that I know; that also many villains discovered too late for the knowledge to be of practical service.

I. — CAPTAIN TED TALHAM

A MAN walked carelessly through Hyde Park with the air of one who had no destination. He was tall and straight, his shoulders were thrown back, his chin had that upward lift which seems part of the physiognomy of all who have followed a soldier's career. His face, lean and well-featured, was tanned with the tan of strong suns and keen cold winds, and though the day was chilly and a boisterous breeze swept across the bare spaces of the Park, he wore neither overcoat nor muffler. The upturned moustache and the shaggy eyebrows suggested truculence; the threadbare suit, for all its evidence of pressing and ironing, suggested that he had found patches of life none too productive. A close examination might have revealed little darns at the extremities of his trousers, for he had a trick of brushing his heels together as he walked—a trick disastrous to garments already enduring more than their normal share of wear. He walked carelessly, swinging his gold-headed malacca cane—incongruously magnificent—and whistling softly and musically as he moved. The Park was almost deserted, for it was dusk, and the weather conditions were neither ideal nor inviting. Occasionally the gusty wind bore down a flake or two of snow and the skies overhead were sullen and grey. He had reached the Ranger's House before he examined a cheap metal watch, which was affixed to his person by no more pretentious guard than a broad ribbon, bearing a suspicious resemblance to a lady's shoe-lace. The watch had stopped—he arrested his progress to wind it, deliberately and with great earnestness. This done, he continued his stroll, bearing down towards the Serpentine. He stood for a few moments cheerfully contemplating the dreary stretch of water, and three sad water-fowl, which came paddling toward him in the hope of sustenance, paddled away again, sadder than ever, for he offered no greater assistance to life than a cheerful chirrup. He turned as a sharp footstep came to him from the gravelled path. A girl was walking quickly toward him from the Kensington end of the Park. Something in her face attracted his attention—if ever fear was written in a human countenance it was written in hers. Then, into view round a clump of bushes, came three men. They were small of stature, and it needed no second glance to tell him their nationality, for despite their European dress and their hard Derby hats, they wore their clothes in the négligé style which the Oriental alone can assume. The girl saw the tall man and came towards him. "I'm so sorry to trouble," she said breathlessly, "but these men have been following me for two days—but never so openly—" She stopped and appeared to be on the verge of tears. He bowed, a little slyly, and glanced at the three Chinamen, who now stood a dozen paces away, as though uncertain as to what was the next best move. With a jerk of his head he beckoned them, and after a moment's consultation they obeyed the gesture. "What do you want?" he asked. "No savee," lisped one of the men. "No savee them pidjin." He exchanged a few rapid sentences with his companions and a smile flickered momentarily at the corner of the tall man's mouth and vanished. "What for you walkee this piecee lady all same time?" he asked. Again the sotto-voce conference and the leader of the three shook his head. "No makee walkee samee time," he said. "Makee walkee John allee samee, piecee lady no b'long." The tall man nodded. He took from his waistcoat pocket a light blue porcelain disc and laid it on the palm of his hand and the three Chinamen walked nearer and examined it. They were puzzled by the demonstration. "No savee," said the spokesman. Captain Talham replaced the button in his pocket. "Why do you follow this lady, you dogs?" he asked quickly, and the men shrank back, for he spoke in the hissing Cantonese dialect. "Excellent lord," said the speaker humbly, "we are magnificent students walking as is our custom in the evening, and we have not the felicity of having seen this gracious and beautiful lady before." "You lie," said the tall man calmly; "for if that were so, why did you say, 'Let us go away until this pig is out of sight, and then we will follow the woman?'" The man he addressed was silent. "Now you shall tell me what you mean," said Captain Talham and drew from his pocket the sky-blue button, fingering it thoughtfully. This time the men saw and understood, and, as if at a signal, they bowed low, recognising in the inquisitor a mandarin of the Fourth or Military Class. "Great mandarin," said one of the three who had not spoken. "We are servants of others, and it is said that 'the wise servant is dumb when the bamboo falls and dumb till he dies, when he is dumb for ever.'" The tall man nodded. "You shall give me your hong that I may know you," he said. After a little hesitation, the man who was evidently the leader, took a little ivory cylinder from his pocket, and unscrewed it so that it came into two equal portions. The cylinder was no larger than a thick pencil and less than two inches long. One half was made up of an inking pad and at the end of the other was a tiny circular stamp. Captain Talham held out the palm of his hand and the other impressed upon it the tiny Chinese character which stood for his name. One by one his fellows followed suit, though they knew that death might be the result of their disclosure. The tall man examined the name carefully. "'Noble Child,'" he read, "'Hope of the Spring,' and 'Star above the Yamen.'" He nodded his head. "You may go," said he; and with two little jerky bows the men turned and walked quickly in the direction from whence they had come. He had time now to observe the girl, a grave and bewildered spectator of the scene. She was a little above medium height, and slight. Her hair was bronze-red and her face singularly beautiful. The skin was clear and white—so white as almost to suggest fragility. Her eyes were big and grey, and the two curved eyebrows, so sharp of line as to recall the pencilled brows which the mid-Victorian poet popularised, were dark, and contrasted with the glowing glory of the hair above. The nose was inclined to be retroussé, and the lips were faultless in shape and a warm red. She presented the effect which the beautifiers of the world strive to attain, yet fail, for here nature had, in some mysterious fashion, blended all colourings in a harmony. She was well dressed, expensively so. Her simple gown suggested the studied simplicity which has made one Paris house famous the world over; and there was luxury in the furs about her throat and in the huge muff which was suspended with one hand. "I don't know how to thank you," she began; and indeed she was in some embarrassment, for whilst he was obviously a gentleman, he was as obviously a very poor gentleman. He smiled and there was good comradeship and the ease which begets friendship in the brief glimpse of even white teeth. "In this world," he said, with no apparent effort at oratory, "existence is made tolerable by opportunity, and no aspect of opportunity is so coveted as that which afforded a gentleman to secure the safety, the peace of mind, or the happiness of a lady." It was oratorical all right: there could be no doubt as to that, but there was no effort, no shaming after effect, no labour of delivery. He was neither self-conscious nor ponderously pleasant, but the periods marched forth in an ordered stream of words, punctuated in the process, so it seemed, by some invisible grammarian. She flashed a dazzling smile at him which was partly thanks for her relief, partly amusement at his speech. The smile died as suddenly because of her amusement and her fear that he would realise why she smiled. (As to that she need not have worried, for Ted Talham had no fear of appearing ridiculous.) "Perhaps you would allow me to see you safely from this place," he said courteously. "Civilisation has its dangers—dangers as multitudinous and as primitive as the wilds may hold for the innocent and the beautiful." She flushed a little, but he was so obviously sincere, and so free from pretension, that she could not be offended. "They have been following me for days," she replied. "At first I thought it was a coincidence, but now I see that there was no reason for their dogging my movements." He nodded, and they walked on in silence for a while, then: "Are you associated with China in any way? he asked suddenly. She smiled and shook her head. "I have never been to China," she said, "and know very little about the country." Again a silence. "You have friends associated with China?" he persisted, and saw a little frown of annoyance gather on her forehead. "My mother—that is to say, my stepmother has," she said shortly. He curled his moustache thoughtfully. She noted with an odd feeling in which pleasure and annoyance were mixed, that he was very much "the old friend of the family." It was not exactly what he said, or the tone he adopted. It was an indefinable something which was neither patronage nor familiarity. It was Talham's way, as she was to discover, to come with pleasant violence into lives and be no more and no less in place than they who had won their positions in esteem and confidence through arduous years of service. "Perhaps your mother's friends have given you something Chinese which these men want?" he suggested, and again saw the frown. Somehow he knew that it did not indicate hostility to, or annoyance with, himself. "I have a bangle," she said; "but I do not wear it." She stopped, opened a silver bag she carried on her wrist, and took out a small jade bracelet. It was set about at intervals by tiny bands of gold. "May I see it?" She passed it to him. They were nearing Marble Arch, and she had insensibly slackened her pace. Now they both stopped whilst he examined the ornament. He scrutinised it carefully. Between each band was an inscription, half obliterated by wear. "This bangle is two thousand years old," he said simply, and she gasped. "Two thousand!" she repeated incredulously. "Two thousand," he repeated. "This is quite valuable." "I know," she said shortly. He detected something of resentment in her tone. "What do those characters mean?" she asked. "Is it something I shouldn't know?" she asked quickly. She looked up at his face. There was a dull flush on his face and a strange light in his eyes. He fingered the jade bracelet absently. "There is nothing you should not know," he said briefly—for him. "There is much that I have wanted to know for years." She was puzzled, and showed it. "Listen," he said, and read, turning the bracelet slowly as he read: "I am Shun the son of the great mechanic Chu-Shun upon whom the door fell when the Emperor passed. This my father told me before the day, fearing the treachery of the eunuchs. Behold the pelican on the left wall with the bronze neck...afterwards the spirit steps of jade...afterwards river of silver, afterwards...door of bronze. Here Emperor...behind a great room filled with most precious treasures." He read it twice, then handed the bracelet to the girl. She looked at him for the space of a minute. Here, in the heart of prosaic London, with the dull roar of the traffic coming to them gustily across the sparse herbage of a most commonplace park, Shun the son of Chu-Shun spoke across the gulf of twenty centuries. "It is very wonderful," she said, and looked at the bracelet. "I think you had better let me keep this bracelet," he said; "at any rate for a while. I beg you to believe"—he raised his hand solemnly—"that I consider only your own safety, and I am moved to the suggestion by the knowledge that you attach no sentimental value to the ornament, that it was given to you by somebody whom your mother likes, but who is repugnant to you, and that you only wear it in order to save yourself the discomfort and exasperation of a daily argument with your parent." She stared at him in open-eyed amazement. "How—how did you know that?" she asked. "You carry it in your bag. You frowned when you took it out to show me," he said cheerfully. "You carry it in your bag only because you must keep it by you in order to slip it on and off when you are out of somebody's sight. If it were your fiancé, you would either wear it or leave it at home—engaged people clear up their differences as they go along. Evidently you are a lady of strong character, strong enough to respect the foibles or the demands of your elders. Therefore it must be your father or your mother; and since fathers are naturally indignant and notoriously unsentimental, I cannot imagine that he would insist—" "Thank you," she said hurriedly. "Will you keep the bracelet for me, and return it at your leisure to this address?" She extracted a card from her bag, and he looked at it and read:Miss Yvonne Yale.406, Upper Curzon Street, S.W. "Yvonne," he read gravely. "I've never known anybody named Yvonne." He put the bracelet in his inside pocket, and buttoned the worn coat again. "I have no card," he said. "I am Captain Ted Talham of the Victorian Mounted Infantry, of the Bechuanaland Mounted Police, of the Imperial Bushmen, and I am, in addition, a general in the army of the Dowager Empress of China, a mandarin of the Fourth Class, and a wearer of the Sun of Heaven and the Imperial Dragon Orders." He recited this with all gravity. There was no glint of humour in his eyes. The girl checked her smile when she realised how serious this good-looking man was. There was pride in the recital of his dignities: it was a very important matter that he should be Captain of Irregular Horse, and as tremendous a happening that he should wear the decorations of the Manchu dynasty. She held out her hand. "I am sure my mother will be glad to meet you," she said, "and as for myself I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you should have been so providentially at hand this afternoon." He bowed, a ceremonious and correct little bow. "That is the luck of the game," he said. There was an awkward pause. He was so evidently trying to say something more. "I think it is right, and it is my duty," he said at last, "to point out to you the very significant fact that so far I have not offered you my address. This," he went on oracularly, "is all the more significant and alarming when I tell you that the intrinsic value of the bangle"—he tapped his pocket—"is anything from fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred pounds." "Impossible!" said the startled girl. It was altogether an amazing afternoon. He nodded. "Possibly the latter figure," he said. "Let the fact sink into your mind, and add to it the alarming intelligence that I have no address, and I have no address because I have exactly three yen in unchangeable Chinese silver between myself and the ravening world." A wave of pity surged over the girl, and there were tears in her eyes—tears that sprang most unexpectedly from unsuspected wells of sympathy. She fumbled in her bag, but he stopped her. "I beg of you," he said reproachfully. "If you can't trust me with two thousand pounds' worth of jade, believe me, I can trust you with my secret, and a secret is only existent just so on as either of the two parties affected do nothing overtly or covertly to destroy the basic foundation upon which it rests. My secret is momentary penury remove that and the secret ceases to be." He would have said more, but checked himself. "In fact," he concluded, "if you offer me money, I shall offer you your jade bangle, and there will be the end of the matter." She was laughing now—her eyes danced with merriment. There was something amusing in the situation. This seedy gentleman with his unchangeable yen, his problematical dinner and bed, with two thousand pounds in his inside pocket, appealed to her sense of the grotesque. If young De Costa knew! Young change-counting, bill-checking, tipless De Costa, who had given her two thousand pounds in the innocence of his heart. "Promise me that you will call?" she asked laughingly, "with or without the bangle." "With the bangle," he said. "To-night I shall make it very clear to the 'Noble Child,' 'Hope of the Spring,' and 'Star of the Yamen' that the bracelet has passed to my possession and that henceforward if they wish to follow its wearer they must follow me." He shook hands again, lifted his hat, and turning abruptly, left her.