CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION ON CHINA 
 
 AND THE CHINESE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 4739.H24C3 1897 
 
 The captive of Pekin, or, A swallow's wi 
 
 3 1924 023 987 302 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023987302 
 
THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN 
 
 
 'H> 
 
 //i 
 
NEW 6/= NOVELS 
 
 Crown 8vo, Art Linen, Gilt Top. 
 
 THE INN BY THE SHORE. By 
 Florence Warden, Author of " The 
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 COLOUR SERGEANT No. i COMPANY. 
 By Mrs. Leith Adams, Author of 
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 THE GREEN BOOK. (Authorized Edition.) 
 By Maurus JoKai. (Fifth Edition.) 
 
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 Author of '"Lisbeth" ''The Chilcotes" 
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 Knic.ht, Author of "Dust in the 
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 FORBIDDEN BY LA IT. By Major 
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 Love" "Amygdala," etc. 
 
 London ; Jarrold & Sons 
 
 lo AND II WaivUick Lani; Il.C 
 
 And of all Bookstlleis 
 
He marched stolidly forward, -p. 42. 
 
The Captive of Pekin 
 
 OR 
 
 A SWALLOW'S WING 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HANNAN 
 
 Author of " Chin-chin-wa," "Thk 
 Wooing of Avis Grayle," etc., 
 AND of the Dramas, "A House of 
 Lies," " Honour Among Thieves," 
 "The Opium Eater," etc., and pari 
 author vi'iTH Wilson Barrett in 
 "Our Pleasant Sins' 
 
 SANS PEUR. ET 
 SANS REPROCHE 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY A. /. B. SALMON 
 
 LONDON: JaRROLD & SONS 
 
 10 AND II WARWICK LANE E.C. 
 
 ALL rights reserved 1 897 
 
Hann^n, C/ta)-!^^. 
 
 XI OS 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER j.AGE 
 
 I. A CRY FROM BEYOND THE SEAS - ' 1 3 
 
 II. THE MAN WHO SENT FORTH THE CRY 35 
 
 III. IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE 47 
 
 IV. THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST - 68 
 
 V. THE TORTURE OF THE MOLTEN LEAD 89 
 
 VI. RESCUE NEARING PEKIN IO4 
 
 VII. THE EXILE CHIN CHIN-WA I18 
 
 VIII. SEEKING A CLUE 13O 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAI'lER I'AGE 
 
 IX. A RACE FOR LIFE 143 
 
 X. WITHOUT THE PEKIN WALLS 1 58 
 
 XI. THE SEARCH FOR THE CARTER I7O 
 
 XII. CHIN-CHIN-WA AND SHAN-MIN-YUEN MEET 187 
 
 XIII. COMMASDEIl TO LEAVE PEKIN 204 
 
 XIV. THE CAPTIVE FOUNIl 2x6 
 XV. CHIN-CHIX-\VA ENTERS THE TE.MPLE 232 
 
 XVI. PRIESTLY PLANS TO UNDERMINE A SOUL 244 
 
 XVII. THE STRUGGLE WITH THE SILENT PRIEST 257 
 
 XVIII. "TORTURE, BUT DO NOT KILL" 273 
 
 XIX. THE BASTINADO 289 
 
 XX. THE TORTURE OF THE WHITE BIRD 307 
 
 XXI. THE RACE FOR THE TUN'GCHOW GATE 318 
 
 XXII HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD 335 
 
 XXIII. FAREWELL TO CHIN-CHIN-WA 35 1 
 
/v ' /;z:-~j 
 
 7"'*'>-^HyrVL V^X ^^ ^ 
 
 ^-^^ 
 
 
 
 & ^ 
 
 (W^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 C 
 
 <7 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 HE MARCHED STOLIDLY FORWARD Frontispiece 
 
 I REACHED OUT MY HAND, AND THE SWALLOW, 
 MAKING NO MOVEMENT, BECAME MY CAPTIVE 
 
 I TOOK IT IN MY HAND AND OPENED IT CASUALLY 
 
 THE TWO BENT OVER IT 
 
 SPRANG FORWARD AND SEIZED BY THE THROAT 
 THE MAN WHO NOW STOOD AT THE DOOR 
 
 LOOKING DOWN UPON HIM, THEY INDULGED IN A 
 LENGTHY CONVERSATION 
 
 HE DREW EVERY STROKE WITH THE UTMOST 
 SLOWNESS 
 
 '3 
 23 
 29 
 
 49 
 55 
 63 
 
lo LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 YET AGAIN HE THREW THE COAT 73 
 
 NORRIS HELD THE CORD AND FORCED THE MAN'S 
 
 BODY FROM HIM WITH ALL HIS STRENGTH - 83 
 
 ANOTHER FOE MET HIM FACE TO FACE 87 
 
 THE CHINAMAN APPROACHED HIM, AND BOUND 
 
 HIM WITH ROPES 96 
 
 THE MEETING WITH CHIN-CHIN-WA 1 27 
 
 I WAS COMPLETING MY TOILETTE UNDER CHIN- 
 
 CHIN-Wa's DIRECTIONS I 78 
 
 THE GUIDE FELL, IN FEAR, UPON HIS FACE 183 
 
 WE WERE WELCOMED BY A VERY OLD CHINAMAN I90 
 
 A TALL MAN, IN RICH DRESS, SUDDENLY ENTERED 205 
 
 SEE, THERE IS THE PAPER FILLED UP 223 
 
 THE MANDARIN APPROACHED AND STOOD OVER 
 
 HIM 259 
 
 NORRIS CAUGHT HIS ENEMY BY THE FOOT AND 
 
 HELD ON 269 
 
 THE BASTINADO 289 
 
 CRUSHING BACK HIS HEAD WITH HIS LEFT HAND 
 
 FIXED UPON THE FOREHEAD 359 
 
 FAREWELL TO CHIN-CHIN-WA 361 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To THE Right Honourable the Earl of 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 It is my custom to write freely, and you, for 
 one, are not amongst those who would deprive me 
 of the liberty of my pen. 
 
 It is some months since you confided to me that 
 portion of your diary which deals with your quest 
 in the East, and I openly admit that I was at that 
 time by no means enamoured of the gift. 
 
 You will pardon my frankness in stating the 
 truth. 
 
 You, my lord, have never been subjected to the 
 life of persecution which the fiction-writer must 
 accept as his own. Diaries are thrust upon him 
 from all sides ; plots thicken around him ; and 
 anecdotes innumerable are related in his presence, 
 in the hope that he may haply include them in 
 some tale. 
 
 It was, therefore, more with the feeling of idle 
 curiosity than with the idea of utilising your work 
 that I cast my eyes over your lines ; more with the 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 desire of noting the impressions you had formed of 
 Eastern lands, familiar to me from the travels of 
 my youth, than to glean what is commonly known 
 as " copy " from the hasty perusal. 
 
 I have, however, your permission, my lord, to 
 revise and publish your diary as I see fit ; but the 
 world is so overwhelmed with works of travel, that 
 I have decided rather to extract the interest from 
 your work in my own way ; and whilst adhering 
 only in part to the wording of your diary, I shall 
 endeavour to accompany you throughout your 
 wanderings, and to be with you in heart amidst 
 scenes which you and I have looked upon, under 
 circumstances strangely differing, in the years gone 
 by. 
 
 And, lastly, as the talc with which you have 
 entrusted me is known only to a few, I shall 
 cover your identity with the cloak of fiction. You 
 shall figure as a commoner, in place of a lord ; for 
 as it is the custom of the novel-writer to make a 
 commoner a peer, so I, from perversity, find a 
 malicious pleasure in reversing the order of things 
 and taking my revenge upon you. 
 
 I have the honour to be, my lord. 
 
 Your lordship's most obedient servant. 
 
THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A CRY FROM BEYOND THE SEAS. 
 
 Brussels, April 22nd. — A curious thing occurred 
 this evening. 
 
 1 was seated on the verandah, for the day had 
 been more than usually warm for this season of 
 the year, when my eye was attracted by a little 
 bird that alighted first upon the parapet, and then, 
 in a moment or two, almost at my feet. It was a 
 swallow, and appeared to me to be in a sorry 
 plight, worn out either by old age or lengthy 
 travel, for its wing drooped upon the ground, and 
 its eyes were half closed in weariness. I reached 
 out my hand, and the swallow, making no move- 
 ment, became my captive. 
 
 I was endeavouring to ascertain if it was wounded 
 or how otherwise the bird came to be in such 
 a condition, when my glance fell upon what I 
 
14 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 discovered to be a fragment of paper, closely 
 and firmly bound with thread around its leg. 
 
 " Here," I said to myself, " is an adventure : 
 this swallow does not come to me by chance 
 alone;" and thus thinking — ^for I confess I am 
 of a somewhat romantic turn of mind, and that 
 curiosity at once overcame me — I took my pen- 
 knife and cut the threads — an operation of no 
 small difficulty, as the bird struggled till the 
 remainder of its strength was exhausted, and the 
 missive was so closely and tightly wound, that 
 there was the greatest danger of injuring the 
 slender limb round which it had been secured. 
 
 Having finally succeeded, I wrapped the bird in 
 my handkerchief, that it might not escape ; and, 
 proceeding to examine the fragments which I had 
 detached, I found that I held in my hand what 
 was evidently a small and torn paper, ragged and 
 destroyed, partly perhaps from the attempts of the 
 swallow to tear it from its limb, partly perhaps by 
 the wear and tear of time. 
 
 Unfolding the fragments with great care, and 
 piecing them together, I was delighted to discover 
 that my momentary expectation had not led me 
 far astray, and that the paper was actually covered 
 with certain words written or rather scratched 
 thereon, apparently in dark red ink. In all, the 
 paper cannot have been more than an inch square, 
 which yet contained in a small and clear hand- 
 writing — that of an Englishman— sufficient to give 
 
I 1 V 
 
 I reached out my hand, and the swallow, making no movement, 
 became my captive.—^. 13. 
 
A CRY FROM BEYOND THE SEAS. 17 
 
 me a clue to follow, were I ready to accept the 
 mission now strangely brought before me : a 
 message borne by a swallow's wing from far 
 beyond the seas.''= 
 
 After prolonged scrutiny, and the attempt to fill 
 in such words as were missing, I made out the 
 following to be the writing : — 
 
 
 Thus the centre part, which, from the folding, had 
 come to be as it were a corner, and which evidently 
 contained the full information necessary to explain 
 the whole, was wanting. But the meaning of the 
 missive was in a sense clear, although there were 
 some points upon which I was unable to form a 
 judgment. I shall point out what I mean, by 
 repeating the words with the simple filling up of 
 such gaps as may be easily supplied, thus : — 
 
 * This paper has heen purposely reproduced by the artist on a 
 somewhat larger scale. 
 
 II 
 
1 8 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 In God's name rescue (me or us) 
 
 Lose no time (I or we) (am or are) prisoner (or s) 
 
 In the us in 
 
 Pekin By the Chin (ese) Tenth swallow 
 
 William N orris September (year and date missing) 
 
 May God help (me or us). 
 
 Thus the chief gap, which is the most important 
 of the whole, lies in the third line. It is evident 
 that some name is omitted. But what name? I 
 have endeavoured to fill up by judging the length 
 of the line, and by inserting the word "find" or 
 " seek " before the final " us " thus : — 
 
 In the seek us in 
 
 Pekin ; 
 
 but beyond this I cannot go. 
 
 My sensations, upon discovering the nature of 
 the communication which had fallen into my hands 
 by the strangest of coincidences, were beyond des- 
 cription. I was at once overpowered by wonder 
 and a sense of the supernatural, and inflamed with 
 an ardent desire to investigate and follow the 
 matter to an end. 
 
 Looking more calmly upon the coincidence, as I 
 now do some hours later, I am strengthened in the 
 determination to add my links to the chain of 
 destiny — a chain of which the swallow, perhaps for 
 many a year, perhaps only for months, has borne 
 the weight. 
 
A CRY FROM BEYOND THE SEAS. 19 
 
 One of my fellows (perhaps more than one) has 
 been, and it may be still is, confined by the Chinese, 
 for some reason unknown, somewhere in or near 
 Pekin. And of the messages which he has en- 
 trusted to many birds, as I gather from the words 
 "tenth swallow," one at least has reached its 
 destination — the hand of a brother-man. 
 
 I am young, wealthy, and free, and I accept the 
 trust that has been thus strangely given to me ; 
 and if you are alive, William Norris, I shall come 
 to you, ay, even at the risk of my own life. 
 
 I have longed for adventure, and the oppor- 
 tunity has come— an opportunity which no one 
 could have foreseen. 
 
 Brussels, April 2ird. — The swallow died this 
 morning. It appeared to be an old bird ; but 
 whether it be that it was so when this man in 
 China attached the paper to its limb, or whether it 
 has grown so during years in which it has flitted 
 over the earth as the prisoner's messenger, I cannot 
 tell. Was this message written years or months 
 ago .' I would give much to learn the date. 
 
 Brave bird ! what fate carried you here to die ? 
 What can have brought you to me from a land 
 thousands of miles away, except the guiding power 
 of the God above? I have hopes, William Norris, 
 that your message has not come too late. This 
 morning I telegraphed to my oldest friend — the 
 very man to go with me on an adventure or excur- 
 sion of this kind. I have his reply before me now : 
 
;o THE CAPTIVE UE FEKIA. 
 
 ■■ Wait a month ; impossible sooner. Will go to 
 the end of the world with you then." I cannot 
 wait a month. Every day is an eternity to William 
 Norris. I shall go alone. 
 
 My intention, therefore, is to go to Pekin, and to 
 find this man, wherever he may be, either by a 
 prolonged search or by some miraculous interven- 
 tion which shall enable me to fill in the missing 
 words. 
 
 Who would have thought, two days ago, that I, 
 Herbert Vanscombe, should have made up my mind 
 (one usually of the dilatory order) to set off, at 
 a few hours' notice, for the far-distant East .' In 
 four days I shall be on board the Mcssageries 
 steamer, at Marseilles, and, if all be well, I 
 calculate on being in Pekin within two months 
 and a half from now. 
 
 A considerable journey for a lazy traveller who 
 has never done more than lounge about the Conti- 
 nental towns ! 
 
 Well, it could not have occurred at a more 
 fortunate time. It gives me an object in life, at 
 a time when I am sick of frivolity and cannot bear 
 the idea of a London season. 
 
 I believe I should feel almost disappointed were 
 any one to assure me now that William Norris has 
 been dead for years ; or were Norris himself to 
 arrive in person to inform me that he had escaped. 
 How selfish is the nature of man ! Were not 
 William Norris a prisoner of the Chinese and at 
 
A CRY FROM BEYOND THE SEAS. 21 
 
 their mercy, my journey would have lost its zest, 
 and the spirit of adventure would be gone. 
 
 It is difficult for a man to be honest to himself in 
 thought. 
 
 En route eastivards to Pekin. — Life becomes a 
 dull monotony at sea. There is nothing all around 
 but the glassy wave and the unchanging blue of a 
 heaven, pale with gazing at the reflection of its own 
 loveliness. Occasionally a flying-fish or two will 
 rise, and as swiftly disappear ; else there is little 
 but the regular beat of the engines, and the motion 
 of the screw, and the silence of repose beneath the 
 awning that stretches o'er the deck. 
 
 And thus it is, day after day, till one grows 
 weary of the sameness of every hour. It is only 
 in after years that the mind recalls these heavily 
 delicious hours with a longing that they might be 
 born anew. 
 
 I will pass over the days which were doubly, 
 nay, trebly long to me, in that my impatience 
 urged me on ; and I will put aside the sense of 
 aching pain which recurred to me when my mind 
 recalled the quest upon which I was set, and when 
 I realised that I was powerless and could do 
 nothing for weeks to come. These weeks at sea 
 
22 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 somewhat changed me. At the first blush I 
 took the swallow's message as it came, as a coinci- 
 dence — no more. I did not then realise how a 
 fellow-man's life may lie in my hands, that I may 
 save him, or leave him to die like a dog. I did 
 not then accept the swallow's message so truly and 
 deeply as I have done now. 
 
 After many, many days at sea — days longer to 
 me, I suppose, than to any on board — I found 
 myself at Shanghai — Shanghai, with its fine bund 
 and its boulevard — the Paris of the East ! 
 
 I spent several days there, for the chief reason 
 that I was obliged to wait for a steamer to the 
 North ; but I did not count the time as wasted, 
 for I had inquiries to make as to the man in search 
 of whom I had come, and of whom I had been able 
 to learn nothing in Hong Kong. It was but a 
 chance that I came across his name, even in 
 Shanghai. 
 
 My banker's introductions, which I had received 
 by post at Suez, were useful in one sense, but 
 practically of no use as regards the end in view. 
 Without giving anyone the clue as to the object of 
 my journey, I made inquiries everywhere as to the 
 man whose missive I had received so strangely. 
 No one knew him, even by name. This I was at 
 a loss to understand, because, to reach Pekin, it 
 was almost a necessity that he should have passed 
 through Shanghai. I pondered much upon the 
 subject, and came to the conclusion that the few 
 

 I took it in my hand and opened it casually. — p. 24. 
 
24 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 words which I had carefully preserved must have 
 been written many years ago, since no one could 
 recollect having met or heard of the writer, or that 
 he might have passed so rapidly through Shanghai 
 as to leave no trace of his movements behind. 1 1 
 then occurred to me to examine the guests' book 
 at the hotel. I took it in my hand and opened it 
 casually, almost in despair of its proving of any 
 avail. 
 
 I started involuntarily as my eye fell upon the 
 page. By chance the book had opened at a date 
 nearly a year previous, and before me was this 
 entry : — 
 
 " William Norris, from Nagasaki, arrived 5th 
 August ; left for Pekin and Great Wall, 6th 
 August." 
 
 So there was a fair chance that I might be still 
 in time ! 
 
 Further than this I could learn nothing. They 
 remembered Norris at the hotel — a tall gentleman, 
 dark, and wearing a slight moustache. Had he 
 ever returned ? Perhaps ; he might have gone' 
 to a friend's house or to the Club : he had not 
 returned to the hotel. 
 
 I alone knew the truth, that Norris was a 
 prisoner of the nation for which I had already 
 conceived a hatred of the strongest kind — a nation 
 which filled me with a sense of loathing, and from 
 whom my inmost nature shrank. One thing was 
 now made clear to me — that William Norris misht 
 
A CRY FROM BEYOND THE SEAS. 25 
 
 still be saved. I had never doubted of his 
 existence. That had not struck me, strange as it 
 may seem. [ believed in his call for aid, and I 
 was right. But — shall I confess it .' — I had begun 
 to despair when, first in Hong Kong, and then in 
 Shanghai, I had been unable to discover any trace 
 of him of whom I was in search ; for I feared that 
 the message might have been of such an ancient 
 date that William Norris had succumbed already, 
 perhaps, to a life of torture or to a lengthened 
 imprisonment amongst his Chinese foes. 
 
 Now that I knew it to be a question of but a 
 year ago, my desire to save him grew the stronger, 
 since I perceived there was a chance. And often 
 I wondered for what reason he had been seized : 
 was it because of hatred for the European race 
 upon the part of the Chinese ; or had he desecrated 
 some religious rites, or in what manner offended 
 his cold-blooded foes ? 
 
 On the day which remained before my departure 
 for the North I lessened my baggage as far as 
 possible, by the packing of all that I absolutely 
 required in a single portmanteau and the com- 
 mittal of the remainder to the charge of the hotel. 
 I was well armed, for I knew not what casualty 
 might occur ; indeed, I may say that, in addition 
 to my own revolver I had three others, thus 
 allowing, in case of need, for one apiece for three 
 men, and, though it was possible that some of 
 these weapons might prove superfluous baggage. 
 
26 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 I had deemed it well rather to be over-equipped 
 than the reverse. Further than this, I had two 
 strong knives, of the nature of daggers ; so that 
 it will be seen that, in leaving Brussels, I had 
 done so, not unprepared for the worst, if the 
 worst should come. 
 
 There were two young fellows in Shanghai whom 
 I had met, upon the first evening of my arrival, at 
 the house of my banker, with whom I had dined. 
 They were brothers ; their names Frederick and 
 James Dicey ; and I took a liking to them from 
 the first. 
 
 I decided to put before tliese men the particulars 
 of the expedition upon which I was engaged, and 
 accordingly I invited them to dine with me upon 
 my last evening ashore. 
 
 I sent the " boy " from the room as soon as 
 dinner was at an end, and then narrated to the two 
 the incident of which you have already learned, 
 as the cause of my presence in Shanghai. 
 
 " You are both," I concluded, " men whom I know 
 that I can trust. One has a strange feeling, which 
 is not exactly fear, but still something very closely 
 akin, upon launching out alone on a venture of this 
 kind. I may tell you plainly that I expect to be 
 in Shanghai again within three months, accom- 
 panied by William Norris, for this reason, that the 
 chain of fate, which brought the swallow with its 
 message across the seas, will miss a link or two if 
 I succumb to the death I may have to face. But, 
 
A CRY FROM BEYOND THE SEAS. 27 
 
 all the same, I am prepared to die, and ready to 
 do so, unless I succeed in escaping from the Chinese 
 in company with William Norris." 
 
 Neither of the two answered me. I think, as 
 men, they were touched with something of the 
 same sorrow as had fallen upon me. 
 
 I relit my cigar. 
 
 " If you hear nothing of me in three months' 
 time," I continued, endeavouring to lighten my 
 tone, " will you make it public in Shanghai that 
 two of your brother-Englishmen have disappeared 
 in the North? Will you make a movement, no 
 matter whether he and I be dead or alive, to seek 
 us out? Will you do something for us here in 
 Shanghai ? " — in spite of myself, my voice was 
 thick. 
 
 " We will," came the answer, as with one voice ; 
 and then Frederick, the elder, inquired, after a 
 pause : 
 
 "Cannot we help you now? What is it you 
 wish to be done ? " 
 
 " I wish nothing " I replied, " until you hear from 
 me, or until three months have passed without word. 
 Stay, there is one thing. I want a boy who will act 
 as my guide, who knows pigeon-English well (I'll 
 manage with him somehow), and who knows Pekin. 
 Can either of you procure me this ? Do not think 
 I run him into danger : if he is my guide, that is 
 all ; his Chinese skin protects him for the rest. 
 Can I find such a man to-night in Shanghai, or 
 shall I find him at Tientsin .' " 
 
28 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 "The remuneration must be large," said the 
 elder. 
 
 "That is nothing: he may name his sum." 
 
 He rose, and summoning the boy, gave him 
 instructions to find me a guide. 
 
 " Savey ? " he said in conclusion. 
 
 " My can savey," came the answer ; " chop-chop, : 
 can do." 
 
 "Then you wish us," he continued, reseating 
 himself, "to keep silence in the meantime regard- 
 ing your journey ? " 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " Is it necessary ? Would it not be better to 
 stir the colony now, if it is true, as I have little 
 doubt, that this man is still kept a prisoner? 
 There is many a man in Shanghai who would join 
 you." 
 
 " I have little doubt of it, and, indeed, I have 
 considered," was my reply, "doing what you 
 suggest ; and, were I to do so, trust me I should 
 come to your brother and yourself in the first 
 place, to ask for your assistance ; but it must be 
 remembered that as yet there is nothing to go 
 upon. It is true that I know of Norris's imprison- 
 ment, but I do not know where he is confined ; so 
 that my journey resolves itself simply into a search 
 (at any rate, at present) rather than a hostile 
 affair with the Chinese as enemy. You will under- 
 stand, easily enough, that I do not feel justified so 
 far in calling for assistance ; indeed, in a word. 
 
The two bent over it. — p. 31. 
 
A CRY FROM BEYOND THE SEAS. 31 
 
 I believe that one man is much more able to 
 prosecute the search efficiently, and without 
 exciting suspicion, than a band of half-a-dozen ! " 
 
 I was right, and he knew it. 
 
 " Might we see the paper ? Forgive my curiosity," 
 said the younger. " I mean the paper brought you 
 by the swallow." 
 
 " Certainly," I answered. " I was about to put 
 it before you, in order to see if you could assist me 
 in any way to fill the gaps." 
 
 I took it from the little box in which I kept it. 
 
 "There it is!" 
 
 The two bent over it. 
 
 " I see you have gummed it to a piece of card- 
 board," said Frederick. " Is there nothing on the 
 back ? " 
 
 " Nothing," was my answer. " I did so to 
 preserve it. Do either of you know Pekin ? " 
 
 " No. I am afraid we shall be of little assistance 
 to you. One moment : what is the meaning of 
 the word ' us ' in the third line .■• You have spoken 
 as though there was one man only, this would 
 indicate otherwise." 
 
 I answered him at once. 
 
 "You have formed the same opinion as I did 
 upon first reading the few words. I have carefully 
 studied the fragment since that time, and I shall 
 tell you why I am of opinion that the first thought 
 is in this case probably a wrong one. If we filled 
 up this line by adding the word ' seek,' we decrease 
 
32 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 the space which might contain a Chinese name to 
 very small dimensions. Now, it is likely that the 
 writer has, in these words that are missing, given 
 very full directions as to his whereabouts, which 
 he; could not have done in the space we shall 
 leave between the word ' the ' and the word ' seek.' 
 Again, look at the end of the second line ; you 
 will see that if we make the paper square, as it 
 seems to have been, there is exactly room for us to 
 insert ' er,' making 'prisoner,' but scarcely margin 
 for the addition of an ' s.' Then, and chiefly, we 
 have ' William Norris,' followed by the date : no 
 mention of other names. And finally, without 
 giving you more lengthy and minor reasons, let 
 me recall to you, if you wish further proof, that 
 William Norris passed through Shanghai alone. 
 
 My first reading was the simple one : ' In the , 
 
 seek us in Pekin,' but later I put aside the word 
 ' in,' and am inclined to treat this ' us' as a part of 
 a word, of which the letters on either side are 
 a-missing." 
 
 Even as I spoke, something told me that I had 
 wandered into mere conjecture. I fell into a 
 thoughtful fit ; to tell the truth, I had not 
 greatly considered this point until now. I had 
 known that Pekin was my destination, and I had 
 looked upon it as impossible to conjecture a word 
 which would exactly fill this space. But now for 
 a moment I began to think differently. 
 
 " Can either of you suggest a Chinese word 
 
A CRY FROM BEVOND THE SEAS. 33 
 
 ending, say, with ' usi,' or ' usa,' or— well, I might 
 go through the whole alphabet, gentlemen?" I 
 asked. 
 
 But perhaps it is unnecessary to say that the 
 riddle remained unsolved. 
 
 "And what, then, do you imagine," asked 
 Frederick Dicey, a little later, "to have been the 
 history of this paper ? " 
 
 "Well, I think you see the whole; a man crying 
 for rescue, in some place where he appears to have 
 a certain liberty, in so far as he has been able to 
 send this message. It is written, I conjecture, in 
 blood, scratched upon the fragment of paper with 
 something small and sharp like a pin. He has 
 written a number such as this. We read it there, 
 where he says, ' tenth swallow.' This is only one 
 of many. If it is in Court grounds that he is a 
 prisoner, I despair of rescuing him ; but, at 
 present, I shall say no more. Here comes the 
 boy." 
 
 A short colloquy ensued ; then James Dicey 
 turned to me, 
 
 " He has found you a guide, and a good man 
 too." 
 
 We sat late that evening — my last, as I have 
 said in Shanghai ; and I must confess that my 
 mind was not a little relieved by the conversation, 
 and possibly chiefly so from the knowledge that 
 I was not merely following in the footsteps of 
 William Norris, to disappear as he had done ; or, 
 
 c 
 
34 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 at least, that if I did so, there were those who 
 would follow me to lay bare his fate and mine. 
 
 Four days later my guide and I had reached 
 Tientsin. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MAN WHO SENT FORTH THE CRY. 
 
 It is now necessary to leave for a while the narra- 
 tive as contained in the diary of Herbert Vans- 
 combe, and to turn to events which took place 
 nearly a year before that diary was commenced. 
 
 In the summer of i8 — , exactly a year previous 
 to the day on which Herbert Vanscombe landed in 
 Shanghai, a man of grave appearance arrived in 
 Yokohama by the San Francisco mail. It was his 
 intention to proceed round the world at his leisure, 
 and thus it was that, after several months in 
 America, he landed in Japan. Whether it were 
 from the fact that his disposition was a solitary 
 one, or from the absence of introductions, that he 
 toured alone amidst the glorious scenery and the 
 idyllic peace of Japan, it is difficult to say. That 
 such was the case is the material point. 
 
 He was bent upon travel of a prolonged nature, 
 for the reason, which drives many a man from the 
 dear old home — an unfortunate love. It had been 
 a love affair ; that is all with which we have to do. 
 
36 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Further than this, he was one who, at the age of 
 twenty-eight, stood strangely isolated in the world ; 
 for his father's death, months previous to his depar- 
 ture from home, had left him at once an orphan, 
 and a wealthy idler to fill his time as he might 
 please. 
 
 Such was William Norris. 
 
 It was natural that the lonely traveller should 
 weary of the beauty of Japan. Thus it came that 
 he decided upon making the excursion to Pekin. 
 Passing rapidly through Shanghai — for by chance 
 he was in time to catch a departing steamer for 
 Chefoo and Tientsin— he set out for the north. 
 Hard travel he wished to have, and hard travel he 
 believed he should find amongst the northern 
 Chinese. He was right : there are but few places 
 in the world where the means of travelling are so 
 rough and crude. 
 
 There are several methods of traversing the 
 distance of some eighty miles which separate the 
 capital from its port : one by the river, which, 
 winding to and fro through the flat country, 
 approaches Pekin as it flows onward to the 
 coast ; the others by road, which may be covered 
 (to take the most luxurious and least used method 
 first) in the mule litter, which is in the nature of 
 a palanquin swung upon the backs of two mules, 
 one of which precedes the other (those who have 
 been in Bombay may recall a somewhat similar 
 equipage borne by natives in place of mules.) In 
 
THE MAN WHO SENT FORTH THE CRY. 37 
 
 this the traveller may recline, lounging, with a fair 
 degree of comfort, for hour upon hour. Secondly, 
 those who have frequent occasion to make the 
 journey often do so upon horseback ; — and, lastly, 
 there are the mule-carts — one for the traveller, 
 one for his guide, small, cramped, and without 
 springs — instruments of exquisite torture, and the 
 most frequently utilised mode of transit between 
 Tientsin and Pekin. 
 
 Travelling by the last-named by day and night 
 almost continuously for two days, Norris arrived 
 late upon the second afternoon, and indeed just 
 before the closing of the gates, at the capital, worn 
 out, as who could fail to be, with the prolonged 
 jolting, the clouds of dust, and the heat of the 
 Eastern sun. 
 
 At this point it becomes advisable to place before 
 the reader's mind something in the nature of a 
 sketch, however rough in outline and unfinished in 
 detail, of the vast city of Pekin. 
 
 Pekin consists of three cities proper— the Imperial, 
 the Chinese, and the Tartar — each severed from the 
 other, and again from the world as a whole, by a 
 wall whose vast grandeur must be looked upon to 
 be conceived. 
 
 Within the outer walls the main features arc dust 
 and ruins, and a total absence of anything in the 
 shape of order, amongst dwellings scattered here 
 and there, often at wide and irregular intervals, and 
 in streets the vast width of which is encroached 
 
38 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 upon without let or hindrance by the booths and 
 stalls of the poor. 
 
 To be in Pekin is to be in another world— a 
 world which belongs to a far, far past, where one 
 could almost imagine that the inhabitants have 
 awakened after centuries of sleep, knowing nothing 
 and conceiving nothing save the desolation which 
 has become their home, and amidst which they are 
 content to live. 
 
 There is one beautiful spot in Pekin — the marble 
 bridge, where in summer the still, lotus-covered 
 surface of the lake beneath is broken only by the 
 occasional alighting of some curious bird. But even 
 here the atmosphere of a bygone age lingers in the 
 air, sobering all that is fair and beautiful with the 
 silence of the touch of time. 
 
 The chief part of the Imperial City is sacred 
 ground. The traveller is a rash man who ventures, 
 by bribes, to enter its precincts ; for the northern 
 Chinese are a hard, brutal race, not over-scrupulous 
 in dealing with intrusions upon their rights. It 
 stands in the centre of Pekin. For the rest, as 
 isolated spots — isolated in the sense of separation 
 from the encircling ruin — stand the foreign legations 
 within their several walls ; and, lastly, the temples 
 of the Chinese. 
 
 Two days sufificed to prove to William Norris 
 that sight-seeing in the capital of China becomes 
 tedious in the extreme. Distances are so great, 
 that most of the traveller's time is expended in the 
 
THE IMAN WHO SENT FORTH THE CRY. 39 
 
 interior of the covered cart which conveys him at a 
 snail's pace along the wide and uneven roads. Thus 
 the morning of the third day found Norris leaving 
 the city upon his way to the Great Wall. 
 
 That travelling in the interior of China, even at 
 the present day, may be accompanied with danger 
 few who know the nation will refuse to admit, and 
 what it was not very many years ago those who have 
 lived in China for any length of time will remember. 
 Is there need to mention an individual instance? 
 Let us recall Sir Harry Parkes ; that name alone 
 will suffice. 
 
 It is unnecessary to follow Norris in his journey, 
 to alight with him at Wan-shou-shan, to stand with 
 him upon the hill Yu-chuan-shan, or to enter with 
 him the Great Bell Tower. Suffice it, that he 
 reached Nankou, little of interest occurring to delay 
 our narrative. 
 
 Nankou is a small village standing at the foot of 
 the pass of the same name. Fifteen miles up the 
 pass is the Great Wall separating Mongolia and 
 China, a work of wonderful patience, twisting like 
 a huge serpent over hill and dale till the eye loses 
 sight of its meanderings amongst the mountains. 
 
 At Nankou itself there is a fragment of a minor 
 wall still standing, through the gateway of which 
 Norris, having finished such dinner as his guide had 
 been able to provide, leisurely strolled, taking no 
 account of the fact that he was then already at some 
 distance from the Chine.se inn. He was smoking — 
 
40 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 a luxury the Englishman must have wherever he 
 may be — and scarcely feeling inclined to sleep, not- 
 withstanding the stiffness of his limbs from the 
 cramped position necessary to maintain whilst 
 travelling in the cart, he wandered onwards in the 
 darkening evening, till it struck him that he was 
 sufficiently far from the onl}' tie between himself 
 and civilization in this unknown land — his Chinese 
 guide. He turned and began to retrace his steps. 
 
 Re-passing in a little time through the gateway 
 in the wall, he noticed for the first time that the 
 road here branched ; and that, whilst it had seemed 
 a simple matter to gain tlie gateway from the inn, 
 it now became a different question as to how to 
 return. It was growing dark ; which of the three 
 roads, he questioned, was he to follow ? Whilst he 
 stood considering the point, a number of Chinamen, 
 in all about two dozen, who were seated upon the 
 bank of earth which time had formed against 
 the wall on the left side of the gate, burst into 
 uproarious laughter ; whether from the fact of the 
 difficult}' in which Norris apparently found himself, 
 or at some remark regarding the European made 
 by one of their number, it is impossible to say. 
 Be that as it may, the laughter served to add to 
 the annoyance of the situation. " You fools ! " 
 Norris muttered, turning towards them, an epithet 
 which it was perhaps fortunate no one understood. 
 
 One of the Chinamen leaped from the bank, a 
 great broad-shouldered, strapping fellow — a man of 
 
THE MAN WHO SENT FORTH THE CRY. 41 
 
 iron muscle, as these northern Chinese all are. 
 " This way," he pointed with his hand, " this way ; " 
 and Norris, fancying the man's disposition was 
 friendly, followed him for a few steps, when 
 renewed laughter caused him to stop abruptly. 
 No ; clearly this was not his way. He turned 
 immediately. With what intent, he questioned 
 himself rapidly, had this man endeavoured to lead 
 him astray ? His watch-chain hung across his 
 white coat ; that was the only reason, so far as he 
 could see, unless, indeed, the whole was done for 
 jest. 
 
 For a moment he halted when he had regained 
 the gate. He had no fear : a total absence of 
 such feeling comes over a man when he has most 
 need that it should be so. He stopped, that he 
 might show those upon the bank that he was as 
 cool as they. 
 
 The would-be guide was by his side in an instant. 
 Norris turned on being touched upon the arm. 
 " This way," the Chinaman pointed, choosing the 
 second road ; for answer Norris raised his palm 
 — he was unarmed, perhaps it was just as well — 
 and with the back of his hand struck the China- 
 man across the face. It was at once a dangerous 
 and a rash act ; but Norris did not, till long 
 afterwards, realise his peril, or the fact that he had 
 then for the first time, nearly approached a death 
 made horrible by Chinese cruelty and by the 
 tortures which they well know how to use. 
 
42 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 There was a shout of derisive laughter from the 
 Chinamen upon the mound : perhaps to that alone 
 did Norris owe his life ; for the man whom he had 
 struck turned with expletives upon them, and then, 
 following the Englishman, contented himself with 
 walking by his side (whilst a crowd surrounded the 
 two), slapping the prominent muscles upon his bare 
 arms in attitude of defiance, as though daring the 
 other, in childish fashion, to repeat his act. It is 
 more than probable that Norris had recovered some- 
 thing of his common sense, for he marched stolidly 
 forwards till, perhaps with a sense of relief, he 
 recognised the mule-carts that stood in the court- 
 yard of the Chinese inn. 
 
 He passed through them to his rough apartment 
 unmolested. 
 
 It might be thought that such an incident as this 
 would have been sufficient to convince the traveller 
 that it is better to yield to than face the enemy in 
 their own country — for enemies, one and all, the 
 Chinese now became to Norris in his individual 
 mind — but such was not the case, as will be shortly 
 seen, and as may be conjectured from the fact of 
 his summing up the whole matter in the half- 
 expressed determination, 
 
 " I must have a pistol with me next time, in case 
 of such things occurring." 
 
 The following day was spent on donkey-back ; 
 up Nankou Pass to the Great Wall, and back, 
 worn out with a long day's work, to the inn at 
 Nankou. 
 
THE MAN WHO SENT FORTH THE CRY. 43 
 
 The next (on donkey-back again), to the Ming 
 Tombs, with their wonderful approach, the avenue 
 of animals, huge stone creations at even distances 
 one from the other for the space of half a mile ; and 
 then by cart to Pekin. 
 
 And now it was that Norris met with trouble. 
 
 After a day's rest, he decided, by his guide's 
 advice, to return by river to Tientsin. Having 
 considerably shortened his intended trip, he fixed 
 upon this as a more pleasant method of travelling, 
 when going to the coast, than the mule-cart. 
 
 This programme being decided upon, Norris 
 instructed his guide to precede him, as is frequently 
 done, by cart to Tungchow, a town several hours by 
 cart from Pekin and situated upon the Peiho where 
 that river approaches the capital. 
 
 Thus the guide was to leave at dawn, to proceed 
 to Tungchow, and to have the house-boat hired and 
 in readiness ; and Norris, whose carter the guide 
 instructed, was to follow at a much later hour. 
 
 As he was finally dismissing the guide, Norris 
 recollected a certain curio-store to which he was 
 anxious to pay a second visit before leaving Pekin ; 
 and accordingly he bade the guide instruct tlie 
 carter to take him first to this curio-store, and 
 thereafter to proceed to Tungchow. This command 
 was given effect to, and all was arranged. 
 
 The guide left next day before Norris had 
 awakened, and in due season the carter appeared. 
 The Chinese carter is a leaden-brained creature ; 
 
44 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 his heavy eyes and deadly stolid look seem to 
 denote the consumption of opium, and he is not of 
 the class of men to whose intelligence it would be 
 advisable to confide too much. However, notwith- 
 standing sundry doubts as to whether the man 
 was capable of recollecting instructions given the 
 previous evening by the guide, Norris took his seat 
 inside the cart, and, somewhat to his surprise, was 
 conveyed to the curio-shop as desired. 
 
 Having completed his purchase, he re-seated 
 himself in the cart, and, jolting along the streets, 
 in what direction he knew not, came to the Temple 
 of Confucius. 
 
 Now it had chanced that one day, upon his first 
 arrival in Pekin, Norris had expressed a desire to 
 enter this temple ; but either from shortness of 
 time, or for the reason that there were greater 
 sights to see, his guide, after stopping for a moment 
 to inform him of the temple's name, had returned 
 to his cart and then pas.sed on. 
 
 Coming upon it now, it struck Norn's that it was 
 a pity to leave Pekin, so to speak, half seen ; and 
 immediately stopping his cart, he conveyed to the 
 driver by signs that it was his intention to enter the 
 grounds of the temple for a short time. 
 
 There was little doubt but that the carter 
 understood, and, indeed, having been in Norris's 
 employment for a number of days, it would have 
 been almost absurd to have questioned the point, 
 so, without misgiving on this score, the Englishman 
 
THE MAN WHO SENT FORTH THE CRY. 45 
 
 hastened away. An hour later cart and carter were 
 still standing in the road, awaiting his reappearance. 
 Three hours later the state of matters was the same, 
 save that the leaden-brained driver had fallen asleep 
 amongst his master's pillows in the interior of the 
 cart. 
 
 Whilst the carter still slept, a Chinaman issued 
 from the outer gates of the temple, and, recognising 
 the position of affairs, took the small hand-bag, 
 which was the sole remnant of his impedimenta 
 that Xorris had retained in sending his baggage in 
 advance, and returned to the temple grounds. 
 
 Evening came ; and the carter, awakened at 
 length from his heavy and prolonged slumber, 
 leisurely drove away, with what impression it is 
 almost useless to conjecture. Perhaps he fancied 
 that the day which had passed had been a dream ; 
 perhaps he thought he had done his duty, and need 
 wait no longer ; or perhaps he did not think at all, 
 which seems most probable, judging from the fact 
 that he returned forthwith to his own home, to 
 live idly for many days upon the tiaos which he 
 had earned during the past week. 
 
 Thus it came to pass that the only connection 
 which had existed between William Norris and 
 the outside world at the time of his entering the 
 Temple of Confucius was silently broken and 
 destroyed. 
 
 And the guide at Tungchow? 
 
 He returned to Pekin two days after — returned 
 
46 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 to find it impossible to trace his master, and, after 
 some days, to realise the uselessness of his 
 attempts. 
 
 The carter had disappeared. To find such a 
 man in such a city was an almost impossible thing ; 
 besides, to the guide's thinking, both master and 
 carter had disappeared together. 
 
 Then he went to Tientsin, half expecting to find 
 that they had arrived there before him, but such 
 was not the case. 
 
 And then, graduall}', a whisper of the story of 
 the Englishman's disappearance with his carter 
 went abroad, and as gradually, but more effectually, 
 the story died aua}'. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE. 
 
 The Temple of Confucius consists, as is the case 
 with most of the temples of the Chinese, of several 
 buildings which are enclosed within the sacred 
 ground. 
 
 That part which fronts the road has a fine 
 terrace, looking down upon an avenue of grand 
 old pines whose shadows beat heavily upon the 
 ground. 
 
 Through this building Xorris passed into the pre- 
 cincts beyond. He was already accompanied by 
 three Chinamen, whose attentions were somewhat 
 troublesome, as he did not understand their tongue. 
 
 These men were apparently desirous of acting 
 as guides. 
 
 Following his own pleasure, rather than their will, 
 Xorris strolled onwards in the direction in which 
 they would have led him. Having in a measure, 
 satisfied his tourist spirit of curiosity by entering 
 and examining several buildings, he was about to 
 return, when one of the Chinamen, whose numbers 
 
48 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 had by now increased to seven, stepped somewhat 
 roughly in front of him, barring his passage, and 
 giving him to understand (as Norris conjectured 
 from previous experience) that some few tiaos were 
 required as recompense for the permission to enter 
 and examine the temple. He chanced to have 
 some Pekin notes in his possession, and producing 
 a couple, he handed them to the man. 
 
 Instantly a Babel of voices ensued, the men 
 crushing round him, each arguing and quarrelling 
 with his fellows. On the moment it flashed across 
 Norris that this might prove an awkward affair. 
 He was unable to understand the language. His 
 guide was at Tungchow ; his carter was outside ; 
 what was he to do ? And he recollected suddenly 
 that he had not yet carried out his intention of 
 adding the weight of a pistol to his light Eastern 
 dress. 
 
 So far as he now saw, the only thing to be done 
 was to distribute the remainder of the notes in his 
 possession. He did not know their value ; one 
 might be for two tiaos, the next for five, for aught 
 he could say ; and the distribution did not appear 
 to be satisfactory. He now perceived danger very 
 near, and calculated his chances rapidly. Two 
 of the Chinamen were struggling with each other — 
 his division of the spoil had been unequal. Of the 
 others, three were in front of him, and one on either 
 side. In the first instance he determined to test 
 the matter, to ascertain exactly how the land lay. 
 
Sprang forward and seized by the throat the man who now stood 
 at the door. — p. 51. u 
 
IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE. 51 
 
 Making a few steps forward, he sought to push 
 his way through tiie men. The result of this was 
 that one of them immediately turned, and, running 
 rapidly ahead, closed the doorway, the back entrance 
 to the building through which he had first to pass. 
 This was scarcely done before Norris, recognising 
 his danger, and thinking that immediate action 
 only could avail, made a sudden bound forward, 
 dashed two of the Chinamen from before him by 
 the suddenness of his attack, and eluding the 
 others, sprang forward and seized by the throat 
 the man who now stood at the door. 
 
 So unexpected was the attack, that the Chinaman 
 staggered for a moment. Exerting his whole 
 strength, Norris took advantage of the momentary 
 opportunity, and, thrusting back his foe, stood a 
 free man — for half a second — and, had not the door 
 been closed, would have escaped. 
 
 The others were upon him now ; one clasped him 
 round the neck, another held him by the leg. The 
 struggle became that of the one against the many, 
 the one fighting desperately, hand and foot — ay, 
 and teeth too — for dear liberty and life, the others 
 slowly crushing out his strength. 
 
 When Norris came to his senses, a feeling of utter 
 weariness seemed to have settled upon him. His 
 brain moved slowly. 
 
52 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 Recollection was almost entirelj- dimmed, and it 
 was some little time before he realised the position 
 in which he was now placed. Slowly he began to 
 recall the terrible struggle through which he had 
 passed, and to awake to the deadened pain in his 
 wrists and ankles, for he was now bound hand and 
 foot. He sought to move, but found that his neck 
 and feet were secured, apparently to pegs which 
 had been driven into the ground. The horror of 
 the situation flashed upon him. He lay at the 
 mercy of the Chinese — a race of whose hideous 
 instincts he had already seen something, and con- 
 jectured more. He was their captive, separated for 
 ever from the outside world, unless, vain hope ! his 
 carter or his guide should summon aid. And now 
 what was to be ? Allowing the possibility of the 
 arrival of assistance, such might come too late. 
 Hideous tortures might be in reserve for him. 
 Long before release came, his death might have 
 been silentl}- accomplished. His mind exaggerated 
 its own fears, and he lay prostrate, filled with dread 
 forebodings of what might be in store. 
 
 With an effort he sought at length to thrust 
 aside thoughts of this nature. He was no coward, 
 and it now behoved him to regain to the full his 
 presence of mind ; yet, without doubt, the situation 
 was such as might cause the bravest to despair. 
 
 Looking around him as far as he was able, for 
 his neck was tightly secured to the ground, as were 
 also his feet, he saw that, Ij'ing where he now was in 
 
IX THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE. 53 
 
 the open air and in the shade of a tree, he had 
 apparently been carried some distance from the 
 spot where, in the struggle to escape, he had lost 
 consciousness in the end. He was now in what 
 appeared to him to be a large courtyard, from 
 which, so far as he could judge, there would have 
 been but faint chance of escape, even had his 
 bonds been removed ; for he was shut in upon all 
 sides by buildings and by walls, high and insur- 
 mountable. 
 
 It was here, though he knew it not, that he was 
 destined to come, in the after-days, to long for 
 death, and to long in vain. 
 
 How long he had been lying thus bound Norris 
 was unable to say. That he must have been 
 unconscious for a very long period, he judged 
 roughly from two facts : the first, that the sun 
 appeared to be sinking ; and the second, that he 
 was alone, for he rightly conjectured that had he 
 regained his senses at an early period, some of the 
 Chinamen would probably have still been with him, 
 waiting for his return to life. As it was, they had 
 possibly grown weary of waiting. 
 
 Some half-hour must have passed whilst Norris 
 lay thus, reviewing the situation, and giving vent to 
 an occasional groan owing to the pain of his stiffened 
 limbs, when two of his captors returned. 
 
 Looking down upon him, they indulged in a 
 lengthy conversation which Xorris would have 
 given much to have understood. The one China- 
 
54 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 man appeared to be endeavouring to convince 
 the other upon some point, and the other to be 
 unwilling to be so convinced. Probably, as Norris 
 grimly conjectured, the method by which his death 
 was to be finally attained was the subject of their 
 discussion. Still engaged in heated argument, they 
 left him ; and in a little, whilst Norris wondered 
 painfully as to what was to be done, one of the 
 two returned with a dish in his hand and a pair of 
 chopsticks. Instantly a wild hope filled Norris : he 
 was to be fed. Why ? What did thej^ intend to 
 do ? Why give him the wherewithal to support 
 life, unless it were that he was to be allowed to 
 live ? And then almost as suddenly came a wave 
 of despair : they would feed him, perhaps, to-day 
 merely to give him strength to meet their hideous 
 lingering tortures : he had heard of such things ; it 
 might be so. 
 
 The Chinaman unbound his neck and motioned 
 to him to sit up ; then making numerous signs that 
 escape was an impossibility, and that Norris need 
 make no attempt in that direction, he unbound his 
 hands, placing thereafter the dish of food — Chinese 
 food, a filthy mess of rice and greens — beside him 
 on the ground ; then he stood stolidly to watch all 
 that Norris might do. 
 
 Three others now approached, and the four stood 
 curiously regarding the P^nglishman ; whilst he in 
 wonderment sat looking up at them. This treat- 
 ment was favourable ; wliat could it mean ? Yet 
 
Looking down upon him, they indulged in a lengthy conversation.—/). 53. 
 
IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE. 57 
 
 how could it be favourable, if he were to be kept a 
 prisoner ? He was at a loss what to think. 
 
 Meantime the poitit as to whether he should or 
 should not eat called for immediate decision. His 
 hunger was considerable ; but his hands were so 
 numbed by their recent bonds as to be quite use- 
 less for a little time to come. When he regained 
 their use, should he eat this mess of Chinese food 
 that sickened him to look upon, hungry though he 
 was? There were reasons for and against. If he 
 were to be kept a prisoner, then he must eat sooner 
 or later ; and the sooner he did so with a good 
 grace, the sooner possibly would he succeed in con- 
 ciliating his captors. But if, on the other hand, he 
 were to be fed merely that he might be able to 
 bear the cruelty of a lingering death, he felt but 
 little inclined to accept the attentions of those 
 who stood before him. Bah ! it could make little 
 difference, he thought : he would trust to the future. 
 Torture could not be greatly increased by the 
 return of his strength. So he reached out and 
 took the bowl in his weak hands, swallowing a full 
 half of its contents, and finding the food not quite 
 so objectionable to the palate as he had conceived 
 it to be. 
 
 When he had finished, the Chinaman who had 
 brought the food made a sign that he should lie 
 down again ; but this he was unwilling to do, and 
 endeavoured to explain by gesticulations that he 
 preferred a sitting posture. The man seized him 
 
5S THE CATJ'IVE OF I'EKIX. 
 
 by the throat for answer, and thrust him back, 
 knocking his head with rough severity upon the 
 hard ground ; for Norris was now so weak he could 
 make but faint resistance. A moment or two more 
 and he lay as he had lain previously, bound so 
 securely that he could scarcely move. 
 
 Thus he remained through the entire night — a 
 night which Norris never forgot in after-years — a 
 night of clear cloudless sky, whence the millions of 
 stars shone pitilessly upon the man who could not 
 sleep ; whilst he lay looking up to them, groaning 
 in his agony of unchanging posture, his brain 
 filled with a darkness which seemed to give the lie 
 to his soul of the existence of a God, for his 
 thoughts had become as a hell of hideous things. 
 
 Then, after hours of seemingly endless night, 
 came the grey of the dawn ; and at last the man 
 slept a sleep whose images but reflected the horror 
 of his waking dreams. When he awoke the sun 
 was well up, though the morning was still young. 
 His limbs, from the night's exposure upon the cold 
 ground, seemed to have grown as a piece of the 
 earth upon which he lay, so cramped and still and 
 deadened had they become : to move at all was 
 agony ; to lie still the only chance of rest — if rest, 
 under such conditions were possible. 
 
 At last, two of his captors came ; and, perceiv- 
 ing his condition, one of them loosed all his bonds, 
 head and feet and hands ; but Norris simply lay 
 still, unable to move, and it was some hours 
 
IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE. 59 
 
 before he recovered so far as to be able to sit up 
 and partake of food. During these hours he fancied 
 he was alone ; for the Chinaman, who had placed 
 a dish beside him, had sat himself down thereafter, 
 behind the Englishman, so that Norris was not 
 aware that he \\as watched. 
 
 Gradually, as in the warmth of the day he 
 recovered the use of his limbs, the aching thought 
 filled him that escape was impossible, even though 
 he were, as he believed himself to be — alone. The 
 power of his body was still so weakened that he 
 could scarcely move. When, at length, he suc- 
 ceeded in conveying the contents of the bowl to 
 his mouth, he felt somewhat the better for the 
 food ; and, as the day wore on, recovered his 
 strength, in so far that he was at length able to 
 stand up, though reeling as he did so like a 
 drunken man. 
 
 The Chinaman was watching him curiously, well 
 knowing that Xorris's strength was for the time being 
 as nothing ; and that even putting that fact aside, 
 escape would have been an impossibility. Norris 
 started when he perceived that he was not alone ; 
 the Chinaman who was seated smoking, was to all 
 appearance, much interested in the movements of 
 him whom he had evidently been set to watch. 
 Very soon Norris became convinced that escape 
 from the place where he now found himself was an 
 impossibility ; to scale the wall, even given that he 
 .should at some future time be left alone, appeared 
 
6o THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 beyond the power of man ; to pass the buildings 
 even more so ; and further, his temporary freedom 
 from his bonds would, in all probability, be of the 
 shortest duration. His feelings were a mixture of 
 agony and despair. 
 
 The hours passed with leaden step. Towards 
 afternoon the first clue as to the reason of his im- 
 prisonment was given to him. Several Chinamen 
 had come into the place of his captivity. One of 
 these taking a paper from the purse which he wore 
 underneath his garments, handed it to Norris, who, 
 upon unfolding it, read with the greatest surprise 
 these words, written clearly in English, " You write 
 note, make pay any man ten Elnglishman's hundred 
 pounds." 
 
 Where had this paper been obtained ? Clearly 
 it had been written by a Chinaman knowing some- 
 thing of the English tongue, and knowing it, too, 
 not merely as a guide might know it, in the most 
 childish form of pigeon-English. 
 
 " You write note, make pay," these words struck 
 Norris at once. Little as he knew of pigeon- 
 Engli.sh, it flashed across his mind that his guide, 
 for instance, would rather have said something like, 
 " You makey write some piecey note, belong can 
 makey pay." 
 
 Such was his thought ; and he continued to 
 follow the train of conjecture instantly suggested 
 to him when his e}-e had fallen upon the paper. 
 
 " Ten Englishman's hundred pounds ! " — one 
 
IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE. 6i 
 
 thousand pounds : a large ransom — more than 
 these men who stood around would think of 
 exacting. 
 
 One of the Chinamen interrupted his thoughts, 
 pointing with his finger to the writing, as though 
 demanding an answer. But the paper which had 
 been given to him was not one which could be 
 replied to off-hand. In the first place, what was 
 required ? " Make pay any man," — what was the 
 meaning of this ? He had no English bank-notes 
 with him, and the writer of the paper must have 
 been aware that everything of a valuable nature, 
 watch, chain, pencil, knife, etcetera, had been 
 stolen from his person. Yes, everything, save (for 
 somehow his finger wandered idly down the inside 
 of his coat) a couple of English pins, which he had 
 idly placed there two days ago, to be used, perhaps, 
 as substitutes for the buttons of his clothing, which 
 were constantly giving way. 
 
 It was evident, therefore, that the only thing 
 which he could give, and the only thing which 
 could be intended, was a note to, or a cheque 
 upon, his bankers. Did the writer know of the 
 English form of issuing cheques ? If so, who was 
 he ? — in what position ? These were points the 
 consideration of which set Norris's brain on fire. 
 
 The Chinaman pointed impatiently a second 
 time to the paper. Norris could hesitate no longer. 
 A vague hopefulness filled him. He was, as he 
 knew, in the remote interior of the Temple of 
 
02 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Confucius ; but already a chance was given to him 
 of communicating with some one (who, at least, 
 knew his language) in the outside world, be it only 
 in Pekin. 
 
 Rapidly he made signs that he required to write. 
 The Chinamen understood at once, and one of 
 them hurried off to seek what was required. Evi- 
 dently they knew what Norris had been asked to 
 do. In a moment or two the man returned with 
 the materials used by the Chinese in writing — a 
 brush, a pot of ink, and paper. 
 
 Norris was obliged to place these upon the 
 ground, calculating all the time as to what he 
 should write. Then he took the brush in his hand 
 and dipped it in the ink, whilst the Chinamen 
 crushed around him in curiosity, chattering in 
 their ugly tongue to one another. He drew every 
 stroke with the utmost slowness, for each stroke 
 gave him the longer time to think as to how he 
 was to complete his reply. This is what he 
 wrote : — 
 
 •' I am your prisoner. If I pay one thousand pounds, am 
 I free ? My money has been stolen. All I can give is a 
 letter to my bank to pay one thousand pounds. If I do 
 this shall I be set free at once ? "' 
 
 It was short, yet he thought sufficiently explicit 
 He had learned in bygone days, that it is well to 
 cut a letter short, in case of doubt, so as to convey 
 
IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE. 63 
 
 something of one's own doubt to the other side, if 
 it be possible, by an atmosphere of brevity. 
 
 He folded the sheet, and gave it to the 
 man who brought him the materials wherewith 
 
 He drew every stroke with the utmost slowness. — p. 62. 
 
 to write. The recipient's first proceeding was to 
 re-open and scrutinize the sheet, notwithstanding 
 that he had been carefully observing Norris as he 
 
64 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 wrote ; and this act was of itself sufficient to prove 
 to the Enghshman that none of those present could 
 read his words. Then the men left him, still appar- 
 ently discussing what was to them a strange and 
 curious thing. One of them stayed a moment to 
 lift the ink-pot and the brush. And, at last, Norris 
 was left alone — truly alone, for his guardian had 
 accompanied the others through the doorway, which 
 they had then closed and barred. Clearly they had 
 no fear of his escape ; his bonds must have been 
 merely to restrain him from violence ; and clearly, 
 also, it was judged that the paper borne away was 
 that required — the equivalent of the demanded 
 thousand pounds. As Norris thought of this, it 
 struck him that if the men believed this note to 
 be what was required, he should in justice have been 
 at once set free. Why, then, was he still a prisoner? 
 These men had received, to their belief, what they 
 desired, and still he was not free. And he remem- 
 bered the treachery and the greed of the nation, 
 whilst an aching, hopeless pain gnawed at his heart. 
 Suppose he should give this thousand pounds un- 
 conditionally, would the amount satisfy his captors ? 
 — would it not serve to increase their avarice? 
 Would they be content with this, or would they 
 not rather bleed him of his whole fortune, and then 
 perhaps kill him by cruel tortures, in the endeavour 
 to force more when there was nothing left ? 
 
 The position in which he was placed seemed to 
 increase in horror at each new move. One thing 
 
IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINES]:. 65 
 
 was evident, he must not pay this thousand pounds, 
 even with the promise of freedom : it but opened 
 paths which led to fresh danger and to new terrors 
 in the end. For how could he believe that the 
 unknown writer of this paper could be trusted for 
 a moment to fulfil a promise ? His very method 
 of treating his prisoner (or the temple's prisoner) 
 proved his cowardly longing for gain. Who was 
 this man ? — who could he be ? 
 
 At this point conjecture became vague, and, 
 returning upon his thoughts, Norris decided that 
 he should endeavour by craft to undermine his 
 unknown enemy's intent ; for craft was surely 
 justifiable in such a case. 
 
 If the answer to his letter came, "Yes, you will 
 be instantly set free upon giving me a letter to 
 your bank," then he would give such a letter, but 
 — sign it with a false name ! And if he were set 
 free, well he would then consider how far he was 
 bound in honour to pay this thousand pounds and 
 to take up the false order upon his bank ; and if, 
 as he was the rather inclined to fear, the promise 
 should prove as nothing, then at least, he should 
 not have given the first taste of blood to the 
 wolves ; and who could say, but that the false order 
 might lead some day to his discovery and escape ? 
 This seemed the wisest, indeed, the only course to 
 pursue. 
 
 Having come to this decision, Norris proceeded 
 to examine the note which had been sent to him. 
 
 E 
 
66 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 and which he still held in his hand. It was written 
 upon paper of foreign make — English or German, 
 not Chinese ; and this struck him as curious, in so 
 far that a Chinaman, unless of some high rank, 
 would be unlikely to indulge in a luxury such as 
 the using of paper other than Chinese. As he 
 looked upon it, the thought came to him that, by 
 carefully preserving this paper, there was a dim 
 chance of his tracing the man who had written the 
 words. That he was not an Englishman was 
 evident, alike from his diction and writing — even 
 putting aside the connection with his captors and 
 the fact that one thousand pounds would have 
 been but a small demand from one of his own race 
 — so there was, indeed, but a faint possibility of 
 ever ascertaining who had penned the lines. Not- 
 withstanding which, Norris determined to carefully 
 preserve the sheet. 
 
 The time seemed to pass rapidly so much was 
 there to ponder upon ; and although the sun was 
 setting, and, in reality, more than two hours had 
 passed when the answer to his note arrived, it 
 seemed to Norris that his captors had scarcely left 
 him ere they again returned. Yet his impatience 
 as to the reply was none the less strong, in that he 
 had been considering every point regarding the 
 demand which had been made. In a second of 
 time his eyes had perused the lines now placed 
 before him. .And this was the answer to his 
 note : — 
 
IN THE HANDS OF THE CHINESE. 67 
 
 " Write bank make pay ; then you go free. Write, pay 
 any man." 
 
 The reply was what Norris had anticipated. He 
 should be free so soon as he gave the necessary- 
 letter to his bank — a letter which the recipient had 
 apparently some means of disposing of. Now the 
 question came to be, " Was this promise to be relied 
 upon, or not?" A few hours more would test the 
 case. 
 
 Writing materials were again placed before him. 
 
 He headed the sheet to his English bankers, and, 
 
 endeavouring to disguise his hand, he wrote : — 
 
 I 
 
 " Pay to bearer the sum of one thousand pounds sterling, 
 for which I shall acknowledge this order as full receipt." 
 
 And he signed, 
 
 "Albert H. Dyson." 
 
 The Chinaman took the sheet from his hand, and 
 once more Xorris was alone. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST. 
 
 A SECOXK night of Xorris's captivit\- had passed. 
 During this night he had been free to walk about, 
 for his bonds were now removed. Ever}- hour that 
 passed had been filled with anxious expectation. 
 Though it seemed useless to hope, he did still 
 hope, waiting through the long night hours for 
 that liberty which he had virtually bought, though 
 upon the dismissal of his second note, nothing had 
 happened, save that a large bowl of food had been 
 handed to him a short time thereafter. 
 
 During the night hours, Xorris endeavoured 
 to convince himself that liberty must surely come 
 with the morning. Plis note had been dispatched 
 too late the evening before, he argued ; and thus 
 he sought to silence his fears. 
 
 Once he wildl)- thought of endeavouring to 
 escape. Alas ! escape was impossible. The tree, 
 his only chance, stood many feet removed from 
 cither wall or temple on ever}- side. 
 
 Nor did he sleep, worn out though he was with 
 long-protracted fatigue and agon)- of mind. 
 
THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST. 69 
 
 When day came, still hour after hour went by. 
 The Chinaman resumed his post of watch for a 
 lengthy period, but there were no signs of liberty 
 after all ; and it was with a sense of thankfulness 
 that Norris recollected that he had acted prudently 
 and had not trusted to the word of his unseen foe. 
 
 It was now quite apparent that one thousand 
 pounds would not purchase his freedom from the 
 Temple of Confucius in Pekin. 
 
 It crossed his mind, that perhaps the man who 
 had demanded the note of hand had been sus- 
 picious on account of his readiness in sending. 
 Yes ; undoubtedly there he had been a fool. Per- 
 haps, by his haste, he had lost the chance of 
 liberty — a liberty which might have been his, had 
 he refused, and waited to endure torture before 
 yielding to the demand for a ransom so large. 
 
 As it was he now faced the weary expectancy of 
 an imprisonment which might never end, until 
 death, by what means to be finally reached God 
 alone could know, should set him free. 
 
 This was the position in which Norris now found 
 himself to be placed ; for it is almost needless to 
 say, that hour followed hour, and day succeeded 
 day, without the fulfilment of the promise made 
 by the unknown receiver of the false order upon 
 the English bank. 
 
 Norris was allowed a degree of freedom ; he was 
 fed, and had moderate liberty, in so far that he was 
 no longer bound, and that he had a large space to 
 
70 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 walk in. Further than this, it was so impossible 
 to escape from the temple, that it was but seldom 
 indeed that the Chinamen troubled themselves to 
 set a watch upon his movements. 
 
 Thus confined, Xorris cast about in his own 
 mind as to how it might be possible for him to 
 communicate with his fellows. He had valuable 
 possessions — possessions whose worth he had not 
 till now realised, and these were comprised in the 
 power and the ability to write, since he possessed 
 the necessaries to do so. For some days he had 
 been unaware that this was so ; but in his solitary 
 captivity it was not very long ere his mind grasped 
 a truth that was encouraging to him when known. 
 
 He had paper— the margin paper of both the 
 letters which he had received from his unknown 
 enemy : it was little, yet for him much — ay ! very 
 much, for by the scarcity of an article we learn to 
 value what we possess. For pen, he had two pins 
 — one would have sufficed — the only trifles which 
 his captors had left upon his clothing. For ink, 
 was there not his blood ? 
 
 But these possessions were little without the 
 knowledge as to how he might apply them. A 
 wild idea of casting over the wall small messages, 
 tied to twigs with threads plucked from his clothes, 
 suggested itself to him ; but of what use could 
 this be, as the dust without would cover them ? — 
 and if, indeed, b}' an}- chance one should reach a 
 human hand, that hand would be Chinese. 
 
THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST. 71 
 
 Then a still wilder idea of capturing the swallows 
 that ever and anon crossed the court came to him, 
 and then despair that his chances were so few cast 
 its shadow upon him for many days. 
 
 Whilst he was still buried in de.spondency, it so 
 chanced that two of the birds upon whose aid he 
 had calculated with a wild madness for a moment 
 or two, some days since, met in conflict in the air 
 above him, and, whilst he watched them, both 
 dropped towards the ground, finally falling in the 
 court. 
 
 The feelings that filled him — wild hope, intense 
 longing, terrible excitement — few can understand. 
 
 To secure one of these swallows ! 
 
 His heart burst within him in wild prayer. 
 
 He approached the birds. One flew off"; the 
 other was so wounded and torn as to be unable to 
 rise upon its wing, though it fluttered wildly and 
 struggled vainly to rise from the ground. 
 
 Norris could have counted his heart-beats. 
 Hastily taking off his coat, he threw it twice over 
 the bird which now fluttered along the ground. 
 Each time in his terrible excitement he missed it. 
 Yet again he threw the coat. 
 
 Indescribable joy filled him as he perceived that 
 the swallow was beneath ; then carefully he secured 
 it in his hand and set about examining the wound. 
 The bird was but little hurt. 
 
 Considerably less than half an hour later a small 
 piece of paper lay before him, with some words 
 
7-' THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 upon it written in his blood. The swallow was 
 securely wrapped in his coat. Thread he had 
 procured from the rough edge of his clothes. All 
 that now remained was to fasten the paper to the 
 swallow's neck, or, better still, he thought, round 
 its leg, and then to throw the bird over the wall, 
 in the hope that it might by some chance bear his 
 message beyond the seas. 
 
 He folded the small paper carefully, and as 
 carefully replaced the pin in the inside of his 
 coat. 
 
 The only traces that remained of his experiment 
 at this juncture were the presence of a thread upon 
 the ground, a small folded paper, which for the 
 moment he held between his teeth, and the swallow 
 wrapped inside his coat. 
 
 He reached out and took the bird gently in his 
 hand. 
 
 At the same instant the door of the temple 
 facing him opened, and two of his Chinese captors 
 appeared. 
 
 One of these men instantaneously perceived the 
 bird. The utmost danger faced the Englishman. 
 His lips had closed over the fragment of paper 
 held in his teeth. The bird was the suspicious 
 point. If he hesitated, the bird would be taken 
 from him, and these men would begin to question 
 how and why it had come to be in his possession, 
 and to ask what he had intended to do. 
 
 He knew that one of the Chinamen saw the 
 
Yet again he threw the coa.t.—p. 71. 
 
THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST. 75 
 
 swallow. To conceal it, or attempt to conceal it 
 was ruin. 
 
 Never did Norris experience such a moment of 
 intense agony of rapid mental calculation, as now. 
 
 The Chinaman spoke to his companion ; both 
 had now seen the bird ; and Norris, acting like a 
 cold, dead thing that scarcely knew what it was 
 doing, took the struggling swallow in both his 
 hands and tore it wing from wing, thrusting the 
 living flesh and the warm feathers in a hideous 
 pretence between his moving teeth. 
 
 His heart stood stone still ; but the Chinamen 
 saw him eat the living bird, and by that he was 
 saved ! 
 
 It had become fully evident to Norris that his 
 freedom was not likely to be given to him, and that 
 only captivity and death were before him. 
 
 That his life would be spared for some time to 
 come he could well understand, since by killing him 
 all prospect of further monetary extortion would 
 disappear. It seemed, however, probable that so 
 soon as the order upon his bankers was returned 
 unpaid and known to be a forgery upon his part, his 
 captors would be so much enraged as to proceed 
 to extremes immediately, as soon as they became 
 aware of the deceit practised. In the meantime, if 
 he were pressed for further sums, he decided that 
 
76 THE CAPTR'E OF PEKIN. 
 
 he should, after holding out as long as possible, give 
 as many further orders as might be necessary, 
 signed with the false name. 
 
 As the first of these orders had to go to England 
 before his trick would be discovered, and as the 
 news that it had been refused payment would take 
 equally long of transit, Norris calculated that even 
 supposing it had been sent by camel-post overland 
 to St. Petersburg, a means frequently employed by 
 those living in Pekin, he might look upon it as a 
 certainty that the reply regarding the order would 
 not reach Pekin for probably four months to 
 come. 
 
 At the expiry of that time he foresaw certain 
 death — a death of the most horrible nature, unless 
 his escape should be effected meantime. 
 
 Some days had passed ere he had been able to 
 partially forget the horror of the moment when, 
 with the two men in front of him observing his 
 every act, he had been forced to destroy, whilst he 
 acted a hideous part, the only living tie between 
 himself and those beyond the walls ; and many, 
 many hours had sped ere he could touch the food . 
 placed at regular intervals before him. 
 
 A couple of rough skins, thrown upon the ground 
 at the foot of the tree by one of his Chinese 
 captors, on the day following that on which he had 
 signed the letter required, were an indication, Norris 
 took it, that although he remained a prisoner, he 
 was not to be ill-treated. 
 
THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST. 77 
 
 Thus was his life — by day, pacing to and fro in 
 his place of confinement, living upon Chinese food, 
 and pondering vaguely upon the dim chances of 
 escape — by night sleeping, or when he could not 
 sleep, gazing towards the stars as he lay upon the 
 skins. 
 
 A week went by uneventfully, and Norris still 
 remained captive, as far removed from liberty, so 
 it seemed, as on the first day of his confinement. 
 
 He rarely saw his captors ; their curiosity regard- 
 ing him was satisfied long ago, and seldom did any 
 of them enter his open-air prison save to give him 
 food. 
 
 Several ideas suggestive of escape had occurred 
 to Norris — one that he should scale the wall by the 
 arduous fabrication of holes in its surface, whereby 
 he might, with difficulty mount to the top. But 
 there were reasons to bar this gate of hope : the 
 holes in the wall would at once catch the eye of the 
 man who brought him his food ; and again, he might, 
 indeed, succeed in making stepping-places to a 
 certain height, but beyond that, beyond his reach 
 whilst standing on the ground, how was he to do 
 so ? 
 
 This, like many another idea, had to be 
 abandoned ; for Norris well knew that once his 
 captors perceived any possibility of his escaping, 
 he would immediately be transferred to another 
 place, or possibly chained, either to the wall or 
 to some huge stone, as he had seen the Chinese 
 
78 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 prisoners chained. Then, indeed, the last ray of 
 hope would have gone ! And so, urged by extreme 
 caution not to hazard a failure, he waited, eagerly 
 examining the while every loophole of escape. 
 
 At length he was in part rewarded, for he 
 perceived that the man who brought his food was 
 growing more careless, and would at times leave 
 the door behind him half open when he entered 
 from the temple. Norris determined to act upon 
 this. The Chinaman must be overpowered silently 
 and quickly. 
 
 Norris had no weapon. Without such his hands 
 alone were not sufficient to do the deed at once 
 and with absolute silence and rapidity ; so he set 
 about carefully twisting a species of rough cord, or 
 thong, which he made from strips bitten or torn 
 with his teeth from the skins furnished him to 
 sleep upon — a tedious process indeed. These he 
 twined and knotted tightly together. This he did 
 chiefly by night ; and on the second day following 
 his resolution to overpower the Chinaman, he was 
 in readiness to seize his opportunity. He now had 
 a noose, which it was his intention to cast over the 
 man's head, to strangle him thus by drawing it 
 tight from behind, whilst his knee should be placed 
 against the victim's back. 
 
 Such was his crude idea ; but the opportunity of 
 carrying it out was not given him for a number of 
 days, for by some chance the man who came was 
 accompanied by another from this time forth. 
 
THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST. 79 
 
 To Norris, in his despair, it seemed as though 
 each possibiHty of escape were flaunted in irony 
 before him only to elude him when he would have 
 seized upon it. 
 
 In his bitterness he recalled the incident of the 
 swallow. Strangely enough, he had looked upon 
 this hope as ended at the time ; now he began to 
 think differently. The Chinamen had seen him 
 eat the living bird ; why should not he trade upon 
 that fact ? There were many nests along the eaves 
 of the temple. Could he but reach these to capture 
 the birds, he might still succeed in the carrying out 
 of the old design. And if he were caught in the 
 attempt ; what matter ? Was it not as food that 
 he sought to secure the birds ? 
 
 During the night-time he broke from the tree, 
 climbing it with cat-like caution in order to do so 
 without noise, several branches, which, being pieced 
 together and tied with pieces of cloth torn from 
 various parts of his clothing, proved, although 
 slender, sufficiently long to reach to the swallow's 
 nests. 
 
 At first it was his plan to disturb the birds, and 
 to strike them with his slender rod, as they issued 
 from their nests ; but putting aside the difficulty 
 of such a proceeding, there remained the probability 
 of so injuring them, that they must prove useless ; 
 whilst, on the other hand, his weapon might snap 
 in the air, from its unwieldy length, at every attempt 
 he made. Abandoning this idea, he determined to 
 
8o THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 endeavour to form of his coat a species of net, and, 
 rough and crude as the plan may seem, it was by 
 this means that he ultimately succeeded in captur- 
 ing, at long intervals it is true, and in the face of 
 continued and frequent disappointment, several of 
 the swallows as they issued from the eaves of the 
 temple. 
 
 By day he was the possessor of a number of 
 short sticks, which he concealed with difficulty 
 from the sharp eyes of the Chinaman who brought 
 his meals. At night he pieced these together — 
 an arduous process nightly to be undergone — and 
 then with his light coat simply extended by 
 means of a transverse stick at the top, somewhat 
 as it might have hung on the back of a chair, 
 he made his round of the swallows' nests, cover- 
 ing each with the coat whilst he endeavoured to 
 disturb the birds, \\hen, withdrawing it a moment 
 that they might issue from their nests, he would 
 rapidly endeavour to bring them in collision with 
 the coat on the chance of their falling thus en- 
 tangled to the ground. 
 
 Many a weary and hopeless hour did he spend in 
 this pursuit. It seemed beyond his power to catch 
 the swallows. Such as struck against the coat 
 immediately thereafter escaped ; and Norris noticed 
 that the birds appeared to be growing less in num- 
 bers, as though he frightened them from their 
 homes. Accordingly he devoted himself entirely 
 to one side of the court, lest he should frighten 
 
THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST. 8i 
 
 the whole of the birds before he should become 
 sufficiently practised to secure them. 
 
 As the human mind will overcome all difficulties 
 through time, so Norris overcame that which had 
 at first seemed insuperable, and one morning in the 
 early dawn he caught his first bird. 
 
 From this time forth it became easier ; many 
 escaped, and disappointment followed disappoint- 
 ment, notwithstanding which he secured an occa- 
 sional bird, and these he liberated with the brief 
 message and cry for aid written in blood and bound 
 to the leg, in the hope that some of his English 
 fellows would hear the cry. 
 
 In this manner he caught and liberated ten 
 swallows as the days went by. Once he recaught 
 one of his birds with the paper tied to its leg — a 
 disappointment of the severest kind, for if the 
 birds were to linger in the Temple of Confucius for 
 ever all had been done in vain. 
 
 The eleventh bird was in some way slightly hurt 
 in capture, besides being evidently young, and to 
 Norris's dismay it proved unable to fly freely, sett- 
 ling instead upon the roof of the temple. 
 
 The sun was already advancing in the heavens, 
 and he knew that shortly he might expect his first 
 instalment of the day's food to arrive. 
 
 He had spent a long time, on the morning in 
 question, before finally succeeding in capturing one 
 of the birds, and the disappointment on finding 
 that it could scarcely fly was indeed severe. 
 
 v 
 
82 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 In his present state of mind it seemed to him 
 that the presence of the swallow upon the roof was 
 most dangerous, and, late in the morning though it 
 was, he hastened to re-piece the stick (he had some 
 time since taken it to pieces), in order to reach the 
 bird and bring it to earth a second time, so that he 
 might throw it thereafter beyond the high wall. 
 
 He recaptured it without much difficulty ; and 
 so intent was he upon the subsequent action of un- 
 doing the knots which secured the sticks, that he 
 did not realise for a moment or two that time had 
 passed more quickly than he had dreamed of, and 
 that the Chinaman, with his food, had entered from 
 behind, and now stood watching him, with curiosity 
 expressed upon every line of his sallow features. 
 
 The swallow was struggling feebly beneath the 
 coat. Norris was intent upon his work. Suddenly 
 he looked up. Some consciousness had come upon 
 him that he was not alone. A band of iron seemed 
 to draw his heart-strings together. The door of the 
 temple behind was half open. He was discovered ; 
 but the man who had discovered him was alone, 
 and as yet had made no sound. 
 
 With apparent callousness he undid the leathern 
 thong which he had bitten from the skins upon 
 which he sat, and which he now wore round his 
 waist. 
 
 This he made rapidly, and yet quietly, into the 
 form of a noose, as formerly, the Chinaman observ- 
 ing his every act, curious as to what was the 
 meaning of what he saw. 
 
Norris held the cord and forced the man's body from him with all 
 his strength. — p. 85. 
 
THE MURDER OF THE PRIEST. 85 
 
 Norris stoo d up ; the stick in his one hand, the 
 noose in the other, as though the two had some 
 connection. 
 
 Making so me pretence to bind the thong around 
 the stick, of a sudden he fixed his eyes firmly and 
 abruptly upon some object apparently behind the 
 man who stood near him. The Chinaman obeyed 
 the natural instinct : he half turned in the same 
 direction. 
 
 Instantly the noose was around his neck, 
 throttling hi m with a terrible strength ; whilst the 
 Englishman, with knee and left hand, held the 
 man from him, his right hand, without mercy, 
 expending its desperate force upon the thong. 
 
 There was no cry : suspension of breath had 
 been instantaneous. The man moved his hands 
 wildly for a moment or two ; then their motions 
 grew feeble, and his face blackened ; and still 
 Norris held the cord and forced the man's body 
 from him with all his strength. 
 
 A wild, exultant hope leapt through him — he 
 was free ! for the Chinaman was killed as surely 
 as he would have been had he dropped some feet 
 with a rope around his neck. 
 
 When he knew that the man was dead, Norris 
 lost no time, but dropping the body, hastened to 
 the door and gained the inside of the temple. 
 The door on the other side stood open ; beyond 
 that lay a space, then another temple, through 
 which he must pass ; and what lay beyond that 
 
86 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 again Xorris could not say, but his heart sank 
 as he perceived on the instant that he was as yet 
 far from free. 
 
 Rapidity of action was his only chance. For a 
 moment or two he stood in the temple; then, 
 with an inward prayer, he leaped into the open 
 space and dashed across it to the buildings 
 beyond. 
 
 As he did so, he became aware that he was 
 seen. Two of his foes were after him. Fear lent 
 him speed ; but the loud cry from his pursuers 
 had gone before him, and as he sped through 
 the second temple, and reached its exit, another 
 foe met him face to face. 
 
 With the impetuosity with which he sped, he 
 dashed the man over, so that he fell before him 
 like a reed ; but, as he fell, the Chinaman clutched 
 vaguely, and caught the fugitive's ankle in his 
 hand, so that he was precipitated forwards upon 
 his face with terrible force, and instantaneously 
 stunned. 
 
Another foe met him face to face. — p. 86. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 [the torture of the molten lead. 
 
 The immediate result of Norris's attempt to 
 escape was that the cold Chinese instincts of his 
 foes turned into those feelings of intensified cruelty 
 which few but the northern Chinese know. 
 
 Well was it for Norris that he lay for hours, as 
 one dead, insensible, immovable, and ignorant of 
 that death which, but for his unconsciousness, had 
 assuredly been his. And yet not well ; for death 
 indeed would have been preferable to the life in 
 store. 
 
 The discovery of the body which lay in the 
 inner court seemed to throw a touch of horror 
 upon everything within the temple, for the man 
 who had committed the deed still lived ! 
 
 To Norris his captors had been merely Chinamen. 
 Strange as it may seem, he had never in his soli- 
 tary confinement cast a thought upon their priestly 
 attributes. In his own mind he had called them 
 Chinamen, and nothing more. They had been his 
 foes as a nation, not as a priestly brotherhood ; and 
 
go THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 though he had known that these were sanctified, he 
 had not for a moment looked upon them as differ- 
 ent in that respect from others of their race, nor 
 in his plans of escape had he taken account of the 
 awful results which might follow the desecration of 
 the temple by the murder of one of its priests. 
 
 Had Norris been in possession of his senses, 
 when the body of the priest was found, it is more 
 than a probability that in the impulse of the 
 moment his life, at the hands of those who had 
 recaptured him, might have been taken as atone- 
 ment for his deed, for the frenzy which spread over 
 one and all within the temple walls cried aloud in 
 its wild thirst for blood and for revenge upon the 
 man who had done this thing. But the momentary 
 impulse had passed, and now a more hideous fate 
 was in reserve. Blood alone cannot atone for 
 blood, life is not repaid by life, when the frenzied 
 souls of Chinese priests behold the corpse of a 
 brother who has been killed, and look upon a 
 temple whose holy light is suddenly obscured. 
 
 Death for death ! — not so. Life for death ! — a 
 long never-ending life, a life whose hell is worse 
 than death — this alone can atone for such a deed. 
 
 The injury sustained by Norris, when he fell 
 forward upon his face, was of a most serious 
 nature, and, after many hours of unconsciousness, 
 he recovered slowly to an intermittent state, resem- 
 bling brain-fever. During this time the priests 
 waited like wild beasts who would pla\- with their 
 prey before striking it to earth. 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE MOLTEN LEAD. 91 
 
 A torture is not a torture if it kill, for then of 
 what use is it ? If a man is weak and ill, so that 
 he may go mad, and so that he do not feel to the 
 full the horrors through which he pass, whilst death 
 lies in front of him, it is no use to torture — it is 
 better to wait. For the truest and deepest agony 
 of mind which can be inflicted upon man is that 
 which drives him so far, no farther — near to death, 
 so that he may almost clutch it, and yet removed 
 from it so that he clutch in vain — near to madness 
 — ay, on the very brink of the precipice, and yet 
 saved, as the brain totters, so that it may continue 
 to totter and yet never fall. 
 
 Many days passed, and the Chinese still waited ; 
 and Norris, who had lain through the ravings of 
 weary hours upon a rough skin or two, which 
 formed his bed, began as by a miracle to recover 
 his strength ; and it may be that, as the priests 
 fed him during this time, so they also prayed that 
 he might live, for gradually the crisis passed, and he 
 returned to life to find that he was under constant 
 watch within one of the smaller temple buildings, 
 away from the terrible heat of the mid-day sun. 
 
 As he grew stronger, an awful thirst took pos- 
 session of him — a thirst that seemed unquench- 
 able, and he would seize and drink every drop of 
 water which was brought to him, as soon as it was 
 placed upon the ground. 
 
 It was now that the first of that series of tor- 
 tures to which the man was destined to be subjected 
 
92 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 was inflicted upon him. Because he thirsted, it 
 was decreed that he should continue to thirst ; and 
 the water given to him was only the more decreased 
 in quantity, the more he endeavoured to signal to 
 his attendant that water was priceless to him now. 
 
 Then at length came the hour when he under- 
 stood, when there was no more water given to him, 
 and the revelation of the truth threw him back 
 again upon the illness from which he was but com- 
 mencing to recover. 
 
 And thus it came that weeks intervened between 
 Norris's attempt at escape and the day upon which 
 truly commenced that system of fiendish cruelty 
 by which his captors sought to wipe away the blot 
 of desecration and to satisfy the lust for cruelty 
 which is innate in the Chinese. 
 
 In the meantime winter was approaching, and 
 Xorris in his convalescent state looked forward 
 with a leaden heart to the long months to come, 
 for he seemed to lose hope of freedom with the 
 commencement of the winter. Summer he might 
 never see again. 
 
 The closing of the port of Tientsin for the 
 winter months, when ice blocked the river, must 
 mean the temporary closing of the door of hope. 
 Tientsin closed, Norris felt, why he scarcely knew, 
 that his last chance was gone. Had the swallows 
 borne his messages to any purpose ; or had one 
 and all of these been given to the air in vain ? 
 
 The birds were all that he could trust to now ; 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE MOLTEN LEAD. 
 
 93 
 
 the ten swallows, liberated with his messages 
 securely bound to them, where were they? If, 
 indeed, one of the ten came into some friendly 
 hand far away, it might be too late, for who would 
 travel from Shanghai to Pekin in the cold winter 
 months ? Who would face the perishing cold, and 
 the journey, at such a time ? 
 
 Norris would wonder for what reason he had 
 been spared — he who had killed a Chinaman ; and, 
 again, for what reason was he now allowed to gain 
 strength as he lay chained by his ankle to the 
 ground ? 
 
 He feared the more when he cast his thoughts 
 upon the apparent clemency of his foes. Why 
 had the want of water now ceased ? Why was he 
 again treated as formerly, save only that his ankle 
 was firmly bound ? He set himself to the endeavour 
 of fathoming the motives that dictated this gentler 
 treatment. 
 
 What interest was it to the Chinese that he 
 should live, unless his money were the object ? 
 What had saved him from a cruel death long ere 
 now? He could little guess until he suddenly 
 remembered that the swallow — the eleventh of the 
 birds — had been left beneath his coat on the morn- 
 ing of his attempted escape ! 
 
 There he now fancied might lie the truth. This 
 man, whoever he was, beyond the temple walls, who 
 had promised him his liberty, and by that means 
 sought to extort a large sum, had been informed 
 
94 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 of all that occurred. No doubt the swallow had 
 been taken to him, or the paper at least which had 
 been wrapped to its leg. And this paper bearing 
 the words, " eleventh swallow,'' would have been 
 sufficient to convey to him the knowledge that 
 there was a chance, however dim, that the English 
 nation beyond the seas might hear of the captivity 
 of William Norris and send to save him from his 
 foes. 
 
 If this were so, and if this man still commanded 
 Norris's life to be spared, it seemed probable that 
 he might be doing so partly because he was a great 
 man, and that it would not suit him to be the 
 [iossible and remote means of a disagreement 
 which might from a little thing swell gradually 
 into a war between the English and Chinese. 
 
 For were Norris to be cruelly killed in the 
 Temple of Confucius, there was the possibility that 
 others coming to his rescue might meet with 
 similar treatment, and the first death might grow 
 into a massacre in the after-time. 
 
 Such was the conjecture slowly formed by 
 Norris — -a conjecture which, wild though it was 
 in many respects, yet had a grain of truth ; for, 
 although it was difficult at this time to fathom the 
 full motives which actuated his enemies, it is true 
 that besides that cruelty of which Norris was, 
 till now, unaware, and which had in store for him 
 a life of hideousness, there was another underlying 
 design — something which came to the priests from 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE MOLTEN LliAD. 95 
 
 a higher source, according with their wishes never- 
 theless in this command. 
 
 " Torture, but do not kill ! " 
 
 Norris fell to pondering upon his captivity one 
 morning, subsequent to his almost complete resto- 
 ration to health, and feeling as he now did that he 
 was daily regaining his strength, he began once 
 more to cast about in his thoughts for some means 
 by which he might still escape. 
 
 This had become a much more difficult question 
 than formerly, for his ankle, as has been said, was 
 now encircled by a chain, which confined his 
 motions to a limited circuit, and at times became 
 the source of extreme irritation and mental pain. 
 In addition to this, he was now never left alone, 
 for a guard was constantly in his presence — not 
 always the same man, it is true, but, none the less, 
 a preventive of the faintest motion, which might 
 create the suspicion of a renewed attempt at free- 
 dom. Upon the morning in question his dreams 
 resulted in little save in an ultimate wandering 
 into a land of fancy, in which he lived his youth 
 again beneath the blessed English skies, in the 
 dear old home-land, free to wander where he 
 might please. 
 
 His musings were interrupted by the entry of 
 three of the priests, accompanied by a man of 
 filthier garb, whom Norris regarded with some 
 curiosity, wondering wherefore this man had been 
 brought. 
 
96 
 
 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 The Chinamen approached him, and bound him 
 with ropes. He could make no resistance, oi 
 rather, knew that it was useless to do so, and 
 submitted quietly. They had already bound his 
 
 The Chinaman approached him, and bound him with ropes. — p. 96. 
 
 feet, when it flashed across him that now, indeed, 
 he faced the terrors which his fancy had partly 
 painted in a ghastly dream. 
 
 For the first moment or two he had yielded. 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE MOLTEN LEAD. 97 
 
 thinking tliat to be further bound could matter 
 little ; but now, as he thought upon his helpless- 
 ness if thus bound, he struggled with all his 
 strength, crying out aloud, whilst the men thrust 
 him down and held him to the ground by the force 
 of numbers against one. Then all his strength, 
 recalled for a moment only, left him, and he lay 
 gasping, and would have been unable to move even 
 without his bonds. 
 
 The man whom he had noticed now came for- 
 ward, knife in hand. Norris shut his eyes, believing 
 that his last hour had come, and waiting for the 
 first touch of the blade. 
 
 A few seconds passed, and then he knew the 
 truth — that the man had not come to torture him, 
 but to deprive him of his hair ; and, unable to 
 protest, he lay still, whilst, commencing at the 
 forehead and working slowly back, the Chinese 
 barber cut away his hair, bit by bit, shaving each 
 portion of his head closely, whilst the priests stood 
 by watching. 
 
 In China there is a custom — an ordeal which has 
 to be borne by those who elect to join certain 
 priesthoods ; it is an ordeal of brutal barbarism — 
 an ordeal which makes one shudder even to name. 
 It consists in the pouring of a drop or two of 
 molten lead upon the brow or scalp of the priest. 
 
 But one might wonder what connection this had 
 with William Norris, or with the barber who was 
 at work upon his head ? 
 
 G 
 
98 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Only this — that the priests of the Temple of 
 Confucius knew of the unspeakable nature of the 
 agony of the molten lead ; and, knowing of no 
 torture more intense than this, they had decided to 
 make the Englishman conform to the priestly rule, 
 and suffer upon his shaven head, during moments 
 of a wanton cruelty which might well waken the 
 dead from their graves, the molten metal to fall 
 and eat into his human flesh. 
 
 As yet Norris was totally ignorant of the signifi- 
 cance of that to which he was compelled to submit. 
 His first feeling, when he recognised that the 
 shaving of his head was the present object of his 
 captors, was a natural combination of fear and 
 hatred, and then gradually a cold callousness, 
 partaking of the nature of utter despair, came 
 upon him. But, indeed, the sensations which filled 
 him became, as it were, dimmed, and deprived of 
 all acuteness for the time being, owing to an excess 
 of fatigue which had prostrated his energies — an 
 immediate relapse from that full possession of his 
 manhood's strength, which had come to him for a 
 Wttle time whilst he had struggled vainly with those 
 who sought to bind him to the ground. 
 
 The Chinese barber is not gifted with singular 
 rapidity in his work ; rather he devotes his atten- 
 tion to the complete removal of every appearance 
 of a hair upon a single spot, and the extreme 
 exactitude with which he proceeds, whilst rendering 
 his work at once minute and complete, gives a 
 .singular degree of tediousness to his operations. 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE MOLTEN LEAD. 99 
 
 After watching his progress for a considerable 
 time, the three priests retired, leaving the barber to 
 complete his work at his leisure ; and this he con- 
 tinued to do apparently to his own thorough 
 satisfaction for a very protracted period. 
 
 At the e.Kpiration of that time Norris was per- 
 fectly bald, not a hair being left upon his head ; 
 for not even that part where the pigtail is allowed 
 to grow had been left untouched ; nothing but his 
 moustache and his eyebrows and a rough, unkempt 
 growth which had come upon his cheeks during 
 his confinement, remained to testify to the fact that 
 his baldness was not nature's freak. 
 
 The barber wound a cloth tightly round his 
 skull, and then left him, still bound, and now 
 recovered so far from his fatigue as to be able to 
 reflect upon what the deprivation of his hair must 
 mean to him, and to be fully conscious of his 
 aching thoughts. 
 
 Shortly his captors returned and undid his bonds, 
 and for the rest of the day he was, as he had been 
 for many an hour past, free to move within a little 
 space — free to eat and drink, but kept from any- 
 thing beyond this by the chain which held his 
 ankle to the ground. 
 
 To Norris tho ught itself had become of that 
 gnawing kind which seems to eat away the soul ; 
 but he took his meals, nevertheless, and at night 
 he slept as he had learned to sleep — a strange half- 
 waking sleep, of constant visions and dreams that 
 bring no rest. 
 
loo THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Another day came, and Xorris, whose conjec- 
 tures returned ever to the loss which he had 
 sustained, and who looked upon it as a form of 
 mental torture only, and as imposed with that 
 intent and nothing beyond, was sitting filled with 
 bitterness and thoughts made evil by the cruelty of 
 fate, when the three Chinamen reappeared. 
 
 Binding his hands behind his back, and thus 
 rendering him powerless, whilst he offered no 
 resistance, knowing how futile was such waste of 
 strength, they then released the chain about his 
 ankle, and conveyed to him by signs that he must 
 follow them where they led. He did so, wonder- 
 ing inwardly as to what could be the meaning of 
 such proceedings ; and thus, with these men, he 
 re-entered, for the first time, the court where he 
 had formerly been confined, and where were now 
 congregated a great number of priests near to a 
 small fire, which had been kindled upon the ground. 
 Upon this fire had been placed an iron vessel, not 
 far from which was an upright post, fixed in the 
 earth deeply and firml\-, and around this the 
 Chinamen stood. 
 
 To this post Xorris was secured, and he recog- 
 nised, as the bands were ^rawn tight, that the pot 
 upon the fire contained something of the nature 
 of metal, which was being melted therein. That 
 some awful event was about to occur he realised, 
 and, looking around upon the faces crowding near 
 to him, he tried to read something of his doom. 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE MOLTEN LEAD. loi 
 
 and his senses seemed to forsake him for a few 
 seconds, whilst the consciousness of the unknown 
 to come descended upon his soul. 
 
 The cloth which had bound his head had been 
 removed, and the feeling of cold immediately- 
 resulting from the exposure of his hairless skin 
 recalled him to himself, and from that moment 
 every act of those about him was intensified to 
 such a degree that the realism of every detail of 
 what succeeded seemed written in fire upon his 
 brain. 
 
 He observed one of the throng stir the molten 
 mixture with a long and thin piece of metal, and 
 then another raised the pot from the fire and 
 approached with it till he stood within a foot 
 from him. 
 
 A cry of terrible agony burst from him in a 
 voice surely not his own — 
 
 " Great God in heaven, have mercy upon me, 
 God ! " and his voice rose to the blue heavens, 
 and the echoing was heard far away ! 
 
 But the course of the world does not change 
 because of the agony of a single man, and the 
 Chinaman, whose hand was raised so that the heat 
 of the hideous pot smote upon Norris's face, only 
 spoke two words in answer to the man who stood 
 by his side — the command to proceed with the 
 completion of what was decreed to be done. 
 
 In obedience, the other reached out and took the 
 end of that with which the metal had been stirred 
 
102 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 — a long spoon — a spoon so small as to contain 
 but a single drop of the molten liquid. 
 
 This Norris saw whilst his blood-shot eyes 
 started from their sockets, and then the drop fell 
 upon his head, and the air was filled with an awful 
 noise ; and a second time the spoon fulfilled its 
 function, and again a third, and the world blackened,^ 
 and hell seemed to stretch out its arms to receive 
 him, and Korris knew no more. 
 
 For weeks succeeding this the man with the 
 shaven head was little less than mad. They had 
 set him free again in the courtyard, where the dear 
 swallows had used to be. But it was winter now, 
 and the swallows had gone away ; and the man 
 who had called to them to aid him in his sore 
 distress was in a worse state now than then, for the 
 torture had, for the time being, unhinged his mind. 
 
 He fed as nature called him to feed, eating as 
 though without knowledge that he did so ; and the 
 rest of the daj- he spent, sometimes crawling about 
 the court, and sometimes wildl}' clawing with his 
 nails in a vain attempt to scale the walls, whimper- 
 ing all the time like no human being, but rather 
 like a poor wounded dog. 
 
 Was the debt discharged now? Was the blot of 
 desecration washed from the temple walls ? There 
 was no one to ask that question ; and, if it had 
 been asked, the answer might have been, " No." 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE MOLTEN LEAD. 103 
 
 By night he crept into a species of wooden hut 
 or kennel which they had put up for him, and 
 where he had warm furs ; and his clothing, too, was 
 thicker now, for they had dressed him in Chinese 
 garb, heavy and warm, and suited to the chill of 
 the severity of a winter in Pekin. 
 
 And it was this severity, this cold, which yet 
 the man did not seem to feel, which proved his 
 salvation. In the midsummer heat body and soul 
 might indeed have borne what had been, but more 
 probably would have succumbed, considering the 
 condition of weakness to which the man was 
 reduced ; as it was, he was saved from fever, and 
 perhaps from worse than fever, by the clear air and 
 invigorating cold. 
 
 Thus it was with William Norris in the Temple 
 of Confucius, during the winter of his captivity — a 
 winter in which a scared, furtive look, as of a 
 hunted creature, gradually replaced the expression 
 of pain and the glare, as of madness, upon his face ; 
 whilst a strange crop of new white hair grew in 
 bristles upon his shaven head, to conceal and 
 cover, as though in pity, the spots caused by the 
 molten lead. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RESCUE NEARING PEKIN. 
 
 Tientsin, /?//j/ isi. — I arrived here yesterday, and 
 am now the guest of Mr. Bonsel, a German gentle- 
 man, to whom Mr. James Dicey furnished me with 
 a letter of introduction. He is a gentleman with 
 whom, from the first moment of meeting, I felt at 
 home ; and having the assurance of my Shanghai 
 friends that I could trust him to the uttermost, it 
 was not long ere he was in full possession of all 
 that I, myself, knew regarding the quest upon 
 vhich I am bent. 
 
 Mr. Bonsel's advice to me is sound and good, 
 and I have decided to follow his suggestion that I 
 should make further inquiries in Tientsin before I 
 proceed to Pekin. 
 
 He remembers, he says, having heard something, 
 about eight or nine months ago, of the strange 
 disappearance of an Englishman in Pekin ; but 
 this man had no friends in Tientsin, for no one 
 knew even his name, and the story, appearing to 
 have been of Chinese origin, was therefore treated 
 as a fable by the little colony. 
 
RESCUE NEARING PEKIN. 105 
 
 Mr. Boiisel has accordingly set inquiries on foot 
 to discover, in the first place, with whom this story 
 had origin, and his Chinese boy, who seems a 
 reliable fellow, has instituted a system of search 
 amongst his fellows which I have hopes may be 
 productive of some information within the next 
 few days, though in the meantime my patience is 
 sorely tried. I long to proceed to Pekin, to be on 
 the spot, to be near this man, though I may fail 
 at first to find him ; for (if he be still alive) I 
 cannot but conjecture the terrible nature of the 
 prolonged suffering he must have endured in a 
 solitary and apparently endless captivity, and my 
 very presence, as seeking him, must surely, by 
 some hidden means, become known to him and 
 give him hope. 
 
 Every step which I take, bringing me nearer to 
 my destination, seems to call to life within me 
 renewed desire for haste, in a way that I cannot 
 explain. 
 
 Tientsin is a quiet town ; the settlement I 
 am inclined to like, whilst all who live here are 
 upon that footing of friendship which immediately 
 arises among those condemned to a temporary 
 exile in a small and remote town. But it is too 
 dull for me in my present state of disturbed 
 nervous excitement. Were danger before me, I 
 should be cool and calm. It is the looking forward 
 to what may come that is so trying. 
 
 I have been to-day in the native city — a city so 
 
io6 THE CAPTRE OF PEKIN. 
 
 vast as to change my opinion entirely of Tientsin. 
 I had fancied it a small place; I found myself 
 indeed mistaken. 
 
 It has been only with considerable trouble that I 
 have, procured an equipage of any kind. What I 
 have ultimately secured is a dilapidated jinricksha, 
 and from it I have frequently to dismount, owing 
 to the state of the roads, down which, wherever 
 there is a slope, a stream of water appears to be 
 occasionally in the habit of coursing, though all is 
 now as dry as in the desert. 
 
 Many of the streets and roads are thus some- 
 what of the nature of dry rivulet beds filled by the 
 summer dust, and along these progression is by no 
 means of the most pleasant order. 
 
 Mr. Bonsel made a further suggestion to me,, 
 namely, that in order to lose no time, he should 
 write to a friend of his in Pekin, a Chinaman of, I 
 believe, high rank, who was at one time closely 
 connected in some business or trade with my 
 German friend. His proposal was that he should 
 write asking this man to set on foot an inquiry in 
 Pekin in order that no time should be lost when 
 I reach that city, and so that I should already find 
 matters in train upon my arrival there. 
 
 This man, he tells me, is likely to be of the 
 greatest possible assistance to me, and if anything 
 is to be done, it will be, so my host says, through 
 his Chinese friend. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, I am unwilling to agree- 
 
RESCUE NEARING PEKIN. 107 
 
 with him in this. It may be that I feel that I am 
 working, or intend to work, against the Chinese 
 race as a whole, regarding one and all as enemy ; 
 or it may be that I simply dislike to trust in a 
 man whom I have not yet seen, and who, be it 
 remembered, belongs to that race for which I have 
 already conceived a deep hatred ; or again that I 
 consider that the matter must in some way be 
 prosecuted by myself, and not by those to whom 
 my instructions may be conveyed. 
 
 I have succeeded, not without difficulty, in con- 
 vincing my host that it is best that all should 
 in the meantime remain in abeyance, and whilst 
 agreeing with him that his friend may, when I 
 reach Pekin and obtain his personal aid, be of 
 the utmost assistance to me, I have informed him 
 that for the present my search must be confined to 
 Tientsin, where I trust with all my heart some- 
 thing may arise from what is being done amongst 
 the Chinese. 
 
 If William Norris had a guide, as seems but 
 probable, this guide is surely to be found ; and 
 if he had none, then surely his boatman, or his 
 carters, or some others who accompanied him 
 from Tientsin to Pekin, may now be in Tientsin. 
 
 I cannot think that he has been kidnapped, as it 
 were, by the men with whom he set out for the 
 capital ; for if so no word would have been spoken, 
 and as it is there has been a whisper of his disa^p- 
 pearance, and this whisper has had origin with some 
 of the Chinese. 
 
io8 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 And yet, strangely enough, the boy sent by my 
 German host has been engaged for some hours 
 in search, and as yet there is no result. I am 
 too impatient. I should recollect that I may have 
 to remain for days in Tientsin without coming any 
 nearer to the point at issue than I now am. 
 
 Tientsin, July ird. — The search has resulted in 
 something tangible at length. A trace of William 
 Norris has been found — a trace which, I hope, may 
 lead to something more, now that we have got thus 
 far in the matter. 
 
 Mr. Bonsel's boy has succeeded, by some means, 
 in discovering the man who acted as guide to 
 William Norris a year ago ; that is to say, he has 
 discovered his name, for the guide is at present 
 absent from Tientsin ; possibly at Pekin, possibly 
 elsewhere, no one knows. It is believed that he 
 has gone with two gentlemen bound for the 
 Legation in Pekin, but upon this point some 
 doubt has been expressed ; and in any case, even 
 supposing that I was assured that such was the 
 case, it would only be seeking, as it were, for the 
 needle amongst the hay to follow him in the vague 
 hope of finding him at present. 
 
 To a certainty, were I to do so, we should pass 
 each other on the way ; for, as I understand, there 
 are many ways of transit between the capital and 
 its port, and it is not very likely that he and I 
 should meet upon the road. 
 
 Thus whilst I reached Pekin he might have 
 
RESCUE NEARIKG PEKIN. 109 
 
 returned to Tientsin ; and as it has now become a 
 matter of the utmost importance that I should wait 
 to see this guide, I am now tied down to remain in 
 Tientsin for, so far as I can see, an unHmited period 
 of time. 
 
 It appears that the discovery of the guide's 
 name was, in the end, simplicity itself The guide 
 having made inquiries throughout Tientsin regard- 
 ing his master subsequent to the disappearance, it 
 was thus clearly recollected by certain of his friends 
 that he had done so, and therefore, so soon as those 
 now inquiring upon the matter came upon these 
 friends, it was at once and easily established as a 
 fact, that the man for whose return to Tientsin I 
 now wait was the guide of William Norris. 
 
 By what means master and guide became 
 separated a year ago I cannot as yet tell. Mr. 
 Bonsel has suggested several ways in which it was 
 possible for him to have missed his guide, and all 
 are more or less probable ; but the truth we can 
 ascertain only when the guide himself returns, and 
 how far this guide will be useful to me is question- 
 able. 
 
 Will the irritation of the delay he now causes me 
 by his absence be recompensed by the information 
 he has to give me ? It is, I fear, e.xtremely doubtful, 
 for the man has himself long ago given up the 
 search, and the story he has to tell must bear 
 but indirectly upon the imprisonment of William 
 Norri.s. 
 
no THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 I have written to acquaint my Shanghai friends 
 ■of this annoying delay, which I yet feel it a necessity 
 to bear, and I have asked them to write me, on the 
 chance of the letter still reaching me before I leave 
 here, to inform me whether either of them is 
 acquainted with my host's Chinese friend in Pekin, 
 called Shan-min-yuen, and, if so, to what extent 
 I may rely upon him, taking into account the 
 fact that I shall naturally be somewhat reticent 
 with a Chinaman. 
 
 I think it extremely probable that, although 
 neither of the Diceys may have met this man, 
 they may at some time have heard of him ; and 
 as my host must in a sense be prejudiced regarding 
 his friend, I should like an outside opinion, how- 
 ever vague, upon the man whose guest I now 
 understand I am likely to become when I arrive in 
 Pekin. If I become his guest, and if, as I under- 
 stand, he is well acquainted with the English 
 language, it will be an extremely awkward and 
 difficult matter indeed, to keep my own counsel 
 as to the true reason of my journey ; and I should 
 prefer, unless I can learn that this Chinaman differs 
 greatly from such of his race as I have so far 
 observed — and this is, indeed, a very narrow circle 
 — to abstain from acceptance of either his aid or 
 hospitality. 
 
 So far I have seen nothing of the higher classes 
 of the Chinese, so that I may err in being so 
 prejudiced against them as a nation ; but, not- 
 
RESCUE NEARINCr PEKIN. iii 
 
 withstanding what I may say to myself on this 
 score, it must, I fear, remain an impossibility to 
 me to conquer my natural dislike for the race. 
 
 Bonsel has quite settled the matter in his own 
 mind. What is to be done without Chinese aid ? 
 Go to the Legation ? Of what use in a city like 
 Pekin ? Well, perhaps he is right. Possibly it 
 may require the authority of a Chinese dignitary 
 to unlock the gates of William Norris's prison. 
 
 If it be so, I should prefer in such case, to use 
 this man as my tool, he obeying my directions, 
 not I his ; and if I am his guest, I scarcely see 
 that the rights of hospitality would admit of my 
 thus treating him, even granting the possibility 
 that my intellect may be sharp enough to battle 
 with his. 
 
 True the whole circumstances are exceptional ; 
 but there is much to be considered at every move 
 from this time forth. 
 
 Tientsin, J Illy ^th. — I was somewhat surprised to 
 receive a letter to-day from Frederick Dicey ; and 
 as this letter seems to me likely, in no inconsider- 
 able degree, to influence my future actions, I 
 have decided to copy it into my diary intact as 
 follows : — 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 Since you left Shanghai, my brother and I have 
 frequently thought of you, and your object in travelHng 
 to the North. You would be almost amused if you knew 
 how we have talked over the matter (our interest is so ,t;reat 
 
112 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 in your doings) until it is almost threadbare. But I am 
 not writing to you now to tell you of this alone, but to put 
 before you something which I think it possible may alter 
 your plans in some degree ; and as my brother James is of 
 the same opinion as myself, I shall write you very fully 
 upon the subject. 
 
 The second day from that on which you left Shanghai, I 
 happened to pass along the Bund at mid-day, and to my 
 surprise found that to all seeming, half the native popu- 
 lation of Shanghai had congregated in one place, lining the 
 frontage to the river, and here and there impeding the 
 traffic upon the Bund. I could not make it out. The 
 only conclusion, explaining the crowd, which I could come 
 to, was that some very high personage in the Government 
 was about to arrive. 
 
 Of course, as you know, a Chinese crowd is like every 
 other crowd, it simply grows upon itself; and I have little 
 doubt that, in the present case, only one-tenth of the crowd 
 knew the why and wherefore of the excitement. 
 
 A number of my friends, whom I shortly met, appeared 
 as ignorant of the cause of the disturbance as I was, but 
 somewhat fortunately, perhaps, I came across Jenkin's boy, 
 and got something out of him as to what it all meant. I am 
 afraid I tire you by a very long rigmarole, but you must 
 excuse my doing so. I am coming to the point very soon, 
 and think it better to err on the side of fulness, rather than 
 the opposite. 
 
 It seems that they were expecting the arrival of a steam- 
 ship from Hong Kong, bearing, amongst other passengers, 
 .1 man who has, so I was informed, just been released from 
 exile ; and the event is so extraordinary a one (that this 
 man should have been pardoned), that the news has 
 spread in some way, and this was the reason of the 
 crowd. 
 
 Jenkin's boy could give me only a poor idea of the 
 
RESCUE NEARING PEKIN. 113 
 
 matter ; but I investigated further at a later hour, and was 
 myself impelled by curiosity to join the crowd, when I 
 succeeded in catching a glimpse of this extraordinary man. 
 I call him extraordinary, not only from the fact that I was 
 somewhat impressed by his appearance, but also that, from 
 what I have gathered, his case is, indeed, a singular one, 
 and almost beyond credence. 
 
 To look at him one would at once judge him to be 
 Chinese ; but (and this is where the curious part comes 
 in) he is not a Chinaman, but of English birth, and merely 
 a naturalised Chinese. 
 
 I know, indeed, but little of his story. He came to China 
 as a boy, was adopted in some strange way by a Chinaman 
 in Canton, and from that sought to rise in his adopted land, 
 till at length the Government of Pekin discovered his origin 
 and banished him to the island of Formosa ; from this exile 
 he has now been released ; and, after a short stay in Hong 
 Kong, has come on hither. 
 
 I do not know what his intentions now are, but imagine 
 that he must be upon his way to the Northern Court, in all 
 probability to report himself and have his freedom ratified. 
 Whether this comes anywhere near the truth or not, how- 
 ever, I cannot say. I hasten to write to you at once, in 
 order to catch the steamer, which will take my letter in a 
 few hours' time from now, to ask you if you have any 
 objection to my seeing this man, with a view to inquiring 
 if he will endeavour to assist you as far as lies in his power 
 when he reaches Pekin (if he ultimately intends going to 
 the capital), for I feel confident that if there is one man 
 in the whole world who can be of use to you it is this 
 man, whom, from mere seeing, I have taken a Uking 
 to, and whom the Chinese call by the name, Chin- 
 chin-wa. 
 
 He is a tall man, dressed in the clothing of his adopted 
 land ; and what was strangest to me, he_bore himself like 
 
 II 
 
114 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 a king amongst the crowd that crushed round when he 
 landed, as though seemingly conscious that his English 
 blood gave him a higher right than was that of his adopted 
 fellows ; and this after, I beliexe, some seventeen years of 
 solitude in Formosa, which do not seem in any way to 
 have impaired his knowledge as to how to treat his 
 fellows. 
 
 Very seldom have I seen a crowd so excited. The 
 arrival of this extraordinary man, and, as it were, the 
 glory of his bearing seemed to influence one and all. 
 I myself caught the fever, and a feeling came over me 
 that if ever I looked upon a man who was a king by nature's 
 right I looked upon him now. 
 
 Will you leave the matter in mj' hands to do as I judge 
 best ? I have consulted James upon the subject ; and, had 
 it not been for your express desire that we should do 
 nothing until hearing from you, I should have already 
 approached this Anglo-Chinee. I should like to sound 
 him to ascertain if he can and will really be of any use 
 to you; we can trust him, I am certain. If you doubt 
 this, remember that he has suffered penal servitude at 
 the hands of his countrj'men, and consider whether it is 
 not more than likely that the old English blood rose to the 
 top during those years. Though he is a Chinaman still to 
 all appearance, we cannot see his heart. 
 
 In what capacity I shall put the matter before him, as I 
 propose to do with your permission, I am very doubtful. 
 If he did in the end prove useful could you offer a reward? 
 I do not know but that he may be a^poor man, unless the 
 Government have taken him up. 
 
 Now, if, as you half-conjectured, Xonis is confined in the 
 palace grounds in Pekin, this seems to me the truest and 
 indeed the only means to ascertain the truth. Let me, as 
 your ambassador, approach this man, Chin-chin-wa, and 
 you may rely I shall do my utmost to induce him to agree 
 
RESCUE NEARING PEKIN. 115 
 
 with my views ; and if he does do so — well, I feel that you 
 
 will have a powerful ally. 
 
 Believe me to be, yours faithfullj-, 
 
 Frederick Dicey. 
 
 I trust this may still be in time to catch you at Tientsin. 
 
 To 
 
 Herbert Vanscombe, Esq., 
 
 c/o L. Bonsel, Esq., 
 
 Tientsin. 
 Per S.S. "Victoria." 
 
 My first feeling upon concluding the perusal 
 of this letter was that Frederick Dicey had taken 
 the affair too much to heart, and, whilst pondering 
 continuously upon my object in coming to China, 
 he had, very naturally, so I thought, become 
 inflamed with the desire to assist me as far as 
 possible ; and hence, upon the arrival of this China- 
 man in Shanghai, he had, by some mental process, 
 connected this man's life with my own ; and, there- 
 fore, written me as he had done. 
 
 However I thought over the matter closely. It 
 was evident from the concluding paragraph of the 
 letter before me, where he said, " This seems to 
 me the truest and indeed the only means to 
 ascertain the truth," that neither of the brothers 
 could know that my host was at all likely to 
 introduce me to any Chinese friend in Pekin. 
 Therefore, in all probability, they could give me 
 little or no information about him ; and so my 
 letter, crossing that which I had now received, was 
 practically of no use. 
 
ii6 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 To go to Shan-min-yuen, as Bonsel urges me to 
 do, becomes the more distasteful to me the more I 
 think upon the subject ; so in the end I come 
 gradually to think that possibly this strange man, 
 this exile, who is an Englishman born, so it seems, 
 may be of use to me. 
 
 I have accordingly written to Frederick Dicey 
 that he should, as he proposes, see this man ; and 
 if, from a personal interview, he judges that Chin- 
 chin-wa may be of service, then I leave the matter 
 in his hands to do as he may think best. 
 
 At the same time I cannot but feel that the man 
 he talks of may not be by any means of a philan- 
 thropical character, nor on the other hand may 
 remuneration from me have any influence upon, 
 him, if he is maintained by Government support, 
 as this letter which I have received suggests. 
 
 It virtually comes to be a question in my own 
 raind as to whether I should trust Bonsel's friend, 
 of whom he so highly speaks, or choose rather to 
 abide by my Shanghai friends for that advice and 
 assistance which I, as an Englishman, must, as I 
 foresee, sooner or later require, when in Pekin. 
 
 I have taken my stand by Dicey's man, if the 
 fates so will it. He is an Englishman — not a 
 Chinaman to the core— perhaps that has chiefly 
 influenced me. We shall see, in the long run, 
 whether I have been right or wrong. I feel as 
 though I had made the testing throw to-day — 
 for I have come to that point when my every 
 
RESCUE NEARING PEKIN. 117 
 
 act must lead towards the decision which I 
 earnestly hope may end in life, not death, for 
 William Norris. 
 
 The Diceys strike me as careful men. I feel that 
 their action can scarcely prejudice or endanger my 
 success. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE EXILE CHIN-CHIN-WA. 
 
 Tientsin, July loth. — Which of the two will be 
 the first to arrive — the Chinese guide, for whose 
 return I wait in Tientsin, or this man Chin- 
 chin-\va ? Everything seems to conspire to hinder 
 my progress. I am, in reaHty, no nearer my goal 
 than I was a month ago, so far as I can see. I 
 have arrived at a state of mind bordering upon 
 despair. Absurd as it may seem, I have come to 
 place my hopes in the exile's acceptance of the 
 terms which Dicey is, by my wish, to put before 
 him. 
 
 In a word, I have arrived at such a stage of low- 
 spiritedness, owing to the delays thrust upon me, 
 that I seem to look to the arrival of Chin-chin-vva 
 in Tientsin as the only light which breaks the 
 darkness of my thoughts. Meantime I can do 
 nothing ; yet I regret that I did not write more 
 strongly to Shanghai, that I did not take the 
 matter more seriously, that I did not urge upon 
 my friends that only immediate action could 
 satisfy me. 
 
THE EXILE CHIN-CHIN-WA. 119 
 
 It is curious that but five days ago I looked upon 
 the news I had received from Shanghai as unim- 
 portant, and now I feel as though I had perhaps 
 cast aside what might have been a chance. 
 
 Certainly I wrote to Dicey ; but I might have 
 done more — I might also have written to Chin- 
 chin-wa ; and as it now stands, I feel it would be 
 absurd to do so, for the question as to whether he 
 will or will not join me or assist me will have 
 been decided before further letters could now reach 
 Shanghai. 
 
 Frederick Dicey is not the sort of man to have 
 written me thus strongly on the subject had he not 
 been prompted to do so by some very deep feeling. 
 
 But why should not I move on to Pekin ? 
 
 I struggle against the double reason which now 
 keeps me here, for my impatience would hurry me 
 on, notwithstanding that I know it is right for me 
 to stay. 
 
 Nothing of interest happens. I dine out, or dine 
 quietly with my host. I spend my days routing 
 through the native city, and then I return, vainly 
 hoping that this guide may have come during my 
 short absences from my temporary home. 
 
 Tientsin, July i6th. — ]\Iy patience has been 
 rewarded, and yet not rewarded. 
 
 I am thoroughly sick of Tientsin. The very 
 quietness and monotony of the place cling around 
 me, and at last I am to break away from it. I 
 am writing these lines preparatory to packing the 
 
120 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 volume I call my diary. A singularly scrappy 
 affair it has always been. 
 
 The less there is to do and see in a town, the 
 more time I should find to record m>- few doings ; 
 but it is one thing to ponder upon writing up a few 
 days of one's diary, and another to do so. This 
 afternoon I have resolutely determined to relate 
 what has occurred, for something has actually 
 happened at last. 
 
 The guide who accompanied Norris to Pekin has 
 returned ; and this return serves one object chiefly, 
 that I am now free to proceed, knowing that nothing 
 further is to be gained by staying here. There is, 
 indeed, the hope of a reply from the Diceys, but I 
 have quite made up my mind that I must face 
 what now seems to me to be inevitable — the 
 refusal of the ex-exile to mix himself up in the 
 affair. The man who has been an exile once 
 will hardly risk becoming so a second time ! 
 
 Neither do I yet know how far he has the 
 pardon of the Government, even supposing he were 
 willing to assist me. Xo ! he cannot be free to 
 such an extent that he would be able to act for me 
 quite independently of other considerations, so I am 
 perhaps better without him after all. 
 
 And yet I would give much — very much — to 
 have this man as a really free man working with 
 me, and assisting me with his advice, as Frederick 
 Dicey puts it — "as my ally." 
 
 I fancied I should have heard from Shanghai ere 
 
THE EXILE CHIN-CHIN-AVA. 121 
 
 now, but as yet there is no reply, so I am determined 
 to go on to Pekin at dawn ; and, as there is no help 
 for it, I shall go to Bonsel's friend, Shan-min-yuen, 
 when I reach that citj-. 
 
 When I recognise my powerlessness and utter 
 ignorance of the ways and customs of the Chinese, 
 I come to see that the search which I undertook is 
 a very much more responsible matter than I had 
 any idea of when the swallow came to me months 
 ago in Brussels. 
 
 The guide, in the first place, has proved almost 
 useless to me. This is his story as nearly as I can 
 relate it. Bonsel was present at our conference to 
 translate to me such pigeon English as I could not 
 quite make out. 
 
 Norris came, according to the guide's report, to 
 Tientsin about a year ago, so far as the man 
 remembers. Where did he stay? was my first 
 inquiry ; for I have already spent some useless 
 hours trying to recall to the people at the Globe 
 Hotel the recollection of the visit which I had 
 fancied must have been a necessity. 
 
 The guide has partly cleared up matters. 
 
 Norris remained upon the steamer upon which 
 he arrived. As far as I can gather, he arrived in 
 Tientsin at nightfall, stayed on board the steamer 
 all night, and left in carts at daybreak with this 
 guide, who had been procured for him by the 
 Chinese steward of the ship. The guide tired us 
 with lengthy and wearisome details of a trip which 
 
122 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 Norris made to the Great Wall. But the sum and 
 substance of what we extracted from him lies in 
 this — that, on leaving Pekin to return to Tientsin, 
 the guide went ahead, preceding Norris for some 
 reason, leaving his master in Pekin, and that he 
 never heard of his master nor could discover any 
 trace of him or his carter since that time. 
 
 As, however, this guide states that he would 
 recognise the carter in an instant, were he to see 
 him, I have arranged to take him with me to 
 Pekin, in addition to the fellow I brought with 
 me from Shanghai. The party increases as we 
 go along. I\Iy great hope — though it is, after all 
 a very slender one — is that the carter may be 
 discoverable. 
 
 I have found the guide ; why should I not go a 
 step further and find the carter ? 
 
 And if I find the carter, surely that will mean 
 that I shall find his late master. 
 
 How far the guide has been to blame in the 
 losing of his master I cannot determine. There 
 seems to have been a strange tissue of misfortunes 
 cast around Xorris, for the guide states that every 
 thread was broken by which he might have traced 
 the missing man. He may be right, but to me 
 there is one thread still left. I may find the carter. 
 
 The guide was of impression that, as the carter 
 disappeared, and as he has never come across him 
 since, both men had been made away with ; but my 
 views rather tend to this — that both may indeed 
 
THE EXILE CHIN-CHIN-WA. 123 
 
 have been seized at the first, but the carter, in all 
 probability, liberated after some weeks or months ; 
 for though it might be advisable and advantageous 
 to keep the Englishman in captivity, it is scarcely 
 likely that the carter (one of the lowest types of 
 the Chinese race) would be in any way useful as a 
 prisoner. So it seems to me extremely likely either 
 that the man has been liberated by the captors, who 
 still keep his master in confinement, or that he has 
 been killed ; but as the carter would not be the 
 sort of creature to convey information unasked, 
 I conjecture that there is the probability that he 
 may be still in the land of the living somewhere 
 in the interior of China. 
 
 Whilst my conjectures are but wild upon this 
 and other matters relative to my search, I think 
 that I am in the right in endeavouring to trace 
 this carter, who (even if I find him), may still, alas ! 
 prove to have forgotten all that has occurred. 
 
 I cannot account for the man's disappearance 
 in toto except in the way I have mentioned — 
 imprisonment for a season, and then liberated or 
 killed : which was it, I wonder ! The former, I 
 trust. 
 
 I foresee a very lengthy search and a prolonged 
 stay in the city of Pekin. 
 
 My guide is to have all in readiness for a start at 
 ■daybreak. I travel in a mule-litter. 
 
 Tientsin, July i6th-iyth (midnight). — It is many 
 hours since I ceased my writing, somewhat abruptly, 
 it is true. 
 
124 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 I penned the last lines of the above in the 
 afternoon, and I am now continuing at midnight, 
 in order to record the event which broke in upon 
 my diary, and those which succeeded thereafter ; 
 for it seems to me that I may henceforth have 
 considerable difficulty in keeping this record, so 
 that I am anxious to write it up as far as possible 
 before I leave Tientsin, in order that I may truth- 
 fully give my first impressions upon meeting with 
 the man whom the Chinese call Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 I was busy writing this afternoon when my guide 
 entered the room with, to my delight, a parcel of 
 letters from Shanghai : one from mj' banker there, 
 another from James Dicey, and a third from 
 Frederick Dicey. 
 
 It is only necessary to give an extract concluding 
 the last of the three, to this effect : — 
 
 " To come to the point, Chin-chin-wa agrees to join j-ou. 
 Whether it was, or was not, his intention to proceed to 
 Pekin I did not inquire. It was quite enough for me when 
 he conformed with my views. I spoke of reward, and wish 
 indeed that I had not mentioned this. The man appears 
 to be extremely proud. If he is of service to you, I fancy 
 the only thing in this way which he will admit of, even if he 
 goes so far, ^^■ill be to allow you to pay his expenses ; but at 
 the first mention of such a thing he gave me a look which 
 spoke volumes. He did not speak, but frankly I felt 
 indescribably small. It is as well to mention this to you, 
 that you may know the point is a delicate one, and difficult 
 of approach. 
 
 " I am glad, indeed, to have secured this man's services. 
 
THE EXILE CHINCHIN-WA. 125 
 
 (perhaps services is scarcely the word), for I feel sure you 
 will be the better for his assistance. I did not dally with 
 the matter in hand. I told Chin-chin-wa clearly the full 
 facts of the case. He agreed with me that it might be 
 possible that Norris is confined in Imperial grounds ; the 
 possible reasons for this he would not hazard to guess, and, 
 indeed, expressed himself unwilling to give any opinion 
 whatever until he saw you. He is much interested in the 
 matter, and, to my thinking, grasps, as it were, at an oppor- 
 tunity of acting against the Chinese in the cause of justice. 
 I don't fancy you will now find him — whatever he may have 
 been — much of a Chinaman at heart — after his seventeen 
 years of captivit)-. 
 
 " This letter will very likely be in your hands after you 
 have welcomed Chin-chin-wa, for he is setting out imme- 
 diately to join you ; and, if you have gone on to Pekin, he 
 will follow you, in which case \ou will also receive this 
 letter by a special messenger. 
 
 " I am writing Bonsel to this effect, that he may despatch 
 a courier at once to Pekin, so that you may be advised of 
 Chin-chin-wa's arrival, for I believe it possible that he may 
 set out in the same steamer as that which bears this letter. 
 
 '■ You ask us about Bonsel's Chinese friend. I delayed 
 writing to you till now, chiefly for want of a steamer, and 
 partly because I hoped to be able to write you in reply to 
 yours, which I expected, regarding Chin-chin-wa. I have 
 heard of this man, but never even knew his name ; he 
 occupies a good post in the Government, and I think very 
 likely might be of great use to you, but, indeed, I know so 
 little what to say that I can only suggest that you be guided 
 by Bonsel and Chin-chin-wa as to whether you visit him or 
 not. Personally my feelings are rather against than for the 
 doing so, and I will tell you why. I asked Chin-chin-wa if 
 he knew the name. He at once said, ' Yes ; ' but when I 
 told him that it was your idea to go to him for assistance 
 when vou reach Pekin, I fancy he was annoyed. 
 
126 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 "AH he remarked was, ' It is well not to trust too much 
 to the Chinese ! Are you not aware that you did a very 
 risky thing in coming to me? Suppose I had gone to 
 Pekin and spread abroad the information that an English- 
 man was seeking another who had been made a captive, 
 and who was still alive somewhere in the city. I think you 
 will agree the chances of success would be lessened.' And 
 in a great degree he is right ; for if this friend of Bonsel's 
 set about inquiring injudiciously, or is not utterly silent 
 on the subject, the very persons who may be interested in 
 the captivity may be apprised of the search you are making, 
 and, once apprised — well, it is not difficult to imagine the 
 rest. But, as I have said, the man may very likely be the 
 very person to go to. You have Bonsel to advise you on 
 the one side, and Chin-chin-wa on the other, and I am sure 
 that you will make a very much more judicious decision in 
 the matter than I ever could. 
 
 " Chin-chin-wa's experiences I leave to his personal 
 narration, as, however interesting, they are too long for a 
 letter ; besides which, his stor^' may serve to pass away the 
 weary hours of the journey between Tientsin and Pekin, 
 if, as I hope, you are still awaiting my reply to your last. 
 
 " Believe in our very deep interest in your expedition, 
 and our heartfelt wishes for its ultimate success." 
 
 I had scarcely finished this letter when a knock 
 upon my door sent the wild hope through me that 
 my future comrade had actually arrived. 
 
 I was seated behind my table, facing the door. 
 My guide stood upon the threshold ; but I did not 
 attend to his words, for there was another behind 
 him whom I knew instantly to be the man, Chin- 
 chin-wa. I do not think I have ever felt my heart 
 
The meeting with Chin-chin-wa. — p. \2<). 
 
THE EXILE CHIN-CHIN-WA. 129 
 
 beat so wildly at meeting anj- of my fellows as it 
 did now. I am not a nervous man by any means, 
 but I confess that the arrival of the mail after so 
 prolonged a quietness, as had been my lot for days 
 past, had somewhat excited me, and the immediate 
 arrival of this strange man added to the disturbed 
 impressions which filled me. 
 
 I rose instantly to welcome him, and approached 
 him with outstretched hand, with the single word, 
 as I did so — 
 
 " Chin-chin-wa ? " 
 
 He bowed in answer, and took my hand in a 
 clasp, the firm warmth of which came as a surprise 
 to me ; for I did not immediately remember that 
 he had been an exile for seventeen years, and that 
 before then he had been a Chinaman, so that he had 
 forgotten the flimsy way in which we Englishmen 
 give, on a first acquaintance, palm to palm. 
 
 But it struck me that the grasp meant truth 
 and firmness, and I can see now it must the more 
 have done so, in that no emotion of the heart was 
 concealed in the hand-clasp of the man who had 
 not given hand to a fellow-man for many, many 
 years. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SEEKING A CLUE. 
 
 I .\>i myself moderately tall ; but Chin-chin-wa, 
 still in the prime of his life, appeared to tower 
 above me, and his breadth indicated a great 
 strength which I have never seen so clearly 
 stamped upon the figure. 
 
 His face seemed to speak the same, but to speak 
 also of a strength that was as great intellectually 
 as it was bodily. 
 
 One could have told instinctively that his past 
 had been a strange one, and that he alone, by 
 reason of his mental and bodily power, could have 
 lived through it, without having to succumb. I 
 could understand how Dicey had been carried 
 away by the enthusiasm of the Chinese crowd. I 
 am no hero-worshipper, nor have I ever been so ; 
 but I could feel that, if one desired to look upon 
 a hero, he had but to look upon Chin-chin-wa ; and 
 it is none the less strange that I should have felt 
 this when it is remembered that, to all appearance, 
 the man is a Chinaman. 
 
SEEKING A CLUE. 131 
 
 He wears the Chinese dress — somewhat richer 
 in its silks than any I have seen heretofore — and 
 his head is bare hke a Chinaman's, except for the 
 pigtail which, interwoven with coloured silk, almost 
 trails upon the ground. But there is still a dim 
 something upon his face which, to an Englishman, 
 would give a suspicion of his nationality, and it 
 must not be forgotten that I looked upon him as 
 upon an Englishman from the first moment when 
 we met. 
 
 Time has, in a sense, almost perfected the change 
 of race to the outward eye ; his brown features 
 might well deceive one ; and, in a word, he strikes 
 me as being as like a Northern Chinese as any of 
 the race. 
 
 But there is one noticeable thing, which proves 
 that his Chinese adoption has been some southern 
 one, namely, his walk ; for he walks on the ball 
 of his foot, more or less, not leaning backwards 
 so much as the northerners do, and treading less 
 heavily upon the heel. 
 
 I drew a seat forward for my guest, and expressed 
 to him as briefly, yet as cordially as possible, my 
 thanks for his haste in joining me. 
 
 He waited until I had concluded, which I did 
 speedily, being curious to hear his voice. Then 
 he answered me in a tone such as 1 could have 
 imagined to have grown habitual to a man confined 
 in solitude for a prolonged period. 
 
 His English, marvellous as it may seem, was 
 
IJ-' THE CAPTIVK OF PEKIX. 
 
 perfect — as perfect as I believe his Chinese to be 
 — his voice low, and }et clear-sounding and firm, 
 a contrast in one way to the man who spoke, and 
 yet seeming to be the only voice which could have 
 belonged to such a one as he. 
 
 " Do not thank me, Mr. Vanscombe, for as }et 
 nothing has been done. You may find my power 
 but small." There was a touch of bitterness in 
 the words. " I am not what by right I should 
 have been." 
 
 I did not answer, and he continued in a few 
 moments : 
 
 " Mr. Dicey has given me certain particulars of 
 your search. I shall accompany you." 
 
 " Pardon me," I said, perhaps somewhat moved 
 by curiosity, " have you calculated what you risk ? 
 It would be wrong indeed for me to ask you to 
 join me in the search for a man whose life may be 
 already taken, if this search in any way endangers 
 your future. I came to China to do this thing 
 alone. Whether I shall ever succeed or not I 
 cannot tell. But I do not know in what position 
 you stand to the Government, and I must point 
 out to you at the outset that my actions may, for 
 all I know, go directly counter to the interests or 
 laws of the Chinese powers ; for it is best that you 
 should know exactly that I have come to look 
 upon this search as a sacred thing, and as a mission 
 which I have to fulfil ; and I am prepared to forfeit 
 my life in the attempt ! " 
 
SEEK1N(; A CLUE. 133 
 
 " Proceed," said Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 "Have not I put the matter plainly ? 1 under- 
 stand you have been an exile for many j-ears. I am 
 willing to face death ; do not you hesitate to face 
 a thing worse than death — the renewal of your 
 exile?" 
 
 " Hesitate ? " was the answer, with a touch of 
 scorn. " You forget," he added proudly, " I am 
 Chin-chin-wa ! " 
 
 Within an hour I had placed before him all 
 that has occurred till now. We sent for Xorris's 
 guide at the expiration of that time. A lengthy 
 examination ensued, Chin-chin-wa .speaking in 
 what has long ago become familiar to him as his 
 native tongue ; and although little further has 
 been gained by the examination, it has given me 
 the feeling that I reach in all cases very much 
 nearer to the exact truth through the medium of 
 m)- ally, Chin-chin-wa, who is able to speak the 
 language of the Chinese. 
 
 To Chin-chin-wa, upon showing him the fragment 
 of the swallow's message, the same thought as had 
 previously occurred in the first place to m}'self and 
 then to Dicey suggested itself, namely, that the 
 writer, William Xorris, .spoke of more than himself 
 as being imprisoned, since he used the word " u.s." 
 
 I put before him at some length the reasons 
 which led to my thinking otherwise ; but he 
 disagreed with me, for, as he says with regard 
 to the point that I make, of the absence of the 
 
134 THE CAPTIVE OE PEKIX. 
 
 room for the inclusion of the letter "s" at the 
 end of the word "prisoners," the writer cannot 
 be looked upon as able to exercise extreme care ;. 
 the last letters of the words may have been crushed. 
 This it is reasonable to suppose. Again, the word 
 " in " would correctly fill up the space left after the 
 word "us;" and Chin-chin-wa concludes, from the 
 fact of the disappearance of the carter, that this, 
 word " us " refers to William Norris and his carter. 
 Ultimately he fell back upon my idea that it is in 
 the Imperial grounds they may be confined ; and 
 this is the way we have filled up the blanks. 
 
 " In God's name rescue us; 
 Lose no time, we are prisoners 
 In the Palace. Seek for us in 
 Pekin. Hv the Chinese. Tenth Swallow. 
 William Norris, September, i8 — 
 May God help us ! " 
 
 And although I am convinced that we have not 
 quite got at the correct solution, I fear that we 
 shall never come much nearer it, and that perhaps- 
 Chin-chin-wa's arguments are in the right direction. 
 To him it is evident that, from the abrupt way in 
 which the words " Tenth Swallow " precede the 
 man's name, where they are e\idently misplaced, 
 the whole has been written hurriedly ; so that the 
 apparent disconnection of ideas evident in our 
 reading — " In the Palace. Seek for us in Pekin. 
 By the Chinese," — is not by any means unnatural. 
 
SEEKING A CLUE. 135 
 
 Again, " Palace " is such a word as the English- 
 man would probably use as indicating the Imperial 
 City ; and without being able to give us any further 
 definite information as to the place where he is 
 confined, he instructs to " seek in Pekin." 
 
 This might either arise from ignorance upon his 
 part as to the name of the place of his confinement, 
 or from the expectation that he might be shifted 
 from one place to the other, and therefore hesitated 
 to name a definite spot. 
 
 The reasons for such an imprisonment Chin- 
 chin-\va will not guess ; for, as he says, there 
 are so many conjectures we might make, and 
 each with a semblance of truth, that it is useless 
 to waste our time upon matters such as these. 
 
 And he is right. That Norris is a prisoner is 
 the main point. Beyond that, we have to discover 
 where he is confined, and thereafter other questions 
 must be decided which we need not yet raise. 
 
 I am truly grateful for the chance which led my 
 path to cross that of Chin-chin-wa. He is a man 
 who strikes me as bound to succeed in what he 
 undertakes. And this first undertaking upon his 
 release is indeed a noble one, when it is remem- 
 bered that he risks a renewal of that exile from 
 which he is but just set free, an exile which he does 
 not hesitate to face a second time in casting in his 
 lot with me. 
 
 Bonsel broke in upon our colloquy shortly before 
 the dinner hour. Chin-chin-wa left us at a little 
 
136 THE CAITIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 after ten p.m., by which time I think we had pretty 
 well thrashed out all that we have as yet to 
 consider. 
 
 By Chin-chin-wa's desire, I have changed my 
 plans. We lose little or nothing by so doing, for 
 we go now upon horseback ; and early in the 
 evening we sent a relay of ponies ahead of us, 
 which we shall use to-morrow night. We leave 
 at sundown to-morrow, to avoid the heat of the 
 day, and thus Chin-chin-wa has sufficient time 
 given him to prosecute the inquiries he still deems 
 advisable in Tientsin. 
 
 I put before him my desire to search for the 
 carter. He considers it of little use ; but if he 
 be in Tientsin at present, he will be discovered 
 to-morrow, so he leads me to hope. 
 
 I have )-et had neither time nor opportunity to 
 learn the history of this strange and striking man 
 — a history which it seems he has himself written 
 in the English tongue during his exile. This I 
 gleaned in a short conversation which ensued upon 
 my touching, with extreme delicacy, upon monetary 
 matters during the afternoon. Upon my doing so, 
 Chin-chin-wa interrupted me at once. 
 
 " Mr. Dicey," he said, " spoke somewhat strangely 
 of a reward. I am not a man who requires the 
 money of the English. I am rich, and I am proud. 
 My wealth, if you knew it, must be even greater 
 than yours, and it is Chinese wealth inherited from 
 the man who first befriended me amongst the 
 
SliEKlXC. A CLUE. 137 
 
 Chinese many years ago. Yung Lao died two 
 years ago. His wealth came to me, though I 
 was then an exile, and one who never hoped to 
 taste of freedom. You have read of my life, have 
 you not? You have read in England what my life 
 has been ; is it not so ? " he asked. 
 
 " Read your life ? Known of your exile ? You 
 were in China ; we do not hear of all Chinese 
 doings in England." 
 
 He looked at me in astonishment. 
 
 " I wrote to England," he said ; " I wrote and 
 told of my early life, six years ago." 
 
 " To whom did you write ? " 
 
 " Fancying I was about to die," he replied, " I 
 wrote my tale and sent it to England. I longed 
 that my old people should hear of me before I 
 died. I was an e.xile for life, and I faced the 
 exile's death. I wrote home what my life had 
 been. I thought that you would know. I sent 
 it to the school where I once was, as a boy ; 
 .someone, surely, would receive it. Or can it have 
 been lost ? " 
 
 " To my knowledge," I answered, " it has never 
 reached England ; perhaps it was lost upon the 
 way ; or perhaps it may have been sent to some 
 publisher's," I added musingl)', for my thoughts 
 were elsewhere. 
 
 " But they would have used it, would they not ? " 
 
 The curious want of knowledge of our English 
 <ioings struck me as strange ; but I recollected in a 
 
138 THE CAPTIVE OP^ PEKIN. 
 
 moment that Chin-chin-wa knew little of the country 
 of his birth. 
 
 " I do not know," was my reply. " Some pub- 
 lishers put away work, I have heard, for months or 
 years even, and then may never read it in the end. 
 They might not publish it. There are many ways 
 in which your life-tale may have been lost ; you 
 must tell it to me in person, if you will, on our road 
 to Pekin." 
 
 He has promised to do so ; and I have told him 
 that, on my return to England, if, indeed, I pass 
 through the dangers which I expect ere long to 
 face me, I shall ascertain the truth about the story 
 of his life. 
 
 Tientsin, Ju/y \jth. — This morning I had a long 
 conversation with Bonsel regarding Chin-chin-wa. 
 He is impressed by him, but, at the same time,, 
 has taken a dislike to him I fancy, because he 
 expressed his opinion so strongly and firmly to- 
 ns both last night, that it may prejudice our 
 chance of success if we go to Pekin as the guests 
 of Shan-min-yuen. 
 
 " I know him by name only, Mr. Bonsel," Chin- 
 chin-wa had said, "and you must therefore kindly 
 look upon anything I may say as quite unbiassed. 
 I have heard he is a friend of yours ; therefore we 
 ought perhaps to go to him. But you must excuse 
 me if I think otherwise." 
 
 " What reasons ? " inquired my host coldly. " I 
 understand you are putting no slight on my 
 Chinese friend ? " 
 
SEEKIXC; A CLUE. 139, 
 
 ••None!" was the frank repl\-. "It is possible 
 that your friend might assist us ; all that I say is 
 that in the first place we must not go to him. We 
 shall feel our way, so I propose ; and if we find it 
 judicious to go to him for his advice and assistance,. 
 the introduction you so kindly give to Mr. Vans- 
 combe will be of undoubted service. For myself," 
 he added, in a moment or two, " I require no 
 introduction ; your friend already knows of me ! " 
 •' But you are giving no reason." 
 " Perhaps," was Chin-chin-wa's reply, " there is 
 none, only that I think it above all things wise to 
 keep our own counsel in the matter till we see that 
 something is to be gained by doing otherwise. To 
 my mind, it would be rash to put this affair before 
 anyone in Pekin before we ascertain that it is 
 advantageous to do so. I counsel Mr. Vanscombe 
 not to go to your friend until then, in the same 
 way as I counsel him not to go to the Legations 
 in Pekin ; because the more closely we keep our 
 secret, the less is it likely to leak out that an 
 Englishman is in Pekin seeking for a friend. Are 
 you prepared," he continued, turning to me, "to 
 assume the Chinese dress whenever it may be 
 necessary? Include a pigtail, but not the shaving 
 of your head," he added, with something of a 
 smile. 
 
 " I am ready at any moment," I answered. 
 "You have been in Pekin, Mr. Bonsel ? " he went 
 on. 
 
I40 THE CAPTIVE OF I'EKIN. 
 
 " Yes," replied my host, " I know Pekin well. 
 You also have been there, is it not so ? " 
 
 " I was exiled from Pekin." He paused a moment 
 and then resumed. " You have told me that you 
 know the city ; but you do not know the Chinese 
 side of it ; and it is the Chinese with whom we 
 have to do. I have a certain degree of power in 
 China, if I require to use it ; but, from our conjec- 
 tures, we are inclined to decide that the power more 
 likely to be required will be against and not for 
 the race, or, shall I say, against the higher powers 
 of the land? In these circumstances, I think my 
 actions must strike you as likely to be more 
 uncontrolled than can be those of your friend, 
 however powerfully interested he may be in the 
 case. What do you say, Mr. Vanscombe — am I 
 right or wrong ? " 
 
 " You are right," was m\- answer. " I shall take 
 Mr. Bonsel'-^ introduction with the utmost grati- 
 tude, but I shall not promise to use it." 
 
 "Well, you know the best," said my host, with 
 just a shade of annoyance in his tone. " May I 
 be pardoned for asking,'' he concluded, turning to 
 Chin-chin-wa, " how you decided to come here ; 
 why you are joining my guest .' " 
 
 Chin-chin-wa slightly .shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 '■ Because I think I can assist — because Mr. 
 Dicey was certain that I could ; and, perhaps, 
 because the old nature that has been kept 
 inactive all these years is still boiling within 
 
SEEKIXC, A CLUE. 141 
 
 me, and calling for some work that is difficult 
 to do, as it used to do in the old time when I 
 was a young man." 
 
 It was in reference to this part of our conversa- 
 tion that Bonsel spoke to me this morning. There 
 are several things which puzzle him. His nature 
 is of that ultra-suspicious kind we sometimes meet 
 with. Firstly, he wished to know the history of 
 Chin-chin-wa, and how he came to be exiled. 
 I told him that I had not yet learned his past ; 
 and he expressed surprise that I should trust 
 myself to the power of a stranger, i'li allowing him 
 to guide me. 
 
 Bonsel wearies me with his objections and unin- 
 tentional casting of difficulties in my way. 
 
 I have now told him plainly that I shall not go to 
 Shan-min-yuen until I find it advisable to do so, 
 and I have extracted from him the promise that 
 he will not write to Pekin advising my arrival, or 
 in any way referring to me or my search, until I 
 give him permission to do so. What a difference 
 there is in men ! Here is this man who, in his 
 desire to assist, seems to throw obstacles in the 
 way. Somewhat different to my thinking from 
 that quieter and deeper treatment of the matter 
 which I have received at the hands of the Diceys. 
 And yet, at first meeting, Bonsel's advice seemed 
 all that could be desired. One's opinions change 
 gradually, possibly mine have done so because of 
 his endeavour to thrust his Chinese friend down 
 
142 THE CAPTINK OF I'EKIX. 
 
 my throat, so to speak, to the prejudice of Chin- 
 chin-vva. My decision was made some time 
 ■ago. 
 
 I trust to Chin-chin-\va ! 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A R A (• I-: I- O R L I F E . 
 
 It is such a very long time since I wrote a line 
 in my diary, that I am ashamed to mention the 
 date of the day upon which I am now writing. 
 And before proceeding to write up to date, it is well 
 that I should first give some account of the man 
 who set out with me from Tientsin to Pekin, to 
 assist in the search for William Norris, and that 
 I should note briefly the outline of the life which 
 has been his. 
 
 As had been promised, he gave me a detailed 
 account of his past when we were upon the road ; 
 and that account I shall now repeat in shorter 
 form, and yet as clearly as I may be able. 
 
 He came to Hong Kong as a boy, leaving no 
 friends in England ; and in Hong Kong he was 
 destined to make but few. 
 
 Possessing a peculiar aptitude for acquiring 
 languages, he set himself to study Chinese with 
 such success that he speedily understood the 
 language clearly, and detected one of the China- 
 men, with whom the firm had dealings, in some 
 
144 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 fraud, regarding which he (nerheard a conversation 
 not intended for English ears. 
 
 From this fact, and his subsequent act of keeping 
 the Chinaman's counsel and secret, as he judged 
 it best to do, he gained a Chinese friend, who, when 
 trouble came to the boy, and when he left the firm 
 in which he was employed, stood by him, making 
 the singular proposal that the English lad should 
 cast in his lot with the Chinese. 
 
 This he finally agreed to do, and, with his 
 Chinese friend Yung Lao, proceeded to Canton, 
 where he lived for many years buried in study, 
 and there it was that he received the name of 
 the Welcome One — Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 The boy now conceived the idea of entering for 
 the State examinations, and perhaps a little of the 
 great mental power of Chin-chin-wa may be traced 
 to the fact that he did ultimately enter the examin- 
 ation-halls of Canton, and, after passing through 
 the hardship of a Chinese examination, he, an 
 Englishman, was announced as the most successful 
 student of the time in Southern China. 
 
 Before this, however, he had made a Chinese 
 enemy, whose name I think I recollect correctly to 
 be Fa-to-man. This rival took the second place in 
 the examination. 
 
 But for Chin-chin-wa he would have taken the 
 first. 
 
 Leaving Canton, Chin-chin-wa came to Pekin 
 to undergo a still higher examination for State 
 honours. 
 
A RACE FOR LIFE. 145 
 
 Fa-to-man followed in his footsteps, and a feu- 
 days before the examination, whilst Chin-chin-wa 
 was walking one evening in Pekin, his rival sprang 
 upon him. 
 
 Fortunately some instinct caused the intended 
 victim to turn in time. 
 
 For the rest, any one who has conceived a 
 correct idea of the man, Chin-chin-wa, will easily 
 guess that it was not many seconds ere his foe lay 
 at his mercy. 
 
 Then it was that Chin-chin-wa, overpowered 
 by feelings of hatred for the coward who had tried 
 to stab him in the back, committed the act which 
 was the cause of his ruin and of his exile to 
 Formosa. 
 
 To an Englishman such an impulse would never 
 have occurred. But Chin-chin-wa was no longer 
 an Englishman ; his instincts had become Chinese, 
 whilst yet something of the old nature may have 
 remained deep within. 
 
 He did not kill Fa-to-man, but cut upon his 
 forehead with the knife Fa-to-man had held, certain 
 Chinese letters, forming a single word, signifying 
 the name " Chin-chin-wa." 
 
 Horrible as the notion is, surely some justifi- 
 cation may be found for Chin-chin-wa, who at that 
 moment had at his mercy the man who had tried 
 to kill him from behind ! 
 
 In a few days' time, at the examination-hall, 
 Chin-chin-wa was charged by Fa-to-man with 
 
 K 
 
146 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 attempted murder, the proof of which was the 
 wound ; and this charge led in the end to the 
 discovery of his English birth and consequently to 
 his banishment from Chinese soil. 
 
 He was marked with the brand of exile upon his 
 breast — a mark which I have seen with my own 
 ej'es. 
 
 This, briefly, is his story up to the time of his 
 banishment. 
 
 Of that period there is little to tell. During 
 seventeen years he existed, rather than lived, in 
 Formosa, separated from all that makes life worth 
 living. Once or twice his old friend, Yung Lao, 
 came to visit him from Hong Kong, and when 
 at length Yung Lao died, Chin-chin-wa inherited 
 his vast fortune, although he well knew that riches 
 were of little use to him who was an exile in 
 Formosa. 
 
 True, he had liberty to a certain extent, and he 
 was well treated ; but none the less was he an 
 exile, and as an exile he was guarded, lest he 
 should endeavour to escape. 
 
 At the expiration of seventeen years, there came 
 his pardon, brought about, by the strange working 
 of fate, through the instrumentality of his old 
 enemy, Fa-to-man. 
 
 Fa-to-man had, during these years, reached a 
 high position in the State. At length, however, 
 there came a day when he was found to be a 
 traitor of the most dangerous class, and as such 
 was condemned to public execution in Pekin. 
 
A RACE FOR LIFE. ,147 
 
 Tlie name upon his brow had been long for- 
 gotten ; but it was remembered now that Fa-to- 
 man was condemned to a traitor's death ; and 
 perhaps the authorities made inquiry as to the 
 exile. This is difficult to decide. 
 
 But the fact remains that when Fa-to-man, 
 approaching the hour of his doom with Chinese 
 calm, made the request, as though divining that 
 Chin-chin-wa's release was possible, that his old 
 enemy might never be set free, he was told 
 that even then Chin-chin-wa's pardon had been 
 signed. Thus was Fa-to-man's punishment made 
 complete ! 
 
 So Fa-to-man was executed as a traitor, and his 
 old rival was set free. 
 
 It was some time before the day on which he told 
 me his story, and indeed before we left Tientsin, 
 that Chin-chin-wa chanced to show me his pardon. 
 Bonsel was not present, or I fancy he would not 
 have done so ; indeed, the conversation which led 
 to this would not have taken place in all proba- 
 bility had my host been present, for we were talking 
 of his friend, Shan-min-yuen. 
 
 I had asked Chin-chin-wa how he came to have 
 heard of Shan-min-yuen ; for, as even I could see, 
 great changes must have occurred in the govern- 
 ment of the country within the past seventeen 
 years, and I could not suppose that whilst in exile 
 Chin-chin-wa could have been posted up in the 
 doings of the day. 
 
148 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 His answer was to the effect that his pardon 
 had been signed in a secondary way by Shan- 
 min-yuen. 
 
 I asked him how he ivnew that it was so ; for I 
 imagined that the document referring to his release 
 was not hkely to have reached the exile's hands. 
 But in this I was wrong, for he thereupon produced 
 what he terms his " Pardon," written upon some 
 very finely and strongly made silk rolled round 
 the piece of ebony to which it is attached. 
 
 He produced this document, and laid it in front 
 of me ; then, with his finger pointed to two letters, 
 as I took them to be, in the lower corner. 
 
 " That," he said, " is the signature of Shan-min- 
 yuen. The one above it is the signature of the 
 Supreme Power. This man, Shan-min-yuen, 
 occupies a certain position in the State, not 
 necessariij' a high one (though it may be so). 
 His signature here is simply meant to guarantee 
 the authenticity of the document." 
 
 I looked at the writing with curiosity. 
 
 " But why do you keep this ? " I asked. 
 
 '■ It is necessary for me to do so," he answered 
 with something of bitterness in his words. " You 
 seem to forget that I am an exile. As an exile, I 
 have a mark upon my breast. Whoever discovers 
 that I bear that mark may kill me like a dog ; a 
 whole village would set upon me as I entered it, 
 did I wear my chest bare. So I keep this pardon, 
 given to me for the purpose, to counteract the 
 
A RACE FOR LIFE. 149 
 
 meaning of the mark on my breast. Do you 
 follow me ? " 
 
 " Perfectly ; you have this greater thing to show 
 in case of need, to prove that you are not exiled, 
 but are protected by the Supreme Power. What 
 are these words ? " I pointed to the writing before 
 me. 
 
 " That is the pardon," he answered ; " a few 
 words only, but sufficient, when thus signed, to 
 render my life a sacred thing in China. They 
 simply mean, 
 
 " ' Permit and give honour 
 TO Chin-chin-wa.'" 
 
 We left Tientsin without having discovered any 
 trace of the carter. By Chin-chin-wa's wish — 
 though perhaps I was the first to make the 
 suggestion — I paid off the guide brought with me 
 from Shanghai ; a guide was now quite an un- 
 necessary thing, as I had for companion a man 
 who could prove far more useful to me than a 
 guide ; moreover, the Shanghai guide would 
 actually have impeded our operations. 
 
 With Norris's fellow we acted differently, having 
 determined to take him with us in hopes of his 
 identifying the carter in Pekin. 
 
 Thus there were now three of us — Chin-chin-wa 
 
ISO THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 — the guide who had formerly accompanied Norris 
 — and myself. 
 
 We left Tientsin during the afternoon, it being 
 our intention to ride all night, and, if possible 
 with the relay of horses sent ahead, reach Pekin 
 the following evening. 
 
 Before starting I offered to Chin-chin-wa one of 
 my revolvers, having discovered that he did not 
 himself carry one. But he refused the offer, 
 showing me a curiously shaped knife which he 
 carries, and to which he said he would prefer to 
 trust in case of an emergency, as he is not 
 accustomed to the use of the revolver. 
 
 We had four ponies — one each and an additional 
 animal for the baggage. This pony the guide 
 took under his charge, and in this fashion we set 
 out upon our journey, passing for some time 
 through the streets of Tientsin, and at last, 
 reaching the country, when we were able slightly 
 to increase our speed. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa and myself rode side by side, the 
 guide, with the baggage-pony, preceding us, in 
 order that we might not stray from the appointed 
 route. 
 
 To converse with the man by my side I found 
 to be most interesting. Not only had his past life 
 been full of almost incredible adventure, but his 
 information and knowledge I speedily found to be 
 vast indeed. But, as is generally the case, the 
 wisest men are the most modest men, and thus it 
 was with Chin-chin-wa. 
 
A RACE FOR LIFE. 151 
 
 Travelling in North China was novel to me. 
 There is an atmosphere almost of the desert 
 about the flat country through which we passed, 
 cultivated though it was upon all sides. I suppose 
 this impression arose from the clouds of dust which 
 our ponies stirred as we went along, and from the 
 great heat of the declining sun. 
 
 Night came on apace, but with the darkness 
 came also the moon. We continued riding until 
 the following morning, when (at, I think, about 
 nine o'clock) we arrived at the village where fresh 
 ponies — the relay sent on by us from Tientsin — 
 were awaiting us. 
 
 We had, up till now, enjoyed nothing which 
 could be termed rest, although we had, indeed, 
 occasionally halted for a brief space either for 
 food or drink. Except for these brief stoppages, 
 we had been in the saddle all night, and being 
 unaccustomed to such prolonged exercise, I, for 
 one, was in such a condition of fatigue that I 
 could almost have slept in the saddle as we went 
 along. 
 
 To my delight a rest was decreed, and, leaving, 
 the guide to make all arrangements, I was not long 
 in finding a place where I could sleep under cover. 
 This was a small apartment — the best the little 
 inn could furnish — a chamber, open to a courtyard 
 in which a great number of mules and carts were 
 congregated, and possessing no furniture, unless 
 that part of the earthen floor which was higher 
 
ir,2 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 than the other, and which served as a substitute 
 for a couch, might be looked upon as such. 
 
 My condition of mind was not a discriminating 
 one, so I laid myself down upon a blanket, which I 
 had taken from the baggage-pony, and disposed 
 my head upon a pillow obtained from the same 
 source. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa remained behind in the courtyard ; 
 but presently I was roused for a brief space by his 
 entry. 
 
 He had been conversing, so he told me, with the 
 proprietor of the inn — a Pekin man, of considerably 
 better standing than these innkeepers usually are. 
 
 I scarcely listened to his words. Nothing of 
 great interest had transpired, so far as I gathered. 
 
 I have no recollection of anything further until 
 I awoke, or partially awoke, some time later to 
 notice that Chin-chin-wa was lying opposite me 
 — that is to say that his feet almost touched 
 mine, whilst his massive frame lay beyond. 
 
 He was lying upon his back, and had carelessly 
 cast his rich silk clothing in a heap upon the 
 ground, or, possibly, it might have fallen, whilst he 
 slept, from the raised part of the floor on to that 
 below. 
 
 As I was placed I could not see his face or the 
 upper part of his body ; but I remember dreamily 
 conjecturing that, from the amount of clothing 
 which lay upon the floor, it was probable his chest 
 was bare ; and that, therefore, I might see the 
 
A RACE FOR LllE. 153 
 
 brand of exile of which he had spoken, did I 
 trouble to rise. 
 
 I was in that half-waking, half-dreaming state 
 in which it is difficult to distinguish the real from 
 the dream, so delightfully are the two blended. 
 
 The noises from the courtyard, which was within 
 a few feet of us, seemed to mingle in a kind of 
 harmony. I was as one dreaming, and yet not 
 dreaming ; for, whilst I was to a certain extent 
 conscious, I could not believe that I was so ; 
 sleep still hung heavily upon me, and possibly the 
 great warmth of the air — the sun being now high 
 in the heavens, and the day well advanced — may 
 have influenced my slow return to full waking. 
 
 There was nothing peculiar in my condition, for 
 I have often experienced the same, both before and 
 since, on returning from sleep to waking. 
 
 It was during this brief interval that an event 
 occurred which speedily called my senses into full 
 play. 
 
 Whilst I lay still for a moment or two a China- 
 man stole from the yard to our chamber, which, as 
 I have said, was open to the court ; and I, dreamily 
 watching his movements, wondered what would 
 be the result should he look upon Chin-chin-wa's 
 breast. 
 
 Still believing the vision to be a dream, I did not 
 cry out, until it flashed across me like lightning, 
 that I was awake and that the Chinese vagabond 
 had seized Chin-chin-wa's rich clothing in his 
 hands. 
 
154 THE CAPTI\'E OF PEKIN. 
 
 As he disappeared rapidh- amongst the carts in 
 the yard, my shout went forth. Instantly Chin- 
 chin-\va was on his feet, whilst I rushed at full 
 speed after the robber, threading my way through 
 the crowd of carts. 
 
 So rapidly did this occur, that the thief passed 
 into the street unhindered ; — ^I, a second or two 
 behind him, followed in pursuit. 
 
 As I turned into the road, the tall form of Chin- 
 chin-wa made up to me, and I saw, as it did so, 
 that he was naked to the waist. 
 
 Almost at the same moment a shout arose from 
 behind us. Some Chinamen who were a little 
 way in front of us turned immediately. The shout 
 was repeated as the robber passed, whereupon 
 three of them cast themselves forward upon Chin- 
 chin-wa to stop his pursuit. But the three men 
 were as nothing to the great strength of Chin- 
 chin-wa, who dashed them on either side. 
 
 All the same, the momentary impediment had 
 been the robber's gain. 
 
 Then fresh shouts seemed to arise all around, 
 and men hurried from the houses on either side, 
 and, almost in a second of time, it was as though 
 we were fl3'ing from a crowd that gathered in 
 pursuit, and not ourselves pursuing the thief in 
 front. 
 
 It flashed across me suddenly, as I ran, that 
 Chin-chin-wa's breast was bare, and that the whole 
 village were after the exiled man ! 
 
A RACE FOR LIFE. 155 
 
 A great fear, amounting almost to frenzy, lent 
 speed to my steps. The pace had grown terrific ; 
 the thief was the most nimble-footed Chinaman 
 I had ever seen ; but still we made upon him 
 step by step, Chin-chln-wa a yard in front of me, 
 I desperately striving to decrease that space. 
 
 The thief turned suddenly to the left ; we were 
 in the open country now, and I could hear the 
 crowd shouting and screaming behind. A new 
 fear came over me. 
 
 Where was Chin-chin-wa's pardon, since he was 
 naked to the waist ? 
 
 To catch the robber must mean our death ; for 
 to secure him meant delay, and delay the falling 
 into the villagers' hands ! 
 
 As I realised the terrible truth, I tripped, 
 recovered myself, then tripped again and fell, and, 
 even as I did so I saw that Chin-chin-wa's hand 
 had descended upon the robber's shoulder, and felt 
 that both he, the exile, and I, his friend, were surely 
 doomed. 
 
 My fall partially stunned me, but I can recall, 
 as though it had been a dream, a great noise on 
 all hands, and the tall figure of Chin-chin-wa 
 standing above me, holding out something in his 
 hands, whilst he shouted loudly, ere my senses 
 became confused. 
 
 The Chinese proprietor of the inn had been the 
 
156 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 first to pass the word that had been echoed on all 
 sides. It was he who had recognised the exile's 
 mark as we passed, and it was he who had set the 
 whole village on our track. For the word " exile " 
 spread from house to house, and with that word 
 went the inhuman desire to join in the pursuit, and 
 to hunt down the man who had no home in the 
 land of the Chinese. 
 
 It had, indeed, been a time of imminent danger. 
 Had Chin-chin-wa swerved in the resolute pursuit 
 of the thief, as many a man would have done under 
 the consciousness that on all sides his fellow- 
 creatures were crying for his blood, all would have 
 been lost ; for the man who had committed the 
 theft, and whom we were then pursuing, had taken, 
 with the silk raiment, the pardon which protected 
 Chin-chin-wa's life, and, had he escaped, the exile 
 would have come to a terrible end. For it is 
 useless to suppose that the grandeur and strength 
 of a single man can save him from the multitude. 
 He may, indeed, die like a lion, but that is all. By 
 the stealing of his pardon, the thief had left Chin- 
 chin-wa an outlaw, — a thing to be killed at all 
 costs, no matter what the means. 
 
 That the thief had had designs upon the pardon 
 is impossible, because it was only upon our rushing 
 from the court of the inn in mad pursuit that the 
 exile's mark was seen ; but the man in stealing the 
 clothes had stolen that which chanced to be 
 attached, and for the double theft he paid the 
 penalty. 
 
A RACE FOR LIFE. 157 
 
 When I fell, the crowd were just upon us ; but 
 Chin-chin-wa shouted with a loud voice, and 
 though two or three of the foremost sprang upon 
 him he struck them back. The others heard and 
 saw, and none could disobey because he held what 
 he had now regained — the pardon of the Supreme 
 Power ! 
 
 So the crowd seized upon the thief instead, and 
 hanged him by the ankles to a tree, so that the 
 blood might rush into his head, until at length he 
 died. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 WITHOUT THE I'EKIN WALLS. 
 
 Personally, I found that I was but little injured. 
 So thick was the dust upon the road, that my fall 
 had not been so serious as it might have been, and, 
 with the exception of a severe headache and 
 sundry bruises, I had come out of the matter 
 scatheless. 
 
 As for Chin-chin-wa, he had received a cut in the 
 left arm from the knife of one of those who 
 had sprung upon him ; fortunately it was but a 
 surface-wound, and being well versed in the sur- 
 gery of the Chinese, he had treated it in his 
 own fashion before I was sufficiently recovered to 
 offer him my assistance in binding the wound. 
 
 As the fire of e.Kcitement, once set ablaze, is not 
 easily quenched, we hastened to leave the village. 
 
 In less than an hour we had bid the little inn 
 adieu, and were once more upon the road, not- 
 withstanding that I greatly feared the heat of the 
 sun, which was beating upon us as we rode. 
 
 I carried a sunshade, it is true, and wore my 
 
WITHOUT THE PEKIN WALLS. 159 
 
 blackened glasses ; but the first proved as little 
 able to protect me from the power of the sun's 
 rays as were the last-named to keep the clouds of 
 dust from reaching the eyes. 
 
 The country was of the same character as that 
 through which we had passed previously ; that is 
 to say, flat and cultivated on all sides, so as to 
 be uninteresting to a degree. Occasionally, we 
 approached the winding river, and I was amused 
 to notice the laborious method whereby the 
 Chinese sailors navigated their vessels against the 
 stream. 
 
 Two or more of the crew are harnessed, as 
 horses might be, to the rope which is attached mid- 
 way down the mast, and thus upon the land 
 they expend their strength in dragging their 
 comrades on the boat slowly onwards. 
 
 But, to tell the truth, my thoughts dwelt more 
 upon the perils through which we had passed 
 than upon the scenery around. We had pressed 
 forward and left the crowd behind with some dififi- 
 culty, the pardoned exile being a subject for 
 curiosity, alike in the fact of his pardon and in 
 his own striking person ; whilst for our part we 
 were anxious to escape from notoriety as far as 
 possible. 
 
 As we rode onwards (slowly, on account of the 
 heat), I questioned Chin-chin-wa as to what, in his 
 opinion, should be our action upon reaching Pekin. 
 
 " My own plans," I said, " were, as you know, 
 
i6o THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 mainly dependent upon chance. It was by chance 
 I received the swallow's message, and, till now, 
 I have trusted to chance to guide me ; but matters 
 have come to a point where we must assist chance 
 more or less. Let us first seek for this carter ; 
 but, in the event of our non-success, we should 
 be prepared to take further steps of a definite 
 nature. We cannot expect, by merely going to 
 Pekin, to run against William Norris. If we knew 
 for certain that he is in the Palace grounds, it would 
 be more easy." 
 
 " I have considered the question from two or 
 three points of view," was Chin-chin-wa's reply, 
 after a short pause, " and this is what I have 
 briefly set down as the position. As you say, 
 truly, we are not at all likely to run against the 
 captive by chance ; indeed, I am inclined to think 
 that our search may be an affair requiring the 
 utmost perseverance before it is crowned with 
 success. That success will be ours sooner or later, 
 if Norris is alive, I do not doubt. It is a mistake 
 to doubt when one wishes to succeed. 
 
 " Granting, then, that our residence in Pekin is 
 to be a long one, mj- identity will, at some future 
 time, be certain to become known. 
 
 " As soon as this occurs, the authorities may 
 wonder why I should have come to Pekin, and be 
 living in company with an Englishman in their 
 city. The position must be looked upon with 
 regard to myself in the first place, not from a 
 
WITHOUT THE PEKIN WALLS. i6i 
 
 selfish motive, but for the reason that caution and 
 judgment alone can aid us in our object. Indeed, 
 so much must my personal position in the matter 
 be regarded, that I had serious thoughts, upon my 
 journey from Shanghai to Tientsin, of meeting you 
 merely to inform you that, on reconsidering the 
 matter, I had decided, that your search was more 
 likely to be successful without my assistance than 
 with it. I may tell you frankly that, until I heard 
 that you had some idea of consorting with a 
 Chinaman — this man, Shan-min-yuen — in Pekin, 
 I was still doubtful as to how I should act ; 
 whether to desert you, when I had actually agreed 
 to join you through Mr. Dicey 's intervention, or to 
 accompany you. But the knowledge that without 
 my advice on the matter, you were likely to 
 seek counsel from this German gentleman's friend 
 decided me to take my stand by }-our side, for good 
 or ill ; and chiefly for this reason, — that you, who 
 are an Englishman, might be led astray on many 
 points, either purposely or otherwise, by this China- 
 man and his friends ; there was the possibility of 
 such a thing — I know my adopted countrymen. 
 
 " Do not think your interests could possibly 
 become theirs ! Not so : what would they gain 
 by allowing it to be so ? So I adhered to the 
 decision I made in Shanghai, and consequently am 
 with you to-da}'. 
 
 " You have had an example a few hours ago of 
 how unfortunate an ally I may prove. Virtually I 
 
 L 
 
i62 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 have added to your expedition a certain amount 
 of danger by accompanying you. It remains to be 
 seen, however, whether my assistance may prove 
 of a character which will counterbalance this.'' 
 
 I thanked him for his candour, and begged him 
 to proceed. He continued : 
 
 " Let us look upon the matter in connection 
 with my position in China : an egotistic view, but 
 none the less necessary. I should not have come 
 to Pekin at present, had it not been for Mr. Dicey's 
 communication. Probably, at some later date, I 
 might have done so in order to report myself to the 
 government, though it is by no means necessary that 
 I should do this. My pardon is full and complete ; 
 it was ratified by tlie special envoy of the govern- 
 ment before I left I*"ormosa. But, still, it would 
 be but gracious upon my part, would it not, to go 
 to the North and to return my thanks in person 
 for an act of mercy of so extraordinary a kind ? 
 Not only am I pardoned, but my very pardon, 
 as it were, makes me a naturalised Chinaman, and 
 the government cannot have realised that my life 
 is now by that signature protected from all ill at 
 the hands of my fellows. Although I occupy no 
 position of power, I have a life protected by the 
 most august authority — the pardon you have seen ; 
 but," he added, " you have seen also that there are 
 still dangers for Chin-chin-wa to face." 
 
 He smiled — and, after a momentary pause, con- 
 tinued : 
 
^VITHOUT THE TEKIN WALLS. 163 
 
 " When I go to Pekin, I may report myself; but 
 I do not intend to do so at once ; indeed, if neces- 
 sary — that is, if the safety of William Norris 
 requires it — I shall never do so. Questions, 
 ho\ve\cr, may early arise at court. ' Why is Chin- 
 chin-wa here, and why does he not come to the 
 Supreme Court ; and what does he do in Pekin, 
 with an English friend ?' What will be the result 
 of such questions once raised ? Something dis- 
 astrous for me and for your search, without doubt. 
 We must avoid this." 
 
 " I follow you," was my reply. " Was this the 
 reason for your asking me in Tientsin if I was 
 prepared to adopt the Chinese dress ? " 
 
 " In a measure, yes. I had not then determined 
 how soon it would be advisable for you to do so, 
 though I fancied it would be a necessity at some 
 future time." 
 
 " And have you now decided ? " I asked. 
 
 " I have. We enter Pekin early to-morrow. I 
 think that you should be dressed in Chinese garb 
 when we pass into the city.'' 
 
 Notwithstanding my apparent callousness upon 
 the subject, I was startled. I had readily agreed, 
 on a former occasion, to follow Chin-chin-wa's 
 wish, should it be necessary for me to put aside my 
 European clothing ; but I confess that, now that it 
 came to the point — now that the hour was at hand 
 and had been definitely fixed upon for my doing 
 so, I felt inclined to recall my former consent ; for, 
 
i64 THE CAPTIVE OF I'EKIX. 
 
 absurd though it may seem, the idea of casting 
 aside my English identity, even for a time, and of 
 entering Pekin as a Chinaman, or at least in the 
 dress of the Chinese race, gave me the feeling that 
 I was severing the last tie which bound me to 
 safety and to a homeland, already grown strangely 
 dear. 
 
 There is somethini; in the very feeling that one 
 is an Englishman, and looks it, which throws 
 around one the sense of protection. I was about 
 to forfeit this. I do not think there is a man 
 living who would have agreed without a qualm to 
 Chin-chin-wa's proposal, had he been on the eve 
 of entering Pekin bent upon a search already 
 sufficiently dangerous, and had he passed through 
 all that we had passed through earlier in the day. 
 
 But I thrust back the disinclination to adopt the 
 Chinese dress which overcame me. 
 
 Then I looked at Chin-chin-wa, and it struck me, 
 perhaps more fully than it had ever done before, 
 that it would have been difficult indeed, had it not 
 been for his voice, to believe that his bronzed face 
 and features, which closely resembled the Chinese, 
 could belong to a countryman of my own. 
 
 Dust and sun seemed of small account to him. 
 He had no covering for his eyes, and none for his 
 head save the round hat of fine straw which I 
 guessed he must have purchased in Tientsin. 
 
 Magnificent specimen of manhood as he was 
 he looked curiously out of place upon the pony, 
 
\\'ITHOUT THE PEKIN \\ ALLS. 165 
 
 which his figure seemed to dwarf as he rode by my 
 side. 
 
 It had never occurred to him that I should be 
 hkely to object to his proposal. He had recom- 
 menced speaking, but for a few seconds, I was 
 occupied with my own thoughts, and did not listen 
 to him. 
 
 I was thinking of what his life had been in the 
 past. 
 
 He too had taken the Chinese dress, as I was 
 about to do, but indeed in a far deeper sense ; he 
 had taken it as the garb of a lifetime ; I took it as 
 that of a few days, to be cast off again at any 
 time, as I might please ; and I wondered if Chin- 
 chin-wa had hesitated years and years ago as a boy 
 when he made that choice. 
 
 " No," I thought, " that man has never known 
 what indecision is." 
 
 " You understand," he was saying, " that although 
 a few may notice it as strange that you, who are 
 an Englishman, should be dressed as a Chinaman, 
 and this without any attempt to imitate the race 
 in the matter of shaven head or pig-tail, you will 
 be less conspicuous to the many, than you would 
 be as the English friend, pure and simple, of 
 the returned exile, Chin-chin-vva. For if the 
 matter does attract the attention of a thinking 
 man here and there, it is a very natural conclusion 
 to arrive at, that you are, in a measure, following 
 my footsteps, and seeking to join the Chinese race. 
 
i66 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 You are a friend of mine ; therefore there is 
 nothing ver\- stranj^e, or, at least, nothing beyond 
 comprehension, in the belief that you desire to do 
 as I have done, and to become, in the end, a China- 
 man like myself 
 
 " This is taking the extreme view, and pre-suppos- 
 ing that your appearance will at once belie you 
 upon all sides, which I will guarantee is not the 
 case. There must, however, if we remain long 
 in Pekin, be a degree of interest or conjecture 
 awakened in certain minds as to who and what we 
 are ; and I think you will see that if, besides 
 diminishing that interest almost to a minimum, 
 we turn it, in addition, into a false channel: — as 
 we shall assuredly do by your assumption of the 
 Chinese garb — wc shall gain not a little, in the 
 secrecy with which we desire to surround our 
 possible doings.'' 
 
 "Then," I interrupted, "allowing that I am wil- 
 ling to change my dress at once, how is it to be 
 done? Shall we get the necessary garments in 
 some village as we pass, or where?" 
 
 " I will arrange all that. We shall stop for a 
 short time at a Chinese inn, outside the walls. I 
 shall send the guide on in front. He will purchase 
 everything to mj' directions.'' 
 
 " But here is a point," I said. " Can we rely 
 upon this guide's silence ? Will he not be apt to 
 make this a subject of conversation with his 
 friends?" 
 
WITHOUT THE PEKIN WAJXS. 167 
 
 " Not when I have spoken to him ; but, indeed, 
 it would make little difference should he do so. It 
 is not amongst the lower classes of people that I 
 would seek to conceal your nationality. You must 
 look upon your garb chiefly as a device to protect 
 you from a second glance whilst in the street ; that 
 is all we aim at. Those who come actually into 
 contact with you will, of course, know and see that 
 you are an Englishman. It would be quite absurd 
 to contemplate anything else, and quite impossible 
 to achieve it." 
 
 " In that case I do not see what is to be gained." 
 " Excuse me ; you cannot have listened to all I 
 said. This is the object to be gained. We are 
 neither of us brought prominently before the 
 notice of the higher class — the ruling powers of 
 Pekin ; and it is with these persons we have to 
 deal, in that my deeds may be questioned by them. 
 If we do come beneath their notice, I step forward, 
 not you ; I am the man who leads, and you wish 
 to follow in my steps ; and thus we conceal the 
 truth, that I am working for you, the Englishman, 
 and in concert with you, upon some work which is 
 apparently secret, and for that reason calling for 
 inquiry. We do not yet know who the enemy is 
 — whether a great man or a mere robber ; he is an 
 unknown quantity to us, so are we to him ; but we 
 have the advantage in being aware of the existence 
 of the unknown. The moment he learns of our 
 existence, our position is weakened. 
 
1 68 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 " We hold a chance in this, that the enemy fears 
 nothing, and suspects nothing. We must not risk 
 the loss of it." 
 
 Understanding his motives, if not altogether, at 
 least in part, I agreed, without further discus- 
 sion, to fall in with his views. 
 
 " We shall then," he said, " enter Pekin as two 
 Chinamen : this obviates any necessity, upon your 
 part, of calling at your Legation, as you might be 
 expected to do, and cuts you quite clear of your 
 English brothers who, at this juncture, might suc- 
 ceed in hampering your actions in no small degree. 
 
 " We shall live amongst the Chinese. Your 
 guide can procure you English food, for I do not 
 suppose you would care to live upon food which I 
 am accustomed to live upon. Our first endeavours 
 will be devoted to the search for this carter, and, 
 during this time, you will see something of the 
 capital. 
 
 " We shall do well, I think, to keep these ponies, 
 because we may require them if the escape of 
 Norris is affected by stratagem, in which case flight 
 may be our only safeguard. 
 
 " If, however, we can obtain his release by 
 government intervention, so much the better ; but 
 I am very doubtful as to this. First of all we have 
 to discover two things ; whether Norris still lives ; 
 and thereafter where he is confined. 
 
 "If we fail to find the carter, I shall go to 
 the Imperial City alone, and, by keeping eyes and 
 
WITHOUT THE PEKIN WALLS. 169 
 
 ears on the alert, it may be that I shall discover 
 somethiiig in the nature of a clue. If not, and if 
 we are indeed reduced to the last resort, you have 
 your introduction to our friend, Shan-min-yuen. 
 That may then be of use." 
 
 " Your ideas," I answered, " to a great extent, 
 coincide with mine as to our mode of prosecuting 
 the search. We are equally inclined to trust a 
 good deal to some fortunate chance." 
 
 " What else can we do,'' was his reply, " further 
 than what I have said, in a city like Pekin ? We 
 might, indeed, frame endless plans, but the success 
 or non-success of one might render the others use- 
 less ; and I am rather inclined to say, let us work 
 gradually, and decide upon fresh action as events 
 require and as we advance." 
 
 Our conversation then drifted into other channels, 
 and thus, sometimes conversing and sometimes 
 riding silently, we neared a great pagoda, with a 
 tree growing out of the top of it, and still jour- 
 neyed on till night fell. Then we rested for a 
 time, partaking of our evening meal, and sleeping 
 thereafter ; for we were now at no great distance 
 from Pekin. 
 
 Daylight found us at a little inn but half a mile 
 from the city walls. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE SEARCH FOR THE CARTER. 
 
 It was at this point that it became necessary for 
 ine (as had been determined) to assume the 
 Chinese dress. 
 
 The fjuide was sent into the city to procure the 
 needful raiment, and to return with this as soon 
 as possible. I was unaware, however, that Chin- 
 chin-wa had an}' intention of accompanying him, or 
 of entering the city prior to my doing so, as now 
 appeared to be the case. He e.\-plained to me his 
 reason for this^ — that we should have some fixed 
 residence, if possible, before nightfall, and that the 
 quieter this residence the more advantageous. 
 
 When in Pekin formerly, Chin-chin-wa had lived 
 with a curio-dealer, so he told me — a man whose 
 dealings were almost entirel}- with the Chinese, for 
 at that time customers of anj- other nationality were 
 a rarit)- ; and here he had found board and lodging 
 during a lengthy staj- in the capital. 
 
 If this dealer was still alive, Chin-chin-wa was 
 anxious to find him ; for, from previous acquain- 
 tance, he knew the man to be fairly discreet ; and 
 
THE SEARCH FOR THE CARTER. 171 
 
 he was of opinion that, if the dealer was as he had 
 been eighteen years ago, still in a position to 
 receive lodgers in his house, we could not be 
 more fortunate in the choice of a home. 
 
 During the period of his absence much might, 
 however, have occurred ; and the dealer, if still 
 alive, had perhaps changed his residence ; if so 
 Chin-chin-wa intended to discover his present 
 abode, or, in default, to light upon some lodging, 
 which he should engage against his return in my 
 company later in the day. 
 
 I foresaw the prudence of arranging a lodging, 
 and left myself entirely in the hands of Chin- 
 chin-w£L Accordingly he set out, accompanied by 
 the guide, leaving me to the solitude of my own 
 thoughts for a few hours to come. 
 
 I do not think I have spent many days in which 
 the hours dragged so slowly. I slept for a time, it 
 is true, when first left alone ; but shortly the 
 bustle in the courtyard of the inn, and the noise 
 made by the entry of mules and carts, banished 
 sleep, and from that time forth I was employed 
 chiefly in counting the hours and calculating the 
 period at which Chin-chin-wa or the guide might be 
 expected to return. 
 
 I did not then know that Chin-chin-wa had 
 instructed the guide to meet him at a certain place 
 in Pekin, and to await his arrival there ; and thus I 
 looked for the return of either, and not of the two 
 in company. 
 
172 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 The hours went sluggishly by, and brought 
 no signs of either Chin-chin-vva or the guide. I 
 consumed the cold chicken which the guide had 
 left with me, and strolled a little way from the 
 inn, endeavouring in various ways to pass the 
 time ; but my watch must have been very 
 frequently in my hands, notwithstanding. 
 
 Afternoon came. At two o'clock I began to 
 grow alarmed, for it seemed to me that there must 
 be some reason for the delaj-. 
 
 Distances, so I had heard, were very great in 
 Pekin ; but, surely, if we were but half a mile from 
 the walls, Chin-chin-wa and my guide should have 
 returned long ere now. What had happened ? 
 Had Chin-chin-vva fallen into danger a second 
 time by reason of the exile's mark, and had I 
 lost both my ally and my guide ? 
 
 A strange fatality seemed to me to hang about 
 our movements : but two days had we been upon 
 the road, and already, for the second time, misfor- 
 tune seemed to have fallen upon us. I strove to 
 banish my doubts, and in this manner passed another 
 hour, when the certainty of misfortune came upon 
 me with full force. 
 
 My position was far from an enviable one. I 
 was alone in a strange land, half a mile from Pekin, 
 not knowing by what means to gain the city, or how 
 to proceed should I reach and enter the gates, and 
 I was tied down for a lengthy period to come, by 
 the uncertainty of doubt. 
 
THE SEARCH FOR THE CARTER. 173 
 
 Were I to set out in person for the capital, I 
 might easily reach it before nightfall, that is to say, 
 before the closing of the gates, which I had been 
 told took place at six o'clock ; but allowing that I 
 entered the city in ample time, and that I should 
 have found little trouble in guiding myself to the 
 nearest gateway, I should in all probability risk 
 passing Chin-chin-wa or the guide upon my way, as 
 we might choose different routes ; and thus whilst I 
 had gone upon the search for them they might have 
 returned to find that to seek for me had now become 
 necessary, owing to my having disappeared during 
 their prolonged absence. All things considered, I 
 decided upon waiting patiently, in hopes that all 
 might still be well ; but when my watch told me that 
 it was five o'clock, patience resolved itself into 
 despair, and I looked forward to a lengthy and 
 anxious night, in which I should be troubled and 
 kept from sleeping by all manner of conjectures 
 and doubts. 
 
 It struck me that the situation, curiously enough, 
 must be somewhat analogous to that in which William 
 N orris had been placed a year ago ; but to appear- 
 ance my position was even worse than his had been, 
 because I had no carter to depend upon, and no 
 one near me who had the slightest knowledge of 
 my wishes. Were Chin-chin-wa and my guide 
 actually the victims of some misfortune, nothing 
 seemed more likely to my disturbed mind than that 
 I, too, should disappear from the world as silently 
 
174 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 and as utterly as had the man who had trusted his 
 message to the swallow's wing ! 
 
 I began to understand how easy it is for a 
 man to be lost in a strange land, and to be lost in 
 such a way that there is no trace left, no clue given 
 whereby the labyrinth of a silent fate may be 
 disclosed. 
 
 At six o'clock there was still no sign of the return 
 of either Chin-chin-wa or the guide. My depres- 
 sion became almost unbearable. 
 
 At the very outset of my quest, I was met by 
 difficulty and obstruction. All my plans seemed to 
 be upset, and I could no more guess the cause 
 than I could foresee what was left for me to do. 
 Something of an unprecedented nature had appar- 
 ently happened to detain both Chin-chin-wa and 
 the guide, and a sullen despair overcame me as I 
 recollected that the gates of Pekin closed at six 
 o'clock, and that for twelve hours thereafter there 
 was no possibility of the return of either of the 
 two, for already they must be shut within the city 
 gates. 
 
 Endeavour as I might to look the matter calmly 
 in the face, this was far from easy. In the morning 
 I would still await their return for, say, a couple of 
 hours. After that time, it was questionable what 
 Avas to be done. If I followed my natural inclina- 
 tion, I should proceed to the Legation in Pekin, 
 but to all intents would seriously impede my search 
 for William Norris by so doing ; for the absence of 
 
THE SEARCH FOR THE CARTER. 175 
 
 my companions would result in inquiry which would 
 certainly to a large extent, indirectly, affect the 
 cause of him whom I had come to seek. 
 
 Whilst I was debating thus in no enviable frame 
 of mind, to my extreme astonishment, Chin-chin-wa 
 entered the yard and approached me. 
 
 To one who had indeed looked upon him as lost, 
 the revulsion of feeling was sudden in the extreme. 
 I could merely give vent to an ejaculation of 
 surprise, and a sense of thankfulness filled me — in 
 strong contrast to that isolation which had dwelt 
 in me, and around me, but a few moments 
 previously. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa appeared to be uninjured : my 
 suspicions of misfortune had proved groundless. 
 
 He hastened to explain. I need not give his 
 explanation in full. The following is the essence 
 of what he had to tell. 
 
 After leaving me, he and the guide had proceeded, 
 as arranged, into the city. They had parted com- 
 pany shortly after passing the gate, the guide going 
 in one direction to purchase my prospective clothing, 
 Chin-chin-wa in the other to seek our future home. 
 But, before separating, Chin-chin-wa had given the 
 guide instructions to meet him at a certain eating- 
 house, and to remain there awaiting him, should he 
 be detained. This the guide agreed to do. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa set out for the house where he had 
 formerly lived, to find, on his arrival there, that he 
 had not been far astray in his conjecture before 
 
176 THE CAPTIVE OF Pi; KIN. 
 
 leaving me, that the dealer might have changed his 
 abode, for such was actually the case, and the new 
 residence was — so he was informed — in a district 
 far distant from where he now was. 
 
 However, he set out again ; but, on account of 
 the great distance and insufficient directions given 
 him, it was already afternoon before he found the 
 domain of the curio-dealer. He arranged with this 
 man to receive us. So far all was well. 
 
 Leaving the dealer, Chin-chin-wa started for the 
 eating-house, where, after a long journey, he finally 
 arrived ; but, as it now transpired, the guide, after 
 waiting for his return for a prolonged period, had 
 set out after him, knowing the district and the 
 house at which Chin-chin-wa had first called. 
 
 Thus it came that the guide committed the 
 mistake which I might have made ; he had set 
 out upon a search without due consideration of the 
 events which might meantime occur. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa, no little enraged, had determined 
 to wait for the guide till the last moment, and 
 the man did finally return in sufficient time for 
 the two to leave the city before the gates were 
 clo.sed. 
 
 "Just as we reached the gate," concluded Chin- 
 chin-wa, " an exclamation from the guide arrested 
 my steps. We were right after all, Mr. Vanscombe, 
 to trust to chance. Had my old friend lived in his 
 former dwelling, your guide would not have stupidly 
 set out to track my steps ; and, had not he done so 
 
THE SEARCH FOR THE CARTER. 177 
 
 we should not ha\c been passing out of Pekin 
 almost at the moment when the gates were swune 
 forwards and closed." 
 
 " What do you mean ?" I asked. 
 
 " I mean," he replied, " that your guide has, by a 
 strange chance, hit upon the very carter who was 
 with William Norris when he left him in Pekin. 
 He had scarcely time to explain to me that this 
 man had just passed us entering the city, and I had 
 but a moment to seize from him this bundle, your 
 Chinese clothes, before the gate swung round upon 
 its hinge, shutting me without the walls, and the 
 guide, who had turned after the important clue, 
 within." 
 
 " The carter found ! " I exclaimed, starting to my 
 feet. " I cannot believe it." 
 
 " But," he replied, " the carter is found neverthe- 
 less.'' 
 
 So the fates had been for us instead of against 
 us. All seemed likely to be plain sailing hence- 
 forth. My only fear was lest the guide should 
 have lost sight of the man after all ; but this, 
 Chin-chin-wa assured me, was far from likely. 
 
 The guide had bounded after him, as man and 
 cart entered the city ; and there could be little 
 doubt that he had secured him, and would detain 
 him without fail against our arrival on the following 
 day. 
 
 It was indeed a fortunate chance, and the know- 
 ledge of the disco\-cr>- took from m^ almost entirely 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 the memory of the long weary hours through which 
 I had waited for Chin-chin-wa's return. 
 
 Perhaps I hoped and expected too much from 
 the finding of the carter. Chin-chin-wa expressed 
 his opinion to this effect. I could not myself see 
 
 I was completing my toilette under Chin-chin-wa's directions. — p. 178. 
 
 where and in what way he could fail us, but fail 
 us he did, signally and effectually, on the following 
 day. The next morning I was just completing my 
 new toilet under Chin-chin-wa's direction, feeling, I 
 must confess, somewhat as I have felt on the eve of 
 
THE SEARCH EOR THE CARTER. 179 
 
 a fanc>- ball, notwithstanding^ the serious nature of 
 the circumstances in which I now assumed a foreign 
 dress, when the guide arrived, he having seized the 
 earliest opportunity of leaving the city on the 
 re-opening of the gates. 
 
 To my delight I saw that he was not alone : the 
 carter had accompanied him into the yard. I 
 looked at this carter — at his heavy features and 
 sleepy-looking eye^ — and a sudden pain went 
 through me as it were in a mental whisper, " What 
 if he (should not remember? — what if he have 
 forgotten Norris entirely during the months which 
 ha\ e gone ? " 
 
 Chin-chin-wa was already speaking to him, but 
 the man stared vacantly in answer to his words, and 
 that was all. Then, so far as I could gather from 
 his tone of voice and the abrupt way in which 
 he spoke, Chin-chin-wa proceeded to question him 
 narrowl)' ; and, after listening for some little time, 
 the man addressed opened his lips and answered 
 something — something very short. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa again spoke several words : the 
 carter briefly replied. Then Chin-chin-wa turned 
 angrily upon the guide, and poured forth a torrent 
 of anger, whilst the guide stood, with his head bent 
 down, thoroughly cowed. 
 
 But in a little he half raised his eyes with a 
 sullen, dogged look upon his face. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa turned to me. 
 
 " The guide states that this is the carter, without 
 
i8o THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 a doubt : are we to belie\c him ? This fellow here, 
 he says, is the carter whom he left with William 
 Norris ; and the carter knows absolutely nothing of 
 the whole affair. Either the guide is lying, or the 
 carter has forgotten entirely what happened a }-ear 
 ago. Which of the two are we to believe .' " 
 
 "Have \'ou tried ever)- means? Is there no 
 possibility of recalling memory, if there be an\' 
 memory ? " 
 
 " I have tried c\er)thiiig : \ou have heard me 
 speaking to him. I shall question him further, and 
 more fully, if you wish : I know it is useless." 
 
 " Please do so, notwithstanding,'' I urged ; and 
 at my desire he questioned the man at great length, 
 obtaining an occasional word in answer, and that 
 was all. 
 
 " It is quite useless," he said, finalK- ; " he has no 
 recollection whatever of being taken a prisoner, or 
 of having been employed b\' an luiglish gentleman 
 or by this guide ; and the guide, on the contrary, 
 asserts that this is the man. What are we to make 
 of it?" 
 
 " Send them into the road, and let them fight it 
 out between them," I answered in thorough disgust. 
 ■ How did the guide secure him, and wh\- did he 
 bring him here, when he found that he had made a 
 mistake ? " 
 
 " He says there is no mistake ; and has promised 
 the carter a reward. He admits having found him 
 as dead as a stone as far as his mental powers are 
 
THE SEARCH FOR THE CARTER. i8i 
 
 concerned, but that was not his affair. He was to 
 find him and to bring him to us ; these were his 
 instructions, and he says that he has fulfilled 
 them." 
 
 '■ Perhaps he is right," I answered angrily. " The 
 specimen of humanity he has succeeded in bringing 
 us is certainly to all appearance .utterly brainless. 
 Send them away, I beg you, and let us consider 
 what is to be done. Give the carter an hour or 
 two to cudgel his brains, and tell the guide to assist 
 him. If the guide cannot do it, there is little 
 chance." 
 
 " I am of your opinion," answered Chin-chin-wa. 
 " I shall put it to the guide that we refuse to believe 
 him, and that this will injure him as a guide, unless 
 he can prove to us that he has spoken true, by 
 causing the carter to remember, and tell us what 
 he recollects." 
 
 The guide, who caught some of our words, not- 
 withstanding that we spoke quickly, looked up as 
 Chln-chin-wa again addressed him, as though he 
 already knew what burden we were about to lay 
 upon him. 
 
 Thus, what had seemed an hour or two ago to be 
 a valuable gain had proved but useless in the 
 end. I could not conceal my annoyance from Chin- 
 chin-wa, whose philosophical calm throughout struck 
 me as offering a singular contrast to my own feelings. 
 Only for a moment had I seen him truly angered, 
 and that had been when he had turned upon the 
 
i82 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 guide to accuse him of having brought a substitute 
 in lieu of the man whom we sought. 
 
 Upon discussing the matter, we were inclined to 
 place a degree of reliance in the guide rather than 
 otherwise. For it seemed by no means improbable, 
 that a man of such low intelligence as this 
 carter should have forgotten actual occurrences ; 
 and the question further came to be, what the guide 
 would gain by the production of a substitute, as we 
 had accused him of doing. Rather, judging from 
 his earlier actions — his search for his master and the 
 inquiries set on foot by him in Tientsin — it seemed 
 that the guide's interest and desire was to set us 
 upon the right rather than the wrong track. 
 
 In addition to this consideration, the finding of the 
 carter meant the cessation of the guide's employment 
 by us ; therefore, unless he had actually and honestlj- 
 found the real man, he would not have been in a 
 hurry to produce the sham, unless, indeed — and it 
 was Chin-chin-wa who made this suggestion — he had 
 been so frightened b}- the occurrence of the day 
 before, when the thief had fled from the village inn, 
 and the crowd of natives had pursued us like thirst- 
 ing wolves, that he had desired from that hour to 
 leave our service as soon as possible, through the 
 production of a carter — the right one or the wrong. 
 
 There was, indeed, so much to be said on either 
 side, that we were quite at a loss to decide whether 
 we had really found the man sought for, virtually 
 before we had commenced the search, or whether 
 
^^Ip^ 
 
 The guide fell, in fear, upon his face.—/. 1S5. 
 
i84 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 we had been fooled by the guide, who was the only 
 person who could aid us by identifying the carter 
 when found. 
 
 It had become evident that, for various reasons, 
 the guide was now useless to us. Personally, I was 
 willing to do without him ; for, to be candid, I was 
 so much annoyed, that I did not stop to consider 
 that his dismissal must very seriously affect my com- 
 fort, in the way of food and other matters, during my 
 stay with Chin-chin-wa in Pekin. We decided to 
 give him his cono-c'. He had found the carter, or he 
 had found a substitute. If the first, it was not his 
 fault that the result of his endeavours had been «/// 
 if the second, it decidedly was ; but, in either case 
 he had now, b\- the production of the real man or 
 the sham, become useless to us for the future. 
 
 So we summoned the guide, who was not far 
 off, and who hastened to approach. I requested 
 Chin-chin-wa to speak for me ; for, personallj-, I 
 have the greatest dislike to the use of pigeon- 
 I'^iglish. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa relieved me in the emergency, 
 briefl)- informing the guide that I no longer 
 required his services ; that I was willing to pay 
 him something extra on account of the sudden 
 dismissal, but that I could not give him a character 
 in writing, on account of what we still believed to 
 be a deceit — the production of the carter. 
 
 Thus we had arranged, and thus I presume Chin- 
 chin-wa had spoken. For answer, the guide turned 
 
THE SEARCH FOR THE CARTER. 185 
 
 and left us, coming back to us direct!}', accompanied 
 by the carter, to whom he now spoi<e rapidly, 
 whilst the other answered him with a word or two as 
 he proceeded. I was at a loss to understand the 
 proceeding. Chin-chin-wa explained. 
 
 " The carter," he said, " is willing to remember 
 everything as the guide questions him. I have 
 had a most marvellous account of a great 
 street robbery, which the guide has related, and 
 which the carter corroborates ; the man has made 
 good use of his time. Whether this is actually the 
 carter, or not, is a question still ; but the guide has, 
 with Chinese cunning, outrun himself Just listen 
 for a little. Observe the guide whilst I speak." 
 
 All this was said in a low and rapid voice to me. 
 He spoke to the carter now. I was observing the 
 guide. 
 
 At first astonishment overspread the guide's 
 features ; for, as Chin-chin-wa afterwards informed 
 me, he put the carter through another catechism, 
 to every point of which the man agreed, as he had 
 agreed when addressed by the guide. Thus the 
 falsity of the unthinking creature's evidence was at 
 once apparent. As he proceeded, the guide fell, in 
 fear, upon his face before Chin-chin-wa, cr)ing out as 
 though whining for mercy ; and Chin-chin-wa spoke 
 sternly to him, bidding him, as I guessed, to tell the 
 truth — to admit that this was not the carter whom 
 he had brought. But the guide refused to do this ; 
 and although admitting that the story which he 
 
i86 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 had just told was but his own conception, given in 
 absence of anj- information from the carter, he 
 still insisted that this was the man, as he had stated 
 from the first. 
 
 We dismissed them both, as nothing was to be 
 gained, only retaining the services of the guide for 
 a little time, in order that he might accompany us 
 so far into the city, and that we might then leave 
 with him the ponies, of which he was sole guardian. 
 
 " V\'e shall obtain others," said Chin-chin-wa, 
 when I questioned the point, "when we are at 
 home in Pekin ; but in case of any mishap I shall 
 ascertain where these ponies are to be stabled 
 to-night, in order that if there is possible difficulty 
 as to securing others, as is sometimes the case in 
 Pekin, I ma\- send to buy these animals before he 
 leaves.'' 
 
 Upon this last suggestion we acted at a later 
 hour, for we learned that we might not easil)- 
 secure fresh steeds, were these to return to 
 Tientsin. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CHIX-CHIX-\YA AXn SHAX-MIN-YUEN MEET. 
 
 AxD now at length we passed across the great 
 plain encircling the massive and imposing wall. 
 I was now dressed in Chinese garments, and felt 
 strange in my Chinese cap, whilst my ej-es suffered 
 from the sun, in that my glasses had been laid 
 aside ; but these discomforts were minimised b}- the 
 glowing interest I felt in our surroundings as we 
 neared the mighty wall. 
 
 What pigmies we seemed to be as we toiled 
 through the dust, with the barren waste of 
 ground stretching around us, and the walls of 
 Pekin towering above us. I asked Chin-chin-wa 
 how this wall compared with the other wall — the 
 Great Wall of China — and his answer was this — 
 
 " The wall of Pekin owes its grandeur to its 
 height and to its breadth more than to its length. 
 Its uniform breadth is about sixteen paces, as )'ou 
 may some day measure for yourself; but the 
 Great U'all is a more wonderful thing on account 
 of its vast length. In breadth this wall that j-ou 
 
i88 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 loak upon is nearly treble. The heights I cannot 
 compare : this is much the greater. The Great 
 Wall may not impress you, if you ever see it, this 
 of Pekin must.""' 
 
 I have not delayed the narrative of my diary by 
 a detailed description of the country and of the 
 villages through which we passed on our journey 
 to Pekin. Perhaps I have erred upon the side of 
 brevity ; but, indeed, what was there interesting and 
 worthy of description in the hours spent upon the 
 road? A wide, flat country, where the e)'e looked 
 only upon barley or millet or rice-fields on every 
 side ; the occasional passing of a native farmer, or 
 of his servants, male and female, the latter with 
 their crushed feet half limping as they moved ; and 
 the sluggish Peiho ever and anon approaching us, 
 with its lazy water and the painted junks upon its 
 surface. Above us the scorching sun ; beneath 
 and around the dust. 
 
 Thus had it been during the hours of daylight ; 
 and by night the same, save that the moon cast a 
 .silence upon all around, and the country slept. 
 
 When we came to a village, each proved little 
 different from the last. Beggars and lepers, and 
 creatures with twisted limbs, beset us until we either 
 
 * The walls of Pekin, Chinese anJ Tartar, may be roughly 
 estimated in total circumference to exceed twenty miles. The 
 Tartar walls are those to which the diary refers, and are the greatest, 
 averaging 50 feet in height and 40 feet in width, with buttresses 
 every 60 or 70 yards. 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA AND SHAN-MIN-YUEX. 189 
 
 distanced them, or reached the refuge of the 
 native inn. 
 
 Of Pekin I shall similarly say but little, for 
 writing, long after, m}' impressions become con- 
 fused owing to the lapse of time ; and I shall con- 
 fine my feeble description to a few words, lest I 
 mingle later thoughts with those of my first 
 impressions of the Great City of the Chinese. 
 
 From the first entry I was impressed with a 
 sense of the city's greatness and vast ungraspable 
 size ; not that I looked upon a mass of crowded 
 streets, but rather that the wall perhaps fitly 
 framed the vast desolation which separated house 
 from house — desolation which even in the main 
 streets seemed to hold its own in the great width 
 of the triple roadway. For the roads of Pekin 
 are, for the most part, divided into three portions, 
 the centre division being narrow and raised, those 
 on either side being broader, but decreased in 
 width by drinking and fruit stalls, and by a myriad 
 of tents and booths which form a species of 
 lengthy and gigantic fair. 
 
 Such was the impression I formed of the great 
 cit\' of dust and crowded life as I rode silently by 
 the side of Chin-chin-wa through the streets of 
 Pekin. 
 
 After a length}' journe)-, we came to a door in 
 the side of a wall in one of the quieter streets ; 
 and, upon knocking, we were admitted to the court 
 within. We were upon foot, having dismissed 
 
190 
 
 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 W'c were welcomed by a very old Chinaman. — p. 190. 
 
 ponies and guide some little way from the house 
 where we had now arrived. We were welcomed 
 by a very old Chinaman, who, I shortly discovered, 
 spoke no word of English, and was therefore 
 unable to enter into conversation with me. 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA AND SHAN-MIN-YUEN. 191 
 
 This he made up for by pouring forth the full 
 vehemence of his Chinese tongue upon Chin- 
 chin-wa, for they had not seen one another till 
 the previous day for fully seventeen years. 
 
 We were, I found, in quarters as comfortable as 
 one could have hoped for. True, I should have to 
 do without an English bed, and should be obliged 
 to live in Chinese fashion ; but this I was prepared 
 for, feeling assured that Chin-chin-wa would look 
 after our mutual comfort as far as lay within his 
 power. 
 
 Our future residence comprised several build- 
 ings, the proprietor being, so far as I could judge, 
 now a wealthy man, whatever he may have been 
 in the old time when first Chin-chin-wa had come 
 to lodge with him. 
 
 One of these buildings, which consisted severally 
 of but one story, was the curio-store ; and there I 
 found much to interest me, for the aged dealer had 
 collected a very large assortment of antique and 
 valuable relics such as are to be found in few cities 
 save Pekin, and there only to be amassed after 
 diligent and lengthy research. Useless days suc- 
 ceed our arrival— days in which our quest seemed 
 to be doomed, in that we did not advance a single 
 step towards our goal. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa once said to me : 
 
 " This at least is saved : we do not now spend 
 our time in a vain search for the carter, since 
 we have found a substitute, or it may be the 
 
192 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 real man, who has been of this service to us, 
 that he has turned our energies into other channels, 
 and shown us plainly that our first intentions would 
 have resulted in waste of time alone." 
 
 So we rode about Pekin — Chin-chin-wa and 
 I — upon the ponies, which we had ultimately 
 decided to purchase from the dismissed guide ; 
 but wc learned nothing likely to lead us towards 
 success, for in the city of Pekin it seemed as 
 though we were in reality as far separated from 
 William Xorris as we should have been had a grave 
 stood between us and him. 
 
 Is it wonderful that, after five days' sojourn in 
 Pekin, all hope left me? Of what use had been 
 my assumption of the Chinese dress and the 
 attempt to fall in with customs which belonged to 
 their race? Of what use had been my journey of 
 months from Europe ? Of what use the swallow's 
 message, now that Chin-chin-wa and I were realis- 
 ing our utter powerlessness to act, and facing 
 inevitable failure at c\'ery turn ? 
 
 Chin-chin-wa alone could assist me now, and 
 his inquiries resulted — as how else could they ? — 
 in absolutely notbincr at all. Yet I learned some- 
 thing of the Chinese during these days, and saw 
 much of the great cit)' ; and the more I saw, the 
 more did I perceive how numerous were the spots 
 where Norris might be concealed, if, indeed, as I 
 began to doubt, he was still a living man. 
 
 Is it necessary to detail every particular ; to 
 dwell upon ever\' futile attempt ? 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA AND SHAN MIN-VUEN. 193 
 
 We ransacked Pekin ; we entered prisons, where 
 the men herded like wild beasts ; we went into 
 strange places, where vice and filth and wickedness 
 alone seemed to dwell ; and if there was a closed 
 door, we opened it with a silvern key. 
 
 These days are past and gone ; they are like a 
 hideous dream to me. 
 
 Yes, William Norris, we sought you in strange 
 places and in dens of vice, but we did not find you 
 there ! 
 
 Upon the fifth evening, we were returning to the 
 curio-store, walking silently side by side, for we 
 had been where ponies would have been of little 
 use, when of a sudden Chin-chin-wa spoke. 
 
 " You are hopeless, are you not ? " he said, look- 
 ing at me as he spoke. 
 
 " Quite," was my reply. 
 
 " Then shall you abandon the search ? " 
 
 " I shall continue to live in Pekin," was my imme- 
 diate and firm reply ; for the bare insinuation cut 
 me, " until I either discover that Norris is a dead 
 man, or until I find him alive and save him from 
 his foes." 
 
 " Is that your settled determination ? " 
 
 " It is." 
 
 " Then I will tell you mine. I have never met 
 a difficulty which I have not overcome. I shall 
 overcome this. As surely as I now walk by your 
 side, I shall find William Norris, come what may, 
 alive or dead. To-morrow I go to the Imperial 
 
 N 
 
19+ THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 City. If I discover nothing by this visit, then you 
 must act. But I seem to feel that it is I who 
 am now pitted against fate, and that it is I, Chin- 
 chin-wa, who will be the indirect means of finding 
 the man we seek. 
 
 " Yes, I shall see Shan-min-yuen, the man of 
 whom we have heard, and if by doing so, and 
 by entering the Imperial grounds, I learn nothing, 
 I shall still be able to tell you what kind of man 
 you have to deal with, and how far, according to 
 my idea (which you must look upon as that of a 
 Chinese countryman, and therefore worthy of con- 
 sideration), you may trust him with the secret of 
 your search." 
 
 " Be it so," I answered ; " it has been my 
 impression, from the first, that we should not 
 have wasted time in this search amongst the slums 
 and lower places in Pekin. When I showed you 
 the paper brought me by the swallow, you, too, 
 agreed that we should fill in the word, ' palace ' ; 
 we should have acted upon that if we placed any 
 faith in our own interpretation." 
 
 " So you blame me," was his reply, " and perhaps 
 rightly ; but, this you will admit, that in so vast a 
 city we have always gained a little in knowing 
 where the man is not. If we find that he is not in 
 the Imperial Cit}-, the past is not all lost, because 
 there is a great area where we have already sought, 
 reducing the work to be done. Perhaps, as you 
 say, we should at once have acted upon our first 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA AND SHAN-MIN-YUEN. 195 
 
 interpretation of the message, although our ideas 
 were then unconsciously influenced by the only 
 thought which occurred to us — the sacred Imperial 
 grounds — and for that reason, namely, because we 
 so readily came to this conclusion, I feel it to be 
 too simple a solution. Norris is not a prisoner in 
 the Imperial grounds." 
 
 " But still you go to the Imperial City : what 
 use can it be, if you are confident that Norris 
 is elsewhere ? I, for my part, think that much 
 time has been lost, for we have done nothing, 
 and who knows what every hoyr may mean to 
 Norris ! " 
 
 " True," was Chin-chin-wa's answer, " that I go 
 to the Imperial City, but I do so more with the 
 intention of prospecting, and chiefly to see this 
 man, Shan-min-yuen, in order that I may be able 
 to advise you either to ' Go to him and tell him all,' 
 or ' Beware.' Yet it seems to me that deliberate 
 search will never bring us to Norris, but that some 
 chance may ; for I have the feeling strong upon 
 me, contradicting all sense of despair in a strange 
 manner, that, if we wait, we shall find him in the 
 end." 
 
 On the following day, before noon, Chin-chin-wa 
 dressed in silks of magnificent embroidery, such 
 as I had never seen. 
 
 " It is hard," he said to me, as I stood beside 
 him, feeling in my more ordinary Chinese garb as 
 the beggar may feel when he looks upon the king, 
 
196 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 " it is hard that I, who have toiled through a youth 
 few could sustain, should now, when the decline of 
 my life is coming near, be as I was then, nothing 
 to China or the Chinese ; it is hard that, to approach 
 the court of my people, I have no garb of rank, 
 that I am not what I should have been — one of 
 the highest in the land." 
 
 His bitterness touched me. It was the first 
 trace of emotion in regard to his individual life 
 which I had observed, and, coming from such a 
 man, it struck me the more. 
 
 In a little time a closed palanquin, borne by four 
 Chinamen, stood at the door ; and as Chin-chin-wa 
 took his seat, and was borne away, I noticed that 
 his face was marked as with a deep and bitter 
 sorrow, the sadness of a disappointed life. 
 
 I did not stir from my Pekin home during his 
 absence, for although knowing something of Pekin 
 by now, I still feared to stray, and could have 
 profited nothing by an idle stroll along the dusty 
 streets. 
 
 My thoughts dwelt upon Chin-chin-wa more 
 than upon our useless search, for it had been as 
 a revelation to me to read the secret of his 
 heart. 
 
 It was late in the day when Chin-chin-wa 
 returned. Those who know the great distances to 
 be traversed in Pekin can understand that his 
 journey was a long one, and he had also been 
 detained in the Imperial City until audience was 
 
CHIN-CHIX-WA AXD SHAN-MIN-VUEN. 197 
 
 granted him as one holding the pardon of the 
 Supreme Power. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa was still of the same mood as that 
 in which he had left us in the morning. His visit 
 to the Imperial City seemed but to have added to 
 his sorrow. He was singularly reticent as to what 
 had occurred, so much so as to lead me to believe 
 that he did not wish to be questioned upon the 
 subject. I could only conjecture that it must have 
 been an ordeal, trying in the extreme for a man 
 of his nobility and pride of nature, to bow his head 
 to a government and its representatives as one 
 who offered thanks to those recognising him only 
 as a Chinaman and as the pardoned exile, but as 
 nothing more. 
 
 I could understand that bitterness had seared 
 his heart — he had had to bend the head to those 
 who by right, had all been well in the old time, 
 would have cringed before him. 
 
 So as this concerned my search not at all, deli- 
 cacy forbade my trespassing, and I heard but little 
 of what had passed. But this I did hear — that 
 Chin-chin-wa had seen the man Shan-min-yuen, 
 that he had spoken to him, and that he had con- 
 ceived an intense loathing and hatred for him from 
 the first moment of meeting. 
 
 Later he spoke to me more fully, describing 
 Bonsel's friend thus. 
 
 " He is a tall man, nearly as tall as I am, but older 
 and not so broad. He is of that type of China- 
 
198 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 man which I chiefly detest and despise, and you 
 have done well to trust him in nothing. To Mr. 
 Bonsel I can understand he is everything that is 
 good ; but why? Because his cold calculating love 
 of gain makes him so. 
 
 " The German acts as agent for him no doubt 
 in the requirements of the government. Such a 
 thing is by no means improbable. You told me 
 that theirs had been a friendship founded upon 
 business relations at the outset : these relations 
 are probably not yet at an end ; but it is the 
 Chinaman who makes the most, since his govern- 
 ment rely upon him and trust to him to act. 
 
 " I knew, immediately I saw him, something of 
 the true nature of the man. I read the Chinese 
 character rapidly, for I have studied to do so from 
 my early youth. And with Shan-min-yuen, the 
 chief characteristics are these — avarice and greed 
 above all ; cold, bloodless cruelty inherent in his 
 thoughts, and the firmness of an unbending and 
 evil will." 
 
 " And you learned absolutely nothing concern- 
 ing, or in any way bearing upon, the fate of William 
 Norris ? " I asked anxiously. 
 
 " Nothing. I learned much regarding Shan-min- 
 yuen ; for, when my audience was at an end, one 
 of his oldest servants was by chance deputed to 
 conduct me to the gate, and I bribed him so that 
 I might, if possible, have something more definite 
 to put before you than my own casual opinion 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA AND SHAN-MIN-YUEN. 199 
 
 of his master, but I learned nothing to aid your 
 search." 
 
 " And what did the servant tell you ? " I 
 inquired. 
 
 " Perhaps little in your estimation, but sufficient 
 at least, to clear up the relations between Bonsel 
 and Shan-min-yuen, which are, so far as I could 
 ascertain, such as I have already conjectured. You 
 must understand that my statement may not be 
 accurate, as I have pieced together what I heard 
 with this result. 
 
 " I will tell you a little of the past of Shan-min- 
 yuen. In the first place, he quarrelled with his 
 father a number of years ago ; his father was then 
 a wealthy man, but old, and he died shortly, leav- 
 ing his fortune not to Shan-min-yuen, his dis- 
 inherited son, but as charity to the priests of the 
 Temple of Confucius. 
 
 " Instead of endeavouring to save his fortune, to 
 do which would have been impossible, Shan-min- 
 yuen was wise enough to realise his powerlessness, 
 and, casting in his lot with poverty, he treated 
 with a good grace the magnificent offering of his 
 parent to the temple. By this means, he succeeded 
 in himself taking, as it were, the place of donor. 
 
 " A very natural result, as you cannot but see. 
 
 " On this account, that is because of the dona- 
 tion of his father, to which (being unable to act 
 otherwise) he agreed, he was gifted with some 
 holy attribute by the priests ; and his position in 
 
200 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 the city of Pekin is now a powerful one, for the 
 double reason of his influence at court, in the place 
 he half inherited and half gained by his own efforts, 
 and from the power invested in him by the holy 
 men. They revere him in a measure as benefactor 
 and as father of a temple upon the aid of whose 
 priests he may call at any hour — all in reality 
 because of his father's gift." 
 
 " But," I interrupted, " this is so strange and 
 interesting a story that I cannot understand how 
 such information reached you through the bribery 
 of a servant." 
 
 He smiled, and then replied, 
 
 " You forget that the mandarin's servants are 
 not of the common herd of men. Do you think 
 one of the lower class could find admittance into 
 the Imperial City? Scarcely! 
 
 " This servant whom I bribed is a man of rare 
 intelligence. I bribed him ; he told me all he 
 knew. 
 
 " It is known by the powers that Shan-min-yuen 
 is the father of the Confucian priests, and from 
 this he has gained rank and, I fancy, wealth." 
 
 " But what has this to do with Bonsel ? " I asked. 
 
 " I am coming to that. Before the death of his 
 father, and immediately succeeding the quarrel, 
 Shan-min-yuen went, so I believe, to Tientsin. 
 Here he made the German's acquaintance. 
 
 " On his return to court, upon his father's death, 
 he was thus in a position to transact business with 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA AND SHAN-MIN YUEN. 201 
 
 his German friend. He, being a holy man, you 
 understand, is for that reason (and the other, that 
 he ratified his father's action, thus, to all appearance, 
 sacrificing everything for his religion) looked upon 
 as the last who would work for gain. Thus it is 
 that many things are entrusted to him, and his 
 avarice is gratified not a little by the accumulation 
 of a fortune which, I suspect, will already have 
 surpassed all that he lost by reason of his father's 
 gift ! " 
 
 " Why did not Bonsel tell us of this ? " 
 
 " Because," answered Chin-chin-wa, " probably 
 he has not heard what is the true position of his 
 business friend. He receives his orders, is not that 
 sufficient ? Further, you must remember that I am 
 Chinese ; otherwise there would have been much 
 unexplained. 
 
 " I took this servant with me to an eating-house, 
 and there we sat for more than an hour ; I question- 
 ing him upon many points, and he answering. It 
 was thus that my information was pieced together ; 
 not so easily gathered, I can assure you, as related 
 by me. 
 
 " For instance, much is pure conjecture upon my 
 part. I read the man's character as avaricious. I 
 know of Bonsel's business relations with him. I 
 know that this trade arises from the fact that the 
 man blessed as the benefactor and father of the 
 priesthood is trusted to work without profit, as his 
 very servant believes him to do, and that he gains 
 
202 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 wealth from the trust reposed in him I conclude. 
 He foresaw upon his father's death how he was to 
 make a gain from what seemed to be a loss. 
 
 " The keenly calculating nature of this man saw 
 the path clearly laid out before him. Making 
 religion as a stepping-stone, and accepting the 
 inevitable poverty for a little time, he so worked as 
 to gain much more. I ask you now, taking this 
 nature as a type of the higher Chinese, is there not 
 more diplomacy in Chinese life than you could 
 have imagined, had I not brought the true example 
 clearly beneath your eye ? " 
 
 I was indeed amazed. The tale, interesting and 
 clearly put as it had been, struck me as being the 
 truth. It was too strange to be otherwise ; and 
 I wondered at the clear-seeing mind of Chin- 
 chin-wa, which had gone back to fathom a Chinese 
 motive, and to clear up what was doubtful until the 
 whole lay patent. 
 
 For my part, I should have passed on without 
 going beneath the ground to discover avarice as 
 the commencement of all, nor would I have traced 
 its growth, as Chin-chin-wa had done, from the seed 
 to the full-blown flower ; I should not have pene- 
 trated motives so deep. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa, with true knowledge of the Chinese, 
 attributed such to Shan-min-yuen's earlier life. 
 
 " You see that I speak true, do you not ? " 
 
 " Yes," was my reply. 
 
 " And you understand now that this is not the 
 man to trust with the secret of your mission ? " 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA AND SHAN-MIN-VUEN. 203 
 
 " I believe," I replied, " that though ia some 
 small particulars you may be wrong in judging 
 Shan-min-yuen, still your conception of his motives 
 and life is right as a whole ; for, as you put it to 
 me, I can understand that the subtlety that you 
 bring before me is consistent in every way with 
 Chinese thought and life." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 COMMANDED TO LEAVE PEKIN. 
 
 On the day succeeding that upon which Chin- 
 chin-wa had paid his visit to the Imperial City, an 
 incident of some importance occurred. 
 
 We had been engaged during the forenoon in a 
 repetition of that search which, aimless, in a 
 measure, and futile as we half expected it to be, 
 was still our only course, when the hour for our 
 mid-day meal drew near. According to our 
 custom, we sought a Chinese eating-house, and 
 were shortly seated at a table on the upper or second 
 floor, awaiting the viands ordered by Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 The restaurant was to me a new one, as I had 
 not seen much of this part of Pekin, and Chin- 
 chin-wa informed me that there was not a better 
 nor a more costly eating-house in the capital, and 
 that we might shortly expect the arrival of a 
 number of mandarins, who made it a custom to 
 frequent the house. 
 
 I had grown by now, so used to the Chinese 
 food, as to eat some of their dishes with reli.sh. 
 
A tall man, in rich dress, suddenly entered. — p. 206. 
 
2o6 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 and though the use of the chopsticks was not yet 
 quite familiar to me, I generally succeeded in 
 getting through the meal without much trouble. 
 To-day I perceived that the dishes were larger, 
 and apparently better cooked, than those we had 
 been accustomed to ; but there were some strange 
 messes put before us, regarding which I was careful 
 to inquire before partaking. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa, indeed, well knew what dishes to 
 order for himself, and what for me ; for I was not 
 fond of birds' nests or sharks' fins — two of the most 
 e.xpensive delicacies to be obtained — and could not 
 bear to look upon sundry other viands, such as 
 horseflesh, or young dogs or rats, which were 
 frequently placed before us in various houses. 
 
 I was busy accordingly with some chicken, 
 eating occasionally from my bowl of boiled rice 
 and greens, when Chin-chin-wa drew my attention 
 to the entry, at the farther end of the room, of two 
 mandarin's servants, sent, no doubt, to order the 
 meal of the great man who followed. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa and I were seated facing one 
 another, my left side and his right being nearest 
 to the door, and, answering his direction, I had 
 but glanced towards the mandarin's servants, 
 when a tall man, in rich dress, suddenly entered, 
 and, approaching, seated himself at the second 
 table from that at which we sat. 
 
 Though he had not yet cast his eye upon us, 
 I was struck by his appearance and by the hardness 
 of his Chinese features. 
 
COMMANDED TO LEAVE PEKIN. 207 
 
 Chin-chin-vva's foot pressed mine. Almost at 
 the same time the mandarin looked toward us. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa rose and made an obeisance. The 
 mandarin acknowledged the salute. I was about 
 to speak as Chin-chin-wa resumed his seat, but he 
 interrupted me at the first word, speaking rapidly 
 in Chinese. 
 
 The mandarin's cold piercing eye had fixed itself 
 upon me, and I understood immediately what Chin- 
 chin-wa desired. 
 
 I turned towards him, and appeared to listen to 
 his speech, for it was evident he did not wish me 
 to use the English tongue. Then I drew my 
 chopsticks slowly through my lips, as I had seen 
 the Chinese do at the conclusion of a meal, for I 
 was by no means desirous to continue eating, having 
 gathered that I had some part to act. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa rose, as though he too had con- 
 cluded his meal. 
 
 But during the time in which I had sat without 
 speaking, endeavouring to simulate comprehension 
 of what Chin-chin-wa was narrating to me in 
 Chinese, I had known that the mandarin's glance 
 was still fixed inquiringly upon my Chinese dress 
 and my head of European hair. 
 
 Walking as I had learned to do somewhat in 
 the manner of the Chinese, to which, indeed, the 
 shoes I wore greatly conduced, I followed Chin- 
 chin-wa. As we passed the mandarin, Chin- 
 chin-wa made a second obeisance; I did the same. 
 
2o8 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 We passed together from the room, and a 
 sense of reUef, as of some great danger escaped 
 from, came over me as we reached the street. 
 
 "That man," said Chin-chin-wa, "is Shan-min- 
 yuen." 
 
 The encounter struck me as a foreboding of ill. 
 It was true that Shan-min-yuen might only have 
 looked upon me with curiosity, as another of that 
 strange English race — of whom Chin-chin-wa was 
 one — so unhappy in their own nation that they 
 sought to become Chinese. But I had not escaped 
 his scrutiny, and I felt that though we had avoided 
 immediate danger, there was some trouble in store ; 
 for the mandarin would not rest, I feared, without 
 explanation of my presence in the eating-house as 
 a Chinaman in company with Chin-chin-wa. It 
 was indeed, possible, that my dress had served in 
 leading to the misconception that I too was 
 merely striving to become Chinese ; but danger 
 seemed to be about us, notwithstanding that we 
 assured ourselves that the incident was of no 
 moment. 
 
 " I was anxious," said Chin-chin-wa to me in 
 discussing the matter, "as far as possible to put 
 you, in the mandarin's eyes, on a footing with 
 myself My speaking to you in Chinese would 
 heighten this impression and diminish, to a small 
 extent, the fact which )-our hair and features of 
 course betrayed, that }'ou were not Chinese." 
 
 But the feeling of ill to come shadowed me, 
 
COMMANDED TO LEAVE PEKIN. 209 
 
 notwithstanding, and, from the hour of the 
 encounter, I waited expectantly for the evil which 
 something within me foretold. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa was of opinion that my fears were 
 groundless, for he could not see how misfortune 
 could arise from the meeting, although he felt the 
 utmost distrust of Shan-min-yuen. And, indeed, I 
 could not explain either to him or to myself my 
 forebodings, for they seemed to be without cause. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen could know nothing of the object 
 of my visit to Pekin, and whether he did or did 
 not believe that my design was merely to follow 
 Chin-chin-wa in joining the Chinese race, could, 
 therefore, matter little, nor was it very probable 
 that Shan-min-yuen would chance to mention the 
 incident of our meeting to the man unknown, to 
 whom we ascribed Norris's detention in the Palace 
 grounds. Neither was it certain that he even knew 
 our foe. So said Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 We now determined that we should endeavour 
 to seek Norris in the Imperial grounds ; for we 
 had searched alike through the low places in Pekin 
 and in the houses of the rich, and we had failed 
 to discover by this means any trace of the missing 
 man. 
 
 Wherever there was a courtyard we had sought 
 for admission and generally obtained it, and where 
 we had failed to gain admission we had at least 
 satisfied ourselves that there was nothing to hide. 
 And, in addition, as I have already said, we had 
 
 O 
 
2IO THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 sought in low and evil places, on the chance that 
 Norris might be there confined. So, although 
 there still remained miles of Pekin to search, and 
 vast acres of ground covered by the temples and 
 by the Legations, it seemed to us that we sought 
 in vain amongst these, and that in the Imperial 
 City alone could Norris be imprisoned. 
 
 In this conclusion we must have been influenced 
 unconsciously by two considerations : first, by the 
 sense of failure and the uselcssness of our past 
 search ; and, secondly, by the knowledge of the 
 impenetrable nature of the Imperial Cit\', which 
 caused a certain attraction in the great difficulties 
 to be overcome in undertaking a search within 
 its sacred grounds. 
 
 W'e spent the day following upon our encounter 
 with Shan-min-yuen, in a curious way, aiming 
 chiefly at a vast system of briber)' to be so 
 continued that the gate-keepers should gradually 
 be corrupted, and that from them the bribery 
 should pass on to those beyond, so that by the 
 outlay of vast sums in a careful manner the entire 
 Imperial City should lie open to us at a future 
 time. 
 
 Those who know aught of the insuperable 
 difficulty of gaining, by money expenditure, an 
 entrance, fraught with danger, into the Park alone 
 — an entrance never extended further than a 
 distance easily and rapidly paced — will understand 
 how great was the task which we had undertaken. 
 
COMMANDED TO LEAVE PEKIN. 211 
 
 and how far removed the possibility of eventual 
 success. 
 
 We spent hours with men whom Chin-chin-wa 
 found to be in some way connected with the outer 
 gates, taking them to inns in the city, and there 
 sitting with them and gradually corrupting them 
 with bribes. 
 
 Thus the day passed, and at last, worn out and 
 fatigued, we set out to return to our home, to 
 find, when we reached it, that our time had been 
 uselessly spent, that this day was not to be as we 
 had intended, the first of many such ; for my 
 foreboding of ill was already fulfilled, and the 
 evil was awaiting us when we returned to our 
 home. 
 
 The blow came in the shape of a mission from 
 the court — to the exile Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 One of the servants of Shan-min-yuen must 
 have previously tracked us home, for there were 
 three men of apparent rank awaiting our return, who 
 bowed low as we entered the door, but who carried, 
 none the less, the decree which Chin-chin-wa read, 
 apparently unmoved by the perusal, and to which 
 he answered, so it seemed to me, in a single word, 
 as the men bowed a second time and moved 
 away. 
 
 " An embassy from the court," he said to me as 
 they left. 
 
 " What is it ? " I inquired anxiously ; for I saw 
 that it was ill, not good. 
 
212 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 " This is what it says," said Chin-chin-wa, 
 speaking bitterly. " This is the decree : — • 
 
 "'Within two days, the pardoned exile, 
 Chi.n-chin-wa, is commanded to leave Pekin 
 FOR EVER. After noon upon the third day, 
 
 THE SENTENCE IS DEATH AT ANY HAND.' " 
 
 " And what did you reply ? " I asked, not yet 
 realising what the missive meant for me. 
 
 " I answered two words ; ' I obey.' " 
 
 " Who signs the paper ? " 
 
 " Shan-min-yuen ; and the Imperial seal is there 
 attached. I am an exile once more. I see it 
 all ! " his voice found a terrible bitterness in the 
 words ; " I see it all, and if I meet you, Shan- 
 min-yuen, before that time, you and I will test 
 who wins ; and if I leave Pekin before I meet you 
 face to face, I shall haunt the walls until at some 
 time you pass, as you must, beyond them, and 
 then you have to deal with me." 
 
 I felt, as he spoke, that this was an undying 
 enmity, and I prayed from my soul for a moment 
 that he might not meet Shan-min-yuen within the 
 time given him ; for then both he and I and 
 William Norris would be assuredly lost. 
 
 " Is there no appeal ? " I asked at length. 
 
 " None," was his reply. " This is how it has 
 been. He, who has influence, has striven to cancel 
 the pardon given to me and witnessed by his 
 own hand ; notwithstanding his great power, he 
 
COMMANDED TO LEAVE PEKIN. 213 
 
 has failed to do this thing. But he has been partly 
 gratified ; for, although he could show no reason 
 why I should be banished to Formosa a second 
 time, save the trifling one that I consorted with 
 you, they have yielded to him in part, and at his 
 instigation determined to banish me from Pekin. 
 Outside of Pekin I am, as I have been since I met 
 you, still protected by the Supreme Power ; inside 
 Pekin, this mandarin will now hunt me out and kill 
 me by the number of his men." 
 
 There was the calm of desperation in his words 
 — a cold, unerring calm, such as he had contracted 
 from the Chinese. Yes, to Shan-min-yuen Chin- 
 chin-wa had become a dangerous man. 
 
 I wondered inwardly if the day of reckoning 
 would ever come. And then my thoughts returned 
 to my own position and to my search. All was 
 ruined : the edifice of my hopes had tottered, 
 indeed, for days ; now the whole lay as a mass of 
 crumbled dust beneath my feet. 
 
 " And William Norris," I said, half speaking to 
 myself, " what of him ? " 
 
 " You are right," said Chin-chin-wa. " There is 
 a greater thing than my revenge — that can wait ; 
 but William Norris must be found." 
 
 I looked at him curiously. Would this man 
 never admit despair? In the face of such a 
 crushing blow, was his spirit still undaunted ? 
 
 " I wish to be alone," he said ; " there is much 
 to think upon. I shall come to you within an 
 hour." 
 
214 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 I left him at once, merely pressing his strong 
 hand, as I passed him, in token of my sympathy ; 
 and then I, too, was alone, to torture myself with 
 thoughts of the present and fears of what was to 
 come. 
 
 Why was Chin-chin-wa banished from Pekin? 
 Why had the mandarin conceived a hatred for him 
 so great as to cause him to use his influence to 
 expel the exile for a second time? Did he fear 
 rivalry in any way? How could he? Or could 
 he have learned of the bribery of his servant ? 
 That might be. But no ; the misfortune which 
 had fallen upon us was, in some way, due to our 
 meeting in the eating-house. It was connected 
 with that ; I felt sure of it. And he, the mandarin, 
 had banished Chin-chin-wa, the old exile, having 
 power against him on account of his former cap- 
 ti\ity ; whilst against me he could have no grudge, 
 for none could say I had done a wrong in 
 seeking to become Chinese. Was this why I 
 still remained unnoticed, whilst Chin-chin-wa was 
 banished ? It would have been a curious coinci- 
 dence indeed had I been banished by the man 
 to whom I might ha\c gone as a guest. As 
 it was, Chin-chin-wa alone suffered, and suffered 
 through being with me, for some cause which 
 might have arisen from the innate evil of Shan- 
 min-yuen's mind, or from suspicions suggested to 
 him that we were spies in the Chinese land. 
 
 As to what was now to come, I could see no 
 hope. 
 
COMMANDED TO LEAVE PEKIN. 215 
 
 What could I do in Pekin alone? — for alone I 
 should be assuredl}', since Chin-chin-wa left rne in 
 two days. It was true that he might live outside 
 the walls in constant communication with me by 
 courier ; but, without his assistance, and with no 
 knowledge of the language, what would come of 
 me ; what of Xorris ? 
 
 Alas ! the swallow bore its message, then, in vain 
 after all ! 
 
 I passed into a state of dull despair, looking 
 forward to days to come, in which I should 
 continue to live a solitary, useless life in Pekin, 
 hoping, ahvaj-s hoping, that my time might come, 
 and yet waiting for years in vain. 
 
 And the shadow of Shan-min-yuen's enmity 
 for Chin-chin-wa or for me might descend in some 
 terrible and unforeseen way. 
 
 Who was his enemy — Chin-chin-wa or I ? 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CAPTIVE FOUND. 
 
 Notwithstanding that Chin-chin-wa had said, 
 " There is a greater thing than my revenge,'' it 
 seemed to me that we had come to a complete 
 standstill, and that he was dwelling entirely upon 
 his own misfortune during these leaden-footed 
 hours. 
 
 There was now, indeed, no chance of our ever 
 entering the Imperial City by bribes, for this would 
 have taken weeks to accomplish ; but that des- 
 pair should have seized upon Chin-chin-wa, as I 
 fancied it had done, I could with difficulty bring 
 myself to believe. How far did I misjudge him in 
 the conception of such a thought ! 
 
 Upon the morning succeeding the reception of 
 the decree he asked me, in an absent waj', for the 
 paper brought to me by the swallow. 
 
 I gave it to him, but I did not think that he was 
 then in a condition of mind to attempt to penetrate 
 the mjstery — to fill that gap which was still as it 
 had been months ago. 
 
THE CAPTIVE FOUND. 217 
 
 To my surprise he had said but little to me since 
 the conversation which had immediately ensued 
 upon reading the message of the court. 
 
 I felt that his grief was such as I could not relieve 
 — that I must leave him to his own thoughts, as 
 he desired to be left ; for the misfortune seemed 
 to have changed him in a way that I could not 
 understand. 
 
 And this was the reason, as I soon discovered. 
 
 His every effort was now turned to the deter- 
 mination to discover and save William Norris 
 before the expiration of the time appointed ; and 
 the result of this determination, and the working 
 of his mind, was shortly to be disclosed. 
 
 For myself I knew not what to do, feeling 
 that I could not upbraid Chin-chin-wa for a lack 
 of interest in our quest, for I could understand 
 how terrible to bear must have been the decree 
 of exile passed upon him again. True, it was not 
 what it had been : it was merely that he was now 
 forbidden the city of Pekin ; but that was sufficient 
 to prove that the exile was, after all, but partly 
 pardoned, and more than enough to cut him to his 
 heart. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa having retired to his chamber, and 
 not liking to disturb him, I cast about in my own 
 mind what was fittest for me to do. 
 
 That Chin-chin-wa's time was already drawing 
 to an end was obvious. I fully understood, too, 
 that with his departure from Pekin I was left as a 
 
2i8 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 useless agent, and I felt that movement alone (even 
 to be merely walking in the streets), would satisfy 
 in a small degree my craving for action. That 
 I should not disturb Chin-chin-wa I determined, 
 because I felt that in good time he would come to 
 me, and I respected what I believed to be his grief 
 Thus it came that I decided upon venturing forth 
 alone for an hour or two, intending to return for 
 Chin-chin-wa, and to break in upon him then, what- 
 ever might be his feelings. 
 
 I made signs to the old dealer that my return 
 would be within two hours, and then, not knowing 
 whether he understood me or otherwise, I left the 
 house, and set out walking briskly, it little mattered 
 where, along the dust-covered roads. In time — a 
 considerable time it must have been, for I had 
 wandered on without looking at my watch — I came 
 to a strange part of the town, near to one of the 
 gates, a spot where I had not been before, and 
 where something of a fair was being held in 
 narrow, paved streets and arcades. 
 
 I was interested in the various articles for sale, 
 and thus strolled onwards, partly forgetting my 
 misfortunes in the novelty of the surroundings. 
 Then suddenly it occurred to me to retrace my 
 steps. I commenced to do so, with the immediate 
 result that I strayed from my way, and the con- 
 viction became gradually forced upon me that I had 
 lost myself in the great city of Pekin. 
 
 I think that few more unhappy moments have 
 
THE CAPTIVE FOUND. 219 
 
 fallen to my lot. Blaming myself bitterly, I grew 
 more uncomfortable as I proceeded. Every 
 direction seemed to be the wrong one, and I 
 speedily realised that I was hopelessly lost. Many 
 hours passed, whilst I was wandering to and fro, 
 without any idea as to where I was, but still striving 
 to reach my home again by prolonged perseverance. 
 
 If a man be lost in Pekin he may realise its 
 vastness. I knew nothing of the part of the city in 
 which I found myself Nor do I know to this day 
 in which portion of the city lay that curious old 
 fair or bazaar which first led me astray. 
 
 Time moved on, and the sun sank, and still I 
 wandered on. 
 
 As I was about to turn upon my steps, for per- 
 haps the hundredth time, I saw a little shop which 
 I recognised as having once passed previously ; 
 and from that fortunate incident I succeeded in 
 finding my way to the Marble Bridge, and thence, 
 without much trouble, though the distance was a 
 long one, back again to my Chinese home. It was 
 almost dark when I arrived there, in a terrible state 
 of dust and discomfort ; and glad indeed was I, to 
 know that my poor tired feet, cramped as they were 
 in Chinese shoes, had succeeded in bearing me 
 home at last. 
 
 When I entered the courtyard, I found that 
 Chin-chin-wa was awaiting me in a \'ery perturbed 
 and anxious state of mind. 
 
 " You wandered, I suppose," he said with a touch 
 
2 20 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 of acidity in his tone ; " and did so at an hour when 
 every moment is of value to us. Do you recognise 
 the truth that to-morrow by noon I shall be with 
 you no longer ? " 
 
 " To-morrow," I answered, taken aback by the 
 words; "it is not to-morrow, but the succeeding 
 day that you leave me. You had two days, had 
 you not?" 
 
 " You are wrong ; it is two days, indeed, but on 
 the third day I have to leave before noon : to- 
 morrow is the third day. Yesterday, the day on 
 which they came to me, was the first ; to-day is 
 the second ; and on the morrow, the third, I am an 
 exile from Pekin by noon." 
 
 " And," I replied, stung to the quick at the 
 thought of the hours wasted alike by Chin-chin-wa 
 and by myself, " I looked upon this as the first 
 day ; for the word was given late in the day> 
 and yesterday cannot have been considered as a 
 day." 
 
 " You forget," answered Chin-chin-wa, " this 
 paper bears a date." 
 
 " And how long have you known that your time 
 was so short ? " 
 
 " Since yesterday, when I received the paper. It 
 did not strike me that you could have misconceived 
 its meaning." 
 
 " And knowing that," I said, " j-ou still let the 
 morning hours pass until I went out to-day, leaving 
 you to your thoughts. I should not have left you 
 
THE CAPTIVE FOUND. 221 
 
 thus had I understood. Now, indeed, there is no 
 hope." 
 
 " You are wrong," he answered. " Much valuable 
 time has been lost — not all. An hour ago, waiting 
 for your return, not venturing forth lest I should 
 miss you — for you went without my knowledge this 
 morning, and I knew not where — all seemed to me 
 to be lost : now there is still a chance." 
 
 " A chance, where ? " 
 
 " You have returned ; and we have the morning 
 hours — several hours before noon to-morrow. Dur- 
 ing these hours it may yet be done." 
 
 I looked at his face, which was set and resolute, 
 and it flashed across me that my absence had 
 caused him a deeper pain than I could know. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " I asked. " There can be 
 no hope now." 
 
 " There is hope," he answered. " I believe that I 
 have found the man we seek." 
 
 I could not believe my senses. My hopes had 
 reached the lowest ebb. Chin-chin-wa was right : 
 I had done wrong. A day wasted in the city, 
 as it had come to be wasted by me at such a 
 time — the last day that he and I should have spent 
 together — it was too terrible to be true. And yet 
 by an evil mischance which had led me astray it 
 had been so ; and still, in spite of all, Chin-chin-wa 
 said, 
 
 " There is hope. I believe that I have found the 
 man we seek." 
 
222 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 " I do not understand," I answered wearily. 
 " There can be no hope." 
 
 " Listen to me," said Chin-chin-wa ; " I will tell 
 you all. I have found William Xorris ; for I have 
 heard his cries. He is confined in the Temple of 
 Confuciu.s." 
 
 " It cannot be, it is impossible." 
 
 " See," he went on, " there is the paper filled up. 
 I have put in the words in red ink, with a sharp 
 knife. There is nothing lacking now : there is the 
 swallow's message as it was given to the bird by 
 William Xorris. It is wonderfully simple when we 
 know the truth." 
 
 I looked at the paper. 
 
 It seemed to have been filled as by a miracle, 
 the whole fitted so exactly ; for Chin-chin-wa, with 
 Chinese skill of hand, had written the missing part 
 exactly as the rest, and the completed whole read 
 thus : 
 
 "111 God's name rescue me ; 
 Lose no time. I am imprisoned 
 In the Temple of Confucius, in 
 Pekin, by tiie Cfiinese. Tenth Swallow. 
 William Norris, September, i8 — 
 May God help me 1 " 
 
 " And now," continued Chin-chin-wa, as I con- 
 tinued to gaze upon the paper, " we are near the 
 end. Either we save William Xorris, or we our- 
 selves perish ; for I, at least, in face of the order of 
 
THE CAPTIVE FOUND. 
 
 223 
 
 " See, there is the paper filled up." — p. 222. 
 
 the court which banishes me from Pekin, refuse to 
 leave the city unless that man goes with me when 
 1 go." 
 
2 24 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 " Let us lose no time," I cried excitedly ; " let us 
 go to the temple at once ; come ! " 
 
 " Stay ! " came the firm reply. " At night we can 
 do nothing : to-morrow we shall succeed." 
 
 " Then you have a plan ? " 
 
 " I have." 
 
 " Tell me all," I said ; and I remained standing 
 whilst he spoke. So great was my interest that I 
 did not notice that his tale was a long one. I 
 remained on my feet, with a mind thirsting for the 
 whole truth, until at length he ceased. 
 
 " I must tell you," he commenced, '' what led to 
 this discovery, so that you may fully understand 
 the means which I propose to follow, in order to 
 rescue Xorris before noon to-morrow. I said 
 nothing to you in the early morning because my 
 conclusions were but partly formed. After the 
 departure of the mandarins who brought the sen- 
 tence of my banishment, I set myself immediately 
 to fathom motives ; for a Chinaman seldom acts 
 without a motive, and seldom without one which is, 
 if it be evil, obscure and deep. That Shan-min-yuen 
 had only resolved upon this act on seeing us together 
 yesterday was obvious. Now what could it matter 
 to him that you and I should consort together ; and 
 why did he watch you so narrowly whilst we sat in 
 the eating-house ? Plainly, he must have suspected 
 something. What was this something — that we 
 were spies ? What would that matter to him ? 
 And supposing that he did take such interest as 
 
THE CAPTIVE FOUND.; 225 
 
 this in his Government, my banishment would not 
 meet the emergency. Our treatment would have 
 been different had we been regarded as spies. 
 Then what else could he suspect — the truth? The 
 actual case that you sought for a man lost in Pekin ? 
 —how could he dream of such a thing, when.no 
 one knew of the swallow's message save )'ou and I ? 
 My thought stopped there. I dropped that point, 
 after lingering upon it for some time. Then I 
 started afresh. Where was William Norris con- 
 fined, allowing the suspicion to stand that Shan- 
 min-yuen was alike our enemy and his? And 
 there too I stopped, for I could go no further. 
 
 " With these confused ideas, I fell asleep last 
 night. There had been temptation to me to find in 
 Shan-min-yuen the enemy we had to face ; and this 
 temptation I perceived was influencing my thoughts, 
 and banishing all hopes of a clear and unprejudiced 
 view. It was this that made me, perhaps, moody' 
 and austere. 
 
 " During the night I had a strange dream — a 
 dream that took me back in thought to the old time 
 — back to the time before my exile to the day when 
 I met Fa-to-man in mortal combat eighteen years 
 ago. I have told you of that evening when I 
 crushed down the serpent, who, because I stood his 
 successful rival in the State examination, would 
 have stabbed me from behind ; and I have told 
 you how I cut my name in the flesh of his brow as 
 he lay beneath me in the dust. I do not know if I 
 told you where it was that this occurred. p 
 
S26 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 " There is an old stone of considerable size stand- 
 ing half upright in the road which passes by th? 
 Temple of Confucius. It was there — within two 
 feet from this stone — that I left Fa-to-man lying in 
 the dust. 
 
 ' My dream — and, strange as it may seem, I have 
 never, during the eighteen years gone by, seen this 
 vision in my sleep — took me back to that hour, and 
 I thought I siw Fa-to-man again as he lay there, 
 with the blood of his brow mingling with the dust. 
 Then suddenly I perceived that I was alone — that 
 it seemed to be years afterwards ; since I recollected 
 the past, and I commenced to wonder why I had 
 come to stand upon this spot so long after, and 
 why I stood waiting there now ; and the question 
 troubled me, so that I lost sight of the well- 
 remembered scene, and suddenly awoke. 
 
 " Although I slept afterwards, the impression of 
 the dream remained with me ; and in the early 
 dawn, whilst I lay awake pondering upon its mean- 
 ing, a connection flashed across me. 
 
 " Shan-min-yuen is the benefactor of the temple 
 i — the father of the priesthood ! 
 
 " These thoughts, though in a measure half-born 
 only, in that I still denied them belief, yet troubled 
 me greatly, and led me to ask you for this paper. 
 
 " You had scarcely given it me when I perceived 
 that I had found the truth. 
 
 " The Temple of Confucius !— it filled the space 
 exactly. 
 
THE CAPTIVE FOUND. 227 
 
 " I did not hurry to put my discovery before you 
 as soon as made, because I wished to work out 
 every detail before I gave you the facts. Thus it 
 was that, whilst I sat dreaming in solitude of scenes 
 which I caused to pass before my mental eye, you 
 went out alone, and when I sought you but half an 
 hour later I sought you in vain. I waited some 
 time for your return ; and as you did not come 
 within an hour, I could bear the suspense no longer. 
 William Norris was a prisoner in the Temple of 
 Confucius. I was certain of it, and I determined at 
 once to set out. 
 
 " It is a long journey from here to the temple. I 
 went on foot, and at length reached it. 
 
 " And now that I had done so I recognised my 
 powerlessness, for I had, as yet, no plan of action, 
 and knew no means by which I could reach the 
 prisoner. In this frame of mind I walked round 
 the temple, examining the building, and endeavour- 
 ing to hit upon some means of communication ; 
 for it was certain that the priests would on no 
 account allow to me, a stranger, an entry into that 
 part of the temple where their prisoner was con- 
 fined. 
 
 " It was evident to me that Norris must have 
 been permitted in the old time, when he caught 
 the swallow which brought its message to you, 
 a certain degree of liberty within the walls ; and, 
 if still alive, his position in this respect might be 
 unaltered, and flight by means of ropes thrown 
 
228 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 from outside be possible, were we able to cofn- 
 municate with him. I was thus cogitating, when- 
 suddenly I heard a shriek from within — a shriek 
 as of a man in torture ; and I knew instantly that 
 it was a European, and not a Chinese voice, for the 
 Chinese cannot cry in their pain loudly, nor as a 
 European cries. 
 
 "It was an Englishman's cry — the voice of 
 William Norris ! 
 
 " From this I knew that all hope of communi- 
 cation from outside, or of saving him in that way, 
 was taken away ; for, from the cry, he was then, so 
 I judged, under torture, and therefore his liberty 
 within the walls is a thing of the past. 
 
 " I thrust back the feelings that rushed upon me 
 when I heard the shriek, for now out of all my life 
 had come that time when my Chinese nature 
 must be called upon, when for another's sake my 
 feelings must be mastered ; for in moments of the 
 most intense excitement the heart must be stilled 
 if circumstance is to be overcome. 
 
 " It was clear that haste must be avoided, even 
 at the risk of Norris's life." 
 
 " And what then ? " I cried. " You did not leave 
 him at their mercy ? " 
 
 " He is still in the Temple of Confucius. I did, 
 indeed, strive to reach him ; but a portion of the 
 temple — so they told me,and as I had expected — was 
 sacred ground, and thus keeping a barred door, nay 
 many for aught I know — between me and him, the 
 
THE CAPTIVE FOUND. 229 
 
 priests protected their right to retain William Norris 
 in holy ground. As I still spoke to them, not 
 mentioning that I had heard a cry, or knew aught 
 of their captive, I continued to question within my- 
 self what means I might employ to enter what they 
 called the more sacred parts, and I remembered 
 that Shan-min-yuen's name would have an influence, 
 and was about to speak that name, when suddenly 
 it occurred to me that I had a greater thing — my 
 pardon, signed by him and by the Supreme Power, 
 and I drew this forth. But caution whispered to 
 me at the last moment, ' Wait, and return with your 
 English friend ; you will need his aid, and you can- 
 not desert him." 
 
 " I left the temple, and returned hither at a rapid 
 pace. You were still absent. 
 
 " Here is my pardon. It reads thus, as I have 
 told you : 
 
 ' Permit and give honour 
 TO Chin-chin-wa.' 
 
 " And it is signed by the father of the Confucian 
 priesthood, Shan-min-yuen — by the man, that is 
 to say, whose interest it is to confine William 
 Norris in the Temple of Confucius, with its priests 
 for guardians. 
 
 " Thus reads my pardon — to the outside world as 
 relating only to my freedom from exile; but, if 
 presented to the priests, whose world is their 
 temple, it will bear another meaning. 
 
230 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 " And the possession of this name attached to 
 these words, ' Permit and give honour to,' will, to 
 my belief, give me entry and freedom to act as 
 Shan-min-yuen himself might act in the most sacred 
 precincts of the Confucian temple. 
 
 " To use this pardon in the way in which I intend 
 to do will result in this — I shall bring William 
 Norris free out of the temple, but immediately 
 thereafter instant flight is our only chance. 
 
 " Do this before your return I could not, though 
 they were hours of bitterness you caused me to 
 pass. 
 
 " To have secured Norris would have been to 
 leave you, for I did not know what had become 
 of you ; so I waited. It is now too late to act 
 to-day, but to-morrow there is still time." 
 
 I was silent for a long time when he ceased to 
 speak. 
 
 " Is all clear to you ? " he asked at length. " You 
 see now, do you not, that there is still hope ? " 
 
 " Yes," was my reply ; " but a question or two I 
 would still put to you." 
 
 ■' Proceed," was the laconic reply. 
 
 " Are you certain that there is no mistake ; sure 
 that Norris is confined in this temple? We have 
 this paper. The words fit exactly ; but are you 
 certain that the man is still alive?" 
 
 " I am sure of this — that he was within the 
 temple, and that I heard his voice but a few hours 
 ago. But, even whilst we speak, he may be expir- 
 
THE CAPTIVE FOUND. 231 
 
 ing under the torture to which, his cry tells me, he 
 was then subjected." 
 
 " Is there nothing to be done to-night ? " I asked 
 despairingly. 
 
 " Nothing," he replied solemnly ; then, in a little, 
 he continued, " but he has lived all these days that 
 are past — for nearly a year now, shall we say ; let us 
 hope that we are yet in time. This speaks for 
 him, does it not ? — I am banished. Why should I 
 be banished, if to kill William Xorris effects the 
 object in view ; there is some reason, some cause, 
 why he must not die, else why should he have 
 been allowed to live till now?" 
 
 I did not answer, for in my heart of hearts there 
 was notliing but despair ; ay, despair and a wild 
 longing that the past might come again — that those 
 hours, when I had strayed as lost through the dust- 
 laden streets might be given back to me, and it 
 was now but vain to conceive the desire. 
 
 So much time lost, did it mean the loss of all ? 
 
 Night had fallen upon us and drawn forth a 
 mantle silvery with stars, and I stood before Chin- 
 chin-wa in the courtyard, with bowed head, feeling 
 that if it were so, I alone was answerable for what 
 had been. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHIN-CHIN-WA ENTERS THE TEMPLE. 
 
 During that night neither of us slept ; and in the 
 long hours of darkness Chin-chin-wa gave me more 
 clearly the story which he had pieced together. 
 
 The intricacies of the puzzle were not, however, 
 entirely cleared away. 
 
 For what reason Shan-min-yuen had so suddenly 
 decided upon his banishment Chin-chin-wa was at 
 a loss to say ; for a few days more or less could 
 have been of little account, unless, indeed, there 
 were some cause for immediate alarm. The meet- 
 ing in the eating-house was clearly insufficient to 
 determine him upon taking such immediate and 
 summary action. One suggestion occurred to us : 
 had Bonsel innocently written of our visit and 
 given the first shadow of suspicion to the China- 
 man's mind ? 
 
 Otherwise all was clear ; and, indeed, the old 
 saying, that truth is strangest of all, struck me 
 forcibly, as I looked back upon the working of fate. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen was at the root of all. It was 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA ENTERS THE TEMPLE. 233 
 
 he who, as the father of the temple, had placed 
 Norris there as his captive ; and there, whether in 
 hope of a ransom or because he was afraid to kill 
 the Englishman, he kept him — in a prison safer 
 than which there was none. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa alone possessed a key to unlock 
 its most sacred recess ; for it was plain that, if 
 Norris was alive, we might save him still, through 
 the wording of the exile's pardon, which said, "Per- 
 mit and give honour," an order which, in another 
 sense from that intendi^d, the temple would obey. 
 But danger was on all sides ; for Chin-chin-wa 
 became a doomed man after noon on the morrow, 
 and the distance from our dwelling to the temple, 
 and again from the temple to the Tungchow Gate,'' 
 would take hours to traverse. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa had ordered palanquins to convey 
 us in state to the Confucian temple, in order to 
 give the air at once of reality and of high degree to 
 the visit, which we purposed making at the earliest 
 hour on the morrow at which it would be advisable 
 to approach the priests. All our plans were laid. 
 Our host, the old keeper of the curio-store, was to 
 befriend us in the hour of need. He was to meet 
 us outside the city gate, so Chin-chin-wa arranged, 
 with our ponies reidy for the road. And the 
 great question now was this : given that all went 
 well — given that William Norris still lived, and 
 
 * Tunchow Gate — colloquially thus referred to. 
 
2 34 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 that we could save him — was it possible to reach, 
 the gate thereafter before the noonday hour? 
 
 To go to the priests at daybreak would have 
 created suspicion. Chin-chin-wa knew something 
 of the temple rites, and the hour fixed upon for our 
 visit was in accordance with these. 
 
 I pondered much upon what Chin-chin-wa had 
 discovered. That Bonsel, in possession of the 
 truth and concealing it, should have pressed me 
 to go to Shan-min-yuen, seemed incredible. The 
 only possibility was that Bonsel had been unaware, 
 as Chin-chin-wa surmised, of even the remotest 
 connection between his friend Shan-min-yuen and 
 the Temple of Confucius. Yet I could not but feel 
 that he had had small ground for urging upon me 
 that I should trust his Chinese friend. It was true 
 — at least I could not bring myself to suppose 
 otherwise, or to think badly of my late host in 
 any way — that Bonsel put his trust in the China- 
 man ; but their connection could not have been of 
 so close a character, it now seemed, as to warrant 
 his endeavours to induce me to become the guest 
 of his friend. I could only think that Bonsel 
 had been a dupe ; and that, whilst his business 
 relations might be satisfactory, those of a friendship, 
 merely professed upon Shan-min-yuen's side, had 
 been throughout rotten. 
 
 It was fortunate indeed that the Diceys had sent 
 me the assistance of Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 Had not Chin-chin-wa actually heard the cry 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA ENTERS THE TEMPLE 235 
 
 from the temple, I should have been inclined to 
 argue even now against all that seemed to 
 be so clearly the case ; but I knew well that 
 Chin-chin-wa was not one to be led astray by 
 his own thoughts, and his very reticence upon the 
 matter, until he had thoroughly convinced himself, 
 was of itself reassuring. 
 
 I fell a-musing upon the awful fate of William 
 Norris, and to wondering how it had come about 
 that he had given to the swallow the message 
 which had reached me months before ; and a certain 
 terror descended upon me as I wildly conjectured 
 the tortures which he might even now be under- 
 going whilst we, who had found him and were 
 longing to rescue him, were obliged to wait for the 
 tardy approach of day. My musings were of too 
 numerous a character to be decisive or of value. 
 If I thought of Bonsel, and of his relations to the 
 traitor, my ideas wandered away to the temple 
 where Norris lay, and again back to the agony of 
 remorse for the wasted hours gone by — remorse 
 that I could not banish, strive as I might. 
 
 And thus in a strange jumble of thought I 
 waited with Chin-chin-wa (seldom speaking, as 
 the hours went by), merely longing with a great 
 unquenchable desire for the daylight to come. 
 
 Chance had in the end befriended us — alas ! 
 perhaps too late, since but a few hours were now 
 left us during which Chin-chin-wa might act with 
 me, for it was by Chin-chin-wa's pardon alone that 
 Norris might be saved ! 
 
236 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Thus thinkinpf, an idea occurred to me. Sup- 
 posing that Chin-chin-vva was able to effect nothing, 
 he might still assist me by reason of his pardon. 
 ' I could do it if Chin-chin-wa could not, that is 
 to say, I might, if need arose, succeed in gaining 
 admittance to the temple myself by impersonating 
 Chin-chin-vva. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa's plan, should the morrow fail to 
 terminate the affair, was that he should at once 
 return to Tientsin, leaving me in Pekin, whilst he 
 fetched Bonsel ; for neither he nor I could believe 
 in complicity between Shan-min-yuen and his 
 German friend. 
 
 Having placed before Bonsel the true state of 
 the case, it was his intention to challenge the 
 friendship of which Bonsel had boasted, and of 
 which we had nearly become the victims, and to 
 say to him, " It lies with you to prove to us your 
 good faith. The detention of William Norris now 
 seriously affects your honour, and you must bring 
 about his escape. How will you do this ? Will 
 you go stealthily to your Chinese friend, and pit 
 your cunning against his, whilst we assist you from 
 afar off; or will you prove your reliance upon your 
 Chinese friendship and your belief in Shan-min- 
 yuen, and go to him to demand the release of 
 his prisoner, with the certainty that he will not 
 refuse ? " 
 
 I had objected to this plan because, as I had 
 said, Bonsel would from the first have refused to 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA ENTERS THE .TEMPLE. 237 
 
 believe in that which was only substantiated by a 
 weak chain of evidence ; for, as yet, we had truly 
 no actual proof against Shan-min-yuen. " How 
 then,'' I said, " will you succeed in bringing Bonsel 
 from Tientsin and, having accomplished this, how 
 will you prevail upon him to believe one word 
 of slander against his friend, or to act in either of 
 the ways you propose ? " 
 
 And Chin-chin-wa had answered me — 
 
 " I shall easily induce him to leave Tientsin. I 
 shall then disclose the truth. And," he added*- 
 with a dark look, " it has come to this — that I 
 shall forfeit Bonsel's life sooner than lose William 
 Norris. Bonsel has brought it upon himself, and 
 I shall tell him that, whatever course he may 
 elect to follow, I, Chin-chin-wa, hold his life as 
 guarantee for the freedom of that of Norris, and 
 that so surely as Norris dies he too will die by 
 my hand." 
 
 To me these measures appeared unjustifiable, 
 since we had both agreed that the German was 
 innocent of the merest suspicion of the actions of 
 his Chinese friend. 
 
 This was the design which occurred to me. 
 
 Upon leaving Pekin on the morrow, Chin-chin-wa 
 should give me his pardon, if nothing had been 
 effected meantime, thus facing, himself, the danger 
 of death if the exile's mark were known of or 
 seen. I should then go to the temple with the 
 pardon, and use its power as though I myself were 
 
2 38 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa. The danger was as great for each ; 
 I knew that he would be willing to face it more 
 readily, if possible, than I. To him it might mean 
 an exile's death. I seemed to see, in my own 
 mind, his great strength baaten down by that of a 
 hundred fiends, and the man dying with the 
 unconquered light still undimmed upon his face. 
 
 Another form of death might await me — the 
 death consequent upon the discovery of treachery 
 — death at the hands of the priests or at the com- 
 mand of Shan-min-yuen ; or, indeed, it might be 
 that I too should be immured side by side with 
 Norris within the temple grounds. 
 
 I laid my sug:jestions before Chin-china-wa. 
 He was not ready to consider them as yet, 
 however, because it was our Intention to -go to the 
 temple before noon on the morrow ; and it was his 
 firm determination to use his pardon himself, for if 
 danger was to be faced he would face it. 
 
 I could say nothing ; for he, possessing the par- 
 don, had the prior right ; and, further, I could not 
 speak Chinese. 
 
 His chance of success, granting that time allowed, 
 was much greater than mine. 
 
 If on the morrow, he failed from any cause, then, 
 he agreed, I might use the pardon in what way I 
 saw fit ; and he, as an unpardoned exile, was willing 
 to face his fellows. But, indeed, I perceived that 
 there was but faint chance of my succeeding if the 
 pardon had once been used unsuccessfully by Chin- 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA ENTERS THE TEMPLE. 239 
 
 chin-wa himself ; and came finally to be of Chin- 
 chin-wa's opinion, that he would be justified in 
 then treating Bonsel as he proposed, holding 
 Bonsel's life as hostage for that of Norris. 
 
 Even in this there was a flaw, for Bonsel was 
 safe once he was in Pekin, since Chin-chin-wa was 
 exiled from the city ; and this I pointed out All 
 the answer I received was this, "If the time comes, 
 we shall see ; but to-morrow is not yet passed." 
 
 During the night I wrote a letter to the Diceys ; 
 to them, at least, I felt that I could write, for Chin- 
 chin-wa agreed with me that they were true men. 
 It was the first letter I had sent them from Pekin, 
 and was to go by special courier (as Chin-chin-wa, 
 through his friend, our host, had arranged for me), 
 to the first steamer at Tientsin. 
 
 I wrote them to this effect : — That we had dis- 
 covered Norris to be confined in the Confucian 
 temple ; that Bonsel's Chinese friend was his 
 captor ; that Chin-chin-wa had been banished 
 from Pekin by this man ; and that the time had 
 come when either our lives would be lost or William 
 Norris saved. And I asked them to seek for us 
 within three weeks, if they received no further 
 news before the expiration of that time, and to 
 reach us as they found best through the medium 
 of Bonsel in Tientsin. I wrote as fully as I was 
 able to do in the present condition of my mind ; 
 and, manipulating the brush which the Chinese use 
 as a pen, with difficulty completed a lengthy letter, 
 to be dispatched early on the coming day. 
 
240 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 The dawn crept upon us as we still sat waiting 
 wearily. We had long ceased talking, but sleep 
 on the dawn of such a day as lay before us was a 
 thing beyond us. 
 
 The night of anxiety slowly passed away, and 
 at last, when we were almost worn out with the 
 strain placed upon us, the hour came, when our 
 palanquins and their Chinese bearers arrived to 
 carry us for miles through tlie streets. 
 
 Dressed in rich garb in the fashion of the wealthy 
 mandarin, and with large spectacles, such as the 
 mandarins wear to cover the eyes and screen the 
 face from dust and from observation, we were borne 
 amongst the carts and camels and mules that 
 crowd the streets, towards our distant goal. 
 
 Now that the swallow's message was indeed bear- 
 ing fruit, I was sad beyond description, as though 
 a great leaden weight liad been fastened to my 
 heart to drag it into a depth of the deepest despair. 
 How much this day must mean to us I fully 
 realised ; yet my chief anxiety and fear was lest 
 Norris, who, so far as we could judge, had yesterday 
 been submitted to torture within the temple, had 
 by now succumbed ; for my mind was strained 
 to such a pitch by the intensity of the situation 
 that I could hardly foresee any possibility of our 
 ultimate success. 
 
 We two — Chin-chin-wa and I — seemed to have 
 taken our stand against an overwhelming fate, 
 which cried out to us at every step, " You shall not 
 succeed — you shall not succeed 1 " 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA ENTERS THE TEMPLE. 241 
 
 How great were the chances against us ! The 
 pardon might fail in power. Norris might be dead, 
 Shan-min-yuen might be even now with his victim, 
 to meet Chin-chin-wa face to face. 
 
 And all had to be accomplished, every danger 
 encountered and passed, before the hour of noon ! 
 
 Is it wonderful that I despaired .' 
 
 At last we reached the temple. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa was calm, as he ever was. I too 
 was calm in a sense from another cause-^the 
 weight of the feelings which crushed me down. 
 
 Little was said. I gave my hand to Chin- 
 chin-wa ; for as he alone held the right to enter 
 the temple, I did not know if I should ever clasp 
 his hand again. 
 
 Our palanquins had been lowered upon the 
 ground, and we stood thus for a Monlent gazing 
 at the temple, which was shaded by its splendid 
 trees. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa moved forwards, and I saw that he 
 held his pardon in his left hand. 
 
 It came over me then with a great wave of 
 emotion that he faced a danger beyond human 
 control, and as I saw that he was leaving me, and 
 realised that I might never look upon his face 
 again, my agony burst from me. 
 
 " May God go with you ! " I cried. 
 
 He turned and answered me, " I do not know 
 your God," and then, without another word, went 
 on, and. I _ stood watching him. as Jijs tall figure 
 
 Q 
 
242 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 passed beneath the trees until he reached the first 
 of the temple halls. 
 
 I cannot say for how long a time I remained 
 thus awaiting his return ; perhaps too deeply filled 
 with an agonized excitement and longing to note 
 that many minutes passed, heaping themselves 
 side by side in the barns of forgotten time. 
 
 A loud cry came of a sudden from somewhere 
 within. 
 
 I think my senses, in the awful anxiety, half 
 forsook me, for I waited dumbly to know the 
 meaning of the cry, straining my ears in expec- 
 tancy of catching a repetition, but no repetition 
 came. 
 
 A crowd had gathered round me — a crowd of 
 fruit and drink sellers, and carters and lepers and 
 vagabonds, looking perhaps upon my costly dress, 
 or perhaps noticing my European face ; but I 
 scarcely knew that I was the object of observation. 
 
 Had Chin-chin-wa met with Shan-min-yuen 
 within the walls ? 
 
 A rush of sudden madness overcame me ; Chin- 
 chin-wa was in danger, and William Norris perhaps 
 dead. I too would force an entrance into the 
 temple, and even violate its sanctity, in order to 
 share with them their fate. 
 
 With these feelings urging me to action, I was 
 on the point of committing some rash act, and had 
 indeed made two rapid steps towards the temple 
 gates, when a counter-impulse caused me abruptly 
 to stop. 
 
CHIN-CHIN-WA ENTERS THE TEMPLE. 243 
 
 Chin-chin-vva had appeared at the entrance to 
 the temple building ! With three priests on either 
 side, and others following behind, he came towards 
 me, and towards freedom, step by step over the 
 shadows of the trees upon the stone-paved path. 
 
 As he came nearer I saw that he carried some- 
 thing heavy in his arms, though with his great 
 strength he walked erect as always. The moments 
 beat into my brain as he advanced, until he with 
 the priests reached the gate, and there he came 
 forth uninjured with his burden in his arms. 
 
 Then I realised that it was a man's attenuated 
 form that he bore, for I saw the bare feet, one of 
 wliich was covered with blood, and the coarse 
 Chinese dress he wore, and I looked upon his life- 
 less face which hung back over Chin-chin-wa's 
 arm. 
 
 It was pale and drawn as with a long agony, and 
 the head was half shaved. 
 
 " My God 1 " I half gasped, " is this then William 
 X orris ? " 
 
 The crowd surged around us, and Chin-chin-wa 
 answered me wildly, 
 
 '' I do not know." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PRIESTLY PLANS TO UNDERMINE A SOUL. 
 
 When we left Norris in the Temple of Confucius 
 it was winter time, and he was clad in the heavy 
 padded garments such as the Chinese wear in the 
 north as a protection against the cold, and with furs 
 in addition, for the Pekin winter is severe indeed. 
 
 He resembled a wild beast, moving to and fro 
 in confinement, when we parted with him. We 
 return to him some months later, when the terrible 
 effects of the agony caused by the dropping of 
 the molten lead upon his skin had begun to wear 
 away. 
 
 Slowly indeed did Norris come to know that his 
 senses were still preserved to him, that he had 
 passed through the ordeal, that he had suffered 
 the priestly rite of the molten lead and had still 
 survived. 
 
 The cold, assisting the man's natural strength, 
 gradually effected his return to perfect sanity ; but 
 Norris's senses awoke to life again — as sometimes 
 occurs with the human brain — with a complete 
 
PRIESTLY PLANS. 245 
 
 forgetfulness of the agony through which he had 
 passed. 
 
 Up to a certain point his recollection served him ; 
 beyond that there was a blank which he set down 
 to a species of delirium, a delirium which he fancied 
 had its commencement with the entry long ago of 
 the priests and the strange Chinaman to the temple 
 building, where Norris had then lain as a captive 
 chained by the ankle to the ground. 
 
 Thus, to his mind, he had never been shaved ; 
 for he could not recall what had succeeded to the 
 first entry of the barber whom he did not then, and 
 did not now, recognise as such. 
 
 During the weeks that had gone by his captors 
 had left him to himself; not that they pitied him, 
 or felt remorse, when his piteous, half-whining cry 
 reached their ears, but that there was little use to 
 torture a man in such a state. 
 
 Perhaps it was that their minds had been sated 
 for a certain time with cruelty, or perhaps, that 
 some command came to them from the power 
 without the temple walls. Be that as it may, 
 Norris was left to himself during many weeks ; and 
 to this rule there were but few exceptions. One 
 day, indeed, the priests had opened the door 
 leading into the court and pointed towards the 
 prisoner as though explaining matters to a 
 Chinaman in rich dress of red embroidered silk, 
 who stood at the door in their midst. 
 
 Norris had even then been creeping upon the 
 
246 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 ground upon his hands and knees, as though there 
 was something above him which he feared, and 
 which he strove to avoid in this way. For he had 
 fallen into a strange manner of crawling upon the 
 ground, lest the drops that had fallen should fall 
 again, and thus, in his temporary madness, he strove 
 to avoid them by going lower and lower until he 
 lay upon the ground. The Chinaman, with the 
 rich dress, whom the priests had now brought, had 
 stood watching him without pity, then at length 
 had turned away and Norris was alone once more. 
 
 The other exceptions to his solitude were occa- 
 sioned by the visits of the priests, for these men 
 would come to watch his movements, and, as it 
 were, to gloat over his misery and the helpless 
 state of the man's mind. 
 
 April came, and with April came the return of 
 spring. The winter, severe whilst it lasts, breaks 
 suddenly in Pekin ; and as Norris regained his for- 
 mer state of mind, and as his madness passed away, 
 the days came when the heavy clothing was no 
 longer needed, and when he could sleep at nights 
 without the covering of the skins given to him. 
 It may be that, looking upon him for a time as 
 mad and never now likely to recover, the priests 
 became used to the fact of his existence ; for long 
 before this he had become merely as a thing which 
 belonged to the temple, as might a goat or a cow. 
 
 Although he was thus allowed to recover from 
 the effects of the lead — effects which had beeu 
 
PRIESTLY PLANS. 247 
 
 of prolonged duration — he was not totally for- 
 gotten. Little attention had been paid to him for 
 weeks, and none knew, save the leaden-brained 
 man who brought him his food, that Norris was 
 once more sane and well, until, upon a day in mid 
 April, several of the priests paid a visit to their 
 half- forgotten prisoner. 
 
 To their surprise they found that the madness 
 had passed away, and that Norris was once more 
 in that condition in which he might be tortured and 
 made to expiate his old, old sin, the strangling of 
 the priest. 
 
 To Norris the visit caused some anxiety ; for, 
 although till recently he had not regained a condi- 
 tion of mental capacity to notice such things, he 
 still knew that for three weeks past he had been 
 alone and unlooked upon save by the eyes of the 
 man who brought him his food — a man who 
 reminded him in no way of a priest, though he was 
 one, for his heavy eye and visage betokened a 
 dulness of brain incompatible with the customary 
 shrewdness of the Chinese priest. 
 
 He was a priest none the less, though in truth he 
 was a half-imbecile, and for this reason employed 
 by his brethren to do the menial work. Matters 
 were not now as formerly, when Norris had required 
 surveillance, and the semi-idiot priest was sufficient 
 guard upon a man himself driven mad by pain. 
 
 Thus the unlooked-for visit caused Norris no 
 little trouble in his inmost thoughts ; for although 
 
248 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 not yet so strong as to be by any means able to 
 contemplate escape, he perceived that the priests 
 might deem him to be so, and in this he was not 
 far wrong. 
 
 Within four days he was removed from the court- 
 yard to his old spot of captivity, where the ring 
 was fixed in the ground to which his ankle was 
 chained ; and further, his captors, realising his 
 sanity, cast about in their own minds for some fresh 
 torture to inflict. 
 
 It has been said that to Norris, on recovering 
 possession of his senses, such an ordeal as that 
 of the molten lead had never taken place, in so far 
 as he had completely forgotten the whole of the 
 occurrences of that time, even including the shaving 
 of his head. 
 
 - Upon his head had grown new hair ; but Norris 
 did not know that it was new, or that it was a 
 strange shade of white, nor did he recall one inci- 
 dent of that time, which by a mental freak had 
 become a blank. 
 
 It is probable that he might never have remem- 
 bered it but for the torture imposed upon him 
 immediately upon the discovery that his sanity 
 of mind was an assured fact. 
 
 The Chinese are a calculating nation. They 
 know well that agony of mind may be even greater 
 than agony of body, and it was upon the mind of 
 Norris that they had now determined to place the 
 strain. 
 
PRIESTLY -PLANS. 249 
 
 They knew nothing of his forgetfulness of the 
 most hideous hours of his Hfe ; they did not guess 
 that all recollection of the ghastly rite was dead to 
 Norris ; and they considered, therefore, that Norris 
 might fear a repetition of the past if they took tlie 
 first steps leading to the torture for a second time. 
 
 The fear of a thing, so they argued, is some- 
 times even worse than the reality itself So, 
 knowing that Norris could not yet bear the bodily 
 tortures in store, they decided to act upon his mind 
 by causing him to undergo a second time the pre- 
 liminaries of the torture of the molten lead ; only 
 these — no more. 
 
 Had they guessed that by this means they 
 were destined to recall to the miserable man all 
 that had passed during that time, which by God's 
 mercy had become a blank, they would have 
 seen that no torture more devilish than that 
 which they had determined to inflict could have 
 been invented by the subtle cruelty of their priestly 
 minds. 
 
 When the mental faculties of the individual man 
 exhibit a partial blank, such as had come upon 
 William Norris — a thing of not unusual occurrence 
 under the pressure of some sudden blow of mis- 
 fortune — a system is frequently followed which 
 leads the mind to recall everything from the 
 recollection of some trifle round which incidents 
 immediately cluster and gather till the whole 
 past is laid bare. 
 
250 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 So strange a thing is the memory of man, that 
 the striking of a chord upon the piano, or the 
 scent of a flower borne upon the breeze, will in- 
 stantly bring before the mental eye some scene of 
 a long-forgotten past, calling, as it were, from the 
 world of the dead bygone events to live in dream 
 again. 
 
 Thus, though the priests were ignorant of what 
 they did, they were actually about to follow the 
 only course which could bring back to William 
 Norris that part of his confinement which was now 
 entirely blotted from the page of memory. 
 
 To them, what they were about to do was merely 
 to terrify him with the idea of a repetition ; in 
 reality it meant the re-awakening of the whole 
 ghastly memory before this could be accomplished. 
 
 There was little, indeed, in what they now pro- 
 ceeded to do. The old scene was repeated in its 
 earlier stages. 
 
 Norris, as he lay upon the ground, tied by the 
 ankle so that he might not escape, perceived two 
 of his captors enter, and with them came the third 
 man — the man whose face was the last link 
 between memory and the blank — the Chinese 
 barber who had shaved his head. 
 
 On their entry, Norris was in utter ignorance of 
 what was about to be done. The two priests 
 watched him with disappointment ; for it had been 
 expected that on first seeing the barber Norris 
 would at once jump to the conclusion that the 
 
PRIESTLY PLANS. 251 
 
 whole ordeal had a second time to be undergone — 
 an impression which would be heightened as the 
 man proceeded in the execution of his duty ; and 
 it was the intention to bring Norris so far and no 
 further — to shave his head as in the old time, and 
 to leave him a prey to expectancy of a repetition 
 of his terrible doom — a doom which, always ex- 
 pected, would always seem to be near and yet never 
 come ! 
 
 What device could much exceed in cruelty 
 that of the present conception of the temple 
 priests ? 
 
 Instead of exhibiting fear at the entry of the 
 barber, however, Norris watched his movements 
 curiously ; for, as yet, he knew absolutely nothing 
 of what might be in store, and was, indeed, in as 
 complete ignorance of the torture of the molten 
 lead as he had been months before, when the barber 
 had last been at work upon his head. But his 
 mind questioned within itself; for he was puzzled, 
 since it seemed to him that he recollected having 
 seen the barber before, and yet could go no further. 
 
 His reasoning faculties were upon the alert. 
 " What had it been ? " he questioned himself; " and 
 where and when ? " 
 
 At this point the Chinamen approached him, 
 and in a few seconds he found himself tightly 
 bound. 
 
 What were they about to do ? What could it 
 all mean ? His dread was partly dissipated by a 
 
252 THE CAPTIVE OP' PEKIN. 
 
 vague wonder, but still he feared strangely whilst 
 the barber bent over his head. 
 
 Then he felt the knife touch him, and the pecu- 
 liar feeling of the moving of the Chinese razor 
 suddenly set his whole mind ablaze with an 
 intensity of overpowering sensations, the one 
 struggling with the other, and still all was dark ; 
 but as the man proceeded slowly and carefully, as 
 was his habit, and Norris realised that his head 
 was being shaved, a sudden shoot of pain went 
 through his heart and seemed to still everything 
 else, and then immediately afterwards his memory 
 awoke. 
 
 He .seemed to see his own head half bared, and 
 upon his forehead, where the hair used to be, there 
 were five round spots, which he felt eating into his 
 brain as though the lead had been molten in each 
 a second time. This it was that flashed across his 
 recollection, bringing the whole of a forgotten 
 horror instantly before him. 
 
 With a loud despairing cry he became senseless, 
 and the Chinamen knew that they had not been 
 wrong ! 
 
 The barber had now no need to proceed with his 
 task. A terrible uncertainty would face Norris on 
 the return of consciousness — the endless wondering 
 when the time would come and when the lead 
 would fall. 
 
 All that they had desired was done ; so the bar- 
 ber put up his implements, and left Norris with the 
 
PRIESTLY PLANS. 253 
 
 fore part of his head shaven and the back untouched ; 
 and, strange as it may seem, the hair did not grow 
 again upon the shaven part for many, many months 
 to come. 
 
 When his senses returned, there returned also 
 the vision of that terrible time when, with the crowd 
 of priests around him, he had been tied to the up- 
 right post ; and his hands would now wander ever 
 and anon to his forehead, as though to linger upon 
 the spots laid bare a second time by the renewed 
 shaving of his head. 
 
 In addition to the hideous recollection of the past 
 — the more vivid now that it had been recalled 
 from darkness — there was the gnawing dread of the 
 future, as designed by the priests, at a heart filled 
 with doubt and expectation and endless fear. 
 
 He would start at the slightest noise, and the 
 mere appearance of the man who brought his food 
 would act upon his nerves in the most acute man- 
 ner, for the sight of a fellow-creature had, to his 
 agonized mind, become as a thing foreboding ill. 
 
 In the meantime, whilst he was a prey to all the 
 combined feelings which form the tissue of supreme 
 mental agony, the news had gone beyond the walls, 
 and reached a higher ear than that of any member 
 of the priesthood, that Norris was once more sane 
 and in possession of his reasoning faculties. 
 
 It occurred to Norris frequently to wonder (when 
 for a little he succeeded in partially banishing the 
 pervading fears which had grown as a part of his 
 
254 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 existence), as to what had ensued upon the return 
 of his false cheque. 
 
 It will be remembered that from someone' un- 
 known he had received two notes demanding money 
 as recompense for his freedom — a freedom which 
 had never come to be an accomplished fact, and 
 that he gave in answer a false order upon his home 
 bankers' signed with a fictitious name. 
 
 He had calculated that four months might bring 
 the return message from England, to the effect that 
 his cheque was valueless and a forgery ; and as 
 this time must have now expired, he marvelled 
 that he had heard nothing from his captor — the 
 man who sought to extort a ransom by his con- 
 finement. 
 
 Norris was unaware that his imprisonment had 
 been of such length as had been the actual case, for 
 inadness had in a measure caused him to pass 
 through the winter months almost as it were in a 
 dream ; but he guessed that his confinement had 
 been at least of more than four months' duration. 
 
 The reason that he had heard nothing as to the 
 return of the false order from England was this — 
 that he had not then been in a fit condition to hear 
 or understand, and that on the single occasion upon 
 which a visit had been paid to him by the man 
 whose orders had first kept him captive in the 
 temple, and whose wishes still over-ruled those of 
 the priesthood, he found Norris in one of the worst 
 phases of that temporary lunacy which, at that 
 
PRIESTLY PLANS. 255 
 
 time, he and the priests alike regarded as a thinj; 
 that could not be lifted from the captive's mind. 
 
 So the man had been temporarily baulked ; for 
 his victim had escaped him — so he thought— by 
 going mad. 
 
 Norris's return to sanity meant, therefore, that 
 once more he came beneath his enemy's control. 
 It meant, moreover, the resumption of the torture 
 and that of the attempted blackmail. 
 
 It may be that the unknown who had, in the 
 earlier days of the Englishman's captivity, deemeJ 
 it well only to write notes instead of appearing in 
 person to interview and intimidate the prisoner, 
 had then had some idea that liberty might be 
 given to William Norris ultimately, since he was 
 thus careful to hide his face. 
 
 Now, however, after the passing of months, when 
 all concerned with the dastardly affair, even down to 
 Norris himself, were becoming accustomed to a 
 state of things, the novelty of which had completely 
 worn off, it was no longer a necessity to deal with' the 
 captive by writing ; for what was to be feared by 
 the disclosure of person or face ? 
 
 So it came to pass that Norris at last beheld his 
 captor, as he might have beheld him long since, 
 when he had stood upon the temple steps looking 
 down upon him ; but Norris's brain had been clouded 
 at that time, and his eyes filled with a light beyond 
 which he could not truly see. 
 
 It was a bad sign indeed, for Norris, that he saw 
 
256 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 his enemy at length ; for his coming was proof, 
 was it not, that the Englishman's captivity was 
 now perpetual, since he who held him in bondage 
 openly showed his face, and in person came to 
 make his demand ? 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE WITH THE SILENT PRIEST. 
 
 Some ten days after the infliction of the priests' 
 foul design of mental torture, Norris lay half 
 reclining upon the ground one morning, watching 
 sadly, as was his custom, for the passing of an occa- 
 sional swallow across the court which opened from 
 the temple in which he was chained ; and dwelling 
 with vain conjecture and with a feeling of bitter- 
 ness upon the fate of the messages which he had 
 given to the air so uselessly months and months 
 ago. 
 
 The birds had returned with the spring, and had 
 begun to rebuild their nests. Now and then one 
 of them would flit across the court, swooping low, 
 it might be, and rising again to reach its nest in 
 the temple-eave. 
 
 As each passed, Norris would look keenly at it, 
 vainly endeavouring to see if those birds which 
 carried his messages had returned to the temple, 
 and, strangely enough, almost hoping that they had 
 done so ; for, in his loneliness, a great love for the 
 
2s8 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 birds filled him, for, as they alone carried the tale 
 of his misery, they seemed thus to have something 
 in common with him. 
 
 Pure and beautiful birds, he regarded them as 
 friends, possessing the secret of his imprisonment 
 — a secret belonging, so he thought, only to the 
 priesthood, and to an enemy outside, for he did not 
 know of one who, thousands of miles distant from 
 him, had yet started for Pekin, nor was he aware 
 that his message by the swallow's wing was already 
 in another's hands. 
 
 It was upon the morning mentioned that the 
 visitor came to him. He was a tall man, some- 
 what slight of build for the Northern Chinese, a 
 race which has gained from the Tartar much of 
 its strength ; — his face was a cruel one ; — his eye 
 keen. 
 
 Norris guessed instinctively that this must be 
 the man who, as his enemy, had kept him confined 
 under the priests' control. 
 
 He perceived that the Chinaman must be one 
 of high rank, since his garb was of the richest 
 silk, and embroidered with the dragon, which he 
 knew that only those of high degree had the right 
 to wear. 
 
 Several of the priests accompanied the man- 
 darin. 
 
 Norris, by an effort, conquered that feeling of 
 fear which the mere approach of the Chinese 
 priests caused him, and sought inwardly to collect 
 strength. 
 
The mandarin approached and stood over him.—/. 260. 
 
26o THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 The mandarin approached and stood over him, 
 looking down upon him with a cruel and sneering 
 glance. 
 
 " You pay ! " he said slowly ; — for he spoke 
 English with difificulty, and in laconic and stilted 
 measure — 
 
 "You pay this note!" He held in his hand the 
 false order which he had retained after its refusal, 
 and a letter which had evidently accompanied it. 
 " Read ! " he continued ; and as he spoke, he bent 
 slightly forwards. Norris half rose, and took the 
 letter from his hand. The Chinaman watched him 
 coldly as he read, which he did slowly, perhaps 
 with the wish to frame some plan of denial and 
 thus to gain time. 
 
 The document which he held in his hand was a 
 short note, dated long previous. It was in English, 
 but not the best of English, and written evidently 
 by a foreigner ; from which fact it was evident that 
 the Chinese recipient was not a master of many 
 foreign tongues, or the letter had not been in 
 English — thus it ran : — 
 
 "To Shan-min-yuen, in the City Imperial, Pekin. 
 
 " The English cheque I am sending you returned ; for it 
 is not good. It is returned from the English banlc, and I 
 am waiting to know how I must say it has been given. 
 The bank is no more knowing him ; for there is no such 
 name as you see noted there. I am paying all small 
 charge, and my friends ask explanations ; so please inform 
 how I shall act, for the amount is great. From whom are 
 
STRUGGLE WITH THE SILENT PRIEST. 261 
 
 you obtaining this note? Advise me, that I may assist to 
 obtain recourse. I am writing you more very soon, but 
 now send you the note only in haste, that you may lose no 
 time ; and other things must stand some days. 
 
 " Yours truly, — L. Bonsel." 
 
 As Norris read these lines a sickening feeling 
 overcame him. 
 
 A European, then, was hand and glove with 
 this Chinaman, and was aiding him and abetting 
 him in his system of extortion. One of his own 
 fellows — for Norris never looked upon the Chinese 
 as his fellows — was plotting against him. How, 
 then, could he escape his doom ? For a second 
 cheque would come back like the first ; .or this 
 European might ascertain, without presenting it, 
 that the false name had no account at the bank. 
 
 The mere idea that it was a European who was 
 the moving spirit of his imprisonment and his 
 misery crushed him, and then anger welled up 
 within him in a futile rebellion against his fate. 
 
 He rose to his feet, and, crushing the note in 
 his hand, threw it from him, and stood facing the 
 tall Chinaman, whose brow darkened ominously 
 at the act. 
 
 One of the priests picked up the crumpled 
 letter, whilst Norris, carried away by his feelings, 
 and standing at the full length of the chain around 
 his ankle, burst out vehemently in a torrent of 
 words, half curse and half defiance, whilst the 
 
262 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Chinaman addressed stood at a little distance, 
 listening with a cold smile. 
 
 Norris's voice sounded strangely to his own ear, 
 for he had not spoken for so long that he had half 
 forgotten how to modulate its tones. 
 
 The mandarin waited till the passion had spent 
 itself 
 
 Then he spoke. 
 
 " You are prisoner : words are nothing. You 
 deceive ; then evil things come. If you pay true 
 note you go free. Shan-min-yuen knows the true 
 note." 
 
 Norris, still in the agony of his distressed state 
 of mind, wondered dimly if this was true. Had 
 the Chipaman guessed his ruse, and known from 
 the first that the note was false ? And had he by 
 this act brought upon himself the terrible tortures 
 which had ensued ? 
 
 It was an awful thought, that for a thousand 
 pounds he might perhaps have been spared all, 
 might have been a free man, and he had hesitated 
 to pay that sum ! Norris did not know that much, 
 nay, perhaps the whole of his past torture had been 
 consequent on his murder of the priest and in 
 expiation of that sin. Nor had he taken account 
 of the date of the note which he had crushed and 
 thrown from him, or he would have concluded 
 differently. 
 
 "Once more," Shan-min-yuen continued, " I 
 give you chance. Write true note fifty English- 
 man's hundred pounds, you go free." 
 
STRUGGLE WITH THE SILENT PRIEST. 263 
 
 So the sum was increased from one thousand 
 pounds to five thousand pounds. Norris had 
 scarcely so large a cash amount in the hands of 
 his bankers. To obtain it he would require to 
 instruct the disposal of some securities. How 
 could he do this from the Temple of Confucius, 
 where every line from his pen would be scrutinized 
 most closely, and destroyed if to the Chinese 
 mind there was the slightest trace of aught of a 
 suspicious nature? 
 
 What, then, was he to do ? The former demand 
 he might have met. This he could not — that is to 
 say, without the ability to write instructions in full. 
 Bitterness filled him. If, indeed, the Chinaman spoke 
 the truth, and had known that his previous note 
 was false, then it was likely, granting that he now 
 signed with his own name, and gave the increased 
 sum demanded, that his previous deceit would 
 still be held as reason to keep him a captive, for 
 months to come, until the money was truly paid. 
 And when it was paid, what then ? So long a 
 time would have elapsed that the Chinaman would 
 have forgotten his promise. 
 
 Norris guessed something of the avaricious nature 
 of the race, and felt a hopeless foreboding and a 
 fear that when the true order had been paid, and 
 the news that the money had been secured came 
 back to Pekin, this would only incite his captors 
 to fresh cruelty and to an unending system of 
 promises never to be fulfilled, by which they 
 
264 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 might drain to the uttermost both his fortune and 
 his hope. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen waited for his answer, whilst 
 Norris, with a dogged, sullen look upon his face, 
 reviewed the situation. 
 
 " Well," said the Chinaman at last, " you under- 
 stand ? " 
 
 " I understand," came the slow answer. " I will 
 pay you this amount for my immediate freedom." 
 
 An idea occurred to him as he spoke ; a wave of 
 hope succeeded to his despair. " You will take 
 me from here, and then I will pay a true note." 
 
 The mandarin regarded him with a smile. 
 
 " You pay here," was his answer. "If )'OU pay 
 true, you are free." 
 
 It was as Norris had anticipated. His order 
 must go to England for payment before he should 
 be set free. The transaction must be completed 
 before freedom could be hoped for. The momen- 
 tary hope was gone. 
 
 " I will p:iy a true note when I am free," he 
 answered ; "' not now." 
 
 " You pay now ! " said the mandarin in a com- 
 manding tone. ■ You receive no choice ; j-ou pay 
 now." 
 
 " I refuse," was the firm repl\-. " I pay after, 
 not before." 
 
 Shan-min-\-uen looked at him. They were a 
 strange contrast, the two — Norris, with his half- 
 shaven head and his grey hairs, and with the 
 
STRUGGLE WITH THE SILENT PRIEST. 265 
 
 drawn look upon his face, facing his foe firmly as 
 he stood before him ; the Chinaman, tall and 
 richly dressed, looking callously, with a hard 
 light in his eyes, upon the prisoner whom he had 
 determined to subdue. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen spoke to the priests. One of 
 these departed, and a moment or two later returned 
 with paper and Chinese ink and pen. 
 
 These he placed upon the floor, within reach 
 of the captive, and then Shan-min-yuen again 
 addressed him : 
 
 " English fool ! you write true note very soon ; 
 evil things can make you write." 
 
 Norris dimly knew what was meant. 
 "When you write true," continued the mandarin, 
 " I come again : you write soon — you write soon." 
 
 With a sneer he turned away, and ere Norris 
 could speak again he had gone. 
 
 " Evil things can make you write." What evil 
 things ? Was it further torture — further applica- 
 tion of the molten lead ? His brain reeled at the 
 thought. 
 
 Yes, this man had power over him, and might 
 command him as he should please. Tortures 1 he 
 could not bear them now ; his constitution was 
 ruined by what had already been inflicted. He 
 could not bear the repetition of the hideous days 
 gone by. What was he to do ? 
 
 Shan-min-yuen ! who was he, that the priests 
 obeyed him ? and how came it, that it was he who 
 
266 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 now commanded Norris to pay this sum ? Had 
 it been, then, by the mandarin's orders that he had 
 first been captured? Nay, surely not; for it had 
 been but by a chance that he had visited the 
 temple upon the day from which dated all his 
 misery. 
 
 Who, then, was this Shan-min-yuen ? He 
 questioned in vain. 
 
 This, however, was clear, that whosoever he was, 
 he held the power, and that he meant to use that 
 power to enrich himself, not by the death of his 
 captive, but by torturing him, and by the papers 
 the wretched man would thus be forced to sign. 
 
 For how could Norris stand against Chinese 
 torture? The yielding-time jiiust come: was it 
 not better, he asked himself bitterly, that it should 
 be now — now before his life was further sapped ; 
 now before his brain became again a hell ; now 
 before the lead should drop again ? 
 
 To Norris there was nothing more hideous than 
 the lead. He looked forward to suffering thus 
 again because his head had been half-shaved, and 
 he saw the awful moments drawing near him now 
 that Shan-min-yuen had come and gone. 
 
 Filled with agonised thought, he gave vent to 
 his despair in sobs of agony, weeping as a woman 
 might weep, tears which, coming like drops of 
 blood from his heart, yet eased him. 
 
 He was alone, and it was well. His broken 
 spirit prompted him to yield : he could not face 
 what was to come. 
 
STRUGGLE WITH THE SILENT PRIEST. 267 
 
 Already the threat of Shan-min-yuen was bear- 
 ing fruit. The yielding-time had already come ! 
 
 He turned to the paper placed near him, and 
 took the Chinese brush in his hand, dipping it in 
 the ink ; and then — kneeling upon the ground, this 
 strange-looking man traced certain lines in a hand- 
 writing different indeed from that of William 
 Norris, and yet written by him as true, as from his 
 own hand, and signed with his own name. 
 
 It was an order to his bankers to raise the neces- 
 sary funds, and to pay the sum of five thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 Norris had been easily conquered in the 
 end ! 
 
 Deeply engrossed in his work, seeing nothing, 
 and hearing nothing, so intent was he, and so filled 
 with the thoughts which had caused his yielding, 
 Norris had scarcely finished the last letter of his 
 name, when a hand was laid upon the paper upon 
 which he wrote. 
 
 Norris looked up, and saw that one of the 
 priests had returned, and had now bent over him 
 to take the order which he had signed. 
 
 This action caused an immediate revulsion of 
 feeling. The Chinaman held the paper, and had 
 half drawn it away : Norris seized it firmly, for he 
 instantly felt that his act had been premature. 
 
 His weakness in yielding was patent to him. 
 The paper must not leave his hand ; it must be 
 destroyed. 
 
268 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 The Chinaman, perhaps irritated at the deten- 
 tion of the paper, or it may be, perceiving 
 intuitively the impulse which actuated the English- 
 man, instantly released his hold ; and before 
 Norris could properly secure the sheet, a severe 
 blow upon the head knocked him over upon his 
 side ; for the Chinaman, using both hands clasped 
 together, had struck him heavily, hoping, no doubt, 
 thus to end the struggle. 
 
 The blow fortunately had not struck Norris on 
 the temple, and although by its severity he was 
 momentarily separated from the written paper, he 
 recovered himself as the Chinaman lifted the sheet. 
 With a terrible and despairing effort, he rose and 
 threw himself after the man, forgetful of the chain 
 around his ankle. 
 
 There was a wrench upon his ankle, causing 
 acute agony ; but Norris was maddened, and did 
 not feel the full force of the pain, and, as the 
 Chinaman was just moving beyond his reach, he 
 caught his enemy by the foot and held on — as the 
 chain at bis own ankle held on — with iron force. 
 
 A few seconds only had been occupied by the 
 whole occurrence ; the Chinaman had knocked 
 him to the ground, had seized the paper, and had 
 then himself been seized. The priest felt that he 
 was now slowly, yet none the less surely, being 
 drawn back with the energy which despair gave 
 to the Englishman's clutch. 
 
 Norris and he were alone ; and he, althouo-h 
 
■a. 
 I 
 c 
 
STRUGGLE WITH THE SILENT PRIEST. 271 
 
 Norris did not know it, was one of those few 
 priests whose vows bind them to everlasting 
 silence. 
 
 This was the reason that he made no cry. 
 
 He had been silent for fourteen years, and now, 
 facing peril, no sound issued from his priestly 
 lips. 
 
 He dropped the paper upon the ground, and 
 turned, bending his body double, as he now lay on 
 the ground, in order to bite Norris's hand ; but the 
 mere action brought him further within the English- 
 man's reach, and before he could succeed in his 
 design, another hand was fastened upon him, and 
 then a terrible struggle commenced. 
 
 Norris, at the end of his chain, with the iron 
 ring tearing at his foot, fought like one possessed, 
 whilst the priest, although a much older man, had 
 still the remnants of a strength once great ; and 
 they rolled over together in a struggle of life and 
 death, within the confines of the chain. 
 
 It may be that the wrenching pain upon his 
 ankle gave Norris an added strength, for he slowly 
 forced the other back ; and although the China- 
 man strove with his teeth to grip Norris by the 
 neck, he was gradually overcome, till at last 
 Norris's hand was upon the priest's throat. 
 
 The priest still struggled, and fought wildly ; 
 but the hand-clench was a thing from which there 
 was no escaping, and with the Chinaman the teeth 
 had more power than the hands. 
 
272 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 So his head was held back for a few seconds till 
 his face became dark, and his grasp lessened ; and 
 Norris knew then that he had nothing now to fear, 
 and himself sank back wounded and exhausted 
 beside his foe. 
 
 It was indeed fortunate for Norris that his grip 
 upon the priestly throat relaxed, for he had come 
 within an ace of a second murder, and a second 
 desecration of the temple wherein he lay. 
 
 The Chinaman still lived, though he had stood 
 on the very threshold of death. 
 
 Thus the two men lay — Norris panting alike 
 with the exertion of the struggle and the pain 
 which he still endured — and the priest, unconscious, 
 by his side. 
 
 As he lay thus, it flashed across Norris that he 
 had not secured the paper after all, for it was 
 before him at a little distance upon the ground. 
 
 His faculties seemed to grip together as though 
 his every sense crushed into a narrow space a 
 single aching desire. 
 
 The paper was beyond his reach ! 
 
CHAPTER XVIir. 
 
 " TORTURE, BUT DO NOT KILL." 
 
 The situation to Norris, in the overstrung condition 
 of his nerves, was horrible in the extreme. 
 
 It was a little thing surely that the paper which 
 he had written and signed for his captors should 
 have been taken from him, and should now be 
 apparently beyond recovery. But it must be 
 remembered that he had been driven by weakness 
 to write it, having visions of self-conceived and 
 hideous tortures before him, and that the revulsion 
 of feeling had been heightened till the little thing 
 grew into a great thing through the terrible life- 
 and-death struggle with the silent priest. 
 
 That his strength, called upon alike by the emer- 
 gency of the moment and by the wrenching pain 
 upon his foot, should have sustained him only that 
 he should be conquered by adversity in the end, 
 was bitter indeed, and it is little wonder that, in 
 the intensity of his desire, his every thought was 
 concentrated on how to reach the paper upon the 
 
 s 
 
2 74 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 ground before him by any means possible, ere 
 another priest should enter the temple. 
 
 So excited was he, that some minutes passed ere 
 he hit upon a very simple expedient which might 
 yet brin:^r the paper within his reach. 
 
 Lying at the full length of his chain, he was still 
 about a yard short of the necessary distance ; but 
 he now recollected that the insensible frame of the 
 priest whom he believed to be dead was beside 
 him, and that the priest's arm might accomplish 
 what his own could not. 
 
 Taking hold of his late enemy's arm, he dragged 
 the priest's body forward, and thus, lying upon his 
 face, he stretched out the insensible arm to the 
 paper, which it was just sufficiently long enough to 
 reach. 
 
 His face came within an inch of that of the 
 Chinaman, but so intent was he on his task that he 
 did not notice that the other's features almost 
 touched his own. He pushed forward the man's 
 body so that his outspread hand fell upon the 
 edge of the paper, but the priestlv palm could not 
 c utch it to draw it tovvards him. 
 
 Then ens.ued moments of intense anxiet)', for 
 the body of his foe was heavy and difficult to move, 
 and the arm, although reaching the paper, scarcely 
 moved it, every motion being so slow. At length 
 Norris saw that he was making progress, for by 
 repeated efforts he had succeeded in causing the 
 priest's arm to draw the paper an inch or two 
 
"TORTURE, BUT DO NOT KILL." 275 
 
 nearer him, and in a few moments more he felt 
 that, if he were still alone and undisturbed by the 
 return of others of his captors, he would hold the 
 order in his hand. 
 
 Nearer and yet nearer it came, though Norris, 
 worn out with his conflict, found it hard indeed 
 to move the arm and body of the priest, as was 
 necessary to his design. 
 
 The paper was crumpled on the far side ; but 
 the part nearest to him lay flat upon the ground, 
 wherein had consisted the primary difficulty. 
 
 But now that it had once been moved, all was 
 well ; and Norris was about to stretch forth his 
 own hand, thinking that the paper might be 
 within his own utmost reach, when the lips, a 
 few inches from his own, emitted a long-drawn 
 sigh. 
 
 He felt his enemy's breath upon his cheek, and 
 shuddered terribly, for he had believed the man 
 to be dead ; whereas, by the working of the arm, 
 he had him.self helped to bring about the return to 
 consciousness, for his efforts had something of the 
 effect, though in a smaller degree, of those expe- 
 dients used to recall a man to life when breath has 
 been suspended by partial drowning. 
 
 He looked upon the priest's face, becoming aware 
 for the first time that it was close to his, and with 
 horror he realised that his foe was not dead, or, 
 rather as it appeared to him the Chinaman had 
 been dead, and was now restored to life. 
 
276 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 The discovery seemed to suspend the beating of 
 his heart. 
 
 It had been horrible to use the dead limbs for 
 the attainment of his object ; it was more horrible 
 still to use the living arm to complete his task. 
 
 For a second it came to him that he might even 
 now finish the work which he had looked upon as 
 done, namely, the killing of the priest ; but his 
 English honour rebelled at the thought, and he 
 could not. 
 
 Little time was given to him for consideration, 
 for at this juncture, through the open doorway, he 
 perceived two other priests crossing the courtyard 
 and approaching him. Stfuggling to still his fears 
 he once more seized tiie priest's arm and stretched 
 it forth till the hand rested again upon the paper — a 
 second time he did this, and the paper was within 
 reach — but the Chinaman was already moving 
 ill his grasp, and the two others, who had newly 
 come, stood within the temple. 
 
 Norris clutched the paper wildly in his hand, and 
 tore it into shreds. 
 
 The priests were upon him instantly. To them 
 it was evident that the Englishman was murdering 
 a member of their brotherhood whom he had held 
 in his arms as they reached the Temple Hall. 
 
 But neither they nor their fellows ever knew the 
 true meaning of the Englishman's act, apparently 
 strangling, at one moment, a member of their 
 priesthood, the next wildly tearing a paper into 
 
"TORTURE, BUT DO NOT KILL." 277 
 
 m^ny pieces, as they sprang forward and cast 
 themselves upon him, for the priest was a silent 
 man, and could not tell them in the days to come 
 pf a struggle whose origin and cause he and Norris 
 alone had known. 
 
 Norris, to the priests' thinking, had failed in 
 his design, and had escaped by a hair's breadth 
 from a second murder ; but he was, from this 
 time forth, regarded as a dangerous man, and one 
 to be watched constantly by the temple priests. 
 
 The result of Shan-min-yuen's visit was not at 
 once brought forcibly home to the prisoner after 
 this event. Hour succeeded hour in a monotony 
 of fear, but the priests made no immediate move, 
 after effecting the rescue, as they deemed it, of 
 their half-throttled and silent brother. 
 
 Further than a minute surveillance upon his 
 every act, he was not immediately subjected to 
 the tortures which he still anticipated must surely 
 come. 
 
 The threat, perhaps, was allowed time to eat its 
 way into his heart before the accomplishment was 
 undertaken, or the priests and the man who ruled 
 them were hatching some new plot towards the 
 destruction of one whose obstinacy was thus to be 
 overcome. 
 
 The suspense was terrible in the extreme, though 
 the only trace of the interview and of Shan-min- 
 yuen's threat was the presence of the guard now 
 constantly with Norris, night and day. 
 
-'78 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 After a few days had passed Norris begaTi to 
 notice a peculiar taste in the food furnished to 
 him. 
 
 He had long since grown accustomed to the eat- 
 ing of the messes placed before him, and indeed 
 liad become callous as to what was furnished 
 for his meals, so that he did not immediately 
 recognise the presence of this, until, after several 
 days of its continuance, he noticed that this flavour, 
 which was not in itself absolutely objectionable, 
 crept into everjthing which he put to his lips, even 
 into the water that he drank. 
 
 For a little while he looked upon it as a 
 delusion, for it was impossible, it seemed to him, 
 that his water should carry the same insinuating 
 flavour to Jiis lips as did the food he ate ; but 
 gradually he came to understand that it was no 
 fancy upon his part, but that for some reason the 
 priests had determined that everything given to 
 hini, whether to eat or drink, sliould be tainted 
 with the same flavour. When he knew it, his 
 soul turned sick, for the constant presence of a 
 single taste ever on his palate must in time fill 
 him with nausea ; and though there be to some 
 but small pleasure in eating (to Norris especially 
 was it so at this time), )-et the thought that every 
 drop of water or mouthful of food must shortly 
 bear with it a feeling of disgust is one fraught, 
 indeed, is it not, with horror beyond words ? 
 
 More than this, there was, or at least, Norris 
 
"TORTURE, BUT DO NOT KILL." 279 
 
 fancied that there was, some hidden reason for the 
 course now pursued. 
 
 Why should this flavour be present alwajs ; and 
 for what cause was it imparted to every article of 
 food ? What was it ? A poison of slow yet sure 
 result ? — and, if so, what would be the effect upon 
 him who ate ? As yet he was not ill ; but the mere 
 discovery of the constant presence of the unknown 
 in his food caused him to conjecture vaguely as 
 to the expected result, and from this he commenced 
 to imagine things and gradually to be filled with 
 strange fears which preyed upon him constantly, 
 so that he scarcely dared to eat, or to touch the 
 hideously tasted water, though he craved alike for 
 food and drink. 
 
 When he did eat, he faced, in addition to the 
 nausea, a more terrible sickness of spirit, believing 
 that every hour he approached nearer to some fear- 
 ful end ; and whether this was to be reached 
 through bodily pain or by some poisonous influence 
 upon his mind he could not tell. 
 
 This was but another of the subtle inventions 
 of the priests. In the flavour constantly imparted 
 to the prisoners food there was nothing that might 
 poison or injure ; there was that, indeed, at which 
 the palate might in time revolt, but nothing more. 
 The rest was left to the Englishman to conceive : 
 the torture lay within himself 
 
 There is, however, little visible result in such 
 agony to the onlooker ; and although the priests 
 
a3o THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 knew that Norrls's mind had fostered its own 
 misery, they were in a sense disappointed with the 
 result attained, which, to the outward eye, consisted 
 chiefly in his abstinence from food and drink ; for 
 the mind of one man cannot truly perceive the 
 phantoms of another's fears. 
 
 The paper and the Chinese ink still lay untouched 
 beside the prisoner. Since the struggle to regain 
 possession of the paper which, in a moment of 
 weakness, he had written and signed, he shunned 
 the sight of the instruments of his temporarj' 
 surrender ; his spirit seemed to have gained new 
 determination from the struggle with his silent foe. 
 
 Several days had passed, and Norris, although 
 weakened mentally and physically by the un- 
 known horror which cast its shadow so deeply upon 
 him, had still given no yielding sign ; and the 
 priests, instigated in part by instructions from 
 beyond the temple walls, and in part acting on 
 their own responsibility, determined upon fresh 
 bodily torture for the miserable man who would 
 not }ield. 
 
 It was for a cause differing from that of months 
 ago that Norris was now tortured — a cause, that 
 is to say, differing in the main and yet not un- 
 connected with that of earlier days. 
 
 When at the first he had been made a captive by 
 the priests, they, fearing lest their deed might prove 
 ill-advised, had sent two of their number to Shan- 
 min-yuen with a humble confession and a prayer 
 
"TORTURE, BUT DO NOT KILL." s8i 
 
 for advice as to what they should now do with the 
 foreigner, whose resistance to their attempted extor- 
 tion and whose subsequent violence had landed 
 him a prisoner within their walls. 
 
 If they released him, they feared the future ; if 
 they killed him, they also feared ; for the priestly 
 mind, despite its cruelty, was deeply imbued with 
 fear : and therefore they came to the mandarin, their 
 adopted father, for advice, humbly bringing a tale 
 of lies which might excuse their act. To them 
 it seemed probable that the mandarin's anger 
 would be great when he learned what had 
 occurred. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen received the deputation, and, 
 immediately upon learning the particulars which 
 the priests had to narrate, he perceived that the 
 circumstances might easily be turned to his advan- 
 tage. The priests knew no English, whilst he 
 could speak and write that tongue — badly, it is 
 true, but still sufficiently to convey to an English- 
 man, or to a foreigner who spoke English, whatso- 
 ever he desired. 
 
 He was not long in framing his plans. 
 
 He hastened to reassure the priests, or rather 
 to do so in part ; his crafty mind perceived that 
 by acting alike upon their fear and greed, and 
 upon their ignorance of the English tongue, he 
 might eventually gain much from what was to be 
 regarded, as far as he was concerned, as a lucky 
 chance. 
 
282 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 That the priests should let Norris escape was no 
 part of his idea ; he mentally laid out other designs 
 for the man now within his power. 
 
 They had done a wrong and an ill-advised thing, 
 so he told them ; but what was done was done, and 
 it was well that they had come to him. The nation- 
 to which the prisoner belonged was one to be 
 feared, so he said, in that the Chinese powers were 
 friendly with its powers, and would assuredly in 
 some way punish the priesthood for the act. There- 
 fore caution w.is necessary, whilst, at the same 
 time, there was no great need for fear. 
 
 The priests, or some of their number, had origi- 
 nally sought to extort money from Norris. A 
 small sum would then have sufficed, or, indeed, an 
 equal division of his tiaos might have mitigated 
 the priestly greed ; but, as it was, he had been 
 taken prisoner owing to his own rough action in 
 attempting to escape ; and prisoner he must now 
 remain until he should agree to the new conditions 
 imposed by Shan-min-yuen. 
 
 It has been remarked as strange that members 
 of a priesthood, richly endowed by Shan-min-yuen's 
 father, should have been filled with avarice for the 
 small sums which the Englishman might disburse ; 
 but it must be remembered that those priests who 
 had acted as Norris's guides were probably of the 
 lowest grade, and that the temple's wealth, although 
 shared by them in a measure as regards sustenance, 
 clothing, and all the necessaries of life, did not come 
 
"TORTURE; BUT DO NOT KILL." 283 
 
 into their possession as actual coin ; and tliat even 
 had it done so, it is not to be looked for in a China- 
 man that wealth sliould satiate his greed. The 
 miserly instinct, when inherent in the nature, is a 
 thing that grows and is never satisfied, feed it how 
 we may. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen's answer was more favourable 
 than the priests expected ; it is true there was a 
 touch of uncertainty and fear still left upon their 
 minds, but that was a small matter and would 
 soon pass away. 
 
 The priests had wanted money : they should 
 have it, so he said ; he would write a note, which 
 they could bear to Norris, demanding a certain 
 sum — he was to hand them, be it said, but one- 
 twentieth of the actual amount named in his 
 epistle. How could the priests know that they 
 had not received the whole ? 
 
 The deputation had at first been unable to under- 
 stand the proposal : how, they argued, could the 
 Englishman obtain the money, since he had none 
 upon his person ? It was impossible for him to 
 make gold without being released from the 
 temple. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen briefly explained that it was 
 possible to write to another to pay. In addition, 
 Shan-min-}'uen led the priests to believe that he 
 would bind the prisoner over to silence before he 
 left the temple ; but, in reality, he had determined 
 to keep Norris a prisoner for life, and by renewed 
 
284 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 promises of freedom to extort various sums, as he 
 might find it good. 
 
 The Temple of Confucius had tal<en from Shan- 
 min-yuen in the old time all the money which 
 ought to have been his : he saw the possibility of 
 now regaining this ; he should be able to extract in 
 time from the temple all, ay, and more than all, 
 perhaps, of the sum which his father had left to the 
 priests upon his death. 
 
 So he gave the priests what he intended to be 
 the first of a series of notes, and they bore it to 
 Norris, as has been seen, and in the end he signed 
 the false cheque. But thinking over matters, 
 Shan-min-yuen wondered at the readiness of the 
 payment. Was this man, he questioned, true; 
 and was the cheque worth the amount there 
 noted ? 
 
 He could not tell, but in the meantime deter- 
 mined to extort only the one note now brought him, 
 and to await Bonsel's advice that all was well. He 
 sent the order to be dealt with in the usual way, 
 as a business transaction to his German friend. 
 
 Hence it came that Norris, in signing falsely, 
 placed a barrier between himself and those who 
 came to seek him. Bonsel many months after 
 had forgotten the incident of the worthless cheque 
 sent by Shan-min-yuen, or if he did remember it, 
 it was chiefly to wonder whether the mandarin 
 had ever obtained his money through another 
 source. 
 
" TORTURE, BUT DO NOT KILL." 285 
 
 How different might all have been had Norris 
 first signed in his own name ! 
 
 Bonsel was not a quick-witted man, so that his 
 mind traced no connection whatever between 
 the returned cheque bearing another name and 
 William Norris ; and this is natural, we must 
 admit, seeing that to the German his Chinese 
 friend was upright and true, so much so indeed 
 that the German pressed Vanscombe and Chin- 
 chin-wa to visit his friend and to obtain his aid. 
 Had Norris signed truly, he would have lost a 
 thousand pounds ; but at least those who came to 
 seek him would at once have got the clue, since 
 Bonsel would, in all probability, have recalled the 
 name when Vanscombe first brought the affair 
 before him. 
 
 Upon, receiving the cheque, Shan-min-yuen 
 explained to the priests that it was not yet time for 
 the prisoner to be set free ; but, as stated, he did 
 not press Norris for more money, waiting rather till 
 Bonsel should hand him over the proceeds of the 
 first extortion. 
 
 In the meantime the priests treated their prisoner 
 more leniently, until the day of the temple's dese- 
 cration, and Norris's attempt to escape, when a 
 terrible fate became his. 
 
 Such had been the past. Now the case was 
 altered : the order had been returned, placing Shan- 
 min-yuen in a position difficult to explain to his 
 German friend ; and he was both infuriated with 
 
286 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 feelings of anger and disappointment, and filled 
 with the strong determination that Norris should 
 yet yield. 
 
 He had come, therefore, to the temple to look 
 upon Norris in his madness ; and his anger upon 
 beholding him in a condition which he knew must 
 render the execution of his designs impossible, 
 and take from him all chance of gain, rebounded 
 upon the priests ; for the temple's desecration was 
 as nothing to Shah-min-yuen, whilst his avarice 
 was all in all. 
 
 It is true that when the priests had come to tell 
 him of the murder, he had himself permitted the 
 torture which, in their frenzy, was almost an impos- 
 sible thing to stay ; but now, months later, when 
 he looked upon the result, and knew that the con- 
 dition Norris had been reduced to ended the 
 s\stem of extortion which he had hoped to 
 pursue, his anger fell upon the priesthood in 
 threats terrible to their cowardly souls. 
 
 But threats are impotent when they remain as 
 such, and Shan-min-\-uen's anger for the present 
 confined itself to these. 
 
 Time went on. Shan-min-yuen and the prie ts 
 still stood apart from one another ; but the latter 
 permitted William Norris to live, lest they should, 
 in the event of his death, anger the great man the 
 more. 
 
 At length came Norris's unlooked-for recovery ; 
 yet the priests did not at once go to Shan-min- 
 
"TORTURE, BUT DO NOT KILL." 287 
 
 yuen with the news of it, but in their own evil 
 hearts conceived fresh tortures for the Enghshman 
 who had desecrated their holy place and had also 
 brought misfortune upon them in the anger of the 
 mandarin. 
 
 Then it was that, after having so far satisfied 
 their lust for another's agony, they went to Shan- 
 min-yuen ; and he came and saw the victim who 
 had survived their cruelty, and whose mind was 
 once more cleared. From the time of this inter- 
 view the priests and Shan-min-yuen worked in 
 concert and yet apart. 
 
 It was a strange position — the position which 
 had existed in the past and existed again. 
 
 The priests obeyed Shan-min-yuen ; they were 
 to torture, but not to kill, until such time as Norris 
 should write upon the paper which lay constantly 
 by his side. Thus far they carried out their 
 instructions to the letter. But they went further 
 than this, deceiving the man whom they called 
 father; for they cared little what the torture might 
 effect, so that it satisfied their thirst for cruelty and 
 revenge. Shan-min-yuen did not know of all the 
 ghastly horrors which the priestly minds con- 
 ceived. 
 
 To them it was nothing if Norris were to go 
 mad, save that it ended his misery. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen had said. " Torture — do so con- 
 stantly, but do not kill." They obeyed. 
 
 So there was, as there always had been from the 
 
288 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 first days of his imprisonment, a strange mixture 
 of evil influences around Norris, some tending one 
 way, some the other, but all leading in the main to 
 the one set goal — the accomplishment of his des- 
 truction, body and soul. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE BASTINADO. 
 
 Shan-MIN-YUEN well knew that his command, 
 " Torture," would be obeyed, and he imagined 
 that at an early date the Englishman must yield. 
 But he had forgotten that Norris was now in such 
 a condition that the strain applied must not be 
 too great a one, and that though he could bear a 
 certain amount of pain, an excess of it would but 
 reduce him to powerlessness alike of mind and 
 body once more. 
 
 The priests, on the contrary, remembered this ; 
 for it was fresh in their recollection that, after a 
 terrible torture, their victim had fallen into a con- 
 dition in which fresh pain could effect but little ; 
 and although it was of small concern to them that 
 he should reach that point again, it was yet more 
 in accordance with their crafty cruelty and hideous 
 revenge that it should be brought about slowly and 
 not rapidly ; that the end finally in view should 
 not be approached too nearly, until they had 
 satiated themselves with a fellow-creature's suffer- 
 ings and avenged their brother's death by inflicting 
 slow and lasting agonies. T 
 
290 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 The mandarin had given his command, and 
 for the rest he left to the priests the means to be 
 employed to attain his personal object, though it 
 was he, indeed, who invented the diabolical thing 
 which was to be the acme of all that Norris 
 suffered, and which has still to be described. 
 
 In the meantime, before Shan-min-yuen's final 
 and ghastly conception came to be put into execu- 
 tion, the priests had it in their power to do as 
 they might choose. 
 
 Tiring of the subtle mental agony so easily 
 inflicted through the medium of the flavour im- 
 parted to every article of food and to every drop 
 of water which reached the prisoner's lips, they 
 therefore cast about for some new device which 
 would occasion more visible agony. 
 
 They chose a simple expedient — the bastinado. 
 
 The bastinado ! You may see it used in Canton, 
 if you visit the Chinese court. In Pekin it is more 
 difficult to see, and but few of those who read 
 these lines will ever stand within the Pekin walls ; 
 but in Canton any one may look upon the criminal 
 punishment in the open court. 
 
 Why should not the court be open ? It is best 
 that the curious multitude of the lowest grades 
 should flock to gaze upon a fellow-creature's 
 agony, whilst the air is filled with his piercing 
 shrieks. It is well that they should see and 
 know, so that they may themselves avoid a crim6. 
 
 So at least think the Chinese. 
 
The bastinado.— >. 290. 
 
THE BASTINADO. 293 
 
 Picture the scene within the court. The criminal 
 lies, face downwards, on the ground. Men hold 
 his feet and hands. The judge sits cold and cruel, 
 and the curious crowd press near. Picture the 
 bare limbs quivering with the man's agony in 
 expectation of the stroke, and mark, whilst fasci- 
 nated by a horror beyond description's power, the 
 bastinado lifted and falling again, and yet again, 
 until the whole soul sickens at the awfulness of 
 a punishment which is surely in itself the most 
 terrible crime. 
 
 It is upon the back of the thigh that the blow 
 must fall — that part where the limb thickens just 
 above the knee ; and to him who has to bear its 
 pain it is well to give some grass, that he may 
 clutch anything in his teeth and hands save the 
 mere emptiness of the air, so that the teeth may 
 not cross or bite the tongue and that the nails may 
 not dig into the flesh. 
 
 Such was the nature of the torture to be inflicted 
 upon Norris. 
 
 In its full severity the strain would prove too 
 great; but a stroke or two daily might well be 
 borne, and the knowledge that as each day came, 
 so the bastinado would fall upon the bruised and 
 swollen limb, would suffice to furnish a torture 
 of the most exquisite kind. 
 
 The bastinado is a long and supple strip of 
 bamboo or other wood, flattened to the breadth of, 
 say, two to three inches, and in length possibly 
 three yards. 
 
294 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 It is raised above the shoulder, high in the air, 
 and then rapidly descending, falls with full impetus 
 upon the human flesh. 
 
 Who can describe the frenzied thoughts which 
 blacken the victim's soul when that- awful weapon 
 descends upon his flank ? 
 
 A single infliction of many strokes wo.gld indeed, 
 have been a terrible punishment, but it would 
 scarcely have formed a torture ; it is in the repeti- 
 tion, or the expectation of the repetition, that the 
 greatest agony is to be found. So Norris was 
 doomed to receive a stroke or two daily from the 
 bastinado, so long as his mind and body would 
 bear the strain. 
 
 He was awakened from a troubled sleep early 
 one morning by the entry of a number of priests 
 into the temple building where he was confined. 
 He instantly foresaw that something terrible was 
 again in store for him ; for cruelty was marked upon 
 every one of the cold priestly faces that surrounded 
 him as he lay. He immediately concluded that 
 his time had come, and that the molten lead, 
 feared for so long a time, was now at length to 
 fall again, and, convulsed with strange shiverings, 
 his strength entirely left him. 
 
 One of the priests released Norris's foot from the 
 chain which had held him to the floor ; and then, 
 as he did not move — for he seemed too prostrated 
 by fear to have power to do so — several others 
 took him by the arms and legs, lifted him on high. 
 
THE BASTINADO. 295 
 
 and thus bore him from the building out into the 
 light of the morning sun, which was filling the. 
 cpurtyard with its golden glory. 
 
 In the temple halls themselves no torture must, 
 take place, save of that indefinable nature which 
 acts only upon the mind ; the Englishman's shrieks, 
 must not rise in their unholy clamour within the 
 confines of that most sacred space. 
 
 So he was borne into the open air ; and before 
 he had realised that there were now no prepara- 
 tions for tortures of the molten lead, and ere he 
 had observed the presence of an evil-visaged man 
 who held upright a long and narrow piece of wood, 
 which, resting on the ground, reached with the 
 other end above his head, he was placed face 
 downwards upon a number of boards which had 
 been fixed together so as to form a substitute for 
 a wooden floor. 
 
 To bear the blow of the bastinado upon the 
 cold stone of the courtyard might truly have 
 proved too severe a cruelty ; for the teeth, in 
 moments such as these, bite wildly, and will bury 
 themselves anywhere, in the awful madness that 
 takes possession of the victim. 
 
 A quantity of grass was placed beneath his face 
 and he was now held firmly in such a position that 
 he could not move. 
 
 Chinese hands held his feet ; Chinese hands held 
 his outstretched wrists. 
 
 His hands no one touched, save to put grass 
 
296 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 under either palm, and then all was ready for the 
 bastinado-stroke. 
 
 As these preparations were rapidly completed, 
 Norris grasped the truth that it was some new 
 torture, some unknown thing, and not the molten 
 lead which was to come. 
 
 He strove to turn his face, but could not ; some 
 one held his head so that his mouth should rest 
 upon the grass which lay upon the board, and that 
 it should not approach his shoulder — his own flesh. 
 
 For a second or two all the blackness of expec- 
 tancy, than which surely hell itself can scarcely 
 contain a more awful thing, circled around him ; 
 his brain reeled with fear of the unknown. 
 
 The man with the strip of wood stood back, and 
 Norris felt his clothing drawn from off his haunch. 
 
 Then the bastinado was raised aloft, imme- 
 diately descending upon his flesh. The broken 
 agony of a man's heart went up to the vaults of 
 the morning sun in a loud cry, whilst his hands 
 gripped upon themselves, and his teeth clenched 
 upon the grass, and then all was still. 
 
 When he had so far recovered as to know that he 
 still lived, he found that he had been re-conveyed 
 to the temple, and that the chain was once more 
 affixed to his ankle. 
 
 Slowly he remembered what had happened, and, 
 
THE BASTINADO. 297 
 
 as the recollection came to him, he wondered that 
 he had survived the torture. 
 
 His poor swollen limbs ached ceaselessly, and 
 he lay still throughout the day, filled with evil 
 thoughts, induced by the terrible pain from his 
 wounded flank which seemed to spread through 
 every portion of his body, and in a state of mind 
 wherein his soul sent up an unending cry of defiance 
 to his God. Was it wonderful that Norris should 
 have reached this pass ? 
 
 He was alone. The ink and paper were beside 
 him ; he seized them as a madman might have 
 done in the height of some frenzy, tore the paper 
 wildly, and cast it and the Chinese ink and brush 
 far from him, so that he might not be tempted 
 to yield again. 
 
 As the day wore on, the man set as watch over 
 him returned and gave him food. 
 
 He placed this food at the furthest point to 
 which Norris, lying on his face, could reach ; for 
 there was a look in the captive's eye which warned 
 him that it was not well to come within the reach 
 of an arm which had already killed one of the 
 brotherhood and half strangled another. 
 
 Paper and ink were not given to him again, 
 and the day passed, as all time to him now passed, 
 slowly along its evil course. 
 
 His food was still tainted with the flavour that 
 had sickened him, but it now caused his stomach 
 no revolt. He ate and drank with avidity. 
 
298 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Strangely enough, Norris never had dreamed of 
 suicide, and this is probably explainable in that 
 his mind was so shattered by all the evil that came 
 upon him, that it strove to contend against every- 
 thing of a horrible nature. 
 
 To have dashed his brains out upon the floor 
 would surely have ended his sufferings ; and perhaps 
 the guiding hand above alone kept from him such 
 suggestion, for his only approach to self-destruction 
 was that of drinking and eating to the full the 
 tainted food and water by his side. 
 
 In addition to the cruel blows of the bastinado, 
 the priests had yet another method whereby they 
 attempted to increase the agony of the intervening 
 time. They had placed by his side, as he now 
 found, a sheet of metal with smoothed surface, 
 polished so that no mirror could more truly portray 
 the reflection seen therein ; and upon this they 
 believed that the miserable man would gaze, seeing 
 his own face, and his half-shaven head and grey 
 hairs, with increasing horror. 
 
 They were partly right in this conclusion, but 
 not wholly so ; for although the shock experienced 
 by Norris upon first perceiving the reflection of his 
 own changed features, now drawn and altered 
 almost past recognition was great indeed, yet the 
 terror of the first glance gradually wore away, and 
 was replaced by something resembling pleasure — 
 the pleasure of pain, if it may be so described, 
 which led him to regard the reflection with a 
 
THE BASTINADO. 299 
 
 degree of interest which was unintelligible to him- 
 self. 
 
 There is little doubt but that the human mind 
 will, under certain circumstances, derive satisfaction 
 from dwelling upon its own agony. 
 
 For this reason the mirror-torture was not what 
 the priests believed it to be ; since by causing fresh 
 thoughts to the victim, and in giving him a new 
 interest in noting the lines that, to his exaggerating 
 mind, grew deeper daily upon his face, his thoughts 
 vvere distracted. 
 
 During the first night of the bastinado-torture, 
 whilst all was still, the paper and the ink were 
 again placed by him, and when the following 
 morning dawned, Norris saw it, and wondered 
 what was to happen on the day now born, since he 
 still shrank from the mere suggestion of writing 
 as he had been bid. 
 
 Ere long all was to be made clear to him. 
 Yesterday's programme was to be enacted a second 
 time in every particular, even to the most minute 
 detail. 
 
 When the priests released his ankle, Norris 
 struggled fearfully, but was at length secured and 
 overcome. 
 
 Then he was taken to the courtyard and again 
 laid upon the boards, with the grass beneath his 
 face and within his palms. 
 
 And then again, perhaps with greater pain, if that 
 be possible, than on the previous day, the blow 
 
300 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 fell upon limbs still aching with those of twenty- 
 four hours before ! Once again Norris, with teeth 
 and hands clasped the grass in frenzied agony, 
 and again his cry went forth, and again evil took 
 possession of his soul. 
 
 Still he did not yield ; for the effect upon his 
 mind of his struggle with the silent priest, and 
 of the succeeding agonies, had been a deeper one 
 than we can estimate. It partook, in fact, of a 
 nature which paralysed certain functions of the 
 brain, and had taken away from him the power to 
 will that he should yield. 
 
 A second time he cast from him the writing 
 materials — cast them away in anger and in pain ; 
 yet it was not necessary for him to so cast them 
 away, for even had they remained within his reach 
 there was still no likelihood that he would sign. 
 
 There are two impulses in the brain — the negative 
 and the positive : the negative is that which bids 
 the brain abstain from an action ; the positive, that 
 which bids it act ; and this is true in regard to 
 every human thought, for thought is dependent on 
 the strength, at one and the same time, of each of 
 these powers. 
 
 Sometimes by strong influence, one of these two 
 powers of the brain may be destroyed, seldom, 
 indeed, so fully as was now the case with Norris, 
 for but few pass through such an ordeal ; but, in 
 a lesser degree, either the positive or the negative 
 may be overthrown and temporarily banished. 
 
THE BASTINADO. 301 
 
 The mind then becomes unequal in its balancing^, 
 and the power remaining takes full possession in 
 a determined and incontrovertible thought. 
 
 With Norris it was as though he had no ability 
 to sign, for the negative or denying power had 
 taken full possession, banishing all question of 
 reason, and ruling, in the absence of its antidote, 
 with an iron power. 
 
 So the torture did not at once urge him to what 
 was desired, and it took many days — days of ever- 
 increasing hideousness — before his sufferings grew 
 to such an extent as to finally restore that part of 
 will which had been as it were for a long time lost 
 to him. 
 
 Thus it was that Norris lived for nine days, bear- 
 ing daily the strokes upon limbs now terrible to 
 look upon by reason of his wounds, bsfore the 
 agony grew so intense in its lasting nature as to 
 cause the gradual return of the positive or acting 
 power into his mind. 
 
 That Norris did finally yield was due to the 
 overwhelming influence of the increasing pain 
 which, deadening every thought as no other less 
 sustained torture could have done, allowed the 
 return of \k\s. power to will. 
 
 It was as though the man had forgotten for a 
 time that he might act, and now slowly remembered 
 what was within his ability. One-half of the mind 
 had been virtually dead ; it was now reborn. 
 
 Yet he suffered nine days of the bastinado 
 
302 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 before this happened, although, as twenty-four 
 hours passed between each application, the condi- 
 tion of his limbs never attained to that awful 
 state in which one may see the criminal's flanks 
 after the rapid succession of thirty or forty strokes. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen had not paid a second visit to 
 the captive ; he knew that in his short interview, 
 laconic as had been his remarks, he had made 
 it clear that Norris must sign an order for five 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 In this he was right, for at length the day came 
 when Norris did as he had been bid. The first 
 streaks of the dawn had fired the distant sky one 
 morning when he took the paper, and in the half- 
 light wrote again the order to pay the sum 
 demanded by his foe. 
 
 As he signed his name once again, a curious 
 impulse overcame him — he had written the first 
 name and half of the second, but something 
 impelled him just then to alter the last letters of 
 his name, and he completed the signature as 
 WUliain Norland, not as William Norris. Thus, 
 by some inexplicable freak of mind — for, as truly 
 as he wrote, Norris had now intended to give a 
 genuine signature — another that was not genuine 
 went forth as the result of a system of crueltj- 
 and torture which had indeed caused the victim 
 to yield, but to yield only to the practice of a new 
 deceit. 
 
 When the priests entered the temple that morn- 
 
THE BASTINADO. 303 
 
 ing, Norris, filled with the belief that he had now 
 by this writing saved himself from further punish- 
 ment, held forth the order to him who was nearest. 
 
 The priest took it in his hand ; the others 
 crushed curiously around him. A lengthy col- 
 loquy ensued. Norris believed that all was well ; 
 that to-day at least the terrible bastinado would 
 not fall. 
 
 Even as he thus thought, it was proved to him 
 that he was mistaken, and that the priests were not 
 about to free him from his punishment. That was 
 no part of their design. Could he have understood 
 the words they spoke, he would have learned that 
 to them the signature was but a small thing. It 
 might be given to Shan-min-yuen at some future 
 time ; not yet before their vengeance was com- 
 plete. 
 
 They decided to keep the paper until Shan- 
 min-yuen should ask for it, or until Norris was 
 utterly undone, so that by this means they might 
 still retain the power to carrj' out their own hellish 
 designs. 
 
 The murder and the desecration of the temple 
 were not yet avenged ! 
 
 When they seized upon him, however, and he 
 saw, notwithstanding that he had signed, that the 
 bastinado was to be used again as it had been used 
 for days, his brain reeled and he cursed aloud. 
 
 They took him into the courtyard notwith- 
 standing, and once again listened to his cries and 
 
304 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 marked his agony, and for the last time the basti- 
 nado fell ; for at last his strength broke down, and 
 henceforth he was as one on the point of death for 
 many weeks to come. 
 
 Whilst he lay thus, tended by one of the Chinese 
 priests, Shan-min-yuen received the note signed by 
 " William Norland." 
 
 The priests, seeing that they could not further 
 torture the man, took the paper to Shan-min-yuen, 
 and by this means regained his favour. But he 
 gave the command to them that on no account 
 should Norrris be allowed to die. 
 
 The first months of the summer passed as the 
 winter had passed, without event, for the situation 
 was now much as it had been once before — the 
 same in this, that the order signed by Norris had 
 gone again to England, and that the time passed 
 by unheeded since he was reduced to the lowest 
 ebb of strength ; but different in this, that his 
 brain was not so much destroyed now as was his 
 body. 
 
 With the falling of the lead the mind had 
 become diseased and weakened so as to influence 
 the body ; with the falling of the bastinado the 
 body had grown to influence the inind. 
 
 When Shan-min-yuen now obtained this new 
 order for five thousand pounds, he scarcely knew at 
 first how he should use it ; for the presentation of 
 the false order in former times might reflect a 
 suspicion upon the strangely written thing now 
 
THE BASTINADO. 305 
 
 in his possession, and the utmost caution had 
 become necessary. 
 
 For several weeks he retained it, waiting till he 
 should devise some plan of getting rid of it and 
 obtaining value for the note. Send it to Bonsel 
 he could not, for two reasons : firstly, because of 
 the difficulty he would have in explaining the 
 origin of the false note, and, secondly, because he 
 now perceived more clearly than in the old time 
 the danger incurred in sending forth a cheque with 
 his captive's name appended thereto. He remem- 
 bered the swallow, too, which had, months ago, 
 been captured in the temple with a message tied 
 to it — a message which bore the words, " Eleventh 
 swallow," thus being evidently one of many such. 
 
 Although it was indeed unlikely that any of 
 these birds had reached places where the paper 
 would be understood, there was still a dim chance 
 that such might be the case — a chance which 
 was sufficient to make him cautious. Besides 
 which, some trace of the Englishman's visit might 
 have been left behind him in Tientsin or Shanghai 
 a year ago, and, if so, an order bearing his name, 
 and now produced, would at once create suspicion. 
 
 Therefore for a long time Shan-min-yuen kept 
 the paper unused, until finally he had opportunity 
 of sending it to Shanghai and disposing of it 
 through a Chinese merchant in that place. 
 
 Before it reached England and came into the 
 hands of Norris's bankers, much had happened ; 
 
 u 
 
3^6 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 for every hour the day drew nearer when Chin- 
 chin-wa entered the temple by the power of his 
 pardon, in search of the victim of the Chinese 
 priests. 
 
CHAPTER XX, 
 
 THE TORTURE OF THE WHITE BIRD. 
 
 For many weeks Norris was completely pros- 
 trated ; and the priest, nursing him by command 
 from Shan-min-yuen, was sorely tried with the 
 long endurance of this illness. 
 
 As Norris, however, once a man of the strongest 
 constitution, had survived the past, so he now sur- 
 vived the present. Well was it for him that his 
 illness was a prolonged one, and that he had 
 sufficient sense to continue to feign weakness 
 whilst in reality convalescent, for this alone saved 
 him for a time from further agonies yet to 
 come. 
 
 It is useless to dwell upon this period, for it passed 
 without incident, until at length the priests were 
 assured that Norris was but continuing to feign an 
 illness. Immediately they saw this they set them- 
 selves to conceive fresh horrors for the wretched 
 man to endure. 
 
 At this very time friends were nearing the 
 prisoner, for Vanscombe and Chin-chin-wa had 
 
3o8 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 entered Pekin, and were searching for him in vain 
 throughout the great city of ruin and decay. 
 
 The priests had now hit upon the torture of pour- 
 ing boiUng oil in drops upon the prisoner's nails, 
 fixing both feet and hands firmly in a vice, and 
 dropping the boiling liquid upon each nail in 
 succession ; but before they could put this into 
 execution a suggestion still more terrible came 
 from Shan-min-yuen, and they put aside their own 
 sjstem of torture to adopt his. 
 
 Some three weeks previously Shan-min-yuen 
 had disposed of the order given by Norris — a 
 long time having elapsed,- as will be conjectured, 
 since the date upon which it was written. After 
 sending the order to Shanghai, it occurred to his 
 suspicious mind to wonder whether this second 
 document was indeed true. 
 
 Had the torture really forced a true signature 
 from the Englishman, or was this also false like the 
 last ? These considerations determined the man- 
 darin to test the point. 
 
 Norris had been ill so long that it was unlikely 
 that he would now recollect the name given by 
 him as his signature unless it was his true name ; 
 if it was his true name, he would sign in the 
 same manner again under pressure. 
 
 If not, he would betray himself In either case 
 no harm could come of it ; for allowing that he 
 had signed truly, then a second order would be 
 but increased gain ; and if he had signed wrongly, 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE WHITE BIRD. 309 
 
 what now came from him would surely be the 
 true yielding after all that the victim had come 
 through. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen, therefore, influenced by these 
 thoughts, bade the priests wait for his device of a 
 torture which should, indeed, force the truth from 
 the prisoner's hand, or at least punish him for 
 the past. He planned a hideous thing ; but whilst 
 he still gloated over his own conception, an event 
 occurred which turned the channel of his thoughts 
 in another direction. 
 
 This event was the visit of Chin-chin-wa to the 
 Imperial City — a visit in which Chin-chin-wa, as 
 the other quickly noticed, had taken accurate obser- 
 vance of Shan-min-yuen, whose suspicious mind, 
 being evil, was always on the alert. 
 
 As a bad nature is frequently repelled by a true 
 one, so Shan-min-yuen was repelled by Chin- 
 chin-wa, conceiving a subtle hatred for the pardoned 
 exile, the cause of which the mandarin could not 
 explain. 
 
 Then had come the meeting in the eating-house, 
 and there Shan-min-yuen's faculties had been set 
 on fire by the discovery that another Englishman 
 was with the man called Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 It occurred to him, indeed, for a moment, as 
 Chin-chin-wa had hoped, that all was explainable 
 in the fact of the Englishman's following the 
 footsteps of his friend in adopting Chinese customs 
 and dress ; but suspicion very rapidly superseded 
 this thought. 
 
3IO THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen had taken a dislike to Chin- 
 chin-vva. He found in this meeting a reasonable 
 cause for such dislike, and for the mandarin to 
 speak against the exile surely little justification 
 was required. Chin-chin-vva might be dangerous 
 — that was all that it was necessary to say : for 
 proof he could point to the English friend. 
 
 Thereupon he determined to act ; for his thoughts, 
 dwelling much upon the torture he had devised 
 for Norris, found hatred for everything English, 
 and new l; round for suspicion at every turn. 
 
 He was not long in carrying out a part of his 
 wishes by his misrepresentations at court. Chin- 
 chin-wa was dangerous in the city of Pekin, or at 
 least his actions appeared so. So Shan-min-yuen 
 gained his end, )'ct not fully ; for the pardoned 
 e.xile was not re-exiled, but merely banished from 
 the city of Pekin — that is to say from proximity 
 to the court. 
 
 Did Shan-min-yuen merely gratify his whim in 
 this, or had he deeper and more personal suspicions 
 with regard to Chin-chin-wa ? It is difficult to 
 say. 
 
 It will be remembered that Chin-chin-wa (upon 
 the day previous to that on which he was to leave 
 Pekin owing to his banishment) went to the Temple 
 of Confucius, and that whilst there he heard a cry 
 — which he believed to be an Englishman's cry — 
 come from within. 
 
 It was the cry of William Norris ; for Shan- 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE WHITE BIRD. 311 
 
 min-yuen was at that moment witnessing his agony 
 within the temple court, whilst the preparations for 
 an awful event were being put in force. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen had come quietly to the temple, 
 accompanied only by one servant, who carried a 
 rough cage, concealed by a cloth. Within this cage 
 was a bird, in size and shape something like a 
 parrot, having a long, over-lapping, pointed beak 
 and feathers of pure white. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen's words to Norris were few. Yet 
 again he bade him sign truly, and to Norris's reply 
 he turned a deaf ear. 
 
 Then, at his command, several of the priests 
 seized and bore the captive into the courtyard, 
 whilst Shan-min-yuen and his attendant followed. 
 
 In this courtyard there was now a wooden erec- 
 tion fixed into the ground, close to the foot of the 
 tree which Norris had once known so well. Near 
 this ran the broad paved pathway from temple to 
 temple, upon which the boards had been placed 
 when the bastinado had been administered. 
 
 Every memory connected with the place was 
 terrible, and the most terrible was yet to be en- 
 graven upon his mind. 
 
 He was placed at the foot of the tree, and bound 
 to it in a sitting posture with ropes which surrounded 
 his body and the trunk of the tree. His left arm 
 was bound to his side, not too tightly, lest numb- 
 ness should set in, but still securel)', so that it could 
 not be moved. 
 
312 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 His right arm remained partially free ; the reason 
 for this was plain. Paper and ink and pen were 
 placed upon a small board by his side. But Norris 
 knew that it was useless to sign ; he had signed 
 months ago, and the torture had been applied all 
 the same. 
 
 His voice rose in wild curses upon Shan-min- 
 yuen. All was vain. 
 
 In this position and bound thus to the tree, his 
 legs were of sufficient length to reach to the wooden 
 erection before him, which in a few moments he 
 perceived to be of the nature of the old English 
 stocks ; for his ankles were speedily and securely 
 fixed therein, in such a way that he could not 
 move. 
 
 The wood above his feet was in height about 
 fourteen inches ; and could he have seen the further 
 side, he might have wondered that a rod of wood 
 projected at right angles at a little distance above 
 his toes, and that to this rod was affixed a thin 
 chain, so that the whole resembled a perch upon 
 which a bird might sit. 
 
 Norris could not see this ; for the height of the 
 board prevented his knowing what was attached 
 to it upon the other side. He was to learn in 
 a more forcible manner, that the aching of his 
 limbs in a painful position was not one hundredth 
 part of that which he must endure. 
 
 When they had tied him firmly, and fixed his 
 feet, the attendant who had followed Shan-min-yuen 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE WHITE BIRD. 313 
 
 approached and uncovered what Norris now saw 
 to be a rude cage, with a white bird of large size 
 inside. 
 
 His cries had frozen upon his hps ; he became 
 unaware that Shan-min-yuen, his enemy, was 
 near him, or that it lay within his power to take the 
 pen and sign ; for his senses contracted in a hideous 
 aching wonder — a terrible foreboding which over- 
 came him, as his eyes watched every movement of 
 the man who held the cage with the white bird. 
 
 The intensity of these moments quickened his 
 life-blood, so that his heart seemed about to burst ; 
 and, though scarcely believing that the awful thing 
 could be true which was suggested to him by 
 what he saw, he drank in every particular of the 
 horror as it came nearer. 
 
 The bird was taken from the cage, and its head 
 was covered with a piece of cloth, so that it should 
 not struggle to be free ; then it was brought nearer 
 to the wood which held his feet. 
 
 One of the priests bent and assisted the man, 
 and together they bound the bird by the chain 
 around its leg. 
 
 Then they released it from their hold, striving to 
 place its feet, as they did so, upon the projecting 
 rod ; the bird, however, did not catch the wood, 
 but in some way momentarily struggled free, and 
 Norris, whose soul had sickened, and whose eyes 
 were staring wildly as though they could not see, 
 felt the touch of its wing upon his bare feet, and 
 
314 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 his soul went out from him in that cry which Chin- 
 chin-wa heard outside the walls. 
 
 The bird was now placed upon its perch — a 
 perch to which it was confined by a short chain, so 
 that it could not stray — a perch which, placed a 
 little to one side, was above Norris's feet, so that 
 the bird looked down upon these, and could, by 
 bending forward, reach them with its beak. 
 
 Had not Norris's consciousness now happily 
 left him for a little time, he might have seen the 
 white crest of its head appearing just above the 
 board, beyond which were his poor bare feet. 
 
 This, then, was Shan-min-\-uen's fiendish device. 
 The bird which he had chosen was not of carnivor- 
 ous nature, nor, under ordinary circumstances, 
 likely to feed upon the human flesh ; but, if deprived 
 of food for a length)- period, the overlapping beak 
 would surely meet in the flesh of the victim's feet. 
 
 Many hours would pass before that time — how 
 long it was hard to sa)-, for the bird had been fed 
 that da\', and hunger alone would impel it to bend 
 forward and complete a torture which, in anticipa- 
 tion and in duration, held the deepest horror of all. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen was satisfied now. He knew 
 that his victim's senses would return ere long, and 
 that long hours, terrible hours, would pass whilst he 
 sat, unable to move, looking upon the white crest 
 of the parrot-like bird and waiting the completion 
 of his doom. 
 
 So they left him, with the bird at his feet ; and 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE WHITE BIRD. 315 
 
 Xorris gradually returned to his senses— to exist 
 through these hours which were the most terrible of 
 all — to live through that night, God knows how, 
 atid to greet the dawn in the mockery of his 
 soul. 
 
 Thus was it with him on the morning when 
 Vanscombe and Chin -chin- wa set out for the Temple 
 of Confucius ; and even as they were nearing the 
 gates, a dull leaden stupor descended upon the 
 wretched man, who alone in that courtyard, with 
 the bird chained at his feet, waited until the last 
 moment of his agony should come. 
 
 At last it came ; the bird, impelled by hunger, 
 bent down and caught the flesh of Xorris's toe in 
 its beak, half wondering, perhaps, if this was food 
 to eat. 
 
 The man's shrieks rose through the air, and the 
 bird a second time, and more greedily, bent forward 
 to taste his blood ; and as its overlapping beak 
 met in his flesh, a last great cry came from him, 
 and again, as was so often the case, the whole 
 world passed away in darkness ! 
 
 At that moment the temple-door opened, and 
 Chin-chin-wa looked down upon the scene. 
 
 The strong man's heart filled with agony-^a 
 pain, which only a strong heart, such as his, can 
 feel in its fulness ; and this agony, dwelling in him, 
 yet stilled him, for he had now to act ; but it burst 
 from him at a later time, when all was over, and 
 when he answered Vanscombe as one who scarcely 
 
3i6 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 heard, as one who had passed out of a terrible 
 dream — 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 Now he drove it back, and, bounding forward, 
 seized the white bird in his right hand, crushing the 
 Hfe out of it as he tore it from the chain, and cast- 
 ing it from him as a dead thing, killed by the grasp 
 of his powerful hand. 
 
 Then he called aloud to the priests who had 
 followed him, and who now stood aghast some way 
 behind, cowed by an anger that is seldom known 
 in man. And he commanded them to undo the 
 bonds, and to release the poor feet, one of which 
 was dripping with blood. 
 
 They obeyed him silently. He had come to 
 them bearing the command from Shan-min-yuen — ■ 
 
 '■ Permit .wd give honour to Chin-chin-wa." 
 
 For what else should he come but in connection 
 with the prisoner, who was now to be unbound ? 
 
 Shan-min-yuen had himself said, 
 
 " I shall return on the morrow." 
 
 By chance he had not yet come. To the priests 
 it was manifest that Chin-chin-wa had come 
 instead, and that him they were commanded to 
 obey. 
 
 Slowly, for the bonds were carefully knotted, 
 they released Norris : and at length he lay, free but 
 senseless, upon the ground. 
 
THE TORTURE OF THE WHITE BIRD. 317 
 
 Chin-chin-wa took him in his arms, and thus 
 bearing him, passed out of the court and through 
 the temples until he reached the outer gate, and 
 there he left the priests and went out free ; for they 
 had seen his anger, and were afraid. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 
 
 The remaining narrative lies in the hands of 
 Herbert Vanscombe : — 
 
 Startled as I was by the appearance of the 
 wasted frame and the drawn features of the man 
 borne by Chin-chin-wa, I was but half conscious 
 for some moments of the sensations which over- 
 came me. 
 
 " I do not know," Chin-chin-wa had said. 
 
 I heard, and }'et did not seem to hear. Could it 
 be possible that there was any doubt? 
 
 Could it be that he had used the power of his 
 pardon in vain ; that there were others besides 
 William Norris confined within the temple? 
 
 I had spoken the question more in agony of 
 mind than in expectation of a reply, and the 
 answer had been, " I do not know." 
 
 A tissue of confused ideas flashed across me 
 as Chin-chin-wa seemed to immediately recover 
 himself The crowd around us pressed curioush-, 
 
THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 319 
 
 for indeed the incident was one which might well 
 arouse their interest. 
 
 " We have still time ! " Chin-chin-wa cried, push- 
 ing onwards, as he spoke, to the palanquins, 
 whose bearers at his command hastened to their 
 places. An acute pain shot through my heart. 
 
 Everything became clear to me again ; it was 
 a time to act, not to delay, for every instant 
 the sun was mounting higher in the heavens, and 
 every instant nearer and nearer drew the hour of 
 noon. 
 
 And we were still far from the Tungchow gate. 
 The events that I have endeavoured to describe 
 minutely, had taken place so rapidly, that in a few 
 seconds from his exit from the temple Chin-chin-wa 
 had placed his burden silentU' within his palanquin, 
 which was now raised aloft. He then turned to 
 me, pointing to the second palanquin which still 
 lay on the ground. 
 
 I understood and obeyed. To Chin-chin-wa the 
 terrible heat of noon was of no importance ; for 
 me it was a thing to avoid. 
 
 I took my seat ; the other bearers had preceded 
 me, and, with a number of the crowd following in 
 their train, were already moving at a sharp trot 
 over the dusty and uneven ground. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa, with long steps, kept alongside 
 the palanquin, in front, moving with an easy and 
 swinging stride. 
 
 For a moment it seemed to me that I was now 
 
320 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 by some freak of fortune to be left behind at the 
 last ; but, as I half conceived the thought, I felt 
 myself raised in the air, and knew a second later 
 that my bearers were carrying me onwards as 
 rapidly as those who went before. 
 
 All now depended upon haste. Well did I 
 know this ; and I could hear Chin-chin-wa's voice 
 urging on the men who bore the victim whom he 
 had saved, and calling upon them, as I judged, to 
 expend the full measure of their strength. 
 
 A Pekin palanquin is a heavy article. Unlike 
 the chairs of Canton or Foochow, it is weighty 
 and cumbersome, and more suited to slow and 
 dignified progression than to anything of the 
 nature of haste. 
 
 The mandarin of Pekin is expected to exhibit 
 full dignity when he appears in his palanquin in 
 the streets ; and we had taken upon ourselves to 
 enact the part of mandarins prior to Chin-chin-wa's 
 entrance to the Temple of Confucius. 
 
 Now, however, there was every necessity to cast 
 aside lethargic movement, and to hasten onwards ; 
 for the Tungchow gate was yet some distance off, 
 and the hour of noon was near at hand. But 
 although haste was to us of the greatest moment, 
 it was not so with the bearers of the palanquin, 
 and my heart ached in wild rebellion as we 
 moved onwards at a pace which, whilst moderately 
 fast, yet seemed snail-like to me. 
 
 Should we reach the gate in time ? That question 
 
THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 321 
 
 was now uppermost, and a vague prayer went up 
 from my heart to the skies, where the sun, which 
 still moved onwards, every instant brought us 
 nearer to our doom. 
 
 I have said our doom, for my fate was now 
 bound up with Chin-chin-wa's ; if he fell, I too 
 would fall by his side ; if need be, we should resist 
 the enemy side by side, and, standing together, 
 be overpowered and foully killed, whilst William 
 Norris would also share our doom. But the occa- 
 sion had not as yet arisen, for we were not 
 yet lost ; we still moved onwards, whilst clouds 
 of dust surrounded us so that I could scarcely 
 distinguish the palanquin in front or see the tall 
 form of Cliin-chin-wa. 
 
 Was this strange wasted man indeed the Norris 
 whom we sought, or had Chin-chin-wa made some* 
 mistake, and borne the wrong person from the 
 confines of the temple walls ? 
 
 If indeed it were William Norris, was he now 
 dead ? — for his face had hung back lifelessly, and 
 one foot had been red with blood. 
 
 Through what had the wretched victim passed ? 
 What had Chin-chin-wa seen and heard within 
 the temple ? Had we, or had we not, laboured in 
 vain ? 
 
 I looked at my watch : the hour was close at 
 hand. I could not tell, on account of the dust, 
 whether we had approached near to our destina- 
 tion ; but I feared that there was yet a long way 
 to be traversed. x 
 
322 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 I sat thus, watch in hand, whilst the palanquin 
 swayed and jolted onwards, for some minutes I 
 should think, when of a sudden I perceived that 
 Chin-chin-wa had fallen back and was now beside 
 me. 
 
 I knew that the end was near. 
 
 " What is it ? " I asked, as he moved on foot by 
 my side, whilst I bent forward as well as I was 
 able, since the palanquin jerked from side to side. 
 
 " The hour is near," came the reply. " The 
 crowd who follow us will soon know the truth. 
 Noon is almost upon us, and we shall not be in 
 time." 
 
 " What is to be done? " I questioned hurriedly. 
 
 " Will you run for it ?" was his rejoinder. 
 
 " Ves," I answered, something of the old Eton 
 spirit coming over me even then. 
 
 " Then dismount quickly. Shan-min-yuen has 
 carried out his threat ; the crowd behind, which 
 you cannot see, is not large, but some of his men 
 are among it. I am tracked down, watched on all 
 sides. They have followed us all the morning. 
 I saw them when I left the temple ; they must 
 have followed us before that. Quick ! — it is our 
 only chance. We must run." 
 
 All this was so rapidly spoken that scarcely a 
 moment was lost. 
 
 " But what of Norris ? " I cried, as my palanquin, 
 at Chin-chin-wa's command, was instantly lowered 
 upon the ground. 
 
THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 323 
 
 " We have not far to go," was the quick reply. 
 " I shall save that man. Come ! " 
 
 And at the word he set off at full speed ; and I, 
 casting a glance over my shoulder, girt my Chinese 
 garments about me, as well as I was able, and 
 immediately followed. As I did so, I began to 
 realise the task which I had undertaken, for I 
 could understand now, how it was that on the 
 heavy, thickly laden road the bearers had failed 
 to progress as quickly as we would have had them 
 do. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa was right ; we were followed. 
 The mob which had formerly collected round us 
 was well-nigh scattered, and had fallen away ; but 
 I perceived at a glance that there were a number 
 of men who, keeping some distance behind, and 
 apparently forming part of a jabbering and inquisi- 
 tive crowd, were yet far more likely to be the 
 followers and dependents of Shan-min-yuen than 
 impelled by mere curiosity to follow us. 
 
 It must not be understood that we were in 
 unfrequented places ; our progress at an unusual 
 rate was indeed sufficient to attract attention ; and 
 in passing carts and camels and many conveyances 
 our way had never, from the time of leaving the 
 temple, been uninterrupted, notwithstanding that 
 in the great width of the streets it is seldom 
 troublesome to avoid the numerous vehicles which 
 form the traffic of such a city as Pekin. 
 
 But although many had turned to gaze upon us 
 
324 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 and to follow Chin-chin-wa with the eye till duly- 
 satisfied that nothing was to be gained by it, few 
 had been added to those who followed us ; and 
 those who had must have been more influenced by 
 that feeling which impels everyone to join in a 
 crowd than from curiosity as to what we were 
 about to do. 
 
 A few, however, I recognised had kept stead- 
 fastly behind, and those, as I now understood, 
 were chiefly the followers of Shan-min-yuen. 
 
 For the rest, there was nothing terribly exciting 
 in the headlong career of two mandarin palanquins ; 
 and the atmosphere of Pekin at this time of the 
 year is not such as to call into energy the latent 
 curiosity 6f those who pass along dust-laden roads, 
 with the overpowering heat of the sun beating 
 upon their heads. 
 
 Now that we were leaving our palanquins the 
 case was altered, for the spectacle presented by two 
 men, richly dressed in mandarin garb, flying on 
 foot through clouds of dust stirred by their every 
 step, must certainly attract popular attention in a 
 very marked degree. 
 
 This was the first difficulty. The second was 
 William Norris, or the man whom we had secured 
 as being William Norris. 
 
 Was he to be left to follow in the palanquin 
 where he now lay ? 
 
 As I rapidly questioned this whil.st I started 
 upon a race whose length I did not yet know — 
 
THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 325 
 
 a race for life as against death — I saw that Chin- 
 chin-wa had made up upon the first palanquin 
 and that its bearers had already lowered it upon 
 the ground. 
 
 I am unable clearly to convey the rapidity of all 
 that now occurred. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa, who had been some yards in 
 advance of me, had stopped the palanquin. I was 
 instantly by its side ; he shouted out to me, " On, 
 on ! I shall be after you ; " and I did as he 
 directed, knowing that he was more fleet of foot 
 than I, and that every moment must be saved by 
 me, and every effort expended to attain to any- 
 thing like speed, upon the Pel<in roads. I knew 
 also that all lay in his hands ; that he must guide 
 at this time, not I, and I did not hesitate a 
 moment, but passed him without looking back, 
 and continued to run as quickly as lay within my 
 power along the road which lay before me. 
 
 Some moments must have passed whilst I ran 
 thus, conscious that danger was every moment 
 coming more near us — for something told me that, 
 as we went, we were now actually pursued — when I 
 became aware of hard breathing behind me, and 
 knew that Chin-chin-wa was overtaking me, and 
 would shortly take the lead. Perhaps this thought 
 influenced me to unconsciously slacken speed, for 
 a second or two later he was by my side, and then, 
 without a word, took a position in front of, but a 
 little to one side of me. 
 
326 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 My eyes, which had been fixed ahead with the 
 determination that our goal must be reached, 
 turned towards him ; as they did so, a great wave 
 of emotion, of admiration, of manly love — call it 
 what you will — overcame me ; I instantly saw 
 the cause of Chin-chin-wa's short and hard 
 breathing. 
 
 He was carrying in his arms the body of the man 
 whom he had brought from the temple, and yet, 
 notwithstanding this, kept step by step with my 
 full speed, which was now called forth in the hour 
 of need. 
 
 As I saw this, and as my senses half grasped 
 the reality of the man's heroism — a heroism appar- 
 ent now, when every moment might save his life — a 
 heroism which was virtually sacrificing that life for 
 another's sake — I felt a touch of his iron strength 
 enter me, and nerve me to fresh exertion ; if 
 Chin-chin-wa could do this thing, surely I, too, 
 might, at least, succeed in keeping pace with him. 
 Shouts had arisen behind us — shouts which were 
 explained to me in the aftertime by Chin-chin-wa, 
 for they meant this — " Chase him to the gates, and 
 kill the exile who can ; " and, as I heard the cry, 
 I knew that the hour of noon had come, and that 
 Chin-chin-wa's life was no longer his own. 
 
 Still we out-distanced those who followed, and 
 some who turned at the cry had not the time to 
 step in front of us before we had passed and left 
 them in pursuit In the trafiic, greater as we 
 
THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 327 
 
 neared the gate, there was a certain amount of 
 safety for us, in that those who were far in front 
 did not perceive us, or grasp the meaning of the 
 cry behind, until we were near them, and the gate 
 was now close at hand. 
 
 We were now in this position : Chin-chin-wa a 
 yard in front of me ; I, a little to one side, behind 
 him on the left. 
 
 Suddenly danger in its most terrible form faced 
 us : two men sprang out to oppose our progress. 
 
 All my strength rose within me. '' Fall back ! " 
 I shouted desperately to Chin-chin-wa, almost as 
 we were upon them. Chin-chin-wa dropped a 
 step, so that I passed him and, with clenched fist, 
 I struck them in succession, with the rapidity of a 
 madman's frenzy, full in the face. Our speed did 
 not slacken — we passed on. 
 
 "The gate!" I shouted ; "on, on !" — for it was 
 there before us, and, as I perceived it, I seemed to 
 grasp, for the first time, what Shan-min-yuen might 
 have done. 
 
 The gate was open — it might have been closed. 
 
 As my voice broke from me, Chin-chin-wa was 
 again by my side ; the foot of the man he carried 
 just touched me — happily no more. 
 
 The gate was free ; the road almost clear. All 
 danger was behind us, unless some providence 
 intervened. 
 
 A great tumult arose behind us. My senses 
 seemed to leave me. I seemed to enter at full 
 
328 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 speed into a dark pit ; for the great gateway con- 
 tracted, so it seemed to me, as we approached. 
 
 Darkness enveloped me — and then — a sudden 
 light. 
 
 We had passed through the Tungchow gate. 
 
 Near the Pekin gates the roads are paved on 
 either side of the wall with huge slabs of unevenly 
 laid stone. We had passed over some of these 
 and were now outside the walls. 
 
 When I knew that we were saved from the 
 greatest of all our perils, my strength, from the 
 terrible strain placed upon it, completely left me, 
 and I fell forwards ; but Chin-chin-wa saved me. 
 Half loosening his grip upon the man whose form 
 he carried, he stretched out his left arm and gave 
 me momentary support. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, I sank upon the ground. 
 
 Those who had pursued us were upon us at this 
 instant ; but I heard a loud voice, giving, as it were, 
 a command above me, as it had done in strangely 
 similar circumstances once before, and, glancing 
 upwards upon Chin-chin-wa's face, I saw that it 
 was he who spoke. 
 
 Never shall I forget his face as I saw it then, set 
 with the great beauty of an iron strength which 
 admits no weakness ; and yet I knew that the 
 endurance of the man was well nigh spent 
 
THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 329 
 
 He was marble pale ; yet even now he restrained 
 the weakness which was upon him, his lips did 
 not quiver, and his breath seemed to come as 
 always, as though he had suffered nothing in that 
 desperate race for life. 
 
 He faced them — a great crowd of bloodthirsty, 
 maddened brutes ; wolves baulked of their prey ! 
 It was a moment of intense danger. Would they 
 furiously disregard his words ? No ; the command 
 had a power I could scarcely credit ; and that 
 power which protected him, protected Norris and 
 myself He faced them — and his commanding 
 attitude and words enforced obedience, for in his 
 hand he held his pardon — his life was once again 
 protected by the Imperial power. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa now loosened his hold upon the 
 form which he bore in his arms. As soon as I 
 was sufficiently recovered, I rose and looked around 
 me. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen's attendants had apparently dis- 
 appeared, for the crowd kept back at Chin-chin-wa's 
 command ; and then gradually, so I imagined, 
 must have come questions from one to the other as 
 to what had been the reason for the pursuit ; and 
 so they slowly gathered in knots observing us ; 
 but danger, for the present at least, was past. 
 
 Gradually I felt that my strength was returning 
 to me. Chin-chin-wa had not yet moved, being, 
 like myself, exhausted. Thus some minutes passed, 
 whilst the crowd circled round us inquiringly, until 
 at last Chin-chin-wa spoke. 
 
33° THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 " We must move on," he said to me, " as soon as 
 you are able. The ponies are not far off. We 
 must get away from here. Shan-min-yuen will not 
 be long in setting out upon the pursuit ; they 
 expected him at the temple every moment." 
 
 "But," I said, "your pardon protects you now!" 
 
 " Not from Shan-min-yuen and his men," he 
 answered quietly. " Do you think he will hesitate 
 a moment in setting out in pursuit at such a time 
 as this ? Norris is with us : that alone is enough. 
 And if my pardon were enough to protect me, 
 I would not now use it — I would meet him as man 
 to man." 
 
 I did not answer. I was still endeavouring to 
 recall my strength, and, as in moments of intense 
 excitement one will sometimes do most trivial 
 things, my next action was a strange one ; I 
 lifted my Chinese garb, and looked at my watch 
 as it lay in the pouch I wore at my waist. 
 
 It was exactly twelve minutes past the hour ol 
 noon. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa bent over Norris. 
 
 " He still lives," he said. " Thank God ! " Then 
 he sought to raise the body in his arms once 
 more. "Come," he said to me, "a. little way; 
 courage ! " 
 
 He was right ; we were not yet safe. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa moved on : I made an effort, and 
 followed him, and by the time we reached the inn 
 where the ponies awaited us, in charge of the old 
 
THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 331 
 
 curio-dealer, I felt that I was ready for fresh 
 exertion. 
 
 Such of the crowd as had followed us we now 
 left behind us upon the road, whilst we entered the 
 yard of the Chinese inn. Our aged host expressed 
 his delight at our arrival, in words to Chin-chin-wa 
 and in gestures to me ; for he had feared that we 
 were lost, since we had passed the appointed hour. 
 The ponies were ready for us, and little time was 
 spent in further preparation. 
 
 Our intention had been to ride to Tientsin — that 
 is to say, to make the v/hole journey on horse- 
 back. 
 
 Now, as I discovered, this was to be altered. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa had determined upon a better 
 course, yet one which still presented obstacles and 
 difficulties of its own — that of going by river to 
 Tientsin. Our future movements he laid before 
 me rapidly, as we rested for a few minutes before 
 mounting the ponies which were ready for us. 
 
 It was highly probable that Shan-min-yuen 
 would give early pursuit, because he had been 
 expected at the temple ; and on his arrival there 
 he would discover the absence of his captive. 
 
 His attendants, meantime, would return to say 
 that they had pursued Chin-chin-wa, the exile, 
 through the streets, accompanied by his English 
 friend, and that as he went he had carried a 
 man whom he had brought from the Temple of 
 Confucius. 
 
3i2 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Certainly, with this information, Shan-min-yuen 
 would quickly discern the truth. 
 
 Our position, then, was fraught with danger, 
 and although any little delay had been counter- 
 balanced in a measure by the great haste in which 
 we had left the city, it now became an urgent 
 necessity to push on at once ; and here it proved 
 to be well indeed that Chin-chin-wa had fixed 
 upon the Tungchow gate, for it was nearest to 
 the river, and the river we must now strive to gain. 
 
 By means of heavy payments we should then 
 induce the sailors to press forward at an unusual 
 speed, and by this means we should best be able 
 to gain safety, for Norris, in his present condition, 
 would certainly be unable to ride upon horseback 
 unless held firmly in his seat. 
 
 This task was to be ours, as it was, to Tungchow. 
 
 Norris — if it were Norris, as I still doubted — 
 was now dimly conscious, for the great shaking 
 which his frame must have endured whilst Chin- 
 chin-wa carried him over the uneven ground at full 
 speed had had a beneficial rather than an injurious 
 effect under the circumstances, and we knew now 
 with certainty that, though terribly weakened, he 
 ;v'as recovering. 
 
 But it was no time to attempt to question him. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa poured a little samshu^ down his 
 throat, and both he and I also swallowed some of 
 this ; but, further, we treated Norris as if he were 
 
 * Chinese spirit. 
 
THE RACE FOR THE TUNGCHOW GATE. 333 
 
 a dead thing, dealing with him as though he were 
 unconscious still ; for we had the power to act, 
 whilst from him it was totally gone. 
 
 We placed him upon one of the ponies and tied 
 him to it with ropes, as firmly as we were able, 
 in a position which, whilst irksome, was neces- 
 sary ; for, as we rode on either side, we could give 
 him but small support, as well we knew. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa then mounted his steed ; I followed 
 suit, and, leading the third pony between us, and 
 half-supporting the form it bore, we passed together 
 out upon the road. 
 
 As we did so, the old Chinaman, our late host in 
 Pekin, came after us, crying curiously in the 
 Chinese way, as he ran by the side of Chin- 
 chin-wa. 
 
 Then I knew for the first time that the old man 
 must have truly loved Chin-chin-wa, and that they 
 parted now, as they had parted seventeen years 
 ago, knowing that only by some freak of fate 
 could they ever meet again. 
 
 A softer look than I had ever seen upon Chin- 
 chin-wa's face overspread it now. 
 
 He spoke some words ; I do not know what 
 they were, for I could not ask, but I know that 
 they were words of farewell worthy of Chin- 
 chin-wa, and as the old man heard them he 
 silently fell back. 
 
 From this moment our every effort and endea- 
 vour was towards speed. But even with speed. 
 
334 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 given that we reached the Peiho in good time, 
 and far in advance of those who would, as we 
 anticipated, start in the pursuit, there was this 
 possibility yet before us — we might, even now, be 
 unable to secure a boat in time. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, the sun's heat, in this 
 hour of trial, did not affect me, and I felt no 
 injurious effects later ; perhaps my head was suffi- 
 ciently protected by my mandarin hat of round 
 shape and of fine straw, or the great excitement 
 served in some unknown way as an antidote to 
 the power of the sun's rays. 
 
 As we rode onwards, constantly urging our 
 steeds to fresh exertion, and keeping the pony, 
 upon which Xorris was tied, between us as we 
 went, a new fear came to me. 
 
 " Suppose,'' I said, " that one of our ponies breaks 
 down from this haste ; what then ? " 
 
 Chin-chin-wa answered me at once — 
 
 " Face trouble when it comes ! " 
 
 After that we did not speak ; for our flight was 
 of that nature which called upon us to expend our 
 strength of mind and body upon pushing onwards ; 
 and, cumbered as we were with the man and horse 
 between us, we were sorely tried indeed. 
 
336 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 I do not know how long we were upon the road, 
 but at last I saw that we were entering a great 
 village, and soon, passing through its streets, un- 
 heeding those who gathered in a crowd behind us, 
 we came to a vast open space, and I saw sails and 
 masts at a little distance. 
 
 We had reached the Peiho. 
 
 Here, upon the banks of the river in the village 
 of Tungchow, we dismounted, Chin-chin-wa direct- 
 ing me to release Norris from the ropes which 
 bound him, whilst he sought for a boat. 
 
 By the time I had done so, he returned, and in a 
 few words informed me all was well. 
 
 Thankful, indeed, were we to be able to proceed 
 immediately, for if we were right in our conclusions 
 Shan-min-yuen must have been already nearing us ; 
 and although I had upon my person two revolvers, 
 and Chin-chin-wa no doubt carried, as always, his 
 deadly knife, I had come to know enough of China 
 and the Chinese to perceive how useless would have 
 been our resistance. It was a most fortunate 
 thing that till this time the arms which I had 
 brought with me to the north had not been called 
 into requisition, for a single drop of blood spilled 
 might easily have sealed our fate. 
 
 Scarce half-an-hour later we had started on our 
 journey down the Peiho to Tientsin. 
 
 Our progress was rapid. Chin-chin-wa had 
 secured a triple crew, and of these men a number 
 went upon the bank dragging the boat down stream 
 by means of ropes tied to the mast 
 
HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD. 337 
 
 What came of our ponies I do not know ; they, 
 as with our baggage in Pekin, were left behind. 
 We had no time to think of them. 
 
 The boat upon which we now were was a house- 
 boat ; so termed by the Europeans in China, since 
 it carries a wooden house, forming a cabin where 
 the travellers may repose. 
 
 We did not speak much at this time, Chin-chin- 
 wa and I. We were equally wearied, and anxiety 
 held us in iron bonds. 
 
 Slowly night began to falj upon us ; but our 
 speed slackened little, we were to travel through- 
 out the night without stoppage ; and, as darkness 
 fell, a great sense of peace and security and total 
 release from fear came upon me, and I fell asleep. 
 
 When I awoke, a feeble lamp was burning in the 
 little cabin where I lay, and I saw that Norris was 
 beside me. Something assured me now, as I looked 
 on him, that it could be none other than he. 
 
 Sleep had come upon him, too, so I judged ; his 
 breast moved gently, and his eyes were closed. 
 
 I looked closely at his face ; it was an English 
 face, I could have sworn it, and yet so drawn that 
 I knew not why I judged it to be English, I had 
 never seen an English face like his. 
 
 Upon his half-shaven head I noticed several 
 black spots near the forehead, round and evenly 
 marked, and wondered what these were. 
 
 Then I looked out upon the night, and distin- 
 guished clearly in the light of the moon the figure 
 
 Y 
 
53^ THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 of Chin-chin-wa sitting in the prow gazing forwards 
 — so it seemed to me — as though ever upon the 
 watch. 
 
 I stepped out beside him. He, too, had fallen 
 under nature's charm, for he slept sitting at his 
 .self-chosen post. 
 
 I did not disturb either of the sleepers ; m}' ears 
 were charmed by the gentle plash of the waters 
 through which we were moving, and my eyes 
 followed listlessly the half-distinguishable forms of 
 the men who toiled for us upon the bank. 
 
 Night holds a beauty in these lands unknown to 
 those who live at home. The quiet air is lulled into 
 an ecstas)- of stillness, and a delightful peace falls 
 upon the world and subdues the troubles of man. 
 
 Far above us, in a sky peopled with its million 
 stars, shone the peerless moon — not in its full glory, 
 but yet beautiful in its siU-er light. 
 
 Beneath me, within a foot or two of my hand, 
 was the sluggish river, whose dinginess was not 
 observable now that the night had come. 
 
 On either side lay the long, low banks, and in 
 front of us the curve which the men with the ropes 
 were straining even now to round. 
 
 For a little while my senses drank their full of 
 the restful glory of an Eastern night, so that trouble 
 passed from me, and I wandered into a land of 
 dreams. 
 
 But lasting peace is not to be found on earth ; 
 the human mind seeks ever after strife ; and slowly 
 
HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD. 339 
 
 my thoughts returned to all that was, and had 
 been, till I fell into vain conjecture as to how it 
 had come that we had so far escaped the pursuit of 
 Shan-min-yucn. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa had told me that the priests had 
 believed him to be the mandarin's messenger. I 
 knew also in what position he had found the man 
 he saved ; how a white bird had been chdined near 
 his feet, and that this accounted for the blood, since 
 the bird had torn the poor flesh with its hideous 
 beak ; moreover, he had told me that e\'en whilst 
 he waited till the victim should be unbound, he 
 knew that at any moment Shan-min-}uen might 
 arrive, for the priests expected him, and had he 
 arrived all would assuredly have been lost. 
 
 I could imagine no situation more fraught with 
 danger than must have been that of Chin-chin-wa 
 whilst he stood within the temple, at a time when 
 his whole soul must have been on fire with mingled 
 feelings on discovering Norris with the white bird 
 at his feet. 
 
 Only now, as I sat resting quietly, could I 
 picture to myself the scene ; when I had listened 
 to Chin-chin-wa's rapid tale, the sense which man 
 possesses, which may drink in fear and horror, was, 
 in my case, then already filled by the presence of 
 the dangers still around u.s. 
 
 What must not the months gone by have been 
 to Norris ! 
 
 For his story I must wait, perhaps for manj'. 
 
34° THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 many days. But it was something to hope that the 
 mystery would be cleared eventually, and that a 
 reason would be forthcoming for all the protracted 
 torture Norris had endured. Thus was I musing 
 when Chin-chin-wa moved. He turned towards 
 me. 
 
 " Have you slept ? " he asked. "lama bad 
 sentinel, you see, but if danger had been near I 
 think I should have wakened. The night has 
 saved us ; we shall reach Tientsin ! " 
 
 "And what then?" I asked. "In Tientsin we 
 are far from safe. For my part, I shall only feel 
 at ease when we get to sea." 
 
 " Vou are right ; that is our only safety. I too feel 
 that we have not passed through all our dangers. 
 Shan-min-\'uen will know that we have gone to the 
 coast ; if he pursues us by river, we have a chance ; 
 but he may, l)y rapidly pushing overland, intercept 
 us. All depends upon the hour of his setting 
 out from Pekin. If we reach Tientsin in safety 
 I shall pay these men to take us to the coast, 
 unless by chance there is an English vessel at 
 Tientsin ready for immediate departure. We must 
 even risk going to sea in this cockle-shell : I 
 believe it is the safest wa)-." 
 
 " But," I queried, "are there not enough English- 
 men in Tientsin to protect us ? " 
 
 ■' By no means," was his reply. " You have seen 
 the settlement, and know it to be a small one : we 
 cannot estimate the strength of our foes. We are 
 
HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD. 341 
 
 in the land of the Chinese race, and our lives may 
 pay the forfeit for what we have done. Do not 
 think that now, after the man has been robbed of 
 his prey, and baulked as he has been, that anything 
 will stand in the way of his revenge. He will be 
 like an infuriated and senseless beast. His own 
 destruction will be a small thing, if he first com- 
 pass mine. 1 am glad that this is so, for now, if 
 we meet, we are as man to man. Nothing stands 
 between us : I may justly destroy this wicked 
 man ! But," he continued in a lighter tone, " our 
 lives must stand apart from those of others as 
 far as may be. We must not risk many lives to 
 save three ; the settlement must not be called 
 upon, else every European life in Northern China 
 hangs upon a thread. You must know now how 
 powerless the legation in Pekin would have proved, 
 had we gone to them for aid : a few men against 
 a nation. What is the result ? They are brave ; 
 what does it matter ? The Chinese are pitiless 
 and cruel." 
 
 " Then you propose to proceed to the coast in 
 this boat, and to avoid entering Tientsin ? " 
 
 "If it be possible, it would be the wisest plan. 
 We shall attempt it." 
 
 "And when shall we pass Tientsin?" I 
 questioned. 
 
 " Early to-morrow night I hope ; perhaps before 
 darkness falls." 
 
 For a long time we sat talking. There was 
 
342 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 much which each had to say— much that was 
 repeated yet seemed new, and held a special 
 interest in view of the dangers we had faced 
 together, which had now bound us in a bond of 
 union of the truest kind. 
 
 Hours may have passed, when in a momentary 
 silence I hear a sound from the little cabin. 
 
 "Hush!" I said. "It is Norris who speaks at 
 last." 
 
 I went down to him, and Chin-chin-wa fol- 
 lowed me. 
 
 By the feeble rays of the little lamp we saw that 
 he was awake ; that sleep had entirely removed the 
 cloud, and that the man was now conscious and 
 could speak. 
 
 It was then that I fully perceived his piteous 
 condition ; it must have been a long time since he 
 had tasted food, but other causes had contributed 
 to his emaciation. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa poured some samshu down his 
 throat, and this seemed to revive his strength, for 
 he asked us in a strange, uneven voice, now hoarse, 
 and now sunk into a whisper, if we could give 
 him food. 
 
 I had nothing suitable to give. But Chin- 
 chin-wa had been more provident ; for, whilst I 
 had slept, he had had some soup prepared, and 
 although it had cooled, it was appetising and 
 nourishing. 
 
 Norris swallowed a little, as I held him up, whilst 
 
HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD. 343 
 
 Chin-chin-wa placed the basin to his lips. Then 
 he sank back e.vhausted, and Chin-chin-wa said to 
 me — 
 
 " Leave him. Come ! He is too weak to speak 
 We must come again." 
 
 So we went forth again into the night air. 
 
 The first of the dawn was approaching ; but 
 neither of us slept. 
 
 Slowly the new day was born, and slowly the 
 morning came and passed. No incident occurred, 
 though we were ever on the outlook lest our enemies 
 should appear upon the bank. 
 
 Several times we fed Norris ; but it was past 
 noon before I ventured to sit beside him and 
 speak to him. 
 
 By that time hz was able to sit up, and seemed 
 in a fair way of regaining something of his shattered 
 strength. 
 
 " Norris," [ had said, addressing him for the first 
 time, "you are safe now." 
 
 He was silent for a moment, and then in his 
 strange weak voice, 
 
 " How do you know my name ? " he said. 
 
 " The swallow brought it me," was my reply, 
 " months and months ago." 
 
 As I spoke, he burst into tears ; and I do not 
 know if it was weakness alone which caused him 
 to weep, for the vision of the beautiful bird, weary 
 and worn with its flight across the seas, as it had 
 come to me in Brussels months before, recurred to 
 
344 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 me, and my own heart was full, so that I could not 
 say more. 
 
 We neared Tientsin at last. We now paid off 
 some of the men who had toiled for us upon the 
 bank ; for, as we neared the city, the river broad- 
 ened and deepened, so that the oars alone were of 
 use, and our boat was not large enough to hold all 
 the men whom we had hired. 
 
 It was at this time that Chin-chin-wa, who had 
 been speaking to the men at the oars, turned to 
 me, as I stood beside him, wondering what was 
 the matter, and said bitterly — 
 
 " They refuse to take us past Tientsin." 
 
 " Refuse ! " I said, astounded. " Why ? " 
 
 " Because," he answered, " they see the possibility 
 of unlimited reward ; they have fathomed the truth 
 that every hour is of importance to us." 
 
 " But give them the reward — anything they ask," 
 I cried. 
 
 " You are wrong," he answered quietly. " I have 
 promised them the reward — great reward — after 
 we pass Tientsin ; but we must not carry out that 
 half-made bargain. We must leave this boat at 
 Tientsin." 
 
 " Why so ? " I asked ; for I was puzzled. 
 
 " This is the reason," was his reply. " I have 
 promised them great sums if they will agree to take 
 us to the river's mouth. They have agreed to that 
 because they think the greater reward lies after the 
 passing of Tientsin, and with that in view they will 
 
HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD. 345 
 
 expend their strength so that we may pass the city. 
 Then they have us in their power : they may refuse 
 for fabulous sums to move on, and much time may 
 be lost. At every bend in the river their avarice 
 may demand fresh bribes. We cannot afford to 
 risk our lives on such a system of flight.'' 
 
 " Then," I asked, " what is to be done ? " 
 
 " I scarcely know. We must, I think, go to your 
 German acquaintance. Norris and you must wait 
 there whilst I arrange for a steamer, or procure 
 any river conveyance possible to take us to the 
 sea." 
 
 " But why to Bonsel's ? " 
 
 " His house, in my mind, will be the last to 
 which Shan-min-yuen will go ; for the mandarin 
 will not be likely to visit his friend when upon 
 such a dastardly affair as this." 
 
 I perceived the strength of his reasoning, and 
 yet revolted at the idea of going to Bonsel's 
 house. 
 
 I asked him if we could not rather remain 
 together without separating. But he answered me 
 that it would soon be night, and that, with Norris 
 to support from place to place, our chance of secur- 
 ing a steamer or boat might hs gone, for we could 
 not act rapidly when thus encumbered. 
 
 We now looked to the possibility of leaving 
 Tientsin before dawn. 
 
 That Bonsel could have had no hand in Norris's 
 capture I still believed. But supposing that we 
 
346 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 had judged him too leniently in this, what then ? 
 I questioned Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 " I shall be with you," was his answer, " when you 
 first go to Bonsel's ; if there is guilt, we shall know 
 it instantly. Trust to me." 
 
 Evening was falling as we moved down the 
 widening river, past the outskirts of Tientsin ; past 
 Chinese soldiers at play upon the banks, swinging 
 from arm to arm, in graceful movement, great 
 weights, which they passed from one to the other, 
 and caught in curious positions, which must have 
 strained their powerful muscles to the full. 
 
 Others, again, were busy upon convict-work upon 
 the river banks. 
 
 The whole river teemed with life, with curious 
 boats and junks, and the air was filled with a 
 myriad of human sounds, which rose alike from the 
 water and the land. 
 
 We reached the bridge of boats ; it was open, 
 and we passed through. Scarcely had we done so, 
 when Chin-chin-wa stood up and commanded the 
 rowers loudly to put to land. But it seemed that 
 they refused to obey ; for a disturbance arose, 
 since the men had expected greater reward when 
 Tientsin was passed. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa turned to me. 
 
 " Your revolvers ! " he said. 
 
 I took them from my belt and handed them to 
 him. He took one in either hand, and, pointing 
 them to the men, spoke in a voice of command. 
 
HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD. 347 
 
 For a moment they swerved ; I thought that this 
 threat was sufficient ; and I was glad, for I feared 
 the result of the pistol explosion at such a time. 
 But whether it be that the men were ignorant of 
 the deadly nature of the weapons held by Chin- 
 chin-wa, or that they felt security in the presence 
 of the life around them, I know not ; but certain 
 it is tliat they did not obey, but rather rowed the 
 harder down the stream. 
 
 The oars — of which, whilst the men tracked upon 
 the bank, one had been used as rudder — were now 
 employed by the men in front ; and it may be 
 imagined that our boat was fully manned (even for 
 its size, which was larger than the ordinary house- 
 boat of its kind), when it is stated that there were 
 five Chinamen in front, thus making — with our- 
 selves three — a complement of eight on board. 
 
 The Chinamen were crowded together, and yet 
 managed to guide the boat. 
 
 They did not obey Chin-chin-wa, but shouted to 
 one another instead, and we moved on rapidly 
 down stream. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa did not fire. Threats being of no 
 avail, he handed me my weapons. 
 
 " These are useless ; it must be quietly done. 
 Wait here ! Do not fire : leave all to me. There 
 is only one way now." 
 
 With these words he seized in his hand a short 
 pole of wood which was fixed upright in a hole 
 upon the deck near the stern where we stood. It 
 
348 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 was loose in its socket, for it had acted as a part of 
 the helm — an oar in the earlier part of our journey- 
 having been tied to it with rope. 
 
 It came easily to his hand, and, taking it, he 
 moved quickly forwards along the side of the boat 
 till he came to where the men sat in the prow, 
 beyond the little cabin upon deck. 
 
 I obeyed him, and waited, though I longed to 
 follow ; but as it was, I did right. 
 
 The Chinamen instantly knew that danger was 
 come ; they stood up as Chin-chin-wa reached 
 them, and two of them drew in their oars. He did 
 not give them a moment for thought. 
 
 Wielding his block of wood with herculean 
 strength, he knocked the men over like ninepins, 
 striking at their heads and sending three of them, 
 as he did so, over the little vessel's side. 
 
 I had scarcely time to think of his intention 
 before all this was accomplished. 
 
 Three of the men were in the water, two of them 
 being apparently stunned, for their bodies had 
 sunk. 
 
 The third was half swimming with the tide. Of 
 the two men still left, one must have been sense- 
 less, for Chin-chin-wa raised his body and cast it 
 over ; and then when I thought all was at an 
 end the worst came, for the last man, who cannot 
 have been much injured, suddenly rose and pre- 
 cipitated himself upon Chin-chin-wa with all his 
 force. 
 
HE CLUNG TO ME WHEN HE WAS DEAD. 349 
 
 Chin-chin-wa staggered ; then, to my horror, he 
 stepped back, and the next instant, with the 
 Chinaman's arms about him, he too fell into the 
 stream, whilst the boat heeled so that I thought it 
 was about to upset. 
 
 The waters closed then, without a sound, upon 
 him and his desperate foe. 
 
 I could do nothing. My eyes were fixed upon 
 the spot where the two had disappeared, as the 
 boat swiftly passed it. 
 
 I was now alone with Norris. I am not a strong 
 swimmer ; and even had I been so I could have 
 done nothing, since both men had disappeared. 
 
 Could Chin-chin-wa swim ? The question in its 
 full agony occurred to me. I had never heard him 
 speak of being able to do so. 
 
 Moments of intense anxiety passed over me, as I 
 gazed powerlessly at the dull water, whilst the 
 boat drifted on. Of a sudden I heard a splash. I 
 turned. 
 
 "Thank God !" burst from me, "all is well." 
 
 Chin-chin-wa had risen to the surface in front of 
 me, carried on by some under-current. 
 
 I saw, on the instant, that he was a powerful 
 swimmer ; and, hastening forwards, reached out 
 an oar — he caught it, and in a few seconds more 
 stood again by my side. 
 
 " I had my knife ; but the man clung to me," he 
 said between long-drawn breaths, " even when he 
 was dead." 
 
3Sa THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 I turned to the cabin as he spoke, it suddenly- 
 struck me, now that Chin-chin-vva was safe, that it 
 was strange that Norris had given no cry. 
 
 I found that he had fainted, probably in an 
 excess of fear. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 FAREWELL TO CHIN-CHIN-\VA. 
 
 Half an hour after this we stood upon the shore. 
 Chin-chin-wa and I had rowed the boat to land so 
 soon as we were able ; and now, supporting Norris 
 between us, we strove to hasten to Bonsel's house. 
 
 It was, indeed, slow progression, since Norris, 
 now assured of his safety, and recalled again to 
 life, could yet, from his weakness, scarcely place 
 foot upon the ground. 
 
 It was dark by the time we reached the settle- 
 ment. 
 
 At length we stood upon the threshold of Bon- 
 sel's house. He was dining when we arrived, and 
 happily, alone. His amazement upon seeing us 
 knew no bounds. 
 
 From our reception, and from his manner, I 
 knew at once that we had done a grievous wrong 
 in, even for a moment, suspecting the honest 
 man. 
 
 Bonsel had had no hand in the affair. Over- 
 whelming us with questions, he placed his house at 
 
352 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 our disposal ; indeed, his hospitality seemed likely 
 to involve a serious loss of time. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa, however, soon set this right. 
 Norris had been placed upon the sofa, being again 
 thoroughly exhausted. Bonsel had handed me my 
 letters, and was questioning us when Chin-chin-wa 
 interrupted him. 
 
 " Forgive my interrupting you, Mr. Bonsel — 
 this is the whole case. Your Chinese friend, Shan- 
 min-yuen, is the man who has held Norris a 
 captive." 
 
 Bonsel started back. 
 
 " It cannot be ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " In the Temple of Confucius ! " continued Chin- 
 chin-wa coldly. "It is true. We are pursued b\- 
 him now. There must be no time lost. Is there 
 an English steamer in Tientsin?" 
 
 " Yes, one was arriving to-day ; but it is here 
 for sc\cral da)'S." 
 
 " It must leave Tientsin to-night. Mr. \"ans- 
 combe will explain all. I must hasten to the 
 river. The steamer's crew must be collected, and 
 we must sail to-night." 
 
 Bonsel, I think, understood that a crisis was at 
 hand. 
 
 " Shan-min-yuen will come to me," he said. 
 
 "If he does so, you must conceal your guests. 
 You are the Chinaman's friend ; he will believe 
 you. They are safer in this house than in any 
 other in Tientsin." 
 
FAREWELL TO CHIN-CHIN-WA. 353 
 
 With these words Chin-chin-wa hastened to the 
 door and left us in the German's house. 
 
 Alone with Bonsel, I rapidly detailed all that 
 had occurred, Norris listening eagerly as I spoke. 
 Bonsel seemed to doubt the truth, for he could 
 believe no ill of his friend, yet he knew Shan- 
 min-yuen to be the father of the Confucian 
 priests. 
 
 " But for what cause," he asked at length, 
 "could Shan-min-yuen, my friend, have done 
 this?" 
 
 The answer came unexpectedly from Norris, 
 clearing all that had been to me also a matter of 
 doubt. 
 
 " I gave two false cheques to the mandarin," he 
 said. 
 
 At the word, Bonsel started and turned pale. 
 
 " What is wrong ? " I asked hurriedly. 
 
 " This," he answered. " I received one false 
 order from Shan-min-yuen. It was returned from 
 the English bank. I understood nothing ; for 
 the name was otherwise — not Norris." 
 
 " And the second ? Norris says there were 
 two ! " I asked ea:gerly ; " what of it ? " 
 
 ■' I am knowing nothing of it," was his answer ; 
 " it has not come here." 
 
 " You have not written to Shan-min-yuen of our 
 visit to Pekin ? " I inquired anxiously. 
 
 " No ! " was his reply. 
 
 Notwithstanding that we had much to mutually 
 
 z 
 
354 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 question and investigate, a weary time ensued ; for 
 the hours slipped by and Chin-chin-wa did not 
 reappear. Bonsel was of opinion that Chin- 
 chin-wa was right ; that if all this was true, 
 which even yet he scarcely believed, Shan-min- 
 yuen would not come to his house when bent 
 upon such a pursuit, and that, should he do so, we 
 could easily be concealed. We reckoned without 
 taking into account the strange chances of fate. 
 
 It seemed to me that years had intervened since 
 last I had been in this room ; for time is, in the 
 mind, measured by events. Had we indeed reached 
 safety now ? Were we, as Chin-chin-wa had con- 
 jectured, safe in Bonsel's house ? 
 
 ]\Iy personal feeling was that, till we left Tient- 
 sin, danger still hung over us. We had come 
 quickly, it is true, but Shan-min-yuen must have 
 followed ; and if he had done so, these hours that 
 were now passing might bring him upon us 
 still. 
 
 We had had a good start, in that Shan-min-yuen 
 had not known of our flight, or guessed the possi- 
 bility of our saving the prisoner till it was done ; 
 but inwardly I felt that the mandarin goaded to 
 pursue us was even now approaching us ; for my 
 mind created a certainty of this from doubt. 
 
 I could not talk freely to the German, my 
 nerves were too highly strung. 
 
 We had the present still to face ; we might talk 
 of the past when all was done. In this state of 
 
FAREWELL TO CHIN-CHIN \\'A. 355 
 
 mind I waited anxiously for Chin-chin-wa to re- 
 appear, and Norris, I think, shared my anxiety, 
 though he was too weak I fancy to feel as acutely 
 as I. 
 
 Midnight came upon us. We were now all 
 alike filled with anxious thought, owing to the 
 prolonged absence of Chin-chin-wa, when he burst 
 in upon us wildly, shouting as he did so — 
 
 " Quick ! Shan-min-yuen is here. He must 
 have come by road. I met one of his men. 
 Since then he has tracked me down. I have 
 evaded him and his men, God knows how ; but 
 we are tracked down." 
 
 What had happened, as I learned in the after 
 time, was this. Chin-chin-wa had, on leaving us, 
 proceeded at once to the quay. 
 
 On the way he had met and passed one of Shan- 
 min-yuen's men. From this he knew that the 
 enemy was already in Tientsin. 
 
 He had thought the discovery of this fact for- 
 tunate, believing that he was unobserved ; but 
 in this he was wrong ; the man must immediately 
 have hastened to his master to inform him of our 
 arrival in Tientsin, he being one of many, in all 
 probability, set upon the watch. 
 
 Shan-min-yuen had overtaken us by road. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa reached the quay ; but finding 
 that the captain of the vessel spoken of by Bonsel 
 was dining at the steamship agent's house, he 
 had followed him thither, and with much trouble 
 
356 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 Affairs had not been settled in a moment's 
 space of time. Though the tide was, fortunately, 
 well-nigh full, it was a somewhat dangerous pro- 
 ceeding to steam down the river by moonlight, 
 and, for the rest, the vessel had its usual engage- 
 ments. But as money conquers all things, so it 
 had conquered now ; all had been arranged so 
 that we might now start at an early hour. 
 
 On the way back to Bonsel's, Chin-chin-wa again 
 met his enemies, and, with great difficulty eluding 
 them, hastened to rejoin us, knowing that our safety 
 depended upon him. 
 
 He had been followed, however, so it seemed ; and 
 strangely enough it chanced that the end of all was 
 to be under Bonsel's roof I knew that, for evil 
 or good, the struggle was near at hand. 
 
 I stood up and grasped my revolvers, calling to 
 Norris to lie still. 
 
 " Take that," I said to Chin-chin-wa, holding a 
 revolver towards him. He did not take it, but 
 grasped his knife in his right hand, as he fixed 
 his eyes upon the door, answering me, briefly — 
 
 " Leave him to me ! " 
 
 These were his last words ; he had but just 
 spoken, and I had scarcely noticed that Bonsel's 
 face was pale as death with fear when hurried 
 steps outside told us the truth. 
 
 The next moment Shan-min-yuen stood upon 
 the threshold, and those who were with him crushed 
 forward. 
 
FAREWELL TO CHIN-CHIN-WA. 357 
 
 Bonsel instantly stepped forward, and, as Shan- 
 min-yuen made a step into the room, he cried — 
 
 " My guests — do not approach ! " 
 
 It was a bold move, and more diplomatic than 
 I could have believed the German capable of; 
 but he had forgotten with whom he had to deal. 
 Almost as he spoke, Shan-min-yuen raised his 
 arm and buried his knife deep in the breast of his 
 defenceless friend. 
 
 Bonsel fell back, without a groan, stone dead — 
 a monument to the utter worthlessness of Chinese 
 friendship, and to the folly of placing trust in any 
 of tjje Chinese race. 
 
 I raised my revolver instantly, killing with a 
 couple of shots two of the men who had pressed 
 forward. 
 
 I did not fire at Shan-min-yuen, for Chin- 
 chin-wa had said, " Leave him to me." 
 
 I do not remember having at any time felt so 
 cool and unexcited as I was then. 
 
 A table was in front of me, so that I had a clear 
 advantage. Norris lay upon a sofa behind me. 
 
 As the men sprang forward Chin-chin-wa and 
 Shan-min-yuen met in close conflict, whilst my 
 revolver-shots did fearful and immediate work 
 upon the others. 
 
 Through the smoke I was yet conscious of a 
 terrible conflict of two men against one ; for a 
 second had attacked Chin-chin-wa. I seized my 
 knife and bounded forward, firing with my left 
 
358 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 hand, as I did so, my last two shots towards the 
 door. Then I grappled with the man who was 
 attacking Chin-'chin-wa. 
 
 He turned upon me, but I thrust my knife into 
 his throat, for I had the advantage in having come 
 upon him from behind. 
 
 Now, in the midst of all, a great lull seemed 
 to have come. The room was filled with smoke, 
 and terrible groans came from the wounded who 
 still lived ; but it seemed as though all was at an 
 end, save that Shan-min-yuen struggled with Chin- 
 chin-wa. 
 
 Of our foes, six or seven lay — some living apd 
 some dead — heaped and groaning upon the floor ; 
 and if there had been others, these had taken flight 
 when they had seen the unerring power of the 
 weapons held by me. 
 
 The conflict was now reduced to a fight between 
 two men, both of whom had dropped their knives ; 
 and though Chin-chin-wa's strength was greater 
 than that of Shan-min-yuen, it must be remem- 
 bered that the other was frenzied with passion, and 
 thus had greater power to resist. * 
 
 There recurred to me the words of Chin-chin-wa 
 when he had received the sentence of exile from 
 Pekin : 
 
 " If I meet you, Shan-min-yuen, j'ou and I will 
 test who wins.'' 
 
 That hour had now come. 
 
 As I stood thus for a second or two, Chin- 
 
FAREWELL TO CHIN-CHIN-WA. 359 
 
 chin-\va slowly overpowered his adversary, crushing 
 back his head with his left hand fixed upon the 
 forehead, and still holding him round the body 
 with his right arm, in vice-like grip ; so that 
 though Shan-min-yuen grasped him wildly, his 
 strength slowly left him, and his eyes started from 
 
 Crushing back his head with his left hand fixed upon the forehead. — p. 359. 
 
 their sockets as the muscles of his neck gave 
 way — and then all was over. 
 
 I heard a shout outside. 
 
 Chin-chin-wa cast from him the lifeless body. 
 
 " The steamer is ready," he cried. " Away from 
 here at once ! " 
 
36o THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. 
 
 He sprang forward and seized Norris in his 
 arms, carrying him as he had done once before in 
 extremity of danger. I followed him through the 
 door which opened to the back. We passed 
 through some garden plots, and then found our- 
 selves safely upon the road. 
 
 We had left to others to look upon the heap of 
 dead and dying in Bonsel's room. 
 
 Six weeks later we stood upon the deck of a 
 homeward mail in the harbour of Hong Kong. 
 
 I had bid my Shanghai friends farewell when I 
 left their town ; but now a harder task was given 
 to me, as I clasped the hand of Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 For the last time I said to him, as I had said 
 more than once in the days gone by, " Come with 
 us to our home 1 " 
 
 He answered me as he had done before. 
 
 " No," he said, and there was the depth of a 
 great sorrow in his voice ; " I chose my path. 
 England is not for me ; but you — you will come 
 to see me in the after-years. My home is in Hong 
 Kong : you will come — say ? " 
 
 I promised him, earnestly, that I should return 
 more than once. Then Norris stepped forward 
 and took his hand. 
 
 " For me," he said, with deep feeling in his voice, 
 "you must forgive me if I cannot bear to look 
 upon this land again ! " 
 
Farewell to Chin-chin-wa.^>. 360. 
 
362 THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIX. 
 
 The last moments came, and a sense of isolation 
 came upon me as he took his seat in the^sampan 
 that conveyed him to the shore. Only those'vvho 
 have known danger, and faced it by another's side, 
 can understand what my feelings were when I 
 parted from Chin-chin-wa. 
 
 As we left the harbour, his last word came 
 sounding from the Praya, across the unrippled 
 sea ; and my heart re-echoed his message of — 
 
 " Farewell ! " 
 
 We stood gazing — with a deep sadness, holding 
 our sight — at him, whose tall form diminished in 
 the distance until we saw him no more ; and still 
 we continued, without speaking, to look upon the 
 receding settlement and the Peak of Hong Kong 
 until, in the falling darkness, all gradually faded 
 away. 
 
 Then I turned to Norris with something resem- 
 bling tears dimming my sight, so that I could not 
 clearly see. 
 
 " I have written," I said, " much of what has 
 been. Will you help me to complete the tale? 
 for I would that the world might know something 
 of the existence of that great, good man." 
 
 I do not think that Norris answered me, but 
 I knew that his heart had framed the answer, 
 " Yes." 
 
 Years have passed since then, yet there are days 
 
FAREWELL TO CHIN-CHIX-WA. 363 
 
 in a lifetime which never die, and that on which 
 William Norris and Herbert Vanscombe left Hong 
 Kong is to both as one of these. 
 
 Twice in the intervening time Herbert Vans- 
 combe has visited Hong Kong, thus keeping his 
 promise to Chin-chin-wa ; and, even now, he is 
 upon the way Eastwards for the third time. 
 
 Time had done little to age the strong man, 
 Chin-chin-wa. Still he was, as Herbert Vanscombe 
 found, the man of old — one whose history was a 
 strange one, with the shadow of a strange sorrow 
 cast about it. Yet he who had carved his own 
 path had never swerved. There are but few of 
 us resemble him in this. 
 
 Of William Norris? — It has been said that 
 a youthful love affair drove him from his home. 
 That is in the past. Perhaps there was a mistake 
 then : I do not know. 
 
 But now, when a certain lady, whose beauty and 
 virtue are famed far and near, is tempted some- 
 times to mingle with the world, and when people 
 who do not know them say to one another, — " Who 
 is that strange-looking man on whose arm the 
 beauty leans ; the man with the white hair and 
 wild strange face?" — there is no prouder woman 
 in all England than she who bears his name as 
 wife. 
 
 FINI.S. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 CHIN-CHIN-WA. 
 
 By CHARLES HANNAN, 
 
 Author of ^'^ The Captive of Fekin" ** The Wooing of Avis Grayle" etc. 
 A FEW BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM PRESS REVIEWS. 
 
 Saturday Review.— "An amusing coHection of stories, the most fascinating of 
 
 which is the first." 
 Dally CbronlCle.— " Chin-chin-nva is a cleverly realized study of an Englishman 
 
 who turns Chinaman. Ki-fu a sketch with a faint yet genuine note of pathos, 
 
 and The Ducktrick, both ingenious and amusing. Tlie Ducktrick is capital, 
 
 every reader must admit that Mr. Hannan's story ends delightfully." 
 Pall Mall Gazette.—" Eight excellent short stories." 
 Christian World.— "Three Tales of Indian life, a well-written English Pastoral 
 
 and an original French story, to our mind the best of the group, indicate the 
 
 wide range of the author's knowledge and ability." 
 Bookseller. — '* The Narrative of Ruby Garnet is the most original thing in the 
 
 series, a mystery of rejuvenescence." 
 Stage.— " All full of interest." 
 Blrznlnstiaill Post. — "Undoubtedly ingenious. It is evident the author knows the 
 
 countries and people he describes. Cleverly plotted stories, certain to arrest and 
 
 retain the attention of their readers." 
 literary World. — " Mr. Hannan's account of the competitive system as practised 
 
 in China is extremely interesting." 
 UanclieBter Guardian. — "Plenty of incident. Many of the plots in this volume 
 
 are rich in promise." 
 Western Morning News. — "By an author who has already produced a lot of 
 
 capital fiction. Chin-ckin-^va is well told and the author shows his great 
 
 knowledge of China in another tale, Ki-fu, Most readers will probably prefer 
 
 Lucy Gra/ton, a simple and pathetic love story. Their Hope is another story 
 
 showing remarkable literary power. In fact, most of these stories deserve to be 
 
 read again and again." 
 Scotsman. — " Natural and realistic— ample variety — all readable." 
 Glasgow Herald. — " As a fantasia Ruby Gartiet is fairly effective. Chin-chin-yia 
 
 a fresh and well-told story. The Ducktrick a lively tale of Indian jugglery, 
 
 and Ki-fu and the two Indian sketches are all excellent." 
 Globe.—" May safely be adventured upon by lovers of fresh and notable work." 
 British Review. — " Tlu Ducktrick is as amusing as it is possible to be ; we are 
 
 kept in a state of blissful ferment all through as to the possibility of a solution. 
 
 Delightful and dramatic." 
 Liverpool Post.— "An enjoyable medley of Chinese, Indian, English, and French 
 
 stories ; some tragic, one or more of a rather humorous order, and yet others 
 
 with a marked vein of sadness — all readable." 
 Athenseum.— " Well and amusingly told." 
 Hereford Times.— "A collection of delightful stories. Whether laying the scene 
 
 in China, India, France, or England, the author is equally happy. A more 
 
 agreeable companion on a journey or to beguile a leisure hour at home, than 
 
 Chin-chin-wa, it would be difficult to conceive." 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & Co., 
 
 WESTMINSTER, LONDON. 
 
JUST OUT, 
 
 CHARLES HANNAN'S 
 
 New Sensational Scottish Story 
 
 THE WOOING 
 
 OF 
 
 AVIS GRAYLE 
 
 A NOVEL 
 
 Containing the strangely interesting and hitherto unpub- 
 lished narrative of a celebrated Scottish trial, and the love 
 stories connected therewith. 
 
 By the Author of " The Captive of Fekiti,'" 
 " Chin-chin-wa,'' etc. 
 
 Crown 8vo, handsomely doth bound, Six Shillings. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 JOHN MACQUEEN, 
 Hastings House, Norfolk Street, Strand. 
 
Crown SvOt ^f^ Linen, Gill Top. 
 
 The Green Book. By Maurus Jokm, Author of 
 
 *' Black Diamonds," ** 'Midst the Wild Carpathians," 
 "Pretty Michal," etc. Translated into English by 
 Mrs. Waugh (Ellis Wright), with portrait of Dr. 
 JoKAi. (Authorised Edition.) Fifth Edition. 
 
 Mr. W, L. Courtney, in the Daily Telegraph says:— "No preface or 
 apology is needed for the new novel of Maurus J6kai, ' The Green Book, 
 It is a truly astonishing book, the latest novel, dealing with the early years 
 of the present century, and with that world of inarticulate romance, the 
 Empire of all the Russias. 
 
 *'All the superficial culture and essential barbarism of the country are 
 depicted in these p>iges. We see how the Moujik alternately plots 
 and trembles, how the I'sar himself is checked in all his noblest aspirations 
 by the iroc framework of a society to which he is really slave, and Imperial 
 conventions which he is powerless to break through. J6kai, in force and 
 fire and prodigal variety, reminds one of the elder Dumas." 
 
 The Daily Chronicle says : — " The Author has given us a group of striking 
 personalities, every one of whom is brilliantly dr<iwn and vividly presented. 
 All J6kai's very remarkable powers of characterisation, of ir.dividualisin!J, 
 are displayed licre as strongly as in anything he has ever written. '1 he 
 historic moment chosen is an extremely dramatic one. The scenes are 
 laid in Russia, at the end of the first quarter of the present century, when 
 Russian society and the Imperial army were seething with revolutionary 
 emotion, and St. Petersburg was a nest of intrigues. J6kai has a rare 
 faculty of seeing all round his characters, of penetraiing rough exteriors, and 
 of probing to whatever of genuine human fibres they may have. From 
 every point of view, 'The Green Book' is a book to be read. It is an 
 interesting and knowledgable narrative of a puzzhng, political period ; 
 and it is a work of fine an." 
 
 The Bookseller says : — " In no other novel has the author attained the 
 vivacity, the wit, the dramatic contrivance exemplified in this romance. 
 The scene between the Imperial Censor (of morals) and the artist employed 
 upon Arakhscieffs palace might have come straiglit out of Molifere. 'Ihe 
 conjecture of Sophie's funertil and Bethsaba's wedding are worthy of the 
 elder Dumas. '1 hen, what a touch of nature is tliat where Sophie discoveis 
 that her own pretended is her mother's lover." 
 
 The Aberdeen Free Press says: — "Another work byJ6kai, made acces- 
 sible to English readers, is a literary event of more than common note. 
 'The Green Book* will be found an excellent specimen of the novelist's 
 work, marked as it is by the best characteristics of J6kai's soaring genius. It 
 is a series of brilliant, dramatic episodes, strung together by slender threads 
 of love and political intrigue. Nowhere will one find better examples than 
 in 'The Green Book ' of J6kai's deep and expansive imaginative power." 
 
 The Eastern Daily Press says:— *^^ A Russian historical romance, cast 
 in vigorous and original mould, and full of that realistic power and pic- 
 turesque description, which give Dr. J6kai a place in the front rank of 
 popular writers." 
 
 LONDON: lo & ii WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Crown Zvo, Art Linen, Gilt Top. 
 
 Black Diamonds. By Maurus J6kai, Author of 
 "The Green Book," "Eyes like the Sea," "Dr. 
 Dumany's Wife," "Midst the Wild Carpathians," 
 " In Love with the Czarina." Translated into English 
 by Frances A. Gerard, Author of "Some Irish 
 Beauties," etc. (Authorised Edition.) 3 rd Edition. 
 
 The Academy says: — "Maurus J6kai is one of the great writers of the 
 world, worthy of taking rank with jMelding, Scott, Dickens, and Thackeray. 
 The opening chapter, ' Underground Darkness,' is something quite unique." 
 
 The Daily Chronicle says: — " It is so well written, so abounding in all 
 sorts of special knowledge, and displays so much sheer literary power that 
 we never ff'el tempted to leave any of its pages unread. There are some 
 extremely fine descriptive passages in the book, for Maurus J6kai is abso- 
 lutely original in thought and treatment, The English of tlie translation 
 is excellent." 
 
 The Times says : — " Maurus Jdkai is an attractive writer. ' Black Dia- 
 monds ' is an interesting story with a charming heroine, and a hero, Ivan 
 Behrend, worthy of her. There are graphic descriptions of aristocratic and 
 commercial hfe in Hungary. It is maintained throughout at a high level 
 of merit." 
 
 The New Age says: — "This is the cleverest of the great Hungarian 
 novelist's works that have as yet been translated into English. It abounds 
 in powerful and graphic description." 
 
 Life says : — " Maurus J6kai rightly deserves to be ranked among the fore- 
 most living authors. J 6kai, prolific writer as he is, has penned fewer finer 
 pages than those in which he sketches the character of Evila and Ivan, and 
 also of the Abbe Samuel ; while for lovers of thrilling excitement there are 
 not wanting a score of scenes such as J6kai revels in describing." 
 
 The Daily News says ; — "The book is a melodrama, but it is a melo- 
 drama of genius, abounding in colour, in movement, possessing scenes 
 where the sentiment of terror and grandeur is conveyed to the imagination, 
 and remains in the memory." 
 
 The Morning Post says : — " It is in a remarkable degree picturesque, 
 and has descriptions of certain phases of Hungarian life not to be met 
 with elsewhere. The translator appears to have done justice to a work 
 dramatic in inspiration to the close.^' 
 
 The Publishers' Circular says: — "'Black Diamonds' is considered 
 by many to be the Hungarian novelist's best work." 
 
 The AtheniEum says: — " Few living novelists rival J6kai in popularity. 
 In some countries his reputation is almost as wide spread as in his 
 n<itive Hungary, whilst his works are now known in every quarter of the 
 globe. ' Black Diamonds ' is one of Jbkai's most popular romances, and 
 in many respects deserves its popularity." 
 
 The Daily Telegraph says : — " ' Black Diamonds' may hope for a wide 
 circle of appreciative readers, who prefer their novels hot and strong." 
 
 LONDON : 10 & n WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
^tia 6s. ^abtl 
 
 Croun Sva, Art Linen, Gilt Top. 
 
 Pretty Michal. By Maurus JcSkai, Author of 
 '"Midst the Wild Carpathians," etc. Translated 
 from the First Hungarian Edition by R. Nisbet 
 Bain. (Authorised Edition.) Third Edition. 
 
 The Daily News says:— "A notable addition to our knowledge of con- 
 temporary foreign literature. The story presents a moving picture of the 
 Hungary of the middle of the seventeenth century, a romance in which 
 strong if not subtle characterization, and a pathetic love story, bring 
 human interest into a record of savage deeds." 
 
 The Saiurdav Review says :—" Exceedingly carefully written. It is 
 part of the high art of the story that the author has kept the whole 
 atmosphere free from the complexity, the subtle motives of a later and 
 more sophisticated age. Altogether Maurus J6kai's novel is a book to be 
 read." 
 
 The Morning Post says : — " An effective translation of one of Maurus 
 J6kai's most characteristic works. The story in itself is hardly less weird 
 and interesting, while no other author easily accessible to the English 
 reader could give such graphic pictures of both official and private life 
 in Hungary of the seventeenth century. He constructs the figures and 
 manners of the period with striking realism in the powerful and picturesque 
 style that distinguishes his most successful productions." 
 
 The Academy says : — " A picturesque and exciting tale." 
 
 The Graphic says: — A wild romance of the seventeenth-century 
 Hungary, in which figure public tortures and headsmen, witches, and 
 other picturesque personages." 
 
 The Queen says : — " Its excellence depends upon the plot, and it can be 
 very strongly recommended. The translation is well done. Had it been 
 less well done we should still have been thankful to Mr. Bain for having 
 done us the service of introducing us to a new world of fiction." 
 
 The Scotsman says : — " Having once begun the story the reader is 
 compelled to finish it." 
 
 The Literary World says:— "It is at once a spirited tale of border 
 chivalry, a charming love story full of genuine poetry, and a graphic 
 picture of life in a country, and at a period both equally new to English 
 readers." 
 
 The Colonies and India says: — "This extraordinary and clever book 
 tackles one of the great problems of the day in demonstrating the fact 
 that marriages, whether made in heaven or elsewhere, must still be 
 respected. The author has contrived to produce an exceptionally interest- 
 ing novel. The mixture of grave and gay, of lightness and severity, is 
 excellent. He shows the hand of the master in every page." 
 
 LONDON: lo & ii, WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Crown %vo. Art Linen, Gilt Top. 
 
 The Inn by the Shore. By Florence Warden, 
 Author of "Pretty Miss Smith," "A Prince of 
 Darkness," "A House on the Marsh," "A Perfect 
 Fool," etc. 4th Edition. 
 
 The Academy says ; — " Miss Florence Warden is unrivalled in a certain 
 department of fiction. 'The Inn by the Shore 'exhibits her at her best. 
 It is full of marvellous mystery ; and to the credit of the author, it must be 
 confessed that the clue to the mystery is exceedingly difficult to find in 
 advance." 
 
 The Daily News says : — "A story of mystery and crime, from the pen of 
 Miss Florence Warden. Who perpetrates the robberies in the solitary inn 
 by the shore? Whose is the soft little hand that in the dead of night 
 skilfully extracts from under the visitor's pillow the watch and purse he has 
 hidden there 7 On a wintry evening, at the fireside, one might do worse 
 than spend an hour in seeking to puzzle it out. The story provides sensa- 
 tions that will satisfy those who care for an uncritical shudder." 
 
 The New Age says : — " We can heartily recommend as a certain remedy 
 for ennui, and as a companion in moments when you may have a vacant or 
 a pensive mood, without anything to rejoice either the outward or inward 
 eye, Miss Florence Warden s new and interesting story. It is a capital 
 tale in every respect. From the first page to the last, the story is brightly 
 and orisply written." 
 
 Punch says : — "A clearly-told and alluringly-exciting story." 
 
 The Literary World says: — '"The Inn by the Shore ' is full of sensa- 
 tional reading, and, can expect to find a large measure of favour with 
 those who favour stories of crime and its unfolding." 
 
 The Dundee Advertiser says: — "Readers acquainted with Florence 
 Warden's ' House on the Marsh ' will not require to be pressed to take up 
 her new novel. It is fully as romantic and entertaining as its famous pre- 
 decessor. The broad effect of the tale is extremely successful." 
 
 The Belfast Evening Telegraph says : — " The title of this work at once 
 induces the reader to jump at conclusions, and those who take it up in the 
 hope of tragedy and mysteries unravelled will not be disappointed. The 
 unveiling of the mysteries is skilful: the whole story is well-conceived and 
 successfully executed." 
 
 The Sheffield Daily Telegraph says:— "How Miss Warden skilfully 
 weaves her plot, and as skilfully unweaves it, until we know the truth, 
 makes up a tale with dehghtful and sustained interest, which the reader 
 will enjoy." 
 
 LONDON : lo & ii WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Crown Svo, Art Linen, Gilt Top. 
 
 The Power of the Dog. 2nd Edition. 
 
 By Rowland Grey, Author of " In Sunny Switzerland," 
 "By Virtue of His Office," " Lindenblumen," "Chris." 
 
 The Daily Chronicle says : — "We congratulate Mr. Grey on his 
 story, and we hope he will not be offended when we say that we 
 congratulate him even more upon his title. It is strikingly original, 
 and admirably calculated to lure the reviewer into reading the book 
 out of its turn." 
 
 The Daily Mail says : — " The novel has scored one of the 
 palpable hits of the season." 
 
 The Birmingham Gatette says : — " The climax which gives the 
 title to the story is startling and novel. We must not reveal it, we 
 can only send the reader to the book itself, and ask his close 
 attention to an excellent piece of fiction. " 
 
 Public Opinion says: — "Well and soberly written, with a 
 feeling for artistic balance, and a sense of perspective in literary 
 method generally absent in the English novel. We have read 
 this interesting story throughout with pleasure, and shall be 
 surprised if it meet not with the warm public approval it deserves. 
 The story is touching and simple. The style throughout is 
 excellent, and the setting exceedingly skilful and refined." 
 
 The Sun says : — " One of the most charming stories recently 
 published is Mr. Rowland Grey's new novel, 'The Power of the 
 Dog.' The book is full of the mysterious workings of the human 
 heart, finely true yet delicate withal." 
 
 The Eastern Daily Press says : — " The chief characters — a clever 
 passionate woman and her rich, kind, but crippled husband, and 
 an ambitious artist and his hard-working and trusting wife — are 
 skilfully drawn, the dialogue is good, and there are some happy 
 little bits of descriptive writing." 
 
 The Christian IVorld says : — "The story altogether is a strong 
 and original one." 
 
 The Guardian says: — "A good deal of the story is pretty and 
 fresh ; there are some really charming girls who inhabit the 
 rectory, and who are ruled by a. sufficiently foolish stepmother ; 
 and the good little wife of the erratic artist, whose story is the main 
 motive of the book, is pleasant." 
 
 The Speaker says : — " ' The Power of the Dog ' is an admirably- 
 written, wholesome, and interesting tale." 
 
 The Newcastle Daily Leader says : — " ' The Power of the Dog' 
 is well worth reading. It is written in a bright, pleasant, breezy 
 manner, which is quite refreshing. " 
 
 LONDON: lo & ii WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Crown Svo, Art Linen, Gilt Top. 
 
 Judy a Jilt. By Mrs. Conney, Author of "A 
 Lady House-breaker," "Pegg's Perversity," "Gold 
 for Dross," " A Line of Her Own," etc. and Edition. 
 
 The Daily Telegraph says :— " Written in Mrs. Conney's happiest man- 
 rer. 'Judy a Jilt' is a telling story, throughout which cloud and sunshine' 
 alternate in highly effective contrast." 
 
 The Literary World says :— " With all her faults, Judy has a guileless- 
 ness that attracts us, and she has to contend against odds that we feel are 
 too heavy for her. It is a very racy story of military life." 
 
 The Glasgow Record says :— " We have given but a poor description of 
 Mrs. Conney's striking novel. Of her fine character studies we have said 
 little ; they are many, and, in most instances, true to life — in some, unfor- 
 tunately, too true. There is the major — gentleman, soldier, and blackleg ; 
 the colonel — brave, kind, and silly ; Teddy — petted and selfish ; Baily — 
 rich and unprincipled ; and a host of minor characters, each drawn with 
 considerable skill." 
 
 The Life says : — " A sad story, but relieved by some touches of kindness 
 and sympathy. As a study of feminine character it is very good. The 
 leading persons are well drawn. It is in fact a very readable book." 
 
 The Saturday Review says : — " Brightly written, and has a heroine who 
 deserves better things than her very doleful end. Otherwise, the story is 
 very good." , 
 
 The Athenaum says : — " By the title alone we should range it with the 
 fiction of the sixties. It was a decade rich in unconsidered trifles in the 
 literary line. Judy created havoc in the hearts of all the men about her« 
 and scorn and suspicion in the breasts of mothers with plain daughters,, 
 Of course, as the story is by Mrs. Conney, there are horses ; but it is by 
 ihe agency of the sea that the little heroine meets her death." 
 
 The Bradford Observer says: — "Judy is certainly a jilt, and that uni 
 fortunately is the chief impreision her short slormy life leaves behind on 
 even these who knew her best. But her biographer shews us much more — , 
 the innate nobility and generosity of a nature spoilt largely by untoward 
 circumstances and bad training, but displaying, nevertheless, at some 
 critical turns of her fate, a greater power of self-control and self-sacrifice 
 than many a so-called better woman would command. We share the fate 
 of her other victims, and love poor Judy in spite of her contempt for Mrs.' 
 ■Grundy." 
 
 The New Age says: — "The story is well put together and eminently 
 readable." 
 
 The East Anglian Daily Times says : — " Mrs. Conney handles her 
 materials well, and writes with much ability and vivacity ; in point of 
 technique the story is thoroughly readable." 
 
 The Birmingham Daily Gazette says : — " The characters are all sketched 
 with.a free hand. The book is altogether well-written, and of a pleasantly 
 readable and interesting nature." 
 
 LONDON : lo & ii WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Jliiu 6s. ^ohL 
 
 Ctown Svo, Art Linen, Gilt Top. 
 
 Lady Jean's, Son. By Sarah Tvtler, Author of 
 "Lady Jean's. Vagaries," " Citoyenne Jacqueline," 
 " St. Mungo'^ City," etc. Second Edition. 
 
 The Pall Mall Gazette says :— " The glimpses of Edinburgh society, 
 while the northern' Athens was still the seat of fashion, of wild Kitty 
 Queensberry, of Mrs: CockbUrn, the Madame de Sevigne of Canongate, 
 and of Mrs. Jacky Murray, sister of the great Lord Mansfield, who ruled 
 the routs at the old Assembly Rooms with a despotic sway, are life-like 
 and clever. ' Lady Jean's Son ' is, from first to last, a delightful story." 
 
 The Times says:— "A Scottish novel, in which the Scots is not pro- 
 vincial, tiot that of Ayrshire ploughmen, or Forfarshire weavers, or wild 
 Picts of Galloway, but good Scots of Lothian and the Forest, is not a 
 common book. Since Mr. Stevenson died only Mrs. Oliphant and Mis.s 
 Sarah Tytler can write the tongue. Miss Tytler's ' Lady Jean's Son ' is a 
 pleasure to the amateur of the well of Scots undefiled. The ' local colour ' 
 is excellent, the characters are those of the proud, homely gentlefolk of a 
 Scotland not yet wholly reduced from her old rank as a kingdom. In 
 fact. Miss Tytler enables our fancies to live in the old Edinburgh Society. 
 It is a pleasant, quiet, self-contained little romance, to which the reader 
 may fearlessly commit himself." 
 
 The Daily Mail says :— " It is a delightful romance." 
 
 The Daily News says: — "The story evolves through picturesque and 
 romantic scenes. It affords pleasant reading, and we gratefully acknow- 
 ledge the author's not too unsparing use of dialect." 
 
 The Morning Leader says : — " A wonderfully readable and stirring 
 romance of the last century in the Scottish capital. Few writers have 
 presented such graphic pictures of the ancient city as will be found in the 
 pages of ' Lady Jean's Son.' " 
 
 The Aberdeen Daily Free Press says :— " Amid the host of novel writers, 
 the name of Sarah Tytler has an assured place. The veteran authoress 
 writes with undiminished skill and vigour, and in the book before us she 
 founds a pleasant and absorbing story upon an old Scottish ' cause celibre'* 
 
 The Glasgow Herald says: — "The story is charmingly told, and the 
 pictures of life in Old Edinburgh are delightful." 
 
 The Scotsman says: — "It is a pleasant narrative of a place, time, and 
 circumstances of which Scottish people are well inclined to cherish the 
 reminiscences." 
 
 The Glasgow Daily Mail says: — "In her description of these typical 
 public and private gatherings of Old Edinburgh, the authoress is at her 
 best." 
 
 The Star says : — " Full of tender sympathy, and is never dull." 
 
 The Daily Telegraph says: — "The interest of this clever tale is centred 
 upon the famous Douglas succession case." 
 
 The Literary World says: — "The story is a vigorous, wholesome, and 
 pleasing piece of work that is well worth reading." 
 
 The Leeds Mercury says . — " Attractive and enjoyable." 
 
 LOXDOX . 10 & II WARWICK L.\NE, E.G. 
 
Ciowii %vOi Art Lincu, Gilt Top. 
 
 Colour Sergeant No. i Company. By Mrs. 
 
 Leith Adams, Author of "Bonnie Kate," "Louis 
 Draycott," " The Peyton Romance," ** Geoffrey 
 Stirling," " Madelon Lemoine," "A Garrison Ro- 
 mance," etc. Second Edition. 
 
 The World says:— " Unaffectedly humorous, in a simple, genuine 
 fashion. The story contains a number of well-drawn characters. Various 
 regimental types are paraded with the greatest success. Then there are 
 two most captivating children. Little Missie, daintiest, quaintest pf 
 delightful dolls, likely to eclipse the fame of that other child of the 
 regiment, ' Bootle's Baby ' and the wizened little atomy, Patsey, an Irish 
 tiny Tim — with a difference. Most certainly a book to be recommended." 
 
 The Saturday Review says :-" In this story Mrs. Leith Adams deals 
 witH materials which she has treated with distinguished success. The 
 sceites of barrack life in Ireland during the Fenian scare are good, and it 
 wouid be difficult to conceive anything of the kind that is better." 
 
 The New Age says : — ' ' Mrs. Adams has given us in this book a thoroughly 
 healthy, and at the same time, a thoroughly interesting story. It is 
 admirably told and of distinct literary merit." 
 
 The Aberdeen Daily Free Press says: — " The reading of Mrs. Adams' 
 newest novel has been an unalloyed pleasure from beginning to end, and 
 has greatly strengthened our opinion that the gifted authoress stands in 
 the very front rank of British novelists. An excellently worked-out plot, 
 a, judicious mixture of pathos and humour, a polished style, and a well- 
 chosen locale combine to make the ' Colour Sergeant ' a most readable 
 book. The Sergeant's lady-love is one of the most womanly portraits to 
 be found in a novel, and all the other personages are one and all masterly 
 described. Mrs. Adams' word-pictures of Irish scenery are among the 
 choicest bits of the book. There is not a dull page — nay, not a line— in 
 the story that even the most callous reader will fi^ji it in his heart to 
 skip." 
 
 The Morning Post says : — " Mrs, Leith Adams' interesting novel, ' Colour 
 Sergeant No. i Company ' should long remain popular on account of its 
 graphic and moving pictures of the Irish peasantry, and also of the Fenian. 
 movement, which furnishes many incidents of the plot." 
 
 The Court jfournal says : — " Mrs. Leith Adams invariably writes with so 
 womanly and sympathetic a pen that it is always a pleasure to read her 
 stories, and her admirers will find one more work to their taste in her 
 latest novel — 'Colour Sergeant No. i Company.' " 
 
 The Manchester Guardian says :— " Eminently readable, and shows 
 considerable power of telling a story, simply and well." 
 
 LONDON: lo & ii WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
"yi^ttr-lTB-Iga" ^txm of Illttstrat^i 
 6s. Ootids. 
 
 Crown 8/0, cloth elegant, bevelled boards. 
 
 When the Century was Young. 
 
 By M. M. Blake, Author of " The Siege of Norwich 
 Castle," " Toddleben's Hero,'' etc., with numerous 
 Illustrations by the Authoress. 
 
 In this story the hero and heroine are equally important. It is full 
 of incident, gives glimpses of the Peninsula war, takes us through France 
 in 1813-14, describes an English election of the period, while the inter- 
 est culminates in the battle of Waterloo. The hero takes his part in the 
 great fight, and is afterwards brought wounded to Brussels and laid in 
 the street with some 50,000 companions ; an evil position from which he 
 is bravely rescued by the heroine. 
 
 Black and^ White says : — " It is written with artistic regard to detail- 
 Miss Ulake isamong the few authors who can illustrate her own work- 
 Many of her line drawings are extremely happy." 
 
 T\iK Norwich Mercury says:—*' Miss Blake is in this new story just 
 as vivid and as picturesque in her battle pieces as she was in her 
 previous tale." 
 
 The Devon and Exeter Gazette says : — " The book brings vividly 
 to mind the conditions which existed in this country for some years 
 before the battle of Waterloo, and the latter part is full of the martial 
 element which filled the public mind of that period." 
 
 The Lord of Lowedale. 
 
 By R. D. Chetwode, Author of "The Marble City," 
 "The Fortune of Quittentuns." Illustrated by G. 
 Grenville Manton. 
 
 TheyiformV^says:—" 'The Lord of Lowedale' is a tale of the siir 
 teenth century, with plenty of hard fighting and desperate adventure. 
 The saying that * fortune favours the brave ' is illustratetl in the rousing 
 story of the Count and his two valorous young friends." 
 
 The North British Advertiser says :— " The book is one which will 
 be read with avidity by youths. 1 1 is full, as stated, of hair-breadth 
 escapes ; and though the great historical scenes then enacted in France 
 are only incidentally alluded to, a fair reflex of the lawless state of the 
 country at that period of its history is given. If the remaining volumes 
 of the ' Fleur de Lys ' series prove as interesting as this first one, they 
 will assuredly form a very valuable addition to our book-shelves." 
 
 The Duilin Freeman s Journal says:— "There are many worse 
 and few better stories to while away the idle hours pleasantly, to visit 
 old times and strange scenes, and make new friends in the shining 
 fairyland of fiction. 
 
 JARROLD & SONS, 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, LONDON, E.& 
 
Crown 8va, Cloth, Gilt. 
 
 'Midst the Wild Carpatliians. by maurus 
 
 JoKAi, Author of "The Green Book," "In Love 
 with the Czarina," etc. Translated from the First 
 Hungarian Edition by R. Nisbet Bain. (Author- 
 ised Edition.) 2nd Edition. 
 
 Blach and White says: — "One of the best of his historical romances. 
 Who can resist reading the book? We can promise that the most 
 rapacious and exacting reader shall not be disappointed." 
 
 The World says : — "Admirably written, accurate and elegant as <i 
 translation." 
 
 To-Day says: — "A delightful historical romance dealing with Transyl- 
 vania in the seventeenth century — altogether a charming book." 
 
 The Gentlewoman says ; — " Reads like one of Scott's novels, and is a 
 glorified tale of one's youth, with passion and intrigue thrown in to make 
 it acceptable in older eyes. To read this last translation from J6kai is to 
 sip the stream of romance." 
 
 The Saturday Review says : — " Will enthral all English lovers of 
 romance, and gratify the natural curiosity now general concerning the 
 work of the Hungarian novelist." 
 
 Truth says: — "A thrilling Transylvanian historical novel. Maurus 
 J6kai's extraordinary dramatic and descriptive powers have full play." 
 
 The Daily Chronicle says:— "This novel is like a series of pictures in 
 tapestry ; everything is conventionalised, but it is very interesting tapestry, 
 very original and varied, above all very gorgeous. 
 
 " Dr. Jokai's colours are the uncompromising colours of the East, laid 
 on in the fearless old fashion, but there is something refreshing in their 
 splendour. To all persons pining for a change of air his book may be 
 recommended. It whisks one away from London, and far also from the 
 modem spirit, from realism, from the ' decadencei-' Hungarians regard 
 it as the best of J6kai's historical romances." 
 
 The Sun says : — " It has power to engage and to thpll. Good historical 
 novels are always welcome. The descriptive pieces are very fine. J6kai's 
 work has been described as a series of brilliant dramatic episodes, strung 
 together with slender threads of love and political intrigue. It is powerful, 
 it is vigorous, and what is more than all, it is fresh." 
 
 The Bookseller says: — "Not one of J6kai's romances has achieved 
 greater popularity than this. It is a true picture of Transylvania, the 
 Forest Land, the almost primeval jungle, * where even the wild beast 
 loses its way.' " 
 
 LONDON: 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, K.C. 
 
'GREENBACK" SERIES OP POPULAR 
 NOVELS 
 
 BY AUTHORS OF THE DAY. 
 
 In crown Svo, doth^ 3^ . dd. each. 
 
 The Western Mercury says : — " Success evidently attends the departure rccenty taken 
 by that well-known firm of London publishers, Messrs. Jarrold and Sons, who deserve tbe 
 thanks of the literary world for their efTorts to reproduce in cheap, yet acceptable, editions, 
 the works of favourite authors. Prominent among the books so treated are the novels of 
 Miss Helen Mathers, which are being issued in the * Greenback' series." 
 
 By HELEN MA THERS. 
 
 Cherry Ripe I 
 Story of a Sin 
 Eyre's Acquittal 
 My Lady Green Sleeves 
 Jock O'Hazelgreen 
 Found Out I 
 Murder or Man- 
 slaughter ? 
 The Lovely Malincourt 
 
 By CURTIS YORKE. 
 
 That Little Girl 
 Dudley 
 Hush I 
 Once I 
 
 A Romance of Modern 
 London [teau 
 
 The Brown Portman- 
 His Heart to "Win 
 Darren Chevasney 
 Between the Silences ! 
 A Record of Discords 
 The Medlicotts 
 The Wild Ruthvens 
 
 By MRS. LEITH ADAMS 
 
 Bonnie Kate 
 Louis Draycott 
 Geoffrey Stirling 
 The Peyton Romance 
 Madelon Lemoine 
 A Garrison Romance 
 
 By IZA DUFFUS HARDY. 
 A New Othello I 
 
 By SCOTT GRAHAM. 
 
 The Golden Milestone 
 A Bolt from the Blue 
 
 By T. W. SPEIGHT. 
 
 The Heart of a Mystery 
 In the Dead of Night 
 
 By MRS. H. MARTIN. 
 Lindsay's Girl 
 
 By E. M. DA VY. 
 A Prince of Como 
 
 LONDON: lo and ii WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Works Published by JARROLD & SONS. 
 
 GREENBACK" SERIES OF POPULAR NOVELS 
 
 — CONTINUED. 
 
 In crown 8vo, cloth, 3^. 6</. each. 
 
 By ESME STUART. 
 Harum Scarum 
 By AGNES MARCHBANK. 
 Ruth Farmer 
 
 By J. S. FLETCHER. 
 
 Old Lattimer's Legacy 
 
 By MAJOR NORRIS PAUL. 
 
 E^reline Wellwood 
 
 By 
 SOMERVILLE GIBNEY. 
 
 The Maid of London 
 Bridge 
 By MRS. A. PHILLIPS. 
 Man Proposes 
 
 By MARGARET MOULE. 
 The Thirteenth Brydain 
 
 By MRS. E. NEWMAN. 
 The Last of the H addons 
 By EASTWOOD KIDSON. 
 Allanson's Little Woman 
 
 By ELEANOR HOLMES. 
 
 Through Another Man's 
 Eyes 
 
 By LINDA GARDINER. 
 
 Mrs. Wylde 
 
 By MRS. BAGOT HARTE. 
 
 Wrongly Condemned 
 
 B y FERGUS HUME . 
 
 The Lone Inn [Court 
 The Mystery of Landy 
 The Mystery of a Han- 
 som Cab 
 The Expedition of 
 Captain Flick 
 
 By LE VOLEUR. 
 
 By Order of the Brother- 
 hood I 
 
 By JOHN SA UNDERS. 
 A Noble Wife 
 
 By E. BOYD BAYLY. 
 
 Jonathan Merle 
 Alfreda Holme [ture 
 Zachary Brough's Yen- 
 Forestwyk 
 
 By EVELYN 
 
 E VERE TT- GR EEN. 
 
 St. Wynfrith and its 
 Inmates 
 By MRS. HA YCRAFT . 
 Gildas Haven 
 By HUDE MYDDLETON. 
 PhcEbe Deacon 
 
 LONDON: TO and 1 1 WARWICK LANE, E.a 
 
Crown Svo, Cloth, y. 6d. 
 
 The Lovely Malincourt. 
 
 By Helen Mathers. 6th Thousand. 
 
 The Scotsman says : — "The novel deals with the cream or froth 
 of fashionable life ; it has plenty of light and bright colouring, and 
 yet does not lack an undertone of earnestness, and is healthy and 
 amusing." 
 
 The Aforning Leader says : — " ' The Lovely Malincourt ' is one 
 of those dazzling phenomena that all men are startled by, and 
 ' The Lovely Malincourt's ' hero is one of those men that at least 
 two women love at the same time." 
 
 The Dtind eAdvettiser says : — " To novel readers Helen Mathers 
 is a name of happy memory, recalling as it does that fascinating slorj', 
 'Comin' Thro the Rye." The latest story from the same gifted 
 pen is entitled ' The Lovely Malincourt,' and deals with fashionable 
 life in London." 
 
 The Liberal says: — "The novels of Miss Helen Mathers are 
 always delightful. Few authoresses of the present day excel her 
 in the happy combination of a good plot, clearly drawn characters, 
 a bright and oftentimes brilliant style, and a wit that is as genuine 
 as it is untinged by vulgarity." 
 
 The Hull News says :— " The works of Miss Helen Mathers are 
 like good wine and need no bush ; nor is her latest story, ' The 
 Lovely Malincourt ' any exception to her previous novels." 
 
 The Western Daily Press says; — "Any book by the talented 
 author of ' Comin' Thro' the Rye,' is sure to attract many readers. 
 There is always a certain freshness about her pages that makes 
 them delightful. There is nothing but pleasant reading in the 
 book, which is sure to find a host of admirers." 
 
 The Whitehall Review says : — " Everyone knows what to expect 
 when they take up a novel by the author of ' Comin' Thro' the 
 Rye.' Such cardinal virtues as refinement, delicacy and purity of 
 tone, are hers particularly, and the most captious critic can find no 
 weak spot in her literary armour. ' The Lovely Malincourt ' is a 
 distinctly readable book." 
 
 The Lady's Pictorial S3.ys : — " A new story from the bright and 
 sympathetic pen of Helen Mathers is as refreshing and as welcome 
 as rain in summer, and it was with real regret that I read the last 
 page and put aside the volume." 
 
 The Realm says:— "'The Lovely Malincourt' is a charming 
 story, told as only Miss Helen Mathers could tell it. One cannot 
 read the book without falling in love with Leslie— and surely the 
 book is a success when one falls in love with the heroine." 
 
 LONDON: lo & ii WARWICK LANE, E.C 
 
Selections from Jarrolbs' Hew 15ooks. 
 
 THE WILD RUTHVENS. 
 
 By CURTIS YORKE. 
 
 3rd Edition. Crown 8vo, Clotli, 3/6. (Postage 4Sd.) 
 
 " A good story, vigorously written, and of sustained interest." — Aier 
 dten Free Press, 
 
 " The book is strong and wholesome, and, at the same time, lively and 
 natural. " — Publishers' Circular, 
 
 " The book, very quaint, has an amount of ' go ' about it which proves 
 the capacity of Curtis Yorke to tell a rattling story." — Dundee Advertiser, 
 
 " The book is full of fun, and is a capital story for youngsters in their 
 teens. " — Western Daily Press. 
 
 " The tone of the story is thoroughly wholesome and sensible." — Miut- 
 chester Examiner. 
 
 " ' The Wild Ruthvens ' is an enjoyable story, full of the farce young 
 people love." — The Scots Observer. 
 
 '•The most notable feature of 'The Wild Ruthvens,' by Curtis Yorke, 
 is the extremely natural representation of children and their ways, and no 
 sort of fidelity is more commendable and refreshing in what purports to be 
 •a home story.' " — The Saturday Review. 
 
 " The story is remarkably lively, and is sure to be a favourite with all 
 who like to look in upon the innocent but wild young life it portrays." — 
 North British Daily Mail. 
 
 "The book is most amusing." — Manchester Guardian. 
 
 " An enchanting work. The story runs on with happy, blithesome tread 
 to the end, which is reached all too soon." — St. Stephen's Review. 
 
 " It is wonderful what a variety of incident the author has managed to 
 interweave into the story, "—Bradford Observer, 
 
 " 'The Wild Ruthvelte' secure our interest at the outset, and retain it to 
 the end." — Glasgow Herald, 
 
 "'The Wild Ruthvens' is likely to be a great favourite .... 
 irresistibly taking .... inexpressibly touching, and, as a pathetic 
 picture, has not been often surpassed." — Life, 
 
 London: Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Wanviclc Lane, E.C. 
 
 Of all Booksellers and at Hu BookUaUs. 
 
Selections from Jarrotbs' Tiew Boolis. 
 
 DUDLEY. 
 
 Dy CURTIS YORKE. 
 4th Edition. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 3/6. (Postage 45d.) 
 
 " I have just finished ' Dudley,' and on the whole I think it the best and 
 strongest novel this gifte:l ajthar has given us. It opens up most power- 
 fully and the interest is niiintair.sd thrDughout." — Query. 
 
 "A romance of more than usual interest ; it is highly original, the inci- 
 dents are unusual, and the situations fresh and ingenious." — Bookseller. 
 
 "It is sometime since such a fresh, pleasant book has come under our 
 notice as ' Dudley.' " — Whitehall Review. 
 
 " Certain to please a large circle of readers." — Graphic. 
 
 " The novel is decidedly interesting." — Court Journal. 
 
 "'Dudley' is undoubtedly <x clever and interesting novel, powerfully 
 worked out." — Glasgow Herald. 
 
 "A bright, well-written story of present day life, which we have read 
 with sustained interest to the end." — Inijuirer. 
 
 " Decidedly original." — Morning Post. 
 
 "The author writes in a pleasant, lively fashion, and tells a story very 
 prettily. — Athenaum. 
 
 " ' Dudley' is a charming love story and will be heartily welcomed."— 
 Literary World. 
 
 "The story is a well-written and interesting one. The book is published 
 in one volume, but has more in it and is better worth reading than the 
 majority of three-volume novels." — Vanity Fair. 
 
 " ' Dudley' is a love-story, pure and simple, well put together, brightly 
 and sympathetically told, and marked by many subtle touches of humour. " 
 — Publishers' Circular. 
 
 "This is one of the most interesting novels we have recently seen. 
 Though not professing to teach religion, its tone is strictly good all the way 
 through, and the impression produced is excellent." — Christian Age. 
 
 "'Dudley' is a worthy successor to 'That Little Girl.' It is bright, 
 clever, interesting, and never lags. From begimiing to end the incidents 
 and the interest are unfailing." — York Herald. ;. 1 : ;, 
 
 London: Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Warwick Lane, E.C. 
 
 Of all Bjoksellers and at iAe Bookstalls, 
 
Selections from Jarrolbs' Hen? Books. 
 
 A ROMANCE OF MODERN LONDON. 
 
 By CURTIS YORKE. 
 3rd Edition. Crown 8vo, Clotli, 3/6. (Postage 4|d.) 
 
 " This is a sweet and wholesome story, and conies as an immense relief 
 after the common run of circulating library novels."— Pictorial WorlJ. 
 
 "We cannot but praise this story as far and away above the average of 
 modern novels." — Whitihall Ktviev). 
 
 " The story is told throughout not only with great cleverness, but with 
 unusual delicacy and tenderness." — Guaruian. 
 " Interest in the work never flags." — Scotsman. 
 
 " Entertaining and interesting ; a book which it is a thorough recreation 
 to read. " — Manchester Examiner. 
 
 ' ' Considerable ingenuity of construction, as well as much really clever 
 writing, is to be found in Curtis Yorke's new novel." — Court Journal. 
 
 " The story is a most readable one." — East Anglian Daily Times, 
 
 "The story is one of much interest." — Glasgow Herald. 
 
 "An excellent piece of work from beginning to end. The story is one 
 to be followed with deep interest and with an increasing appreciation of the 
 genius of the writer. " — Dundee Aavertiser. 
 
 " It is charmingly written ; the changes from grave to gay are skilfully 
 managed, and the various characters are ably delineated. " — iVeekly Citizen. 
 
 "An admirable story, which now that it is issued in cheap form, ought 
 to be in the hands of a wide circle of readers." — Manchester Courier. 
 
 " The story, a pleasant one, is well told, the interest being sustained from 
 start to finish." — Belfast Northern Whig. 
 
 " The best story we have read for many a long day." — Bath Herald. 
 
 "The story rushes along with a vigorous impulse that carries the reader 
 with it. The book is wholesome and pleasant throughout." — Litetary 
 World. 
 
 "The story is well told and will sustain the reputation of the author." — 
 Be/fast News Letter. 
 
 London: Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Warwiclc Lane, E.C. 
 
 Of all Booksellers and at the B.okslalls. 
 
Selections from jfarrolbs* JTew ^oo^s, 
 
 A RECORD OF DISCORDS. 
 
 By CURTIS YORKE. 
 Crown 8vo, Cloth, 3/6. (Postage 4\d.) 
 
 " Strikingly original and attractive. "—/?««</« Advertiser. 
 
 • ' The story is well written, and no doubt will command an extended 
 popularity." — National Press Agency. 
 
 " Considerable ingenuity of construction, as well as much really clevet 
 writing, is to be found in this new novel. The work is fresh and bright, 
 and the story is told with singular depth of insight and delicacy of feeling. 
 In more ways than one it is a remarkable novel, and is certainly superior 
 
 to most of the current fiction of the day It thoroughly 
 
 sustains the author's reputation." — Sussex Daily News. 
 
 " ' A Record of Discords ' is a notable addition to the already long list 
 of this author's works of fiction." — The Star. 
 
 "The idea is a new one, and the novelty of the novel should go a long 
 way to make it popular." — Leytonstoiie Express. 
 
 " The sentimental business is well done throughout, and readers fond 
 of an imaginative good cry will find what they want in the book." — The 
 Scotsman. 
 
 "'A Record of Discords' is as interesting and as well written as any- 
 thing that has come from its author's pen. . . . It is told with con- 
 siderable power and go, is perfectly natural, and never so much as verges 
 on dulness." — Publishers^ Circular. 
 
 " A clever, well-written work, and will, we think, rank as her best. It 
 will much enhance her reputation." — Newsagent. 
 
 " We ungrudgingly concede the fascinating powers of the story. It is 
 skilfully developed, and the interest in it never flags. When once it is 
 
 taken up, ' A Record of Discords ' is not easily put down until finished." 
 
 Christian Age. 
 
 "A pleasant, wholesome story. One of the most successful of this 
 popular writer's novels." — The Bookman. 
 
 London: Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Warwick Lane E.C. 
 0/ all Booksellers and at the Bookstalls. 
 
Selections from Jarrolbs' ITen? ^oo^s. 
 
 THAT LITTLE GIRL. 
 
 By CURTIS YORKE. 
 Sth Edition. Crown 8vo, Clotii, 3/6. (Postage 4id.) 
 
 " The novel is pleasantly written, and contains no lack of incident."— 
 Scotsman. 
 
 " The volume reflects great credit on its author." — Glasgow Herald. 
 "An eminently readable romance, abounding in variety, life, and action. 
 Freshness of style and originality of incident heightening the effect of the 
 story." — Eastern Daily Press. 
 
 " The work is interesting and attractive throughout." — Ipswich Journal. 
 
 "A sparkling one-volume novel, and powerfully told." — Oxford 
 Chronicle. 
 
 "The story is a thoroughly readable one, showing considerable skill in 
 construction." — Publishers' Circular. 
 
 " A very pretty and captivating story A brighter, 
 
 pleasarter book of its class than 'That Little Girl' it would not be easy 
 to find." — Manchester Examiner and Times. 
 
 "This is ' novel of considerable spirit and interest. The tone of the 
 story is throughout everything that we could msh." —Spectator. 
 
 "A very charming and well-written sioty."— Queen. 
 
 " Cannot fail to charm the most fastidious." — Court Journal. 
 
 "The tale is well told, the characters being clearly defined, and the 
 incidents fitting neatly one into the other." — Globe. 
 
 "A pleasant novel is 'That Little Girl,' in a style that is bright, fresh, 
 and original." — Lady's Pictorial. 
 
 " It is a real pleasure to come across such a novel as \\a?,."— Reciter ami 
 Speaker. 
 
 "The story is an excellent one, showing much originality both in its 
 conception and execution." — Bookseller. 
 
 London: Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Warwicli Lane, E.C. 
 
 Of all Booksellers and at the Bookstalls. 
 
Selections from Jarrolbs' Jlcw Books. 
 
 HIS HEART TO WIN. 
 
 By CURTIS YORKE. 
 
 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 3/6. (Postage 4id.) 
 
 " There are few novels that are, at the same time, so passionate and so 
 perfectly harmless as those of Curtis Yorke. ' ' — Literary World. 
 
 " In point of cleverness, pathos, and interest, it compares most favourably 
 with the author's previous efforts, and will doubtless, therefore, also secure 
 ready and wide recognition." — Brighton Gazette. 
 
 " This is no commonplace work. It will give readers pleasant and not 
 unprofitable leisure hours. The plot is simple, and no space is wasted on 
 unnecessary disquisitions." — Belfast Evening Telegraph. 
 
 "An enjoyable and entertaining one-volume novel." — Manchester 
 Examiner. 
 
 "There are many well-drawn characters in the book, which is full of 
 incident, and necessarily also of interest." — Yorkshire Herald. 
 
 "The book is distinctly agreeable, and one cannot lay it down without 
 finishing it." — Eastbourne Observer. 
 
 "The story is well worked out, and is full of interest." — 5. ^ajr 
 News Letter. 
 
 "The brightest and pleasantest of Curtis Yorke's stories."— A'ewcarf/,' 
 Daily Leader. 
 
 " A novel that will be read from beginning to end with growing interest." 
 — Dundee Advertiser. 
 
 "Readers will hail the present work with satisfaction because of its 
 breezy freshness and fidelity to nature ; and while they follow the fortunes 
 of the main characters with unflagging interest, they will recognise the 
 literary charm and unpretentious art with which the incidents are depicted." 
 — Kilmarnock Standard. 
 
 London: Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Warwick Lane, E.C. 
 
 Of all Booksellers and at the Bookstalls. 
 
Selections from Jarrolbs' Hew 25oolis. 
 
 BONNIE KATE. 
 
 By MRS. LEITH ADAMS. 
 
 (Mrs. D. Courcy Laffan.) 
 
 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 3/6. (Postage 4jd.) 
 
 "Mrs. Leith Adams' art is always clever. In 'Bonnie Kate' there 
 are several characters, drawn with charming delicacy of touch. The 
 scenes in the old Yorkshire farm are capital ; all is told with no little 
 power and pathos. Nor should we omit the dogs. There are comical 
 dogs : there is an over-indulged dog, and there is a spaniel retriever, 
 one of the very joUiest dogs we ever met, with the virtues of a saint and 
 the manners of a lord-in- waiting." — The Times. 
 
 " ' Bonnie Kate' is so graceful and pretty, so sweet and wholesome 
 e story, that one has no temptation to mention its faults ' save in the 
 way of kindness.' There is an exquisitely and tenderly-painted picture 
 of an Irish Quaker household ; nor less successful is that other household 
 in the remote Yorkshire village. Of the warm-hearted and deliciously 
 plain-spoken Melissa we shall say nothing, because justice to Melissa 
 cannot be done in a sentence, and we can only add that Mrs. Leitb 
 Adams introduces us not only to some delightful human beings, but to 
 some not less delightful dogs. 'Jack,' 'Yap,' and 'Chloe' will be 
 taken to the hearts of all dog lovers." — Spectator. 
 
 " Melissa is fresh and natural, and has a charm of her own, and the 
 twin-sisters are genuine and pleasing." — Saturday Jieview. 
 
 " ' Bonnie Kate ' is a story of powerful interest throughout, and Mrs. 
 Leith Adams has never written a better. The subordinate characters 
 are almost too rich in traits, but this is a noble defect."— /■«// Mal^ 
 Gazette. 
 
 "A second edition of Mrs. Leith Adams' 'Bonnie Kate' has also 
 been issued. This enticing story, ' from a woman's point of view,' 
 displays all the traits which have secured for this gifted writer such a 
 prominent position in the domain of fictional lilexame."— Freeman's 
 
 Journal. 
 
 London : Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Warwick Lane, E.C. 
 Of all Booksellers and at the Bookstalls. 
 
Selections from Jarrolbs' Hen? 23oo^s. 
 
 LOUIS DRAYCOTT. 
 
 By MRS. LEITH ADAMS. 
 
 (Mrs. D, Courcy Laffdn.) 
 
 and Edition. Crown 8vo, Cloth, zl6. (Postage 4id.) 
 
 "A stream of pure and genuine feeling runs through these 
 volumes, and they are written with idyllic sweetness. There is 
 plenty of tragedy and never a pause in the rapid succession of 
 incidents." — The Rock. 
 
 " Old Miss Candace Birt's record of the fortunes of her sister 
 Charlotte and herself, as well as the events that lead up to their 
 only brother's marriage, is marked by a simple pathos, which in 
 its way it would be difficult to surpass." — Morning Post. 
 
 "'Louis Draycott' is a story that profoundly touches and 
 interests the reader ; it moves both his heart and his imagina- 
 tion, and should raise Mrs. Leith Adams' reputation as a writer 
 of fiction.'' — Scotsman. 
 
 " Mrs. Laffan has the gift of making us feel with and for her 
 characters. The whole tone of the book, in common with all Mrs. 
 Laffan's work, is ennobling." — Birmingham Gazette. 
 
 " We turn with pleasure to the purity of purpose portrayed in 
 ' Louis Draycott.' There is a tender spell woven round its 
 commonplaces which should cause it to rank high above the 
 ordinary novel." — Saturday Review. 
 
 " The opening chapters are so exquisitely lone and pathetic 
 that they go straight to the heart. Pleasant humour, dramatic 
 incident, and gentlest pathos are blended with admirable 
 skill in this clever and wholesome story, and we are pleased 
 to give it a cordial welcome. I twill command a wide popularity 
 among all who enjoy bright and kindly humour, dramatic power, 
 and a broad generous humanity that never fails. Mrs. Leith 
 Adams proves her right once more to be placed high up in the 
 list of living novelists." — Court Journal. 
 
 London : Jarrold and Sons, lo and ii, Warwick Lane, EX. 
 
 Of all Booksellers and at the Bookstalls, 
 
^0bd bii HI. Ic mimx, 
 
 Crvwn Svo, C/o.'/i, 3/6. 
 
 By Order of the Brotherhood, a story of 
 
 Russian Intrigue. By M. Le Voleur. 6th Thousand. 
 
 The Speaker says: — '"By Order of the Brotherhood' is really a very 
 
 strong story of mystery, adventure, and intrigue We find 
 
 ourselves at one moment in a secret stronghold of the Nihilists, and at the 
 next in the palace of the Czar ; but wherever we may be, the absorbing 
 interest of the story is not allowed to flag, and incident is piled upon 
 incident in luxuriant profusion." 
 
 The Morning Leader says : — " Another wonder story of Russian Nihilistic 
 intrigue. There are startling commissions, and dark, unfathomable 
 mysteries in this new author's work to supply excitement sufficient for 
 the longest railway journey that can be taken in the United Kingdom. 
 The style accords with the breathless nature of the narrative, and the con- 
 flict between the lawyer-like spirit of the narrator and his extraordinary 
 tales are not the least entertaining element in a clever romance." 
 
 The Star says:— "M. Le Voleur has handled a difficult and compli- 
 cated subject with no little skill." 
 
 The North British Daily Mail says: — "We can safely say that anyone 
 who once takes it up will not lay it down without finishing it." 
 
 The Newcastle Daily Leader says : — " Here we have the foundations of 
 .an excellent plot, and the author must be allowed to have made the most 
 of it. His stor)' has more literary quality and artistic character than most 
 works of its class. It is a cleverly-constructed and readable novel." 
 
 The Westminster Review says : — " Will not disappoint the most exacting 
 ■devourers of Nihilistic and similar romance, either in the quantity or 
 quality of exciting episodes ; and the straightforward, cross-country 
 hardihood of the narrative rides so boldly over all obstacles of reason and 
 possibility, that we are quite prepared to congratulate the kindly solicitor 
 and his friend, the amateur detective, on the miraculous good fortune 
 "which consistently attends them in their mission." 
 
 The Literary World says:—" When we mention that the search party of 
 two find it necessary to proceed to Russia, and that the Brotherhood 
 referred to in the title of the story is a secret society of Nihilists, it will 
 be understood that exciting incidents are to be looked for. Lovers of the 
 thrilling will find the story entertaining." 
 
 The Admiralty and Horse Guards Gazette says : — " The story, despite an 
 occasional crudeness, is told with considerable vigour, the character of 
 the lawyer Clarke being drawn with skill, while Bruce, we are happy to 
 note, is a distinct individuality, not of the Sherlock Holmes type." 
 
 The Book and News Trade Gazette says: — "A story of Russian intrigue 
 told with considerable power." 
 
 LONDON 10 & II WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Selections from Jarrolbs' Jlcrv 23oofis. 
 
 THE LONE INN : A MYSTERY. 
 
 By FERGUS HUME. 
 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo, Clotli, 3/6. (Postage 4|d.) 
 
 " Even such a master of mysteries as the author may be longratulated 
 on the ingenuity of that which, in ' Lone Inn,' keeps the reatler from first 
 to last in a maze of expectancy and doubt. The whole tale is exceptionally 
 weird and effective.'' — Morning Post. 
 
 " Mr. Hume's clever story fully sustains his reputation for originality 
 and sustained interest. The mystery is most cleverly solved throughout." 
 —T/ie Idler. 
 
 " The interest is well kept up to the end of the story, where the mystery 
 is solved in an unexpected manner." — Christian IVorld. 
 
 "The story is cleverly told, and is decidedly interesting." — Publisher^ 
 Circular. 
 
 "The story is as interesting as any of the author's other stories." — 
 Glasgow Heralti. 
 
 "A thrilling, interesting, and mysterious plot, maintaining the secret 
 until the end." — Yarmotith Independent. 
 
 " The tale compels the attention, and is, we think, better written than 
 the first that give its title to the volume." — Daily News. 
 
 "Those who enjoy the author's books will have a genuine treat over the 
 latest." — Birtningham Daily Post. 
 
 " The mystery is as entrancing as ever, and the interest is well kept up, 
 as in his earlier successful efforts." — Black and While. 
 
 "As the mystery is fairly set going in the first half-dozen pages, the 
 reader won't slacken his attention till he rciches the end. The publishers 
 have issued the book in beautiful form, and with perfect type work." — 
 Dublin Freeman^ s Journal 
 
 " ' The Lone Inn ' is a thrilling tale." — Our Home. 
 
 London: Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Warwiclc Lane, B C. 
 
 0/ all Booksellers and at the Bookstalls. 
 
Selections from ^arrolbs' Hen? ^ooTis. 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF LANDY COURT. 
 
 By FERGUS HUME. 
 
 3rd Edition. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 3/6. (Postage 4id.) 
 
 " Cleverly written, and the interest is kept up to the last page." — Daily 
 Telegraph. 
 
 "As long as detective fiction holds its own in public favour, so long will 
 tales by such a light of the school as Mr. Fergus Hume be sure of a 
 welcome. " — Morning Post. 
 
 "An excellent example of his skill in weaving plots, and his cleverness 
 in sustaining a mystery to a dramatic and unlooked-for conclusion." — The 
 Star. 
 
 " Mr. Fergus Hume is great in mysteries, whether of hansom cabs or of 
 Daronial halls. In this latest example of his talent in the construction of a 
 Dlot, and his skill in the working of it out to a clear issue, we think the 
 luthor has excelled himself." — Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 
 
 "The narrative runs rapidly on from situation to situation; and the 
 30ok will keep every one who opens it closely engaged from the beginning 
 the end." — Tlie Scotsman. 
 
 "The plot is ingeniously worked out, and the novel is powerfully 
 vritten. ' ' — Ilfracoinbe Chronicle. 
 
 "This new work fully sustains the author's reputation. It is most 
 lowerfully written, abounding in scenes of great dramatic power, and the 
 >lot is so ingeniously worked out as to baflle the reader from beginning to 
 :nd." — Northern Daily Mail. 
 
 "The unravelling of the skein is a very thrilling business, and the 
 tiystery of the plot is maintained to the very end of the stor)', which is 
 ure to be read with avidity." — Bristol Mercury. 
 
 " Full of interest and excitement. The attention is claimed to the last 
 iage. " — Manchester Courier. 
 
 " It is vigorously written, and the various scenes are depicted with great 
 ramatic power." — Sussex Daily News, 
 
 " The story sustains its interest from beginning to end." — Leeds Mercury. 
 
 .ondon: Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11, Warwick Lane, E.C. 
 
 Of all Booksellers and at the Bookstalls. 
 
Crown %-jo. Cloth, 3/6. 
 
 The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. By Fergus 
 
 Hume, Author of "The Mystery of Landy Court," 
 "The Lone Inn : a Mystery," "The Expedition of 
 Captain Fhck." Revised Edition. 377th Thousand. 
 
 The Court Journal saj-s : — " The story is undisputably clever and fasci- 
 nating. Mr. Fergus Hume's preface, in which he gives certain details of 
 himself, his career, his popular story, and his alleged profits, is by no 
 means the least interesting section of this new edition." 
 
 The Whitehall Review says: — "The book holds it own with any of its 
 kind which have yet seen the light.*' 
 
 The Morning Advertiser says; — "The plot is well worked out, and the 
 glimpses of antipodean society are laid before the reader in a pleasing 
 and unconventional style." 
 
 Lloyd's Weekly says : — " A truly startling and realistic story of Melbourne 
 social life. The author is daring in some of his situations, but he interests, 
 and the interest enhances." 
 
 The North British Advertiser says : — " One of the most successful books 
 of the age. In the new edition there appears a preface by the author, in 
 which some interesting details are given concerning the novel. We may 
 add that 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab' can be read a second time, 
 which is more than can be said of most of the novels now published ; and, 
 in any case, this preface will arouse fresh interest in the story, and cause 
 many to read it who might otherwise refrain from doing so." 
 
 The City Press says : — " Cleverly written. The plot is well constructed, 
 the characters boldly drawn .... likely to read the book with 
 avidity, and to pronounce it when they have reached the last chapter, one 
 of the most stirring and exciting stories that has e\ er been evolved out of 
 the brain of man." 
 
 The Weekly Despatch says : — " The plot is the strength of the story. 
 His work is laborious and conscientious. His detectives are capitally 
 drawn." 
 
 'XYieSouihwarh Standard says: — "A sensational, startling, and realistic 
 study of social life in Melbourne. There is an attraction in the first few 
 chapters that increases until the end is reached. The incidents are well 
 portrayed, and the characters are the embodiment of every-day life." 
 
 The "Idler," Sporting Life says:— "The plot is of an engrossing 
 character, and the details are admirably worked out in a simple, natural 
 way." 
 
 LONEON: 10 & 11 WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Cro-ivn %vo^ Cloth, Gilt, 3^. 6*/. 
 
 Under this general heading Messrs. Jarrold and Sons propose to issue, from time 
 to time, a volume of Short Stories. It is intended, so far as possible, to link story to 
 story by some thread of mental connection, and, thus, to present to the reader a 
 series of vivid and related pictures. 
 
 1. Dust in the Balance. 
 
 By George Knight. With Title Page and Cover 
 Design by Laurence Housman. znd Edition. 
 
 2. Some Women's Ways. 
 
 By Mary Angela Dickens. With Title Page and 
 Cover Design by Laurence Housman. 2nd Edition. 
 
 3. Blind Larry. Irish idyiis. 
 
 By Lewis Macnamara. With Title Page and Cover 
 Design by Laurence Housman. 
 
 4. Sweet Audrey, or comedies of Country Life 
 
 and Town Glamour. By George Moeley. {Shortly 
 
 Vi)t ^^iaffoMl" library. 
 
 A Series of Shorter Novels by Authors of the day, in convenient shape 
 and attractive binding. 
 
 Narrow Zvo, paper covers, \s. Gd.; cloth, 2s. 
 
 1. The Jaws of Death. 
 
 By Grant Allen. 6th Thousand. 
 
 2. Sapphira of the Stage. 
 
 By George Knight. 5th Thousand. 
 
 3. The Kaffir Circus, and other stories. 
 
 By M. Donovan. 4th Thousand. 
 
 4. Because of the Cliild. 
 
 By Curtis Yorke. S^h. Thousand. 
 
 5. A Studio Mystery. 
 
 By Frank Aubrey. [Shortly 
 
 6. A Tombstone Treasure. 
 
 By Fergus Hume [Shortly 
 
 7. A Return to Nature. 
 
 By Elsa D'Esterre Keeling. [Shortly 
 
 LONDON: 10 & 11 WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
i^Ij£ ''Impressionist" ^rrirs. 
 
 Crown %vo. Handsome Cloth, Gilt, y. 6d. 
 
 Dust in the Balance. 
 
 By George Knight. With Title Page and Cover 
 Design by Laurence Housman. 2nd Edition. 
 
 The 5/3!- says : — "Mr. Knight has published a varied series of 
 stories, each of which is marked by strong individiiahiy and great 
 charm." 
 
 The Sun says : — " ^fr. George Knight, the author of ' Dust in the 
 Balance,' has a facile pen, and, at his best, both a pretty fancy and 
 pleasant resources in the way of gracefulness. He has given us a 
 goodly selection of readable and variously-flavoured sketches, 
 a light, but varied range of stories and impressions." 
 
 The S'otiiimn says: — "The style is smooth and succinct; 
 the sentiment human and genuine ; and altogether this is in its 
 kind one of the best sets of short sketches that have recently been 
 published." 
 
 The Glass^ow Herald says: — "There are nineteen sketches of 
 very different kinds most studiously and delicately written ; some 
 of them are faintly humorous, all of them are poetical. ' Dust in 
 the Balance ' is well written, and will repay perusal. " 
 
 The Eastern Daitv Press says: — "All are characterised by 
 originality of conception and delicacy of treatment, whilst many 
 may be fairly described as parables which deal with modern life 
 and human interests. We venture to predict that the book will be 
 read with pleasure by all who enjoy fresh and imaginative work." 
 
 The Dundee Advertiser says : — " 'Dust in the Balance' is the 
 work of a man of evident literary power. Success in art of this 
 kind is not given to every one. He has a gift that is far from 
 common of bringing together the prose and the poetry of life." 
 
 The Aberdeen Free Press says: — "It contains a series of 
 delightful sketches that cannot fail to win many admirers. The 
 volume is one that will be greatly prized, and similar work from 
 the same pen will be heartily welcomed." 
 
 The Western Morning New! says : — " The reader will soon find 
 that Mr. Knight is a literary artist of great power. Humour, 
 pathos, and the romantic spirit abour.d in these beautiful short 
 stories." 
 
 The Western Daily Press says :— " ' Dust in the Balance ' com- 
 prises nineteen separate sketches^ each of which is, in its way, 
 exquisite both in conception and literary finish." 
 
 Tlie Noith British Daily Mail &3.yi : — " The twenty or so short 
 tales it contains exhibit all phases of human emotion, narrated in a 
 manner at once graceful and entertaining." 
 
 LONDON : lo & II WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
the " impr^ssiottist " ^nus. 
 
 Crown Svo, Handsotne Cloth, Gill, y. 6J. 
 
 Some Women's Ways. By Mary Angela 
 
 Dickens. With Title Page and Cover design 
 by Laurence Housman. 2nd Edition. 
 
 The Star says: — "Written with a quiet strength which becomes more 
 and more noticeable in every book this author publishes, and present a 
 series of pictures of tragedy and comedy, pathos and humour, not often to 
 be found within the covers of one volume. The humanity and simplicity 
 of these stories are most convincing, and not one of them should be 
 skipped by the reader." 
 
 The Pall Mall Gazette says : — " Miss Dickens has devoted herself to the 
 delineation of various phases of the feminine character. The stories are 
 all distinguished by great delicacy of treatment and refinement of feeling. 
 Perhaps the best of the stories is ' Another Freak ; ' but all will repay 
 perusal." 
 
 The Aberdeen Daily Free Press says : — "Fresh in conception, and very 
 skilfully written, and contain passages of exceptional power." 
 
 The Glasgoiii Daily Record says : — " Miss Dickens's women are sensible 
 matter-of-fact people, and their ways are not so devious and unpredictable 
 as those of the women of male novelists are wont to be. Nor is there, it 
 should be said, any suspicion or sameness about the types pictured for us 
 by Miss Dickens. They are distinct and perfectly realisable types, and 
 they act in the circumstances in which it pleases Miss Dickens to place 
 them, just as we should have expected of them. All are sympathetically 
 described in a crisp, restrained style, that is immeasurably superior to 
 most of the writing turned out by the women novelists." 
 
 The Belfast Neus Letter says : — " All she has written in this volume is 
 quite capable of surviving the most penetrating and critical analysis. 
 Her various dramatic sketches are full of intensity and realism. The 
 attractiveness of her compositions lies in the naturalness of her style. 
 Her descriptive matter is without a suspicion of labour, and in the 
 management of her dialogues she suggests an experience that excites a 
 real confidence in the reader. These brilliant brevities may be read with 
 benefit and delight." 
 
 The Bookseller says : — " The sketches throughout show decided ability, 
 and it is clear that Miss Dickens has inherited at least some share of her 
 famous grandfather's power of graphic and vivid imagination." 
 
 The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent says:— There is a healthy 
 spirit in all the tales ; a dramatic situation is in each case clearly sketched ; 
 the character drawing is firm and distinct, and the story flows easily and 
 naturally. A volume that we can recommend without reserve." 
 
 The Dundee Advertiser says :—" Distinctly original, clever, and attrac- 
 tive. Miss Dickens has mastered the art of story-telling ; she is at all 
 times natural, direct, and entertaining." 
 
 LONDON : 10 & 11 'WARWICK L.4NE, E.G. 
 
A'amw 8ot, Paper, is. 6J. ; Clolh, 2s. 
 
 The Jaws of Death. 
 
 By Grant Allen. 6th Thousand. 
 
 The Dai7y Chronkle says : — " ' The Jaws of Death ' is a pretty 
 piece of writing in the sensational line. \Ve are brought so smoothly, 
 so gradually, to the very edge of the catastrophe, the shiver of it is 
 upon us almost before we are there. It is extremely creditable to^ 
 Mr. Allen's invention." 
 
 The Laily News says : — "The whole thing is exceedingly well 
 done." 
 
 The Literary World says :— " It does great credit to Mr. Grant 
 Allen's vivid imagination and able descriptive powers." 
 
 The Daily Courier says : — " There are few authors who can. 
 write such good short stories as Mr. Grant Allen." 
 
 The Seolsman says: — "'The Jaws of Death' is an attractive 
 story of a strange and exciting character, suitable for perusal on 
 the sea-shore or the mountain side. A good-going story, with 
 plenty of spirit, and not a little fun." 
 
 The Bookseller says : — " It is told in a fashion which makes^ 
 the reader forget the improbability, and only feel regret that the 
 end is reached all too soon." 
 
 The St. James' Gtzet/e says; — "The climax is ingeniously 
 arrived at, and the preliminary narrative is lively and entertaining. ' 
 
 The Aberaeen Free Press says : — "There are few better story- 
 tellers than Mr. Grant Allen when he is in the vein, and in this 
 little volume we have him at his best." 
 
 The Western Mail says : — " This dainty volume forms the first of 
 the Daffodil Series. ' The Jaws of Death ' is a clever little story 
 from the pen of a distinguished novelist. It is intensely well told." 
 
 The North British Daily A/ail says : — "We give the initial 
 number of this series our most unqualified approval ; it is excellent 
 from every point of view." 
 
 The Belfast News Letter says : — "No one with a taste for the 
 humorous will deny that the author has tickled him with his picture- 
 of Howard Freke of Cooper's Pike ; and if he combine in his 
 nature a love for the sensational, the closing chapters apropos of 
 the doings of Li Sing cannot possibly fail to delight him equally. 
 The story is most enjoyable throughout." 
 
 The Both Herald says: — "The book i? powerfully and 
 dramatically written, and the volume is a welcome introduction 
 to what is likely to become a very popular series." 
 
 LONDON: lo & ii WARWICK. LANE, E.G. 
 
tte"5iaff0Mr* library. 
 
 Narrow ?,V(), Paper, is. 6d. ; Cloth, 2s. 
 
 Sapphira of the Stage. 
 
 By George Knight, Author of " Dust in the Balance." 
 
 The Daily Chronicle says :— " Mr. George Knight has let 
 himself go full swing in this volume, and gives us a very lurid tale 
 indeed." 
 
 The Sco.'sman s.iys :— " A readable story in the school of Mr. 
 Kipling." 
 
 The Sheffield and Rothsrham Independent says : — " This book is 
 one of the Daffodil Library series of shorter novels, and is 
 published in an effective style for holiday perusal. Mr. George 
 Knight, who is responsible for the story, has already been 
 successful « ith a series of short sketches under the title of ' Dust 
 in the Balance,' and was at one time the editor of a, Liverpool 
 publication. His ideas are decidedly unconventional, and though 
 the story of Sapphira, the girl born on one of the floating landing 
 stages at Liverpool, at times repels rather than attracts, it is told 
 with undoubted skill." 
 
 The Hunts County News says : — "An admirable holiday book.'* 
 
 The Sheffield Daily Telegraph says : — " It is powerfully written, 
 and the interest is unfailingly sustained." 
 
 The Aberdeen Free Press says : — " A fantastic piece of writing. 
 The story does to while away an hour pleasantly. The author has 
 set himself to write an unusual story, and has succeeded." 
 
 The Glasgow Record says; — "'Sapphira of the Stage: How 
 Sebastian Goss, being dumb, yet made love to her, and what befel,' 
 is the full title of the second volume in Messrs. Jarrold and Sons* 
 pretty little Daffodil Library of Shorter Novels, the author of 
 which, Mr. George Kright, created a very favourable impression 
 by his first venture, ' IJust in the Balance.' It is original in 
 plot, and possesses at least three striking and well-drawn characters. 
 It is both internally and externally— in contents and convenience 
 ol format — a capital book for the holidays." 
 
 The Dundee Adveitiser says : — " ' Sapphira of the Stage,' by 
 George Knight, is the new volume of the Daffodil series. It may 
 be described as a study in heredity. The story is told with vigour, 
 and the incidents succeed each other with dazzling rapidity." 
 
 The Publishers' Circular says: — "Messrs. Jarrold and Sons 
 have followed up the success of their first volume in the 'Daffodil' 
 Library with a work which promises to be equally popular. 
 The result is tragic in the extreme, and forms a fitting conclusion 
 to a story that is most sombre and interest-enthraUing throughout." 
 
 LONDON: lO & ii WARWICK LANE, E.G. 
 
Crown 8vo, Art Linen. 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 Blind Artist's Pictures, and other stories. 
 
 By Nora Vynne. 2nd Edition. 
 
 The Spectator say-i:—" These tales are remarkable less for their 
 knowiedge of life and tSe skill with which they sketch it, than for the 
 fre<ihness and originahty of the idealism which i^ di-p ayed in almost 
 all of them." 
 
 The 5/*^a/«r says:— *' Mi?s Vynne exhibits a distinct talent for the 
 short story. She writes with ease and spirit, and there is not only 
 brit^htness, but a good deal of unforced feeling, in her sketches. In 
 'The Blind Artist's Pictures,' and its companion stories, she has 
 produced a very readable little volume. Slight as the stories are, 
 tlK-\' are told with piquancy and point, whilst a pleasant vein of 
 sentiment runs through the series." 
 
 Hin-er's Weekly says :— " All the stories are written in good, clear, 
 simple language ; the style is clever and epigrammatic, and the charac- 
 terisation very natural and life-like." 
 
 'Ihe Literary World says: — "Has the charm of rare originality 
 because the author has a sympathetic appreciation of character and a 
 broad-minded realisation of the fact that human nature in all its phases, 
 if naturally drawn, is interesting; and all the more interesting when 
 the picture is taken from an unconventional point of \ie\v." 
 
 Wrecked at the Outset. 
 
 By Theo Gift, Author of "Pretty Miss Bellew," 
 "Victims," "Lil Lorimer," "Dishonoured," "An Island 
 Princess," etc. 
 
 The Britisk Weekly says: — "All three stories are vivid pictures 
 of London life, and arc written with great spirit and considerable 
 artistic power." 
 
 The Literary World says :—" 'Theo Gift' is realistic in the true 
 sense of the word ; she does not shirk a situation which confronts her, 
 but there is no needless stirring up of social mud-puddles, and her 
 work is artistic in its grasp of life and character," 
 
 Putt's Notions. 
 
 By MAraE Hervey. New Edition. 
 
 The ^£:<)i'J/««« says;— "The simplicity and tenderness; of the author's 
 style add force to the simple pathos of the talc. Those who like a 
 simple love story, naturally told will find more than one to their 
 taste in this unpretending little volume." 
 
 The Western Momiti^ Ncii-s says :—" A certain charm of grace and 
 beauty runs through the whole of them, and they display a power for 
 dealing with the pathetic and tragic aspects of human life rarely met 
 with in the sketchy fiction of the day." 
 
 The Yorkshire /*oi/ says :—" Mrs. Hervey has written f;ve short 
 stories — simple, unaflTected, sensible, and interesting." 
 
 The Western Daily Mercury says :—" Each is written in the 
 happiest of vems, and though, as we are assured, all are ' founded on 
 facts,' they will prove none the less pleasing to the reader of which- 
 ever sex, and of whatever age, and may also e.xercise a beneficial 
 influence on a large number." 
 
 JARROLD & SONS, lo & ii, WARWICK LANE, LONDON, E.G. 
 
fte"lit-Cat"Iibrar|j 
 
 OF 
 
 OEIGINAL ONE -VOLUME NOVELS. 
 
 In crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 A Series of Novels, carefully selecled, the work in each case of an Author 
 hitherto unknown to the public. 
 
 1. The Burning Mist. 
 
 By Garrett Leigh. 2nd Edition. 
 
 The Morning- Leader S3.y%:—"^T\\^ Burning Mist* throbs and 
 flames like its title, and must be set down as a powerful sketch of 
 a stricken woman's life story." 
 
 The Christian Age says ;— " Let us say at once that Garrett Leigh 
 has produced a psychological novel of striking power and merit, full 
 of just and sagacious observations on society, morals, and religion, 
 and written in a literary style that is at the same time forceful, beau- 
 tiful, and limpid. 'The Burning Mist' is a severe and pitiless laying 
 bare of the inner self of a clergyman, to outward semblance a man 
 of truth and honour, but tormented by the bitter consciousness that 
 his life is a sham and a lie." 
 
 2. On the Cards. 
 
 By Mary Allen. 
 
 3. Brenda*s Experiment: 
 
 An Indian Marriage Story. By Major Greenhow. 
 
 The Afhentpurn says: — "This novel may do good as illustratinij 
 the evils that too often attend mixed marriages, and the plot is suffici- 
 ently interesting and we.l woiked out. The scene is chiefly in India, 
 an i "f course adventures during the Mutiny are introduced. The 
 fighting scenes are well described." 
 
 4. Against the Odds : 
 
 A Story of Some Who Went Wrong. By Frances 
 Home. 
 
 5. Family Ties. 
 
 By Agnes Marchbank. 
 
 6. Was he a Gentleman ? 
 
 By Franxis Geldart. 
 
 7. Qeraldine's Husband. 
 
 By Mary Macleod. 
 
 JARROLD & SONS, lo & ii, WARWICK LANE, LONDON, E.G. 
 
5Br. (Boxhan-^tahhsWtalth iltanuals 
 
 Crown Svo, Cloth, 2/6 each. (Postage i,\d.) 
 
 Sickness or Health? or, The Danger of 
 Trifling Ailments. 2nd Edition. 
 
 "The work is practical, and written in a readable style. It merits 
 a place in every public and private library in the land. The publishers 
 are to be warmly congratulated on the publication of this excellent 
 volume." — Hull Exainitter, 
 
 The Wife's Guide to Health and 
 
 Happiness. 2nd Edition. 
 
 "This book reads like a novel, and is just as interesting as a novel, 
 and far more instructive. The advice given is sensible, and up to date. 
 Dr. Stables handles difficult and delicate subjects with great skill. A 
 great deal of misery would be prevented if the young wife would 
 adhere to the advice given in this book." — The Medical Monthly. 
 
 The Mother's Book of Health and 
 Family Adviser, 2nd Edition. 
 
 " The Doctor, in his new book, has endeavoured to give in practical 
 and cLar language much valuable and essential information to mothers, 
 and we believe that the manner in which he has treated this subject 
 will be widely appreciated." — The Sun, 
 
 The Girl's Own Book of Health and 
 
 Beauty. 2nd Edition. 
 
 " Teems with useful hints and good suggestions. Ought to be in the 
 hands of every young woman." — The Leicester Chronicle. 
 
 The Boys' Book of Health and Strength. 
 
 Second Edition. With portraits of Dr. Gordon- 
 St.\bles, cm., R.N., R. G. Gordon Gumming 
 (the Lion Hunter); W. McCombie Smith (Cham- 
 j)ion Scottish Athlete) ; J. D. M.-^cpherson (Cham 
 pion Putter) ; G. H. Johnstone (Champion 
 Hammer Thrower of Scotland) ; and Special Letter 
 to Boys by W. McCombie S.mith, the Champion 
 Scottish Athlete. 
 
 " Such a common sense vadc mecum to health and strength, should 
 find a place on every boy's bookshelf." — Star. 
 
 JARROLD & SONS, lo & ii, WARWICK LANE, LONDON, E.G. 
 
T 
 
 HE DICTIONARY OF BRITISH 
 MUSICIANS. From the Earliest 
 Times to the Present. 
 
 By Frederick J. Crowest, Author of *'The Great Tone 
 Poets," *'A Book o£ Musical Anecdote," "Phases of 
 Musical England," *' Advice to Singers," " Musical 
 Groundwork," "Cherubini," &c. 
 
 Price One Shilling. 
 
 "It is the most complete list of British musicians yet published. So far as w« 
 "hav been able to test the volume, it is accuracy itself.'' — Musical Standard. 
 
 'A handy little book of reference, Eivin:; in a concise form a list and particulars 
 ■of those musicians who have done service in aiding the cause of our national music 
 from tlie earliest times to the present." — lyesttninster Cazeiie. 
 
 " * The Dictionary of Eriti>-h Musicians* gives in a concise form a list of native 
 mu<:icians, composers, organists, instrumentalists, and singers. If not a musical 
 •nation, we can, however, claim some 3,500 names, all entitled to be recorded in such 
 a work." — Star, 
 
 " Mr. F. J. Crowest has managed to pack a good deal of information into a very 
 ■small space.'' — Giobe, 
 
 "It is a valuable addition to musical- biography dictionaries, and will no doubt 
 ■supply a want." — St. Paul's. 
 
 '* A capital reference book, and no f^ne inteiested in music should be without it."— 
 illuslrated Sporting and Dramatic News. 
 
 "An admirable litlle compilation it is, clearly arr.nnged and accurate, bringing the 
 cesult of vast research and encyclopaedic special knowledge to the hand oi all." — 
 Daker's Record. 
 
 " The author deserves the thanks of all who compose or find pleasure in music." — 
 iVcstern Morning Ntws. 
 
 "This dictionary will be found of much value for the purposes of reference, while 
 •the ling list of names will astonish many who think lightly of native talent.*' — 
 hasiern Daily Press. 
 
 " This little volume cannot fail to be of service." — Birmingham Daily Gazette. 
 
 " Mr. Frederick J. Crowest (author of the * Great Tone Foets*) has rendered a 
 ■dist net service by the publication of his very cheap and useful 'Dictionary of 
 ilritish Musicians,* in which not only dead, but living celebrities are succinctly 
 ■dealt witn." — Western Mail. 
 
 •' A handy little volume, which meets a long-felt \iZXvV^ —Belfast Evening^ Tele- 
 graph. 
 
 " It contains the names of authors and writers upon music, which, so far as we 
 are aware, have not hitherto been found in any dictionary. It claims to be a 
 dictionary from the earliest times to the present, and is quite up-to-date." — Shejfield 
 and Kotherhavi Independent. 
 
 JARROLD & SONS, lo & li, WARWICK LANE, LONDON, E.G. 
 
popular Holitiag IBoflks. 
 
 Poppy land. 
 
 Papers descriptive cf Scenery on Ihe East Coast. 
 By Clement Scott. Crown 8vo, cloth elegant^ 
 with 26 Illustrations by F. H. Townshend. Superior 
 Edition, 2s. 6d. In attractive Paper Covers, is. 
 
 " It is not surprising thiit a fourth edition of Mr. Scott's delightfal 
 little book is called for. It deals with the charming coast of the far 
 south-east of our island, and the epithet 'Poppyland' given to that has- 
 a poetic ring about it that is very attractive. The vicinities chiefly 
 dealt with are Overstrand and its vicinity, Cromer, Lowestolt, and 
 Yarmouth." — Tlie Queen, 
 
 Summer in Broadland ; or. Gipsying ia 
 
 Norfolk Waters. 
 
 Fourth Edition. Profusely Illustrated by the Gipsies. 
 Oown 8vo, Illustrated Paper Covers, is.; or Superior 
 Edition, cloth elegant, 2S. 6d. 
 
 The Queen says : — " A hardy manual based upon actual experiences. 
 It Is nicely illustrated, and is sure to please and Instruct visitors to the- 
 Ijroadb of East Anglia." 
 
 The Scotsman says : — " A delightful little volume, with many dainty 
 illustrations, as a result of a holiday among the little-known Norfolk 
 and Suffolk Broads. There are many capital descriptions of scenery^ 
 and the book is marked by bright and vigorous writing." 
 
 Sunrise- Land. 
 
 Rambles in Eastern England. By Annie Beri.vn, 
 Author of " Vera in Poppyland,'' etc. Illustrated 
 by A. Rackham and AI. M. Blake. 3s. 6d. 
 
 " Full of warm sympathy for picturesqueness and colour, written ia 
 an aaieeable fashion, and evidently compiled from an intimate know- 
 ledge of the country and its inhabitants." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Two Knapsacks in the Channel Islands. 
 
 By Jasper Branthwaite and Frank Macleax, 
 B.A., O.xon. Illustrated by Victor Prout. Crown 
 4to, Pictorial cover, is. 
 
 lARROLD & SONS, 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, LONDON, E.C»